Mike West

Yep.

I'm not sold on Jackson Arnold yet. He has more ability than Howard. But he hasn't shown the performance skills Howard demonstrated at KSU. I'm not much of a fan of Freshman or Sophomore QBs starting for P4 teams. You literally have to show me you are as good as a Heisman caliber QB those first two years - and I'm talking about performance, not ability. Now if you perform better than the guy ahead of you ( Arnold didn't and still hasn't), THEN YOU CAN START FOR ME. USC is playoff caliber with a guy that waited four years to start. Tennessee and Texas have Juniors that are top shelf performers that sat behind top shelf performers. I'll let you leave if you feel you're great. Most especially if I have a DG or Will Howard as my QB. If you aren't leading TD drives in practices and scrimmages every day, and I mean multiple TD drives, you are riding pine on my team. Potential would not get me either fired, or sitting at home on conference championship day. I can't go for that ( no, no ...no can do). I get what you're saying. But Oklahoma and KSU went all in, and busted. They're both out of the playoffs.

Glad you posted this. I didn't think about today's game, but I sure have been thinking OU made a serious mistake forcing DG out. Goes to show the NIL/ Portal issue is very serious for budding playoff prospects. Too many kids are a legend in their own head.

Nice Preview Jon! I agree, that Miami's win in Gainesville is overrated ( A&M revealed how hollow UF is, and ND blew up A&M's playoff hopes). There will have to be some upsets, as the SEC could sneak in FIVE teams if they win the games they're supposed to. Clemson beats Miami IMHO, but depending on what happens in the B1G, Miami could notch a playoff berth. Oregon AND Penn State have to go 11-1 to assure themselves a spot. USC has to beat Michigan and/or Penn State to nab a berth ( they should beat ND, but who knows). North Carolina was in good shape till they lost QB Johnson. The SEC is very deep. I suspect there will be controversy on who plays in Atlanta for their crown. Four of them have a real shot at going 11-1. That 10-2 team will have an argument for playoff inclusion, as this conference is truly deep. It looks like the regular season still matters. I didn't see that coming. For the good of the game, I actually hope the P2 offer that 14 team playoff with two guaranteed spots to the ACC and the Big 12 ( and no G5 for unless they defeat a ranked team or two). That format, as ugly as it seemed when it was offered, just might be the only difference between CFB and the NFL ( especially if the P2 are stupid enough to go their own way). This is actually going to be a thrilling year!

Charles, The first thing I in thought about was the sequential plays. I can spot three that might work, but I'm just a hack. I certainly hope Stein is working those sequential plays in practice, and keeps them under wraps until Ohio State comes to town. We'll have to see. The Buckeye LBs are pretty darn good in pass coverage, so anything to keep the off balance would disrupt their very effective pass defense. Great article. You observed something I didn't catch. Not even sure those plays were part of of the first two games Did you catch anything else from last week?

I don't think that's a bad deal. If he plays to his potential, and scouts believe he will eventually start in the NFL, that means his performance will be top shelf. In addition, the talent behind him ( talk about great depth) will get to play that much sooner. We have massive QB talent right now. Best to develop DM to NFL caliber this year, so he performs next year. It's clear Stein gets the most out of his QBs. And if Stein stays...whew. I hope DL is scouring for OC talent just in case

Looking forward to your analysis FishDuck.

I like how the defense responded to an obvious getting chewed out. Damn near perfection. That is the standard. They don't have to be perfect, but the effort to be perfect matters. We didn't see that effort in the first half on defense. Very good performance today. A solid B+ ( on a scale from F to A+). So much to clean up. Because we're playing to get ready for the playoffs. Every game is practice getting ready for the playoffs. Grade them tough, love them up to superiority. All criticism is in respect to prepare for the elite teams. No intent to denigrate the players. It's all about rising to elite status every game.

Naw, That was strictly poor performance last week. The line met the standard this week. Boise State isn't capable of stopping OBD when they play like this. This is what the nation expected out of OBD.

Not much comments on other games now that OBD are playing. LOL

Yep, Poor tackling like that is from a lack of intensity. Definitely not up to standard. Will this team put together a complete game this year?

They're not taking FishDuck's advice. Just stack the box and force them to throw the ball. I am disappointed in Lupoi's choice of formations. Again, they don't have the personnel to run the defense they want to run. In addition, the defense is slacking. Now THEY are playing lax. No intensity outside a few players like Boetcher. Finally, I'm picking on Dontae Manning all game of I'm an OC. Poor call on the roughing the passer. That's a homer call. Defense needs to start playing to their level of talent. They just don't play with fire.

I'm going to say this 100 more times this season. Cover the receiver, stop looking at the QB

LSU DE abandons the edge, Gamecocks score. Gentleman, this is a football. Seal the edge, cover your receiver ( don't look at the QB), run the ball well and you control the game. If you have a talent edge, you dominate.

Oregon 38-14 1 TO 2 Sacks 315 Passing yards

Not in my opinion. It's about survival. We did it. Why wouldn't they? I could write a book about it, because after all, I babble too much. ,🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 WSU and OSU want to survive the best way they can. I don't think it makes sense, but I'm not facjing extinction either. If I was, I sure as hell would consider many things I don't now. That's for sure.

I totally respect your perspective on the time and place to correct bad behavior. Plenty of styles are different, and effective. Again, abusing a player is totally unacceptable. Respect completely matters.

A couple of thoughts... When I coached, I was pretty calm mostly. One time I raised my voice and everyone nearly laughed , but they paid attention. Another year I had a team that was just a clown show. If you ever watched Magic Johnson coach the Lakers, you can imagine what I was like. I couldn't stand the lack of work ethic. I just left the team. They went undefeated...they beat themselves so badly they were never in any of the games they played-all year. Timing is everything in a nutshell. You raise your voice for an impact. Usually, stared downs, snippets of disappointment, and silence (with a disgusted look on your face) is enough. Saban was hard on his players when they made mistakes, but he was encouraging when they lost their poise. He knew which buttons to push. As far as losing to little brother: I encourage all of you to watch some highlights of the SDSU game. In my opinion, we would have to play worse than both games x factor 3. The Beavers are fundamentally sound, and that's about it. In fact, if we don't deep six them, I'd be surprised. Even if the OL plays as poorly as they have. That's just my feeling.

You know, When I grew up, coaches yelled at us constantly. Hated it some of the time, but I mostly didn't mind. If you screw up as bad as Kris Hudson did, I would get in your face like that. It was known at the time the team was clowning around too much. Tons of dropped balls, unforced errors and inexcusable penalties. We even talked about it. Then Kris Hudson basically trashed a key first down conversion. Yeah, I would have ripped him one too. In fact, I didn't say it at the time, but my first thought was 'it's about time". Abuse is never acceptable. I'll tell you this, Kirby Smart and Nick Saban routinely lashed their players. Why do you think they have , what ten Nattys between them? Because they don't let kids run the show. Remember when Neon 'shallow' trolled Saban for quiting because of NIL? Guess who will never see a playoff game in his career? I'm pretty sure there's a reason Gen z and the millennials will never rise to the level of greatness Boomers have achieved - they didn't get their butts chewed out enough. If you don't force kids to take things seriously , they won't. Oh, I'm pretty sure Saban would have ripped Hudson for that dumb display.

That's a pretty good observation David. For me, it's the eye test. In addition, you just don't see consistent shut down mode from that unit. I've seen that routinely from the defense Lanning wants to mimic: Georgia. Their linebacker unit simply dominates games. That's what I think of when I assess OBD's unit. I believe you're correct though. They make their presence felt. That's a start, and that's definitely a good thing.

Excellent takes everyone. Hard to add more to the conversation. After reading these, some things did come up for me. First and foremost, DG is playing well-pretty good in fact. I agree the comparison to Bo is unrealistic, and Bo definitely had the benefit of an elite OL. For all DG's shortcomings, the guy has only turned the ball over once. He isn't pressing or forcing things either. Second, I agree the team has not been as cohesive a unit as either the 22' or 23' teams. They're talking the talk, but they're not walking the walk. I believe that's due to only being together for 6-9 months (less for the freshmen that came in during the fall). NIL has made college football NFL lite for sure. Money changes people, and mercenaries change the dynamic and the fabric of a team. We are witnessing this first hand all over the country. I believe Texas and Georgia have managed it best this season to date. It's tough though. Third, it's clear Lanning is still learning on the job. I'll give him this though, he's taught the team well. They know how to win. The players didn't fold after multiple self inflicted wounds in both games. For all Lanning has to "learn", his boys know how to perform when the chips are down. Even when the Fuskies were putting it to them, that team climbed back from multiple TD deficits in both games. That's excellent coaching. Fourth, it is clear how difficult it is to build an elite team. Even with the talent, and a solid staff, there are so many moving components to manage. In addition, Lanning doesn't want to add talent for talent's sake. Character matters to him, and in my opinion, he's probably passed on talent that conflicts with said character. Same with Ryan Day. The past two championship teams had some character flaws (sorry UGA fans that come regularly - but that program has had some issues, though better than what Michigan did over the same three year period). Finally, winning big games requires damn near perfection. I'm talking 98% execution. Georgia lost to BAMA because of ONE mistake last year. One. Ohio State had just two against Michigan. And Bama couldn't finish off Michigan in regulation. That is a mental aspect of the game that is difficult to accomplish for most teams. We're still in the conversation because of our potential. That's awesome. What's funny to me is how arrogant we get when we're close. Players, coaches, the athletic department and fans. We just assume it's easy. We take too many things for granted. And just a simple thing like a slip on the turf, a bad ref call, or an injury can totally derail a title pursuit. Enjoy the journey is more than a cliche. It should be a standard attitude for a football program. Team and fans alike. We are blessed to be in the title hunt. We should enjoy the thrills and the disappointments.

I didn't get to see enough to make that kind of determination. You may be right. It could be desperation. I didn't get to see enough bad plays to get a feel for what's wrong. It definitely was better than week one, which was a complete mess. Two things stand out though: DG is more "passive" than I expected. In other words, he's waiting for things to happen. Two: the blocking has no grit to it. That includes the WRs. The offense just may be taking on Gabriel's persona here. Confident, yet lacking a killer instinct. That's the best I can explain it. I've yet to see anyone just punch somebody ( figuratively speaking). Like George Foreman power and Mike Tyson is lethality and ferocity. Georgia is the closest team I've seen with that aura this year. I do see the talent though. No cohesiveness, but enough ability to be a potent offense. I hope that explains it more

Well well well, I got to see some extended footage that has my heart aflutter even though my mind says no. The eyeball test says no, we are not elite one bit. But...I saw some flashes I didn't expect watching the ESPN Gamecast description of the game( instead of the real game). First of all, I can see why DL thinks the OL can be fixed. They were massively experimenting. I saw at least five different OL lineups. Nothing super encouraging, but now I understand why the offense looks so disjointed. There were enough blown assignments, that a mean and nasty professor would go pure sadistic on "student Lanning ". That tells me they feel confident enough to horse around against a much inferior team to find the dudes that are going to play come conference time. That might have been a huge mistake, but now I get it- Lanning is looking for six or seven guys on the OL that can get the team to the playoffs and beyond. The defense. My biggest concern - which I felt after the Spring Game - are the inside linebackers. They're not big enough and they're not fast enough. They do a decent job in spite of it, but I think OBD need more NFL caliber talent. I'd put Jackson inside, but that's not going to happen. He IS prototype though, like we see at Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State every year. I think the secondary is better, but the guys still cover the QB instead of their assignments. Muhammad got beat for a TD because he didn't get the safety help he deserved. The safety is supposed to assist on that olay- the QB had no business having an option to throw to that post corner route. The safety should have been there on the post part of it alone, which would have allowed Muhammad to seal off the corner part of the route. That can be fixed, but the coaches need to change their philosophy on how to cover receivers. Some people have derided Whittington a bit. He's fine. He's not as big as James, so he can't break tackles as well. If the OL gets straight, he will be deadly. Same for Gabriel. Though he is waiting for receivers to get open too often ( he needs to throw them open - for those of you that don't know that term, it means to anticipate the spot his receivers will get open and throw to that spot before the receivers turn to look for the ball). The OL... I think the right combo is there. I think Lanning may be experimenting too much. They need to gel, like now. They need time to clean up the confusion. Also, the TEs are missing lead blocks. There are too many blown assignments going on, and not just the penalties. Guys are a step slow, and even the RBs are blowing pass block assignments. My thoughts on that are set the platoon, and get to work on communication and situation assignments. If DG gets another second and a half, this offense will blow the doors open passing the ball. If the TEs clean up a bit on their motion blocking, the OL can lead the RB well down-field. I saw enough of that to grasp why DL thinks it's fixable. Now will that happen? I don't know. This is the part where DL's learning curve has to kick in. He is thinking potential and process too much. My mind says the eval period is over, and it's time to position the best player in his best role, and demand some results. And I'd scrap some strategy assignments. For example, one time the LT was assigned to block inside and the Center was supposed to cover the edge, AND the RB completely skipped by the DE and gave him a free look at DG. That's got to stop. That particular Center isn't quick enough to get outside, and the RB needs to be assigned to the DE. I see potential here. Which would get me fired lol. But the talent actually exists. Everywhere. The big question is "will the coaches take our advice". RLMAO. Seriously though, is the staff flexible enough to tweak their system to fit the talent they have? I think they're giving this team too much to think about and execute given their respective struggles. It just might be time to keep things simple add strategies once the team executes the simple things first What do you think?

King Kong .. I love it Let's hope we turn I to Godzilla!

I actually got to see some decent footage of the game. I saw three plays that should have been forced inside but for the lack of discipline on sealing the edge ( priority number one in my book). Something that can be cleaned up. Again, I saw my major pet peeve- I watched a safety run up to a receiver he let run by him, so he could watch the QB, and the QB threw the ball right behind that safety to convert a third down. Inexcusable. And it is a regular habit. We're going to lose a game because of that habit. Just on losing those situations alone. I like what I saw on defense for the most part. Not elite, but has the ability to dominate all but the elite. Room for improvement, but they are much further ahead than the offense.