Sunday Morning QB- Troy edition

1. Made a big pot of gumbo and had some people over. Probably the best gumbo made in the history of the world. I have no equal for it.

2. Tennessee has no heart (yes, I was certainly wrong about them), Florida is surprisingly better than I thought, Joker is in his last season, Jackson State has a better D than Mississippi, and Auburn continues to push a square peg in a round hole.

3. Is anybody surprised at how the hiring of John L Smith is turning out? You give the guy a 10 month contract and expect it to turn out like you want it? Now rumors are that John L will be pushed out- and they are going to turn it over to Little Petrino- the dumbass that didnt run the ball and the clock in the loss to ULM. Yeah- thats a better idea. UPig deserves everything they get.

4. Letdown game for us- we played with no emotion and simply went through the motions. The difference being alot of teams lose games like this. WE didnt.

5. That being said, our defensive gameplan was awful. It was worse than our defensive gameplan for Auburn-2011 and I didnt think that was possible. Apparently we are going to have a couple of these per year from Wilson. Where was the pressure? Were we really that scared to lock up man for 10-12 plays to try and get to the QB? Jackson State exploited our Cover 2- did we not think that Troy would torch it? Coach Wilson does a really good job and I am glad to have him at State- but this gameplan was another wtf?

6. Everybody that blamed Mirando but are now praising Brewster for how well the WR’s were playing needs to realize it’s not the coach- we just simply have average WR’s. And they were below average last night. But Chad Bumphis has really stepped up so far this season. I’ve been critical of him but he deserves nothing but praise right now. He is playing his tail off and making plays. Others need to follow suit.

7. As I mentioned last week- people are starting to blitz our 5-wide, empty set off the edge. Our 2nd drive stalled because of it on 3rd down when they hit Tyler and made him throw before he wanted to. If we are going to go 5 wide, there has to be some quick slants or hot route added so we can get rid of the ball. If we dont- defenses will just have an auto-check when we go 5-wide to blitz off the edge where we cant protect. Tyler can make the read- but can our WR’s make that read or even get open quickly? That is the question…

8. Also I mentioned to scrap putting Tubby in the Wildcat. Just run Dak in those situations. Tubby only gets limited reps in practice doing it- and it looks like fecal matter in games. We did improve I guess- we went from a 5 yard penalty last week to a bobbled snap and a 2 yard loss this week. Stop wasting practice with it and just let Dak do his thang.

9. However, we do need Tubby to get the ball. Where are the jet sweeps? How about a simple toss play? Shirley we have a simple choice route for him to run in the slot to get the ball to him? A choice route is where Tubby comes off the ball and reads the defender. If the defender is on his inside shoulder- Tubby breaks it outside on an out route. If the defender is head up or on his outside shoulder- Tubby breaks the route inside on a slant. It’s simple to run when practiced and an easy way to get Tubby the ball. He’s a weapon and we need to exploit the match-up. Offense today is all about the getting the best match-ups for your best personnel.

10. We didnt go for 2 in the 4th Q because had we not made it- it would still been just a one score game + the 2pt conversion for Troy. Kick the XP and make it 2 score game was the safest choice.

11. Kudos to Perkins for a huge night. Thats what we are supposed to do to Sun Belt/Conference USA type defenses- run over their ass. Josh Robinson looked good also, but he did miss the cut-back lane on the 3rd and short play in the 4th Q. That just comes with experience and he needs to keep getting it. Perkins cant handle that many carries week to week- and we need JRob to share the load. Not sure why Milton wasnt getting any carries- but I will say this- we need to decide on a back-up and let that RB get the experience. I’m not big on a 3-headed RB- it needs to be 2 guys getting the carries. Most RB’s get better as their carries grow. They get comfortable. I think JRob has the most upside and should be the 2nd guy moving forward.

12. Why did we waste Slay’s Jr year last season? He hardly played. He would have been better off almost redshirting. Regardless, he is playing well now and a vaccum out there. He has played himself into a 3rd-4th round pick this coming April, and could make it even higher. There is no doubt he and Banks are right up there as the SEC’s best duo- which means the nation’s best duo. I cant see there being any more than 5 teams in the NCAA with a duo any better than what we have. Which also makes last night’s gameplan on D even more puzzling.

13. We finally made a FG- which was a big hurdle for us- but then miss an XP. No excusee in us being this bad at Kicker.

14. Tyler looked like a wounded giraffe running free in the 4th Q last night. But we surprised everybody in the stadium when we ran it. Great call and a good job by Tyler. Going to have to do that a little more often to keep defenses honest. Good job 17. Hopefully your WR’s will treat you better next week.

15. Bottom line- we won. We are 3-0 and it feels good. The team and staff also see some things they need to work on- which is good moving forward to make us a better football team.

16. I’m going to eat some more gumbo. Peace.

In Mullen We Trust,

Coach34