So why the 17 does a Grad Assisstant handle SP duties in a big game situation...

[DamnitDog]

...I guess now every team is doing this? Why are college-aged Grad Assistants (who could possibly care less about work than being in college partying with their friends and is more interested in sleeping till noon and banging the nearest college chick, just like every other 17ing college student) given the HUGE task of getting the Special Teams out on the field, lined-up correctly and within a few seconds right in the middle of a big-time SEC game against South Carolina at the visitor's stadium?

This seems too much for one of these young 17s to handle? Why the 17 isn't the damn Special Team's coach (Dan Mullen himself) responsible for this ****? It seems like an obvious thing for a more experienced coach to be responsible for this? This gets back to Dan's incompetence to me but maybe I'm wrong.

Or is it typical for every SEC team to hand over responsibilities like this to younger staff who want to be coaches in the future? I just don't remember this being implemented by teams except for the last few years in the SEC? Does Nick Saban have a Grad Assistant handling his Special Teams in a big game situation?

 

[DerHntr]

I don't fault the head coach for turning over the in-game duty of making sure the STs are ready to run in if needed. This is especially true in our situation where no one really knows if it is Dan or the OC making play calls. He can't also be rounding up the special teams players.

Where I have a problem with it is passing it on to a grad assistant. He should have a Special Teams coach instead of doing it himself.

 

[Walter White.sixpack]

I agree that someone else needs to help out instead of a GA, but you are over generalizing these guys. The GA's want a coaching job. They're busting their tail for little to no $$ in order to try to get a foot in and make networking connections for real life jobs.

 

[Lawdawg.sixpack]

My biggest problem with that whole situation is that WE JUST HAD A TIMEOUT TO TALK ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN. So you would think that, during that timeout, once you sent in the play call for the 8 yard square ins by both wideouts, YOU WOULD HAVE MADE IT CLEAR that "hey guys, hurry up to the line and spike the ball. Then we will send the kicker out." You would think that would have avoided the mass hysteria when Johnson was tackled, and half of the kick team runs on the field, while half the offense tries to spike it and a few others try to run off the field.

I assume Mullen did just that. And some idiot still sent the kick team in. Maybe Mullen didn't inform all the coaches of what the plan was. Maybe we have one idiot coach who has short term memory loss. In either event, that's unacceptable. And the cluster on the field was embarrassing. And also par for the course.

/sorry for yelling.

 

[drt7891]

A lot of people want to blame Dak for mishandling the end of the half, but the more I think about it, the more and more I want to put every bit of it on Mullen. Why wasn't the plan clearly communicated in the first timeout where EVERYONE (coaches, players, etc.) knew EXACTLY what was going to happen? I can tell you from my playing days and nearly every game I've called as an official, if a timeout is called in a late half/game situation, the gameplan to finish the half is clearly communicated to players and coaches alike (even after a bad sequence like the sack/grounding). Instead, Mullen used that timeout to chew the ever living 17 out of Dak and the official for the sack/grounding call. I have to think that was the reason Dak didn't know what was going on when they came back on the field and why the assistant GA/Coach had no idea what was going on (and, subsequently, the reason the second timeout was called). As a coach, you HAVE to put that part of the game behind you for :13 seconds to give your team a damn chance to get points before the end of the half instead of grinding your axes with the qb and officials for a bad sequence. Yes it was bad, but he clearly made a bad situation worse and why I think that is the very reason for the massive cluster17 to end the half.

 

[DerHntr]

Just watched the replay. Looks to me like if Dan had been busy coaching instead of wasting the two time outs, then the grad assistant wouldn't have had the chance to 17 up.

 

[drt7891]

That's exactly what I saw... Dan was too busy chewing everyone out that nothing was communicated about what to do next (Dak and the offense obviously didn't know what to do next)... hence the next timeout being taken (and that message didn't get to the assistant who tried to send the FG unit onto the field... he had no idea we had no timeouts left when he tried sending them on the field), and the ensuing cluster17. THAT is completely on Mullen... every bit of it.

 

[esplanade91]

That guy wasn't college aged. I'm college aged, and that guy looked a lot older than me. Keep in mind that probably half of GA's are Porkchop types, especially SEC GA's.

That being said, why the 17 is a GA responsible for that ****? I felt like Mullen was showing out for the cameras. Feel whatever way you want about Mullen, but in 5 years I've never seen him show anything like that until now. Why now? We've made equally dumb mistakes in his tenure and he went into the tunnel acting like everything was 100%. Hand that man an Oscar.

 

[Lawdawg.sixpack]

Yep. And I don't know if we even had a play called when Dak called the second TO. Perkins had just been sent wide left, where he promptly covered the slot WR on the line of scrimmage (so we would've had a penalty there anyway). That may have been why Dak called it. But neither Perkins nor the WRs to the right knew what to run.

But I saw the same thing when I rewound at the half- Dan was busy jawing and not coaching.

 

[Shamoan]

what it looked like to my eye was that dan was looking for a scapegoat. he is the sp teams coach and the fact that some ga is tasked with getting everything ready in that regard seems odd. if you watch the replay mullen was already swinging his head around looking for an easy target after the 2nd straight timeout the play before....thats not anybody elses fault other than his. its pure frustration from his prior mismanagement of the time out before. the ga will take the heat on it, but its the job of the sp teams coach to get the players ready to go....the ga is just the messenger and i highly doubt that the snapper or holder were off dicking around near the water cooler....its just mass confusion with a swarm of bodies in a really close proximity with noise and confusion and time ticking off a depleted clock. the ga will take the blame and like it, but its the sp teams coaches responsibility, not a ga regardless of what arrangement has been made between the two prior to that play.

after just watching the replay, the idea we could have gotten a kick off is total fantasy. the ball was spotted with :00 on the clock. robert johnson catches the 8 yard pass, gets tossed backwards, and lazily thumps the ball to the ground as he gets up. the umpire then has to go and retrieve the ball which is about 10 yards away. the line judge is marking the spot while the ump retrieves the ball then runs back to spot it. robert johnsons *** gets off the turf with 7 seconds on the clock. there aint a 60+ y.o. ump in america than run 10 yards, snag a football, run to the nearest has mark (presumably another 10 yards) and spot the ball accurately inside of 7 seconds....best case scenario, that would require 5 seconds, a second to clock it, and a second for the kick.....that **** aint happening.

the ga in question looks pissed at dan as he is walking off the field....he is pinching his lips shut with rage and walks off in a different vector than that of dan mullen who is trying to ride his ***. his job is to wear it, thats what grad assistants do, but he was clearly not happy with getting bitched at...dan made the call, the coach relayed that call, but there was mass confusion. it didnt matter....there was zero chance we get that kick off the second johnson lazily dinks the ball in the ground and not directly relaying it to the line judge....i emphasize zero chance. that kick aint happening as soon as mj makes that decision. all this **** about who made that call is irrelevant. the kick was never going to be made regardless of how organized the kick team was. for emphasis, i will restate the fact that the ball was spotted with all zeros on the clock and the umps were busting their old asses to try and get the ball spotted, but when you have to run 20 yards to track down a ball to spot it, thats simply not going to happen inside of 7 seconds.

 

[Kim Jong Um]

A lot of people want to blame Dak for mishandling the end of the half, but the more I think about it, the more and more I want to put every bit of it on Mullen. Why wasn't the plan clearly communicated in the first timeout where EVERYONE (coaches, players, etc.) knew EXACTLY what was going to happen? I can tell you from my playing days and nearly every game I've called as an official, if a timeout is called in a late half/game situation, the gameplan to finish the half is clearly communicated to players and coaches alike (even after a bad sequence like the sack/grounding). Instead, Mullen used that timeout to chew the ever living 17 out of Dak and the official for the sack/grounding call. I have to think that was the reason Dak didn't know what was going on when they came back on the field and why the assistant GA/Coach had no idea what was going on (and, subsequently, the reason the second timeout was called). As a coach, you HAVE to put that part of the game behind you for :13 seconds to give your team a damn chance to get points before the end of the half instead of grinding your axes with the qb and officials for a bad sequence. Yes it was bad, but he clearly made a bad situation worse and why I think that is the very reason for the massive cluster17 to end the half.

+1

 

[thatsbaseball]

^^^this^^^ made Mullen look like a weak leader. Administering an extended *** chewing to an employee (who has to stand there and take it) in public has consequences any time it happens especially when the whole world just saw that your own ineptitude was the main problem to begin with. I think when all is said and done it can probably be looked back on as just one of many pieces of the puzzle as to why Mullen crashed and burned.

 

[Strike.sixpack]

The time part is not accurate. The ball was spotted before time went down to zero. Heck Dak paused at the 2 sec mark because of the extra personel on the field. If you want to say they would not have got the spike down outside of 3 sec then I agree. The best it would have happened would have been at the two sec mark and probably with one tick and it wouldn't have mattered. If you will also notice one of our WR was not going be set so you would have had a penalty on top of it.

Edit. I went back and I see what you were saying. The ball being spotted at zero, the line was ready but it wouldn't have made a difference. The catch was made at the 7 sec mark. 4 sec is not enough time to set the offense and spike the ball. The half ends anyway.

 

[Lawdawg.sixpack]

If the receiver would've given the ball to a ref after the play, it would've saved 3-4 seconds easy.

That's poor coaching. Receivers should know what to do in hurry-up situations. Hell, UM and TAMU (and many others) receivers find a ref to give the ball to on every play.

 

[Strike.sixpack]

Granted the receiver should have but the line was not ready any sooner. So that's kind of a moot point. I have yet to see in all the criticism, and there was plenty to criticize, the fact the coaches also called a play and instructed Dak where to throw the ball to even give us a chance. That's coaching as well. The play put us the closest it could to our sideline, at the location of our special teams, and Dak looked no where but those two receivers. That was good strategy and coaching in the midst of that cluster. Plenty of bad just be objective about the whole thing.

 

[Shmuley]

It's hard to blame the offensive players for the Charlie Foxtrot. None of them are used to setting up for a field goal in that situation.

 

[MSU Fan.sixpack]

Bottom line is you don't run out the field goal team there... period

Unless it is 4th down, you do not run out the field goal team. It will always be faster to get the offense lined up and spike the ball than it will be to run the field goal team out, get them set, get the kicker set and snap it.

Who is to blame, I don't know. But it seems pretty clear that sending the field goal team on the field with a running clock should have never been an option.

 

[tcdog70]

here is the sad part of the cluster

We had done a great job to get to the 30 with 2 timeouts left. That is already in FG range. So the no-brainer was to run the ball call a TO then Run the ball call the last time out Kick the damn FG. Elmer Fudd could have coached that part

 

[Shamoan]

The time part is not accurate. The ball was spotted before time went down to zero. Heck Dak paused at the 2 sec mark because of the extra personel on the field. If you want to say they would not have got the spike down outside of 3 sec then I agree. The best it would have happened would have been at the two sec mark and probably with one tick and it wouldn't have mattered. If you will also notice one of our WR was not going be set so you would have had a penalty on top of it.

Edit. I went back and I see what you were saying. The ball being spotted at zero, the line was ready but it wouldn't have made a difference. The catch was made at the 7 sec mark. 4 sec is not enough time to set the offense and spike the ball. The half ends anyway.

next time, make sure you are right before you start telling someone they are wrong. robert johnson's lack of urgency and frustration is why this play had zero chance. as soon as he lazily thumped the ball, we had zero chance at points.

clock shows all zeros with the umpire standing directly over the ball with his hand on the ball. it was a physical impossibility to snap the ball while still recognizing the rules. period. if rj tosses the ball directly to the umpire, we might have had a chance, but his decision to not care cost us a shot at a field goal.

zero chance whatsoever...just like i said.

 

[Strike.sixpack]

I already admitted it without your prompting hours ago. It would not have made a difference because there was not enough time anyway to spike it with more than 3 sec left.

 

[Shamoan]

i wasnt trying to be a dick, but i took the time to upload a pic, so i was going to get my moneys worth so that everyone else can see what the situation was. we would have a shot because the play in question was a 3rd down attempt. if we manage the clock well, we only need one second....3rd down was a clock play and we only need a second to either kick or attempt a 4th down shot in the ez. i dont have much confidence in our ability to score regardless of kick or pass, but at least we would have a shot. oh well....we werent going to win that game anyway, but its frustrating to see our coachs constantly screw **** up.

 

[Strike.sixpack]

I understand the reasoning but under the new rules you can't spike the ball inside of three seconds. That why I said it wouldn't make a difference; under the old rules we would have had a much better shot at it. It would have been close but doable. That's why the back to back timeouts was so critical. It may have been better to run the bad play and throw it out of bounds quickly than to take that timeout. It would force you to make the first down to have the opportunity but it would also give you the middle of the field to work with as well.