My Thoughts

LittleMeanGreenMan · October 28, 2007

I don't blame Giovanni for this game. Both guards played awful. Awful. Both sides of Vizza were unprotected, and I thought he made some good plays on the run. Mistakes were there, yes, but keep in mind he is a freshman. These things happen.

Kartey Agbottah got flat out smoked twice in the 2nd quarter. It reminded me of Roman at the OU game.

Back to the line though. So bad. Truman Spencer has been blocked three times this season on my count. Could be more. Truman is a great punter, those blocks aren't his fault. Also, the safety on Jamario was completely ridiculous.

Either everyone other team is that much faster, or we are just that slow. It seems to me that we are the slower team week in and week out.

Saw some good things though:

I really like Mosley.

Dibrell impressed me. Him playing HS ball with Giovanni is a plus for us.

I am really excited about Craig Robertson having three years left of eligibility.

BUT MY MAIN THOUGHT...

In my opinion, although we have some bright spots on our roster, its not the coaching, its the horses the coaches have.

PerryG2480 · October 28, 2007

With all due respect, players like Holman, Jamario, Fitz, etc. are not bad athletes and are on par with anything else the Belt has to offer. I know Dodge will get this thing turned around, but right now his staff is getting schooled. Welcome to college ball.

I was being hard on the O-line also until I heard that two starters were out (Bailey and Menard), and then we lost Drake later in the game. This is when Rose moved over to center.

In my opinion, our QB wizard coach needs to teach our boy Vizza not to force the ball so often. He looks really good at times, but I don't like that I now EXPECT 3 to 4 picks a game. MTSU's freshman QB stayed calm under pressure...why can't Giovanni?

Anyway, I'm still a little bitter. I'm not mad at Coach Dodge, but I thought we would see slightly more improvement throughout the season than what we're seeing here.

LittleMeanGreenMan · October 28, 2007

I didn't mean to say we don't have ANY horses. You are right, Fitzgerald, Jamario, Holman, Weathers, Chapman, etc. are great athletes and up there with the best in the Belt. We are just SOOO weak at some spots though, unfortunately.

As far as our boy Vizza goes, in a perfect world he would be 3/4 of his way to a redshirt. But, with Meager's lacking and the disappearing of Matt Phillips, he has to play. He should be getting his picks out of the way at practice like most freshman quarterbacks do.

Oh well. I saw Riley there, thats exciting.

With all due respect, players like Holman, Jamario, Fitz, etc. are not bad athletes and are on par with anything else the Belt has to offer. I know Dodge will get this thing turned around, but right now his staff is getting schooled. Welcome to college ball.
I was being hard on the O-line also until I heard that two starters were out (Bailey and Menard), and then we lost Drake later in the game. This is when Rose moved over to center.
In my opinion, our QB wizard coach needs to teach our boy Vizza not to force the ball so often. He looks really good at times, but I don't like that I now EXPECT 3 to 4 picks a game. MTSU's freshman QB stayed calm under pressure...why can't Giovanni?
Anyway, I'm still a little bitter. I'm not mad at Coach Dodge, but I thought we would see slightly more improvement throughout the season than what we're seeing here.

KingDL1 · October 28, 2007

In my opinion, our QB wizard coach needs to teach our boy Vizza not to force the ball so often. He looks really good at times, but I don't like that I now EXPECT 3 to 4 picks a game. MTSU's freshman QB stayed calm under pressure...why can't Giovanni?

Well the Mut's O-line gave their QB some time. Our O-line was constantly getting pushed back it seemed. I am not saying Vizza did not make mistakes put those rookie mistakes tend to show more when there is that much defensive pressure.

risinggreen · October 28, 2007

I didn't mean to say we don't have ANY horses. You are right, Fitzgerald, Jamario, Holman, Weathers, Chapman, etc. are great athletes and up there with the best in the Belt. We are just SOOO weak at some spots though, unfortunately.
As far as our boy Vizza goes, in a perfect world he would be 3/4 of his way to a redshirt. But, with Meager's lacking and the disappearing of Matt Phillips, he has to play. He should be getting his picks out of the way at practice like most freshman quarterbacks do.
Oh well. I saw Riley there, thats exciting.

I'm just wondering where the spots are on this team where you consider us to be SOOO weak. I could maybe understand the OL or our PK game being considered weak, but I have a hard time finding "Sunbelt caliber weakness" anywhere else on our roster. I do agree that we are playing a lot of youth at critical positions which can result in the appearance of weakness.

MootPoint · October 28, 2007

I thought the offense seemed ok in the first half (some ugly mistakes, e.g., the interception, fumble, etc.), and weren't doing badly in the second half, but they really kind of fell apart after Vizza's third interception (the one run back for a touchdown). It seemed like after that point, everything fell to pieces and they couldn't get anything going at all. The defense . . . ugh is all I can say.

GoMeanGreen1999 · October 28, 2007

I know Dodge will get this thing turned around, but right now his staff is getting schooled. Welcome to college ball.

So here is a question (purely a question) - could we maybe have too many "high school" coaches on our staff and not enough "seasoned" college coaches? Because some of it is worse than getting "schooled" as it is just ridiculous in certain areas.

Edited October 28, 2007 by GoMeanGreen1999

NT80 · October 28, 2007

So here is a question (purely a question) - could we maybe have too many "high school" coaches on our staff and not enough "seasoned" college coaches? Because some of it is worse than getting "schooled" as it is just ridiculous in certain areas.

Almost all of Muts pass completions were to the sidelines but we didn't protect the sidelines all night. The OL played well in spots and poor at other times. Drake was missed when he was gone as some of the snaps were not on line, but Rose was probably rusty at it. The QB/RB next to each other handoff play needs to be ripped out of the playbook! Very frustrating loss. Have to agree some inhouse coaching evaluations need to happen at season end, mainly defense!! A step back again tonight.

Monkeypox · October 28, 2007

I thought the offense seemed ok in the first half

Yikes. If bunches of turnovers in our own territory is ok, I hate to see what's considered bad.

THE CLAW · October 28, 2007

I support Vizza 100% but he needs to stop telegraphing his passes. He only looks one way and that's the way he is going to throw it. I know he is a freshman and his O-line is banged up but when you are only looking one way that is saying you are going to throw that way and the D knows it.

KingDL1 · October 28, 2007

I support Vizza 100% but he needs to stop telegraphing his passes. He only looks one way and that's the way he is going to throw it. I know he is a freshman and his O-line is banged up but when you are only looking one way that is saying you are going to throw that way and the D knows it.

I just thought he only had time to look one way.

stebo · October 28, 2007

What was the score last year? What was the attendance last year? Has Dodge made us a better team against the MUTS or worse?

I will answer my own questions. We were skunked by the MUTS last year. The attendance was terrible because fans knew that Dickey had no chance and the ones that did show up, left at half time last year. Dodge has made us a better team in one year against the Sun Belt co-champs. MUTS started the year down, but they have won 4 of their last 5 and the one that they did lose was by a last second FG against #15 University of Virginia. With 2 seconds left on the clock, UVA was down 21-20 to the MUTS - they kicked a long field goal and it barely went in to beat the MUTS. So we were not playing some pansy team last night, they pretty much beat a top 25 team a couple of weeks ago. So again - Are we better then last year? Of course. This same MUTS team would have killed us again, they would have run up the score about the same but we wouldn't have scored at all. Try taking back those passes that we had to speed down the field and score - and running up the gut over and over - we lose this game and only score one TD. We at least had a chance last night, we came back from a huge deficit and were only down by 2. We just squandered that momentum and that is what we are going to have to fix. Dodge will fix those things, I have NO doubt.