i thought yesterday was good, for many reasons.
we had to gut one out. it was good to see us scratch and claw out a victory when it seemed like very little was going right for us. speaks to the changing culture.
we knew quinn would remind us he's a freshman at some point. he was very bad early on. he got better as the game went on, which is good that he fixed whatever the problem was, and that the situation didn't crater his psyche. i suspect he'll have another freshman moment down the line, but i'm confident he'll get over that one as well.
i like that even though we heap praise, deservedly so, on the offense and all the weapons on that side, the two biggest plays of the game were made by the defense. further, they were made by the defense when they had their backs against the wall. third downs- absolutely frustrating. but they came up big when they had to. (side note-- those were 3rd and longs, which means we were taking care of 1st and 2nd down, as well).
i loved the run-run-run series'. i coach defense for the most part, and when spread teams start hurting us on the ground, i've always had the philosophy of "don't panic. spread guys have to show how smart they are, and they'll screw this up themselves." and i'm usually right. when we ran 2,3,4 times i kept thinking "sark is gonna have to show how smart he is here..." but he didn't. he stayed with the running game. i really liked that.
when they took the lead late, i was happy that we would get quinn in a situation where he had to have it on THIS drive. he, and the offense in general, needed that rep of that situation. bijan and roschon did much of the heavy lifting, but quinn still had to hit the screen and the td to worthy.
we aren't going to win every game 48-6-- only 1 team does that and they cratered last year when michigan punched them in the mouth and wouldn't stop. at the start of yesterday the best we could be at the end of the day was 5-2. we're 5-2, and hopefully watts and the OL that went down are okay. so you can cry, whine and gnash your teeth, but i'm going with the positives of the day.
we had to gut one out. it was good to see us scratch and claw out a victory when it seemed like very little was going right for us. speaks to the changing culture.
we knew quinn would remind us he's a freshman at some point. he was very bad early on. he got better as the game went on, which is good that he fixed whatever the problem was, and that the situation didn't crater his psyche. i suspect he'll have another freshman moment down the line, but i'm confident he'll get over that one as well.
i like that even though we heap praise, deservedly so, on the offense and all the weapons on that side, the two biggest plays of the game were made by the defense. further, they were made by the defense when they had their backs against the wall. third downs- absolutely frustrating. but they came up big when they had to. (side note-- those were 3rd and longs, which means we were taking care of 1st and 2nd down, as well).
i loved the run-run-run series'. i coach defense for the most part, and when spread teams start hurting us on the ground, i've always had the philosophy of "don't panic. spread guys have to show how smart they are, and they'll screw this up themselves." and i'm usually right. when we ran 2,3,4 times i kept thinking "sark is gonna have to show how smart he is here..." but he didn't. he stayed with the running game. i really liked that.
when they took the lead late, i was happy that we would get quinn in a situation where he had to have it on THIS drive. he, and the offense in general, needed that rep of that situation. bijan and roschon did much of the heavy lifting, but quinn still had to hit the screen and the td to worthy.
we aren't going to win every game 48-6-- only 1 team does that and they cratered last year when michigan punched them in the mouth and wouldn't stop. at the start of yesterday the best we could be at the end of the day was 5-2. we're 5-2, and hopefully watts and the OL that went down are okay. so you can cry, whine and gnash your teeth, but i'm going with the positives of the day.