1. Ash, discounting the one bomb to Goodwin, he was 13-25 for 99 yards. Have you ever gotten the feeling Southlake Carrol could stop your passing offense? I sure did tonight, I mean less than 4 yards per attempt for those 25 attempts. Even with the 47 yard bomb, his avg per attempt was 6? wow, it's just hard to process. And if you really watched him, for example, on one of the few 3rd down conversions, he stared down the receiver as the receiver ran across the entire field. Does anybody think he's gonna get away with this stuff against a B12 d? 2. A contract extension- ummm, no, unless you're talking about Manny and the D. 3. Okay this GD thing is now completely settled in my mind. Mack is doing something to these coordinators, maybe it's because of the one year Mack was an Offensive coordinator at OU, he thinks he knows what plays to call or something, I don't know, but first all of the GD stuff, and now Harsin looks like he can't call a decent play to save his life until the 1st half is almost over. The only constant in the two coordinators is Mack! 4. Case McCoy, don't transfer, we're gonna need all of the QBs we can get our hands on in 2012, maybe even in 2013, you never know.
I roll my eyes before reading the threads like this and by others to save energy later on. Then it is train wreck fun.
One thing to keep in mind is the output of Greg McElory in the 2009 Rose Bowl title game... he completed 6-of-11 pass attempts for 58 yards while being sacked five times and losing 27 yards (Wikipedia). That can win you a national championship if you have two stellar running backs and a nasty defense, and a bit of luck with the other team's All-American QB getting injured, but the point being that a mistake-free game by the quarterback can win if the rest of the game is solid, and that includes turnovers as well as defense in general. McElory was not a freshman in that game either. He was a junior. So he had been on the team for three years, and still look at those numbers... 6 for 11, for 58 yards, and got sacked 5 times for 27 yards. As a junior. But... good enough for an undefeated national championship season. And, in fact, he played at Southlake Carroll (re: above post).
But Hu, you neglect to point out that the Horns would have whipped Bama's *** in that game if not for Colt getting inured. (source: Detective Shilala) Seriously though, if that Bama team had been forced to play from a deficit with McElroy at QB, they would not have stood a chance. I get your point though. Ash was indeed serviceable tonight. No interceptions, one TD, managed the offense, a very nice game to build on.
My feeling is that the defense loses its kickass attitude when the offense is constantly putting them in a hole, which seemed to happen on a regular basis last year and a few times this season as well. Last night and the aggy game are good examples of how defense can win games as long as the offense is just halfway decent and doesn't give the game away.
"discounting the one bomb to Goodwin" By all means, let's throw out the good plays to make the stats worse. Good Lord. Ash had a nice game with no turnovers and two TDs counting the receiving TD. Or should we throw that out, as well? Now he gets a spring and summer which he did not get this season. Let's support him and hope he can carry the load so Brewer can sit and learn and not be subject to the freshman mistakes and backlash that Ash has. Ash showed me he has some thick skin. He played within himself and gave us a chance to win. And, oh yea. We did win! Great game horns. Hookem!!
We are slowly becoming Alabama. A QB that can manage the game, running backs that can kill you and an anaconda like defense.
Let's try playing "what if" in Ash's favor. Davis dropped one (with another that he might have had), Goodwin lost track of the sideline and had a catch called back, and Goodwin came down out of bounds on his outside foot when his inside foot would have been in. Those plus the bomb you wanted to throw out would give him 17 of 25 for over 200 yards and no picks. He didn't play a great game, but once again his receivers didn't give him much help.
hu and ricky stole my posts. fix the offensive line, get one more reliable WR and everything will fall into place. with brown, bergeron, and gray you dont need colt mccoy at QB. you need someone who can make throws when necessary and not turn the ball over. your defense is national championship quality. your running backs soon will be too. all the horns are missing to make a legit run at a title is a better OL and 1-2 more WRs. what happened to mike davis? i thought he was all world coming out of HS?
Ash needs to make one very simple adjustment. Learn where Mr. Shipley is on every pass play, particularly on third down. That is the one thing that Case definitely does better. Gotta get the ball to your playmakers.
okay, yeah, I didn't account for the receivers not helping. Still, do you guys see the hesitation for example, on a WR screen he fakes, waits, all the while staring down the receiver, and finally throws. Last night that was a 5 yard gain. In the B12 that's a one yard loss, because he had to stare for so long. how about the hesitation on the incomplete bomb? completely re-loaded his arm, Jesse Palmer is saying the receiver is WIDE WIDE open early, but Ash, who has had these "great practices", is not up to the speed of the game. This was the fourth quarter, correct? Don't you think he should be up to the speed of the game by the fourth quarter? That crossing pattern, where he stared the receiver across the field, that's an incomplete pass or Int against a decent B12 team. Does anybody have a theory on Harsin not being able to call a decent play until the 1st half is almost over? So, is the glass half empty or half full? Last night I saw a Cal D that had a very good nosetackle and not much else. It looked to me like Ash was playing against a pass D ranked in the bottom 25, but then I looked and their pass D is better than ours!!! That's right they allowed less passing yards than we did. Cal 2513 Texas 2540 Good grief, they sure didn't look like it. So, answer this, since Cal's pass D is better than ours, What do Ash's numbers look like if he goes against our #1 D?
Shipley and Goodwin (to some extent) aside, our receivers SUCK. Davis was totally horrid last night and I am convinced that he is not a top talent. He dropped two first downs and was out of position just about the entire night. His blocking is so so and the man just plays without any intensity whatsoever. IMO, he is a wasted scholly. It is easy to blame everything on Ash. Shipley was blanketed last night because Cal considered him the only legitimate threat at WR.
Ash is going to be fine....keep in mind he was the 4th string qb this summer ....which means you got it no reps...anyone who says he hasnt improved measurably since the break is a troll...yes we did miss on a few shots downfield,however,what coach next season is going to think that is not a legitimate threat when they try to stuff the run like cal...
Why would you discount the pass to Goodwin? Even RGIII or Luck would look a little less impressive if you ignored their big plays.
At first, the OP felt a bit Aggy-like, but it's actually the exact opposite. Aggy - "If you take away all their best plays and all our worst plays, we would have won" OP - "If you take away our best plays and their worst plays, we might have lost" ________________________________________
After watching last night, I am cautiously optimistic of the following: With a full spring and fall getting a starter's reps, another season in the system, an improved OL that returns 4 underclassmen starters including a ridiculous true frosh LT, a healthy stableof RBs joined by home run threat Grey, a healthy Shipely and (hopefully) a competent replacement for the mediocre Davis, Ash will surprise and play very well next year. He has a lot of physical talent, a big arm, talent around him, and a proven coordinator and system. He still is rudimentary in his progressions and gets antsy under pressure, but that will improve with experience. Give him another solid WR and some decent TEs (a real whole in our recrudoting), and we win 10+ games. At least that is my expectation. There is no reason Ash can't play as good or better than the (mediocre) QBs that have led LSU and Bama in recent years. If we continue to have injuries to our playmakers or Diaz leaves all bets are off, but my expectations are pretty high right now. Our fanbase is used to winning with superstar QBs, so the gloom is not surprising, but that is not the only way to be a top team. A great running game and a killer defense will get you there too. And Ash showed enough last night for me to think that there is a good chance he becomes a good or even great QB, instead of just a serviceable one like McElroy.
...Ash now is a game manager;in the future he has all the tools physicality and now confidence to be a star quaterback ...Harsin fell on his sword regarding the play calling early on in the game...I think that was a noble move to feed the media...in reality he was protecting Ash from an early pick that would have been disastrous...instead he showed the confidence in him to settle in and make plays for first touchdown...
