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Bush Hamdan

It still blows my mind people hate running the ball. If we stick with the run yesterday, we win that game handily. Grans offense would've produced a blow out in our favor.

Do fans really value throwing the ball over winning? I guess so.
People don’t hate running the football just like people don’t hate cash, but sometimes it’s time to fxxking get with the times, have some situational awareness and MOVE!

Running is counting out exact change while the line is backed up! Yeah, cash always works, and is a nice thing to have Incase something goes awry. But sometimes you need to just tap and go!

If you cant develop a QB and passing game you’re not going to keep pace in today’s game. Even Nick Saban figured that out and so did his defensive protege Kirby. Those two coaches and programs can run on anybody but they would not be where they’re at without the passing games that they’ve had.

Fxxking Missouri wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing without an effective passing attack.

We’ve had the rbs, rushing attacks, and good defense for most of CMS’ tenure and we’re stuck at about 7 wins for a reason.
 
People don’t hate running the football just like people don’t hate cash, but sometimes it’s time to fxxking get with the times, have some situational awareness and MOVE!

Running is counting out exact change while the line is backed up! Yeah, cash always works, and is a nice thing to have Incase something goes awry. But sometimes you need to just tap and go!

If you cant develop a QB and passing game you’re not going to keep pace in today’s game. Even Nick Saban figured that out and so did his defensive protege Kirby. Those two coaches and programs can run on anybody but they would not be where they’re at without the passing games that they’ve had.

Fxxking Missouri wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing without an effective passing attack.

We’ve had the rbs, rushing attacks, and good defense for most of CMS’ tenure and we’re stuck at about 7 wins for a reason.

Gran won 10 games in a season fyi.

Also see above: I didn't say we should stop throwing completely. But we shouldn't be so scared of shelving balance to focus on taking advantage of the opponent weakness.

Sc literally only has a nasty pass rush. So why play into their only strength? Run the ball, kill their juice, then start spreading it around.
 
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We don't win the game yesterday regardless of running the ball. It was a total debacle on both sides of the ball. How many receivers did our safety lose yesterday? They rushed three one time and we kept seven in and all three got to the QB. We got out coached on both sides yesterday.
We ran the ball 46 times and passed 17 times. I don't get the verbage that we did not attempt to run the ball. We could not block for run or pass block for passing.
 
Gran won 10 games in a season fyi.

Also see above: I didn't say we should stop throwing completely. But we shouldn't be so scared of shelving balance to focus on taking advantage of the opponent weakness.

Sc literally only has a nasty pass rush. So why play into their only strength? Run the ball, kill their juice, then start spreading it around.
Gran also squeaked out a 5er. He averaged about 6 wins as OC.

Again, great RB coach and ground game guy. Needed a passing game.

We ran the ball fine yesterday…and lost. They were bringing heat and we had nothing to back them off.
 
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It looks like we simply do not have a passing game. The O-line cannot pass block. It seems to me that this affects play-calling.
Adjustments will have to be made, even if it means to abandon original schemes. This is not working.
 
I’m not sure I agree that we would have won yesterday by simply pounding between the tackles every play, and I’m even more certain that it wouldn’t have led to a blowout in our favor. The margin for error on a drive is practically zero when an 8 yard run is your definition of an explosive play. All it takes is one run to get stuffed and put you behind the chains and you’re kicking, as we saw on our one decent drive yesterday ending in a FG. This is especially true in a top league like the SEC where defenses are going to be capable of selling out and stopping your bread and butter if they figure out that you’re one dimensional. What’s gone wrong with our passing game is a different issue that could take up a whole separate post, but we’ll never win without one.
 
Gran also squeaked out a 5er. He averaged about 6 wins as OC.

Again, great RB coach and ground game guy. Needed a passing game.

We ran the ball fine yesterday…and lost. They were bringing heat and we had nothing to back them off.

Gran won 5 in the shortened covid season iirc. That was with schlarman dying mid season, a drunk wr coach, and his qb coach quitting mid season. He basically coached the entire offense on his own which was pretty amazing on its own.

We ran the ball well when we ran it. That was the point. We didn't stick with running inside despite them being helpless against it. Instead we'd try to force touches and we'd go backwards.
 
Hamdan got a “welcome to football east of the Rockies” yesterday so I’m not going to totally put everything on him.

He’s been playing ballet ball in the mountain west.

So Miss and yesterday is a perfect example of why I dislike the OOC schedule. You blow out a G5 and learn nothing.

We need to play a conference game to start the season or UL. Figure out who’s who what’s what.
We have to play the weak ooc games or we would never make a bowl game ever. Every team does it. They also don’t learn much but there is value in tune up games
 
Players play. With
N
I
L teams can buy a great OL. Wonder why we didnt?
Funny that you mention this. I thought why not put a premium on NIL$$$ to Offensive Linemen ?? Hell, be known as the school to go to if you play on the O-line. I know you still need skill players, but we are seeing that it really all begins with line play.
 
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Funny that you mention this. I thought why not put a premium on NIL$$$ to Offensive Linemen ?? Hell, be known as the school to go to if you play on the O-line. I know you still need skill players, but we are seeing that it really all begins with line play.
I just wonder what these coaches did off season re OL? One thing we've discovered is taking TN, UF, Ohio St, Bama has been OL cast offs doesn't work.
 
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Wash/rinse/repeat with ANY OC/DC system led by the Stoops clown show. And enough about Vince Marrow too. It was as obvious as the day was beautiful that SC had more talent, were more physical, and definitely better coached. Stoops is about 3 years past due in getting his pink slip.
 
Gran won 5 in the shortened covid season iirc. That was with schlarman dying mid season, a drunk wr coach, and his qb coach quitting mid season. He basically coached the entire offense on his own which was pretty amazing on its own.

We ran the ball well when we ran it. That was the point. We didn't stick with running inside despite them being helpless against it. Instead we'd try to force touches and we'd go backwards.

Liam Coen won 10 games out the gate, winning conference record, fresh faced, new to SEC, new QB...no Josh Allen to get him the ball back/create more opportunities.
We have to play the weak ooc games or we would never make a bowl game ever. Every team does it. They also don’t learn much but there is value in tune up games

I'm not saying line up Ohio State, Oregon, and the likes. I'm saying Illinois, UNC, Texas Tech, etc...Vandy just beat Va Tech...I think we're good enough to at least do that.

Weak OOC and bowl games are just a perpetual false hope loop. We win 6-8 games, extend a coach and staff for multi-millions...and every year sit around scratch our heads and wonder why we can't bust out of the current stasis that we're in.

Brooks and Joker eras that was the safe play. Didn't have the resources, facilities, staff, willingness to spend, overall talent/depth. Now we do.

Have easier access to talent ready to play via portal and NIL as well. Have one of the highest paid coaches, recruiters, staffs in general in the SEC if not country.

Brooks, Joker OC, and Andre Woodson didn't have UT, UGA, Alabama, and Michigan scholarship level talent around them. They won 7-8 games anyway.
 
They could have run some RB screens, TE mesh, and short slants or outs that didn't take 3 seconds to set up but instead for whatever reason he kept calling longer plays requiring a drop and the QB was just not getting the time to execute those plays. It was maddening to watch. Running the ball was correct but there were passing plays to be made but

Gran also squeaked out a 5er. He averaged about 6 wins as OC.

Again, great RB coach and ground game guy. Needed a passing game.

We ran the ball fine yesterday…and lost. They were bringing heat and we had nothing to back them

Funny that you mention this. I thought why not put a premium on NIL$$$ to Offensive Linemen ?? Hell, be known as the school to go to if you play on the O-line. I know you still need skill players, but we are seeing that it really all begins with line play.
Be known as OLine U, said this for years, roll out the red carpet for these guys. There’s no more I am not getting the ball enough….
 
Gran looks like Bill Walsh compared to what we saw today.
I wished Gran would’ve had these WRs and TEs back then, I think he would’ve expanded his playbook, and used them or maybe not, but regardless I wished he would’ve had them to find out.
 
We ran the ball 46 times and passed 17 times. I don't get the verbage that we did not attempt to run the ball. We could not block for run or pass block for passing.

That's 73% to 27% run to pass. Not sure how much more a team can run.

I'm sure much of the passing came in 2nd half when we had to try to pass.

UK had 0 shot of winning that game yesterday. SC kicked our asses.
 
Liam Coen won 10 games out the gate, winning conference record, fresh faced, new to SEC, new QB...no Josh Allen to get him the ball back/create more opportunities.

You can appreciate both because both were great seasons. You don't have to knock one to promote the other.

This attitude is exactly what im pointing out. There was such an irrational hate for gran solely because he eventually, out of necessity, focused on running the ball.

Why is there a segment of the uk fanbase so invested in throwing the ball even when it isnt our best option?
 
Gran was alright. The problem is that no OC under Stoops has recruited and developed a high school quarterback or even a transfer QB that has passed at a very high level. Stephen Johnson (lucky on that one) and 1st year Will Levis (who PSU didn’t want) have been our best QBs.
 
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Sure are a lot of selective memories about Coen. First stint, he had top OL, future NFL QB and WR, top college RB. He did well although there were some stinkers thrown in.

Second time around, he was NOT good. To the detriment of the team, he force fed BB and, to a lesser extent, DK. He had long stretches in games where we did nothing. Consistently asked Leary to do things he was clearly incapable of. Did not feed Davis in multiple games. Did not use the middle of the field effectively nor did we use our TEs effectively. We averaged 29 points but about 6 of that average were defensive and special teams TDs.
 
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Brooks never had a winning SEC record. His so called legacy is way overstated.

Brooks legacy is doing the best he could with what he had. Bringing back a program from the abyss with no star talent from small town kentucky.

He did all he could do and left. Stoops built upon that but seemingly has maxed out, and 4-5 teams he's made his career on are improving, or at least improving when it comes to competing with us.

SC, Missouri, Vandy have all beaten us in the past few years. UL damn near beat us and they seem to be trending up.

Florida will not always be down; Napier will turn it around or they'll find someone who can. In the meantime, Lagway is only going to get better.

Something better click or things could get ugly.
 
Gran won 10 games in a season fyi.

Also see above: I didn't say we should stop throwing completely. But we shouldn't be so scared of shelving balance to focus on taking advantage of the opponent weakness.

Sc literally only has a nasty pass rush. So why play into their only strength? Run the ball, kill their juice, then start spreading it around.
The problem with this is you can't recruit talent. Look at Grans last year. They average how many passing yards?? Look it up! That's why Gran was replaced. No decent QB or WR wants to play in that offense!
 
The problem with this is you can't recruit talent. Look at Grans last year. They average how many passing yards?? Look it up! That's why Gran was replaced. No decent QB or WR wants to play in that offense!

You could recruit talent just not at wr. I said above and many other times i agree a change needed made for perception. This doesn't mean people should discount the amazing job he did.

Since then, to make sure perception doesn't get skewed again, and to appease some wrs, stoops is uber focused on balance. I get it but sometimes you just have to do whatever it takes to win that game then figure it out next game.
 
Gran won 10 games in a season fyi.

Also see above: I didn't say we should stop throwing completely. But we shouldn't be so scared of shelving balance to focus on taking advantage of the opponent weakness.

Sc literally only has a nasty pass rush. So why play into their only strength? Run the ball, kill their juice, then start spreading it around.
We threw is less than 20 times and ran 40ish....how did we play into their hands by not trying to run the ball?

To not have a plan to throw quicker passes, some screens to slow them down, etc....was terrible schematics plan by Bush.
 
Since I don't anticipate the problems with the OL getting fixed, surely Hamden is scouring the playbook to find quick passing plays to include in all game plans going forward.

I saw a ton of 3-step drop, seams, slants, shallow drags, play action to freeze the LBs, etc today in the NFL. They work against elite pass rushing teams. If that's all we can do, that's fine. We can be effective with that type of passing attack and not get our QB beaten all to hell. Straight, downhill running and quick passes - it has to work better than whatever that plan was Saturday.

Other than against OOC, I think we need to eliminate the slow developing pass plays. We're just not going to have the time to make them work, imo. And we can file away the jet sweep, okay?

And, please stop with the calls for Wimsatt. He's a good athlete but did not complete 50% of his throws against USC's second and third teamers. He's gonna light up Georgia and Tennessee?
 
Since I don't anticipate the problems with the OL getting fixed, surely Hamden is scouring the playbook to find quick passing plays to include in all game plans going forward.

I saw a ton of 3-step drop, seams, slants, shallow drags, play action to freeze the LBs, etc today in the NFL. They work against elite pass rushing teams. If that's all we can do, that's fine. We can be effective with that type of passing attack and not get our QB beaten all to hell. Straight, downhill running and quick passes - it has to work better than whatever that plan was Saturday.

Other than against OOC, I think we need to eliminate the slow developing pass plays. We're just not going to have the time to make them work, imo. And we can file away the jet sweep, okay?

And, please stop with the calls for Wimsatt. He's a good athlete but did not complete 50% of his throws against USC's second and third teamers. He's gonna light up Georgia and Tennessee?
Re the OL, I want to see what Mon's depth chart looks like although I have a pretty good idea. Those backups are on scholarship too, you brought them in coaches so you must've thought they could help. Doubtful it'll help BUT it at least would send the message to M. Cox, Mincey, et al that your half-assed pissy attitude won't cut it, sit and watch awhile.

Totally agree about Wimsatt.
 
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We threw is less than 20 times and ran 40ish....how did we play into their hands by not trying to run the ball?

To not have a plan to throw quicker passes, some screens to slow them down, etc....was terrible schematics plan by Bush.

Because you cant just look at raw numbers. It wasnt the number of passes or runs it was the play calling and timing.

First two drives we were marching down the field with ease using inside run (zone and pin/pull). Then on second and short we lost our mind and called plays that got gavin a random touch (some read that went nowhere), a jet sweep for barrion that got stuffed for a 6 yard loss, and a wr screen that got stuff for another 6 yard loss. Drives were killed because when we had to throw we just couldn't other than the nice throw to dane early.

If you're getting 7/8 yards running inside WHERE YOU KNOW THEIR WEAKNESS IS why on earth do you try to go to their only strength? Better to get ahead, kill their hope, then get people touches. Instead we got behind further playing into their incredible pass rush and got it snowballed.

The only drive where we decided to run inside we went down the field with ease until both rbs were gassed. For whatever reason 1) the rbs werent in shape and 2) they refused to run Wilcox to give guys a rest. I get they dont trust him but you're down a guy and you are dominating inside.

This is the 4th or 5th game we lost the last two years because of touches and fighting the perception of running the ball. I guess while we're sitting at home watching bowl games we can breathe easy knowing we didn't run the ball too much.
 
Because you cant just look at raw numbers. It wasnt the number of passes or runs it was the play calling and timing.

First two drives we were marching down the field with ease using inside run (zone and pin/pull). Then on second and short we lost our mind and called plays that got gavin a random touch (some read that went nowhere), a jet sweep for barrion that got stuffed for a 6 yard loss, and a wr screen that got stuff for another 6 yard loss. Drives were killed because when we had to throw we just couldn't other than the nice throw to dane early.

If you're getting 7/8 yards running inside WHERE YOU KNOW THEIR WEAKNESS IS why on earth do you try to go to their only strength? Better to get ahead, kill their hope, then get people touches. Instead we got behind further playing into their incredible pass rush and got it snowballed.

The only drive where we decided to run inside we went down the field with ease until both rbs were gassed. For whatever reason 1) the rbs werent in shape and 2) they refused to run Wilcox to give guys a rest. I get they dont trust him but you're down a guy and you are dominating inside.

This is the 4th or 5th game we lost the last two years because of touches and fighting the perception of running the ball. I guess while we're sitting at home watching bowl games we can breathe easy knowing we didn't run the ball too much.
Totally agree the “let’s get Wimsatt the ball” was dumb…and led to short circuiting a drive and the proverbial jet sweep on 2nd and 1 was dumb on dumb….both of which show Bush isn’t a prime time OC….: but when you lose 33-6….it isn’t play calling that kept you from reaching your game potential….that isn’t logical to think if we’d just changed a play call here or there we’d have won

But we did revert to just an Eddie Gran -ish attack of pure run with dumb passes behind the LOS as USC knew we had nothing of a threat but inside the tackles and thusly they clogged that up

This game wasn’t a play calling that lost it….we have no coaching talent to implement a legit sec offense (Dane Key, Mackin and Barion aren’t Josh Ali, Allen Dailey and Clevan Thomas). I’d argue brock Vandagriff is a better pass threat than Terry Wilson …but rhe love affair for Terry is a bit much on this board

It’s a really bad idea to be so confined offensively….and looks like a repeat of Eddie Gran last year on offense …which will be the death nail for Stoops
 
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Totally agree the “let’s get Wimsatt the ball” was dumb…and led to short circuiting a drive and the proverbial jet sweep on 2nd and 1 was dumb on dumb….both of which show Bush isn’t a prime time OC….: but when you lose 33-6….it isn’t play calling that kept you from reaching your game potential….that isn’t logical to think if we’d just changed a play call here or there we’d have won

But we did revert to just an Eddie Gran -ish attack of pure run with dumb passes behind the LOS as USC knew we had nothing of a threat but inside the tackles and thusly they clogged that up

This game wasn’t a play calling that lost it….we have no coaching talent to implement a legit sec offense (Dane Key, Mackin and Barion aren’t Josh Ali, Allen Dailey and Clevan Thomas). I’d argue brock Vandagriff is a better pass threat than Terry Wilson …but rhe love affair for Terry is a bit much on this board

It’s a really bad idea to be so confined offensively….and looks like a repeat of Eddie Gran last year on offense …which will be the death nail for Stoops

Its an awful idea to be so confined and i agree you cant play an entire season that way. However nothing wrong with playing a game that way if thats what it takes just like last year vs Florida.

Even more, you probably don't even have to play the whole game that way. You run those first two series and jump ahead. That forces them to adjust or just keep getting dog walked into the endzone. That adjustment takes #6 off the field because hes awful vs the inside run. Then go more balance.

Instead sc kept him out there knowing our tendency to force touches to wrs and banked on getting big losses when we did. It worked because we are afraid of guys not getting enough touches.

You can still get to the same place just at a different time. We're so scared about wrs being unhappy we focus on them first when we should do whats working then focus on touches.
 
The most laughable play call was running that jet sweep right at #6 later in the game. He got off so fast brock had to randomly pull and improvise because he drilled brown.

Lol what on earth did they see that made them think that play would work? I assumed we saw so many of those vs southern miss just setting up the keep or something else. Guess i was wrong. Instead we lost yards all game and got our precious wr drilled with a kill shot.

Nice work....
 
Brooks never had a winning SEC record. His so called legacy is way overstated.
In fairness to Brooks the sec East he played in was vastly different than the one since he retired. Spurriers SC at its best, Urbans Florida, when Mizzou came in they were really good, uga wasn’t this uga but they were still 9-11 win mark richt teams. The East win % was 15+ points higher under Brooks than what it was under stoops before its dissolution. Vandy had a bowl game season and might lose some games but played competitively under Bobby Johnson. Brooks also had nothing to recruit to
 
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I firmly believe we can be an effective passing team with the right scheme, namely, play action, quick throws designed to generate YAC, protect the QB with smart, short, surgical passes. Until we have a decent OL, it's pure insanity to expect long patterns to be viable options.

Couple that with a physical running game and it very well could work. Our plan Saturday had no chance of succeeding and our staff completely screwed the pooch in their 'preparation' for the USC game. And, even worse, it appeared that we had no Plan B. What, pray tell, did the staff do the week leading up to the game?
 
I firmly believe we can be an effective passing team with the right scheme, namely, play action, quick throws designed to generate YAC, protect the QB with smart, short, surgical passes. Until we have a decent OL, it's pure insanity to expect long patterns to be viable options.

Couple that with a physical running game and it very well could work. Our plan Saturday had no chance of succeeding and our staff completely screwed the pooch in their 'preparation' for the USC game. And, even worse, it appeared that we had no Plan B. What, pray tell, did the staff do the week leading up to the game?
I doubt SCAR spent more than a day prepping for Old Dominion, choosing instead to focus on UK. That's why they played so poorly that game, they trusted they could win without much focus....and it worked. I'm like you, what has the UK staff been doing as they looked totally unprepared and lacked focus.
 
I doubt SCAR spent more than a day prepping for Old Dominion, choosing instead to focus on UK. That's why they played so poorly that game, they trusted they could win without much focus....and it worked. I'm like you, what has the UK staff been doing as they looked totally unprepared and lacked focus.
It barely worked. They were one late, deep in own territory ODU turnover away from a disaster.
 
It barely worked. They were one late, deep in own territory ODU turnover away from a disaster.
You're right but it did work. It's a frequent gamble coaches take more often than one would expect. In the perfect dream world ODU hangs on for the W, UK decides to show up and kicks SCAR's ass, the college football world is laughing at Beamer while UK sits at 2-0, gearing up for a visit from "Gameday" and #1 GA while UK fans, instead of selling off season tickets, are talking CFP/NY6 bowls. But.....alas.............
 
No excuse for looking so completely unprepared, imo. Both the OC and DC should be doing nothing all week except looking at film, determining what the opponent's tendencies are, identifying matchups we can exploit and those the opponent can exploit, game planning for many (not all) situations (weather, fumbleitis, just 'off', injury, etc.), situational plays, etc. No excuse to look so caught off guard by USC's pass rush - none. That's basically all the media talked about the week prior - how would UK handle/combat USC's pass rush? Very few times did we roll BV away from the DE that was eating our lunch. Very few times (almost never) did we throw a quick, short pass to pick up yardage and avoid the rush. Never did we call a screen or shallow cross to the area vacated by their rush DE/edge. I don't recall a single play that involved play action until late when Wimsatt ran few RPO. That's just Hamdan's side of the ball.

Brad White has seen time after time that our CBs get confused by the criss-cross routes USC ran 3 or 4 times to have WRs wide open. You can't consistently blow coverage on the same play and not expect other teams to know that and exploit it. This isn't a one time deal, either. It's been happening for several years now that we have a couple of blown coverages that end up costing us points nearly every game. I shudder to think how many TN WRs will have a walk into the end zone this year. And Ole Miss. And Georgia. And Florida. When are we going to fix the 3rd and long problem? When will our pass rushers not only get penetration and pressure but actually be able to put the QB on the ground instead of letting him shrug off a potential tackle, buy some more time and, more times than not, make a good throw or run for a first down? The stats of the USC game are a bit misleading, imo. They had several drives where they did nothing. But, they also had 2 or 3 drives where they went straight down the field to score TDs. 252 total yards is a good number. Giving up 3 offensive TDs with those yards is not.
 
Brad White has seen time after time that our CBs get confused by the criss-cross routes USC ran 3 or 4 times to have WRs wide open.

Teams constantly kill us on these switch routes. It never fails we blow this every so often. This absolutely needs addressed and people need fired if that's what it takes. There is no excuse in so predictably blowing a common route concept.

Just wait til we play UT. Switch routes and switch releases are something they do better than anyone especially when you add their insane pace to the mix. There will be wrs wide open every play.
 
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