Coach V’s Grades - Kansas

We played very hard this week. We were a couple of “big” plays and too many missed tackles away from a very good game. Guys were flying around with kinetic energy abound. I liked the approach we took this week. We did basic seek and destroy tactics while keeping it simple. Since we had a mash unit with everyone finding a way to contribute it turned out our “busy” made up for mistakes in angles, MT’s, and dag-nabbits.

Since it’s talk about special teams this week I think it only fair to continue with the defensive part of the equation. We might need to rethink our kickoff team from personnel to basic execution. We attempt to outnumber the receiving team by only covering two thirds of the field with all 11 of our attackers inside the right hash. We kick the ball to the left corner (when we don’t kick it out of bounds—twice yesterday).

We don’t prevent anyone from leaving their lanes as evidenced by our insistence on pointing the ball. Our kicker/dicker usually saves our ass around the fifty—Estell (39) did stay somewhat in his lane but didn’t offer much resistance from the block. Cook (4) kinda wandered into position to help our kicker chase him out of bounds. We give up both sidelines too damn easy—have been all season. This is a huge weakness from top to bottom.

Here are the grades:

90—Omenihu—A-

44—Hager—A-

49—Graham—A-

97—Nelson—B+

94—Wilbon—B

23—McCulloch—B+

45—Wheeler—B

32—Roach—A-

46—Ossai—B+

2—Boyd—A-

7—Sterns—A-

11—Locke—B+

15—Brown—B+

18—Davis—B+

19—Jones—A-

25—Foster—B+

29—Thompson—B

Stuff:

Omenihu (90) played another outstanding game. He doesn’t miss many plays. He will be missed.

Graham (49) does good things but still doesn’t finish like he will later in his career.

Nelson (97) made life easier for Jeff (23) and Wheeler (45) stacking the furniture.

Ossai (46) made plays but was welcomed to BIG 12 football by a pulling guard that gored his chest on a kickout block—the first thing to hit the dirt was the back of Joe’s helmet.

Adeoye (40) split the high/low ebb with a decleater block (KO receiving team) and a late hit tackle (KO team—no penalty luckily).

Roach (32) is just a complete football player now that the MLB experiment is history. DE and NT this week, excelling at both. Great pass rusher—just does things naturally.

Boyd (2) played extremely well. Love him or hate him—he’s still the best we got.

Locke (11) made so many terrific plays you want to grade him very high but when he misses or covers it’s not near as good. Looking back, I bet Locke would have made a dandy rover but he was obviously needed more at nickel.

Foster (25) dropped a sure oskie.

Locke (11) dropped a sure oskie.

Jones (19) was having a great game until that punt return rung the bell. We need him to direct the traffic next week—hope there wasn’t any concussion.

Coburn (99) played two plays—one stack and one QB hurry. 99 (Coburn and 98 Ojomo) are going to be major players next fall. Book it.

Cook (4) had a good sack from whatever his package involves—looked like a spy to me.

I’m glad OU didn’t look very good on offense again last night :rolleyes:. We have one week to get a formidable plan to slow their butts down and it better include a spy (GJ) to slow play any QB ventures from the pocket. If I could have one wish come true (this game) it would be to not allow any deep throws for td’s—make them nickel and dime their way to the alumni stripe.

Twice in one year—that’s the ticket.

e tried very hard to keep our intensity level high but we suffered lapses along the way. The effort level remained strong but we allowed small mental errors to derail our express. We failed to put our A game on display but a combination of poor individual decisions train wrecked any chance of blowing the game wide open.

I don’t really say much about our special teams but this is a good week to point out how they can influence any game when poor decisions or missed assignments limit the playbook going forward. From the offensive point of view we allowed not fielding punts costs us around 50 yards field position—the worst was still to come. We started drives inside our ten three times due to bad judgement—fair catching is your friend guys.

We might need to rethink our “hands” kickoff receiving team from head to toe. OU may be licking their chops game-planning their kickoff plans since we have proven we suck at recovering the ball. Hell, they may think they aren’t going to stop us with their version of defense so what the hell they got to lose by on sides kicking?

Here are the grades:

11—Sam—B

5—Watson—A-

26—Ingram—B+

6—Duvernay—A-

9—Johnson—B+

13—Heard—B+

17—Jamison—B+

82—Eagles—B+

84—Humphrey—A-

47—Beck—B

52—Cosmi—A-

56—Shack—B

66—Anderson—B

72—Rodriguez—B

77—Vahe—B

Also:

Kerstetter (68) had a monster combo block as the inside guard (unbalanced) short yardage play.

Young (32) got another chance (SY) and passed the test.

Watson (5) broke another explosion run—great habit to acquire.

Ingram (26) was close to breaking three times but made the wrong cut late.

Duvernay (6) just keeps putting up positive efforts—his blocking has turned the corner.

Eagles (82) had three good blocks with hustle.

Anderson (66) had two tough pass blocks get the best of him.

Shack (56) finished the regular season with a very high percentage of quality snaps. He still has trouble with switch blocks, especially with Vahe.

Cosmi is our best OL and should be honored on the conference roster despite being a freshman.

Kansas found doubling LJH (84) a good eraser until we called a slip screen on third and 18—as Red Cashion famously uttered—FIRST DOWN.

OU in Arlington at brunch time—does it get any better than that. The chance to beat OU twice in one season doesn’t come around often enough—we can break their spirit this year.