...I've lurked on this board ever since the outback announcement was made, and appreciate both the good natured trolling from both sides, and the excellent football discussion. However, I've been off the board for the past week or so, and it's tough to wade through the trash talking threads to get to any of the real football ones. So I'm starting another one for any latecomers, or anyone who is bored and wants to rehash. A couple of my thoughts:
- Game can't get here soon enough. Regardless of who wins, both UT and NU fans can be grateful that we're at least playing against a team that matters and in a game that folks are looking forward to. There is nothing more depressing than trying to get excited about bowl games during the holidays, flipping on a game and trying to get excited watching some 5-7 team play against South City State U in the Weedeater bowl.
- I just watched your hype video. Your coach is intense. No doubt he's a defensive guy given his background, but he just exudes defense.
- I've seen a lot of bitching and moaning about you guys getting blown out in two games and us playing 4 games close. My thoughts...who cares. I think you guys have better wins and worse losses. But you have 2 more wins than us. But we played two playoff teams. In the end, it's a wash in my opinion. Your style of play dictates close wins, and without having watched any of your games, typically teams that use your pattern (little to no offense but stout defense), don't do well if they get behind early. So to me, if Tennessee jumps out early, maybe that's a bad sign for you, but after that who really cares. I can assure you having a "close loss" to NU will not be any sort of moral victory for me. And I know the converse is true. I won't be upset in the least if we win by 1. I will if we lose by 1. As I'm sure is true for you guys.
- Some notes on our team (no doubt you've heard many of these before, but again, I'm really hoping for a response in kind about your own team so I don't have to hunt for the good discussions again):
-- Our QB is effectively a third running back at times. Some games, we scheme for him to run a lot. Others, not so much. He can obviously extend plays with his legs, but when we can exploit him as a runner, we typically have success. He is very inconsistent as a passer. Sub-par on the deep ball (him, receivers, whatever...we don't throw deep with success). Decent yet inconsistent at medium and even short range. He's pretty good at limiting turnovers through the air. He'll often throw the ball away or scramble rather than try to squeeze one into double coverage. He's not the best at sensing pressure if coming from his blind side, and he does have a tendency to cough it up while running/scrambling, though we've been fortunate to not have lost too many this year.
-- Hurd is our starting back. He's powerful, yet shifty. Often won't bust a 60 yard play, but can turn a 1 yard loss into a 3 yard gain or a 3 yard gain into a 6 or 10 yard gain. He's quite tall for a RB, and thus is deceptively powerful (looks leaner than he is). Kamara is our backup RB, and he'll play a lot. He can run between the tackles, but not as big nor as powerful as Hurd, and hes faster. He's much more likely to bounce it outside, and much more likely to bust a long one than Hurd. Kamara will often come out of the backfield for short passes, in an effort to get the ball in his hands on the edge quickly. Will be interesting to see these guys matchup against your D, which is no doubt very good. We've gone against some stout run D's this year, typically with success (but one look at our record shows that success doesn't necessarily translate into a win).
-- Our O-line is young overall, and will execute lots of pulling/misdirection. I don't think we have any chance to line up and pound the ball in between the tackles all game. Again, we've played against solid run D this year, and have had success, but it hasn't been from smash mouth running. We offer lots of eye candy in order to be effective...WRs/RBs in motion, lots of misdirection, multiple reads etc. based on where the D is crashing.
-- I think our O vs. your D is the intriguing matchup. On the opposite side, I won't say as much about our D unless asked, but our front 7 is our strength. Cam Sutton is our best corner, and he's solid in run D as well. After him, the play is inconsistent on the back end. Our best safety will be coming off the bench, Todd Kelly Jr. He'll get lots of PT and is easily our best at pass D, but we'll have two seniors starting in front of him that are bigger hitters, but still play out of position at times. Pass D is where we can be exploited. Run D is better. Our D ends, particularly #9 are very good. Was a freshman AA last year and while he started somewhat slowly, has really picked it up the last half of the season. We're not especially good at generating turnovers. We're very good on 3d down D. Terrible FWIW on 4th down D...so go for it on 4th all the time!
-- Our special teams unit is honestly one of, if not the strength, of our team. Our punter flips the field when needed and pins folks inside of 20 quite often. I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm pretty sure he's a national leader in both categories. Placekicker was somewhat inconsistent early in the year, but a lot of that was due to him kicking 45+ yarders. He's been solid of late, and almost all year 44 and in. Punt and kick return game is obviously very good as I think has been discussed. I think 3 KR and 3 PR for TDs this year. I don't think any of our 3 headed return team (Evan Berry at KR, and Sutton/Kamara at PR) are quite as skilled as their stats might lead one to believe, but rather we spend a lot of practice time focused on ST, so you'll see our guys often catch the ball already moving forward and try to hit the first hole with more speed than the average returner. Beyond that, the blocking is very good. I'm interested to see if you guys try to kick away or take your chances. If I'm a NU fan, I'd take my chances as long as you are fundamentally sound in your special teams D. We won't make crazy video game type moves in our return game...it's typically just try to make the first guy miss 1 on 1, then hit whatever lane we've created as fast as possible.
In my opinion, if we can't get our passing game going (which has happened at times this year), then you guys can load the box and your already stout D can really force us to be one dimensional. Clearly a low scoring game favors the Cats, so I hope we can out some points up on your D and special teams. If this game is close going into the 4th quarter, think that bodes very well for you. Our coach tends to coach tight at times, especially when leading and if it's close/late. If you guys aren't leading, another good strategy is to let us go up by 17 points, then start your comeback. We're 0-2 this year with 17 point leads (actually, I don't know how many 17 point leads we've had, but we blew 2 of them). Don't worry about not being built for big comebacks...Florida has almost no offense and they managed to do it.
I'd love another quick analysis of your own team. This is what I know. Your offense doesn't score much, but doesn't need to because your defense is so stout. Any other highlights. How is your passing game? I'm guessing we'll load the box and try to make you guys beat our corners 1 on 1 (which they can be beat, especially opposite Sutton). What are the weaknesses in your D? What concerns you about the game? Who are your playmakers that I should watch during the game, even if they aren't near the ball every play?
Thanks in advance. Great board, by the way. I loved Chi town as a kid. My grandparents lived there and I spent 2-3 weeks a year there during my childhood. Have yet to get back as an adult. Currently I'm two hours south of Tromsø (reference another thread)...and I can assure you that there are no college football watch parties out here. Cheers,
AFVol
- Game can't get here soon enough. Regardless of who wins, both UT and NU fans can be grateful that we're at least playing against a team that matters and in a game that folks are looking forward to. There is nothing more depressing than trying to get excited about bowl games during the holidays, flipping on a game and trying to get excited watching some 5-7 team play against South City State U in the Weedeater bowl.
- I just watched your hype video. Your coach is intense. No doubt he's a defensive guy given his background, but he just exudes defense.
- I've seen a lot of bitching and moaning about you guys getting blown out in two games and us playing 4 games close. My thoughts...who cares. I think you guys have better wins and worse losses. But you have 2 more wins than us. But we played two playoff teams. In the end, it's a wash in my opinion. Your style of play dictates close wins, and without having watched any of your games, typically teams that use your pattern (little to no offense but stout defense), don't do well if they get behind early. So to me, if Tennessee jumps out early, maybe that's a bad sign for you, but after that who really cares. I can assure you having a "close loss" to NU will not be any sort of moral victory for me. And I know the converse is true. I won't be upset in the least if we win by 1. I will if we lose by 1. As I'm sure is true for you guys.
- Some notes on our team (no doubt you've heard many of these before, but again, I'm really hoping for a response in kind about your own team so I don't have to hunt for the good discussions again):
-- Our QB is effectively a third running back at times. Some games, we scheme for him to run a lot. Others, not so much. He can obviously extend plays with his legs, but when we can exploit him as a runner, we typically have success. He is very inconsistent as a passer. Sub-par on the deep ball (him, receivers, whatever...we don't throw deep with success). Decent yet inconsistent at medium and even short range. He's pretty good at limiting turnovers through the air. He'll often throw the ball away or scramble rather than try to squeeze one into double coverage. He's not the best at sensing pressure if coming from his blind side, and he does have a tendency to cough it up while running/scrambling, though we've been fortunate to not have lost too many this year.
-- Hurd is our starting back. He's powerful, yet shifty. Often won't bust a 60 yard play, but can turn a 1 yard loss into a 3 yard gain or a 3 yard gain into a 6 or 10 yard gain. He's quite tall for a RB, and thus is deceptively powerful (looks leaner than he is). Kamara is our backup RB, and he'll play a lot. He can run between the tackles, but not as big nor as powerful as Hurd, and hes faster. He's much more likely to bounce it outside, and much more likely to bust a long one than Hurd. Kamara will often come out of the backfield for short passes, in an effort to get the ball in his hands on the edge quickly. Will be interesting to see these guys matchup against your D, which is no doubt very good. We've gone against some stout run D's this year, typically with success (but one look at our record shows that success doesn't necessarily translate into a win).
-- Our O-line is young overall, and will execute lots of pulling/misdirection. I don't think we have any chance to line up and pound the ball in between the tackles all game. Again, we've played against solid run D this year, and have had success, but it hasn't been from smash mouth running. We offer lots of eye candy in order to be effective...WRs/RBs in motion, lots of misdirection, multiple reads etc. based on where the D is crashing.
-- I think our O vs. your D is the intriguing matchup. On the opposite side, I won't say as much about our D unless asked, but our front 7 is our strength. Cam Sutton is our best corner, and he's solid in run D as well. After him, the play is inconsistent on the back end. Our best safety will be coming off the bench, Todd Kelly Jr. He'll get lots of PT and is easily our best at pass D, but we'll have two seniors starting in front of him that are bigger hitters, but still play out of position at times. Pass D is where we can be exploited. Run D is better. Our D ends, particularly #9 are very good. Was a freshman AA last year and while he started somewhat slowly, has really picked it up the last half of the season. We're not especially good at generating turnovers. We're very good on 3d down D. Terrible FWIW on 4th down D...so go for it on 4th all the time!
-- Our special teams unit is honestly one of, if not the strength, of our team. Our punter flips the field when needed and pins folks inside of 20 quite often. I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm pretty sure he's a national leader in both categories. Placekicker was somewhat inconsistent early in the year, but a lot of that was due to him kicking 45+ yarders. He's been solid of late, and almost all year 44 and in. Punt and kick return game is obviously very good as I think has been discussed. I think 3 KR and 3 PR for TDs this year. I don't think any of our 3 headed return team (Evan Berry at KR, and Sutton/Kamara at PR) are quite as skilled as their stats might lead one to believe, but rather we spend a lot of practice time focused on ST, so you'll see our guys often catch the ball already moving forward and try to hit the first hole with more speed than the average returner. Beyond that, the blocking is very good. I'm interested to see if you guys try to kick away or take your chances. If I'm a NU fan, I'd take my chances as long as you are fundamentally sound in your special teams D. We won't make crazy video game type moves in our return game...it's typically just try to make the first guy miss 1 on 1, then hit whatever lane we've created as fast as possible.
In my opinion, if we can't get our passing game going (which has happened at times this year), then you guys can load the box and your already stout D can really force us to be one dimensional. Clearly a low scoring game favors the Cats, so I hope we can out some points up on your D and special teams. If this game is close going into the 4th quarter, think that bodes very well for you. Our coach tends to coach tight at times, especially when leading and if it's close/late. If you guys aren't leading, another good strategy is to let us go up by 17 points, then start your comeback. We're 0-2 this year with 17 point leads (actually, I don't know how many 17 point leads we've had, but we blew 2 of them). Don't worry about not being built for big comebacks...Florida has almost no offense and they managed to do it.
I'd love another quick analysis of your own team. This is what I know. Your offense doesn't score much, but doesn't need to because your defense is so stout. Any other highlights. How is your passing game? I'm guessing we'll load the box and try to make you guys beat our corners 1 on 1 (which they can be beat, especially opposite Sutton). What are the weaknesses in your D? What concerns you about the game? Who are your playmakers that I should watch during the game, even if they aren't near the ball every play?
Thanks in advance. Great board, by the way. I loved Chi town as a kid. My grandparents lived there and I spent 2-3 weeks a year there during my childhood. Have yet to get back as an adult. Currently I'm two hours south of Tromsø (reference another thread)...and I can assure you that there are no college football watch parties out here. Cheers,
AFVol