Big Al's Temple of Doom

[ALEX LIFESON]

Don't Bet On It:
Vegas has to be scratching their heads on setting the line on SMU games.

Coach Rhule has class:
A lot of teams would have taken the ball with a 1:40 left and padded their stats, he took a knee.

Nap Time:
Temple clearly lost focus or interest in the 2nd half, or it could've been mush worse.
Temple was just bigger, stronger, tougher and more physical.
Tulsa's offense will be more dangerous.

Defensive Driving:
We have zero pass rush, unless we blitz multiple people.
Didn't rotate our d-tackles as much, until late in the 3rd quarter.
Badejo didn't play as much (lack of size?) but Demerick Gary got more reps and is improving.
Justin Lawler was once again MIA.
Our senior d-tackles Zelt Minor and Deon Green are playing hard.
Our containment is poor; we continue to let people outside.

Special Education:
Kick coverage and punt coverage teams are a disaster.
On our kick and punt returns, blocking doesn't appear to be a requirement.
Opponents don't want to kickoff in the endzone, they know (rare exception) will not get to the 20.

Offensive Behavior:
O-Line- wow....just friggin wow.
Chauncy Briggs has to be the most penalized o-lineman in SMU history. Throw in the little nugget, that he is also a qb concussion waiting to happen...you have 5 years of theft from SMU.
When RT Bryce Wilds was pulled in the 1st half, Briggs took his place from LT.
#78 Tony Richards had been moved from reserve TE back to O-line took the LT spot.
Hicks doesn't have time to scream "paper or plastic?) before he is sacked.
I am sticking to the small hands theory on Hicks. Every game the ball continues to sail on him.
Poor day for Courtland Sutton, probable had 4 balls hit the ground that he normally catches.
Courtland had triple coverage a few times in the 1st half, got to make them pay else where.
Big mistake trying to play Xavier Jones...clearly no where near ready to play. Redshirt is blown.
Alex Honey still without a catch this season.
Too many drops by wr's in 1st half.

All Grit-No Quit:
Team appeared to continue to play hard.

[SMU 86]

Thanks for the review. Good job as usual.

[TidePony]

Spot on, sir!

[Rebel10]

I think they can still get a medical redshirt for X. Jones since he has not played in more than 3 games.

[Stallion]

...if he still has a season ending injury

someone said he had his arm in a sling? Didn't see it

[ALEX LIFESON]

...if he still has a season ending injury

someone said he had his arm in a sling? Didn't see it

That would be a beautiful thing, if he could still get a red shirt.

[AustinPerson]

Chauncey Briggs is one of the only Adrian Klemm guys remaining.

[ALEX LIFESON]

I will say this about Hicks, he is a tough son of a gun. The beating he has been taking, is almost criminal.

Like Chad said in his post presser; they have done everything possible, to motivate these guys to just put out great effort.....and they just can't or won't do it.

They have brought in countless motivational speakers, all of the hype workout videos etc...Don't matter when you have cowards on the team.

Our running game average 1.8 per carry, the qb's were under immediate jailbreak pressure all day.
With the exception of 6'7 300 RS-Freshman Bryce Wilds...this o-line is NOT that young. They know the plays, they just don't have fortitude, balls, will, or whatever you want to call it. A great Mustang referred to them as a bunch of rabbits. They should apologize to Ben Hicks and the rb's.

James Proche plays like he belongs on the field.

[JasonB]

The most disappointing thing to me was the lack of adjustments by the coaching staff.

- Wilds was awful at RT. We have to have known that he wasn't good? Wilds switched from LT to RT and didn't do as badly, but pretty poor. Richards came in at LT and was much better than either of the other two tackles. Somehow, we need to know that before the game started.

- Hicks throws well on the run. When the OL is getting blown up, why not move the pocket? Stunning to see that not happen.

- In the second half we finally made an adjustment and kept the TE on the right side and let him help. Pocket settled down at that point and the offense was at least a little more effective in the second half. You can't wait until halftime to make that type of adjustment. Our coaches get a deer in the headlights look too often.

- Our LBs don't make plays. Ever. I expect significant changes will be made after the bye. Rush defense is good up the middle if we run blitz, but we get killed on the outside until the safety makes a tackle.

- Disappointed in the lack of creativity in the run game. For the most part, we run between the tackles. No sweeps, nothing wide, no jet sweeps. No bubble screen. The OL isn't good enough to run power full time. The Clemson OL is, but even they get creative. Use the speed to get out wide and make some plays, then after the D spreads out you can run up the middle. You have to do something to get the other team out of 8 in the box. One is by hitting the deep pass, and the second is to spread them wide. We don't try to make the other team adjust enough.

- Hicks accuracy is horrible. The only reason I can see where the coaching staff talks him up is that his football intelligence is actually really good. He makes some really good decisions to not throw certain balls. I don't know if the accuracy will ever improve, though.

- The quality of the field was a major disadvantage. It made everyone slow out there.

- I know there are complaints against playing X Jones, but you could see in the first quarter, he has more pep in his step than the other running backs. He is the playmaker.

[Hoofprint]

- Briggs, not Wilds, switched from LT to RT.

- The line isn't all young, but there's a ton of inexperience. Wilds is a redshirt freshman. Hyder is a sophomore who played last year, but much of that was blocking for kicks. Spot duty only on offense last year, wasn't it? Seana is in his first year with significant playing time. Richards' performance the other day wasn't bad, considering it's the first real time he has played at SMU. McCarty and Natour can't get back quickly enough.

- Lawler was being gang-tackled out there. I saw at least three plays when he was choked on his way to the QB. And while we're on that topic, can someone who has played OL explain holding? We all know you can't grab a guy's jersey as he gets past you, but isn't it illegal to throw a forearm around a DE's throat?

- Gary looks like he has a chance to be really good. How long until he starts opposite Lawler?

- The difference in the secondary since last year is night and day.

- Morris said afterward that he's going to think about scrapping a couple of redshirts on the OL, right? If so, who are they? KD Smith and ??

[Hoofprint]

...if he still has a season ending injury

someone said he had his arm in a sling? Didn't see it

SMU radio sideline reported it.

[Hoofprint]

I will say this about Hicks, he is a tough son of a gun. The beating he has been taking, is almost criminal.

True. He should get a medical redshirt just because defenses are beating the bejeezus out of him.

Can he play the rest of the year? Got to think we'll see a TE in the backfield for the rest of the year.

[ALEX LIFESON]

This is a list of the o-lineman that have started or received major playing time.

68 Nick Natour- RS sophomore
67 Daniel McCarty- RS junior
63 Evan Brown-junior
72 Braylon Hyder-junior
76 Jerry Seana-RS junior
71 Chauncy Briggs- RS senior
64 Bryce Wilds-RS freshman
78 Tony Richards-RS sophomore-played a bunch against Temple

62 Travis Fister-RS junior-special teams and played a little late against Temple
79 Alex Printz-JUCO-special teams
77 Keaton Bates-RS freshman-still waiting for his debut from injured list.

Every team has injuries, but this group seems to have regressed. If they're not getting run over...opponents are just running by them. I don't think I've ever heard tv announcers yell "look out!!!" so many times.

[smitty329]

Like Chad said in his post presser; they have done everything possible, to motivate these guys to just put out great effort.....and they just can't or won't do it.

I wonder how much this is factored into recruiting - we obviously cannot compete with the P5 programs that are attractive to the athletes on the states elite schools. The "you will play immediately" spin may attract them but they do not seem to perform the same when the wins don't come easily.
Maybe we should focus on some less than successful programs across the state and find the diamonds in the rough - those players that are recognized by their and other coaches for having the motivation/determination and performance even in adverse situations. How many players do we have that were all district/conference/etc on teams that did not make the playoffs? I thought that was the attraction of Chad and staff - having all those relationships and finding these guys.

[PonySnob]

Maybe we should focus on some less than successful programs across the state and find the diamonds in the rough.

Isn't that the approach that our last two coaches tried?