I figured....why not make a post today that could bring everyone here together. Make a few points, point out a few facts, ruffle some feathers with said facts, and cause everyone to join in on calling me an idiot, or a douche, or hating me just a weeee bit more than what you did when you woke up this morning.
So, without further adieu, lets get right to it!
1. Absolutely ZERO chance that Coach Huff did not have these guys ready to play. He is as hard core NIck Saban as they come. He had them ready. They knew what to expect, or I should say, they were told what to expect and how to expect it. They just maybe didnt buy what he was selling. Will they now? We find out in five days.
2. There were more than a few offensive play calls that I didnt like, but they were consistent with what we have come to expect. On 2nd or 3rd and long, we arent going to necessarily go for the entire yardage on one play. Cut it in half and get the rest later. Dont get it, thats fine, punt and pin them just a few yards deeper. What I didnt like was on the defensive side of the ball. I felt like we were way to aggressive on 3rd and longs.
3. A handful of turnovers and an opposing P5 qb playing the game of his life is what it took for us to lose on the road in overtime. We did everything wrong at the wrong times. And still, there to win it. And lets face it, like you guys are sitting here assuming now that the ND game was a fluke, maybe their EKU game was a fluke. They played well on the road ,three time zones away at UCLA in their opener.
4. We have ALL watched a ton of sports in our life. This story is written every single week to different teams. This should not have been a huge surprise. A disappointment, yes, but not a surprise.
5. And of course what would one of my posts be without at least a small jab at the fans. 5,000 plus drive to Notre Dame, and we cant get 700 to come 4 hours up the road for a game at BG? This is the same old, "win some games and we will come out" type of mantra that many of you have based your fandom on for decades. Nothing has changed there, just like nothing has changed with my opinion.
So, what happens next?
1. Did the players get on the bus Saturday night, thinking, "welp, he was right." Or do they blame others. I will say this, that sideline looked different. There wasnt a lot of finger pointing. There wasnt much arguing or anything along those lines. I have never felt this confident in the direction of a team following a loss like that, than I am of this team.
2. Are the fans going to react positively after we bounce back with a solid road win against a conference foe this Saturday, and show up next week. Or will we be back to the, "win a game that matters and we will come back." Even though, in all honesty, the BG didnt matter one single bit on this schedule.
3. PIggybacking off the BG game didnt matter comment I made, it truly didnt. It was the ONLY game...literally the ONLY game on the entire schedule that we could afford to lose and still have a chance to play in something other than a Sun Belt championship game and a regular bowl. Now we have to win out in Sun Belt play, which we were going to most likely have to do anyway because any lost in the east would most likely be to the eventual champion in which we would then lose the tie breaker.
Alright.
Its game week, its our Sun Belt opener.
So, without further adieu, lets get right to it!
1. Absolutely ZERO chance that Coach Huff did not have these guys ready to play. He is as hard core NIck Saban as they come. He had them ready. They knew what to expect, or I should say, they were told what to expect and how to expect it. They just maybe didnt buy what he was selling. Will they now? We find out in five days.
2. There were more than a few offensive play calls that I didnt like, but they were consistent with what we have come to expect. On 2nd or 3rd and long, we arent going to necessarily go for the entire yardage on one play. Cut it in half and get the rest later. Dont get it, thats fine, punt and pin them just a few yards deeper. What I didnt like was on the defensive side of the ball. I felt like we were way to aggressive on 3rd and longs.
3. A handful of turnovers and an opposing P5 qb playing the game of his life is what it took for us to lose on the road in overtime. We did everything wrong at the wrong times. And still, there to win it. And lets face it, like you guys are sitting here assuming now that the ND game was a fluke, maybe their EKU game was a fluke. They played well on the road ,three time zones away at UCLA in their opener.
4. We have ALL watched a ton of sports in our life. This story is written every single week to different teams. This should not have been a huge surprise. A disappointment, yes, but not a surprise.
5. And of course what would one of my posts be without at least a small jab at the fans. 5,000 plus drive to Notre Dame, and we cant get 700 to come 4 hours up the road for a game at BG? This is the same old, "win some games and we will come out" type of mantra that many of you have based your fandom on for decades. Nothing has changed there, just like nothing has changed with my opinion.
So, what happens next?
1. Did the players get on the bus Saturday night, thinking, "welp, he was right." Or do they blame others. I will say this, that sideline looked different. There wasnt a lot of finger pointing. There wasnt much arguing or anything along those lines. I have never felt this confident in the direction of a team following a loss like that, than I am of this team.
2. Are the fans going to react positively after we bounce back with a solid road win against a conference foe this Saturday, and show up next week. Or will we be back to the, "win a game that matters and we will come back." Even though, in all honesty, the BG didnt matter one single bit on this schedule.
3. PIggybacking off the BG game didnt matter comment I made, it truly didnt. It was the ONLY game...literally the ONLY game on the entire schedule that we could afford to lose and still have a chance to play in something other than a Sun Belt championship game and a regular bowl. Now we have to win out in Sun Belt play, which we were going to most likely have to do anyway because any lost in the east would most likely be to the eventual champion in which we would then lose the tie breaker.
Alright.
Its game week, its our Sun Belt opener.
