Lexington is turning into our new Williams Brice.
From 1996 until 2012, a span of nine games at Williams Brice, we scored 20 points once time. The other 8 games, we scored less than that. We won a game there scoring 13 points in 2002 and 14 points in 2008.
We had different head coaches, different offensive coordinators, and obviously different QBs during that span. But every year it was the same thing. We’d go over there and it looked like we were playing in sand. The games were ugly and much harder than they should have been. We were a much better team than South Carolina in many of those years, but it was still a 60-minute game that left us with nothing but relief and exasperation. It got to the point where you just expected it.
Lexington is turning into that. I don’t know why. But this is three straight games now where we’ve had the much better team, and it’s still been a slog. Maybe it’s that, internally, we go into Lexington expecting a fist fight. Last night I think was a function of Kentucky having heard for a week how bad they were… you had to know they’d come up with a chip on the shoulder wanting to prove something. Broader than that, I think we’ve just come to expect that kind of game there, just as we did for a long time at Williams Brice.
There has been a lot of talk about how our QB doesn’t have “that dog in him” like the last QB, or how stubborn and uncreative our OC is, unlike the last OC. The last two games up there with the last QB and last OC saw us score 14 points and 16 points. I understand that it was very cold and windy two year ago. That’s a weird thing to point out while speaking of the last QB “having that dog in him” and the last OC being an innovative genius. The fact is, in terms of offensive output, last night wasn’t much different than the last two games there.
I think it goes beyond whatever we think of our QB’s mentality or the OC’s creativity.
Hopefully the “playing in sand” stuff is short lived up there. Either way though, it was evident early on last night that we just had to survive it and I’m glad we did. Wasn’t fun. But I think we see a much different looking offense in Tuscaloosa in two weeks. Heck, we scored more in Tuscaloosa than we did in Lexington in 2020
****
Perfect comparison.
We played our C game, they played their A+ game. Just like those old SoCar games.
Seems like our first road game is becoming a chore too. That’s three straight years.
***
I think a lot of it may be offensive rust early in the season.,.
For a long time South Carolina was the first SEC game in the season, and maybe 2nd or 3rd game overall, and Columbia was always that first big road test for new starters in offense. Recently Kentucky has moved up in the schedule.
Stoops does a great job shortening those games,..always seems like kuntucky gets multiple 8 minute drives against uga without a single explosive play (maybe explosive penalties in their favor),...felt like we had 20 offensive plays to work with all game
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It’s a good comparison.
The last two trips to Lexington there were mitigating factors.
In 2020, we had played Alabama the week before and Stet had a rough game (3 INTs). So we only threw the ball 13 times all night (Stet still managed to throw two picks).
The weather was miserable in 2022. We didn’t throw much again - only 19 attempts. Stet managed to throw another pick . So in two starts in Lexington he had zero TD passes and 3 picks which is an odd stat.
Last night was just a poor performance from the offense across the board. Coaching, execution, whatever. It was all shit.
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Those Monken offenses also played at Kentucky late in the season, meaning the rust was already shaken off. It seems we always played at Kentucky late in the season and Kentucky seemed to always come to Athens early in the season. This year is certainly different in that respect. That all said, I scratch my head over why Georgia struggles in that stadium. Is it boredom? Is it kids not taking them seriously? Or is it Kirby intentionally keeping the game vanilla to challenge the team and not giving away too much of the playbook before facing Bama? There also is the fact that Vandagriff knows Georgia’s defensive tendencies. And I am sure Kirby is well aware of that, not to mention he has no desire to humiliate Vandagriff and Stoops, people he obviously respects. Or maybe I have no clue about what I am saying.
***
Agree, and in 2022 Stetson almost threw a pick 6 (should have been) and we took the forward pass out after than one. It’s like buddies who think alike and agree every time in Lexington we’ll play old time football which suits Stoops fine.
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Stoops appears more than happy to lose close games to us
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There's part of me that truly believes Kirby knows Stoops' teams stand very little chance of scoring on us without help and plays to not give them any help. It's ugly and boring but we typically control the game.
***
I believe it's that we think we can go to Lexington and win safe because Kirby doesn't believe they can beat us at our game. For example, last night we would line up on 1st down or our other run tendency downs with a back to one side of the QB. We would run our readless zone read play to the opposite side of where the RB lined up and KY would slant 8 men to that side. We never did anything to make them pay even though a safety was making plays at or behind the LOS.
Everybody has plays to take advantage of overly aggressive defenses but we kept running into bad numbers and didn't bootleg and hit the TE or a receiver coming from the opposite side until the 4th or even speed sweep them. I don't remember a single jet sweep or an RPO in the first half. It looks like our gameplan was to keep gut punching until we broke through and it's worked for Kirby but last night was beyond an ugly win, it was a game we could have easily lost. Imo, the new clock rules aren't going to be our friend if we keep trying to win like this.
From 1996 until 2012, a span of nine games at Williams Brice, we scored 20 points once time. The other 8 games, we scored less than that. We won a game there scoring 13 points in 2002 and 14 points in 2008.
We had different head coaches, different offensive coordinators, and obviously different QBs during that span. But every year it was the same thing. We’d go over there and it looked like we were playing in sand. The games were ugly and much harder than they should have been. We were a much better team than South Carolina in many of those years, but it was still a 60-minute game that left us with nothing but relief and exasperation. It got to the point where you just expected it.
Lexington is turning into that. I don’t know why. But this is three straight games now where we’ve had the much better team, and it’s still been a slog. Maybe it’s that, internally, we go into Lexington expecting a fist fight. Last night I think was a function of Kentucky having heard for a week how bad they were… you had to know they’d come up with a chip on the shoulder wanting to prove something. Broader than that, I think we’ve just come to expect that kind of game there, just as we did for a long time at Williams Brice.
There has been a lot of talk about how our QB doesn’t have “that dog in him” like the last QB, or how stubborn and uncreative our OC is, unlike the last OC. The last two games up there with the last QB and last OC saw us score 14 points and 16 points. I understand that it was very cold and windy two year ago. That’s a weird thing to point out while speaking of the last QB “having that dog in him” and the last OC being an innovative genius. The fact is, in terms of offensive output, last night wasn’t much different than the last two games there.
I think it goes beyond whatever we think of our QB’s mentality or the OC’s creativity.
Hopefully the “playing in sand” stuff is short lived up there. Either way though, it was evident early on last night that we just had to survive it and I’m glad we did. Wasn’t fun. But I think we see a much different looking offense in Tuscaloosa in two weeks. Heck, we scored more in Tuscaloosa than we did in Lexington in 2020
****
Perfect comparison.
We played our C game, they played their A+ game. Just like those old SoCar games.
Seems like our first road game is becoming a chore too. That’s three straight years.
***
I think a lot of it may be offensive rust early in the season.,.
For a long time South Carolina was the first SEC game in the season, and maybe 2nd or 3rd game overall, and Columbia was always that first big road test for new starters in offense. Recently Kentucky has moved up in the schedule.
Stoops does a great job shortening those games,..always seems like kuntucky gets multiple 8 minute drives against uga without a single explosive play (maybe explosive penalties in their favor),...felt like we had 20 offensive plays to work with all game
***
It’s a good comparison.
The last two trips to Lexington there were mitigating factors.
In 2020, we had played Alabama the week before and Stet had a rough game (3 INTs). So we only threw the ball 13 times all night (Stet still managed to throw two picks).
The weather was miserable in 2022. We didn’t throw much again - only 19 attempts. Stet managed to throw another pick . So in two starts in Lexington he had zero TD passes and 3 picks which is an odd stat.
Last night was just a poor performance from the offense across the board. Coaching, execution, whatever. It was all shit.
***
Those Monken offenses also played at Kentucky late in the season, meaning the rust was already shaken off. It seems we always played at Kentucky late in the season and Kentucky seemed to always come to Athens early in the season. This year is certainly different in that respect. That all said, I scratch my head over why Georgia struggles in that stadium. Is it boredom? Is it kids not taking them seriously? Or is it Kirby intentionally keeping the game vanilla to challenge the team and not giving away too much of the playbook before facing Bama? There also is the fact that Vandagriff knows Georgia’s defensive tendencies. And I am sure Kirby is well aware of that, not to mention he has no desire to humiliate Vandagriff and Stoops, people he obviously respects. Or maybe I have no clue about what I am saying.
***
Agree, and in 2022 Stetson almost threw a pick 6 (should have been) and we took the forward pass out after than one. It’s like buddies who think alike and agree every time in Lexington we’ll play old time football which suits Stoops fine.
***
Stoops appears more than happy to lose close games to us
***
There's part of me that truly believes Kirby knows Stoops' teams stand very little chance of scoring on us without help and plays to not give them any help. It's ugly and boring but we typically control the game.
***
I believe it's that we think we can go to Lexington and win safe because Kirby doesn't believe they can beat us at our game. For example, last night we would line up on 1st down or our other run tendency downs with a back to one side of the QB. We would run our readless zone read play to the opposite side of where the RB lined up and KY would slant 8 men to that side. We never did anything to make them pay even though a safety was making plays at or behind the LOS.
Everybody has plays to take advantage of overly aggressive defenses but we kept running into bad numbers and didn't bootleg and hit the TE or a receiver coming from the opposite side until the 4th or even speed sweep them. I don't remember a single jet sweep or an RPO in the first half. It looks like our gameplan was to keep gut punching until we broke through and it's worked for Kirby but last night was beyond an ugly win, it was a game we could have easily lost. Imo, the new clock rules aren't going to be our friend if we keep trying to win like this.
