aucom96

Good win. Shades of Malzahn are still very much there and unsettling, but we needed that SEC win before going on the road again. Jordan Hare showed up, one half showed a lot of potential, I think Thorne got a lot of needed confidence and Hunter continues to wake up. A lot of positives.

It’s like Gus never left. He did, didn’t he?

AU - 16 MS - 13

Kirby was 8-5 with wins over two ranked teams and a bowl victory and brought in a top 10 class. Saban walked into a tougher situation, finished 7-6 with a top 10 class. Hugh will have it toughest of all as he has a worse roster situation and NIL to deal with. He not only has to recruit a good 24 class, he has to keep his roster from being whittled away by the portal. This offensive chaos on the field isn't going to help that. We have one sure win on the schedule. If we can't improve from here on out, Hugh's job is only going to get exponentially harder.

Ashford is not a solution. Neither QB is reacting quickly when the ball is snapped. When Ashford is in, it's generally to run. Ole Miss, which is not a great defense, reacted quickly to that. Better defenses will shut it down. When he throws, his eyes are generally downfield and he holds the ball nearly as long as Thorne before looking to check down. Thorne is very slow to make a decision and seems overwhelmed by the pressure. I do feel he is more capable of making a wider range of throws, though. Ultimately, this two quarterback thing is hurting both players and probably causing dissension. I can't see them continuing to do this as anything other than bad coaching. Robby plays with a lot of intensity, which I think makes him a fan favorite in contrast to Thorne's rattled demeanor, but I don't think he's a markedly different player than last year. The roster is what it is, but there are definitely deficiencies with coaching which are aggravating our problems.

Yeah, we see it. A team with low talent can run a basic offense. They can make high percentage throws, they can run the ball with some consistency, they can avoid procedure and other stupid penalties all of the time. We aren't the only team with a talent issue in the SEC and we aren't the worst case. We ARE a team with - right now - obvious poor on the field coaching. That's going to make it harder to bring in the players we need, it's going to cost more, it's going to make bringing in the best available transfers more difficult because other coaches are going to point at the chaos on the field and say "Is immediate playing time really enough?" Freeze better bring in top classes on signing day because, so far, that's the only thing he's doing well.

Thorne, I just don't know. He was brought in to do something that isn't working and the air looks about out of his sails. Ashford, I mean, he can run option and throw the ball down the field...basically, what we saw last night. It might give us a better shot in some of the toss-ups on the schedule (Vandy, Arkansas, MSU) but I don't think it does anything substantial toward getting us where we want to be. Geriner, I suspect you'll see similar problems that we're seeing with Thorne. Our receivers are bad, bad, bad. We're trying to do things we obviously aren't able to yet do and the level of effort is baffling. Couple that with Freeze poor mouthing the team, and it's just a bad mess. Freeze has his work cut out for him.

OM 37 AU 23

Robby played with more intensity, no doubt, but it was still largely option and QB keepers when he was in. Thorne isn’t it, but if there is some kind of player divide explaining the half hearted looking play out there, Freeze needs to clean house at soonest opportunity.

I see disorganization and chaos. The coaches we are recruiting against see it as well. The roster weakness is an explainable factor. The absolutely mess evident in our prep and coaching, not as much. Tonight I saw a 5 year correction, minimal. I am not so orange tinted glasses that I think he'll comfortable get that time. Changes are going to have to be made.

Signed.

Hugh better recruit his buttocks off, because I am not seeing any improvement week to week. I see confusion, boredom, penalties and stupid, stupid play calling. He’s got a weak roster, but Missouri lit these guys up with no much more. At some point, you have to prove something. If you’re a blue chip receiver, QB or offensive lineman, why would you want to play what we’re showing?

This is a POORLY coached team.

Montgomery and Davis need to be elsewhere next season.

I’d say sit Thorne, but as garbage as our receivers are, I don’t think it matters.

If he takes over, we're giving up on the passing game and running option. If that happens, we will lose. I'm just looking for the wide receivers to play with a pulse. They'll get enough good passes thrown their way, but if the stone-hands continue, if won't matter who is under center.

LSU - 27 AU - 20

I don’t see the big problem with that.

QB play has a lot to do with really bad receivers in the Georgia game. I think that's our most pressing problem on offense at this point.

I don't know. What I do know is that "run the ball" is no longer a way to compete at a high level in this game. Robby can pick up big chunks of yards and a touchdown here and there running option, but good defenses know what he's going to do, they'll stack the line and we ultimately won't have enough to win. We have to make throws. We have to attract receivers and QBs to this program. We aren't going to do that transforming into a triple option offense, so I imagine Freeze will continue to force the passing game. Last season, Robby made some impressive throws on the run but they weren't controlled situations. He also turned the ball over a lot. Most glaringly, he was terrible at completing high percentage passes and with our pass protection, that has to happen. I imagine if we're going to make a change, this off week will be the time. That may be Robby, but I hope we aren't going to do what we did last year when Carnell took over. Last year, we didn't have much of a choice. This year, we have recruiting to think of.

I think in 5 years or so, you're REALLY going to have to be a college football fan to remain a college football fan.

I just wanted to step in, own that I was a negative johnson who predicted a 40 point blowout, profess my pride in these ducktape bandits for fighting and my hope the atmosphere really impacted some recruits today. This was a good day, overall.