Coaching

[Chin Diesel]

This is a tough one.

First of all, great game planning by the coaching staff. The offensive sets are still varied and putting more formations and calls on film for future opponents to game plan. Even the 3rd down play prior to the safety on the punt had a chance for Delorenzo to go long.

Defensive game plan was excellent. UConn was equal or better to a top-25 SEC offense.

Special teams. Here we go.

Inexcusable to not have fixed the extra points yet. Nothing left to say.

Punt team. Bad snaps, muffed catches happen. None of us like it but it's a reality. I loved the fake punt and run call. It shows the coaches are paying attention to opponents special team cheating on assignments. Similar to the pooch kick against 'Nova. I like it.

Punt coverage. Two penalties on hitting the returner. I don't like it, but it's on film. Hicks' aggressiveness will cause hesitation down the road. I'm okay with that.

First fake FG. I liked the call. Boyle screwed the pooch with the underthrow but Bloom has to grab that ball. The team didn't need the TD, it needed the catch to extend the drive. Bad underthrow and poor pass catching. Most ST fakes can hide a minor flaw in part of the execution but not two flaws.

Second fake FG. Disaster on the call, worse on the execution. I generally don't like throwing players under the bus, but I think it's fair to say that Boyle let's the moment define him rather than him defining the moment (Tin Cup reference).

Bottom line, having two FG kickers is like having none. I was hoping Tarbutt was marched out to see his mettle. I was in Tampa when Teggart nailed the FG to send UConn to the Fiesta. Kicking is a unique skill. Kicking under pressure is even more unique. Tandem FG kicking rarely works.

Diaco's biggest task this week is kicking. He needs to hold the ST coach's feet to the fire, force a decision and make the team support and defend the decision/position. This is what head coach's are paid to do.

 

[CTMike]

BD clearly isn't sold on Puyol, and Tarbutt is a true frosh. But time to pick one horse and ride it.

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

BD clearly isn't sold on Puyol, and Tarbutt is a true frosh. But time to pick one horse and ride it.

I don't see what it matters. I don't think sticking with one terrible kicker is going to significantly change our results.

 

[Dooley]

Special Teams is our weakest link. No doubt about it. If this weren't a triple option prep week, I'd say that the majority of practice time should be spent working on specials.

To recap:

- we've now had extra points blocked in all 3 of our games by interior linemen. If we can't get a couple of hog mollies who can block the middle front, then we need to go for two after every score. The combination of bad blocking and low kicks are no good.

- if we aren't going to rush punts, then I don't want to see any more balls hit the fracking ground ever again. Even if we signal fair catch immediately, that it better than letting balls hit the ground and bouncing for an additional 20 yards. If Lemelle is not comfortable catching punts, find someone who is. I do recall a fair catch inside the 10 towards the end of the first half that it looked like he was nervous...even fell over. The extra 20 yard roll, as we all know, set us up on our 2 yard line which led to their safety.

- punting has been spotty, at best, all year. Today, we had a punt blocked by a simple 2 man rush. If our punt wall is too soft then like extra points, find 3 guys that have cement feet that will give Wain a clear lane to get kicks off. If our snaps are too weak, then we need to find a long snapper who can get the ball back to Wain with more velocity. We had another punt snap that rolled back to Wain...thankfully we had a fortunate bounce so Wain could get something off. If Wain can't get kicks over 2 man rushes, then we need to roll him out and kick rugby style. Even if he doesn't boot the ball 50 yards in the air, the rolls on those punts are usually good for 20+ yards. See bullet 2.

- Kickoffs are still weak. Very disappointed that we are burning Tarbutt's redshirt for these kickoffs. And I was not impressed by the "long" FG attempt that came up 3 yards short. Apparently, neither was Coach if he felt a second fake FG had better odds of success than a 42 yard FG attempt.

- the only bright spot today was kick coverage. McAllister's heady play to recover the fumble was great...too bad we couldn't capitalize with points. Maybe roll out rugby punts will generate more turnovers on specials which could set us up with good field position. I'd rather try that than to see snaps roll back to Wain or have punts blocked by light 2 men rushes.

We will obviously need to dedicate most of our practice week energy towards stopping the triple option next Saturday. But if there are any extra minutes leftover, specials sure could use a full and complete dress down.

 

[Doggie Style]

I just think it's really tough to watch what was once our biggest strength for years become our biggest liability on the field! We won many games over the years on special teams play!

 

[CTMike]

I don't see what it matters. I don't think sticking with one terrible kicker is going to significantly change our results.

If Puyol isn't the guy then I'd rather he ride or die with Tarbutt and get him the reps/game reps/experience... Presuming that it would pay dividends down the road.

 

[SubbaBub]

We don't need to discuss ST. It sucks, it might be the worst unit in the country. I thought BD had a great game right up until the end. The O was smart and moved the ball and but for a few drops we'd have scored enough to win. The D was terrific, thought I don't think much of Missou's offense. They have an inaccurate QB and no healthy running backs. But the Dline was stout, the LB's were quick to the ball and tackled well, the secondary covered well and wasn't forced to make all the tackles. A little more QB pressure would have been nice, but the down field coverage was outstanding. Except for Obi's penalty, the D pitched a great game. The gameplan was sound. BD didn't make the adjustment necessary to abandon the kicking game at the end. If he wasn't comfortable sending Puyol out there and getting off a kick, then the move was to run a play. Psychologically, I don't think he wanted to commit to that decision and went with a half measure. Heat of the moment mistake that is ultimately forgivable given the good things we saw.

Get the ST in the game and keep playing like that and every remaining game is all of a sudden winnable if they execute. All in all not a bad place to be after 3 games.

 

[RMS25CT]

It's not just the PAT protection. Puyol seems to be kicking too low. A PAT should be hitting the net right in the good hands of All State. If those kicks weren't blocked they would've hit the invisible all state guy south of the border (if there were more than just hands printed on the net) they were so low.

 

[Tdaley]

Although Puyol does kick the ball two low the block extra points have not been all his fault. In every game the opposing team has lined up with a player between our left guard and our center and have broken through the line (almost untouched in the Army game). Last year Diaco used some backup linemen on the extra point attempts ( which I understand is not an uncommon practice). In the Army game Samra who is normally our right guard was line up as a left guard and missed on the block ( I'm not sure who the center was). On the field goals its apparent Diaco is not happy with what he is seeing in practice. Inside 40 yards I thought Puyol was decent last year. I believe he missed all his kicks beyond 40. I have noticed that on the kickoffs although Tarbutt as not reached the end zone with any of his kicks he has kicked them high. Maybe Tarbutt will be kicking extra points soon. In any case, no team at our level should be having this much problem kicking field goals and extra points when you are offering scholarships to kickers.

 

[UConnDan97]

If Puyol isn't the guy then I'd rather he ride or die with Tarbutt and get him the reps/game reps/experience... Presuming that it would pay dividends down the road.

This is where I'm at too. You have to trust that your kicker is going to hit the kick when you need him to hit the kick. If you can't trust your kicker to at least try to tie the game when it matters most, then go look for another kicker. Hell, search the bench of the soccer team if you have to! And I might be 39 and never played a down of football in my life, but I think I still have 4 years of eligibility and I used to kick 35 yarders in the snow at Memorial Field whilst being a little "tipsy"...just sayin'...

 

[CTMike]

My guess is that BD didn't want to thrust his frosh kicker in to that critical of a situation (too soon to put that much on him), or with the potential for a missed blocking assignment to lead to injury. The TV broadcast also mentioned that Tarbutt was missing left in pregame, too.

I don't necessarily agree with the thinking, but I understand.

You just hope that they learn from it... So that next time they either make a better decision or they don't find themselves in the situation to have to make that decision.

 

[geordi]

The extra point problem should be pretty easy to fix. Simply move the spot of the ball a yard or yard and a half back (i.e. 8 yards from the line of scrimmage vs 7. I've seen it done several times and it works. Of course, having someone in the middle that can block might help too.

 

[Palatine]

One thing Diaco deserves credit for is this quote.

"You can go either way with it," Diaco said. "It's not like that was electric up to that point, four quarters, six points ... We need to do more. I need to do more as the head coach to raise the execution."