I am going to go over reasons why SC may be getting underrated from 1 bad performance, as last week my thread about us potentially underestimating USM resulted in a USM thumping. So lets keep the jinxing train rolling. It's going to be mostly mumbo-jumbo that you could nit-pick about any game/team, but just for those curious and bored.
Diving into Old Dominion first:
-Old Dominion has been in a 1 possession battle with 4 of its last 5 Power 4 teams, with 1 win. To be fair, none of those teams were anything more than mediocre at-best.
-ODU plays a very fast hurry-up offense. I think offenses like that in game 1 are always a test for defenses, even more so when its a returning QB who already showed some success in the system. You have to learn and adapt very fast.
-What they returned:
A national All-American, star LB who last year had the 2nd most tackles in FBS history behind only Luke Kuechly (186 tackles, 20 TFL, 5 Sacks in 2023), he is on track to break the NCAA career tackle record Kuechly holds.
Starting QB Grant Wilson who was responsible for 23 TDs last year.
All 3 starting DL returned (103 tackles, 13 TFLs, 6 sacks between the 3 last year)
Starting a Safety who had 77 tackles as a freshman at North Texas last year.
Still absolutely not an excuse for an SEC team to struggle that bad against a team they are way more athletic than. They will see better teams all year.
I have rewatched the South Carolina game from last week twice now, in full. It is our down week at work, so yes I have that kind of time.
Main takes:
-That was a Redshirt freshman playing with 3 starting receivers and starting TE who were at other schools last year, 2 of which didn't arrive til summer. 11 new starters on that offense, 8 of which were at other schools last year.
-The South Carolina defense was pretty legit IMO. I think its an improved defense, especially the front 7. Kilgore gives Mike Edwards vibes, but with more speed. A very, very good DB, at everything. The DL looks legit as well. Dylan Stewart and Kennard basically won that game for SC with the forced turnovers. They consistently won on the edges and that may be the most edge speed I have seen from a team this season. 3 of their DL won some sort of award this week.
-I would say the points ODU put on the board were quite deceiving to many as to how that defense performed. One TD was on a blown coverage at the beginning, something you never really saw again downfield for the rest of the game. Then the 2nd TD was on a 4th&7 where SC called an all-out blitz on the edges and it worked almost too well, as the QB was forced to step up but it left a gapeing hole for a 37yd TD run; it was however a poor performance of tackling by the DBs downfield.
-Sellers had a beautiful deep pass for about a 60-70 yard TD that was flat out dropped. Couldn't have been a more perfect pass, dropped. On another play Sellers was coming behind his RB for a block on a potential TD run and accidently tripped him up. On another play, a receiver had the DBs beat, but got tripped up after the catch. Then also a missed FG. You could say this stuff about almost any game, but just pointing out slight misses they had that cost them points.
-I think it was a really, really bad offensive coaching performance on Beamer's part. One thing I did notice is ODU brought DBs up to try to take away the short passing game, and that kind of took away from letting Sellers ease into the game with some short passes. Beamer himself said this after the game aswell (will be interested to see if White sees this and brings his DBs up aswell). But that brings the question as why he didn't try to beat them deep more. I counted 3-4 times where announcers pointed out wide open receivers downfield when they decided to throw short instead. I saw only about 5 medium to long passes downfield. The deepest ones were a drop, and a slight overthrow to an open receiver who had let up early on the route. The medium ones were a 20ish yd completion on a good throw, a 20ish yd catch where Harbor didn't get his foot down, and a catch that should have been a TD, but the WR got tripped up when he got behind the entire defense. So I truly don't really get why Beamer didn't try more deep passes, its not like they were utterly failing at it. They were there, just slight misses.
-Rocket Sanders is a solid back, but a good matchup for us as he is an inside the tackles back. The OL had moments, but "bad" would be a very fair assessment. In the 3rd quarter I thought they were solid though. Thought maybe adjustments were made, but they failed at times when it mattered in the 4th. Even a false start on a 4th on ODUs side that resulted in them having to punt.
-We need to remember that was a redshirt freshman in his first start. He showed some promise and had the "look" and arm. He is dangerous, but the IQ is not there yet. With that said, it can also be pointed out that this will also be his first road start, and in a rowdy enviornment as well, so it would be fair to assume he may not progress in the "nerves' and "settling-down" department yet.
-With all of that said, ODU should have won. SC was the better looking team and you could see the potential at times, but they couldn't make things happen when the opportunities were there. ODU on the other hand just flat out made horrible mistakes at the worst times/spots.
Cats win, but I think we are going to have a bit harder time scoring than some assume on offense.
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