- Jun 10, 2014
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Founding Member
Death, taxes, and Florida beating Tennessee.
Well we beat Tennessee (again), but that sure as hell didn't feel like beating Tennessee. What happened to them? Even in other years when they were bad, they could at least compete and make the game interesting. That felt like we were playing some garbage Sun Belt or Mountain West team out there yesterday. I'm not complaining or anything, but MAN they are bad. Staggeringly bad. To put it into perspective, since Dan Mullen was hired, we've played 8 SEC East games. We've had a double digit deficit in 6 of those games, going 3-3. The only 2 games we didn't trail by double digits? Both Tennessee games.
Anyway, Kyle Trask had himself a nice little game. He looked poised and confident with what he was doing most of the day, and got that first start in 7 years under his belt with an easy win. It's very apparent that he doesn't have the arm strength Franks has (and it's not even close), but he has great touch on his passes and was pretty accurate all day. The two interceptions were a little troubling, since both were badly underthrown balls into coverage, but I trust Mullen to get that fixed. He wasn't making bad reads, he just believed in his abilities a little too much on those throws. If you're going to throw it into coverage, at least miss long, not short. It really seems like he has chemistry with Pitts, which he's going to need if he wants to continue to put up good numbers against better opponents. Having a reliable pass-catching tight end makes a world of difference.
The biggest takeaway for me from yesterday was the running game (or lack thereof). I just don't know what we're going to do when we play teams with monster fronts like Auburn and UGA. Sure, we'll be able to throw the ball around the yard a bit, but at some point, we're going to have to lean on our running game. And with Trask in there, it's almost non-existent. Jones did a good job on the read options and we hit a few gashes as a result, but every DC the rest of the way is going to know that #5 at QB means the read option or designed QB run is coming unless we mix it up more. Mullen knows this, so I'm hoping that if he continues to rotate Jones in there, he starts letting him throw a few passes. In '06, everyone thought Tebow was just the battering ram until the LSU game when they learned he can actually throw the ball, too. So maybe we'll end up with a similar dynamic to what Leak and Tebow had in '06 moving forward.
I really liked what I saw from our undermanned defense yesterday. They've quietly gone about their business and haven't given up a touchdown in the Swamp yet. We're finally starting to see some of the same ball hawking we saw from them last year, with 8 turnovers forced in the last two games. I can't say enough about how huge the Greenard transfer pickup was. He's been arguably our best player on defense this year. Really hoping our guys can get healthy before Auburn, though. We'll need Henderson and Zuniga for that one.
Next week is a bit of a fun matchup for me. Towson is a former Patriot League team and opponent of Lehigh, and I got in during garbage time against them my freshman year (the only time we played them, as they left the league the following year). So now I can say I'm one degree of separation away from a team that's playing in the Swamp. They're actually a VERY good FCS team with an explosive offense, so I'd expect to see them put up some points against our backups in the 2nd half. No worries, though, it should be a drama free afternoon and one last tuneup before the meat and potatoes of the schedule begins.
4-0!
Well we beat Tennessee (again), but that sure as hell didn't feel like beating Tennessee. What happened to them? Even in other years when they were bad, they could at least compete and make the game interesting. That felt like we were playing some garbage Sun Belt or Mountain West team out there yesterday. I'm not complaining or anything, but MAN they are bad. Staggeringly bad. To put it into perspective, since Dan Mullen was hired, we've played 8 SEC East games. We've had a double digit deficit in 6 of those games, going 3-3. The only 2 games we didn't trail by double digits? Both Tennessee games.
Anyway, Kyle Trask had himself a nice little game. He looked poised and confident with what he was doing most of the day, and got that first start in 7 years under his belt with an easy win. It's very apparent that he doesn't have the arm strength Franks has (and it's not even close), but he has great touch on his passes and was pretty accurate all day. The two interceptions were a little troubling, since both were badly underthrown balls into coverage, but I trust Mullen to get that fixed. He wasn't making bad reads, he just believed in his abilities a little too much on those throws. If you're going to throw it into coverage, at least miss long, not short. It really seems like he has chemistry with Pitts, which he's going to need if he wants to continue to put up good numbers against better opponents. Having a reliable pass-catching tight end makes a world of difference.
The biggest takeaway for me from yesterday was the running game (or lack thereof). I just don't know what we're going to do when we play teams with monster fronts like Auburn and UGA. Sure, we'll be able to throw the ball around the yard a bit, but at some point, we're going to have to lean on our running game. And with Trask in there, it's almost non-existent. Jones did a good job on the read options and we hit a few gashes as a result, but every DC the rest of the way is going to know that #5 at QB means the read option or designed QB run is coming unless we mix it up more. Mullen knows this, so I'm hoping that if he continues to rotate Jones in there, he starts letting him throw a few passes. In '06, everyone thought Tebow was just the battering ram until the LSU game when they learned he can actually throw the ball, too. So maybe we'll end up with a similar dynamic to what Leak and Tebow had in '06 moving forward.
I really liked what I saw from our undermanned defense yesterday. They've quietly gone about their business and haven't given up a touchdown in the Swamp yet. We're finally starting to see some of the same ball hawking we saw from them last year, with 8 turnovers forced in the last two games. I can't say enough about how huge the Greenard transfer pickup was. He's been arguably our best player on defense this year. Really hoping our guys can get healthy before Auburn, though. We'll need Henderson and Zuniga for that one.
Next week is a bit of a fun matchup for me. Towson is a former Patriot League team and opponent of Lehigh, and I got in during garbage time against them my freshman year (the only time we played them, as they left the league the following year). So now I can say I'm one degree of separation away from a team that's playing in the Swamp.
They're actually a VERY good FCS team with an explosive offense, so I'd expect to see them put up some points against our backups in the 2nd half. No worries, though, it should be a drama free afternoon and one last tuneup before the meat and potatoes of the schedule begins.4-0!
