Postgame Press Conference 8/31

They had 8 starters out. There wasn’t a huge experience gap. We have one of the most experienced QBs in college and they had a third stringer getting snaps. It’s an excuse

 

Fair points but I was meaning the stupid penalties, fielding punts inside the 10, lack of urgency when time is just slipping away - especially with the new clock rule. No 2min offense, poor use of time-outs etc.

 

Attention to detail failed. I repeat myself at work until I irritate the shot out of everyone around but there aren’t two number threes after they heard it the first ten times. There’s should not be tgat possibility in the first place. That’s the very reason there are different numbers in the first place. Nobody tgat ever has the slightest possibility of being on the field no never consider a jersey swap as a viable plan. It sounds stupid but here we are. The simplest things can go wrong. What’s Murphy’s Law again.

 

Their back ups I’d guess were on the team last year. It’s no different than plugging in Trask in his third year. Same coaches, same players, and same scheme. When they put in a freshman left tackle, he is playing in a system that has been in place for years and the ten other players can keep him between the lines. Was it four offensive linemen getting their first start together? Godwin and Waites may have been starting if they were available. Our offensive line is not a strength and no amount of coaching is going to get 400 yards out of them and we have good running backs. Game calling with a liability of an offensive line will be difficult all season. Mertz will probably have to throw for 300 yards to even give us a shot at a win in any decent game. Take away the false starts, catching the ball inside the ten, and get the jersey’s right and we can win some of the games against Kentucky, South Carolina, ole miss, or Arkansas. That line and no running game has no shot against LSu , Tennessee, or Georgia. Probably not FSU either. No running game means almost impossible to call plays that make you look like a genius. Every brain dead dc in the world can gameplan against that.

 

I saw a completely different game than anything I saw last year. We had thirteen yards rushing and a working short passing game. We never had that once last year. We also made them punt six times. I don’t know if we ever did that last year either. Mistakes were the reason we weren’t in a tight game all night.

 

I don't think thats his demeanor.

I much prefer this to the last 3 maniacs we had that responded rudely to every hard question after a loss.

Although I do agree that I'd like him to seem a bit more bothered by (another) loss.

 

Not disagreeing with your observations but I think our passing was out of necessity since we couldn't run the ball and the short passes were because the D was getting to Mertz so quickly.

I posted in another thread that we can't just say our mistakes taken away and it's a tight game because Utah had their fair share of mistakes like the two wide open dropped balls before the half and another drive stalling penalty I believe.

It is what it is and hopefully Billy takes a good look at the tape and does self-reflection and fixes the game time mistakes like he has fixed so many of the off the field issues when he came in.

 

There are plenty of valid criticisms, but I don't get this one. Pretty much every coach uses this kind of language. Hell, I'm sure if you go back and look at one of Saban's PCs during his disastrous first year you will find exactly the same.

 

Mental mistakes, that’s what stood out to me. Tgat and no running game. It’s hard for a young offense with very few players having any experience together. Sure, we have rbs and receivers that have experience but they are the least important moving part in an offense. Their jobs are straight forward. They didn’t really have a enormous amount of false starts but they were definitely on the absolute most crucial plays. They were a sold team that runs like a machine. We were a young team that made the mistakes that sealed our fates. That was a winnable game if we played mistake free. Our line may lack cohesion but they also look like they got physically manhandled a bit. Line is our most glaring weakness and I’m not sure any amount of coaching can change that.

 

No one (well, except Bobby Bowden) wins in the pressers. That is why they coined the phrase "coach-speak." But you DO get the vibe that Napier is more level-headed than irritated. More like Ned Flanders than Krusty the Clown.

 

Point the blame wherever you like but these are the facts:
We had all offseason to get our crap together and we go down 3 TDs to a Utah team that played a walkon QB and a 3rd stringer. A walkon and third-stringer against a defense they had 0 film on, and they still spanked us.
If they hadn't taken their foot off the gas, we wouldn't have respectable numbers. This is not progress, spin it how you like it.
I know Napier is a likeable guy.... hell, I like him. But it doesn't mean we should overlook this mess.

 

I agree, those guys were nuts. But he seems the same on the sideline.

 

This exactly. This is a completely new team. Doesn't excuse some of the head scratching coaching decisions, but we are comparing execution/discipline of a team that has had the same coach for 20 years and (I'm guessing) not a ton of turnover on the roster, to a roster that was flipped on its head this year. If the growth doesn't happen throughout this year with Billy's guys, that's a different story.

 

We were forced into passing no doubt but Mertz handled that fairly well which is encouraging. Penalties were fairly even between the two teams but ours we at the absolute worst opportune times. Theirs didn’t hurt them nearly as bad. You just can’t false start under any circumstances when it’s 3rd and 1 or 4th and one with the game in the balance. It was just one thing after the other at the worst time. Wilso chasing tgat damn ball down like Willy Mayes and catching it inside the 5 was the epitome of what went wrong. Inexperience doing things that should frankly just never happen. There’s a reason it’s kinda rare to have true freshman fielding punt, freashman at qb, experience, especially in positions that have the ability to make gamechanging plays instantly. Hopefully that was just the perfect storm of mistakes because we took every opportunity to sabotage ourselves and still only lost by a couple of scores to a legit team.

 

I e would never undress my kids in public but they would have no ass left when I got them in the lockeroom . I’d also take full responsibility about tge dip numbers. Like Spurrier told a qb, it was his fault for putting the kid out there in tge first place. Eliminating this penalty is super easy. It shouldn’t have even been possible.

 

Or, give all the walk-ons 3-digit numbers. No one gets a duplicate. Problem solved. I guess you have to adjust the acceptable number ranges for each position group, too. Regardless, unacceptable penalty on the coaches part last night, though.

 

How is that on the coaches? I’m sure his first two options were longer passes… Utah is sending everyone deep…. If everyone is double covered long, throw to wide open short receiver and hope he can make someone miss…

 

To me , the headscatvhers had just as much to do with the players. They weren’t coached to false start. We’ve all learned that in flag football before we put on our first helmet. If you have a guy at a top college that continues to make false starts after Plato tge position for fifteen years, tge only thing the coach can do it put someone else on the field.
Don’t field tge ball inside the ten? That’s not coaching, that’s almost stupid. The coaching mistake in those two penalties is the kid being on the field in the first place. I’m not saying to sit the kids but I’m not waiting for strike three either. There’s a short leash on those type of mistakes. It’s basic peewee football.

 

You take the options tgat present themselves right? You can’t make plays that aren’t there.

 

I agree. Having duplicate numbers serves no purpose, and as we saw last night, can be problematic. Just say no, and eliminate one more thing to have to worry about.