Curious to hear what others think drove the huge turnaround in intensity Saturday. Was it Robinson's influence on the team? Response to Tre Walker's quote from the B12 media days? The players finally having enough and energizing themselves? Something else? I tend to give Robinson a lot of the credit because he and Twomey drove a similar change in his first tour of duty here. It wasn't just the defense that was hyped up - Gray ran harder than I've ever seen him run, the OL seemed to be in another gear, and I saw the best blocking from the WR's I've seen all year - but I suspect that Robinison lit the fire under the D and it spread from there. Would be interested in others' thoughts.
Probably some combination of all of these things in varying doses combined with the fact that K-State really is not a very good team this year.
Some players taking responsibility for themselves and a combination of the above. Taking responsibility for your self is contagious and hopefully it continues to spread and spread.
Well the players are the same so it has to be the DC. From what I see Diaz gambled on every play, he had the linebackers crashing the line or spread too far apart on most every play. Now how is an offense supposed to learn how to block when your own defense is taking itself out of the play when you scrimmage? Better defensive competition in practice will make the offense better.
I have a feeling that intensity who be there for very long in Dallas vs. Oklahoma. I hope I'm wrong, but history tells me it's gonna be ugly and embarrassing.
It was the blocking sled. The image appeared when I previewed the post, and I can't post another picture, so just imagine the sled in all its glory.
I <3 blocking sled. I also haven't thought about blocking sled in a long time. I think it's because he fell into disuse.
We have issues and we need new coaching at the top. That said......I put the current change on Robinson.
Sorry, I missed it. Yes, they turned it up a couple of notches at the end, but K-State had no timeouts and wasn't going to run the ball. Hence, Robinson let them pin their ears back and takeoff. Most of the rest of the game, the intensity level was the same as it was against BYU and Ole Miss, particularly by the nonexistent LBs and disappearing DEs. I remember discussing a particular recruit with Bill Michael years ago. Bill remains the best evaluator of talent I've met or at least the most thorough reviewer. According to the HS coach, Bill spent the entire day watching 30 game films of the kid's three year HS career. When I asked the difference in Sophomore and Senior years, Bill said, "He only made two more tackles as a senior, but 90% of his tackles as a senior were within two yards of the line of scrimmage or behind it. His sophomore year, almost all were multiple yards down field." I would love to know how many of the tackles credited to our LBs are within two yards or behind the line of scrimmage.
I think that the D was lost with Diaz and they played lost with no confidence. Now that the D has confidence and good coaching it also helps the offense and the whole team. We finally beat K-state and even if they weren't as good as in the past neither are we. We've lost to them when we were clearly better.
Agree with Statalyzer's comment above. People keep saying "butt remember K State is just not that good," but BYU isn't that good either and they took it to us. Jury is out on Mississippi, so far, but I don't think they're a particularly good team either. If we had played those teams with the intensity and discipline (and against BYU probably pretty much the same scheme), we probably would have beat both. This wasn't a very impressive win, but it represented a significant turnaround from where we had been.
I found myself wondering if the intensity was partly the result of Greg clarifying the players' assignments. It's tough to play with intensity when you aren't really sure what you're supposed to do.
Empire, I take it you have seen none of our games live and/or don't watch much football. That defense is anything but confident and is atrociously coached. When you DB coach is yelling at your DC to call the defense, while the defensive players on the field are begging for the DC to make a call, there is a lack of confidence in the coaching staff and anything but improved coaching. These actions are reminiscent of the OU confrontations between Cale Gundy and Chuck Long with the QB begging for a play, while Cale had his back to the field yelling at the Long in the pressbox. As I stated earlier, I saw increased intensity at the end of the fourth quarter when K-State had to throw. Other than that, I saw no improvement in the LBs or the DEs. Sure, Mack will pad the stats, but how many tackles for loss or no gain? That was a soft, slow K-State team, but then, so was BYU.
Stat, How many of those occurred in the last minutes when K-State had no timeouts and was down by two scores?
Johnathan Gray. He was jacked up. Knocked the mess out of that linebacker and you could see the look in his eye. Herbie even commented on him trying to hurry up the team. When he wasn't in, he was going crazy with celebrations. I think he got a lot of guys jacked up. His attitude seemed really infectious.
"Oh ****, we have 11 guys in the box to tackle one or two guys that can't throw.....it's go time boys!!!"
I've been to almost all of our home games since the early 90's at DKR. If the D played like it had the last two games we would have lost by 30. Something Robinson is doing is working and it's probably called fundamentals, accountability, and enthusiasm which breeds confidence when you hold a team to 115 yard rushing, short drives, and KSU is light years faster at the skill positions than BYU. I saw good play from the D-line and LB's while at least better tackling from the DB's, but didn't see very good pass D from the DB's.
Empire, I have seen all but one home game over the last 47 years, and most of the road games. Unfortunately I am seeing things much differently than are you. I see Greg Robinson bringing nothing but more confusion, The fact that the defensive front seven (and Akina) has to "beg" for the defensive call from him, is less than heartwarming and confidence inspiring. Quite frankly, Greg Robinson is a waste of space and money, and will make little or no improvement in the defense. He will say "yes" to Mack in a most positive way. Now that all of those thoughts are expressed, Mack made a horrible choice in hiring Diaz and everyone in the SEC and half the rest of the country knew it at the time. He wasn't going to get anyone else to step in and take that position at mid season, unless he wanted someone that refused to be a "yes man". Obviously the change can only be a move up, however minor. It should concern all Longhorn faithful that there was no one among the assistants that Mack respected enough to put them in charge as an interim.
