Halftime and Commodores down 32-14.
Still, you gotta love the fact we came out and scored two touchdowns out of the gate. I know a lot of fans are going to whine about:
1. Funk coming in after Larry's two scoring drives and throwing a pick.
2. Larry fumbling in the end zone for a safety.
3. Our secondary surrendering 259 yards passing and three touchdowns.
I'm not whining about that. I love the idea of letting Larry sit for a series and watch the game, especially when he knows it's going to happen and is psychologically prepared for it. (But wouldn't it be nice to have a QB who doesn't have to be psychologically prepared for everything?) Barden dropped Funk's pass and it popped into the hands of a Razorback DB. Oh, and Mallett has no pressure. He'd torch any secondary when the D-Line isn't pressuring him.
We simply have zero error for margin. Our four-man rotation at defensive line, on average, gives up 30 yards to each Razorback offensive lineman. Thirty pounds! Eric Samuels rips off a great kick return and it's nullified by a bone-headed penalty from Josh Jelesky, who did a similarly stupid thing against Northwestern.
Yeah, Larry needs to unleash the ball sooner, but he's not getting much time. Mallett, as Caldwell likes to say, is eating a sandwich back there before he throws a pass. Our O-Line is missing a ton of assignments.
On the bright side of things, the Razorbacks are going to be sore after this one. Sean Richardson is laying the wood to those guys. Granted, he does it after they've gained 15-20 yards, but he's making them think twice about it. Marve is a beast, too.
And we're smarter than they are, too. Tyler Wilson, Arkansas' backup quarterback, was named the scholar-athlete of the week... for his 2.9 GPA in sports management.
A 2.9? In sports management? At Arkansas? Are we supposed to be impressed?
Hey, don't quit your day job — which apparently is playing football.
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10 comments:
Rumor has it that Tyler Wilson is in line to be Vandy's next AD.
you have got to be kidding. we just had our two best drives of the yr and you "love" the idea of taking Larry out and killing any momentum.
I have never been more sure that we should be in the FCS than this year. We are awful, Ole Miss win was a fluke. We s<>#.
And to think, I thought Ted Cain was bad. He makes thses clowns look like idiots. At least he adveraged 250 yds/ game. What do we have tonight? 150 yds!! Are you kidding me? No 1st downs since first half??!?! I don't think a firing this whole dork show can be enough.
Much better start. Unfortunately they adjusted and we did not. I believe that is coaching. Understanding that the defenses in the SEC are super fast, I would still like to see us run the triple option for a quarter with Stacy and Norman in the backfield - at least for a series or two.
I try to evaluate this team each game on if Vandy can truly compete for 4 quarters against sec talent. They were not going to beat Ark. My problem is that it proves again that the administration needs to make major changes to this coaching staff. Both O and D lines need to get bigger and more physical. No qb pressure on Mallet was going to result in a long night. I have generally been a supporter of LS because of poor position coaching from both Kiser and Fischer, but he is not the answer at qb; and unfortunately when he does make a good throw our wr core drops the ball in too many situations. Any defense will get torched if even a poor qb has alot of time let alone a future NFL qb. Once again, other than Krause and Barden, the wr core is not very good and needs a total makeover. It doesnt matter that a wr was "Mr Kentucky" in high school. If you cant perform at the SEC level within a year or 2 then you must look at other wr options. There does appear to be a sense of entittlement at wr that you will play as a upper classmen even if your talent does not dictate it. No other SEC program will play guys based on your class; best players play regardless of freshman or senior at all other SEC schools which is another reason our wr core is so bad. No question to me that freshman wr Mathews should be on the field with Krause. Not even sure why Wimberly and Herndon are even in the rotation; Cole should be a backup to Krause. Jordon Rogers should already be penciled in as the starter when off-season conditioning starts. I like Caldwell but he must make major changes to the coaching staff at season end.
Our offense looked great until we went back to the old style and the Arks adjusted to what we were doing. With another week to have an entire game planned out plus the film of what worked this week, we should be ok. Remember that we won't face another team as good as Ark. We will win more games and the offense will use more running. I am still hopeful and liked a lot of what I saw from the team this week.
Just a few comments:
While I don't think Funk was the reason that drive of his was unsuccessful, the move (pre-planned or not) really baffled me. A move like that is really unprecedented in football, and for good reason, it really shouldn't happen if we've determined Larry is the better player and starter--which we have.
The offense looked mostly the same, but that's to be expected. This coaching staff has been together a long time, with the exception of hand. The offense has looked like this for a long time (at least the past 3-4 years), and that's because practically everyone on this staff seems to have the same idea of what should work--the problem is, it seems they're all wrong. I'm not ready to blame anything on Kitchings, but I really don't think he can make much of a difference. We still need to stretch the field--our backs are great, but the best backs can't run on SEC defenses consistently without the threat of a downfield option. Just a couple shots downfield occasionally (calculated, of course) will put them in occasional Cover-2 shells which opens the running game up tremendously. Easier said than done, of course. But past our pre-game script, we seem to forget we have more than a couple plays in our playbook.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the mental mistakes we're making with penalties are still baffling. And penalties are really the best indicator of coaching, in my opinion. The personal foul(s) shouldn't be happening. False starts, illegal formations, and other similar penalties should be unacceptable for our team which is (supposed to be) smarter and has less margin for error. Penalties out of aggression and relentless play can be forgiven (some pass interferences, facemasks trying to make tackles, etc) but we can't be having late hits, false starts, and the such--completely unacceptable and something that truly falls on the coaching staff.
Arkansas is a damn good team, no doubt. But I think we could've (and should've) scored more than 14 on their defense, which isn't near the caliber of other SEC defenses.
The jury is still out on Kitchings but I think the offensive staff (at least) needs an overhaul for any change to be seen.
Thanks for breaking it down for us; good job. Not sure what kind of OC Des is or can be, but he's certainly the right guy to script our first 10 plays. Of course, we kind of ran out of gas after that.
I am certainly willing to give Coach Kitchens an opportunity to show what he can do. It would be unfair to judge his play-calling skills on less than 1 week into the position and 1 game in the middle of the season. If Caldwell is given the opportunity to coach next season, then Coach Kitchens is likely the only offensive coach that deserves to stay another year because of his past success with the running backs. Kitchens has earned the opportunity to revamp the offense in the off-season and perhaps even install (with coach Hand) more of a spread offense and at least attempt to get the ball down field with Rogers at QB. Go Dores !
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