Ok, so being 4-0 is great, I love that we're 4-0. The win over LSU was great, the second half was easily our best half of football since 2013. We didn't play great against Southern Miss, but we still won by 53 points, which is what great teams do. But man, the last 2 games have been really ugly. As you mature as a football fan, you realize that the better team doesn't always win. Sometimes the lucky team wins, or the clutch team wins. These past 2 games, we were not the better team. We were not better than BC, and we were not better than Clemson. We were outgained by more than 100 yards in each of these games. We won because of some lucky breaks, and a few clutch plays. This is not a sustainable way of winning. If we keep playing like this, we will not be reaching our goals. We honestly looked like an 8-4 or 9-3 type of team these past 2 games. We will not beat Miami without making some serious changes. Hell, we could lose to VT, or Syracuse, or Duke with a backup QB, or Florida. This does not look like a playoff team from what I've seen so far. These are the biggest issues I see
1. The running game has been a huge disappointment. Despite their experience, the O-line really is not that good. Some guys don't move very well, and no guys are getting push at the line of scrimmage. They got dominated by Clemson, BC, and even Southern Miss at times. Our blue-chip transfer, Jeremiah Byers, was so bad against Clemson that he got benched in the 4th quarter. Whatever coach Storms is doing with these guys, it is not working. They are just not strong. They get blown off the ball. The pass-blocking has been pretty good though. The running backs have not been good either. Benson and Toafili are not seeing the field well at all. We really are missing Ward, he made this line look good. Benson also seems a touch slower than last year. It looks like he's put on 10 or 15 pounds of muscle and it's slowing him down. He just doesn't look explosive like he was last year.
2. The play-calling on offense has been unimaginative at times. The second half against Clemson was especially bad. Worst play-calling half I've ever seen from Norvell. Way too many jump balls down the sidelines. We need to get the slot receivers and tight ends more involved. We need to throw it to Destyn Hill, he is often open, Travis just never looks his way. I'm not sure if this is more on Travis or Norvell, but there needs to be more variety and more throws over the middle. We can't just keep throwing jump balls all day.
3. We absolutely suck at zone coverage. This is our biggest issue IMO. When we play man coverage, we look great, because we have good athletes. We played a ton of man against LSU and dominated. For whatever reason, we decided to come out in zone against Clemson, and we let Klubnik throw for 190 on us in the first half. At this point, it is clearly a coaching issue. Adam Fuller has been here for 4 years, and we still don't know how to play zone coverage. It's not on the players at this point. Either the scheme is bad, or Adam Fuller is incapable of teaching our players the scheme. I think it's the latter, because I've charted out dozens of our defensive play-calls this year, and they look fine on paper, but the execution is just not there. I thought Fuller should have been fired a long time ago, and I still think we will never win a championship with him as DC. I have very little hope of this getting fixed, it's been 4 years and we still have the same problems. The run-defense has been great this year, I've been very impressed with that, but the pass-defense still sucks.
Overall, I'm happy to be 4-0, but my expectations are pretty low at this point. Hope they prove me wrong, but I see some serious issues. I think we are still a few years of recruiting and a coordinator change away from contending.
1. The running game has been a huge disappointment. Despite their experience, the O-line really is not that good. Some guys don't move very well, and no guys are getting push at the line of scrimmage. They got dominated by Clemson, BC, and even Southern Miss at times. Our blue-chip transfer, Jeremiah Byers, was so bad against Clemson that he got benched in the 4th quarter. Whatever coach Storms is doing with these guys, it is not working. They are just not strong. They get blown off the ball. The pass-blocking has been pretty good though. The running backs have not been good either. Benson and Toafili are not seeing the field well at all. We really are missing Ward, he made this line look good. Benson also seems a touch slower than last year. It looks like he's put on 10 or 15 pounds of muscle and it's slowing him down. He just doesn't look explosive like he was last year.
2. The play-calling on offense has been unimaginative at times. The second half against Clemson was especially bad. Worst play-calling half I've ever seen from Norvell. Way too many jump balls down the sidelines. We need to get the slot receivers and tight ends more involved. We need to throw it to Destyn Hill, he is often open, Travis just never looks his way. I'm not sure if this is more on Travis or Norvell, but there needs to be more variety and more throws over the middle. We can't just keep throwing jump balls all day.
3. We absolutely suck at zone coverage. This is our biggest issue IMO. When we play man coverage, we look great, because we have good athletes. We played a ton of man against LSU and dominated. For whatever reason, we decided to come out in zone against Clemson, and we let Klubnik throw for 190 on us in the first half. At this point, it is clearly a coaching issue. Adam Fuller has been here for 4 years, and we still don't know how to play zone coverage. It's not on the players at this point. Either the scheme is bad, or Adam Fuller is incapable of teaching our players the scheme. I think it's the latter, because I've charted out dozens of our defensive play-calls this year, and they look fine on paper, but the execution is just not there. I thought Fuller should have been fired a long time ago, and I still think we will never win a championship with him as DC. I have very little hope of this getting fixed, it's been 4 years and we still have the same problems. The run-defense has been great this year, I've been very impressed with that, but the pass-defense still sucks.
Overall, I'm happy to be 4-0, but my expectations are pretty low at this point. Hope they prove me wrong, but I see some serious issues. I think we are still a few years of recruiting and a coordinator change away from contending.
Last edited:
