'65 Cobra
Member
CNS mentioned "playing for 60 minutes" again yesterday and implied some guys weren't. He has mentioned this alot this year. I don't know if this is a youth thing, a stamina thing or something else entirely, but it was prevalent this year.
At the same time our only 3 losses came against the potential NC, both SECCG teams, and LSU who will likely get a BCS Bowl. This is nothing to be ashamed of, but we could have won ALL of those games. So why didn't we? Well, that's the nature of the game and will be the point of the off-season - to figure out how to improve. That's the beauty of Coach Sagan's "process" - it's all about continuous improvement; assessing what went right and what went wrong, figuring out root causes and then fixing them.
We have ALOT(!!) of very young talent to build off of and should have another top 3-5 recruiting class coming in. Still, there are many opportunities for improvement moving forward that I see not just among the players but for the coaches as well.
1. Re-establish the running game - Mark and Trent each only had two 100 yard games this year. Mark had only half as many carries as '09 and Trent had only 2/3 as many. Opposing defenses stacked the box and did stunts and run blitzes and how did we respond? We passed to loosen up the D. How about some counters/options and/or misdirection to offset the stunts and blitzes? We could have used a little more creativity here.
2. Toughness and domination in the trenches - I think most will agree that we didn't dominate the LOS on either side of the ball this year like we did in '09. There were a few games (like Auburn) where we did for the first half, but didn't respond well to the other team's adjustments well. How do you fix this aside from playing your toughtest meanest guys? I'm not sure, but LOS domination is an attitude and we were lacking that this year.
3. QB play - is this a moot point since GMac is gone? No, b/c while GMac had his flaws (holding the ball too long, fumbling at critical moments, not seeing wide open receivers), he was also excellent in other areas and any QB is going to have his flaws. In general, though, I think we would be well-served - especially with a new QB - to have faster developing plays that have tempo and rhythm. Boom, boom, boom. Quick routes, quick reads make the pass or throw it away. Mobility would help here as well. This also relates to:
4. Offensive playcalling and the offense in general - Let's start with the wildcat/pistol - this formation is essentially useless unless the QB split wide is a threat of some kind. Otherwise, you simply waste a potential blocker on the field. Also, why not have Mark (who is likely gone) and Trent in the backfield together with an option read of some kind? The screen to Julio worked more than it probably should have since opposing defenses knew it was coming. What happened to the TE this year? In general, I think there is LOTS of room for improvement to be more creative on offense especially coming out in the second half and I think the Line needs to be challenged to be more dominant.
5. The defense - actually, I thought the defense did pretty darn well this year considering the youth. I think holding Auburn to 28 points should have been enough to win, and if it weren't for fumbles, we would have. I was a bit disappointed with Dareus and Hightower this year. I hope Hightower stays, b/c I blew out my knee and the first year after surgery is always tentative. He will be much better next year where ever he is. Mosely is going to be awesome as is Dee. Overall, I would like to see the D be more aggressive and take chances and there is room to improve our domination of the LOS. Overall, however, I think the D did a great job!
6. Red Zone - How many times this year did we get to the red zone only to kick a field goal or worse, lose the football? I believe this has alot to do with getting conservative on offense. Should be an easy fix.
7. Half time adjustments - AU coach Gene Cheese-head said after the game that Auburn's coaches did better than any other team in college football in making half-time adjustments to win games. Hate to admit it, but he is right. We were AWESOME at that in 2009. What happened in 2010? This is one that I just don't know the answer to, but I do know this one has to be fixed for next year
8. Playing with the lead; staying on the throttle - when we get a team down, we don't need to step off the throttle, we need to apply more throttle. When they're down, don't let them back up - stand on their throats! We let too many teams back in the game, and that one is easy to fix!
9. Complacency coming off of a national championship - this is an easy one; we didn't win one this year! The guys should be extra hungry next year!!
Well, that's just my $0.02 worth. Hopefully, the maturation process with take care of alot of this. I know that this team has tons of talent. The challenge will be to put the best guys on the field and let them play aggressive ball, take some chances and no more ultra-conservative "play not to lose" business.
RTR forever!!
At the same time our only 3 losses came against the potential NC, both SECCG teams, and LSU who will likely get a BCS Bowl. This is nothing to be ashamed of, but we could have won ALL of those games. So why didn't we? Well, that's the nature of the game and will be the point of the off-season - to figure out how to improve. That's the beauty of Coach Sagan's "process" - it's all about continuous improvement; assessing what went right and what went wrong, figuring out root causes and then fixing them.
We have ALOT(!!) of very young talent to build off of and should have another top 3-5 recruiting class coming in. Still, there are many opportunities for improvement moving forward that I see not just among the players but for the coaches as well.
1. Re-establish the running game - Mark and Trent each only had two 100 yard games this year. Mark had only half as many carries as '09 and Trent had only 2/3 as many. Opposing defenses stacked the box and did stunts and run blitzes and how did we respond? We passed to loosen up the D. How about some counters/options and/or misdirection to offset the stunts and blitzes? We could have used a little more creativity here.
2. Toughness and domination in the trenches - I think most will agree that we didn't dominate the LOS on either side of the ball this year like we did in '09. There were a few games (like Auburn) where we did for the first half, but didn't respond well to the other team's adjustments well. How do you fix this aside from playing your toughtest meanest guys? I'm not sure, but LOS domination is an attitude and we were lacking that this year.
3. QB play - is this a moot point since GMac is gone? No, b/c while GMac had his flaws (holding the ball too long, fumbling at critical moments, not seeing wide open receivers), he was also excellent in other areas and any QB is going to have his flaws. In general, though, I think we would be well-served - especially with a new QB - to have faster developing plays that have tempo and rhythm. Boom, boom, boom. Quick routes, quick reads make the pass or throw it away. Mobility would help here as well. This also relates to:
4. Offensive playcalling and the offense in general - Let's start with the wildcat/pistol - this formation is essentially useless unless the QB split wide is a threat of some kind. Otherwise, you simply waste a potential blocker on the field. Also, why not have Mark (who is likely gone) and Trent in the backfield together with an option read of some kind? The screen to Julio worked more than it probably should have since opposing defenses knew it was coming. What happened to the TE this year? In general, I think there is LOTS of room for improvement to be more creative on offense especially coming out in the second half and I think the Line needs to be challenged to be more dominant.
5. The defense - actually, I thought the defense did pretty darn well this year considering the youth. I think holding Auburn to 28 points should have been enough to win, and if it weren't for fumbles, we would have. I was a bit disappointed with Dareus and Hightower this year. I hope Hightower stays, b/c I blew out my knee and the first year after surgery is always tentative. He will be much better next year where ever he is. Mosely is going to be awesome as is Dee. Overall, I would like to see the D be more aggressive and take chances and there is room to improve our domination of the LOS. Overall, however, I think the D did a great job!
6. Red Zone - How many times this year did we get to the red zone only to kick a field goal or worse, lose the football? I believe this has alot to do with getting conservative on offense. Should be an easy fix.
7. Half time adjustments - AU coach Gene Cheese-head said after the game that Auburn's coaches did better than any other team in college football in making half-time adjustments to win games. Hate to admit it, but he is right. We were AWESOME at that in 2009. What happened in 2010? This is one that I just don't know the answer to, but I do know this one has to be fixed for next year
8. Playing with the lead; staying on the throttle - when we get a team down, we don't need to step off the throttle, we need to apply more throttle. When they're down, don't let them back up - stand on their throats! We let too many teams back in the game, and that one is easy to fix!
9. Complacency coming off of a national championship - this is an easy one; we didn't win one this year! The guys should be extra hungry next year!!
Well, that's just my $0.02 worth. Hopefully, the maturation process with take care of alot of this. I know that this team has tons of talent. The challenge will be to put the best guys on the field and let them play aggressive ball, take some chances and no more ultra-conservative "play not to lose" business.
RTR forever!!
