One sign of complacency

[lamont]

Is that nothing has changed in our run game the last couple of years. We were ridiculously vanilla last year and more of the same Saturday. Where Dan was once at the forefront of new concepts 6-7 years ago- he has now become stale and blah. Inside zone, stretch, jet, some power read...its SOS

Freeze for example- ran the speed option vs Fla State. To add a wrinkle to it- he had Kelly show speed op to the right- getting the DE to commit- but brought the backside OG to kick out the DE. Kelly cut up inside the DE and got a nice 8-10 yard gain cutting it up against flow playside. New wrinkle off an old play.

I'm not seeing any new wrinkles from us in the run game.

[Gutter Cobreh]

To be fair, it was South Alabama and you don't play all your cards in the 1st game....

[I seen it dawg]

To be fair to that its been same shit for a couple of yrs. he hasn't done anything different

[Tbonewannabe]

To be fair, it was South Alabama and you don't play all your cards in the 1st game....

We also haven't seen anything the last 2 or so years. Maybe that Mullen trusted the offense with Dak and we were just really vanilla against supposedly a crap team but we also looked vanilla our entire 2012 when everyone said we were saving it for Bama. It wasn't true, our offense just wasn't very good against good teams. It really is like Mullen changed his philosophy on what our offense should be.

I miss Dixon counters and options.

[BossDawg]

To be fair, it was South Alabama and you don't play all your cards in the 1st game....

Further, it's South Alabama and we shouldn't have to wrinkle s#!t. From top to bottom, our guys SHOULD be able to outperform a bunch of guys from the Sun Belt all day, every day.

[starkvegasdawg]

I'd like to see some read triple option brought back into the mix. When you have a mobile QB (Fitz), a speed back (Holloway), and a power back (Williams, Lee) then I think that could be very effective against a defense. You've got to defend against three possible runners. And when you then give a look to that but turn it into a pass play you could really open things up. If nothing else it keeps defenses from selling out on one player and forces them to stay home and allow the person that does end up with the ball only having to beat one or two people instead of five.

[Tbonewannabe]

Further, it's South Alabama and we shouldn't have to wrinkle s#!t. From top to bottom, our guys SHOULD be able to outperform a bunch of guys from the Sun Belt all day, every day.

We actually should have been able to run the wildcat with Aeris on every play and still won. They probably don't have a guy on their Dline that would even be allowed to go through spring training with Bama.

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

Where is the ****in counter trey????

[aromatherapy]

Speed option with Williams? That can't happen

[Gomez09]

So random poster and the others. When you guys said we would struggle to get to 6-6 did you the scenario of the USA game playing out like this? Unless we come out and curb stomp the cocks getting a bowl is going to be extremely difficult.

On a different note. Should we take a bowl game if we go 5-7 and are invited?

[Interpolation_Dawg_EX]

On a different note. Should we take a bowl game if we go 5-7 and are invited?

Hell yeah, we need all the extra practice we can get.

[louisvilledawg]

To be fair, it was South Alabama and you don't play all your cards in the 1st game....

You do if you're going to lose. Better to pull out all the stops and win, than hold back some plays and lose like we did.

[SallyStansbury]

Is that nothing has changed in our run game the last couple of years. We were ridiculously vanilla last year and more of the same Saturday. Where Dan was once at the forefront of new concepts 6-7 years ago- he has now become stale and blah. Inside zone, stretch, jet, some power read...its SOS

Freeze for example- ran the speed option vs Fla State. To add a wrinkle to it- he had Kelly show speed op to the right- getting the DE to commit- but brought the backside OG to kick out the DE. Kelly cut up inside the DE and got a nice 8-10 yard gain cutting it up against flow playside. New wrinkle off an old play.

I'm not seeing any new wrinkles from us in the run game.

So I agree with what you are saying but have to ask you, do we have a single offensive lineman who is even close to being as good as Sherrod, Jackson, and Saulsberry. Those guys were very athletic and could pull and destroy people. Everyone lovingly refers to the "Relf offense" but is what we are really missing Croom's offensive line recruits (and maybe an Offensive mind that provides some measure of balance to the Mullen and his yes-men echo-chamber on offense???) Is Mullen limited by what HIS offensive linemen can't do? Does he then modify his playcalling to minimize the negative impact of subpar offensive linemen (fear of making a "mistake"....he paints himself into a corner with this kind of logic)? Perhaps Dak could overcome that last year, but without a starting NFL quarterback, we look like dogshit. Has Mullen checked out for 2 yrs when he didn't get his way in 2014 as some have alluded? Is it Hevesy's remarkable personality and tireless recruiting influence or his superior coaching ability? I think the answer is yes.

Urban always had a twist when someone outflanked him strategically. Dan is so stubborn that he fusses about experience or player execution when he has schematic problems or the opposition one-ups him. Killin' me.

[Beaver]

To be fair, it was South Alabama and you don't play all your cards in the 1st game....

Last time we played USA, Dak caught a TD pass... Not saying you're wrong, but if you go back and watch that 2014 game, we struggled on offense for the 1st quarter and a half. We opened up the playbook and started throwing more downfield and put them away pretty quickly. Difference this year is there is no Dak or Jrob, and we kept trying to run an offense with Dam Williams and Holloway.

Side note -- the secondary was pretty rough in that game as well

[Gutter Cobreh]

You do if you're going to lose. Better to pull out all the stops and win, than hold back some plays and lose like we did.

We were in a position to win. You guys act like we got blown out by multiple touchdowns. Why open the playbook when we weren't down until the end? No coach (well some) cares about the spread.

If Williams doesn't veer to the left and put our kicker in a bad position and we make the kick, who cares? We win and no one outside of diehards remember the score by week 8.

Ole Miss opened the playbook against FSU because they had to. Now, it's all on film to scheme against. Going against USA, you keep it vanilla so that South Carolina doesn't have a chance to scheme.

[Gutter Cobreh]

To be fair to that its been same shit for a couple of yrs. he hasn't done anything different

I'll go on record and say that Saturday you see new wrinkles.

[mic]

To be fair, it was South Alabama and you don't play all your cards in the 1st game....

Well you better win the ****ing game then...

[dawg27]

Bottom line run game pass game whatever, we have made no improvement on our o line untill we get some talent on oline we not going to be any better than 6 or 7 wins. And getting the sixth win this year looks like it is going to be in the rear view.

[BulldogBear]

To be fair to that its been same shit for a couple of yrs. he hasn't done anything different

This^^^^^

On both sides of the ball. We haven't seen a tough aggressive typical MSU defense in years. We keep being promised were gonna have this aggressive, mind17ing and we keep getting this Thanksgiving Day backyard game crap. Offense? It's the same one we ran in the Liberty Bowl with not as good players.

[defiantdog]

To be fair, it was South Alabama and you don't play all your cards in the 1st game....

You do when you don't score any points in the second half