Thoughts on the Navy Game

[JasonB]

Well, that went pretty much as expected, although SMU's offense had even more success than I thought they would. We had a great matchup on defense, and the team closed out the regular season exactly the way you wanted them to - with aggression.
- First, thoughts out to Preston. He has really developed as the season has gone on, and as much as we are crushed as fans for him to suffer that injury, it has to absolutely kill him. It is very obvious how connected he is with the team, how much he cares, and how intense he is about driving success. To run through the conference undefeated with the season he had is awesome, but it has to really tear him up to go through that injury. Keep your chin up, Preston, we have your back.
- As I mentioned in the preview, I the Navy run defense was good against the run, so it was important to be aggressive early. Great job moving forward with a plan that attacked Navy downfield and specifically attacked the corners and got away from the safeties. We didn't even have to go underneath, which is what I thought we would end up doing going into the game. The receivers and Preston really stepped up.
- Lots of rotation because of the game, but thought going in that a weakness was the Navy pass rush, and the OL did a great job keeping a clean pocket.
- Great to see so many players get out there, especially the walk-on seniors that have put so much into the program.
- Also, really awesome to see Tyler have a great game in his home finale. Wonderful throwback player and it is always great to see the physicality and effort he puts into every run.
- Defensively, what a phenomenal performance. I had Navy at 3 points going in, and the D gave up 7 on one long run. I have never, ever, seen an option team give up on the run that quickly. And, specifically, give up on the FB dive that quickly. Never, ever, ever, against any team much less SMU. The vast majority of their runs all season have gone to the fullback, they rarely pitch it to the HB, and they throw the ball even less. Their leading rusher coming into the game had 2 carries for 1 yard. They literally gave up because our interior line is so good. Take out the one long QB run and the fake punt and we would have held NAVY to under 100 yards rushing. That is incredible. What a way to end that series of games.
- And yes, Navy, but 9/25 passing? Just outstanding.
- The other reason I thought we would shut them down was our S play, and boy did they show up. Nwo and Moses were phenomenal. Great adjustments by Symons in the player rotation and positioning of the 3 safeties to make it happen. I know Massey will get a lot of flack because of the TD run, but really outside of that one play, he was great.
- Remember when there was discussion of whether NWO should be a LB because he wasn't that great in coverage? His transformation has been awesome, and credit to him and the coaching staff for putting the work in.
- Also, remember when Massey was a fast guy who couldn't hit? He basically plays strong safety when he is in the game now, and has totally changed his game. Again, credit to him and the coaching staff.

Just a great game all around. I hope that we give Symons all the money and keep him around, because when he has the right players for his system, they are really well coached, and he does a fantastic job of identifying players that he wants. Many raised eyebrows about Kobe Wilson and Ahmad Walker coming into the season, and Ahmad will be first team all conference and Kobe is going to be on one of the lists. I suspect that a huge school somewhere is going to pay Symons a ton to be their DC, however. Hopefully that isn't the case.

I love how physical this team is on both sides of the ball. It is great to watch us play physical football. It started out like this under Sonny with RL and Kane as the coordinators, but it went away after they left to more of a finesse team. And with June it was always finesse.

I will do my writeup for Tulane later in the week. I won't be there unfortunately (another soccer tourney), but it is really telling that Vegas made them a 3 point favorite. That means they consider it even on a neutral site even though we don't have our starting QB. Let's see if we can go get that conference championship. We deserve it after being the best team in the league all season long.

[AusTxPony]

Amen, Jason, I will be in Europe, but my heart will be in New Orleans. Go TAKE the Crown, Mustangs!

[crazy horse]

Just an amazing game - absolute domination. Could have hung 100 on them - not that we would ever do that, especially to an academy team. The difference in talent could be seen up and down the field.

I hated seeing Preston get hurt. His "Manziel" tendencies put him in that situation. Run or throw it away. You keep spinning and shifting in the pocket and someone is gonna get lick on you. He did so well most of the season, and he seemed to stop doing that. Hopefully he will see the film, learn from it and be even better going forward. I really wanted to see him finish the season. But I am confident in Jennings.

The Tulane game becomes a little more interesting with Jennings. I thought with Stone, SMU has a great chance to beat Tulane. With Jennings, there are differences, but not necessarily negatives. We still have plenty of weapons, and Jennings has performed wonderfully when he has had the chance. But the real difference in the game IMHO is SMUs defense. It will be one of the better units Tulane has seen all year, far different from last year. That should slow them down, limiting their points. In SMU, they will face the statistically best defense that they have faced this year, and the 2nd best offense (NT is actually ahead of us). Had we not stopped playing at halftime for about a third of our games, we would likely be 1st in the NCAA. Just 80 yards a game separate us from #1 LSU.

Go Mustangs! This is OUR YEAR!!!

[Terry Webster]

I expect to see Tulane doing a lot of mixing it up on defense, trying to confuse Jennings. It will be interesting to see the offensive game plan and how to handle it.