Turnaround This Season

[dgtatu01]

If Stoops will get the hell out of the way and let the offensive coordinator run the offense, we might be able to salvage a bowl game. We cannot stop the run at all. That was obvious even when we were up 35-10 Saturday. We were still getting gashed for 5-10 yards per rush.

My strategy going forward would be to let Gran do what he wants with the offense. We have talent, we just need to play loose and aggressive. On defense play bend don't break. Commit to stopping deep passing plays and cross your fingers on running plays. Never start committing DB's to the run unless we're backed up to the endzone. If we stay disciplined to this strategy we will give up lots of yards, but we can also hope to get some key turnovers on passing plays, force some field goals in the red zone, and maybe get a couple of lucky tackles on 1st and 2nd down running plays to force a few punts. Then we count on our Offense to outscore the other team. This isn't going to work against Alabama, but it could sure work against teams like Florida.

Stoops wants to play the other way around. Never give up yards or points and then score very conservatively and win with D. We don't have and probably never will have the personnel to do this in the SEC. I guess what I'm saying is we could probably become an Oregon someday, but we will never be an Alabama. Stoops needs to realize this.

 

[EliteBlue]

Time of possession last Saturday was 43:00-19:00 (rounding up). That can't continue. Way too many 3 and outs and we have to get more 3rd down stops. Having a Time of possession gap is ok if it's because you're striking quick. But almost 30 minutes difference without puttin points up for an entire half gets you beat 9 times out of 10.

 

[Anjiejo]

If Stoops will get the hell out of the way and let the offensive coordinator run the offense, we might be able to salvage a bowl game. We cannot stop the run at all. That was obvious even when we were up 35-10 Saturday. We were still getting gashed for 5-10 yards per rush.

My strategy going forward would be to let Gran do what he wants with the offense. We have talent, we just need to play loose and aggressive. On defense play bend don't break. Commit to stopping deep passing plays and cross your fingers on running plays. Never start committing DB's to the run unless we're backed up to the endzone. If we stay disciplined to this strategy we will give up lots of yards, but we can also hope to get some key turnovers on passing plays, force some field goals in the red zone, and maybe get a couple of lucky tackles on 1st and 2nd down running plays to force a few punts. Then we count on our Offense to outscore the other team. This isn't going to work against Alabama, but it could sure work against teams like Florida.

Stoops wants to play the other way around. Never give up yards or points and then score very conservatively and win with D. We don't have and probably never will have the personnel to do this in the SEC. I guess what I'm saying is we could probably become an Oregon someday, but we will never be an Alabama. Stoops needs to realize this.

After a few days of watching film,i think we will be fine on offense. But there will be some mistakes from barker along the way that ever first year QB makes.. But after watching him in the first half,he has the ability to be a very good QB. Think Gran/Hinshaw will be what this offense needed.
I expect this offense to keep us in most games this year!

On defense i see your point in not bringing your dbs up till redzone. But if the opposing team doesn't have a QB like Mullens (which i don't see any in sec east) force there QB and WR to beat your DB'S at times!!
Pick your "spot's" mix it up and bring 8-9 in the box and blitz the heck out of them!

 

[JasonS.]

Every now and then we fall apart.

 

[FickusDuckus]

Saturday drove home a point many were worried about. We are weak up the middle. If they can figure out how to fill that huge gash in our defensive bow we will be fine. If not we better hope we can play Mumme ball and win 60-59. In football, especially the SEC you MUST be able to at least slow the run. We showed the ability to do neither Saturday. Maybe it was a coaching miscue but more likely its a talent deficiency. Either way Stoops is gonna get this year and next so folks may as well sit down, buckle up and from the looks of the posts here SHUTUP,lol. Were along for the ride folks, Ive been along for the ride for 61 years. Its not a fun ride.

 

[NCukcat62]

Saturday drove home a point many were worried about. We are weak up the middle. If they can figure out how to fill that huge gash in our defensive bow we will be fine. If not we better hope we can play Mumme ball and win 60-59. In football, especially the SEC you MUST be able to at least slow the run. We showed the ability to do neither Saturday. Maybe it was a coaching miscue but more likely its a talent deficiency. Either way Stoops is gonna get this year and next so folks may as well sit down, buckle up and from the looks of the posts here SHUTUP,lol. Were along for the ride folks, Ive been along for the ride for 61 years. Its not a fun ride.

It's a ride that many of us are tired of

 

[BlueRunner11]

If Stoops will get the hell out of the way and let the offensive coordinator run the offense, we might be able to salvage a bowl game. We cannot stop the run at all. That was obvious even when we were up 35-10 Saturday. We were still getting gashed for 5-10 yards per rush.

My strategy going forward would be to let Gran do what he wants with the offense. We have talent, we just need to play loose and aggressive. On defense play bend don't break. Commit to stopping deep passing plays and cross your fingers on running plays. Never start committing DB's to the run unless we're backed up to the endzone. If we stay disciplined to this strategy we will give up lots of yards, but we can also hope to get some key turnovers on passing plays, force some field goals in the red zone, and maybe get a couple of lucky tackles on 1st and 2nd down running plays to force a few punts. Then we count on our Offense to outscore the other team. This isn't going to work against Alabama, but it could sure work against teams like Florida.

Stoops wants to play the other way around. Never give up yards or points and then score very conservatively and win with D. We don't have and probably never will have the personnel to do this in the SEC. I guess what I'm saying is we could probably become an Oregon someday, but we will never be an Alabama. Stoops needs to realize this.

Couldn't agree more. As far as SEC play goes, we will always have less talent and less depth. We can use at as excuse but it will always be an issue. You have to close the gap in other ways.

 

[dgtatu01]

Saturday drove home a point many were worried about. We are weak up the middle. If they can figure out how to fill that huge gash in our defensive bow we will be fine. If not we better hope we can play Mumme ball and win 60-59. In football, especially the SEC you MUST be able to at least slow the run. We showed the ability to do neither Saturday. Maybe it was a coaching miscue but more likely its a talent deficiency. Either way Stoops is gonna get this year and next so folks may as well sit down, buckle up and from the looks of the posts here SHUTUP,lol. Were along for the ride folks, Ive been along for the ride for 61 years. Its not a fun ride.

It's a lot easier to stop the run in the red zone. You don't have to worry about getting burned deep because there is no deep. My strategy also works great against teams that really suck at running. You can amp your turnovers up in those games and give your D some confidence that they can use to ramp up against the next team that will run against them. Football more than any game involves having a philosophy and matching your talent for the year to your philosophy and then being disciplined in your approach. Keep plugging away. If you can't stop the run you're going to get scored on, there is no way around that. What you can do is score a lot too and hope for some big plays via fumbles, interceptions, or just mistakes that give you a margin on the scoreboard. In other words try to win every quarter 17-14 instead of 3-0. If you can't hold somebody to nothing, then you can't run an offense that's only going to score 3.

 

[ukcatsfan1]

You would think a Defensive Guy like Stoops would have the Defense in Place first!

Whatever it is he has done to NOT beef up the Defensive Line and Linebackers is on him!

But at some point, it gets really old hearing the same excuse - that we are not deep on the D-Line and at Linebacker!

 

[Stenchymouse]

I agree that Gran should be left alone completely regarding the offense.

As long as the offense keeps scoring points, then at some point the other team has to start throwing the ball to catch up.

Also, if we continue to score, the it doesn't matter if the defense is on the field too much.

Really, one TD in the 2nd half would have won that game on Saturday even though we lost by 9...

 

[JW PRPcoach]

I agree that Gran should be left alone completely regarding the offense.

As long as the offense keeps scoring points, then at some point the other team has to start throwing the ball to catch up.

Also, if we continue to score, the it doesn't matter if the defense is on the field too much.

Really, one TD in the 2nd half would have won that game on Saturday even though we lost by 9...

agree 100% - as bad as the D was, I still think THIS loss can be pinned on the offense.
If we just don't turn it over one less time, we win

 

[Anon1660081258]

Disagree with the OP on commitment of extra personnel to the box. I think CMS needs to abandon/man blend zone coverage more often to get us off the field. If that sometimes means getting off the field after giving up 6, so be it, but get the ball back in the hands of our offense, and don't look at any more defensive play counts of 96. Little wonder the bleeding could not be staunched. You cannot effectively defend the run or pass gassed.

 

[Beast Johnson]

I'll be sure to forward this thread to the coaches. You never know, the lightbulb may just light up

 

[BARBQGRILLER]

Year 4 for Stoops and the team is still in disarray ! What a Joke !

 

[Cats_2010]

If Stoops will get the hell out of the way and let the offensive coordinator run the offense, we might be able to salvage a bowl game. We cannot stop the run at all. That was obvious even when we were up 35-10 Saturday. We were still getting gashed for 5-10 yards per rush. .

Just curious if there was confirmation if Stoops stuck his nose in the offense last Saturday or pure speculation? If I am Gran and the head coach comes to me at half and says anything other than Great job after hanging 35 pts up I would tell him to stay the hell away from me or find another coordinator.

If Stoops did have a plan to slow the game down at half, then that should have been aborted after USM drove easily down the field to cut the lead to 35-24 opening up the 2H.

 

[Kats23]

agree 100% - as bad as the D was, I still think THIS loss can be pinned on the offense.
If we just don't turn it over one less time, we win

If we don't give up 20 plus points to a CSU teams running the same 3 plays over and over again in the 2nd half then we don't lose. I'm sorry, but that's like a plumber ripping open a pipe at your home filling your basement with water and then he looks at you and says "well, if you had turned the water off before I got here, that wouldn't of happen."

Stoops can't look himself in the mirror and keeps protecting his boy DJ Eliot. The offense did their job. You have to count on inconsistencies from a first year starter at QB. It wasn't a great job of the offense in the 2nd half but the defense was never good in the entire game with the exception of a couple picks.

 

[GridCats]

Stoops needs to know his limitations and realize he's not good at managing the game. A new DC needs to take over the defense and let Gran run the offense. Hopefully someone will take over ST duties. He can do his PR thing and let the coaches do the job. We all know what he's doing is not working.

 

[willievic]

When your the Head Coach, you have to let the DC and OC do their job without your interference on every other call. If you don't like what their calling, explain it to them, and if that doesn't work, get rid of them and hire someone else.
Of course, this should have been taken care of prior to hiring them. A HC should know what kind of defense or offense a coach is going to run, and if it's trying to put a square peg in a round hole, you as the HC is not going to be satisfied.
We as fans really don't care about the excuses, we just want to see results, and if you can't produce, we want you out of there. When the coin toss is made, the ******** is stopped. It's time to put up or shut up. NO EXCUSES!

OLD STOLL FIELD GUY!

 

[ukcatsfan1]

so since Stoops has Now Had THAT conversation with Gran, be prepared to see inside hand-off left tackle on 2nd and Long!!!!

 

[Poetax]

If Stoops will get the hell out of the way and let the offensive coordinator run the offense, we might be able to salvage a bowl game. We cannot stop the run at all. That was obvious even when we were up 35-10 Saturday. We were still getting gashed for 5-10 yards per rush.

My strategy going forward would be to let Gran do what he wants with the offense. We have talent, we just need to play loose and aggressive. On defense play bend don't break. Commit to stopping deep passing plays and cross your fingers on running plays. Never start committing DB's to the run unless we're backed up to the endzone. If we stay disciplined to this strategy we will give up lots of yards, but we can also hope to get some key turnovers on passing plays, force some field goals in the red zone, and maybe get a couple of lucky tackles on 1st and 2nd down running plays to force a few punts. Then we count on our Offense to outscore the other team. This isn't going to work against Alabama, but it could sure work against teams like Florida.

Stoops wants to play the other way around. Never give up yards or points and then score very conservatively and win with D. We don't have and probably never will have the personnel to do this in the SEC. I guess what I'm saying is we could probably become an Oregon someday, but we will never be an Alabama. Stoops needs to realize this.

Has anyone heard Gran say that? Or are we reading minds again?

 

[merrimanm]

This is so played out. There is no evidence that proves Stoops is holding Gran back. EVERY head coach has input, but that doesn't mean he holds them back.

We scored 35 points. During the second half when everyone claims Stoops slowed it down, we ran 15 plays, 9 of which were pass plays. If he were trying to.slow it down it would have been run heavy. Also, we only had three 3 and outs. We ran a total of 50 plays and score 35 points. That is a TD every ten snaps. That is pretty efficient.

 

[TBCat]

The thing about the offense is that we've been fooling ourselves for years here. I made mention of that during the lead up to this game. When we had threads leading into the game as to what the keys to the game were most were saying we should pound the ball up the middle. Some were predicting 65% running plays and almost 300 yards of rushing. I pointed out at the time that we just aren't built for that. If we go into this game believing we are a running team then USM might win. At best we should be running the ball no more than 45% of the time.

Simply put we need to get it out of our system that we are running team. We aren't. We have great RBs but they are Air Raid type of backs not Alabama type of backs. Boom is the type of back that can get 100 rushing and 100 receiving yards in the same game. He's not the type that will have 40 carries for 200 yards. The thing you have with Boom is big plays. What you don't have are steady and consistent 4 to 7 yard runs. We have to accept that isn't our personnel.

The offense played fine until the panic set in and we tried to do more than what was available. Having a coaching staff that does crisis management better is what the offense needs.

 

[dgtatu01]

You would think a Defensive Guy like Stoops would have the Defense in Place first!

Whatever it is he has done to NOT beef up the Defensive Line and Linebackers is on him!

But at some point, it gets really old hearing the same excuse - that we are not deep on the D-Line and at Linebacker!

You can't outfox anyone on defense. It's about the players on that side of the ball. We are recruiting better, but we aren't even close to the rest of our league. It's really not his fault, what is his fault is not letting the offense do the very best they can.

 

[merrimanm]

You can't outfox anyone on defense. It's about the players on that side of the ball. We are recruiting better, but we aren't even close to the rest of our league. It's really not his fault, what is his fault is not letting the offense do the very best they can.

You are right a out the defense. But again, still no proof that is the case about the offense.

 

[The_Godfather_rivals]

The thing about the offense is that we've been fooling ourselves for years here. I made mention of that during the lead up to this game. When we had threads leading into the game as to what the keys to the game were most were saying we should pound the ball up the middle. Some were predicting 65% running plays and almost 300 yards of rushing. I pointed out at the time that we just aren't built for that. If we go into this game believing we are a running team then USM might win. At best we should be running the ball no more than 45% of the time.

Simply put we need to get it out of our system that we are running team. We aren't. We have great RBs but they are Air Raid type of backs not Alabama type of backs. Boom is the type of back that can get 100 rushing and 100 receiving yards in the same game. He's not the type that will have 40 carries for 200 yards. The thing you have with Boom is big plays. What you don't have are steady and consistent 4 to 7 yard runs. We have to accept that isn't our personnel.

The offense played fine until the panic set in and we tried to do more than what was available. Having a coaching staff that does crisis management better is what the offense needs.

You are correct. The offense needs to have the courage and poise to simply know that the defense is going to require that they score on an extraordinary high percentage of their possessions.

I think that the running game has a shot at success only if the defenses have to sell out to stop the passing game. We certainly are not "smash-mouthing" any defense with a pulse.

 

[The_Godfather_rivals]

You can't outfox anyone on defense. It's about the players on that side of the ball. We are recruiting better, but we aren't even close to the rest of our league. It's really not his fault, what is his fault is not letting the offense do the very best they can.

His defense just got thrashed by a CUSA team. He has failed miserably to establish any sort of upgraded defensive identity at UK. This would be as if Hal Mumme came to UK and produced an offense that was no better than the garbage we saw under Curry.

 

[Mikey Likes It]

You know when you think about it it really is mind boggling how many defensive lineman we've lost in the last 2 years. Lloyd Tubman, Jason Hatcher, Reggie Meant, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few. Not that its any excuse but :weary:

 

[EliteBlue]

agree 100% - as bad as the D was, I still think THIS loss can be pinned on the offense.
If we just don't turn it over one less time, we win

I tend to agree. If we score once we win. You can't go a half without putting at least 7 on the board. Unless you are a defensive powerhouse and are in a slugfest. Also, one extended drive let's the D regroup and gets some momentum back.

 

[Mr Schwump]

Many came on here this spring/summer lamenting the D front 7 therefore the sights we saw vs SM shouldn't come as a surprise. The DL is just not SEC level, not sure it's even D1 level. LBs have some potential but they're terribly inexperienced. Unfortunately, the O is going to have to score EVERYTIME THEY GET THE BALL. With being unable to stop the run UK's only hope of getting wins is winning a shootout. A turnaround is very, very unlikely.

 

[StubbornPenny]

The thing you have with Boom is big plays. What you don't have are steady and consistent 4 to 7 yard runs. We have to accept that isn't our personnel.

THANK YOU. He's a home run hitter that'll go 1, 2, -2, 0, 53 yards. He is a nice talent but he is not a guy who can carry an offense for a whole game.

 

[Anon1712931820]

agree 100% - as bad as the D was, I still think THIS loss can be pinned on the offense.
If we just don't turn it over one less time, we win

One less turnover doesn't equal a 9 point swing.

 

[JW PRPcoach]

One less turnover doesn't equal a 9 point swing.

It might if we score. We only punted one time the entire 2nd half - 3 turnovers!!!
They didn't really stop us, we stopped ourselves
If we even just get 3 our first possession of second half - totally different game