Post-Game Discussion: Vanderbilt at FLORIDA

You got your pick on a 40+ yard trick play last night. Not enough?

 

Next season is another story. As a fan I will be in “prove me wrong mode” for all of 2024 if Napier does not hire an OC and figure out the ST situation. I will not be calling for Napier to be fired, but I will be complaining here on the forums with the rest of you.

 

I am thinking the same thing cause I see us running the same pass play all the time.
Haven't seen a 15 yard route to the middle of the field.
I was thinking we don't have the protection for that yet?

The gadget play really set me off yesterday. We pushed the ball downfield and scored then stuffed them deep and ended up with great field position. We were establishing a rhythm offensively and then that ridiculous call completely squelched the momentum we were building. We didn't need to run a double pass against a team that we were able to control the Line of Scrimmage.

Granted their long TD should have been called back by that nasty facemask penalty but still that gadget play was lame. And, Like Matt Stitchomb said, that defender still had to finish that play. He stood there like "why didn't you drop the flag"? Totally unacceptable!!!

 

To me the disappointment is the D. Giving up too many big plays.

 

We have half a season more to base all those decisions on. Then if oc is an option, who is willing to take the job. It’s not like elite o s are unemployed and standing at attention waiting on us to decide if we will grace them with the opportunity.
I’m sure it’s a topic of discussion with all that have vested interest and the power to make things happen.

 

The gadget play worked beautifully except the part where it was a terrible pass. We need real plays tgat can be used. Trick plays are for when luck is needed in a tight game.

 

IMO, Jeff Scott was - and is - a no-brainer for Napier. If he has someone else in mind then that is okay by me. But still, truly befuddling last year. The only thing that made some sense was that he has only a limited number of on-field assistants and he thought he could not afford to lose one of them to sign Scott.

But this does NOT explain why we still have a ST coach. It is truly bad optics.

 

It’s true. But…..I don’t do much dentistry these days myself. Just a few big cases. I pay associates to do the bread and butter. The problem with Ortho is their income does fluctuate with the economy. Also when they sell their practice it’s really only good will they are selling (name and referral source). You have to consider cost of education as well. Plenty of ways to skin a cat in Dentistry. The real money is in multi practice ownership.

 

It’s just a thing, nobody compares players to players who suck. It’s a compliment to even be mentioned. There’s some qualities there that are similar. Same thing goes for Etienne vs Emmitt. Of course Etienne isn’t the goat but he sure looks similar in certain ways.

 

No one has the title of st coach but someone is obviously doing the job and having trouble. Either the person is lacking ability or has too many other responsibilities. We have no idea what tge answer is just like we have no idea if Scott would accept the oc job last year or next year. That’s just throwing shit against a wall and seeing if it sticks.

 

Mertz throws as well as anyone I've seen on the run. Maybe on the deep passes they should just sprint him towards the right sideline every time.

 

Unless we were just putting out more tape for future opponents to work on (plausible), it felt like a silly idea at the time. I have never liked the flea flicker pass that nets 10-15 yards. It is designed for the BIG pass. If it isn't there then you have to set it up more.

We just did not do enough to set it up IMO.

Personally, I would have much preferred to score a bunch of points, keep them from scoring (14 points is kind of meh against Vandy) and let Brown get a bunch of snaps and run RPOs. We got him in, just not the kind of plays I thought he needs to run to be a "Lightning" to Mertz's "Thunder". A lost opportunity IMO.

 

It seems like any shot at a long throw gets about a 1/2 second look from Mertz and then he checks it down to a shorter route. That may be because of a lack of confidence in our offensive line or that opposing teams know that Ricky and Wilson are our only homerun threats and they double cover them. I don't know but I would love to see more plays where we complete a pass in the 15-20 yard range; especially when we have a holding call and it's 1st and 25. The emergence of Boardingham is nice. Trey Wilson is the real deal and should only get better. I wonder if he can throw? He could put a bunch of pressure on defensives if he could. I liked what I saw with Webb yesterday. He seems to have a burst in him like Etienne. I was really hoping that our defensive line would be more disruptive early but it seems like there is not that one guy who can take over a game. They played better later in the game but it just seems they don't get off blocks real well. Overall, it was a better played game. Hopefully, we can get people well and go up to South Carolina and take care of business.

 

My deceased wife and her sister were both orthodontic assistants. They both agreed that the docs they worked for didn’t have to do much except be in the building. I’m certaintly not privy to the long game of it all but my only problem would be that I was bored. I’d rather be busy to make my time go by. Working in an office with twenty women would probably drive me insane also.

 

Yep. The drama that ensues sometimes is my biggest headache.

 

I just want to see our line block for a ground game and Mertz to get more confident hitting receivers on more high risk passes. I like the low risk sure thing offense when it works but it needs tge downfield stuff for it to work. We won’t win unexpected games being safe all the time. Good teams can defend tgat and it only makes defending easier when it’s all in front of the defense.

 

That’s what I use to hear daily but those drama queens could churn out a ton of patients in a days time. All that guy had to do was run room to room and sign off on what the girls were doing.

 

Have you ever heard of the phrase, "if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it is probably a duck"? What it means is...use your brain instead of relying on others to tell you what is the lay of the land.

Jeff Scott was an OC and successful at it. Napier and he worked at Clemson together. They are really good friends and not just colleagues (perhaps that was a concern - see Mullen's - aka "Dumbo" - "friends"). He was fired last year after hitting a hard ceiling as a HC at USF (he was also known as a good recruiter and talent evaluator). He "decided" to become an ancillary coach at Clemson because he...was burned out? He was a legacy (nope)? He just thinks that Clemson is now OSU and he wants to embrace having boosters pick up all the work for him?


OR...he wants to get back on the horse as fast as he can in order to prove to others as well as to himself that he is NOT a bum (see Mus-take and Auburn).

Hark, is that waddling animal with feathers and an orange beak making a quacking sound? I wonder what it is?

 

If you give up a big play because you are "going for it" in another way and got caught in the perfect call against the defense then it needs to show up in the sacks, strips, interceptions (even almost ones). And if we have "the goods" then we could have against them. I know this is sacrilege - SORRY FOLKS in advance - but...

Grantham would have NAILED Vandy with all sorts of stuff. That was his wheelhouse. The Kentucky's and LSUs were quite another story.

We are not all that on defense. Especially if you consider this game the perfect antidote to the Kentucky debacle.

 

I would hope CBN would have a conversation with Andy Kotelnicki as a possible OC. It would give him a stage in the SEC.