It was hard to choose the stops on this weekend’s trip around the message boards. With the chaos of the weekend, I could have made Diamond Medallion in a weekend. All of this without a stop in Palo Alto to see the smoking crater that is the Florida State football program.
Let’s start on Friday night in the Sunshine State as the Hurricanes get exposed by Louisville.
In the words of Marc Antony through the Bard, I come to bury Mario Cristobal and Carson Beck, not to praise them. 63 yards rushing for a team whose coach is an offensive line coach by trade. 4 interceptions including a back breaker on the last possession in plus territory when all you need is a field goal to tie the game.
Miami is going to make the playoff because no one else on the schedule is that good and they have the win over Notre Dame. 9 penalties and 4 turnovers equals an undisciplined team that is going to have issues in the playoff.
Let’s head back to the Plains to check on the Auburn Family as they move closer to the ledge after another loss.
At this point, Auburn’s defensive players have to be throwing up their hands in frustration. They have played well enough throughout the season for the Tigers to be undefeated and positioned for a playoff berth. That offense is wretched. They won their turnover margin. They rushed for more yardage. Jackson Arnold wasn’t good but also wasn’t terrible.
That means one thing … Hugh Freeze sucks. This is what you can get when you decide to fire a coach with some success because you believe you can do better. I’m here to enjoy every moment of it.
Let’s head up to South Bend to check on the Boy Wonder and the temperature of Arrogant Nation.
The stat line from Saturday looks like a Lincoln Riley team – 306 yards rushing given up and they only rushed for 68. They got physically whipped by the Irish. Riley has the same advantages at USC that Cristobal has at Miami – an NIL war chest and a fertile recruiting base with no geographic equal. Yet, he can’t seem to get out of his own way in big moments. He could cover that up at Big 12 OU where his teams would just make you play basketball on grass.
Let’s head to Tuscaloosa to look in on Tooth Nation after the 3rd Saturday in October.
Butch Huepel? That’s genius worthy right there.
Alabama slaps down Tennessee in T-town again. I’ll admit I listened to part of the game on my way home from Athens last night. The Alabama radio announcers are the worst. Eli Gold loved Alabama, but he was a treasure. Their PbP guy is just a Bammer douche on the radio. I had to turn it off before my ears started bleeding.
On to the game, Bama used a flurry in the 2nd quarter to put Tennessee away capped by a 99(!)-yard pick 6 on the last play of the half after the Vols drove the length of the field. That reminded me of Sean Jones running down the sideline in 2003 in Kneeland.
I was happy because one team had to lose.
Let’s head to Music City where Corn Dog Nation has to be beside themselves today.
I didn’t know Cajuns knew any words to replace the f-word especially given the language in one of their cheers.
You would think the motivation message to the LSU Fightin’ Tigers would have written itself, “Vegas has you as a betting underdog to Vanderbilt! What are you going to do about it?” Get Pavia-ed looks like what the response was. Josh Pate haz a sad over Blake Baker’s defense being bludgeoned to the tune of 239 yards yielded on the ground.
I’ve said the Corn Dogs would turn on the Leprechaun as soon as things went south because he isn’t one of them. It’s happening. I’m guessing with A&M and Bama coming up next that Kelly is reading the fine print of his contract this morning.
Let’s head to the Palmetto State to check in on the state of South Carolina college football.
Clemson and South Carolina both lose by double digits, and both Dabo and Baby Beamer find themselves in the crosshairs of their fan bases. I’m not even going to go into the details of the games.
At this point, the Clemson-South Carolina game would be on Raycom or Jefferson Pilot in the old days of TV. If tickets were still paper, a Cock or Tiger fan may put them on the windshield of their car at the local Ingles and find more tickets on the windshield when they come back.
Let’s head up to the bluegrass to check in on how “Texas is back.”
If you looked at a team’s stat line and saw the following numbers, what would you think happened with 179-395 total offense, 132-258 passing, 47 yards rushing and 20:00 of ToP?
A loss by 2 TDs? Well, you would be wrong. That team wins in overtime.
The Archduke has a 25 game QBR with a below 50% completion rate. Kentucky sacks him 3 times.
This Texas team is not good at all. They go to Starkvegas next and then entertain Vandy prior to their off week prior to their visit to Athens. Is it possible Texas could have 4 losses when they visit between the hedges?
For the preseason #1 with the Heisman winner and #1 overall draft pick in the 2026 draft, that has to hurt.
Let’s move on to Hogtown to check in on the mental state of the Handbags.
Sun Belt Billy is out at Florida. When your fan base bemoans a win especially a conference win, you know you’re in trouble. My only question is whether the team quits on the staff heading into the Cocktail Party. As others have said, I wonder if Kirby would bring him up for an analyst role similar to the Jaden Rashada season just to get under the Gators’ hides.
My only message to Kirby is to annihilate them.
Let’s end this weekend back in the Classic City to check on both sides of the game of the weekend.
We have a segment of our fan base who needs to learn about resiliency. That statement isn’t about creating a bogey man or pumping sunshine.
To the Ole Miss fans, the game flipped when the Rebel defense finally completely broke and Trinidad Chambliss realized he wasn’t playing in Oxford or Ferris State any longer. it had nothing to do with ABC’s decisions for TV timeouts.
I have to say two things about the game. First, I would rather see us take chances in man coverage rather than give ridiculous amounts of cushion. Second, I don’t understand Kirby’s decision to go for 2 in the 3rd quarter.
What did you see this weekend? Let us know in the comments.
Excellent work EE!! 👏👏
“We have a segment of our fan base who needs to learn about resiliency.”
Additionally, we have an even larger segment of our fan base that would rather be right about about us losing than be wrong about us winning. I was alone in my section, that grudgingly wore black, that had bulletproof confidence in the win. Although, the opening drive in the second half was tough to take.
” would rather see us take chances in man coverage rather than give ridiculous amounts of cushion.” – Agreed, but I don’t know that Kirby’s risk averse tendencies will allow it.
“I don’t understand Kirby’s decision to go for 2 in the 3rd quarter.” – I think it was an attitude play and we’ll see more of it as going for two gets mor normalized.
From Dawgnation:
“If you play zone, you let them catch it,” Smart said. “You play man-to-man, you might get a second and 10. And right now we’re just trying to get a second and 10. So, like, we get some stops. We won the game in man-to-man. So I’m going to live and die on that sword because if you just give guys free access and stay off of them, which they did, Gunner went 12-for-12. Their guy was 12-for-12 when we played zone.”
Maybe Kirby will let our DBs play. After all, they’re 5 stars EVERY other school would take.
I’m glad you posted that quote, hialtdawg. Kirby definitely sounded like he wasn’t happy with all of the zone play in the game. It makes me wonder just how much control he has over the defensive schemes. After all, Schumann is the DC. I don’t think it’s just an honorary title.
From my middle school coaching pedigree, I found that playing a zone defense works well when you know everything will be in front of you and what’s behind. With pretty much the entire college football world living and dying on RPOs, you can’t play zone in a manner to make zone effective because if your linebackers are incorporated into zone, you’re just opening up the front for a running quarterback. They’re all scramblers nowadays, when you think about it. Offensive philosophies nowadays are a DC’s nightmare.
Throw in the in-helmet comms up to 15 on the play clock, and a good offensive coach like Kiffin is telling his QB what to do before the ball is even snapped.
Complete and total control.
I said it at the time that I thought it was too early to be chasing points and it would have been a two possession game at the end of Georgia had just kicked the extra point instead.
Yeah, I’m used to the wait til you need it to save your 2 point plays mentality; but maybe the game has evolved. I thought it would be a chance to put some gravy on our momentum biscuit.
Agree.. I thought the rule was that you play the long game and take the points at home. I felt the same when we went for it on 4th down against Bama.
We are just getting toasted playing zone, particularly when all our DBs are playing so far off the ball. As for going for 2, with only about a third of the game left, thought it was okay to try and get it tied….
I see the thing about the 2 point play. I just thought it was too early to chase the 2nd point.
I’m okay with playing zone only if we’re getting a decent pass rush, otherwise no.
What if you’re playing Alabama and their man is better than your man at all 3 wr positions?
Would you man up Jeremiah Smith every down?
Playing a lot of zone vs Kiffin probably isn’t the best idea because he will pick you apart. Especially with his being able to communicate directly to the qb.
Match ups matter a lot.
But no matter who you are playing you have to mix it up a bit.
I’m sure that there was a rationale for playing 2nd and 10 soft like that. Its probably something Kirby and the defensive staff talked about and had a plan for and maybe they were going to show that look, give up 12, show it again and have a LB/SS drop into the throwing lane. Or tell 20 he has deep 1/2 because 6 is going to break hard on the ball.
Who knows? That the play goes for a 75 td and gives fans the opportunity to think they know football is unfortunate.
Its Kirby’s job to ball up the game plan and say “fuck it, that shit we thought of on Wednesday, may have seemed smart then, but it just ain’t working.”
I mean, we had one play where all 4 DBs were all standing in a line 10 yards off the ball and, instead of rushing 7, we dropped 3 putting 7 defenders in zone, got no pressure, and lo and behold, the WR was wide open in the holes in the zone and easily picked up 10-15 yards!
We’re going to have to get better at tightening down those holes and tackling in space. The guys aren’t playing fast or aggressive enough in zone. That much is true.
They seem a tad hesitant and uncertain.
Gunner needs to continue to get comfortable throwing into a zone and we need to get more comfortable on defense playing in zone.
We need to be able to effectively attack both man and zone and we need to be able to play man and zone defense effectively if we are to make a run.
Yeah, the tackling and not rallying to the ball really jumps out with this year’s squad
There was one play in man and the db was 10yards back and still gave up a TD. It’s not the magic bullet.
The Texas fan that had nine high gravity beers the took a dump in his fireplace? That tracks with the state of that program for sure.
“I have to say two things about the game. First, I would rather see us take chances in man coverage rather than give ridiculous amounts of cushion.”
I complained about the massive cushions yesterday and got this reply from Derek.
“And they’ve left behind a legacy where football fans everywhere “think” that if you just play man and blitz on every down you’ll never give up a point. Ever.
The game tends to be a little more of a chess match than just that.”
Expect your rebuke from Grand Master Derek shortly. All of us checker players shouldn’t be noticing the obvious.
When you have a 3rd and relatively short and you are playing 10-15 yards off the receiver, it does not take a genius to figure out that your chances of stopping the 1st down are pretty slim.
First, you boosted your take via dovetailing tv announcers.
Second, the idea that you may know more about defense than Kirby lacks any persuasion with me.
Btw, who is leading the NFC is scoring right now?
Our fan base’s favorite OC: Schitty.
Which reminds me:
Fans are shitty and don’t know shit, but for some reason like to act like they do.
Carry on.
Sounds like Kirby saw the same thing we did and isn’t real happy about it.
“If you play zone, you let them catch it,” Smart said. “You play man-to-man, you might get a second and 10. And right now we’re just trying to get a second and 10. So, like, we get some stops. We won the game in man-to-man. So I’m going to live and die on that sword because if you just give guys free access and stay off of them, which they did, Gunner went 12-for-12. Their guy was 12-for-12 when we played zone.”
Kirby wasn’t happy with the zone play either.
“Fans are shitty and don’t know shit, but for some reason like to act like they do.”
Since you’re a fan that has to be one of the greatest self-roast of all time
Carry on
He’ll never call zone again.
Somebody called me out on the gameday message board when I complained about the DB’S sitting 10 yards back in coverage. Some act like this sport is complicated, and cannot be analyzed by a fan three beers in…probably because they don’t see it either. News flash, they are not splitting the atom folks. The game has not changed much since the invention of the forward pass.
0 beers is far too many for almost all fans.
The idea that the game isn’t complicated is belied by the amount of support staff and film study that is invested into it.
I have no issue with a fan questioning a particular decision:
Go for 2?
Fake a kick?
Go for it on 4th?
Those sorts of isolated decisions can be second guessed and I would agree that sometimes the coaches get it very wrong.
However, the idea that any of us know which defense we should call on 3rd and 6 on their 41 with 7:31 left on the clock in 31-34 game is ridiculous and always will be.
We not only don’t know, we can’t know. We simply don’t have enough information to know why guys making millions of dollars a year working 80 hours a week called Cover 3, quarters, an exotic blitz, or a twist/stunt etc… there.
We don’t. We can pretend we do no matter how many beers we have, but we don’t and its just silly to suggest otherwise.
Nick Saban sitting and watching would NOT second guess a defensive call at that granular level because he isn’t at practice and he isn’t in the film room.
He might tell you what he would have done with his defense vs OM in 2015, but he can’t watch the first half on Saturday and then put on a head set and go out and get results calling defense in the second.
And guess what?
Neither can you.
I don’t think you blitz and play man on every down either, but when you give 7-8 yards of cushion on 3rd and 5 or less, you’re almost conceding the first down when a DB starts by taking 1-2 steps back at the snap.
We have the corners (and star) to play 2 deep safeties with man across the board. You don’t have to go cover 0 or cover 1 to play the way we want to play.
These message boards are entertaining, but they also make you realize that every fan base has their percentage of idiots. Just looking at some of the comments about Kirby from those supposed Dawg fans. If they had grown up a few hundred miles away, or had limited access to dental care, or had parents with an affinity for used jeans and scissors, they could easily be a fan of one of our hated rivals from any adjacent state.
Carolina, I prefer to call them geniuses. 😉
I think they spell is “jeanyus”
Post of the day!
2025 tejas smells of 2008 dawgs minus the QB talent
I think we showed more life in 2008 than texas has. We could score the ball most weeks.
Defense was a bit of a struggle.
Of course, the fans, the geniuses that they tend to be, were convinced that losing Stafford and Moreno was a net plus and that Ginger Warrior would lead us to greater things in 2009.
In fairness, things did turn around…it just took until Game 3 of 2011.
2008 Georgia beats 2025 Texas.
In black jerseys, even
That might be going a little too far.
I think they could defend against them and we could definitely out score them.
Quite frankly, given the state of the game, the 2008 team might have held onto their preseason ranking if you dropped them into 2025.
There isn’t a defense that we’ve seen that would have slowed Stafford and Moreno down.
The 2007 team (the late season version) would look like the team of the century vs this bunch.
Auburn fans: “Been a miserable 2.5 years”.
*checks notes*
Georgia fans: It’s been miserable for 123 years. I realize it’s hard to count past your two and a half existing digits on your hand, but that’s a lot of misery. Here’s some toilet paper.
May it never end…
The chicken fan who wrote that sandstorm had become a shitstorm deserves props.
Always has been….
Ah the coaching carousel is spinning ever faster. Guess what, with more money comes a shorter fuse. How is a team going to be able to pay the players enough if they keep having to pay excessive severance to head coaches and staff. The unruly college football model is going to end in a payer’s union. Then their will be a players strike etc etc. College football is going down a slippery slope and the fans are the least of their worries.
That such mediocrities continue to be able to obtain such generous severance packages is astounding (and puts corporate America to shame!)!