Couple questions: 1. Where the heck are our linebackers on most plays? I see Muckleroy lay some wood on opposing players from time to time, but always 5 to 10 yards down the field. Sergio is around on occasion. But rarely do I see Norton making correct decisions, and Babino is flat out a liability. Babino is consistently out of position, he gets caught up in the cluster of lineman, regularly chooses the wrong gaps to shoot, and never makes an impact when he blitzes. And he is often out-runned by quarterbacks. How has this guy started so many years? We must have better options. 2. While young, some of our secondary players are in their 2nd or 3rd years on campus, and they should be playing at a higher level. Beasley hasn't progressed since his true freshman year. I'm surprised he wasn't flagged more often. The only way he's able to keep a receiver in front of him is to be mugging them consitantly throughout the play. His cover ability is not good. The short "performance" of Ben Wells today was embarassing, and goes a long way in explaining why that kid hasn't seen the field much. Some of the secondary still take bad angles, and that is something you learn in middle school football. So that's unexcuseable. The only secondary guys who are reliable and consistent are Palmer and Thomas. Palmer is 5'9" when he's in his heels, but plays with great effort and heart. And Thomas is a freshman who plays both the run and pass well. These guys are examples of how lack of size and experience aren't necessarily limitations to playing competently. Why don't the other DB's take notice? 3. Our Special Teams coach needs to give back the salary he's been robbing from the University. Giving the opposing team starting field position at their 40yr line or better is ridiculous. And has he been drunk the last few games? Is there nothing he sees that needs to be corrected, b/c I haven't seen any changes. That in itself will get a good team beat by an average team.
Personally, I thought the kick-off coverage was tons better than it has been in the past few games. Defensively, I thought Muschamp made some bad play calls. I realize the secondary is young, but so was Baylor's QB. Play more man-on-man, and put a spy on the QB, to minimize running. No way he should have had 100+ yards rushing. Other than that, they had 4 big plays. That is 2 too many, but I'll live with it, since we won.
I agree with #1. Our linebackers were improving at the start of the year. They have taken steps backward in the last few weeks. Sergio is lost. He is nothing more than an athlete who is in a football uniform. He is constantly burned in coverage, and his rush technique is very poor. No spin moves. No rip, no swim, nothing. It's a bull rush every time and tries to go right over the top of the blocker on every play. Horrible. Bobino lacks the quickness that he had as a freshman. He has regressed physically over the past 4 years. Norton has a shoulder injury. We have a lot of 2nd and 3rd year players who we would like to be doing better. Unfortunately, we have had some attrition and injuries at DB. It takes more to be all-american than just wear orange and white and pass your 20th birthday. Some players have panned out, some have not. We have more talent on the field at DB than last year, but it is very young talent. Our best corner is also injured. I could not disagree with #3 any more. Coverage was good pretty much all day.
With Orakpo out, Sergio started at DE, not LB. So, he was not in on much pass coverage. As for that, he needs to rush from the LB spot, as he didn't show much as DE on an every down basis.
Granted, we had a couple good kick-off covers. In saying that, we held them to within their own 30. But we also gave up 2 huge kick-off returns. How is that acceptable? Have we gotten so complacent with this kick-off coverage thing that we're just happy if we tackle them before they reach their 40? That sucks folks. We don't stay in our lanes running down the field and we don't run through blocks. Our players on the kick-off coverage stop or slow-down to engage the other teams blockers. They need to keep their momentum and run through them as best they can. Bottom line, the results still stink. And it's gonna cost us, if it didn't already against Tech.
