Report

It will be interesting to see an overall comparison between him and the other new HC hire in Texas, GJ Kinne over the next few years. clearly Kinne started off with a bang- 4-1 with a win over baylor im a little concerned with only a 14 pt win over a mediocre fcs team. I’m also willing to give it a year. Just cause you start off with a bang doesn’t mean you can sustain it. Good program builders take time

I think we will see a different defense this week. The triple option will force more guys in the box. If we decide to not tackle, it's going to be a long game. Right now, we run a mix of 3 and 4 man fronts. The triple option will force the defense to hold their gaps and key on certain players. The DTs/LBs will need to wrap up the FB every play. The DEs and OLBs will need to be responsible for the pitchman. Our Safety will need to come down and hit the RBs as soon as they receive the pitch. Here is a good article about defending the triple option. https://www.bloggersodear.com/2017/10/20/16508088/georgia-tech-wake-forest-paul-johnson-spread-offense-understanding-and-defending-the-triple-option

I think SL did the very smart thing by hiring PB. He was a proven commodity, very experienced. It was just too little too late at the time

There are some improvements. Rogers is a real bright spot. Offense as a whole looks like it has the potential to develop into a consistently dangerous unit. My issue is that I haven’t been particularly worried about the offensive side of the ball going back to the Morris hire. It’s the defense that will end up breaking this season for us. Simply put, we don’t have the personnel for this 3-3-5. Richards - our best defensive player - is almost completely neutralized in this alignment. When we’ve gone to 4 man, we look more competent. Not amazing, but better. Then we inexplicably switch back to 3 man in obvious running situations and get gashed. Even by FCS ACU. We’re simply being hard headed in philosophy on that side of the ball. To the team’s detriment. Either we adjust base alignment or expect AAC play to be a brutal slog for us.

Let me just add to the comment about Landon Sides. I believe that there was a post about his signing with North Texas a few months ago. After listing all of the things that he did on the field, UNTLIFER beat me to the punch by saying that he sounds like a certain former player Michael Lawrence....something that I immediately agreed with. After observing him last night, I think Mr. Sides is at a slightly higher level. I remember going to a fall practice with FFR back in 2010. One of the new players out there was a receiver that I had never heard of but by the end of practice I was very impressed. It was Breland Chancellor. FFR struck up a conversation with the young coach in charge of WR's and special teams, and toward the end of the conversation I asked about Chancellor. The coach acknowledged that he was a talented player, but they would probably redshirt him. I just smiled at the coach and said "Coach, I don't see how you are going to keep him off the field this year....he's too talented". I am going to repeat that assessment for this young man. They used him to great advantage last night. If I were in charge, the next thing I would do is put him out there returning punts.