I am now prepared to say we suck

[highlander]

Wow that was painful!

I chalked the Nevada game to first-game jitters. But now I see we have taken a step back from last year at every position except maybe RB. This includes the coaching “position”.

No way in hell we would win the AAC this year if we were still there.

RL is now officially on the hot seat.

Is this really the best team money can buy?

[highlander]

The only drama left is if RL will make it to the end.

[Nedward]

Are you now replying to your own post as opposed to your multiple accounts talking to each other?

[PerunaPunch]

The only drama left is if RL will make it to the end.

You're just being silly now. RL is going nowhere.

[Vitale]

The only drama left is if RL will make it to the end.

Overreact much? If we lose every remaining game, RL isn't getting replaced. Turn it down a few notches.

[PNW_Stang]

We are really bad. I think Rhett could make it to 2025 without a P4 win. We have one of the worst OL in all of CFB, playing 9 more P4 games.

[highlander]

I know RL is not getting replaced -- I was being hyperbolic/drunk. But in a perfect world he would be on the searing hot seat.

But I stand by what I said: we have taken a step back at every position except for maybe RB (and kicker, obviously). This is after getting into a P4 conference where the recruiting should be easier -- that's what we are told. I understand the competition gets better, but this year we are not as good as we were last year. That's undisputable. Last year we would have beaten Nevada by 3 TDs at least, and we would have been able to at least block BYU on occasion and get to their QB. When we tried to block we looked worse that HCU did against us last week. Last year against OU we were able to block better, but this year we made BYU look like Georgia.

And it isn't just the SMU fans who were wrong about their team, the national media also appear to have been dead wrong. You could tell from the first snap that SMU was not going to win by 11.5 points, and that we are not the "dark horse" in the ACC. ESPN gave us an 11% chance of making the playoffs at the start of the year! Now that looks really, really dumb. I understand that every year teams surprise everyone to the upside and the downside. It just sucks when it happens to your team on the downside. I live in Austin, but if I step outside and listen closely, I can hear the jeers from Ft Worth.

I was dismissing the poor performance against NV as just first game jitters, or maybe NV is better than everyone thought. But after this game it is clear as day that we are not as good as we were last year. And that should not happen when you go to a P4, especially in the era of the transfer portal and NIL. Your record should get worse, but your team should get better.

[Finally]

I know RL is not getting replaced -- I was being hyperbolic/drunk. But in a perfect world he would be on the searing hot seat.

But I stand by what I said: we have taken a step back at every position except for maybe RB (and kicker, obviously). This is after getting into a P4 conference where the recruiting should be easier -- that's what we are told. I understand the competition gets better, but this year we are not as good as we were last year. That's undisputable. Last year we would have beaten Nevada by 3 TDs at least, and we would have been able to at least block BYU on occasion and get to their QB. When we tried to block we looked worse that HCU did against us last week. Last year against OU we were able to block better, but this year we made BYU look like Georgia.

And it isn't just the SMU fans who were wrong about their team, the national media also appear to have been dead wrong. You could tell from the first snap that SMU was not going to win by 11.5 points, and that we are not the "dark horse" in the ACC. ESPN gave us an 11% chance of making the playoffs at the start of the year! Now that looks really, really dumb. I understand that every year teams surprise everyone to the upside and the downside. It just sucks when it happens to your team on the downside. I live in Austin, but if I step outside and listen closely, I can hear the jeers from Ft Worth.

I was dismissing the poor performance against NV as just first game jitters, or maybe NV is better than everyone thought. But after this game it is clear as day that we are not as good as we were last year. And that should not happen when you go to a P4, especially in the era of the transfer portal and NIL. Your record should get worse, but your team should get better.

I think there is a certain entitlement about this team as well. They feel as if they are entitled to the success of last year’s team. Mike leach made a similar observation when Texas Tech barely scraped by Lowly Baylor I think in 2009. He said something about they thought they were the 11-2 tecj and that they didn’t need the work or discipline to win

[SMUer]

You mean to tell me they paying players that haven't played a game of D1 ball in their life hundreds of thousands of dollars leads to entitlement?!

[PNW_Stang]

I had that same thought. Most of our transfers were backups, and we paid them a bunch. It seems if you’re a backup with a good HS rating, you should transfer and make more money after a year or two.

[ShantyBoy]

Very disappointing yes. But I swear, while we have a few of the best fans, we also have some of the worst “fans” in all of D1. Some of you guys are hilarious.

[Peruna Power]

RL is a class act and a great ambassador to the University. He isn’t going anywhere nor should he (for now).

Having said that, he is absolutely sub par at game preparation and in game adjustments. Some of the mistakes he makes are real head scratchers and are basic fundamentals and obvious to anyone who watches football, much less coaches it. This is not something that is new this year, we won last year despite these shortcomings. The difference is, you can overcome it against weak competition. This year HCU is the only team on the schedule that will allow for these blunders and still come out with a win (I guess Nevada too).

Somebody needs to give RL a tutorial on how to use timeouts. He burns unnecessary TO’s when he sees something he doesn’t like and doesn’t realize he might need those at the end of the half or game. He did the same thing against Nevada, RJ bailed us out there. Had we had 3 TO’s instead of 1 last night, we could have punted/pinned them deep and had a good shot to tie the game with a FG. Now we will never know. The play calls are all extremely suspect. A throw into the back corner of the end zone while on the run from 12+ yards out has a much less percentage of converting then trying to get 1 yard on the ground when faced with 4th & 1. There are countless other examples.

It doesn’t seem like we come out of the gates with a well-scripted offensive game plan, which is odd considering that is RL‘s strong point. I feel like we would be better off if someone else was calling the plays and he could focus on the fundamentals of coaching.

I like RL, but it’s not just a deficiency and talent. Without question, we have a deficiency in coaching. I think he gets two full seasons before his seat gets hot, and it doesn’t deserve to be right now. But if we get to the end of the season and nothing has improved, we might want to start giving it some thought considering we are on such a short Timeline.

I absolutely hate sleazy sunny, But I’m pretty sure he would’ve figured out a way to score at least one TD at home and would more than likely have won that game fairly easily with the same players. He pulled out an ugly win on the road at Stanford where that is almost assuredly a loss for us given How we have looked the first three games.

[Ikus]

I disagree about the timeouts. He uses them more willingly this year because of the addition of the 2-minute timeout, and he called 3, I think, to prevent a penalty for getting lined up wrong or 12 men on the field or something -- would-be penalties that could have ended drives or put is in a much worse spot. Had he gone the other way, he'd be getting torched on here for not using them.

We got outcoached and outplayed, but I didn't think penalty management was the issue.

[Peruna Power]

I disagree about the timeouts. He uses them more willingly this year because of the addition of the 2-minute timeout, and he called 3, I think, to prevent a penalty for getting lined up wrong or 12 men on the field or something -- would-be penalties that could have ended drives or put is in a much worse spot. Had he gone the other way, he'd be getting torched on here for not using them.

We got outcoached and outplayed, but I didn't think penalty management was the issue.

We got the ball back with under 2:00 left. They scored on the play that would have been the 2:00 stoppage. So if we had all 3 TO’s, it changes our approach to the final drive or we punt and try and get our D to force 3 and out and get a crack at a FG. Sometimes a penalty in the third-quarter is the Lesser of two evils versus not having timeouts when you need them at the end of the game.

[highlander]

Time management was the least of our problems.