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My keys to the game Saturday are simple.....SMU has to (1) run the ball consistently to eliminate many 2 and long and 3 and long situtations and (2) eliminate turnovers.

If I remember last year the San Jose St. game was on tv and I remember we were unable to put pressure on their QB. I would like to see some corner blitzes and safety blitzes. I want to see us play aggressive on D.

I believe Phillips must be the starter. He has faced three very good teams that will all go to bowl games. Give him a chance against a lesser ranked opponent before you bench him. If he is not successful in the first half, then play the other guys in the second half. However, I predict a great game from Phillips.

Here is to our first win of the season!!!!

Damn JR...do you have a split personality. You sound almost......well "sunshiney".

JR - you mention your keys and then say we need aggressive D and pressure on their QB. Actually I would say your point abouit the D is one key and the other is to eliminate turnovers and make big offensive plays as opposed to a bunch of short yardage plays since the former are more likely to generate scores.

One can add to the keys a good, solid performance by the special teams. The punting team needs to have strong coverage and we need good, long punts (about 40-45 yards average) punts. Field goal and extra points needs to be perfect, including long field goals. And our kick off return has to give us good to excellent field position. All in all, our special teams have to give us better field position and put SJSU in poor field position.

ponyte wrote:One can add to the keys a good, solid performance by the special teams. The punting team needs to have strong coverage and we need good, long punts (about 40-45 yards average) punts. Field goal and extra points needs to be perfect, including long field goals. And our kick off return has to give us good to excellent field position. All in all, our special teams have to give us better field position and put SJSU in poor field position.

Ok Ponyte, but someone please ask the coaches to quit calling the "I'm gonna fake you out with my go/no go 4th down line drive kick(s) by the QB. It's hard enough to cover punts as it is...

Turnovers. Don't lose the ball and get the darn thing away from the other team. Aren't we like 0-11 Turnover ration. If you follow Bob Sturm on the Ticket, in hte NFL, the team that wins the turnover battle wins 86% of the time. I don't know what the numbers are in college, but they can't be much different. We need to (i) the offense needs to stop shooting itself in the foot; and (ii) the defense needs to start being more aggresive in causing fumbles and going for the ball.

Phillips at QB? Didn't you see Romo take it to the house at Oaklahoma? The team needs a guy there that they have faith in. Romo can flat out play, and how about that bomb into the end-zone that was dropped? 6 points dropped on the ground. When the offense gets rollin' , the "D" will be energized, and we will see a whole new team. It is a must win game Saturday, for the players, the fans and the Coaches. I'm sure they are feeling the pressure.

SWC2010 wrote:

ponyte wrote:One can add to the keys a good, solid performance by the special teams. The punting team needs to have strong coverage and we need good, long punts (about 40-45 yards average) punts. Field goal and extra points needs to be perfect, including long field goals. And our kick off return has to give us good to excellent field position. All in all, our special teams have to give us better field position and put SJSU in poor field position.

Ok Ponyte, but someone please ask the coaches to quit calling the "I'm gonna fake you out with my go/no go 4th down line drive kick(s) by the QB. It's hard enough to cover punts as it is...

Yup, no more quick kicks on 4th down, I think everybody, and their dog has seen that on video. Actually a quick kick works best when inside your own 15 yard line, and you kick it on 3rd down. Also, it helps if your QB, or whoever you lateral it to doubled as a pretty decent punter in HS.

You can also use your real punter as a lateral to guy if nobody on the other team knows his number, or he changes jerseys, and then sneaks off the field so fast the refs don't notice

I think Bennett said this wasn't a must win in his PC, but this is truly a
MUST WIN situation for his program.

Except for the 1st one that was kicked short, the quick kicks have been very effective. Why is everyone bagging on the quick kicks? Seems like before the season several posters were wondering "what ever happened to the quick kick?"

The PonyGrad wrote:Except for the 1st one that was kicked short, the quick kicks have been very effective. Why is everyone bagging on the quick kicks? Seems like before the season several posters were wondering "what ever happened to the quick kick?"

We seem to run this play on just about every 4th down and we have kicked the ball every time that we have been in this formation. OSU finally got smart and put somebody back there to return one last week. I seem to remember that they had a huge return off of it. Like somebody else said, since we always do it on 4th down, not sure if it really is a "quick kick".

The quick kick forces other teams to spend time and resources preparing for the quick kick. OSU figured it out. However, a less athletic team may not have the ability to handle the quick kick as readily. And by putting a safety back to receive the kick, the defense goes form 11 men to 10 men. And possibly, all those quick kicks the first 3 games have been used to set up a team (in conference play). The quick kick may not be the most traditional and potent means of giving the ball to an opponent but it does force opponents to prepare. And we need our opponents to spend as much time as possible preparing for quick kicks and the like and less time preparing for our offense.

PonySnob wrote:

The PonyGrad wrote:Except for the 1st one that was kicked short, the quick kicks have been very effective. Why is everyone bagging on the quick kicks? Seems like before the season several posters were wondering "what ever happened to the quick kick?"

We seem to run this play on just about every 4th down and we have kicked the ball every time that we have been in this formation. OSU finally got smart and put somebody back there to return one last week. I seem to remember that they had a huge return off of it. Like somebody else said, since we always do it on 4th down, not sure if it really is a "quick kick".

It worked pretty good against TCU it seemed like we had a couple downed inside the 5-10. But, the alternative is to go ahead and throw if they drop someone back, this has to put some of our people one on one or leaves someone uncovered. That should be a QB audible. We saw what happens when a bunch of OL try to run down a DB returning a kick.

The PonyGrad wrote:Except for the 1st one that was kicked short, the quick kicks have been very effective. Why is everyone bagging on the quick kicks? Seems like before the season several posters were wondering "what ever happened to the quick kick?"

Sorry, PonyGrad, but the stats do not bear you out:

PUNTING No. Yds Avg
Mentzel, Ryan 16 645 40.3
Phillips, Chris 4 120 30.0
10 yards more. Also the pooch punt offers no hangtime for the cover guys to get down.

Still, KEY:

Turnovers, not special teams, will determine the win over SJSU

Not so fast my friend...

The quick kick is generally used by Bennett for places where shorter kicks are appropriate, like getting inside the 20, which has happened.

Also, if you remove the first choked kick Phillips is averaging 35.3.