We scrimmaged, we won. The end. Ok, not really, but in all seriousness, there just isn't much to learn from beating a team like UT Martin, but I'll give it a shot.
The D's tackling was turrable. I'm willing to cut them some slack, since we've tackled much better the last several games. I'll chalk it up to playing to the level of your competition. And to be fair, UTM has a pretty solid offense for a FCS team. But as we've all said 18 million times: Can we please sit Brandon Maye? He didn't even look good against an FCS team. His snaps should go to Bohanna - period.
I thought Russell took a step backwards Saturday night. He was coming off his best SEC game of his career and just wasn't very impressive. He had a bad case of happy feet all night and ran out of the pocket early a ton. His pick was yet another poor decision. He could have kept it and gotten 6-8 yards at least. He needs to have his best game of his career against Bama for us to have a chance. No throwing the ball up for grabs, no happy feet, no indecisiveness.
I was surprised Relf didn't play more, but I'm glad he didn't. Keep the hits off him and try to keep him healthy for Bama. We're going to need his mobility in that game. Jefferson & the option gave Bama fits, so having a healthy Relf will be a big key for us.
Mini-Favre had a nice night. He's definitely got some wheels. If only he were a few inches taller.
I was very impressed with Nick Griffin. Mullen can say Griffin still has a hitch when he runs, but I didn't see it. One thing is sure, he didn't look like a guy only 6-7 months removed from ACL surgery. Sure, the opponent was bad, but averaging 10 a carry is impressive no matter who you're playing.
Banks punt return was a thing of beauty. Great blocking, good run.
It was nice to see us clear the benches on both sides. I don't think a single starter on the DL played after halftime, but I could be wrong.
Bottom line, we did what we were supposed to: run up the score on a hapless opponent. We're sitting at 5-4 and should finish 6-6 at worst.
Bama is going to be hell to handle, but I saw some encouraging things after watching their game with LSU. We've got some personnel matchups that can cause them some problems. One big question mark is whether or not Kirkpatrick will be healthy in their secondary. We'll need to play our best, most complete game of the season to hang in there with them. And we've GOT to wrap up and gang tackle Trent Richardson. We aren't going to arm tackle that beast.
Feel free to add your comments.
In Mullen I Trust,
SPD
The D's tackling was turrable. I'm willing to cut them some slack, since we've tackled much better the last several games. I'll chalk it up to playing to the level of your competition. And to be fair, UTM has a pretty solid offense for a FCS team. But as we've all said 18 million times: Can we please sit Brandon Maye? He didn't even look good against an FCS team. His snaps should go to Bohanna - period.
I thought Russell took a step backwards Saturday night. He was coming off his best SEC game of his career and just wasn't very impressive. He had a bad case of happy feet all night and ran out of the pocket early a ton. His pick was yet another poor decision. He could have kept it and gotten 6-8 yards at least. He needs to have his best game of his career against Bama for us to have a chance. No throwing the ball up for grabs, no happy feet, no indecisiveness.
I was surprised Relf didn't play more, but I'm glad he didn't. Keep the hits off him and try to keep him healthy for Bama. We're going to need his mobility in that game. Jefferson & the option gave Bama fits, so having a healthy Relf will be a big key for us.
Mini-Favre had a nice night. He's definitely got some wheels. If only he were a few inches taller.
I was very impressed with Nick Griffin. Mullen can say Griffin still has a hitch when he runs, but I didn't see it. One thing is sure, he didn't look like a guy only 6-7 months removed from ACL surgery. Sure, the opponent was bad, but averaging 10 a carry is impressive no matter who you're playing.
Banks punt return was a thing of beauty. Great blocking, good run.
It was nice to see us clear the benches on both sides. I don't think a single starter on the DL played after halftime, but I could be wrong.
Bottom line, we did what we were supposed to: run up the score on a hapless opponent. We're sitting at 5-4 and should finish 6-6 at worst.
Bama is going to be hell to handle, but I saw some encouraging things after watching their game with LSU. We've got some personnel matchups that can cause them some problems. One big question mark is whether or not Kirkpatrick will be healthy in their secondary. We'll need to play our best, most complete game of the season to hang in there with them. And we've GOT to wrap up and gang tackle Trent Richardson. We aren't going to arm tackle that beast.
Feel free to add your comments.
In Mullen I Trust,
SPD
