For as much as the defense went through leading up to this game-losing Mel Tucker, losing DBake, having Jordan Davis DWalker not play in the game, I honestly didn't think they played badly-in fact, other than some BAD tackling (LeCounte), I was encouraged with holding Texas to 28-and honestly it could have been 42-48 with the bad snap on the punt, the shanked punt and the Swift fumble. We had three coaches working to put together the defensive gameplan and were playing without maybe 3 of our best cogs on that side of the ball-a LOT of young guys got some good snaps-including Divaad Wilson who really impressed the heck out of me as did Ojulari.
NOW, the offensive side of the ball, where do you begin. HORRIBLE play calling-very predictable-running up the middle, no toss sweeps, no jet sweeps, Nauta with one catch, Mecole with one catch, IWilson with a dreadful game-he got worked all night. Fromm with a BAD night-had guys open and throwing over their head, Swift-had he fumbled all year-fumbles twice and one was a lost fumble that set up a TD. We tried to force a square peg into a round hole with running against a stacked box, it made the job for Texas easy-stack the box, stuff run on first and second and then come after Fromm on third down. Chaney didn't have any answers for a Texas D that is not nearly as good as teams we BEAT this year.
Special teams-the punter made the mistake of letting a bad snap-which was NOT his fault causing him to take a knee, to get in his head for his second punt-but he recovered and did a nice job-he is only a FR.
Coaching-it was pretty obvious we got out coached-especially our O against their D, we lost Jay Johnson only from that side of the ball, we had a full deck of players on that side and yet we didn't even produce 300 yards, and heck most of that came in the 4th quarter when the game was decided. I am SURE Kirby did everything he could to get his players focused and fired up to play in this game but it was obvious which team wanted this game more. In the grand scheme of things, this loss doesn't sting like the Bama loss. But, I do believe this game shows that we are a young team that needs to grow up or we will not achieve the goal next year either.
Now we wait and see which JR's go. If I am Nauta, I leave after getting one touch last night, same with Mecole and Ridley. IF Chaney is going to run the ball into a stacked box and not let his QB turn it loose, not sure how those three guys benefit from staying around. EHolyfield probably should go too, I think if White is healthy it will be he and Swift next year, would love for Herrien to stay, that kid provides a spark and should have played more last night. We still have a few recruits we are waiting on and of course we will have others just leave the program-like Fields, but I am hopeful this loss will show these kids that every game matters. You beat LSU, we make the playoff, you finish against Bama we make the playoff. If you want to complain about not making the playoff, you need to dig a little deeper and do the work up front to not have to HOPE the committee puts you in the playoff-and one more thing, if you are going to go to social media to blast the committee, how about coming out angry and try to prove a point instead of coming out like you don't even care to be at the bowl.
NOW, the offensive side of the ball, where do you begin. HORRIBLE play calling-very predictable-running up the middle, no toss sweeps, no jet sweeps, Nauta with one catch, Mecole with one catch, IWilson with a dreadful game-he got worked all night. Fromm with a BAD night-had guys open and throwing over their head, Swift-had he fumbled all year-fumbles twice and one was a lost fumble that set up a TD. We tried to force a square peg into a round hole with running against a stacked box, it made the job for Texas easy-stack the box, stuff run on first and second and then come after Fromm on third down. Chaney didn't have any answers for a Texas D that is not nearly as good as teams we BEAT this year.
Special teams-the punter made the mistake of letting a bad snap-which was NOT his fault causing him to take a knee, to get in his head for his second punt-but he recovered and did a nice job-he is only a FR.
Coaching-it was pretty obvious we got out coached-especially our O against their D, we lost Jay Johnson only from that side of the ball, we had a full deck of players on that side and yet we didn't even produce 300 yards, and heck most of that came in the 4th quarter when the game was decided. I am SURE Kirby did everything he could to get his players focused and fired up to play in this game but it was obvious which team wanted this game more. In the grand scheme of things, this loss doesn't sting like the Bama loss. But, I do believe this game shows that we are a young team that needs to grow up or we will not achieve the goal next year either.
Now we wait and see which JR's go. If I am Nauta, I leave after getting one touch last night, same with Mecole and Ridley. IF Chaney is going to run the ball into a stacked box and not let his QB turn it loose, not sure how those three guys benefit from staying around. EHolyfield probably should go too, I think if White is healthy it will be he and Swift next year, would love for Herrien to stay, that kid provides a spark and should have played more last night. We still have a few recruits we are waiting on and of course we will have others just leave the program-like Fields, but I am hopeful this loss will show these kids that every game matters. You beat LSU, we make the playoff, you finish against Bama we make the playoff. If you want to complain about not making the playoff, you need to dig a little deeper and do the work up front to not have to HOPE the committee puts you in the playoff-and one more thing, if you are going to go to social media to blast the committee, how about coming out angry and try to prove a point instead of coming out like you don't even care to be at the bowl.