Hawaii loss

[PonyExpress]

Did anyone actually SEE the game? I couldn't find it on my satellite dish.

Sounds like we were awful. What's going on?

[Horseshoe]

From what I saw, the offensive line wasn't getting the push it was able to get in the two home games earlier this year. The running lanes just weren't there for Kincade and the rest of the backs.

Wallis was inaccurate, at best. His mechanics reverted to the "flawed" state that Coach Bennett mentioned a few weeks ago - sometimes it looked like he was almost throwing underhand. When he did get the ball off, it frequently was well out of bounds, or at least completely uncatchable. He finished the night 6/21 for 46 yards, was intercepted twice (including one when there was not an SMU jersey in sight and one that was returned for a touchdown) and was sacked five times. And he continues to look for Johnnie Freeman - who has two catches this year.

Hawaii had more than twice the yards on offense that SMU had: 487 to 238.

Kris Briggs isn't retired just yet. He ran for 132 yards and a score, all in the second half. He looked more mobile than he did last year and maybe his sophomore year - maybe that hip condition is getting better? He's rushed for 139 yards this year, but is averaging 9.9 yards per carry - he has to get the ball more. On the negative side, ShanDerrick Charles has 27 carries for 83 yards. San Jose State has to love that, after he ripped them for 242 yards last year.

Five games into the season, and check out the receiving numbers: the team's leading receiver, Cody Cardwell, has 17 catches. Tight end John Hampton and freshman wide receiver Daniel Francis have 10 catches apiece. Cardwell and Hampton have the only two touchdown receptions this year.

Some of the best performances were turned in by true freshmen. Daniel Francis had a couple of catches, including one on which he got blasted and held on to the ball. Rolando Humphrey returned a fumble 47 yards. He also had a ball bounce off the back of his head, which fellow freshman Jamey Harper dove and intercepted. Harper was around the ball all night. He and Humphrey look like cornerstones of the secondary for the future.

[rsnBG]

I'm posting this as a courtesy to those who were kind enough to trade some above the board info before the game...and to anyone else who are just interested in another perspective.

The D-line didn't have a good day against the Warriors. In the 1st qtr, I saw Croy make a great hustle play by getting to the outside and making the tackle on a wr screen. In a couple of other plays, they got pressure on the QB by doing some twists. Adami was pretty persistent. But, as the game went on, the Hawaii O-line picked up the stunts and twists better. I noticed that Adami and Croy played every defensive down in the 1st half while Hawaii was rotating 4 DT's and 4 DE's. Croy had to have been exhausted by the end of the 3rd qtr. Occasionally, Adami and Croy flip flopped, but that didn't seem to make a difference...the Hawaii O-line is very balanced. In the 2nd half, some 3 man lines were tried with Croy on the center, but Fuata was the LT last year and is tough to overpower.

It was mentioned above that the Mustang O-line didn't get a push like in previous games. That was true. Even the double teams weren't moving the DT's out. The DT's held the point of attack and allowed the LB's to run to the ball. It got worse when SMU couldn't establish the pass and allowed Hawaii to put 8 in the box.

I thought that SMU would get some yards off-tackle, but the TE (Ford more than Hampton) just couldn't handle the DE's. When the tackles went straight up with the DE's, Davis was having serious problems with the RDE's. Running towards Hargis's side didn't do much better because #1 was running the play down from the backside (altho' he's almost 260, he runs a 4.5). Not much you can do about that, unless you can run some good reverses. At least twice, Kincade had a lane off tackle and was tackled from the backside by LaBoy before he could make his move.

Is Hawaii so good, or is SMU so bad on the lines? The truth is usually somewhere in between the extremes AND it's still early in the season. My thoughts are that Hawaii's D-line is much improved over last year. A lot of it is due to the week to week improvement of Sopoaga. The guy's 315 and runs a 4.8. One guy couldn't control him last night.

With the Hawaii starters out in the 2nd half, SMU was able to open up some lanes and run the ball (Briggs) against the reserves. When the starters came back in, they shut the run down again. That may be indicative that the starters are very good.

Other thoughts...Wallis has talent, just very, very raw. He needs time to develop. Will he have the time?

Good luck the rest of the season.

[PK]

rsnBG, thanks for the perspective. We were obvously outmanned and outplayed by the Bows. I haven't given up totally on SMU, but the coaches and team have a hell of a challenge ahead of them.

[Guest]

Thanks for the insight, rsnBG, from those of us who didn't get to see the game.

And PK, your right. A hell of a challenge.

[jettison]

My thoughts:

-Great weather/breeze throughout the game... very pleasant. It's too bad that many of the UH fans on all sides of the horrible seats SMU fans were allotted were drunken idiots. For the 50-60 parents, small children and grandparents in attendance, many felt very threatened. It was like a fanatical NFL crowd (a la Pittsburgh, Cleveland, etc), understandable as it's the only game in town. Amused how the freeway exits simply say "Stadium," or "Airport."

-Our offensive coaches truly need to get a clue. I understand we are outmanned on the O line, and our QB is raw, but I don't understand why I haven't seen a pass between the hash marks in two games, particularly when regardless of who runs a middle route they are wide open and ESPECIALLY when repeated fade routes and jump balls to WRs that are 5'7" to 5'9" and covered by DBs 5'10" to 6'0" do not work. I also don't understand our player rotations. There are players that need more reps, and players that obviously need less reps. The difference in coaching style and preparation was so contrasting. Such as, SMU trying to run the clock out around their 40 yard line with 1:37 left in the half down 14-0, and Hawaii calling a timeout with 26 seconds left, knowing they'll need about 50 yards just to get to FG position after a punt. If we did ANYTHING good on offense - starting with coaching and carrying out with execution - our defense would start to see some payoff in what was, I thought, an amazing and overachieving effort in this game. 6 turnovers and only 10 points has got to be hard for them to swallow. I don't really agree with Coach Bennett's assessment that Hawaii had better players at all the skill positions. Lines, without a doubt... but the talent at other positions looked eerily similar - the difference in my opinion is how you make use of the talent around you. Like, why do we continue to run the option?

-The players were visibly tired in the Hawaii game. I did nothing strenuous on my vacation, but was tired the entire trip simply because of the time change. If I were to practice in pads the night I got off an 8 hour flight and stayed up until 3 or 4 in the morning a couple nights watching game film, and received virtually no free time, I think I would have played like crap as well.

Game to game, everything seems to be getting worse - which is not the direction you hope for. There have been doubtful antagonists on the board all year talking about problems behind the curtains and whatever... I guess there is some truth to this stuff. It's hard to swallow that the majority of the vacated roster spots were seniors because those were the players I knew best and because their contributions (big or small) are truly missed. Major changes in personnel always come with controversy, and often it's good to weed out things that aren't going to help you achieve a goal, but I'm not sure the sweeping changes that have taken place are going to produce much results, in the short term or long. Even those you never suspect would have a negative attitude about the prospects have started to cave in a bit.

[sam]

Be very careful

[BennettBacker]

Careful of what? Not sure I understand your post.
Can you clarify?

[sam]

It was not made for you to understand it was for jettison and I think he understands

[fbdad]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR><font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by sam:
<B>It was not made for you to understand it was for jettison and I think he understands</B></font><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I guess I don't understand the comment either. Jettison makes some very candid comments that have substance. Is there something that one must fear when he posts his honest opinions/observations on this or any other board? Are we in fear of [deleted] off someone? Maybe that someone will start visiting the different forums and get a feel for what people truly feel about the program. Why do we all have to stick our heads in the sand and ignore a deterriorating situation? If Jettison truly has to worry about being carefull then the situation is even worse than I thought.

[jettison]

Nope, I don't really understand... but I personally don't have much to lose. Just venting some frustrations based on what I've seen this season. If somebody who makes any high decisions about the direction of SMU football actually reads this stuff and wants me to elaborate in person, I'd be happy to. My opinions are my own and shouldn't be inferred to reflect those of anyone else... including any players, parents, coaches or anyone else I happen to communicate with.

[SHAQFU]

Amen Jettison!!!