Louisville Post Game

SOWEGA Jacket

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Wrecked said:
Thacker is responsible for every player that he puts on the field. He has been dc for going on five years. Let’s hope we make huge improvements going forward
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Yep. Key and Thacker are in year 5 of coaching the worst units on the team (not counting our kicking game). This is their chance to prove themselves. I’m pulling for them to succeed.
 
Augusta_Jacket

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leatherneckjacket said:
The offense, especially the line, looks better than I thought. The defense, especially the line, looks worse than I thought. Hopefully, the defense improves and the offense stays as good. As for ST, Gavin should not be missing easy FGs and we still to learn how to block on kickoffs and punt returns.
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To dig into this a little more, the OL is definitely making progress. There is still a lot of work to be done but there’s a lot to be said for the direction they are heading. QB play is definitely improved, WR play is better than I expected and RB will be fine. Still not sold on our TE play yet but they weren’t a complete liability like many times last year.
 
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RonJohn

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slugboy said:
Success rate was terrible—they moved the ball too well and got too many first downs. And too many scores. We knew that.

I’d have to look to see how much was “player wide open” vs “broke a tackle” vs “couldn’t shed a block”. I don’t think I have three free hours to do that.

Some things stick in your memory more than others, and missed tackles are one of those things.

Key said we didn’t maintain pad level. He said our tackling was poor. We also practice a ton of it. He said our stunts were slow. Sounds like we need to work on fundamentals, a lot.
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I also don't have enough time to do a thorough re-watch of the game. The tackling issues that bothered me during the game were DB whiffs on receivers behind the line of scrimmage (I think) with zero safety help directly behind them. Just going off of faulty memory, there were at least two, and maybe up to four, of those that gave up more than 20 yards each. If the DB had not gone for the knock-down hit, but had just grabbed onto some jersey it would have given the safety time to get over to help. There are a lot of different things that could have made a difference in the game, but those blown tackles with no help behind them were glaring while watching at the stadium.
 

1979jacket

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SOWEGA Jacket said:
Yep. Key and Thacker are in year 5 of coaching the worst units on the team (not counting our kicking game). This is their chance to prove themselves. I’m pulling for them to succeed.
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I'm pulling for them too but I was surprised Thacker stayed on with a change of regime - he has to be on a short leash. I do think the 2024 recruits on the defensive line, assuming they do sign, can not get here fast enough. Thw DL did nothing in the game.
 
BleedGoldNWhite21

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If the defense can tighten up some simple fundamentals, we might be able to salvage that side of the ball to an extent(so many of Lville’s offense was yards after the catch after missed tackles). However, there’s no masking a lack of pressure on the QB. It’s going to be hard to be consistently successful on defense if we can’t get any pressure. The offense will have to carry us more than not. I think the offense showed enough signs to be optimistic about that, but also enough signs to be worried. I’ll decide to be a glass half full guy this early in the season.
 
BleedGoldNWhite21

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1979jacket said:
I'm pulling for them too but I was surprised Thacker stayed on with a change of regime - he has to be on a short leash. I do think the 2024 recruits on the defensive line, assuming they do sign, can not get here fast enough. Thw DL did nothing in the game.
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I have to assume him staying on was mostly a cost saving thing? I know our defense showed some signs of improvement last year, but it wasn’t exactly passing with flying colors.
 
slugboy

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BleedGoldNWhite21 said:
I have to assume him staying on was mostly a cost saving thing? I know our defense showed some signs of improvement last year, but it wasn’t exactly passing with flying colors.
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Thacker was kept because he’s good. Key likes him as a coach. Football analysts thought we were lucky to keep him.

Thacker stayed on as DC, but not as a position coach. If you were saving money, you could have used his salary on a second OL coach or another position coach. Aside from not getting Garrett Riley as an OC (Clemson got him), Key mainly got who he wanted as coaches.

As far as defense is concerned, it was a big step up from what we’d seen in about a decade. I’d say the defense stepped up after TFG got fired. They definitely were a lot more interesting in what they did.

First half defense on Friday was really good. Second half defense was not good. First half offense was good to great. Second half offense was bad. We only scored six points in the second half—and that’s absolutely terrible. The second-half collapse was a team effort.

If we’d scored 13 or 14 points in the second half—any points in the third, really—we’re talking about how great a team we have. If we’d even gotten first downs and burned clock, we’d be talking about what a great team we have. We only scored six, had to go for a missed 2-point conversion in the 4th, and didn’t stay on the field.
 
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57jacket

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Key added that his team’s defense will continue to focus on tackling this week. The first-year coach said the Jackets have had 400 live reps of scrimmage in the offseason and while he has seen improvement in that area of tackling, it always can stand to be better.

He said the next step for the Jackets’ defense is to tackle with confidence and trust, knowing that there are 10 teammates behind a defender willing and ready to make the play.

“You’ve got to have 10 other people running with their hair on fire ready to have that guy’s back,” Key said. “We’ve worked on that as well.”
 

Root4GT

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slugboy said:
Success rate was terrible—they moved the ball too well and got too many first downs. And too many scores. We knew that.

I’d have to look to see how much was “player wide open” vs “broke a tackle” vs “couldn’t shed a block”. I don’t think I have three free hours to do that.

Some things stick in your memory more than others, and missed tackles are one of those things.

Key said we didn’t maintain pad level. He said our tackling was poor. We also practice a ton of it. He said our stunts were slow. Sounds like we need to work on fundamentals, a lot.
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The alternative is our players are average or below average and simply aren't good enough to execute the way the coaches want them to execute plays.
 

j_rig2008

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Anybody else watching Murray State and Louisville? My take so far is we obviously have the better athletes but Murray State is tackling better than we did so far, otherwise it'd be a bigger lead.
 
UgaBlows

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slugboy said:
Thacker was kept because he’s good. Key likes him as a coach. Football analysts thought we were lucky to keep him.

Thacker stayed on as DC, but not as a position coach. If you were saving money, you could have used his salary on a second OL coach or another position coach. Aside from not getting Garrett Riley as an OC (Clemson got him), Key mainly got who he wanted as coaches.

As far as defense is concerned, it was a big step up from what we’d seen in about a decade. I’d say the defense stepped up after TFG got fired. They definitely were a lot more interesting in what they did.

First half defense on Friday was really good. Second half defense was not good. First half offense was good to great. Second half offense was bad. We only scored six points in the second half—and that’s absolutely terrible. The second-half collapse was a team effort.

If we’d scored 13 or 14 points in the second half—any points in the third, really—we’re talking about how great a team we have. If we’d even gotten first downs and burned clock, we’d be talking about what a great team we have. We only scored six, had to go for a missed 2-point conversion in the 4th, and didn’t stay on the field.
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I agree that the ineptitude of our offense after halftime played a huge part in the 2nd half defensive collapse. Our red zone defense was good, and we played very well on third down. I just would like to see us get consistently good at something on defense and it doesn’t seem like rushing the passer will be it, so how about like just stopping the run game?
 
GTJake

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Coming in late to this thread, but bottom line for me from last week is this. (If) Louisville is the 4th/5th best team on our schedule behind UGAG, Clemson, Ole Miss and maybe UNC, and we played them with a chance to win late in the 4thQ, then we should be competitive in most all our games. Thats a big improvement over the last couple of years. But, I do agree that somehow we need to get to 6 W's this year ....
 

Heisman's Ghost

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GTJake said:
Coming in late to this thread, but bottom line for me from last week is this. (If) Louisville is the 4th/5th best team on our schedule behind UGAG, Clemson, Ole Miss and maybe UNC, and we played them with a chance to win late in the 4thQ, then we should be competitive in most all our games. Thats a big improvement over the last couple of years. But, I do agree that somehow we need to get to 6 W's this year ....
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Difference of opinion. I don't think Louisville is that good. I would put them after UNC and Miami. Who knows but Wake Forest might possibly be better. I would put them 6th or 7th but that is just me. We will see how it goes.
 

CEB

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Heisman's Ghost said:
Difference of opinion. I don't think Louisville is that good. I would put them after UNC and Miami. Who knows but Wake Forest might possibly be better. I would put them 6th or 7th but that is just me. We will see how it goes.
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We have a lot to say about how good the rest of our schedule looks. ;)
 

danny daniel

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GTJake said:
Coming in late to this thread, but bottom line for me from last week is this. (If) Louisville is the 4th/5th best team on our schedule behind UGAG, Clemson, Ole Miss and maybe UNC, and we played them with a chance to win late in the 4thQ, then we should be competitive in most all our games. Thats a big improvement over the last couple of years. But, I do agree that somehow we need to get to 6 W's this year ....
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Likely wins based on first week's games are V, VT, BC, BG, and SCS. To get to a bowl we have to beat one of Mi, S, or NC. Its tough without that Louisville game as a winner. Not much chance at the other 3.
 
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