The UK game was also different in that it was in a rainstorm and we had 160 yards of penalties. We should have went to the run earlier but having penalties like we did would have screwed up our offense anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezsoil
Printable View
The UK game was also different in that it was in a rainstorm and we had 160 yards of penalties. We should have went to the run earlier but having penalties like we did would have screwed up our offense anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ezsoil
During the season absolutely. But, this team saw 1s v 1s in the spring and fall camps. It's not like our 1s on O never went up against some 1s on defense. There is a lot of mixing and matching going on during the spring and fall camps.Quote:
Originally Posted by MetEdDawg
Stopped listening to Bo a while ago. Watch him on Twitter every weekend spin stuff just to get reactions from people in a effort to generate interest in his show for Monday. He is a salesman, a good one, but salesman non the less. The more people believe what he chirps the more he can tell his sponsors on how well his brand is doing. Any attention, even if its negtive attention, is better than no attention. He thrives on it.
As far as the speed of the SEC, no doubt it was probably a surprise, but the speed of the game as far as making decisions as a head coach was also a huge adjustment. At Penn St, he had time when the defense was on the field to think about strategy and change game-planning if it wasnt working. Head coach must monitor all facets of the game to some degree.
I believe that Joe will get there. Dan had the adjustment time too, and he still had his brain fart moments.
Just my opinion.
The lesson from the two losses is that every opponent must be respected. I'll never understand the blocking scheme against the right side of Kentucky's D line. The weather didn't help either.
That said, I think Moorehead could be a good coach although I'm not down with that clean off a shelf bullshit they're promoting.
It did matter to both Saban and Meyer.Quote:
Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg
Saban had some adjusting to do from the B1G to the SEC. He went 8-4 in year one (2000). Then 10-3 (SEC champs), 8-5, 13-1 (National Champs), and then 9-3.
Several of Saban's losses were blow outs as well.
Meyer went 9-3 in his first season of 2005 with a loaded roster, and at least one of his losses was a blow out. Alabama put a beat down on him and he quickly realized afterwards that he was going to have to make some changes. I still remember how shocked he was during his half time interview of that game. He could barely talk.
Like Meyer, maybe JoMo has learned this conference is about physicality and defense first. Having a creative offense system is great, but it better be physical first or it will not be successful.
Good post. I remember Meyer after he got to Ohio State, saying that he had to get more overall team speed on defense and offense for them to compete nationally. Also said he would have to get more physical players on both LOS to compete. Ohio State now is basically an SEC team in the Big 10, it's why they're dominating there. Same could be said for Clemson.Quote:
Originally Posted by Token Bammer
You do realize that a coach can be perfectly aware of something that the players struggle to overcome, right? Our players were tentative about a new offense and as such werent aggressive. Thus all the penalties in the UK game and qb misreads in the Florida game. This is all very new. Joe's realization of how fast or physical defenses are in the sec affected the play on the field in the same way a fans cheers affect a players actions.Quote:
Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg
I don't know it Moorhead was caught off guard by SEC defenses or not. What I do think happened is:
1. We've all heard about how it takes five games for Joe's offense to get going. Kentucky and Florida were fortunate to fall within that window. I don't think he underestimated SEC defenses. I think it was a perfect storm of playing two top 10 nationally ranked defenses and not having our offensive system completely installed. With Kentucky there were other things that played into it to making it a perfect storm- bad weather, UK players running smack which factored in to the penalty situation which we did not manage well, plus playing the best UK team possibly since the 1970's on the road. I'm interested to see how the second half of the season goes- but I wouldn't be surprised if we start to take off offensively.
2. Nick getting suspended a game essentially pushed that five game window back one game. I have a feeling that had Nick not been suspended we would have seen a gameplan more similar to what we saw against Auburn against Florida and probably with similar results.
3. Our fans hear the word West Coast Offense passing scheme and automatically assume that this is going to go like Croom. Down to the "He's stubborn and won't adjust because Croom didn't adjust because they ran a similar passing system." Joe has shown quite the opposite in terms of making adjustments.
4. I think we have a lot of fans that aren't comfortable with a smart football coach that doesn't rip people a new asshole when they don't do something perfect. They equate not yelling with "soft" and just assume that the inmates are running the asylum. I think yelling is also associated by some of our fans with "SEC football" because that's what Saban does. The fact is our RB coach, TE coach, OL coach, DL coach, CB coach, DC/S coach, and ST coach all have SEC experience as coaches and or as players. I'm pretty sure that they know what the SEC is all about- especially since several were on probably the best and most successful Vanderbilt coaching staff the 80 years, our TE coach was on our 2010 Gator Bowl winning staff, our OL coach was on Eli's Cotton Bowl winning Ole Miss team that won 10 games, and our ST coach played for freaking Bear Bryant himself and has a couple of National Championship rings.