I forced myself to get off here and go to bed around midnight, knowing I had to be back at the office this morning. The more I've gone through the motions of getting up, getting the kids to school and driving to work, the more last night's game has started to grind in my mind. What would I want from my top employees (coaches) if my business faced multiple failures back to back? How can you right a ship if your decisions are steering it toward the rocks?
In my opinion, here are 5 things that HAVE TO HAPPEN in the next 10 days --
1. The offensive line has to change -- By far this teams most glaring weakness (in a sea of weaknesses) is the O-line. I don't know what happened with the former coach, at this point it doesn't much matter. It's time to bench some guys and demand accountability. I don't care if we have to put guys in the game who have never played a single snap, it's time to try something. Start with #52 and #65.
2. Stop the 2-QB platoon -- At this point, we are not winning the conference title. Go with Fancher, try to choose plays that suit his skill set, and roll with it. Rollouts, short passes over the middle, dumpoffs in the flat, QB draws, etc. Take 1-2 deep shots a game and make sure he understands to throw the ball where either our guy catches it, or nobody catches it.
3. Give us a revamped short-term plan -- How can we improve the offensive play calling/scheme in the next four weeks (which will determine if we have a shot at a bowl game or not)? Do we have plays that consistently work? Do we have plays that we run that have no chance? Who are our playmakers?... Get rid of the slow-developing deep balls, that haven't worked all year, the jet sweeps that are an automatic 3 yard loss, and the muddled, poorly blocked off-tackle runs to the short side of the field.
4. Reconsider in-game decision making -- Just because our freshman kicker "can" theoretically kick a football 45 yards, is a 45-yard field goal the right thing to try? How in the world are we so pathetic on 3rd down (like statistical anomaly pathetic)? Why do we follow up a 7-8 yard run on first down with two incompletions? By the same token, why do we follow up a 3 yard loss on first down with two more runs up the middle?
5. Initiate future investments -- Its time to start looking at snap counts and working in some of the younger guys on both sides of the ball. This season is not heading in a positive direction, and its never too early to be thinking about 2023. It's time to use Payne and Turner more, get more touches for Montgomery, Coombs and Harrison at WR, put Toby Payne in the game once in a while. On defense, same thing, work in Balogun, Alston, Martin, etc. Im not saying bench the seniors or anything drastic like that, but our staff has to start looking at what we have for next year. Especially because our defense (the one thing we do well) is graduating 7 starters.
In my opinion, here are 5 things that HAVE TO HAPPEN in the next 10 days --
1. The offensive line has to change -- By far this teams most glaring weakness (in a sea of weaknesses) is the O-line. I don't know what happened with the former coach, at this point it doesn't much matter. It's time to bench some guys and demand accountability. I don't care if we have to put guys in the game who have never played a single snap, it's time to try something. Start with #52 and #65.
2. Stop the 2-QB platoon -- At this point, we are not winning the conference title. Go with Fancher, try to choose plays that suit his skill set, and roll with it. Rollouts, short passes over the middle, dumpoffs in the flat, QB draws, etc. Take 1-2 deep shots a game and make sure he understands to throw the ball where either our guy catches it, or nobody catches it.
3. Give us a revamped short-term plan -- How can we improve the offensive play calling/scheme in the next four weeks (which will determine if we have a shot at a bowl game or not)? Do we have plays that consistently work? Do we have plays that we run that have no chance? Who are our playmakers?... Get rid of the slow-developing deep balls, that haven't worked all year, the jet sweeps that are an automatic 3 yard loss, and the muddled, poorly blocked off-tackle runs to the short side of the field.
4. Reconsider in-game decision making -- Just because our freshman kicker "can" theoretically kick a football 45 yards, is a 45-yard field goal the right thing to try? How in the world are we so pathetic on 3rd down (like statistical anomaly pathetic)? Why do we follow up a 7-8 yard run on first down with two incompletions? By the same token, why do we follow up a 3 yard loss on first down with two more runs up the middle?
5. Initiate future investments -- Its time to start looking at snap counts and working in some of the younger guys on both sides of the ball. This season is not heading in a positive direction, and its never too early to be thinking about 2023. It's time to use Payne and Turner more, get more touches for Montgomery, Coombs and Harrison at WR, put Toby Payne in the game once in a while. On defense, same thing, work in Balogun, Alston, Martin, etc. Im not saying bench the seniors or anything drastic like that, but our staff has to start looking at what we have for next year. Especially because our defense (the one thing we do well) is graduating 7 starters.
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