Coach34
11-05-2017, 10:50 AM
1. Complain about the attendance all you want. Our school is located in a small populated corner of the state and people have to drive 2, 3, and 4 hours to get to games. It's simply not going to happen for alot of people when we are playing a nobody we should hammer at 11am. Too much time, energy, and expense for people to do it for an 11am against a non-P5. You can deny it all you want- but if State was located in Madison county- we would have had 70K there yesterday. Centrally-located area around a metro location will have fans there. A school located in a sparsely populated area hours from anywhere- no crowd.
Thats why home games were played in Jackson for 50 years before the late 1980's when the school decided to really start playing home games and forced the state to 4 lane Hwy 25 to handle the traffic
2. Jackie always said your team only truly gets up for about 4 games per season. There will also be 2-3 letdown days when they go thru the motions. Saturday was a letdown day. 11am game against a nobody, no starting WR's playing, Mullen wanting to avoid Fitz running the football, etc. We got thru it without being upset and also gave UMass their biggest margin of loss on the season.
3. Our gameplan to was run the TB and throw the ball. Save Fitz's body from shots. Well that shit doesnt work in our offense. We have to run the QB for Mullen's offense to work. Fitz had 2 carries in our 1st 3 possessions- with one being a very poorly called QB sneak where the OL didnt even fire off because of the slient count. Fitz's Pick-6 wasnt late on delivery- the UMass guy just jumped it because they didnt respect our WR's beating them. The 2nd Pick was their guy just wanting it more than ours.
4. Aeris is just Mr. Steady. Another good ballgame from him- 24/114. He just keeps getting the job done. Loved seeing Peters on O- Bond and I talked about that on the podcast in reference to getting more speed on offense- which we lack. I was surprised we didnt play the other RB's a little more. I love Aeris and he should 100% be the starter- but I think Gibson deserves a little more time and DLee can be used for certain things as well.
5. You absolutely see our lack of WR play without Mixon, Myles, and Gray on the field. A below average group becomes just bad. It's amazing to me that we can play a UMass and they have a WR better than anybody we got. Our WR recruiting is simply atrocious. Todd made a nice catch. Thomas needs to be used more working vs inside coverage than CB's in my opinion. He would give LB's and safeties problems. Lots of concern for Saturday because I dont think Myles will be back. Hopefully Gray is back to help. Mixon? He had a cast on so that doesnt look good for us.
6. OL looked very pedestrian Saturday. Going against a front that had allowed a helluva lot of rushing yards at that. We ended up with 250 yards rushing- but we struggled blocking them on base runs. They did commit alot of guys to the box because of the lack of respect for our WR's- and that hurt. But that is nothing different from what Bama is going to do this Saturday.
7. DL was going up against a group that had allowed alot of sacks this season- we got 1. ONE. We didnt have the intensity nor did we dial up some of the blitzes that we normally use. UMass getting 4 ypc was surprising. 5 TFL's and a Fletcher Adams sighting. He played well yesterday. Simmons was Simmons and led us in tackles.
8. LB play is still spotty. Nice job by Gray on the Pick-6, he is quietly having a great season. Green played very well again. Dez keeps grinding and making tackles. We just dont get to spots to make tackles and fill gaps the way we should at times. This group should be better than it plays. But I'll say this- we absolutely knocked their asses off. We were physical and put it to them. They earned what they got. Their damn QB will probably never come South again after what we did to him. Abram has to drive with the shoulder and not the head. Unfortunately- that's today's football.
9. Secondary is still our weak point- no matter what the stats say. Gave up a long TD on a wheel route with a LB'er covering their fastest guy. They motioned to it to set it up and get the LB'er on that WR. Good coaching by them and something Grantham needs to adjust better to or we will continue to see teams do it. They were 15/26 for 226 and it should have been worse. They missed some open guys. We did keep the defensive TD streak going- so there's that. If Rayford is one of our best- then that bothers me.
10. A win is a win and we are 7-2. Dont get too discouraged over this- it was a letdown game every team in the country has every season. We got out of it with a win- alot of teams dont. . Let's get out there Saturday night and create a great atmosphere so that we can keep the game close with Bama in the 1st half. Our guys need all the support they can get. Hopefully we can come out of the game fairly healthy so we can get the last 2 to finish 9-3. That will be a helluva year for this team.
Hail State
Thats why home games were played in Jackson for 50 years before the late 1980's when the school decided to really start playing home games and forced the state to 4 lane Hwy 25 to handle the traffic
2. Jackie always said your team only truly gets up for about 4 games per season. There will also be 2-3 letdown days when they go thru the motions. Saturday was a letdown day. 11am game against a nobody, no starting WR's playing, Mullen wanting to avoid Fitz running the football, etc. We got thru it without being upset and also gave UMass their biggest margin of loss on the season.
3. Our gameplan to was run the TB and throw the ball. Save Fitz's body from shots. Well that shit doesnt work in our offense. We have to run the QB for Mullen's offense to work. Fitz had 2 carries in our 1st 3 possessions- with one being a very poorly called QB sneak where the OL didnt even fire off because of the slient count. Fitz's Pick-6 wasnt late on delivery- the UMass guy just jumped it because they didnt respect our WR's beating them. The 2nd Pick was their guy just wanting it more than ours.
4. Aeris is just Mr. Steady. Another good ballgame from him- 24/114. He just keeps getting the job done. Loved seeing Peters on O- Bond and I talked about that on the podcast in reference to getting more speed on offense- which we lack. I was surprised we didnt play the other RB's a little more. I love Aeris and he should 100% be the starter- but I think Gibson deserves a little more time and DLee can be used for certain things as well.
5. You absolutely see our lack of WR play without Mixon, Myles, and Gray on the field. A below average group becomes just bad. It's amazing to me that we can play a UMass and they have a WR better than anybody we got. Our WR recruiting is simply atrocious. Todd made a nice catch. Thomas needs to be used more working vs inside coverage than CB's in my opinion. He would give LB's and safeties problems. Lots of concern for Saturday because I dont think Myles will be back. Hopefully Gray is back to help. Mixon? He had a cast on so that doesnt look good for us.
6. OL looked very pedestrian Saturday. Going against a front that had allowed a helluva lot of rushing yards at that. We ended up with 250 yards rushing- but we struggled blocking them on base runs. They did commit alot of guys to the box because of the lack of respect for our WR's- and that hurt. But that is nothing different from what Bama is going to do this Saturday.
7. DL was going up against a group that had allowed alot of sacks this season- we got 1. ONE. We didnt have the intensity nor did we dial up some of the blitzes that we normally use. UMass getting 4 ypc was surprising. 5 TFL's and a Fletcher Adams sighting. He played well yesterday. Simmons was Simmons and led us in tackles.
8. LB play is still spotty. Nice job by Gray on the Pick-6, he is quietly having a great season. Green played very well again. Dez keeps grinding and making tackles. We just dont get to spots to make tackles and fill gaps the way we should at times. This group should be better than it plays. But I'll say this- we absolutely knocked their asses off. We were physical and put it to them. They earned what they got. Their damn QB will probably never come South again after what we did to him. Abram has to drive with the shoulder and not the head. Unfortunately- that's today's football.
9. Secondary is still our weak point- no matter what the stats say. Gave up a long TD on a wheel route with a LB'er covering their fastest guy. They motioned to it to set it up and get the LB'er on that WR. Good coaching by them and something Grantham needs to adjust better to or we will continue to see teams do it. They were 15/26 for 226 and it should have been worse. They missed some open guys. We did keep the defensive TD streak going- so there's that. If Rayford is one of our best- then that bothers me.
10. A win is a win and we are 7-2. Dont get too discouraged over this- it was a letdown game every team in the country has every season. We got out of it with a win- alot of teams dont. . Let's get out there Saturday night and create a great atmosphere so that we can keep the game close with Bama in the 1st half. Our guys need all the support they can get. Hopefully we can come out of the game fairly healthy so we can get the last 2 to finish 9-3. That will be a helluva year for this team.
Hail State