Rosebowl Say He Expects Costello to Start at QB

[ShotgunDawg]

No, it's not.

Getting Rogers turned into a pretzel by Bama's defense won't help a damn thing.

I don't think that's reality. Why would Bama turn Rogers into a pretzel?

[TrapGame]

I don't think that's reality. Why would Bama turn Rogers into a pretzel?

Damn Gun...

Sometimes I really think you smoke crack before posting.

[ShotgunDawg]

Damn Gun...

Sometimes I really think you smoke crack before posting.

Bama's defense hasn't been that this year.

Again, I'm basing my opinion on the belief that we improved in the off week. Maybe we didn't

[TrapGame]

Bama's defense hasn't been that this year.

Again, I'm basing my opinion on the belief that we improved in the off week. Maybe we didn't

Gun, we aren't improving this cluster**** in a bye week.

[ShotgunDawg]

Gun, we aren't improving this cluster**** in a bye week.

A cluster 17 without Spring practice?

Why can't they improve?

[Turfdawg67]

A cluster 17 without Spring practice?

Why can't they improve?

Yes, it's a clusterf**k. Yes we can improve in a bye week. No you can't fix a clusterf*ck in a bye week.

[StarkVegasSteve]

Yes, it's a clusterf**k. Yes we can improve in a bye week. No you can't fix a clusterf*ck in a bye week.

Long post alert on this one. You also can't recruit another line in a bye week. It's like I've said for 3 weeks. We have 3 GLARING problems right now and 1 and 2 are intertwined. 1) Costello can't read a zone. 2) Our line was recruited to run block, not pass block. 3) Our receivers are having trouble finding where to sit down in zone coverage.

Costello not being able to read the zone is 1) because he hasn't consistently faced elite defenses week in and week out. Now I know we poke fun at some of the D's in the SEC from time to time, but these defenses that give up 30-40 in our league would be in the top half and probably at the top of any other conference not named the Big 10. Oregon St. and Cal's D is just not comparable to Kentucky and Arky's D. It's not that KJ is throwing the ball any differently, it's that the split second he had in the Pac 12 isn't there anymore against zone. Now all that to say his other problem is 2) He has NO TIME to throw the football. When teams are able to get pressure with 3 then there's no reason to rush anymore. Our tackles are regularly getting absolutely whipped everytime. And it's not like these ends are using next level pass rushing techniques. They're just straight beating us. And beating us inside, which is WAY worse, because your G needs to be protecting that gap as well. Cross is the only O lineman we have that can consistently provide protection for our QB which is good since he's protecting blindside. We're going to need an entirely new line next year. There's no way around it. But having a NFL left tackle is a good building block for any line.

The last problem, and I see it improving a little, is our WR's not knowing where to sit down in the zone. I noticed this against both Arky and UK. Williams, Shavers, and Mitchell don't look like they know where to settle. But that looks to be improving because we did a better job of it against A&M. This is something that is going to be very important this week because whoever is at QB is going to have at max 1.5-2.5 seconds to get the ball out. Because make no mistake, Bama will blitz more than the last 3 teams we've faced. Saban is just arrogant enough to try and run zone blitzes and man blitzes against us that could open up some quick throwing lanes.

EDIT: Guess we don't have to worry about Shavers anymore.