We’re on the same page. Good post.
there is no rush by more than 4 and usually 3, no creativity on defense.
i would move ed around on plays, obviously he gets double and triple teamed on the nose…do him like JJ and let him line up anywhere. keep the o line guessing.
having said that bowman was quick and accurate…tech moved at a tempo that no other we play will.
we are focusing on the defense but let’s be honest, tech executed it’s offense better than we did. in the first half UH was leading, the play call to run an 3rd and 4th was stupid…king was accurate in the first half…did he choose the run option or was that a briles call…
also our recievers dropped passes that were tds or long gains…it was not all on the defense
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We do nothing and end up 8-4 with a bowl loss so 8-5. With our talent this year. Barf.
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We were within a touchdown entering the 4th quarter. Then they got up by two scores. That was the nail.
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I’m upset with the hiring as well. I posted a link to the article about Applewhite hiring him via the email he received from CMD’s iPhone. What a joke! It’s almost as bad as when Tony Levine found his OC on the Internet. Everyone knew, based on the results from his time at Miami that he wasn’t up to task. He was teaching at the freaking Boys and Girls Clyb for chrissakes.
There are so many good qualified candidates, many of which coach at G5 schools and won’t break the bank. The DC at North Texas for starters looks like a damn good coach. At least he’s competent enough to shut down SMU, a spread offense, and Arkansas, and SEC school. I’m certain there are others that can do better than CMD.
Honestly, I figured it would be tough to win on the road and I’m less upset about the loss as I am in the manner that we lost. I’m absolutely pissed we lost this way with an All-American defense of tackle and senior experience player in Carter several other good players a lawn the D line. This shouldn’t happen. The fact is, this was a winnable game and we squandered a big opportunity to take a step forward with this program by retaining D’Onofrio. This guy needs to go, sooner rather than later, to salvage the rest of the season.
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It wasn’t the email that got D’Onofrio hired.
The one thing that sticks out in my mind as a difference from Gibbs/Orlando to Coach D is that the prior DCs focused on the players having the basics down and playing disciplined at their position. You did not see missed tackles or players out of position as you do now. My 2 cents on Coach D’s coaching method. He should focus less on schemes and cement the basics needed to play the position.
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JMO Big Picture after this weekend:
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AAC championship this year is off the table. We have a decent shot at winning the division but the war on I-4 will decide the conference championship. AAC champ will come out of Florida this year.
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We still have a decent shot to get to 10 wins. I would consider that a good year.
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Barring no major injuries to our 2 superstars, we are somewhere between 7 and 11 wins. That’s a big range. Still a lot to figure out about this team. Plenty of good defenses have gone to Lubbock and came out looking terrible. That’s what Tech does.
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If the defense continues down this path CMD needs to go at the end of the season. We have had 3 pitiful halves of defense, 2 halves of great defense, and 1 half of garbage time defense you can throw out. There is room for improvement and plenty of football left. Those calling for CMDs head now what are we supposed to do the next day? The players feel bad enough you can’t just keep carouseling coaches. I’m sure CMA won’t do that. This isn’t Texas State we just got embarrassed by.
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Now we go out and support the team. The rest of our schedule is winnable. Without massive improvement by the secondary it will take a couple of perfect games by our offence, but every one is realistically winnable.
I’m not telling you to bet the farm. This is the least hurtful team to lose to possible with this schedule. We have to be undefeated in conference to get an NY 6. We beat one of two P5 schools on the schedule. Losing to an FCS school would be worse. We dropped a lot of balls, we could of lost by 1TD in a higher scoring game or won. But we didn’t. Even going undefeated the rest of the season may not get us the NY6. But we have to move on. I feel we should get a new DC for next year, I’m no expert on how that works timing wise with recruiting. But now kids know they can play on D if the come here next year.
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What we do is use the next 2 weeks to prepare for the remainder of the season. Everything is still on the table, and contrary to popular opinion, is still obtainable. It’s just that we have to abide by the old adage, one week at a time.
We have a game against TSU Saturday. Yes, that’s a scrimmage. Use it to get the backups much needed time on field. After that, we have a bye week. Use it to work out depth issues. These 2 weeks are important vis-à-vis depth for remainder of season.
As for remainder of season, it’s starting to look like a rerun of 2011 and 2009. Both of those seasons we had great Os, but suspect Ds. As for Coach D, he’s not going anywhere during the season. We can’t adjust to a new scheme mid-way. We have what we have. It’s time to focus on improving what we got.
Teams are hurting us on the wings due to poor tackling, an inability of our DBs to shed blockers, and poor positioning of secondary to make plays. We’re not getting burned deep, we’re getting burned by 5 - 6 yard routes which turn into big plays. They have to shed the blocks by the WRs, and make their tackles. It might help if our scheme positioned the DBs better in order to make some plays. Moving them 10 yards off the ball when we’re getting killed by the 5-6 yard routes doesn’t make too much sense. We need to tighten up the outside in order to move the game towards the center of the field; in other words, towards the D line.
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I think the team practices today or tommorow after watching film and UH is 0-0 in AAC play at this point.
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I’m hoping that between CMA and KB they can right the ship and we can still be serious contenders for an AAC Championship. What continues to perplex me is why we are giving good passing teams 5-7 yards off the ball. I hate to see us get beat on long passes, but I’d almost rather see that than just watch decent passers beat down our defense. The real question: do we the talent to really fix the D, or is it the alternative (bring in someone else to fix the problem.)
I’ve only received 4 emails from UM friends (went to grad school there) who said, “told you so.”
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Well in 2015 we went to a Peach Bowl with a fugly conference loss. Now we have a shootout loss early to a big 12 team that nobody will remember as surprising. Boise looked less competitive against OSU, and the rest of their schedule is worse than ours. BYU has an equivalent loss and probably more to come. UCF just had one of their ACC games taken off the schedule, not that NC is impressive this year.
Win out and we still have a shot. Just hope the coaches learn a lot from 190 plays on the film.
These are also the same Miami people who wanted fire Manny Diaz after LSU game few weeks ago. I saw comments that he was a salesman con artist like his politician father. All boards are same. We had a thread last week that Orlando wasn’t as good as we thought…after USC game everyone wants hire him again…smh. Maybe his players played better against USC than against Maryland?
Dallas,
I have issues with CMD scheme…I feel we give up easy completions in flat/short outs. Obvious.
But I watch each game 2 or 3 times and our guys make a lot mistakes. Blown coverages, missed tackles.
And we don’t have Cover corners. CMD is playing a lot more man this year and it’s costing us in my opinion. Not that I like watching soft coverage. But after watching these guys for the last two years, I understand why he did it . Lot PI penalties. I watched UT game last night and wondering what Would be like to have a CB like #2 Boyd.
In Regard to pass rush, we get very little from our basic 4 man rush. And I think that puts you in a bind as DC…do I commit more players and leave guys alone who can’t cover and don’t tackle well?
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I agree with this post. Our goals are also not out of reach. We still have a shot at a conference championship. We also still have a chance at NY6, which if we were currently in a P5 spot would have flown out the window yesterday. I’m giving myself today to be bummed about it, then am going to look forward to a fun season. There are plenty of exciting moments ahead!
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There is just a mismatch in philosophies with both sides of the ball. One is agressive and one is conservative. It doesn’t work.
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I would argue otherwise. Unless we go to an NY6 bowl and beat a highly ranked P5 team, our perception in regards to TX football is shot. They’ll just say… how cute. You won your weak little conference, but when you played a middle of the pack big boy conference team, you got blown out and gave up 63 points. Go back to the kid’s table where you belong.
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After yesterday I would say UNT is the frontrunner for NY6. Who else G5 is undefeated with an SEC non-conf win? Not to mention an AAC non-conf win and SMU could go bowling again.
Did you think we would beat Tech…
I think until UCF loses a game they are still the front runner. I agree though UNT is looking good.
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