Louisville Post Game

Lil G

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
700
Four bad years will do that. My Florida buddies tell me that Florida Field which seats about 90,000 is hardly ever full any more unless they are playing Tennessee. Never thought I would see that after years of seeing fans holding up fingers for tickets with none to be had in Gainesville. Never thought Florida with all their resources would tolerate three bad coaches in a row either but it goes to show that fans will tolerate mediocrity and lousy coaches for only so long. Nebraska, Florida, Tennessee, Auburn, and other one time feared football factories living on past glories. It can happen that quickly.
Everybody loves when their team wins but not everybody is Nebraska. Losses will show true colors and at the end of the day I’m just glad there was 30k gold in the stadium yesterday.
 

g0lftime

Helluva Engineer
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5,886
T
Disappointed to lose, especially feeling, like we had the ability to win. Need to figure out the kicking game, the missed FG really hurt. OCBF needs to work on his situational play calling. Have a lot of things to work on and hone against SCSt.

But I feel good about the direction of the program. We looked like a much better team overall last night than any of the previous 4 years. Very few penalties, few big mistakes, we mostly did the fundamental things correctly. We were competitive. Louisville was flat better on both lines of scrimmage and that makes it tough to win. As long as we keep improving and don't make the same mistakes over and over, I think we'll be competitive in our ACC games.
That's an experienced OL. How much better can they get? Just asking.
Maybe their guys were just better athletes. Maybe can clean up a couple of missed assignments but we had a lot of starts out there.
 

57jacket

Helluva Engineer
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1,452
IMHO :The adjustments UL made at half time were essentially the techniques used by DL. I 1st half they tried to charge and disrupt. Our OL trapped them, opening holes. In second half they occupied our OL, protecting their LB, and stuffed our run game. Comments by someone smarter than me?
 

g0lftime

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5,886
The best thing about the game was we still had a chance to win late in the game. There were many games the last few years where I knew we had no chance.
This team better figure out how to get a pass rush or it could be a long season.
 

Northeast Stinger

Helluva Engineer
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10,711
Very good summary of what decided this contest. I differ with you on Louisville. I don't think they are all that great and we are mediocre but at least entertaining to watch when King has time to throw which will not always be the case.
We agree on the essentials. Louisville is good relative to us. But we don’t know how good or bad we are yet.
 

AUFC

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2,819
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One game in, against an opponent who's favored to win, and does, but by a smaller margin than predicted, and the Swarm nabobs of negativism are in midseason form.
I gotta disagree here. I've seen more people whining about nonexistant whiners than people whining about the team's performance yesterday. This thread has been pretty positive, especially for a loss in what was a very winnable game.

Overall I think most of us feel fairly affirmed in our prediction of 5, 6, or 7 wins after last night's game. A bowl game is well within reach for this squad.
 

takethepoints

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6,084
Well, I said that the one thing you could predict was that the game would be ugly. It wasn't, particularly; it was a prototypical first game, but Tech didn't look too bad and we almost won. I only saw the first half - thanks, Disney - and read the box score, but here are some impressions, good and bad.

The Good:
• The WRs are pretty good, especially, as said above, Singleton. Tech did a decent job getting the ball to them and they (usually) caught it. Even the TEs (gasp!) looked ok.
• Ok, King isn't the next coming, but he appears to be a decent P5 QB. He can throw and handle himself under duress. He can also run and we ought to put in more option plays and QB draws to let him do it. Let's hope that happens.
• Pass blocking was ok. I understand the UL DL changed tactics in the second half, but it must have held up.

The Bad:
• The run blocking was atrocious. Why did UL win the game? UL = 227 yards rushing, Tech 175. That 52 yards goes a long way in an opening game. Tech ought to be aiming at 200 yards on the ground every game. We have decent RBs. They need, you know, like holes to show it. I know the OL was without Williams, but this was supposed to be the year we had an experienced OL out there and good overall blocking.
• The DL got no push at all. The DTs especially were stood up regularly by the UL OL. Again, losing Yondjouen didn't help, but he can't do it alone. What I most noticed was that the DL lacks speed. The LBs and DBs played ok, bu I expected better coverage.
• And better tackling. Why is this still a problem? After - what - four years under Thacker? It is obvious that he can't fix this and that we need for him to find someone who can. And, btw while I hate poor run blocking with a vengeance, I really, really hate poor tackling. This has to stop.

The Blah:
• Yes we had problems on special teams again. I don't blame Stewart for the missed FGs. The first was out of his usual range and the second was just a miss. No reason to panic, but we need to get this problem fixed. Something everybody who watches Tech football has been calling for for - what? - 5 years.
 

rfjeff9

Jolly Good Fellow
Messages
443
IMHO :The adjustments UL made at half time were essentially the techniques used by DL. I 1st half they tried to charge and disrupt. Our OL trapped them, opening holes. In second half they occupied our OL, protecting their LB, and stuffed our run game. Comments by someone smarter than me?
I probably couldn't describe it better. There was just an impenetrable wall there in the 2nd half that wasn't there in the fjrst.
 

Northeast Stinger

Helluva Engineer
Messages
10,711
I probably couldn't describe it better. There was just an impenetrable wall there in the 2nd half that wasn't there in the fjrst.
Wow. This raises a question in my feeble brain. Did we stick with zone blocking once we started getting stuffed? I did not think to look that closely.
 

Root4GT

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2,964
IMHO :The adjustments UL made at half time were essentially the techniques used by DL. I 1st half they tried to charge and disrupt. Our OL trapped them, opening holes. In second half they occupied our OL, protecting their LB, and stuffed our run game. Comments by someone smarter than me?
From my perspective our OL has a hard time getting off DLmen to get to the LBs or Safeties on running plays.
 

SOWEGA Jacket

Helluva Engineer
Messages
2,074
Ole Miss is the first true measuring stick. We know what they are going to do and after last night they know exactly what we are going to do. I want to hope we have actually improved from last year but Kiffen and Dart will provide us the answer.
 

4shotB

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Retired Staff
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. Comments by someone smarter than me?
bro, this is an internet message board. There isn't a smart person walking through the door here to answer your question sadly enough. WTBS, as Dunning and Kruger found out, there will be an idiot along shortly to answer your question, And this idiot will believe that he is smart. So ignore anyone who replies to your post, including me. It's a bit of a paradox....or a conundrum if you prefer. :)
 

Northeast Stinger

Helluva Engineer
Messages
10,711
bro, this is an internet message board. There isn't a smart person walking through the door here to answer your question sadly enough. WTBS, as Dunning and Kruger found out, there will be an idiot along shortly to answer your question, And this idiot will believe that he is smart. So ignore anyone who replies to your post, including me. It's a bit of a paradox....or a conundrum if you prefer. :)
But which one of you has the cat?
 
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