I was right

[peanuts104]

We've improved every game. The vitriol from the first few games on this forum was so dumb. Just tell me I was right. We're getting better every week. Can't say that under Littrell.

[RBP79]

The vitriol the DC is getting is deserved. 

[peanuts104]

10 minutes ago, RBP79 said:

The vitriol the DC is getting is deserved. 

That is fair.

[MeanGreenTexan]

This thread is funny. 
The defense just got finished allowing Memphis their highest yardage amount of the year: 600 YARDS!!!  (That's more yardage than they had against FCS Bethune Cookman).   That included the most demoralizing TD in the final minute of a game that I've seen in a while.

Are you serious @peanuts104?

The offense has been humming since Rogers took over.   The success of the offense is not surprising at all, because that's Morris' bread-and-butter.   Kinda like how the offense was fine under Littrell.

[peanuts104]

48 minutes ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

This thread is funny. 
The defense just got finished allowing Memphis their highest yardage amount of the year: 600 YARDS!!!  (That's more yardage than they had against FCS Bethune Cookman).   That included the most demoralizing TD in the final minute of a game that I've seen in a while.

Are you serious @peanuts104?

The offense has been humming since Rogers took over.   The success of the offense is not surprising at all, because that's Morris' bread-and-butter.   Kinda like how the offense was fine under Littrell.

Yes I'm serious. The team has gotten better each game. Does that mean it's good (especially the defense)? No. But I see progress each game.

[SilverEagle]

1 hour ago, RBP79 said:

The vitriol the DC is getting is deserved. 

,,,especially when a former defensive player, and a professional businessman is moved to post a rant demanding his firing,

I was very surprised. 

 

Edited November 2, 2023 by SilverEagle

[southsideguy]

why is so hard for coach to think offense and defense can be good at the same time.   I am not sure if the rule changes on tackling is hurting the defenses or what.   There are a lot of high scoring games these days.  Smu is going to put a 100 on us, because that who they are.

[NT80]

29 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

why is so hard for coach to think offense and defense can be good at the same time.   I am not sure if the rule changes on tackling is hurting the defenses or what.   There are a lot of high scoring games these days.  Smu is going to put a 100 on us, because that who they are.

I don't think it's totally a coaching scheme issue as much as poor tackling and coverage fundamentals plus just a lack of big enough and fast enough defensive players overall.   An offseason recruiting the portal hopefully will help.

[Cr1028]

2 hours ago, peanuts104 said:

Yes I'm serious. The team has gotten better each game. Does that mean it's good (especially the defense)? No. But I see progress each game.

They have only gotten better each week because they started the season much worse than they should have. We weren’t bad last season. I will hold judgment until we show something against both UTSA and SMU. If we can beat UTSA and keep it competitive with SMU then I may give you and Morris your due.

[TIgreen01]

27 minutes ago, southsideguy said:

why is so hard for coach to think offense and defense can be good at the same time.   I am not sure if the rule changes on tackling is hurting the defenses or what.   There are a lot of high scoring games these days.  Smu is going to put a 100 on us, because that who they are.

I'd love to have enough time one day to go through every FBS conference champion in the past 10 years and record how their total & scoring offense and defense ranked within their own conference.  My bet is that defense almost always comes up as a strong indicator, offense not as much.  None of these air raid coaches have ever won any trophies that I can recall.  They collect stats and fill up the scoreboard, but they *never win championships.

*Baylor is the lone exception, from memory.

As they say, offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.

Considering where our season ticket holder numbers are at, maybe that's why we keep seeing our AD hire for offense first.

[MGNation92]

1 hour ago, TIgreen01 said:

I'd love to have enough time one day to go through every FBS conference champion in the past 10 years and record how their total & scoring offense and defense ranked within their own conference.  My bet is that defense almost always comes up as a strong indicator, offense not as much.  None of these air raid coaches have ever won any trophies that I can recall.  They collect stats and fill up the scoreboard, but they *never win championships.

*Baylor is the lone exception, from memory.

As they say, offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.

Considering where our season ticket holder numbers are at, maybe that's why we keep seeing our AD hire for offense first.

Mark Mangino as the OC for the 2000 National Champion OU Sooners. Leach was the OC the year before where Mangino was the OL coach. (obviously longer than 10 years ago but you get the point)

Not to mention countless Big 12 championships between Stoops and Riley - almost all running some variation of the air raid. 

Defense doesn't need to be amazing, just good enough. I think if we can get 6-8 quality transfers that can start we will be very good next season. We've seen glimpses of it this year. Big stops at key moments when every guy is doing his job. Year 2 in the system, players will be more comfortable and with transfers, you know they're playing in this defense because they want to, not because they have to.

This is all assuming Rogers doesn't leave as a graduate transfer. Which, if he continues the absolute tear he's been on, he might be one of the most wanted players in all of college football.

[BigWillie]

4 hours ago, SilverEagle said:

,,,especially when a former defensive player, and a professional businessman is moved to post a rant demanding his firing,

I was very surprised. 

 

Who was this?

[greenminer]

32 minutes ago, MGNation92 said:

Mark Mangino as the OC for the 2000 National Champion OU Sooners. Leach was the OC the year before where Mangino was the OL coach. (obviously longer than 10 years ago but you get the point)

Not to mention countless Big 12 championships between Stoops and Riley - almost all running some variation of the air raid. 

But those defenses were from-another-planet-good.

My takeaway: defense is still carries the torch for championships.  It's just a mystery to me why these Leach disciples can't consistently have decent defenses.

[MGNation92]

1 hour ago, greenminer said:

But those defenses were from-another-planet-good.

My takeaway: defense is still carries the torch for championships.  It's just a mystery to me why these Leach disciples can't consistently have decent defenses.

Not a lot of Riley's - most of the time middle of the pack, worst I saw was 101st/130 - Kyler Murray's year in 2018 (points against)

Of course they were number one offense in the nation. But the point still stands - We don't need to be amazing, just good enough.

Right now we're not even remotely close. Our offense right now is  #9 in total offense, #19 in scoring offense. If we could get our defense to even the low 100's/upper 90's we're gonna win a lot of games.

As it stands we're 130/130 in total defense and 125/130 in scoring defense

Since we like to compare Morris to Kinne:

They're the #22 scoring offense and the #92 scoring defense and they're 5-3. Not dominant, but good enough.

[greenminer]

@MGNation92 yeah amen to that.  Just need something serviceable.  No need for Roy Williams.

[Side.Show.Joe]

22 hours ago, peanuts104 said:

We've improved every game. The vitriol from the first few games on this forum was so dumb. Just tell me I was right. We're getting better every week. Can't say that under Littrell.

3-5. We're still losing. Improvement is measured in the win/loss column. 

[greenminer]

14 minutes ago, Side.Show.Joe said:

3-5. We're still losing. Improvement is measured in the win/loss column. 

I think a lot about Billy Gillespie's first year at UT-El Paso.  The program won a pathetic 6 total games by the end of the season.  But it was one of the most incredible things I've ever felt.  You just knew they were going to be good.  I had never felt so much pride for a 6 win team.  Remember when Grant started coaching in Denton and you could tell the team would run through brick walls for him? That's what I saw with Billy, even though the Ws were not adding up.

His next four years were incredible, both in EP and College Station.

It's okay to look past the wins and losses (in year 1) and see signs of improvement (or disaster).  If you are tired of moral victories, I get it.  But let others be fans, and try to see things objectively.

On the other side of the coin, I remember watching Benford ball in Denton.  It was only year 1 but that was the gross-est 12 win season I've ever seen.  I know it was going to be a train wreck.

Edited November 3, 2023 by greenminer

[Side.Show.Joe]

7 minutes ago, greenminer said:

I think a lot about Billy Gillespie's first year at UT-El Paso.  The program won a pathetic 6 total games by the end of the season.  But it was one of the most incredible things I've ever felt.  You just knew they were going to be good.  I had never felt so much pride for a 6 win team.  Remember when Grant started coaching in Denton and you could tell the team would run through brick walls for him? That's what I saw with Billy, even though the Ws were not adding up.

His next four years were incredible, both in EP and College Station.

It's okay to look past the wins and losses (in year 1) and see signs of improvement (or disaster).  If you are tired of moral victories, I get it.  But let others be fans, and try to see things objectively.

On the other side of the coin, I remember watching Benford ball in Denton.  It was only year 1 but that was the gross-est 12 win season I've ever seen.  I know it was going to be a train wreck.

Gillespie's team had a defense. 

I won't look past the wins and losses since our team played for the conference title last year, and brought back a lot of that talent.

I don't think you get it. I was tired of moral victories two years before Littrell was fired. I want wins. 

 

Nothing Caponi has done to fix our defense is working. Sure, we have other issues like starting slow, but no problem is bigger or more crippling than our defensive struggles. That is on Caponi. And, Caponi being our DC is on Morris.

Morris has proven to be a brilliant offensive mind. He was smart to get Rogers. Rogers is an outstanding QB, and he understands how to run the system. But we need a real defense to complement our high-powered offense. Morris has to do better job of finding the right guy to run the defensive side of the ball and let him get the players we need. (instead of signing a billion WR's). Littrell had a similar problem, and we all know how that played out. 

[NT80]

20 minutes ago, greenminer said:

It's okay to look past the wins and losses (in year 1) and see signs of improvement (or disaster).  If you are tired of moral victories, I get it.  But let others be fans, and try to see things objectively.

On the other side of the coin, I remember watching Benford ball in Denton.  It was only year 1 but that was the gross-est 12 win season I've ever seen.  I know it was going to be a train wreck.

Agree, I can see improvement with football this year each week.  Offense and special teams are doing well.  We just don't have enough of the right players yet on defense, and maybe a coach change or two on defense needed as well. 

I saw the first 3 home games with Benford coaching and knew we were in big terrible.   It was 5 years of awful.  Should have only been 4 but rookie AD Wren wouldn't fire him.  He did find a nice replacement when he finally made the change.

[peanuts104]

3 hours ago, Side.Show.Joe said:

3-5. We're still losing. Improvement is measured in the win/loss column. 

We would not have been competitive in most of these games if Littrell was still coach. If you disagree, you have functional issues.

[greenminer]

3 hours ago, Side.Show.Joe said:

I won't look past the wins and losses since our team played for the conference title last year, and brought back a lot of that talent.

I don't think you get it. I was tired of moral victories two years before Littrell was fired. I want wins. 

I share your expectations for the program. It’s also easy and safe to say Morris will fail if he doesn’t fix the defense. Based on what I'm seeing in this sub-par season, I think it’s reasonable to believe Morris is going to fix it. I wish it would happen quicker, though.

Morris isn’t getting fired after year 1. if all you want to do is spend the next 9 months reminding the board that only wins matter to you, great.

[Travis]

This isn’t the own you think it is. 
 

You are bragging about a 3-5 team that has the worst defense in the entire division and who has zero ability to close out games.   Nah, we didn’t make moves for these kind of results. And is unable to play four quarters. 
 

while he has done better than what I expected to this point…. That isn’t saying much at all. 
 

Edit and updated: you are bragging about a 3-6 team. Part of your argument is that SL can’t do the numbers that EM can but SL played their regular season game much closer than EM did against UTSA.  
 

you picked a bad week to choose this post. 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Travis

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

It's an odd flex for sure.