I like him too. But we’ve only seen him against Rice. But he did look improved from last year.
You’re ridiculous.
Of course I’m exaggerating but not by much.
Vs UA, one of our TDs was assisted greatly by special teams giving the ball to them on the 16 yard line.
Vs TT the defense gave the offense the ball on the 19 for 1 of our TDs
For one of our FGs, special teams gave the offense the ball on the 47
As bad as our offense has been, it would have been worse if defense and special teams hadn’t given them pretty easy situations to score
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You are right on all accounts NTX. With this kind of offense it’s our defense that keeps us in games and puts the offense in a position for a short drive and possible score.
What happened to Patrick Carr? Didn’t he have a great spring game? I haven’t seen at all yet this year, is he hurt?
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He played against Rice.
Hard to get a read on a guy in the spring when he’s playing against 2nd and 3rd string guys. He’s in the mix to be the 3rd guy, but none of the three have practiced particularly well according to Applewhite.
Again it is too early but there are aspects of the game that frankly troubled me. I will reserve my opinion in a few games. I am not punting. At the same time Major needs to prove everyone that our Team will evolve into a dominating one. We are young but we have the tools to be much better than what we have seen so far. I expect a ton better. We will get there.
I agree that it’s still too early to say.
See where we are at the end of the season. That’ll give us a better benchmark for comparison, and gauge for evaluation.
If we have double-digit wins, a conference title, and a bowl victory…then this one defeat will probably seem like chump change.
If…OTOH…we finish at or under .500 in this conference, and then either don’t make a bowl game or get trounced in a minor bowl game…then a riot might be in order!
I guess the somewhat troubling thing is that we are not really a young team so I’m not sure how much individual improvement you will see through the season. Both running backs are seniors, as are all 3 starting wide receivers. Our top two quarterbacks are a 4 year junior who has already graduated and a senior. Our o line is 2 seniors, 2 juniors and a sophomore. I think to see real improvement we either need to modify (it will be hard to change) the scheme or make a change at QB
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Its not too early. His inability to pull an ineffective qb tells me all I need to know about his sense of urgency.
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Serious question…what 3 of the remaining games on our schedule do you think we’re going to lose? We just played probably the best offense we’re going to face this year. Our offense turned the ball over 5 times and we still held that team to 27 points and had a chance to win it at the end. We probably would have won if Postma had started the 2nd half. I honeslty don’t think any teams in our conference are going to be able to do much of anything against our defense.
I have serious questions about our offense too, particularly if personnel doesn’t change. But our defense will win us several games this season. I will say that if Allen remains the QB, there’s a far greater chance of us losing 4 games this season than not. If CMA sticks with Allen, my entire opinion of him will change.
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Memphis and @ USF are two that will be tough to win but they were going to be tough to win even before the offense regressed against Tech. Navy is a distant third on that list but they are so unique it is hard to gauge.
If this team struggles against the terrible T’s (Temple, Tulane, Tulsa), then I will be concerned. Hopefully, the O can find its rhythm / identity / QB play and right this ship for AAC play.
Read option does not work if the QB is a pocket passer.
NO ONE on defense is fooled by the play action.
Running off the right hip of the right guard 600 times works for a while, then one may want to consider running through a new hole.
Eastern Washington dropped 20 on TT.
If the scheme does not change to fit Allen, he will not succeed. Postma and King are the better run first options.
The defense was impressive holding TT under 30 points.
FG kicking saved us from losing by more than we did.
I was really hoping to get that kick at the end.
Punt returners need to communicate more if the kick is a low line drive about to hit someone on the back. Also, should just back away once the ball hits the ground.
Ok, after watching Memphis and SMU play, I think they lose to one of those teams. We know how tough Tulsa can be at home(L). I see them losing to a very tough, and ranked, USF squad. The last three are ECU, Tulane and Navy. These are all very winnable games but could see them losing one (Navy) with that triple-option. Again, I’m no expert but just don’t like what I’m seeing offensively from this team. It lacks and play-maker and doesn’t appear to have anyone that can go deep. I’m not sure if KP is the answer at QB, but I think he deserves a chance. We need a dual-threat QB to run the O and KA just isn’t that. Texas Tech did not respect the QB keeper and crashed down every time the RB got the ball. Either adjust the offense to better suit KA or go with Postma.
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I agree with almost all of this except I have zero fear about Tulsa. Going into the season I had them as our toughest opponent but they have looked downright terrible this year. Memphis scares the fire out of me right now. USF isn’t nearly as tough as everyone thought they would be. They have beat up on some really bad teams, and have started every one of them slow. Like you said, Navy is completely unpredictable because of the triple option. We SHOULD be able to beat SMU comfortably, but who knows with the way the offense is playing.
If Kyle Allen sits the bench the rest of the year, I can see us finishing the regular season with 2 losses. Unfortunately, I think that 2nd loss will be against Memphis which will keep us out of the conference championship game.
To the original question about evaluations so far.
I have been pleasantly surprised with the DC so far, I was scared to death with his tenure at Miami. But so far he has been good. Now Ed makes up for a lot of deficiencies, so he has by no means been perfect. Do I think he plays too soft of a front and coverages? Yes. But overall it’s been good. As our secondary continues to improve he is going to have to get more aggressive. Also he should scream at the team about missed tackles.
On to the offense, it’s been bad plain and simple. The stubbornness is most concerning to me. Trying to fit KA into a read option system is unfair to him. The kids is a dropback pocket passer. He has some wheels but doesn’t use them which means the defense can simply ignore him on the base play, rendering it ineffective most of the time. So continuing to force this issue can only hurt us. Which brings us into play calling I understand wanting to be a balanced, run first team. I think it is a good philosophy but if all it results in are there team pounding it’s head against the wall then you have to adjust to either more throws or better scheming and so far I simply haven’t seen either one.
I’m not going to gripe too much about the lack of speed at WR unless we are keeping it in the bench, that would inexcusable. If it’s a recruiting issue then target it and take of it. But the use of Dunbar and Bonner on swings is simply a misuse of their talents. They should block on swings not catch them. They best served being used as the big bodies with well above average hands that they are. They are possession guys who excel at short and intermediate routes. When they are used this way they are pretty effective weapons as swing pass catchers they are slow receivers easy to catch up too.
For Temple I want to see that CMA and Brian Johnson have taken a hard look at what they’ve been doing and what had worked and what has failed consistently at this point. If they insist on running the same offense then we need to see Postma or King at QB and we can build from there. Temple is not very good so it’s a good game to get their feet wet. If it’s KA we need to see major shifts in the playmaking and offensive philosophy. But if it’s KA in the same offense, then we will know what we have. It will be a talented team that will beat bad teams and lose to most good teams. And we can all enjoy going back to Levine years.
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So can we put to rest the “we were not showing our play book” if there was a time to pull out the stops it was during TT, but we saw the same things.
A question I have. Has this staff given Allen the green light to run or does he just not take it?
Ward and Postma would run the QB delayed draw and though it was hit or miss it kept the defense honest. Allen tried it in the first series against AZ for a small,loss and I have not seen him try it since.
If the QB does not run in this offense you lose half the play book.
I like Birden and Catalon, but I’m not a fan of the run game. I understand they’re trying to establish a rhythm and open up the passing game, but up the gut runs isn’t going to cut it if UH wants to win the conference. It looks a little too much like the past few years when the Coogs try to force the run and it’s just not there. People were quick to point out how Postma led the team in rushing and that’s a testament to the efficiency of the Coogs’ rushing attack right now.
Great write-up.
I agree and could not have said it better myself. The coaches preached adjusting the offense to the players, but it is so clear they are committed to their “system”. They either need to innovate in a HURRY or change QB.
I’ll think about how to work that into a question for the CMA show on Wednesday.
I hope it was his pocket sending those tweets. Either way, had a good chuckle about it Saturday night, which was needed after the tough result earlier at TDECU.