Kwiatcollapseski

Yeah I am beginning to question what he is doing too. Seems like there is discord on the defense side of the ball while the offense side is more coherent and overall happy despite the poor pass pro. Smells fishy to me

 

The thought occurred to me that maybe K bailed on UW and took this gig for a little golden icing on his retirement cake.

 

Reposted from another thread…

To me, while the O-Line is certainly a liability, due to excellent play calling — certainly in the first half — we overcame that liability with outstanding play by CT, BR and Worthy. Any way you slice it, 48 points in this rivalry (in regulation) had never lost this game, until yesterday.

So to me it’s about the D, and this is where I’m scratching my head. We have plenty of upperclassmen, and the D-Line was expected to be the best — and deepest! — position group on the team, yet explosive running plays killed us.

Any decent run defense and the outcome is different IMO. We’re talking about highly rated players, most being upperclassmen, so I don’t get it. Either our talent level was mis-assessed, our players weren’t motivated yesterday (which I doubt), or they were completely dominated by vastly superior opposing offense of line. That seems unlikely as well.

To me, that leaves one variable, scheming. And I have to wonder if quick Kwiatkowski didn’t structure the defense and in particular the defensive line appropriately to handle the quarterback change. They were unstoppable after mid 3rd quarter and I’m not sure why.

Troubling.

 

I still think the horses are there on the D line which makes me more inclined to suspect it’s coaching and scheme. We haven’t defended a deep ball in 5 years, and it seems the only way a long ball isn’t completed against us is if the ball is thrown into the stands. Every deep ball has a chance on us and that’s technique and coaching because average high school DBs can defend it. Our tackling was improved it seemed until yesterday as well, but the amount of lost opportunities for TFLs was obscene.

 

With all the back and forth on HF, you guys realize we actually lost the game because of two plays where OU made circus catches on 3rd and long.

 

Hence why I’m pointing out miracle moon balls we can’t ever defend.

 

Honest to God, McHammer. You could throw 10 of those balls and they’d miss 9. Plus we lost a very good LB to injury, if Sark had kicked a FG to make it 48-44, all would have gone crazy at that. But if he had and the late TD still played out OU would have 10 seconds and a long FG to tie. We mightn’t have been trying to strip the ball on the final TD. Take care of business. Play very game week at a time. We are the better team in all the remaining games. We see them again and I believe have a better or matched team. Who cares where we are ranked? There’s No.1 and everybody else. It isn’t a beauty contest. Win out, win rematch and have 11-2. Who in their right mind thought that was possible in August? Take some deep breaths frustrated wanna-coaches.

 

I think that the gouging run plays are what killed us, starting with that fourth down play by the replacement QB who took it to the house. If I’m not mistaken, there we four other similar plays that gashed once the back cleared the LOS.

We can defend against great individual effort and we can’t control the refs, but we should be able to reduce if not stop those gashing runs. That’s what made the difference yesterday.

 

Couldn’t stop the counter… couldn’t stop the counter. OU’s bread and butter for 5 years

 

McHamm....
'With all the back and forth on HF, you guys realize we actually lost the game because of two plays where OU made circus catches on 3rd and long.'

Very true, plus there were some very obvious push offs on one if not both.....several other missed calls as evidenced by the lack of penalties and tardage

....the foot comes down an inch further and its punt time instead of 7 pts

another, if our receivers foot comes dow 2-3 inches ealier is 1st and goal....

and if Worthy downs the ball in endzone instead of bringing it out from 6-8 yds, there is no fumble....yet he without a doubt proved his worth with 250+ reciving yards.....that was easy points for the Wagon Train....!!

It seemed we made 0 adjustments when OU adjusted their D in 2nd half to contain BR even more as well as not allowing CT any room to perform...to me that was what cost us the game (2nd half Horn yardage) Lincoln made better adjustments!!!

 

And DL was supposedly the strength of our defense coming into this season. But now that it's performed poorly, it's because there's nobody with talent there? Not buying it.

 

Just a thought - K got outcoached by Cale Gundy. That's an award few, if any DCs can claim.

 

Serious question:

If one assume that the talent level on D is “adequate to good” — and please make that assumption for this exercise; and one further assumes that Kwiatkowski is a smart guy that knows defenses, what is the possibility that the team has not yet processed/implemented his schemes?

I’m trying to process why, after six games, teams like Arkansas and Oklahoma are able to run through us like a chainsaw through butter. I’m not being sarcastic. I’d like to understand (from someone that really understands defensive schemes) if it’s feasible that his scheme simply takes time to implement.

Apparently there is at least one thread on another board suggesting that in Year 1 at Washington, people were very unhappy with him. However, that changed by Year 2. So could his defense be that complex — or require special defensive skill sets — such that it takes a long time to successfully implement the scheme?

 

Please understand that I am not cutting anyone any slack, but K was not dealt a hand full of trumps and face cards. Still, at his salary, he should build a scheme that stands a chance. Clearly, K never heard of, nor prepared for OU's backup QB. When every OU fan has been screaming all year to replace Rattler, you would think K gave some consideration to defensing Williams. Sure didn't look like it.

When Rick Lantz was DC at UVA, no ACC team had ever defeated FSU. Rick changed his entire defense for that one game (never been done successfully anywhere). He had his kids so well prepared that on the last play of the game, with FSU on the one, FSU came to the line and immediately LB Jones started screaming "get Warrick, get Warrick". Wildcat snap to Warrick Dunn and two defenders went straight after him and stopped him at the two. UVA wins because of a great DC and scheme.

Leave Rattler in and we win by 25. Put in a talented QB that Texas is totally unprepared for, and we lose. Yes, K tried to spy the kid, but I might as well have been the one spying him.

We weren't prepared and sucking wind.

 

I don't have the technical answer, but I do have a general answer. Every championship level coach I've ever seen has been able to take average talent, get them organized and show improvement from the beginning of the season to the end in their first year. They might have a hiccup here or there, but that's the trajectory.

If you look at our offense in general they are almost scoring at will. We fell flat in the second half but since the beginning of the season (Arkansas) we have been overall getting better and I haven't looked at stats but I feel like more consistent and productive than last year.

Now look at the defense. Those guys have no idea what they are doing and in my opinion have regressed since the beginning of the season. They are certainly much worse overall than last year (again without looking at the stats).

To me that is a sign of a coach in over his head and not that we necessarily have a "talent problem". I keep seeing folks saying, "He was the most sought after D coordinator in the country!". If so then why was he at Washington? Loyalty? Nah.

A championship level coach SHOULD be able to use yesterday as serious motivation and attitude for the remainder of the year. Let's just see what happens. I'm guessing OSU scores 35+ on us.

 

I like your assessment. I just don’t know. My feeling though is that Sark is a smart guy and that he knows smart football people. So his selection of Kwiatkowski was based on a sound assessment.

But…

It’s all about what we see on the field and so far, like you, I am very concerned.

 

Coburn and Sweat each need to lose 30lbs.

 

Everybody wanted the guys we got. Coburn plays high, and everyone else seems to shadow dance with lineman. Sweat to his credit is playing the best I think. Collins has moments but as a group they just aren’t disruptive. Not a talent issue there.

 

This team can't tackle to save a life. If this isn't addressed and prioritized each day, every hour on the hour......we can expect it to cost us more games.

 

I thought we are tackling better this year than the prior 2 coaches. The defense was not bad until they got tired from being on the field too long. The 1st qtr alone they were on for almost 10 minutes and the 3rd
Qtr our offense was just a bunch of 3 and outs because the OL could not block anybody.. the RT did not even slow down his man.

It also did not help that our only DL that could pressure their QB got hurt early in the 1st,

In short as I have posted, I put the loss on the OL and the refs, not the defense.

We also lost a lot from last year, our best DL man, our best, and leading tackler, our best safety and our best cover CB.

Apparently, we had a very weak recruiting class
Because almost no frost and high on the dept chart.

 

I mostly agree. I think our tackling is quite a bit better than it was during the Tom and Charlie regimes.* But it was not good at all during the second half of the OU game. Blown coverages and missed assignments are annoying, but poor tackling is infuriating.



*admittedly, that’s not a very high bar, but still the improvement is encouraging.

 

Coach K > Orlando and Bedford and >>> Manny __iaz.

Ash was also good, but was frequently insulted and put-down on these boards until late last year.

 

Chop,

It's hard to focus on wrapping up when you are trying to decide what line you're going to use to mouth off after the tackle.

OU was mouthy all game, and took some cheap shots (none called). We weren't so successful at not letting them in our heads.

On a positive not, we seem to have lost our desire to "blow em up" and be on Sports Center.

 

Well, one thing’s for sure. When it comes to Kwiatkowski, by the end of next year, or the year after, either:

(i) myself and a handful of other clear-thinking chaps around here,

or

(ii) a whole lot of other people on these boards

will be eating their words.

 

Just when I was on step 4 or 5 to recovery today I found out this is the biggest collapse in the history of Texas football. Texas has never had a 21 point lead and lost. Some perspective on how bad this defense was 51 hours ago.

 

That seems to be okay with a bunch of people around here because they are just kids, on scholarship. Forget that their job is to kick *** on Saturdays, not win moral victories.

 

This. DB’s go for a hit, usually miss and can’t wrap up.

 

Agree, but how far back do we have to go to find a defense that could tackle in space? 2008?

 

I think one big mistake k made was not putting a lot of pressure on a freshman Qb who has taken few snaps this year. Especially in a game of this magnitude. Many times we were rushing 3 and 4 players. It allowed him to get comfortable and move around. If we put pressure on him there is a good chance he makes mistakes.

 

Dukesteer is right. This game was not lost on a couple of big pass plays.
It was 339 yards rushing on 8.3 yards per carry!

OU's edge was on the LOS.

We need more lineman! We started off the game controlling the LOS but OU had full control by the end.