The Mentaly Unable to Perform List

 

Week Three Edition

A weekly breakdown of tactical, executional and syntactical errors that have had a major impact on College Football this week.

Houston Nutt and Steve Kragthorpe

 

I know that I signaled these two guys out, but it is a major problem for a lot of coaches out there. Why the fuck would you go to a three man rush at the end of the game, on a final drive. The old adage is that the prevent defense prevents you from winning, and it is true. The only thing that the prevent is good for is quick and easy access to your red zone. If you have been blitzing all day, and sending pressure all day why stop on the final drive? When has the prevent defense actually worked out for someone in a tight game? I can’t think of an example because it doesn’t work in College Football It is a concept that is embraced by most coaches who have spent time in the NFL, like Kragthorpe, and it doesn’t work in the college game which favors aggressive, attacking schemes.

 

Louisville Secondary

 

On the game winning pass to Steve Johnson what the fuck happened? He was wide open, far more wide open than anyone should ever be on the final drive of a game against your biggest rival. I don’t think there is a play in the Louisville play book that has the corner letting a receiver run right by him, while the safety runs to the middle of the field chasing rainbows, leaving said receiver wide open to torture Louisville fans for for the next 363 days. That was pretty much the what the fuck moment of my Saturday, well that and watching Darren McFadden and Felix Jones standing on the sideline on the last drive of the game.

 

Notre Dame

 

There is not a single incident to point to to, but the question of how the fuck can this happen. Charlie Weis needs to start earning his paycheck, now. Whatever the fuck he has been doing for the last three weeks certainly has not been coaching, or rather has not been coaching well. This is a team that is simply unbearable to watch, and there is no reason why it should be. The talent is there in spades but the execution is nowhere to be found. The biggest improvement for a team is usually from week one to week two, but Notre Dame regressed. This week the same Michigan team that has looked so bad the first two weeks suddenly looked like LSU. I knew the Irish would struggle, but I didn’t expect such futility on such an epic scale. The simple things, like pass sets, snaps and tackling appear to be beyond their capabilities.

Tommy Tubberville

In my limited experience watching Football, very rarely has switching your QB out of frustration ever turned out in a win. I am sure that someone reading this can quickly point out an example where it has worked to the advantage of the coach behind the switch, but my mind is drawing a blank finding an example where the middle of the game switch actually worked out for the coach in question. That is why I was utterly baffled by Tubberville’s choice to go with Kodi Burns after a Brandon Cox interception. As a coach in a game that is being tightly contested, the last thing you want to do is panic, or show signs of panic. There is no act more closely tied with showing signs of panic than pulling your starting QB because of bad play. It is one thing to do it when the game is already out of reach, ala Frank Beamer, it is another to do it in close ball game with outcome still to be decided. That was strange, but even more strange was him reinserting Brandon Cox back into the game after the Bulldogs went ahead for good. Tubberville panicked plain and simple, you can’t do that in Football, ask Jim Tressell, and you certainly can’t do that shit in the SEC.

 

 

 

Sunday Musings: September 15th.

Well, this weekend turned out to be a good one for College Football. There were lots of great games on Saturday, big upsets and USC putting their foot firmly on the throat of Nebraska. Lots of things to talk about.

Big 10 Not So Big

The seemingly never ending quest of the Big 10 to improve the perception of the conference continues. It is clear, to me at least that the Big 10 is in for another down last year, they certainly won’t be returning to the level of balance and depth that the conference enjoyed in 2005. Last year the Big 10 was bad, really bad, the depth of 2005 was long gone. However that fact was masked for the entirety of the season because of the stellar seasons of Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin which rolled through the conference unchallenged, not because those teams were really that good, but because there was not a team in the conference, outside of Penn State, who could put a scare into the big three. This year is shaping up to be much the same as last year with one crucial difference.

Last year Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin looked, for the most part flawless, there didn’t appear to be any apparent flaws or cracks in the amour as they rolled through their schedules. This year the three teams who look to be far and away better than everyone else in the conference, Penn State, Wisconsin and Ohio State are showing cracks in their facade. Penn State looks like the best team by far, going primarily of their outright destruction of Notre Dame, a conquest which will come to mean less and less as the weeks progress and Notre Dame continues to be destroyed by wave after wave heathen opponents, and that one other Catholic team. This week Penn State looked far too mortal for my taste, managing to struggle with Buffalo for a while before flipping the switch. Ohio State on the other hand is very inconsistent on offense. I don’t know which Ohio State team is going to show up from week to week. They bring the defense every trip, just not always the offense. Its like the glory days of 2002 and 2003 all over again! Wisconsin is not a top 10 team not even close. Not after struggling mightily with a game Washington State squad in week one, damn near throwing their season away in the desert against UNLV last week, then not learning a thing and giving up 31 points to the Citadel. Wisconsin can’t put a good game together on both sides of the ball, and that is a massive problem.

So yeah, the Big 10 is bad. They may have three top 10 teams, but again, just like last year, the weakness of the rest of the conference will prop up those teams, casting an illusion that makes the Big 10 look like a strong conference. The Big 10 is like David Fucking Copperfield, and will be until the bowl season exposes the derth of depth of the conference.

Kentucky vs. Louisville

Probably the most entertaining game of the weekend for my money. This game went to plan. Lots of offense, great quarterback play from Andre Woodson and Brian Brohm, good games from Anthony Allen and Rafeal Little. To be quite honest with you I had no idea who would win this game. I figured that one of the defenses would make a big play that would be the difference, and I was right. sorta. The big play was a blown coverage on the game winning play from the Louisville safety who, to me at least, looked like he got sucked into the middle chasing a route leaving Johnson wide open after he got by the corner.

Its hard to know what to make of this. Though the win kicked Kentucky into the top 25, they won’t stay very long, not in that conference and not with the lack of defensive production. Louisville in the mean time needs to learn from this and shape up that defense, otherwise they will be in trouble when they travel to Cincinnati.

Superman

Tim Tebow was kinda Superman like, though the constant references to the analogy did grow tiresome as the game wore on. I was one of the people who doubted how Tebow would be able to perform when he got the full weight of the Urban Meyer and Dan Mullins thrown on his back, but at this point I can admit that I am wrong. He has taken that scheme and ran with it. He looked utterly flawless pretty much all day against Tennessee. The scary part of this team is that the team is so young. Most of these guys on offense and defense are relatively new to being the man, sure they may have gotten situational work last year, but playing and starting are two different things, in terms of practice and preparation, in terms of everything right. October 6th is circled on the calender for me.

The Golden Boy

He is kind of a big deal and will be a simply stellar player in the coming years. His team was greatly over matched, but he was game all afternoon and continued to fight back. He made the mistakes you would expect a freshman playing in a game of that magnitude for the first time. He couldn’t deliver this time, and Washington will be lucky to win 1 of the next 4 but, the hype surrounding this kid is, if not agreed upon, easy to understand.

Sabanmania

I still don’t think that Alabama is going to do much besides travel to a bowl game this year, but the impact that Nick Saban has had on the team is kind of profound. Everyone knows the effect that he has had on the fan base, creating an atmosphere where the expectations are getting sky high and confidence in the ability of the team matches them. But he has had the same effect on his players. Being the first time I have gotten to watch Bama I was shocked at how confident the players looked relative to last season. That is a huge point, you can’t play good football without confidence. Untill further notice Bama is still the 5th best team in the SEC in my opinion, but, if they continue to improve, they are going to pose a stiffer test to LSU than I originally thought.

Throat USC, USC throat

USC was in a real live game at Nebraska. For a quarter and a half. Nebraska had a measure of control for a while but USC scored to go ahead. It was at that point that I told one of my friends that Nebraska needed a drive to get some semblance of momentum back, that even a first down would be huge, but that a three and out would be game over for the Huskers. And what happened? USC forced a TO, rammed the ball down the throats of the Huskers taking a lead they would never give up. They then proceeded to stomp on their throat in route to 31 unanswered points that ended the game for all intents and purposes. USC is looking every bit as good as the hyperbole would indicate. Thats one land mine cleared.

I Love Fullbacks

Who is your favorite? Is it Owen Schmidt? Jacob Hester? Stanley Havilii? Peyton Hillis? A good fullback is a cult hero, there are no shortage of options this year.

The Mentaly Unable to Perform List

Preseason Edition

 

A weekly breakdown of tactical, executional and syntactical errors that have had a lasting effect on the sport of College Football this week.

Since this the preseason edition, it will highlight mostly gaffs of the public relations variety and call into question the decision making abilities of some noteable figures within the sport.

Jim Delany

There is not a more confused soul in the country right now. He has made so many bad decisions and has stuck his foot in his mouth so many times in the last few months it has become hard impossible not to take at least one pot shot at the man, who I am pretty sure came out of the womb looking as confused and hopeless as he does in this picture. I do not have time to go into all that he has done, so a brief summation must suffice. He responded to the abysmal bowl season of the Big 10 by penning what I am sure was his idea of an scathing indictment of the SEC not putting academics first. He then proceded to start running his mouth, non stop, for three months about the expansion of the Big 10 brand, which curiously enough has nothing to do with academics. He managed to get in a pissing match with comcast over the Big 10 Network when the people at comcast called the BTN second tier or something or other. He then used the BTN, or rather threatened using the BTN as a bargining chip for Big 10 expansion prompting the type of wild speculation and excitment that is usually reserved for a Harry Potter book launch. Of course he latter went into a backpedal that was every bit as impressive as those possesed by Justin King. Jim Delany is the undisputed king of the chumps of the offseason.

Jim Harbaugh

This just in, in case you didn’t know because your head has been under a rock the past few months, Jim Harbaugh likes to talk. I mean really likes to talk, in the sense that I really, really want to have sex with Jessica Alba and even though nothing good can come from contemplating that idea, I do it none the less. Jim started by saying that he had it from an inside source, so you know that it is reliable, that Pete Carroll would be through at USC after this year. Later at the PAC 10 media day he called USC the greatest team in the history of college Football. In between, he called out his alma mater, Michigan, for not producing real student athletes, or something of the sort.

Les Miles

Some would argue that Miles was, in essence defending the honor of the south when he threw down the gaunlet that USC faces an easier road to the national title that LSU does. Despite the fact that every one of LSU’s tough games are at home, and USC plays all theirs on the road, but Les Miles is too busy with his new rival that to bother with the trivial enteties that are encompased in the broadbased stroke of details. Now Les, what were you saying about your new rivals?

That is all for now, back with something tommarow.