Thoughts on the East Texas game

[JasonB]

Not a very pretty game, but here are some thoughts...

- Watching the game live at the stadium, I thought it was really ugly, especially the OL. But I came back and re-watched it on TV and it really wasn't as bad as I thought. A lot of the issues with our OL were actually some unlucky incidents and some mis-reads from the running backs. Things that are fixable on tape. For example, early in the game, Parr was locked up on a DT, the RB had nothing to do, decided to help blasted the defensive player directly towards Jennings and freed him up, forcing Jennings to scramble to his right and run out of bounds after a few yards.
- The first hold called against Byrd was non-existent. Horrible call. After the second one, Rhett yanked him for Zion. Who actually did quite well on the edge. I hope Zion is okay, it was gut wrenching to see him go down like that. But Zion looked very good while he was in there.
- We ran some really complicated running schemes and whiffed at times. We didn't get beat on a lot of those running calls, but players just left a guy to go find someone down the field, and the first guy made the play. It can get cleaned up, but it just was ugly. PJ, for example, went second level to go find someone because he was the backend of the running play to the left, but didn't chip his edge and they guy just waltzed in and made the tackle. On other plays, we would run Gap and pull 3 OL, and one of them wouldn't identify the right person to block. We ran some really complicated stuff against that team so that we could get it on tape and learn. But there was no "Bates was horrible and missed blocks, we need to replace him" stuff happening.
- Losing Hudson is a big deal. It sounds like xrays are negative, so hopefully it is just a shoulder separation (or it sounds like maybe an elbow thing). But that is a big loss. He is our most consistent receiver, our clear number one. Mello had a nice game, obviously the big TD. I had some concerns about us being able to stretch the field, and he alleviated that a little bit with the long TD and then the drawn holding. But Mello isn't nearly as consistent as Hudson. He had one drop, and then the INT, even though it wasn't a great throw by Jennings, that was a really bad route run. It wasn't good enough.
- The frosh WR, clearly Cooper is ready to play and did well. He could have caught that sliding comebacker, but otherwise did really well. But he isn't ready to make up for the loss of Hudson. I wanted to see something from Link or Isaiah on the other side, and they didn't do anything. There is talent in the depth, but it just isn't there yet - it will take some time. Losing Hudson will significantly impact our offensive productivity, and we haven't established enough deep options on the other side. This could be an issue until Hudson is able to come back.
- At RB, I thought C Johnson did well, the TD was electric. He ran it inside more than I thought he would, but he did try and bounce a couple of runs outside that ended in no gain where he should have just turned it up. He and McFall just have no power to their game at all, they are much less physical than Brashard was. They are really guys that need to be in space, and it is great to have guys that excel at that, but Harden is the only one who looks like he could be a consistent runner in the ACC. We need Green to get healthy to give us a little more strength. When Johnson and McFall get hit, they are done. That was evident on the 4th and 1 that McFall got stopped on and Zion was hurt. The problem is that when we get in short yardage situations, we like to go fast and run tempo, but those backs didn't really show the power running to be able to grind out that short yardage gain.
- Jennings threw the ball pretty well until the pick. He had a bad throw outside after that to Brown. He also missed Knight in the middle on an easy throw, but I think actually that might have been Knights fault for continuing to drift instead of just sitting in his zone. The INT I think was a bad route, but it also was a little behind and not high enough. Overall, he started strong, and then struggled a little, and then ended strong. But we spent a lot of playcalls just trying to make sure everyone on the team touched the ball, and that isn't on him.
- Knight on punt returns is wow. You can see where we are going to get some explosives from him in both the return game and then on WR screens out of the slot.
- Overall on offense, I raised the concern coming into the year that we were very reliant on explosive plays last two years, and I didn't know if we could replace that and move towards an offense that moves the ball more consistently down the field. This game didn't do anything to address those concerns. Missed blocking assignments, lack of power in the backfield, holding calls... we had a lot of negative plays, and is really hard to overcome those without the explosives. In this game we had the long ball TD, an explosive run by Johnson for a TD, and the 38 yard TD by Cooper. Three explosives, that is all, and those were 21 offensive points. We had two defensive score, so we only had 1 non-explosive offensive TD and that was the run by Jennings. We didn't come out of here establishing that either we don't need to rely on explosives or that we have more players that can replace those graduated explosives. Our offense is going to cost us games until we get Hudson back and can either eliminate mistakes or find more explosive plays. We will take a big jump for the Baylor game, all teams do, and I am sure we will simplify the blocking scheme for it. But this offense is going to need to be more consistent and less reliant on explosives to be successful, and penalties and negative plays are just going to kill us.
- On defense, I thought the tackles performed well. Specifically Webb and Allen had really strong games. They were better than expected and it helps me feel better about that part of the team.
- The ends, however, I thought we really struggled to generate a lot of pressure. 3 sacks is way too low against that team. Only once were we able to collapse the pocket while engaging the offensive tackle and use a combination of speed and strength. Outside of that, we were just trying to run around the tackles and it left huge gaps to scramble through. Turbo played a lot of snaps and had no tackles credited to him (he did get the fumble recovery). The ends did a solid job against the run, but not having an elite pass rusher is a big limitation on the defense. I don't think Washington played, that is something to keep an eye on. Lang was the one player who I thought did a good job physically engaging is OT and pushing him back into the backfield on passing down. He might move up the depth chart a bit.
- The loss of Kilgore at LB is crushing. He is fantastic, and is really the only size we have back there. Everyone else looks so undersized, and they don't always take great angles. On their one long run, Miyazano got caught up at the line and taken out by a TE and then Barker took a bad angle. The safeties had to make a ton of tackles in the running game. When Kilgore is there, I feel good about the others rotating in at the other spot. But without him there... that is a big loss. I saw that he had his ankle in a boot, so it isn't a knee, that is great. Hopefully we get him back in time for conference, because he is required there. I've got some pretty significant concerns about LB. Miyazano I love the energy, but not sure if he is the guy. Barker didn't show up as much as he needed to, and he got a low rating from PFF as well.
- The safeties were great. That read on the Pick 6 from Moses was outstanding. Polley did really well. We didn't give up a lot of plays to their slot WR, which was something I had my eye on, but Spencer, JMJ, and Chambers weren't engaged in the running game as much as I thought they could be. Muhammed had one really bad angle read, but outside of that was also good at safety. Spencer is clearly first choice at NB, but it is going to be interesting to watch if Polley is too good to keep off the field, so you have to move Moses to NB. We are going to figure that out quickly over the next three weeks.
- At corner, surprised to see Speedy start over Smoke, and I thought he did a really good job. 1/3 for 5 yards with a PBU is outstanding. I thought he was excellent in fall camp as a true freshman and that he looked like a very good natural corner. This year when I watched the practice at the Star, I thought he was just okay. But he has won that spot over Smoke, and this game showed why. Deuce struggled. PFF said they were 3/3 against him for 34 yards, but there were a couple of other coverage handoff issues that I think were on him with letting his WR free to the inside that PFF didn't grade him for. Against Barnes, they were 0/3 and he had a PBU. Will be interesting to see Deuce battle things out with Barnes for that starting spot on the right. We also saw Barnes play a bit on the left in the second half with Smoke on the right. The corner room might see some changes before we get to conference play.
- Overall, we gave up a TON of yards against that team. It isn't a great sign. When you look at these teams like Baylor and TCU that play 4 wides and spread you out, you have to play a man-zone mix in the middle of the field, and if you give them time, they are going to eat that up. The lack of pressure off the edge and our LB play has me really concerned for those two games. I know that Symons will dial things up and get creative, but you combine that with some of the offensive issues and I just am not sure if we are going to keep up with those teams offensively. There is a lot of talent on this team, but unlike the previous two seasons, the depth is really young. It could be a little rough to watch until after we get through that first bye week ahead of the Syracuse game.

[highlander]

If we play like that against BU we are going to get drilled.

I sure hope ETAMU is better than we think they are.

[Charleston Pony]

It was interesting when the broadcast team asked a trivia question after talking about East Texas' rich football history that includes national championships at the NAIA and D-!! levels; "who was the best known East Texas football player?". I immediately thought of Harvey Martin but the answer was Wade Wilson who had a much longer NFL career than Harvey. They didn't fare well last year in their 1st year moving up to D-1 FCS but let's hope they are better than we assumed. We'll get an indication when they travel to FSU next week where they will play in a much more intimidating environment than Ford was last night

[Terry Webster]

If we play like that against BU we are going to get drilled.

I sure hope ETAMU is better than we think they are.

We do have a habit of playing not so well in our first game. Hopefully we got rid of the mistakes.

[highlander]

Opening line is SMU -3. That is almost certain to move in BU’s direction over the course of the week.

[Charleston Pony]

Opening line is SMU -3. That is almost certain to move in BU’s direction over the course of the week.

Evenly matched teams talent wise and SMU gets the 3 point home field advantage to open but I think you are right based on our respective opening game performances and the challenges we faced.

[Big Hoss]

Where was RJ Maryland in this game? I mean, I saw him out there, but did we even target him?

[Charleston Pony]

Where was RJ Maryland in this game? I mean, I saw him out there, but did we even target him?

3 targets, 3 catches for 34 yards in limited playing time


https://smumustangs.com/sports/football ... core/13978

[Big Hoss]

Where was RJ Maryland in this game? I mean, I saw him out there, but did we even target him?

3 targets, 3 catches for 34 yards in limited playing time


https://smumustangs.com/sports/football ... core/13978

Disappointing if we can’t work him in more

[Charleston Pony]

Where was RJ Maryland in this game? I mean, I saw him out there, but did we even target him?

3 targets, 3 catches for 34 yards in limited playing time


https://smumustangs.com/sports/football ... core/13978

Disappointing if we can’t work him in more

I don't think he played a lot of minutes but when he was in and targeted, he showed he can get separation and Jennings always manages to find him so I expect more production vs Baylor unless they decide to double him and free up others

[PerunaPunch]

Disappointing if we can’t work him in more

I don't think he played a lot of minutes but when he was in and targeted, he showed he can get separation and Jennings always manages to find him so I expect more production vs Baylor unless they decide to double him and free up others

I have to believe they took it easy on RJ, as this was his first game back from injury. So, one positive from ETA&M is that the offense went pretty deep and let a lot of guys get some game time. Sadly, we didn't perform well enough that Hawkins got to play more...

But hopefully for Baylor we'll see more of Maryland and Hibner.

[JasonB]

Disappointing if we can’t work him in more

I don't think he played a lot of minutes but when he was in and targeted, he showed he can get separation and Jennings always manages to find him so I expect more production vs Baylor unless they decide to double him and free up others

I have to believe they took it easy on RJ, as this was his first game back from injury. So, one positive from ETA&M is that the offense went pretty deep and let a lot of guys get some game time. Sadly, we didn't perform well enough that Hawkins got to play more...

But hopefully for Baylor we'll see more of Maryland and Hibner.

RJ didn't play that many plays. They took him out after the first two series, then put him back in to get him a couple of catches and took him back out. They are saving him. It was his first contact in forever, so they wanted to see how the knee reacts.

They purposefully called a lot of plays just to get different players touches without exposing too much. Hence the jet sweeps to Link and Knight without really setting up the blocking. Again, I left the game pretty frustrated, but after re-watching the film, I'm not nearly as upset. Some invisible holding penalties, 1 or two legit ones, and a bunch of stuff they did just to get touches on the ball and test blocking schemes.

One thing I will point out - we spend most of fall and spring working on the basic install - standard blocking schemes and passing plays. They don't spend a ton of time at practice on the elaboration. And then week by week, they add more and more stuff. So I think that we are always going to come out of the gate a little basic and not as effective offensively and then peak later on. They are focused on player evaluation rather than scheme validation.