Gotta love DVR. Took a painfully long time to rewind, pause, etc. but I finally got through it. How the coaches watch film like they do would drive me crazy. This is long so I understand if some do not want to read it all. I am by no means a football film guru so take this with a grain of salt....
Saw a lot of youthful mistakes. Just some examples I saw was George missed some assignments. One play he clearly should have taken on the blitzer but chose to double the end. Almost cost UK either a sack or possibly a turnover. A few more times he took on the wrong guy, but he also had several very good plays where he stood up his man. He is going to be a very good SEC player. Conrad missed a few assignments that led to short runs. Jordan Jones is going to be really good, but he took a few poor angles. Ware made some plays but also was taken out of several because of poor angles, not reading the play quicker, etc. Could go on, but I saw a lot of good things and also mistakes. They will learn a lot from this game, but the talent is there because even the mistakes they made, UK players of past would have given up a longer run. These kids are simply much better football players than the past typical KY defensive player.
I love Boom but he is a very poor blocker. I saw the same thing when I saw him play in HS and he is not much better now. He needs to get lower on those blocks.
Going back to Boom, he is absolutely a legit game breaking RB, but Horton has made remarkable improvement and looks much quicker with the ball. After what I saw from him, IMO, Horton must be the featured back for this offense. I say that because he was able to hand out a lot more punishment and I think as the SEC season goes along he is the one back that can handle the physicality of the SEC and help keep the offense on the field longer and give the defense rest. Make no mistake, Boom needs his touches. Kemp is capable as well, but Mikel needs to be doing the dirty work to give this offense that running dimension it really needs to keep the offense on the field and give the defense its rest.
Like some have said, I do not get why the NT is so far off the ball. I counted 5 times the ball was almost in the RB's hands by the time the NT engaged his man. Makes zero sense to me. The dline rarely stunts and simply just engages their man and really does nothing else after that. Brumbaugh has got to start coaching these guys better. If this is the way Stoops wants them to engage, I frankly have no explanation for his reasoning.
I am not a believer in the 3-4. Sorry, but its killing UK at the LOS and UK simply does not have the linebackers who can create havoc in the open gaps to stop running plays. Many times I saw ULL just double team the dlineman they were running at and it worked well. Its too much read and react and by the time KY got to the ball, the carrier was at least 3-5+ yards past the LOS. Also, UK is inept on misdirection plays and just got killed on the outside. I hope Hatcher and Flannigan can sure this up some, but Hatcher was an issue last year in this area so he really needs to have made a lot of improvement. Its definitely a bend but do not break style of defense. FSU was sort of the same way with Stoops, but they had better athletes all over their roster to do it much more effectively.
Several times the wrong blitzes were called. They almost gave up a TD on a jet sweep where the CB blitzed from the wrong side. Several times blitzes were called from the wrong side and it was too easy for ULL to gain yards the other direction. Maybe I am wrong, but at some point the players need to identify these plays better and make the adjustments on the fly.
Not much can be said about Pat. He missed a ton of throws. UK really could have put up 60+ that game if he was more accurate. Like the WR's ALOT.
One thing I liked a lot was at the end of the game. The defense (with its back completely against the wall) played inspired and took it to ULL. The problem is them being able to do that on a regular basis in the SEC. That is what it takes to play great defense in the SEC. You can't be good for 1 series and bad 3. You have to bring it every series and UK is just not there yet.
Could go on but this post is already too long. To the final point, I liked a lot of what I saw, I saw some things that can easily be fixed, and I saw some things that will continue to be as issue. Pat is who he is at this point. He is like that golfer who will shoot a 70 something one day and then shoot a 90+ the next day. He will have a great game in the next 2-3 games, but he is going to have another bad one that will drive folks crazy. It will be interesting to see if Dawson can deal with it or if a change eventually is made. For now, going into SC UK must establish their running game and figure out the defense (mainly at the LOS).
Saw a lot of youthful mistakes. Just some examples I saw was George missed some assignments. One play he clearly should have taken on the blitzer but chose to double the end. Almost cost UK either a sack or possibly a turnover. A few more times he took on the wrong guy, but he also had several very good plays where he stood up his man. He is going to be a very good SEC player. Conrad missed a few assignments that led to short runs. Jordan Jones is going to be really good, but he took a few poor angles. Ware made some plays but also was taken out of several because of poor angles, not reading the play quicker, etc. Could go on, but I saw a lot of good things and also mistakes. They will learn a lot from this game, but the talent is there because even the mistakes they made, UK players of past would have given up a longer run. These kids are simply much better football players than the past typical KY defensive player.
I love Boom but he is a very poor blocker. I saw the same thing when I saw him play in HS and he is not much better now. He needs to get lower on those blocks.
Going back to Boom, he is absolutely a legit game breaking RB, but Horton has made remarkable improvement and looks much quicker with the ball. After what I saw from him, IMO, Horton must be the featured back for this offense. I say that because he was able to hand out a lot more punishment and I think as the SEC season goes along he is the one back that can handle the physicality of the SEC and help keep the offense on the field longer and give the defense rest. Make no mistake, Boom needs his touches. Kemp is capable as well, but Mikel needs to be doing the dirty work to give this offense that running dimension it really needs to keep the offense on the field and give the defense its rest.
Like some have said, I do not get why the NT is so far off the ball. I counted 5 times the ball was almost in the RB's hands by the time the NT engaged his man. Makes zero sense to me. The dline rarely stunts and simply just engages their man and really does nothing else after that. Brumbaugh has got to start coaching these guys better. If this is the way Stoops wants them to engage, I frankly have no explanation for his reasoning.
I am not a believer in the 3-4. Sorry, but its killing UK at the LOS and UK simply does not have the linebackers who can create havoc in the open gaps to stop running plays. Many times I saw ULL just double team the dlineman they were running at and it worked well. Its too much read and react and by the time KY got to the ball, the carrier was at least 3-5+ yards past the LOS. Also, UK is inept on misdirection plays and just got killed on the outside. I hope Hatcher and Flannigan can sure this up some, but Hatcher was an issue last year in this area so he really needs to have made a lot of improvement. Its definitely a bend but do not break style of defense. FSU was sort of the same way with Stoops, but they had better athletes all over their roster to do it much more effectively.
Several times the wrong blitzes were called. They almost gave up a TD on a jet sweep where the CB blitzed from the wrong side. Several times blitzes were called from the wrong side and it was too easy for ULL to gain yards the other direction. Maybe I am wrong, but at some point the players need to identify these plays better and make the adjustments on the fly.
Not much can be said about Pat. He missed a ton of throws. UK really could have put up 60+ that game if he was more accurate. Like the WR's ALOT.
One thing I liked a lot was at the end of the game. The defense (with its back completely against the wall) played inspired and took it to ULL. The problem is them being able to do that on a regular basis in the SEC. That is what it takes to play great defense in the SEC. You can't be good for 1 series and bad 3. You have to bring it every series and UK is just not there yet.
Could go on but this post is already too long. To the final point, I liked a lot of what I saw, I saw some things that can easily be fixed, and I saw some things that will continue to be as issue. Pat is who he is at this point. He is like that golfer who will shoot a 70 something one day and then shoot a 90+ the next day. He will have a great game in the next 2-3 games, but he is going to have another bad one that will drive folks crazy. It will be interesting to see if Dawson can deal with it or if a change eventually is made. For now, going into SC UK must establish their running game and figure out the defense (mainly at the LOS).
