My suggestion to Coach Billy Napier

Situational play calling is what separates the good coaches from the great coaches. And many close games come down to situational play calling. Having said that, I would like him to come up with 10 new short yardage plays from which to choose.

And... can we figure out how to call plays coming out of half-time? It seems we struggle in the 3rd quarter, especially if we get the ball first coming out of halftime.

I'm sure he'll have all that ironed out for this coming season... I hope.

 

There is something to Miami's coach saying they only had to prepare for 6 in plays...it certainly looked like they new our plays better than we did. You can keep trying to run the same play over and over looking for the perfectly executed play that gets you 6 yards but realistically its the SEC and many of those plays will get blown up in your face and as we know 3rd and 12 is not the time to call the 2 yard receiver screen for minus two yards and a punt. You really have to challenge the defense and keep them off balance and we just dont. Its vanilla over and over.

Two minute drill...I dont think Ive seen us execute this well in 3 years. Its a freaking circus of false starts, 2 yard runs up the middle and delay of game penalties running a hurry up offense for god sake. You can look at nearly every game BN called we couldnt convert for points before half and at the end of the game we usually had more delay of games than first downs. Being unable to get 11 guys on the field even with a Twister mat is inexcusable. These are basic things an OC does well and BN does not.

 

Bear with me: I’m a slow learner. But after CBN ‘s first two years it occurred to me that we had never effectively run or even attempted to run a two minute offense during that time. I’m not sure we executed that last season either.
Too often we use our time outs before the end of 2nd and 4th Qtrs. And our red zone offense is not so great, especially inside the 10 yard line.
I have attributed a lot of this to a less than effective OL but, that unit greatly improved last season after the Texas A&M game. It might be a strength next season.
Calling plays like pitch outs, jet sweeps or “trick” plays requires extra time to develop and we were at a disadvantage with our OL up until second half of last year then we were operating with a QB, good as he is, was operating at less than 100%, thus restricting his mobility. This limited our options in the red zone, particularly.
It’s up to the offensive coordinator to scheme the best he can around any deficiencies we have. It’s also damning that we seldom have a great start to the 3rd qtr. That is when intuitive offensive minds are at their best at exploiting the opposing team’s defensive tendencies/weaknesses.
I love CBN for his integrity and think he has reestablished good relationships with high school coaches and has built a strong roster and team loyalty. I also think this is the year we need to show huge improvement on the playing field. IMO, it needs to happen this year.

 

Concerns are valid. No doubt.
But, for me..
I feel we have enough speed. I do. I understand many are reluctant to predict consistent growth when each of the last three years has seen a different set of parameters..
Different coaches…do we have the right combo now?
Different receivers? We have had good luck ( imhfo) with bringing in experienced receivers to balance out our youth. This year was a case in point. I believe it will be a strength.

Having a balanced passing attack…long and middle passing effectively..is a necessity. Please remember that most freshmen quarterbacks need reps in this area..even AA quarterbacks. We are not the exception.

Can CBN be effective at calling a winning game, all season long? We can guess, but we will not know until 2025 is over. Offering our heartfelt advice for the next 9 months, every day, will not change that.

NIL has injected a higher degree of uncertainty into team makeup more than ever before. Again guessing won’t change that either.

For me, in the nosebleed section, with no NFL pedigree, I will keep my worthless opinions on ultimate success to myself, and concentrate on my deluxe considerations on the worthiness of each specific player.
Listing every perceived shortcoming for the next 8 months is ineffective, imho. We can’t know how all the pieces work, coaches included, until we play the games. At all.

 

Back in the mix in 26!

Lagway will have complete coand, experience and maturity. Our roster will be completely rebuilt WITH depth.

Next year will be fun, with some heartbreak.

 

Looking at ghe roster and decidions being made, does it seem they are building toward 26. They let older players go for younger talented players. There will be an experienced core of upperclassmen in 26 with Lagway. Oline for 26 is the place we lose bodies but how will our younger guys develop this year.

 

To me the red zone inefficiency really comes down to continuing to run bunch sets, tight formations and never testing the end zone from 20 yards out inward. Many of his calls are 5 yard passes or power runs. As such the defense knows his tendencies and he consistently invites the whole defense to only guard the ten yards around the line of scrimmage and what had worked decently from the 20 to the 20 starts bogging down. It seems that our red zone calls get even more conservative than the rest of the conservative calls on the other side of the 20. Normally a coach would figure it out by half time and test the end zone more to counter the herd of people at the line but 3 years in nothing has changed and we come out with field goals instead of tds...see Tennessee 2024.

 

Sounds like a description of Mertz' skillset but DJ was getting plenty of shots deep. If DJ had the threat of his legs, things may look different too. Playcalling is limited to players and what their strengths are. Im not totally defending Napiers playcalling either because he does pull some head scratchers

 

There are moments in every game, with every team, where fans say that.

 

When we get close to the endzone the passes go to the sidelines for 2 yards. I seem to remember multiple series where we ran a bunch of plays inside the 20 but none of the shots were inside the 5. Always 3 yards and hope the receiver broke some tackles.

 

Another gear needs to be at least 2nd or more...

 

He needs to add several new plays every year or get left behind.

 

Looks like we may have 4 new OL starters in '26. I'm not sure that is the best recipe for a top team.

 

Dj growing and developing a better understanding of situational football and prereading underneath coverages will make us a more potent offense.

BN evolving to a more power spread philosophy will increase our effectiveness. A TE that can maintain his own blocking would round out the list. It looks as though we have the pieces in place offensively they just need to gel.

 

I think the film on DJ shows he struggles with zone coverage. We saw some ints that were head scratchers because he throw them right in the hands of a defender he didn’t see. The concepts our wr/qbs need to work on is recognizing the zone and sitting down in the open areas. Stop drifting the route right into the defender. That needs to be a huge focus in the off season in my opinion.

 

We have to develop the guys behind them this year.

 

It comes down to the qb in the redzone for every single team.

 

If DJ and our receivers struggle to learn this, defenses will adjust and itll be a problem. Look at EJ against Bama and a few weeks later when defenses figured out his weaknesses. Mullen didnt forget how to call plays .

 

A lot of points per game can depend on the defense. Better defense gives the offense more possessions , better field position and points scored by defense.