Food for thought while the sky is falling

Would that schedule be as daunting if we were actually a good team? Genuinely asking the folks here that question. If we’re good, we should go into that schedule ready to EAT. I’m not seeing a lot of tough competition like everyone else. I just don’t believe that a guy with 14 losses already is up to the task.

 

It’s not a rebuild when you win fewer games than the prior year. Billy is a scam artist.

 

None of them. All of them got the allotted time that fans claim we don’t give coaches. Muschamp failed at USCe. Jim McElwain addressed the fanbase before this season about how he needed to do better. Btw they went 5-7. Mullen is on ESPN and probably won’t get a gig nearly as prestigious as UF ever again. They were all the right decisions.

 

None. But who would have been a slam dunk hire? Hind sight is always 20/20 but should we have out bid LSU for Brian Kelly?

 

Historically, we almost always play well against Vandy and South Carolina, even when we're not very good, and we almost always have trouble against the Mississippi schools, even when we're pretty good.

 

No scheme works if players are losing their one v ones. None. Winning football is 75% players making plays and 25 % coaching. Coaches get too much credit when the teams win and too much blame when they lose, but for some strange reason people immediately blame the coaching.

Did Belichek all of sudden forget how to coach? Or how about the wonder coaches everyone was talking about a couple years ago? Coaching only gets you so far. This year's team was going to be limited. Most of us knew it.

Yet, we did come back vs USCe. And hung in with LSU, Mizzou. Offensive scheme is fine and BN does seem to adjust pretty well.

The L's this year can almost all be attributed to the defense giving up a lot of big plays. Minimize the damage by making a tackle instead of whiffing at people's feet and I think we win 3 more games this year.

 

We didn't need to completely change the offense, but you can still scheme around the rush. Call plays that are designed to get the ball out quick. More screens, more short passes to Pearsall and Wilson. Throw at the blitz with high percentage plays, not slow developing routes downfield. More passing on first down. More playaction and designed QB rollouts. We have a mobile QB, but we didn't utilize that enough to help him avoid pressure.

More 11 and 12 personnel to help slow down their rush. We lost Etienne and Johnson, but Webb is no slouch. If he isn't great at picking up the blitz, at least have him chip the edge before he goes out for his route. Same with our TEs, they may not be the best blockers but clearly we needed to do SOMETHING to help out our tackles.

All of this stuff is in the playbook. Would it have made a difference? Maybe, maybe not. I know hindsight and all that makes it easy to play armchair QB after the fact, but this isn't rocket science. The second half playcalling was abysmal, and didn't put Brown in a position to succeed.

 

We have one from Bama... he's playing out of position, IMHO.

 

Either we need better talent, or we need better teachers/coaches... and I think we have great talent on our team.

 

Pretty much all of their (FSU) impact players came via the portal.

 

Huh, I'm literally making the argument that counting on freshman, EE or not, to step in and fix issues is not a good idea.

The suppositions that you are referring to are based on facts of the roster make up. The problem isn't that we are younger than most, the problem is our veterans are worse than the young players, and that glaringly includes the transfers. Senior Safety from Michigan, couldn't get on the field vs 2 Tr Freshman and 1 Soph. 2 veteran LB's rotation guys until injuries. 2 OL, 1 was the weakest link and the other serviceable. RB got hurt, wasn't gonna be in top 2 anyways. DL at least we got solid contributors.

 

At a high level, you're 100% right.

But getting down to details in this game, and taking actual circumstances into consideration - not so simple.

I don't care to review drive charts, but how many of those passing plays were on 2nd/3rd and long, where a short pass was not ideal? When we break the actual game down - and not just concepts - there was little room for success in the passing game available to us. And we're then discussing maybe 5 passing plays that MAYBE could have gone differently? Maybe. Meh.

We ran a short mis-direction to Ricky (maybe 2nd quarter) and Brown missed him by 3-4 yards - not even close. He was wide open, and that was a really good play call...we just couldn't hit the open man.

To be clear, I am not defending the coaches at all. I just think we are not very good, and our OL in particular was crushed this game. I am sure you saw the play where George just got pushed back into Brown? I mean, this was a really bad performance - we were outgunned within 2 seconds of every snap for most of the game, on nearly every play.

Anyways, onward....Hope we crush the portal, and glad it's basketball season now! SWOOSH

 

Completely fair and true statement. Problem is, this isn't the NFL, there is no GM bringing in players. So, if 75% is players and 25% coaching and the coach brings in the players, it's 100% coach. If you want to argue NIL has a portion of that, I'm completely prepared to hear that argument, going be very difficult to pinpoint a % however.

 

None. Because they all hit a point where it was clear they wouldn't work out. That point hasn't been hit by CBN yet, at least in the eyes of most of us.

 

That’s adorable that you think there’s going to be a Year 4 with the trajectory this coaching staff is on.

 

He needs to upgrade... This next season will tell us everything we need to know.

 

It's adorable that you call 2 years a "trajectory".

 

That's my point exactly....none of the coaches we fired deserved to stay.

 

Are you serious? How many years do you think it usually takes in CFB? Another year like the last two, and we won’t be sitting around in December 2024, going “Well, we will see how 2025 goes.” I promise you that. We’ll be talking about the coaching search and where the plane is headed. He has the 2024 season, and maybe not even all of it, to make his case. That’s just the way it is.

 

I think it's the opposite. I think he tries to hard to be "creative". Honestly, it's not brain surgery. The route tree hasn't grown any new branches in the last 10 years. Lane Kiffen doesn't jerk off with all the crap BN does. His teams can get to the line with plenty of time to change the play. Doesn't have to have 7 guys in motion that fool nobody. Doesn't always have a WR in motion at the snap like a high-school double-wing offense.
As I've said before, it's convoluted and muddy. Execution is weak at best. The motion isn't fooling anyone other than our own guys, who can't seem to get lined up in time. Oftentimes the routes (and even run plays) are congested due to putting too many guys into the same space.

Execution. Execution. Execution. You'd be better off dumping the garbage constant motion and focusing more on basic execution and fundamentals, both of which are seriously lacking. Who cares about all the stupid motion if you can't execute the basics.