Sunday Morning QB- Birmingham Dragons Edition

1. We are 2-0 as we expected to be. Enough said.

2. Ok, let’s go ahead and get it out of the way. Dan Mullen has treated these first 2 games like scrimmages. He hasnt taken them seriously at all. He is rotating the 2nd teamers in to get playing reps with the game on the line. Why is he doing that? Because he wants those guys to have quality experience when they get in games later in the year vs SEC teams on the bigger stage. That is certainly better for those guys than getting garbage reps when we are up by 35-40 points. He is treating these openers like NFL preseason games and seeing what these guys can do. From that standpoint- it’s a very smart move. On the flip side- is it hurting the growth and continuity of Dakota and the first offense? The 1st defense? We’ll see. He’s obviously not going to do this vs an LSU or anybody like that. I’ll leave to you individually as to whether you agree with it or not.

3. Dakota and the 1st offense scored TD’s on 6 of their first 9 drives. That’s pretty damn good. I didnt like wasting four 1st half drives with Damien Williams and the 2nd offense- but hey, they got some experience. Doesnt Mullen realize people gamble on these games???? Even with wasting 4 drives on the 2nd bunch- we had 300 yards at halftime. The passing game never got in sync all day- but we did hit some big plays and still threw for over 200 yards. Dakota now has 8 TD passes in his first 2 games and 9 team TD passes. Monster year coming. It should be 10- but he underthrew the pass to Jameon and it got picked. Cant make that mistake of leaving it to the inside as well.

4. #RTGDF- that is what this offense is about and what will make or break us. Dakota, JRob, and Jameon combined had 19 carries for 152 yards in the 1st half. For the game- JRob 20 for 124, Dakota 18 for 111. We ran the ball like we are supposed to. JRob is a beast. Didnt get much from Griff or Shump, but I dont expect alot out of them anyway. They arent even close to what we have in JRob. Any game JRob doesnt get 20 carries and Dakota 15 carries is a game wasted.

5. Glad to see RoJo and Stonehands get TD catches this week. Morrow got away with a slight push to get better position on his TD- but hey, it’s only a flag if you get caught. Great job Joe. I’d like to see us throw the ball deep a little more often- we finally have WR’s capable of going and getting it. Stretch that D a little more please. Walley Looks like he is going to be solid for us at TE. Did a good job blocking and made a couple of catches. Welcome aboard kid.

6. Head-scratching playcalls as usual from Mullen- the hurry-up 3rd and 4 with Williams in the game was a straight handoff, the slant on 3rd and 4 to Wilson in UAB territory (RTGDF with Dakota or JRob), the pass on 4th and 1??? Really Dan?? Also, why in the hell would you have Holloway in with the 1st offense on the possession right before half? C’mon Mane- there were 4 mins left and we could have had a really good drive- put a real RB in there. Holloway is a gimmick and shouldnt be in there for entire possessions. But of course, this is the Dan Mullen Preseason- so I see the thought process on why he is doing it.

7. I said before the season Preston Smith has a chance to work his way into the draft- and thru 2 games- he is doing it. It’s rare to see a DE leading the team in interceptions, but by damn he is doing it. And the one yesterday was a great catch. Then a really good run to make it a Pick-6. Great job by Smith to start this season out.

8. We are so good at LB. Bennie Brown is outstanding. McKinney is too. It’s nice having 2 of probably the top 5 or 6 LB’ers in the SEC. That said- there were a few missed tackles in the middle on their RB. A couple of times the RB got caught behind their linemen and slipped thru some cracks- but overall a good job vs the run. UAB only averaged 2.6 per rush.

9. We only gave up 10 points vs our 1st D. So that wasnt bad. I still didnt like seeing Calhoun getting torched- but it does happen at times to everyone at DB. The starting D playing solid football-even in the Secondary. The 2nd D and 3rd D? Not so much. Redmond had a bad day- getting burnt twice. We had some other guys getting torched back there as well. Youth and inexperience in the Secondary got served. Hopefully they get let that embarrassment from the game and film sessions make them better players. One thing to watch going forward- even though it was against our back-ups primarily- expect see more deep balls coming vs the D.

10. Cox looked like he had been shot yesterday. I was hoping for a severe hammy crap- but that’s unlikely. It looks like a bad pull or possible tear. That’s a big loss. Especially with Market getting his head gashed open. That’s 2 Safeties in one day- altho Market will be back obviously. We have work to do to get the Safety position worked out before going to BR.

11. UAB would beat Vandy by 3 TD’s. Good grief Vandy is horrible. Franklin left the cupboard slightly bare- but was it really that bad? Or is Mason about to have a short stay in Nashville? One thing is for sure- I’m glad they are on the schedule and it’s late in the year. Good easy game late in the season to rest some guys.

12. I hope the 2nd D getting torched causes us to sub a couple of guys at a time next week- instead of putting a whole new unit out there. Our 2nd and 3rd D’s played 8 entire series yesterday. That’s way too many. I want to see our starters on both sides of the ball get tired vs USA. Why? Because they are going to be tired vs LSU in Tiger Stadium in that 4th Q with the game on the line. I want them to play tired so they can get used to fighting fatigue.

In Mullen We Trust,

C34