[One Old Thing, One New Thing]

The old thing: tackling. My goodness these guys have problems wrapping up opposing players and bringing them down! After the last sack & fumble on Rogers, Tecza went for a late afternoon 21 yard stroll that would have been embarassing in a junior high tackling drill to put the game away.

I'm beginning to think that tackling is something that our coaches can't teach. That's a problem.

The new thing: play calling on blitzes and blocking on blitzes. I'm in Denton, and I'm convinced I could drive 45 minutes in any direction from here and find at least six or seven high school teams that blitz better than Navy did today. They didn't disguise their blitzes well and good night did they ever take forever to develop, but their success literally cost us the game.

Some of the effectiveness of the blitz is on Rogers; he didn't have a feel for pressure from the edge. The failure to adjust to those blitzes is mostly on the offensive coaches. Whether you're talking Cooper, Cobbs, Davis, and/or Morris, each one bears some responsibility for this failure to adjust. Half of Navy's sacks were by LBs or DBs; several pressures that resulted in sacks by Navy's DL involved blitzes from DBs. When DBs are creating chaos in blitzes and/or getting home in blitzes, that means there's gaps in the defense. In those gaps are opportunities to catch a ball in space and do something with it *IF* there's a playcall to take advantage of that opportunity.

All in all, I think this one was the most frustrating loss so far because it was so winnable. We should have beaten FIU, but Navy was far more winnable than FIU, and we found ways to squander the opportunity for a W. I see one other shot for a W in our remaining games, next week when we host Temple, but after that, I think the window closes.

[Are we playing the bye at home tonight?]

We're 7.5 point dogs and the money line is moving against us. TIME TO WIN THE BYE!

[So we really can't criticize the head coach, eh?]

I've modded a couple of large, exceptionally ornery Facebook groups as well as modding smaller groups across a multitude of platforms across the last 20 years.

I don't have any insight into GMG's moderation policies, but as someone who has referred lots of online pie fights in my past mod roles, I'd ask you to take a second to think about the title of this thread versus the title of the thread being referenced by this thread. There's a whole world of difference between "So we really can't criticize the head coach, eh?" and "FIRE ERIC MORRIS."

The gap between criticizing the head coach in Week Three of his first season and calling for the head coach to be fired in Week Three of his first season is not trivial. My hunch is that if the thread referenced in this one were titled something like "Eric Morris Needs to Improve" or "Five Things Eric Morris Has To Fix," it would still be up. Maybe I'm wrong, but I bet it would still be up.

No matter how much we may disagree in our Mean Green football opinions, all of us are here by choice. If you find the site moderation to be too onerous or the mod policies to be too vague or opaque, then get some friends together and go start a Facebook group or build your own forum site with the moderation policies you desire. 

[That ESPN+ Crew...]

...made me miss the professionals at Stadium.

What a brutally amateurish production.

[Army vs UTSA]

Individually and as a team, Army executes exceptionally well. They're proof that you don't have to stack your team with four stars and the occasional five to be relevant.

Maybe a couple of seasons of getting the 3-3-5 rolled by Army & Navy might move the needle on the need to consistently have some beef up front.

[Rogers gets the start against LA Tech]

Good. Rogers deserves his shot at QB1. I like Stone Earle, but our experience so far in Games 1 & 2 indicates that Rogers gives us our best chance to win. With our worst in FBS defense, we can't afford turnovers and have to make the most of every offensive possession, and that's Rogers.

[Navy/Memphis Game]

I had LA Tech and Navy as the two remaining games on our schedule where I thought we were toss ups for a win. After seeing Navy give Memphis a hell of a game tonight, I'm moving them into the likely loss column. That was a surprisingly good game.

[Denton players and UNT]

On 1/11/2023 at 7:23 PM, El Paso Eagle said:

What do we need to do to get Denton, and former Denton players to stay/come home? I know the easy answer is to win, but even when we have ad good teams we don't seem to get much interest. Hopefully this new staff can change this.

Winning may attract a few back, but we're not going to get most of them back. I can't speak for prior generations of Denton ISD alums nor generations since I graduated, but I can tell you conclusively that, for my generation of DHS grads, folks who had athletic scholarship opportunities to get out of town took them and never looked back.

It had nothing to do with UNT winning or losing; it had everything to do with wanting to get out of Denton and go live somewhere else/see somewhere else for a few years on someone else's dime. I've said this in other threads, but it bears repeating: for a lot of these young people, this is their best...and possibly last...opportunity to go forth and see the world before they start their post-collegiate adult lives.

Yes, we have a ton of local talent at BHS, DHS, GHS, and RHS. Just because it's local talent doesn't mean that it's ours to lose.

What I'd prefer to see us do is go harder after regional talent in the portal. We're doing that, and it's netted us some solid players. I think that would be a more fruitful approach than to try to repeal the laws of nature and keep or lure Denton talent.

[Returning to Frisco]

I was on the fence about going to the Frisco Bowl. To be honest, I've not been a very good Mean Green fan this year. Loved seeing the guys compete, but was also strongly demotivated by another season of what we came to expect from a Seth-led team. Most of my decision to go to the Frisco Bowl this year came down to seeing one of my friends and high school classmates who came into town.

Last year's Frisco Football Classic was the second lowest point of my time as a Mean Green football fan, the first being Homecoming 2015. At the Football Classic last year, not only did what happened between the lines stink, but I also got COVID. My case was thankfully mild, but it meant that I couldn't visit my mom, who had recently moved into a memory care facility, for Christmas. I understood the risks and made my choice, but, not going to lie, getting COVID for that pathetic excuse of a game really soured me on attending Mean Green games.

So, backstory aside, I saw a lot to dream on last night in Frisco. Yes, there's a lot of work to do, too, but that's the first bowl game loss since the Heart of Dallas Bowl against Army that felt like the Green were ready for it. The guys showed a lot of heart last night, and a lot of fight, literally and figuratively. Even after Aune's 2nd pick put them in such a bad position, they didn't get down, didn't mail it in.

Things to dream on: the offensive line had a great game. Boise's defensive line wasn't much of a factor after the 1st quarter. Goodness, do we have some talented WRs! Adeye and Ragsdale had an outstanding game running between the tackles. Bernardo Rodriguez bailed out the long snapper on both of his first two punts. I really liked what Stone Earle did in his limited snaps.

As they have at several times over the last two seasons, the combination of the defense getting gashed and Austin Aune doing Aune things were too much for the team to overcome. In fairness to Aune, he threw two great passes for TDs. I believe you can't talk about his eye-popping numbers this season without also talking about the backbreaking turnovers that came with them. His second INT of the game felt like it was the difference maker in the back-and-forth of the second half. I wish him well in all of his future endeavors, but I also never want to see him take another snap as our QB.

Coach Morris has a lot of work ahead of him on the defensive side of the ball. I love Phil Bennett the person, but man...that defense was tough to watch in the second half.

Unlike my feeling last year as I left Frisco, this year I was hopeful for our future next season. At the least, I am hopeful that we're not going to be stuck in the doldrums for another season. I don't expect to see everything fixed at once, but I do expect to see improvement. Go Mean Green!

[Shorter]

I wondered if there was some kind of discipline issue with him barely playing in the first half. I don't remember seeing him on the field until late in the 2nd quarter and unless I missed it, I don't think he got a target until the 3rd quarter. He was dressed and on the sideline the entire time, and him being so limited in the first half felt like a major WTF.

He's so much fun and such a disruptive difference maker when he's on the field.

[Time to hire Briles]

2 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

I know Briles won’t be here because of the S storm it would cause but most of the time nobody even knows what specifically Briles did or didn’t do to cause a single sexual assault. They just use vague terms like “rape culture” or “rape enabler”. The man’s livelihood was taken away because of the bad actions and decisions of other people.

It's not about cause; it's about accountability and leadership. Art Briles never told any of his players to go out and get some. Art Briles didn't supervise battery, rapes, or sexual assaults. Art Briles, as head coach of the Baylor Bears, oversaw the recruiting of these players and was leading the program at the time they committed these crimes.

There was extensive documentation of why Art Briles was fired, and it all boils down to this: a loss of institutional control. That loss of institutional control started was centered on the football team but more broadly included the former AD, now Liberty's AD, Ian McCaw and the former Chancellor and President of the university Ken Starr. If you'd like to read the summary of the Pepper Hamilton report, it's here: https://www.baylor.edu/thefacts/doc.php/266596.pdf 

A head coach in any sport at any level is responsible for their team and accountable for their team's culture. That's exceptionally true of FBS football programs. A head coach isn't only responsible for what goes on in between the lines on Saturdays; they're also responsible for the attitude and culture around the team off the field. It's chasing success at all costs in the former that led to a toxic disaster in the latter.

If you're in public university leadership, you simply cannot bring a person with that kind of record into the fold. Hiring someone with that background opens the athletics program and the university at large up a whole elective dimension of institutional risk.

My feeling about Briles as a coach is that if he wasn't going to get a shot at Liberty, it's never going to happen. The set up there was the most ideal setup in FBS college football for him: a small, culturally-conservative school coming off a successful run with another former FBS college football coach with ample personal baggage of his own and the presence of the former Baylor AD who hired him at Baylor and should, in principle, know him better than just about anyone. From everything I've read, Briles was never seriously considered. If the guy who hired you at Baylor won't hire you again at an institution that's practically tailored for you, that sends a quiet but profound message to the rest of the college football world about you.

[What triggers a Seth Extension in your mind?]

I think it has to be a conference championship game win and a bowl game win, and even then, I'm not going to sweeten the deal too much. I'm OK with incentives in the deal, but not a big increase in base salary.

To be clear, I don't want to extend him at all, but if we do extend him, there need to be lots of incentives instead of a base salary and the only way that conversation takes place is after a conference championship game win and a bowl win.

[I’m worried UTSA may win Saturday]

For me, it's got nothing to do with whether or not UTSA wins this game or who is injured for UT.

It's got everything to do with the fact that UTSA is going toe-to-toe with them at DKR and is giving them a game.

We just got our doors blown off by the second place team in the Mountain West's West Division and UTSA is very competitive with UT, a Big 12, soon to be SEC, team.

Trash talk them all you want, but they're in the position we think we ought to be in, but aren't. That should infuriate everyone on this board and most of all, infuriate our boosters and AD.

[If Seth beats Memphis will you forgive his past sins?]

No.

Nothing he does the rest of this season will change my mind.

[Let me Guess…]

It's going to take some kind of fundamental change...Gunnell as starter, Seth getting fired, SOMETHING...to get me back into Apogee this season. Like most of y'all, I work all week. I'm done spending four hours of one of my two days off every weekend there's a home game showing up for this mess.

I know firing Seth or changing the starting QB won't make it much more likely that they win games, but it would at least show me that someone, be it Wren or Seth, cares enough to try a different approach.

If I can see that nobody cares, the players see it, too, as do the student.

[Interesting paragraph in Athletic story on App State]

https://theathletic.com/3589746/2022/09/13/recruiting-app-state-michigan/

Emphasis mine in bold:

Quote

 

But you asked about Appalachian State, and here’s the best answer I can come up with. That is a program that from 1989 through 2012 had one coach in Jerry Moore who set the foundation of what it wanted to be. It has a plan, it knows what it is and it steadfastly sticks with it. That tradition carried forward to Scott Satterfield, Eli Drinkwitz and now Shawn Clark.

Who is App State? It is a team that has a system. It recruits extremely athletic players who are very fast but may not be big enough for the Power 5 level or the recruiting rankings we all love to obsess over. It develops those players into the system, has a high bar for excellence and always has a very well-coached roster. So when that team catches a highly talented roster with warts on a bad day, the Texas A&M game is the result.

 

They recruit a particular type of player, develop them into their system, and are well-coached.

None of these things are new to previous discussions here on GMG about how North Texas can make the magic happen, but in my experience, it sometimes helps to see someone outside of the Mean Green Bubble talk about something that maps to our struggles and a way those struggles could potentially be fixed.

I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that any serious discussion of establishing a system, recruiting players into that system, developing those players, and those developed players being well-coached isn't going to happen with Seth Littrell as head coach. Besides the Fine years, SL's Mean Green teams have struggled across all phases, sometimes struggling at all phases at the same time. 

[Scott Frost Fired]

If you were a fan of extending Seth Littrell after he capitalized on Mason Fine plus some of D-Mac's recruits who panned out, then yes, by all means hire Scott Frost.

If you can critically look at the situation and realize that Frost benefitted from O'Leary's recruiting at UCF and has been unable to sniff that same kind of success at Nebraska despite having far more resources, then don't hire Scott Frost.

I'm in the latter camp.

[DRC Sunday column: Issues with discipline in loss to Marshall raise question -- Is Littrell's message to players getting through?]

The message hasn't been getting through for a while now. Last year's team was defined by its sloppiness. This year's team is defined by its sloppiness.

The message not getting through isn't a new.

[Coach O is available]

If he wants to stay in football, Coach O's upside will be as a defensive coordinator. Setting aside his football coaching, the dude's a walking trainwreck.

He won a national championship with a bunch of guys Les Miles and his staff recruited, then a bunch of those guys and some key assistants left, and LSU's not only been on the struggle bus, but every time they turn around the last two years, there's another story about Coach O covering for one of his players' criminal activities or players coloring outside the lines with a wealthy booster, and who can forget Odell Beckham Jr. literally giving dudes money on the field after the 2019 national championship.

Reading the comments above, I can tell some of y'all are willing to play fast and loose on these things, but rest assured the AD, President, and Regents aren't willing to play it fast and loose. There's a nice-sized list of candidates we could consider before him that don't come with his baggage.

[Some daylight... I'm sure this won't be popular, but I stand by it.]

Ruder should not see the field again this season in a game situation unless Aune and Martin are both injured. Ruder has all the tools, but he is unrefined. He needs a lot of work with a patient and observant QB coach. Giving him game reps at this time disadvantages his development and consistently puts the team in a hole against FBS opponents.

Aune's throwing mechanics still have some baseball in them, but that can be fixed. He's got heart and he's a gamer. He reminds me a lot of a guy who was QB when I was at A&M in the early 90s: Jeff Granger. Dude was a gamer who could hit a wide open receiver in stride maybe one out of every five times because he had baseball mechanics. We used to joke that he thought Greg Hill's hands were in his shoelaces thanks to all the times he'd hit him in the feet and ankles with passes.

Defense regrouped after getting punched in the mouth early and kept us in the game tonight. Loved seeing Dion Novil shine.

I have concerns with every coach on this staff except Bennett and Cobbs. We've got QB and WR talent, but that talent isn't being developed in practice and in side work so that it translates on the field. We need another Graham Harrell and another Joel Filani to work with these young men. I reserve the majority of my concern for the coaches for Coach Littrell. He's busted on an alarming number of assistant coaching hires in recent years, and we're seeing the result of that on the field.