*I love AU. Hope they win every game. Hope the dreams of the entire team come true. Wish the coaches the best.
**I have no idea how this will be fixed. It will certainly not be this year. We need to pull two upsets to go to Legion Field. Anything can do a 180 in a year in CFB (ask Duke and JJ) and us playing good ball is no different. That's the hope. But it is simply a hope right now because there is no plan yet. Signing a 6'4"+ 225lb+ QB who can run/throw appears to be the only plan in place for 2016 (the year jobs will be saved or lost).
- Thank goodness for turnovers (somewhat of the flukish variety) and me covering kickoffs for SJSU. We'll take everything we can get at this moment!!
- We got outplayed. The better team lost. I've tried to look at this 10 different ways as a neutral observer (and removing the cupcake label) and it plays out the same. San Jose St simply had a better football team on Saturday. It wasn't a fluke. We didn't come out flat. They didn't come out hot. They were simply slightly better than us. We were +4 in the turnover department and had great field position all day. That resulted in a 14-point win instead of a 14-point loss. Oh, and SJSU is a bad football team.
- Al Borges put on a clinic v. Will Muschamp. Their offense owned our defense but we took advantage when they shot themselves in the foot (more on that later).
- Gus's offense vs Greg Robinson's defense was more of an even tilt (it's ok to shudder now).
- With 5:xx to play, San Jose was down by 7 and made the fatal error of an onsides. Just kick it out of bounds. Maybe their defense was licked after a mind-numbing 53 plays and 269 yards by us and would've still given up the big runs to Barber. But chances are better than 'slight' that they would've held and then scored. And they would've been a 2-pt conversion away from a win.
- This may've been the worst game we played... including Jax St. It's close between the two.
Offense
- After 55 minutes of play, we'd rushed 43 times for 161 yards (3.74 average with no sacks). That is utterly pathetic for a team that is as run-based as they come vs a team that can't stop the run. They weren't stacking the box, either. Nothing fancy, we just didn't block 1-3 of their guys on any given play.
- Air Force averaged 6.2 on the ground vs SJSU. Oregon St averaged 6.59. Both of those teams suck (look it up). Fresno, which loosely qualifies as a football team, averaged 3.03.
- Bad teams have ran over SJSU because they have a swiss-cheese defense. We averaged 3.74 on the ground until the last couple carries padded the stats.
- If you weren't asleep and were thinking, "Boy, we're scraping for every single yard", you were right. Our average field position was Midfield. Inside their 25-yard line, we ran 26 plays for 88 yards. We did score 4 TDs off 5 trips, but we averaged 3.38 yards per play. It was simply tough sledding for the entire game against rejects.
- The RBs earned every yard they got. After 55 minutes, Barber had 24 carries for 72 yards and earned almost all of them. Kudos for him for nabbing 75 yards on the final 4 to have a solid tally. If anyone deserves to have their stats padded, it's him.
- Our OL played the worst game I've seen from them in the 32 games of the new regime. Considering the competition, poor is the kindest word to use. And it's not because we're young... that's a diversion tactic. But they did a good job on a couple of plays in the final 5 minutes, though, to ice the game. And we did score 5 rushing TDs which seemed impossible against anyone a week ago.
- The decision for Gus to kick a FG late was the right call. He knew what was happening. He knew he had to escape with a win against a team that had every right to win as well. 3-possession lead was the right call.
- The decision by Gus to Punt in the 2nd quarter after Rico made the 2nd-greatest catch of his life was disheartening for the entire team. 3-n-13. We catch a slant which hasn't occurred since Brandon Cox was QB. Rico takes a shot-and-a-half and hangs on. 11 yards. 3-n-2 on our 39 and we're up 14-7. We punt. We needed some kind of spark/confidence-builder for this offense and instead got a gut shot after executing a real-life legitimate football play. That was an opportunity missed to try and right the ship. No doubt.....
- We still ran 1-2 player passing routes... which was finally caught on TV and discussed. The announcers haven't watched us so they assumed Duke and whomever were loafing. It's by design. It's a Craig/Gus problem. When you do it on 75% of your pass plays, it's not like our guys are forgetting. It's what they're being trained to do.
Kentucky
- They're not as good as some think, but it'll take an upset to beat them.
- they've played a weak schedule and every game has been decided by one possession.
- It's at their place and on a Thursday night. Advantage them.
- Kentucky's thought pre-game: If we beat AU, we could have one of our greatest seasons ever (which is factual).
- AU's thought pre-game: If we win, we're one upset away from being bowl-eligible.
- Choose which mindset has a better chance of winning.
Defense
- TreMatthews Williams (edit), Irvin, Dinson, President didn't play. Tre/Irvin hurt. Dinson because I assume we wanted to play all the upperclassmen on Homecoming (which we did). President because he's not very good.
- 7 of our 11 starters will not be on the team next year. 6 Srs plus Monty. We also had Ford/Trigga/Javy who have each been out of high school for awhile. D Russell was the only youngster.
- So we're not young on defense (another diversion tactic)... not for this game at least. We were as old as you will find in CFB... and we got whipped and out-flanked continuously.
- SJSU was 7/12 on 3rd-down. Their average 3rd down was 6.5 yards. They were 4/6 on 3-n-7-or-longer. Again, Borges was playing chess... Muschamp was wondering how he led Florida to historical lows.
- The 4 TOs were great to see. They were a bit fluky but without them we lose going away. Maybe it builds confidence. Carlton Davis has taken his lumps despite some impressive play for a true frosh. So it was good to see his game-ending INT even if Freeman basically pitched it to him.
- Cass played well at rush end but it removes our best tackler from the middle... and they exploited it. He can't play both. There is really no one else who stood out as playing well. Cowart had two plays on the same drive that finally showed his potential. He's improving every game. Lambert played his best game this season, for what it's worth.
- Our LBs can't cover and it was exploited. Billy Freeman is a next-level TE (Frost/Garrett/Javy are not) which is why he was continuously open. But they're not some offensive juggernaut. They just outplayed us.
- Nickel for 40%... Base for 60%. Again, 7-8 in box for most of the game even in Nickel.
Total Plays: 73
DT
M. Adams - 58
D. Russell - 52
M. Swain - 21
D. Lawrence - 17
DE
D. Lambert - 51
R. Kennion - 29
B. Cowart - 17
J. Holland - 8
LB
K. Frost - 73
J. Garrett - 71
C. McKinzy - 53
J. Mitchell - 36
CB
J. Jones - 71
B. Countess - 71 (Nickel on 29 plays)
C. Davis - 29
S
Tr. Matthews - 73
R. Ford - 73
**I have no idea how this will be fixed. It will certainly not be this year. We need to pull two upsets to go to Legion Field. Anything can do a 180 in a year in CFB (ask Duke and JJ) and us playing good ball is no different. That's the hope. But it is simply a hope right now because there is no plan yet. Signing a 6'4"+ 225lb+ QB who can run/throw appears to be the only plan in place for 2016 (the year jobs will be saved or lost).
- Thank goodness for turnovers (somewhat of the flukish variety) and me covering kickoffs for SJSU. We'll take everything we can get at this moment!!
- We got outplayed. The better team lost. I've tried to look at this 10 different ways as a neutral observer (and removing the cupcake label) and it plays out the same. San Jose St simply had a better football team on Saturday. It wasn't a fluke. We didn't come out flat. They didn't come out hot. They were simply slightly better than us. We were +4 in the turnover department and had great field position all day. That resulted in a 14-point win instead of a 14-point loss. Oh, and SJSU is a bad football team.
- Al Borges put on a clinic v. Will Muschamp. Their offense owned our defense but we took advantage when they shot themselves in the foot (more on that later).
- Gus's offense vs Greg Robinson's defense was more of an even tilt (it's ok to shudder now).
- With 5:xx to play, San Jose was down by 7 and made the fatal error of an onsides. Just kick it out of bounds. Maybe their defense was licked after a mind-numbing 53 plays and 269 yards by us and would've still given up the big runs to Barber. But chances are better than 'slight' that they would've held and then scored. And they would've been a 2-pt conversion away from a win.
- This may've been the worst game we played... including Jax St. It's close between the two.
Offense
- After 55 minutes of play, we'd rushed 43 times for 161 yards (3.74 average with no sacks). That is utterly pathetic for a team that is as run-based as they come vs a team that can't stop the run. They weren't stacking the box, either. Nothing fancy, we just didn't block 1-3 of their guys on any given play.
- Air Force averaged 6.2 on the ground vs SJSU. Oregon St averaged 6.59. Both of those teams suck (look it up). Fresno, which loosely qualifies as a football team, averaged 3.03.
- Bad teams have ran over SJSU because they have a swiss-cheese defense. We averaged 3.74 on the ground until the last couple carries padded the stats.
- If you weren't asleep and were thinking, "Boy, we're scraping for every single yard", you were right. Our average field position was Midfield. Inside their 25-yard line, we ran 26 plays for 88 yards. We did score 4 TDs off 5 trips, but we averaged 3.38 yards per play. It was simply tough sledding for the entire game against rejects.
- The RBs earned every yard they got. After 55 minutes, Barber had 24 carries for 72 yards and earned almost all of them. Kudos for him for nabbing 75 yards on the final 4 to have a solid tally. If anyone deserves to have their stats padded, it's him.
- Our OL played the worst game I've seen from them in the 32 games of the new regime. Considering the competition, poor is the kindest word to use. And it's not because we're young... that's a diversion tactic. But they did a good job on a couple of plays in the final 5 minutes, though, to ice the game. And we did score 5 rushing TDs which seemed impossible against anyone a week ago.
- The decision for Gus to kick a FG late was the right call. He knew what was happening. He knew he had to escape with a win against a team that had every right to win as well. 3-possession lead was the right call.
- The decision by Gus to Punt in the 2nd quarter after Rico made the 2nd-greatest catch of his life was disheartening for the entire team. 3-n-13. We catch a slant which hasn't occurred since Brandon Cox was QB. Rico takes a shot-and-a-half and hangs on. 11 yards. 3-n-2 on our 39 and we're up 14-7. We punt. We needed some kind of spark/confidence-builder for this offense and instead got a gut shot after executing a real-life legitimate football play. That was an opportunity missed to try and right the ship. No doubt.....
- We still ran 1-2 player passing routes... which was finally caught on TV and discussed. The announcers haven't watched us so they assumed Duke and whomever were loafing. It's by design. It's a Craig/Gus problem. When you do it on 75% of your pass plays, it's not like our guys are forgetting. It's what they're being trained to do.
Kentucky
- They're not as good as some think, but it'll take an upset to beat them.
- they've played a weak schedule and every game has been decided by one possession.
- It's at their place and on a Thursday night. Advantage them.
- Kentucky's thought pre-game: If we beat AU, we could have one of our greatest seasons ever (which is factual).
- AU's thought pre-game: If we win, we're one upset away from being bowl-eligible.
- Choose which mindset has a better chance of winning.
Defense
- Tre
- 7 of our 11 starters will not be on the team next year. 6 Srs plus Monty. We also had Ford/Trigga/Javy who have each been out of high school for awhile. D Russell was the only youngster.
- So we're not young on defense (another diversion tactic)... not for this game at least. We were as old as you will find in CFB... and we got whipped and out-flanked continuously.
- SJSU was 7/12 on 3rd-down. Their average 3rd down was 6.5 yards. They were 4/6 on 3-n-7-or-longer. Again, Borges was playing chess... Muschamp was wondering how he led Florida to historical lows.
- The 4 TOs were great to see. They were a bit fluky but without them we lose going away. Maybe it builds confidence. Carlton Davis has taken his lumps despite some impressive play for a true frosh. So it was good to see his game-ending INT even if Freeman basically pitched it to him.
- Cass played well at rush end but it removes our best tackler from the middle... and they exploited it. He can't play both. There is really no one else who stood out as playing well. Cowart had two plays on the same drive that finally showed his potential. He's improving every game. Lambert played his best game this season, for what it's worth.
- Our LBs can't cover and it was exploited. Billy Freeman is a next-level TE (Frost/Garrett/Javy are not) which is why he was continuously open. But they're not some offensive juggernaut. They just outplayed us.
- Nickel for 40%... Base for 60%. Again, 7-8 in box for most of the game even in Nickel.
Total Plays: 73
DT
M. Adams - 58
D. Russell - 52
M. Swain - 21
D. Lawrence - 17
DE
D. Lambert - 51
R. Kennion - 29
B. Cowart - 17
J. Holland - 8
LB
K. Frost - 73
J. Garrett - 71
C. McKinzy - 53
J. Mitchell - 36
CB
J. Jones - 71
B. Countess - 71 (Nickel on 29 plays)
C. Davis - 29
S
Tr. Matthews - 73
R. Ford - 73
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