Back from Tampa and my final thoughts:

[BogeyGolfer]

1. The play-calling was god awful, and Fitz played like he did not "gaf" from the start. Fitz can not throw from the pocket and Jo refused to roll him out and hit a few short passes to get him going.

2. We have to give Iowa credit, they were well prepared and stopped up the running lanes forcing us to make pass plays.

3. The D played well, our offense gifted them two scores on our side of the field. Other than the one big play, I do not remember Iowa having any long sustained drives that lead to a TD.

4. Tbh, I have no idea what to think about Coach Moorehead, I don't know whether Fitz is really that bad throwing the ball and making reads or Jo simply can't make the right calls. I think next year will tell us a lot.

5. If we played this team in Nov, we would have one by 14-21 points.

6. There were more Iowa fans that State fans but we had a nice turnout. I would guess somewhere in the 12k-18k range give or take. Also most of the Iowa fans we talked to were cool and reasonable fans. I don't get all of the negative reactions. Most people just like shit to complain about I guess.

7. Tampa/St. Pete is a wonderful city with a lot to do and a great bowl destination. However, bowls are really not what they used to be based on attendance. The TV product and college playoff has really taken a lot of away from the importance. But it's still a great excuse to travel to a new place or city during the holidays.

8. We have no SEC WR on our roster...this must be addressed.

[Homedawg]

#5- not sure how you came up with this one, the only thing different about November was we were playing crappy defenses. ARk, Ole Miss. Iowa as you said in point 2 was not bad on D.

[MarketingBully]

#5- not sure how you came up with this one, the only thing different about November was we were playing crappy defenses. ARk, Ole Miss. Iowa as you said in point 2 was not bad on D.

I tend to agree with Bogey on point five. The lay-off seemed to hurt our focus rather then help it. Our defense played okay but we played more like we did against Kentucky that game then we did against A&M, Auburn, or Arkansas and Ole Miss. Seemed like every turnover, we allowed Iowa to get 6. Had the defense held them to field goals there, we win the game. You can blame a lot of players on that loss. Call it a team loss.

[tcdog70]

I know Fitz threw some bad passes--but he did throw 3 that should have been touchdowns. the little pitch to Hill was ruled a TD pass-so if the 3 passes he threw were caught and ran into the endzone he would have had 4 td passes . Then it would not have been too shabby. That plus Guidry dropped a pass that killed a drive and 81 dropped a pass that killed a drive.

[Dawg61]

The Tampa Bay Rays have trouble getting 10k to watch a MLB game so it's not shocking the attendance wasn't on par with a Bama spring game.

[Leeshouldveflanked]

#5- not sure how you came up with this one, the only thing different about November was we were playing crappy defenses. ARk, Ole Miss. Iowa as you said in point 2 was not bad on D.

Cohen went cheap on Flight and it basically cost us two days of Bowl prep.

[crackerjax]

We found that Tampa/Clearwater Beach/St. Pete was a lot of fun and is a great bowl destination. Nice area and lots of different things to do. I would definitely go back, and I see why Iowa fans turn out so well despite going down there every other year. Just hoping State is on the West side of the stadium next time where it?s more shaded. Sun was brutal on east/south sides of the stadium.

[bluelightstar]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dv2gO4mXgAYO0bx.jpg


We hired a coach that thought this punt made sense

[msstate7]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dv2gO4mXgAYO0bx.jpg


We hired a coach that thought this punt made sense

It was so dumb, Iowa lined up in defense. I bet Iowa's coach was like there's no way they're gonna punt this

[Dawg61]

It's dumb but it isn't nearly as dumb as Croom punting from Georgia's 30 yard line under 5 minutes left down 1 score.

[BiscuitEater]

Cohen went cheap on Flight and it basically cost us two days of Bowl prep.

BS Flag! Your going to have to explain to me 'why' they just couldn't hold a single practice at say .. DWS, indoors or on one of our own practice fields.

Cohen close those?

[Leeshouldveflanked]

BS Flag! Your going to have to explain to me 'why' they just couldn't hold a single practice at say .. DWS, indoors or on one of our own practice fields.

Cohen close those?

Because almost 100 of our players/coaches/staff spent the afternoon/night after Christmas at Mayhew International waiting on a plane from Miami Air (to save money) instead of our normal charter airline... the Miami Air charter never showed...so all the players that had driven to Starkville to catch the plane had to be bussed back to Starkville the night of the 26th.... and then had to bussed back to GTR on the 27th and missed the morning scheduled practice time... finally getting to Tampa the afternoon of the 27th and went thru a walkthru in a hospitality tent. Players have the option of flying with the team or driving... so you had some players drive to a Tampa to meet the team on the 26th but the Team plane was a day late...so the first actual on field practice was the 28th... Iowa got to Tampa on 26th.

[Tbonewannabe]

It was so dumb, Iowa lined up in defense. I bet Iowa's coach was like there's no way they're gonna punt this

Not saying I didn't think it was dumb but they did stonewall us 3 straight times at the 1. We did get the ball back with good field position and enough time but I still would have went for it personally.

[msstate7]

Not saying I didn't think it was dumb but they did stonewall us 3 straight times at the 1. We did get the ball back with good field position and enough time but I still would have went for it personally.

We had 1 TO left. It was a huge risk to punt it... more risk than 4th and inches

[BankerDog]

How exactly was the punt dumb? Chances are we don?t get the first, Iowa has excellent field position and extends the lead to 30-22. We had already failed at a 2-point conversion earlier. He put the game in the defense?s hands like he should?ve done. They made the stop and we had decent field position to start our last drive. I think it was the right call in the game.

Also, Moorhead has guys running open on passing routes problem is we didn?t have a QB that knew how to go through a progression or when he got it there we dropped it. People forget about on one of the field goal drives, Fitz had someone wide open in the corner of the end zone but underthrew him by 10 yards and a Iowa defender had a chance for a INT. I didn?t necessarily agree with all of the playcalling nor did I think we played to win but there were multiple times we had guys open this year but we couldn?t get the ball to them.

[Tbonewannabe]

We had 1 TO left. It was a huge risk to punt it... more risk than 4th and inches

I thought so also but he trusted his defense would hold and get him better field position. That part at least worked. Unfortunately it caused us to have to throw the ball which is why I would have went for it. I figured we could hopefully grind out the rest of the time and score a TD to win. I didn't like the possibility of getting the ball with no timeouts left forcing us to rely on Fitz to throw.

[Quaoarsking]

It's dumb but it isn't nearly as dumb as Croom punting from Georgia's 30 yard line under 5 minutes left down 1 score.

The punt from the 30 was on the first drive of the game.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/playbyplay?gameId=262940061

[msstate7]

How exactly was the punt dumb? Chances are we don?t get the first, Iowa has excellent field position and extends the lead to 30-22. We had already failed at a 2-point conversion earlier. He put the game in the defense?s hands like he should?ve done. They made the stop and we had decent field position to start our last drive. I think it was the right call in the game.

Also, Moorhead has guys running open on passing routes problem is we didn?t have a QB that knew how to go through a progression or when he got it there we dropped it. People forget about on one of the field goal drives, Fitz had someone wide open in the corner of the end zone but underthrew him by 10 yards and a Iowa defender had a chance for a INT. I didn?t necessarily agree with all of the playcalling nor did I think we played to win but there were multiple times we had guys open this year but we couldn?t get the ball to them.

It was dumb bc with 4 mins and 1 TO we can still attempt to run the ball. After you punt, you can't run the ball anymore. At that point, you're counting on fitz to pass the ball with no TOs and having to go about the same distance.

Let's just say you don't stop em... they most likely get a fg and you're 8, so you still need a td with the same amount of time left

[Pit Bull]

#5- not sure how you came up with this one, the only thing different about November was we were playing crappy defenses. ARk, Ole Miss. Iowa as you said in point 2 was not bad on D.

Yep....they had a huge 6'8" DE who all he had to do was hold his arms out and our RBs just fell down. He must have had a huge wingspan.

[Commercecomet24]

How exactly was the punt dumb? Chances are we don?t get the first, Iowa has excellent field position and extends the lead to 30-22. We had already failed at a 2-point conversion earlier. He put the game in the defense?s hands like he should?ve done. They made the stop and we had decent field position to start our last drive. I think it was the right call in the game.

Also, Moorhead has guys running open on passing routes problem is we didn?t have a QB that knew how to go through a progression or when he got it there we dropped it. People forget about on one of the field goal drives, Fitz had someone wide open in the corner of the end zone but underthrew him by 10 yards and a Iowa defender had a chance for a INT. I didn?t necessarily agree with all of the playcalling nor did I think we played to win but there were multiple times we had guys open this year but we couldn?t get the ball to them.

I'm glad someone else noticed the wrs. We had a lot of guys getting open all year and as you said we either made a poor throw or didn't even see them or we dropped it. Joes scheme is getting the guys open and Getsy is obvious teaching them proper route running we just got to complete the deal. Our season and offense is totally different if we complete at least half the throws that were poorly thrown, not even seen or dropped. I rewatched the bowl and on 4 occasions nick had a receiver wide open but made the wrong read. 5 times we had balls dropped that would've been first downs or the one to key that might've even been a td. Imagine how different things would've been. Gotta make the plays. Told my players for years someone is gonna make a play that wins the game is it gonna be you or is it gonna be them. Tuesday it was Iowa.

[bluelightstar]

I thought so also but he trusted his defense would hold and get him better field position. That part at least worked. Unfortunately it caused us to have to throw the ball which is why I would have went for it. I figured we could hopefully grind out the rest of the time and score a TD to win. I didn't like the possibility of getting the ball with no timeouts left forcing us to rely on Fitz to throw.

And this is exactly why punting made no sense. Going for it on 4th and inches with 1 TO and 4+ minutes allows you to use the entire playbook. Punting with 1 TO means there's a significant risk that you don't get the ball again. But even best case scenario, you get the ball with no timeouts, 2 minutes, and forced to pass every down -- the very thing your offense cannot do. This offense was not going to do a true 2-minute drill and a coach with any feel for the game and his team should have known that.

[the59dawg]

How exactly was the punt dumb? Chances are we don?t get the first, Iowa has excellent field position and extends the lead to 30-22. We had already failed at a 2-point conversion earlier. He put the game in the defense?s hands like he should?ve done. They made the stop and we had decent field position to start our last drive. I think it was the right call in the game.

Also, Moorhead has guys running open on passing routes problem is we didn?t have a QB that knew how to go through a progression or when he got it there we dropped it. People forget about on one of the field goal drives, Fitz had someone wide open in the corner of the end zone but underthrew him by 10 yards and a Iowa defender had a chance for a INT. I didn?t necessarily agree with all of the playcalling nor did I think we played to win but there were multiple times we had guys open this year but we couldn?t get the ball to them.

Absolutely agree w bankerdog. To go for it fm own 35 would have been disaster if did not make it. As it was after punting, we had TWO more good opportunities to score.

[Commercecomet24]

I thought so also but he trusted his defense would hold and get him better field position. That part at least worked. Unfortunately it caused us to have to throw the ball which is why I would have went for it. I figured we could hopefully grind out the rest of the time and score a TD to win. I didn't like the possibility of getting the ball with no timeouts left forcing us to rely on Fitz to throw.

My exact thoughts. I would've went for it because tos were gone and even though we held them we had to throw the ball to try and win and we know we aren't exactly the pats in a 2 minute offense. We go for it get the first down we still can run the ball.

[msstate7]

Absolutely agree w bankerdog. To go for it fm own 35 would have been disaster if did not make it. As it was after punting, we had TWO more good opportunities to score.

Well if you think you can hold them to a 3 and out on 1 side of the field why not the other? If you hold them short of a first down, you still get the ball after the fg with a chance to tie. If Moorhead hadn't wasted our TOs, punt was right call. 1 TO, no way with our passing offense

[Tbonewannabe]

Well if you think you can hold them to a 3 and out on 1 side of the field why not the other? If you hold them short of a first down, you still get the ball after the fg with a chance to tie. If Moorhead hadn't wasted our TOs, punt was right call. 1 TO, no way with our passing offense

I will say that if we actually completed a pass, a lot of times it was for a big gain. Unfortunately Joe had faith we could complete a couple of passes but you also run into Iowa in pass defense rather than having to play for a possible run. The way we were playing that day, Mitchell would have volleyballed it up to an Iowa safety for an Int instead of a gaming winning TD. We shot ourselves in the foot so much we didn't have toes left.

Edited to add: Chose Mitchell since Guidry had already done that same thing earlier. I figure someone else's turn to screw up.

[Jack Lambert]

It was so dumb, Iowa lined up in defense. I bet Iowa's coach was like there's no way they're gonna punt this

Well defense was playing lights out. It would have worked if the offense had move the ball once they got the ball back. Do I agree he should have gone for it. Yes I do but it worked out like he thought but the offense did not do what they needed to do.

[BankerDog]

I'm glad someone else noticed the wrs. We had a lot of guys getting open all year and as you said we either made a poor throw or didn't even see them or we dropped it. Joes scheme is getting the guys open and Getsy is obvious teaching them proper route running we just got to complete the deal. Our season and offense is totally different if we complete at least half the throws that were poorly thrown, not even seen or dropped. I rewatched the bowl and on 4 occasions nick had a receiver wide open but made the wrong read. 5 times we had balls dropped that would've been first downs or the one to key that might've even been a td. Imagine how different things would've been. Gotta make the plays. Told my players for years someone is gonna make a play that wins the game is it gonna be you or is it gonna be them. Tuesday it was Iowa.

Regarding the play to KT, Nick had a guy streaking up the sideline wide open on that play as well. Most people don?t see the other guys, just the person the QB throws to. It?s why I enjoy watching games from the upper deck at DWS, I can see the whole field and observe. There were lots of times, as previously mentioned, that we had guys open. Had we had Dak his SR year, we would?ve completed a lot of those passes. That?s the difference between Dak and Nick. In Dak?s five years on campus, you could really see his progression from a one read QB to a multiple read QB versus Nick who never made a jump. He was bad about staring WRs down and would never go through his progressions. I?m thankful for what he did, but I?m ready to see what we can do with a QB who is willing to learn the game and grow as a QB.

[BankerDog]

Well if you think you can hold them to a 3 and out on 1 side of the field why not the other? If you hold them short of a first down, you still get the ball after the fg with a chance to tie. If Moorhead hadn't wasted our TOs, punt was right call. 1 TO, no way with our passing offense

But they had already stopped us three consecutive times at the 1 with three runs, which we would?ve run on a two point attempt, and stopped our previous two point attempt.

He did the right thing and put the game on the defense?s shoulders. They get a t/o on the other side of the field and it changes things completlely.

[Commercecomet24]

Regarding the play to KT, Nick had a guy streaking up the sideline wide open on that play as well. Most people don?t see the other guys, just the person the QB throws to. It?s why I enjoy watching games from the upper deck at DWS, I can see the whole field and observe. There were lots of times, as previously mentioned, that we had guys open. Had we had Dak his SR year, we would?ve completed a lot of those passes. That?s the difference between Dak and Nick. In Dak?s five years on campus, you could really see his progression from a one read QB to a multiple read QB versus Nick who never made a jump. He was bad about staring WRs down and would never go through his progressions. I?m thankful for what he did, but I?m ready to see what we can do with a QB who is willing to learn the game and grow as a QB.

You nailed it right there, I think most of the time nick had decided before the snap what he was gonna do regardless of his reads. He threw a ball into triple coverage Tuesday with deddrick standing all by himself down the sidelines about 15 yards downfield on a third down I always hate doing hypotheticals but if Dak was running this offense WOW! It's up to joe to find that guy, his job depends on it.

[basedog]

I just hope Thompson isn't Fitz Part ll.

But with all the talk bout QB's we were trying to get, plus Thompson's playing time this year, it's a concern.

The redshirt QB may get a shot.

Let's up one of those two steps up next year. Can't see a Freshman QB being the answer.

[drunkernhelldawg]

The punt from the 30 was on the first drive of the game.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/playbyplay?gameId=262940061

It was the 32, and punts from inside the 40 are not uncommon. Mullen did it a time or two.

The fact is that after the La Tech loss, everything Croom did was blood in the water to a huge part of our fan base. The actual punt from the 32 is an easily defensible football play.

[Quaoarsking]

It was the 32, and punts from inside the 40 are not uncommon. Mullen did it a time or two.

The fact is that after the La Tech loss, everything Croom did was blood in the water to a huge part of our fan base. The actual punt from the 32 is an easily defensible football play.

You can see in the link I posted that it was from the 30, on the first drive of the game.

It also happened in 2006, two years before the Louisiana Tech debacle.

[maroonmania]

I tend to agree with Bogey on point five. The lay-off seemed to hurt our focus rather then help it. Our defense played okay but we played more like we did against Kentucky that game then we did against A&M, Auburn, or Arkansas and Ole Miss. Seemed like every turnover, we allowed Iowa to get 6. Had the defense held them to field goals there, we win the game. You can blame a lot of players on that loss. Call it a team loss.

I felt it was one of our worst defensive performances. Yardage wise it looked statistically good BUT stupid defensive penalties gave them their first FG, their first TD was given to them by a blown defensive coverage on the longest play from scrimmage a team had gotten on us all year, on EVERY turnover on our end of the field we gave up TDs and the one from their side of the field we gave up another FG where we let Hockenson run for 30 yards on piss poor tackling. In fact, during the game we tackled poorly like we were more interested in knocking them over like a bowling pin than wrapping up. Almost unheard of to give up 27 points on only 199 yards of offense but we did it and that was without Iowa's defense scoring. And i do think the throat slash and our defense running their mouths did us no favors with giving us a fair shake with the refs.

[maroonmania]

We had 1 TO left. It was a huge risk to punt it... more risk than 4th and inches

Yes, and even if we didn't make it, as long as we held them to no more than a FG the game would have remained within one score.

[Todd4State]

I thought not going for it with 4 minutes left was a good decision as well. Our defense is lights out- and sure enough they got us the ball back with I believe over 2 minutes of game time left and a chance to win the game- which we almost did.

[Todd4State]

I felt it was one of our worst defensive performances. Yardage wise it looked statistically good BUT stupid defensive penalties gave them their first FG, their first TD was given to them by a blown defensive coverage on the longest play from scrimmage a team had gotten on us all year, on EVERY turnover on our end of the field we gave up TDs and the one from their side of the field we gave up another FG where we let Hockenson run for 30 yards on piss poor tackling. In fact, during the game we tackled poorly like we were more interested in knocking them over like a bowling pin than wrapping up. Almost unheard of to give up 27 points on only 199 yards of offense but we did it and that was without Iowa's defense scoring. And i do think the throat slash and our defense running their mouths did us no favors with giving us a fair shake with the refs.

Our defense's one weakness is when there is a sudden change. In those situations they almost always give up points. The throat slash nonsense helped us allow three. We busted a coverage which allowed 7. The rest of their points came after we committed a turnover.

[Todd4State]

Yes, and even if we didn't make it, as long as we held them to no more than a FG the game would have remained within one score.

It would have changed our situation on the last drive as well. Because of that 3 points allowed we had to get a TD to win. Had we held them to three and out and everything else plays out the same all we have to do is get into FG range with our pretty solid kicker who had a good day. I hope Kobe Jones is sick about that and doesn't ever do anything like that again.

I'd even argue that another three and out could have prevented them from having any second quarter momentum at all.

[maroonmania]

I thought so also but he trusted his defense would hold and get him better field position. That part at least worked. Unfortunately it caused us to have to throw the ball which is why I would have went for it. I figured we could hopefully grind out the rest of the time and score a TD to win. I didn't like the possibility of getting the ball with no timeouts left forcing us to rely on Fitz to throw.

Yep, put us a huge disadvantage to score. When was the last time we've executed a 2:00 drive to win a game where the run option basically wasn't available to us because of the time factor? I can't really remember one with Fitz at QB. Our best chance was to continue the drive with still 4:00 to go so we could utilize the run, especially since we had to have a TD.

[maroonmania]

Our defense's one weakness is when there is a sudden change. In those situations they almost always give up points. The throat slash nonsense helped us allow three. We busted a coverage which allowed 7. The rest of their points came after we committed a turnover.

Yep, but both of our TDs came on turnovers as well so those evened out. If we could have held at least one of our turnovers on our end to a FG for them it would have made a huge difference. Red zone defense is much more important in games than yardage given up and we failed at that.

[Dawg61]

The punt from the 30 was on the first drive of the game.

http://www.espn.com/college-football/playbyplay?gameId=262940061

The one I'm referencing was our last punt of the game at the 6 minute mark from the UGA 44 on 4th & 6 so not as bad as I remembered. Punting from the 30 is damn ruhtarded any time though.

[Jarius]

But they had already stopped us three consecutive times at the 1 with three runs, which we would?ve run on a two point attempt, and stopped our previous two point attempt.

He did the right thing and put the game on the defense?s shoulders. They get a t/o on the other side of the field and it changes things completlely.

They stopped us 3 times on the one because Joe was too stupid to call a straight run play with a tailback. So yea, if he’s gonna run an RPO again like a complete idiot, it was the right call.

[BankerDog]

They stopped us 3 times on the one because Joe was too stupid to call a straight run play with a tailback. So yea, if he’s gonna run an RPO again like a complete idiot, it was the right call.

They had guys busting right up the middle on our so called first round picks..it was going to be the same result. They sold out to stop the run. You guys who wanna run the ball so much forget that you have to have both a run and pass game to keep people honest.

SAme thing happened against Kentucky. We couldn?t run on them and they forced us to pass. We saw how that worked.

[Tbonewannabe]

They had guys busting right up the middle on our so called first round picks..it was going to be the same result. They sold out to stop the run. You guys who wanna run the ball so much forget that you have to have both a run and pass game to keep people honest.

SAme thing happened against Kentucky. We couldn?t run on them and they forced us to pass. We saw how that worked.

You forgot to add that Dan Mullen would never be stopped on 4th and short.***

[BankerDog]

You forgot to add that Dan Mullen would never be stopped on 4th and short.***

How many times did people gripe about him running Dak and Fitz up the middle on 3rd and 1 with a no back set every time?