Some Thoughts

[ShotgunDawg]

- Tonight was Murphy's law. If it could go wrong it did. They needed about 15 things to go right & hit jackpot. Yet only won by 3 points with 5 turnovers & a broken leg.

- This team has played poorly in 3 of it's last 4 games. Vs UMass, UPig, & OM we were not a good football team. Why we played so poorly down the stretch & got loose with the football is a problem that needs be addressed.

- If your looking for a sliver lining from tonight (Gotta really try because it sucks) it's that we may have increased our odds of winning big in 2018 by Keytaon Thompson getting the experience he did tonight + the bowl game. With the way Mullen uses his QBs, they are going to occasionally get hurt. Just the way it is. However, Keytaon is going to be a baller & tonight only increased the odds that he'll be effective in 2018 when we need him to win a game for us. He has really quick feet & throws a softer, more catchable ball than Fitz. Yes, he is loose with the football, but I think the majority of the his fumbling problems will be solved by simply gaining weight. He is a little lean right now takes punishment when hit. With the addition of 15, he be delivering the blow & not fumble as much. Mullen was extremely conservative with Key (Which is always Mullen's nature) early in the game & Key played tight. Once we let Key just play, throw, run & just make plays, he was fine. It took our coaches about 1.5 quarter tonight to figure out what Key could & couldn't do. Unfortunately, it took too long. Had Fitz gotten hurt against Ark & the coaches had the chance to game plan for Key, tonight likely turns out different. Instead, they had to throw the entire game plan in the trash with 9 min left in the 1st quarter. Just a horrible circumstance for anyone.

- Mullen has got to step it up in Egg Bowls. OM is simply playing this game with more passion than us. 2014 = horrible effort in Oxford, 2015 Dak's SR year = horrible effort at home with the Sugar bowl on the line, 2016 = We knocked them around when they had to play their FR QB like we did tonight, 2017 = Horrible again. Now, I completely understand that with Fitz we likely win the this game by multiple scores, but the big plays that we gave up & Fitz's INT on the first drive were just pathetic. This team is not handling the Egg Bowl rivalry as seriously as OM & it is showing on the field. Their players are playing dirtier, looser, & with more passion currently in this rivalry & IMO that is unacceptable.

- We must be devastatingly slow at CB. Again, every top level WR we've faced this year, with the exception of Kirk & he dropped some TDs vs us, the WR had a career day. OM even threw some incompletions tonight on deep balls that were open.

- Kylin Hill is a dude.

- This team desperately needs a big play guy. What AJ Brown & Calvin Ridley do for their teams is unquantifiable. We lack the ability to score from anywhere on the field & that hurts us in big games.

- Just a terrible night. I'm devastated. We lost to our rival, everything went wrong, & now South Carolina & LSU will pass us in the bowl pecking order & relegate us to somewhere shitty. Just a terrible night all the way around & tough one to accept, but it does not define us. Fitz will be fine, OM is still going to hammered by the NCAA, & we still return an awesome team in 2018. This team has to improve though. They have to value the football more. The lackadaisical turnovers we saw late in the year must be cleaned up & we MUST get faster at CB or we'll continue to get burned by 5* WRs.