Thoughts on the Tulsa Game
Posted: Sat Nov 27, 2021 11:24 pm- First and foremost, Fry the Froggies. IMHO, Hart shouldn't have walked down the blvd with Sonny. I expected Sonny to cut out early after the media got their pictures. But Hart shouldn't have been there. That might be an emotionally driven decision, but it frustrated me.
- Offensively, those long 4th down passes were exactly what we need all season. At some point, you have to trust your receivers to get open, throw the ball deep, and let them go and get it. I *think* that is more on TM than on Riley, but whatever it is, it really hampered us in that Cincy game and for much of the game today. You have to try and go downfield.
- We are going to need to be patient with the offense next year. We churn the entire OL outside of Bryant and Hickman. Both of them played too early in their career, but hopefully they and their talented young linemen are ready to go next year. 10, 13, 11, and 1 will make a really nice WR combo next year, but again we need to allow them to gel with whomever the QB is.
- Surprised not to see Stone today, especially when the offense stalled so much in the second and third quarters. One of several signs today that the coaches were checked out.
- Defensively, our coordinator is not good. The number of zero cover looks is insane. I'm glad that we actually saw the 4 down linemen nickel today for the first time since Houston, but we stopped playing it as much in the second half. But your corners are young and struggling, why are you putting them on an island? It is a complete joke. And then all Tulsa did in the second quarter when we quit playing the nickel, was they put 4 in the slot because they knew a safety (18 for the most part, sometimes 0) would be caught in man coverage, and 18 is a safety without the hips or speed to play corner. They you throw it to 4 and get a completion or a PI. Really, really simple stuff, and we never adjust to it. I'm surprised about how poor Levitt has been the second half of the year. The nickel was great for the most part before Houston and we just quit playing it. We rarely if ever saw the bookend rush of 90 and 55 after the first half of the Houston game.
- Final thoughts (keeping it short today, because I am not going to judge players after the hell they have gone through the last several weeks). Our new DC needs to understand modern football. I'm going to steal a theme from Bob Sturm, but NICKEL IS THE BASE DEFENSE IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL. That means 5 defensive backs minimum on the field. Levitt and previous DCs all play 7 defenders at the line on first down - 3 down, 2 MLB, one Stang, and one field LB who is out there because they can play the run, not their coverage ability. You can't do that. In modern football, 1st and 10 is a passing down. You have to defend it with 6. 5 defensive backs, and you either have 4 linemen with 2 LBs or you play a 3-3 stack. Personally, I prefer the 4-2 with Erin Smith, 90, and J Samuels on the edge next year. We need to find LBs who can run. But that is the biggest thing to judge from whomever our DC is next year - do they understand that 1st and 10 is a passing down, and does the nickel become the base defense. We have never had a DC who has adapted to that reality. We just about got that a few years back when we switched to a 3-4 and had Mitchell and Nelson on the outside. It was as close as we have gotten because both could run around a bit and cause some problems in coverage. But it still wasn't a true nickel.
- Offensively, those long 4th down passes were exactly what we need all season. At some point, you have to trust your receivers to get open, throw the ball deep, and let them go and get it. I *think* that is more on TM than on Riley, but whatever it is, it really hampered us in that Cincy game and for much of the game today. You have to try and go downfield.
- We are going to need to be patient with the offense next year. We churn the entire OL outside of Bryant and Hickman. Both of them played too early in their career, but hopefully they and their talented young linemen are ready to go next year. 10, 13, 11, and 1 will make a really nice WR combo next year, but again we need to allow them to gel with whomever the QB is.
- Surprised not to see Stone today, especially when the offense stalled so much in the second and third quarters. One of several signs today that the coaches were checked out.
- Defensively, our coordinator is not good. The number of zero cover looks is insane. I'm glad that we actually saw the 4 down linemen nickel today for the first time since Houston, but we stopped playing it as much in the second half. But your corners are young and struggling, why are you putting them on an island? It is a complete joke. And then all Tulsa did in the second quarter when we quit playing the nickel, was they put 4 in the slot because they knew a safety (18 for the most part, sometimes 0) would be caught in man coverage, and 18 is a safety without the hips or speed to play corner. They you throw it to 4 and get a completion or a PI. Really, really simple stuff, and we never adjust to it. I'm surprised about how poor Levitt has been the second half of the year. The nickel was great for the most part before Houston and we just quit playing it. We rarely if ever saw the bookend rush of 90 and 55 after the first half of the Houston game.
- Final thoughts (keeping it short today, because I am not going to judge players after the hell they have gone through the last several weeks). Our new DC needs to understand modern football. I'm going to steal a theme from Bob Sturm, but NICKEL IS THE BASE DEFENSE IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL. That means 5 defensive backs minimum on the field. Levitt and previous DCs all play 7 defenders at the line on first down - 3 down, 2 MLB, one Stang, and one field LB who is out there because they can play the run, not their coverage ability. You can't do that. In modern football, 1st and 10 is a passing down. You have to defend it with 6. 5 defensive backs, and you either have 4 linemen with 2 LBs or you play a 3-3 stack. Personally, I prefer the 4-2 with Erin Smith, 90, and J Samuels on the edge next year. We need to find LBs who can run. But that is the biggest thing to judge from whomever our DC is next year - do they understand that 1st and 10 is a passing down, and does the nickel become the base defense. We have never had a DC who has adapted to that reality. We just about got that a few years back when we switched to a 3-4 and had Mitchell and Nelson on the outside. It was as close as we have gotten because both could run around a bit and cause some problems in coverage. But it still wasn't a true nickel.