Got to stop with the Barbay blame game

[ZedFedder]

To add to the conversation, it will not surprise me if we get to the end of the year and Arizona is an 8 win team. They are definitely upgraded in their talent.

This win, while very ugly and exposing some flaws in our play calling, will age well over the season.

[KB21]

To add to the conversation, it will not surprise me if we get to the end of the year and Arizona is an 8 win team. They are definitely upgraded in their talent.

This win, while very ugly and exposing some flaws in our play calling, will age well over the season.

I'm not sure I see where they will get their 8 wins. They have USC and Washington. Both will win by multiple touchdowns. They aren't going to sit on the ball and will keep throwing it. Washington State is going to be a tough game for them. Oregon State is a tough game. Utah is a tough game.

[Really Clark?]

I'm not sure I see where they will get their 8 wins. They have USC and Washington. Both will win by multiple touchdowns. They aren't going to sit on the ball and will keep throwing it. Washington State is going to be a tough game for them. Oregon State is a tough game. Utah is a tough game.

They have the offense to win 8, just depends on if the defensive upgrades help enough. They actually scored enough last year to go bowling and did upset UCLA. It was just a putrid defense.

[MaroonFlounder]

I'm sorry, but Barbay will be a major reason we lose to LSU.

This offense doesn't utilize many of the playmakers like he promised it would.

[Jarius]

As someone that does the same job he does on a lower level- I know what it's like to have someone in your ear constantly saying "let's run the ball coach- and shorten the game". It's part of the job and you deal with it. At no time in my career have I ever had someone say into my headset- "We need to start throwing the ball a little more". I believe 100% Arnett got in Barb's ear and told him to run the ball to shorten the game after we had to play D for 18 plays. I've heard it in my ear a 100 times from defensive minded coaches I've worked with. No HC is shy about voicing what they want the offense to do. If Arnett had wanted more passes to be thrown on Sat- there would have been.

Barbay is 13-14 years younger than I am and has grown up in the Spread Offense Era. You dont find many overly conservative guys 40 or younger today. And just by going off the numbers- Barbay's offenses:

2021- QB's couldnt run- 34.5 passes per game
2022- QB wasnt real mobile but ran just a little- 27.5 passes per game
2023? QB is a statue and 2 games in we are at 23 passes per.

I'm very curious as to what we will see Saturday because this will tell us what "they" want the offense to look like. You go into the season knowing you will beat SELA and also figure you wont have to show alot to beat Arizona (altho they certainly upgraded on D thru the portal). You plan to show what you got in Week 3 vs an SEC Big Dawg. We have lost our top TE already, Robinson hasnt been full speed, and Whitt is still a baby learning whats going on. So I get what could be some hesitancy to call as many passes so far. But I dont excuse it.

Saturday should tell us alot.

If last Saturday’s offense is what Arnett wants to run he won’t be coaching here next year because we will go 4-8 and fire him. He had better figure out he’s the head coach who needs both sides of the ball to produce in order to win and not the DC who just needs the defense to win. Running the ball 40 times with Will Rogers at quarterback is ****ing retarded.

[PMDawg]

And you were right.

Get out of here with that garbage. A one game sample size?! Come on.

I can't believe the amount of people who are ready to fire him or call him a failure 2 games into his tenure. That's so unbelievably ignorant. And I'm not talking about you, because I haven't seen where you have said that. But there are plenty on this board. It's ridiculous. We come out and put up a goose egg against LSU and start SEC play 0-4 because we can't score the ball? Alright, let's start talking. One ugly game against a P5 team, a game we still won btw? Jeez. This really is the instant gratification generation.

[BlackSailsDawg]

Get out of here with that garbage. A one game sample size?! Come on.

I can't believe the amount of people who are ready to fire him or call him a failure 2 games into his tenure. That's so unbelievably ignorant. And I'm not talking about you, because I haven't seen where you have said that. But there are plenty on this board. It's ridiculous. We come out and put up a goose egg against LSU and start SEC play 0-4 because we can't score the ball? Alright, let's start talking. One ugly game against a P5 team, a game we still won btw? Jeez. This really is the instant gratification generation.

I get your point, but people are not calling for him to be fired. They are saying that it should not have been an OT win and you don't limit your QB and WRs

[drummerdawg]

For me, it's not even so much that we ran the ball more. It's the decisions to have Wright in for 1 play then pull him on 3rd and 1 or handing the ball off to Will. Was that Barbay? If so, then he sucks regardless if ZA told him to run more.

[PMDawg]

I get your point, but people are not calling for him to be fired. They are saying that it should not have been an OT win and you don't limit your QB and WRs

No, there are people saying it already. What I said is true. I understand a wait and see attitude with the expectation that it probably won't get better. But a LOT of people have already made up their minds, and it's just too early for that. Even if they end up being right. It's too early.

[PMDawg]

For me, it's not even so much that we ran the ball more. It's the decisions to have Wright in for 1 play then pull him on 3rd and 1 or handing the ball off to Will. Was that Barbay? If so, then he sucks regardless if ZA told him to run more.

I agree that was not smart. I hope he's learned from that. They want him on the field, I get it. But it can't be forced and obvious. So, yeah, bad plan. Scrap it and come up with something better. I don't think that's the end all be all that determines whether or not he "sucks" though. Lots of good coaches make dumb decisions. Many of them do it every game (Lane Kiffin anyone?). It's part of it. If you have to make that many decisions on the fly at that kind of pace, you're going to screw up. Obviously. Just learn from it and do it better next time. I guess I just have the mindset that all of these guys have been coaching for a long time and haven't made it this far by being complete morons and/or "sucking". I think they're pretty smart people who will learn and get better. I don't think that Arnett or Barbay at the end of this season will be exactly the same Arnett and Barbay that coached Saturday. Successful people are always working to get better. It's in their DNA.

[starkvegasdawg]

How many times we run vs how many we pass is irrelevant to me. It's how we do it. We put Wright in as QB and he never runs one time. Maybe he tried once and got blown up but 99% of the time he handed it off. My fat ass could do that. Sooner or later he's got to try a forward pass. And don't put Will out as receiver. Nobody thinks the ball will ever be thrown to him. If it were he'd probably slide down before the ball got to him. Put another receiver on the field to force the defense to burn a guy covering him making it harder to contain Wright when he runs.

[KB21]

How many times we run vs how many we pass is irrelevant to me. It's how we do it. We put Wright in as QB and he never runs one time. Maybe he tried once and got blown up but 99% of the time he handed it off. My fat ass could do that. Sooner or later he's got to try a forward pass. And don't put Will out as receiver. Nobody thinks the ball will ever be thrown to him. If it were he'd probably slide down before the ball got to him. Put another receiver on the field to force the defense to burn a guy covering him making it harder to contain Wright when he runs.

When he was in, Arizona basically knew what was going to be run and made sure he didn't keep the ball. They were more than willing to let the RB get the ball, but they also know that Barbay has shown no propensity to throw the ball from those formations. Wright only plays when they have two tight ends on the field, and they know that neither TE is a threat.

[MrCoachKlein]

Yeah... no. The truth is he failed on Saturday. And that's ok to say. He's a big boy making big $$$. BTW, he stated in an interview that he has seen the talk and that it was hard to get away from the run because early on it was 6 to 8 yard pops. That's great, but if that's all you do then those are going to keyed on.

The passing game was averaging 12.5 yards per completed pass.

I agree with this, but for an apples to apples the comp should be YPA which was 9.5.

On a positive note CZA is our second undefeated HC.

[RockyDog]

The issue here is that it is very clear that running the ball is what he wants to do. If he could do it, he would run the ball every play. Of course, I knew all of this by simply looking at his history as a play caller. He only throws it because he has to.

Here we go with your dumb ass bullshit again. He ?only? had a 2900+ yard passer last year. That would put Mr App State QB at or near MSU?s top 5 all time season high. But you keep perpetuating that myth that Barbay has never used the pass in his system.

[Maverick91]

I'm sorry, but Barbay will be a major reason we lose to LSU.

This offense doesn't utilize many of the playmakers like he promised it would.

Annnnnnnnd we are two game in bosshog. Not saying that you couldn’t be right, I just don’t think we have seen the pinnacle of this offense yet.

[confucius say]

When he was in, Arizona basically knew what was going to be run and made sure he didn't keep the ball. They were more than willing to let the RB get the ball, but they also know that Barbay has shown no propensity to throw the ball from those formations. Wright only plays when they have two tight ends on the field, and they know that neither TE is a threat.

Wright played with 11 personnel

[Leroy Jenkins]

I am 100% convinced, we have fans who would rather go 7-5 playing their preferred style of ball, than go 10-2 with a style they don't agree with.

[KOdawg1]

I'd like our offense to play offense and not defense.

"Shortening the game" or giving your defense a rest is how you get beat. In today's age of college football, we should never sacrifice offense for the sake of anything. If the defense is gassed, then hope your depth can survive long enough to give them a breather, but you can't hold anything back on offense.

[BlackSailsDawg]

How many times we run vs how many we pass is irrelevant to me. It's how we do it. We put Wright in as QB and he never runs one time. Maybe he tried once and got blown up but 99% of the time he handed it off. My fat ass could do that. Sooner or later he's got to try a forward pass. And don't put Will out as receiver. Nobody thinks the ball will ever be thrown to him. If it were he'd probably slide down before the ball got to him. Put another receiver on the field to force the defense to burn a guy covering him making it harder to contain Wright when he runs.

But there is always a defender on Rogers. Never once have I seen him standing there open.

[Really Clark?]

When he was in, Arizona basically knew what was going to be run and made sure he didn't keep the ball. They were more than willing to let the RB get the ball, but they also know that Barbay has shown no propensity to throw the ball from those formations. Wright only plays when they have two tight ends on the field, and they know that neither TE is a threat.

We were in 11 personnel when Wright was in.