- The regression of our OL is baffling to me. Blown assignments and bad technique more common than last year. Wolfie's OL at Kentucky looked much better than ours, I have to say.
- Luke's second half was his best half throwing as a Gamecock, IMO. Even on both fourth-down throws in the second half, he hit his receivers in the hands both times, IIRC. That said, he has a long way to go and just cant regress to throwing to his third options/RB as a default the way he did in the first half.
- It is easy to criticize playcalling but honestly much more difficult to know how the players are executing a called play. The first half Luke seemed to bail into his swing route option that they were waiting for every time - I have never seen more completed passes for negative yardage; some of that is a WR corps that struggles to get open and then still struggles at time with drops. But the second half on that first drive he looked totally different, and I had to wonder if that was playcalling or just Luke seeing the primary routes in the called play better? Hard to know, but he sure looked better, and he looked for Muse, who has been conspicuously silent.
- Last season we were a two win team but had a solid identity offensively as a power running team. We don't really have an identity right now.
- Clayton White is the best DC we have had here since Ellis Johnson.
- The defense has been quite good and will only get better as we recruit; the focus on turnovers has been the reason we are 2-2.
- Zach P. is having his best year, even if his stats might not leap out at you - he has been disruptive on a much, much more consistent basis. Burch on the other hand still seems to disappear, and it was telling to see him come out on many of the third-down plays. Ellis has been a beast, and our LBs are consistently playing MUCH better than last year IMO.
- Kudos to Parker for nailing that 52-yarder last night. Special Teams have been good.
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Thoughts after 4 games
- Thread starter Swayin
- Start date
I remember hearing Lou Holtz say that he told Skip after he got the ECU HC job that there will only be new HC opportunities on bad teams; never on good ones. He was trying to tell Skip to hope for the best, but expect the worst. It's absolutely true in the coaching world.
There was/is so much to fix that Shane decided to work on improving the defense first and it has worked.
The score for the UK game was closer to what I expected for the UGA game, but UGA is just too good right now.
UGA was up 35-0 on Vandy at the end of the 1st quarter on the way to shelling them 62-0. We scored more points against UGA than Clemson and played UGA a lot better than Vandy. I think we played UGA just as good as Clemson in the first half.
Yes, we're 2-2, but Clemson has two losses as well and I think it's safe to say we're not "Vandy bad" anymore.
I think Shane will focus on fixing the offense the next two games and we'll be okay.
Denny Crane
Member
Why do our receivers continue to drop passes?
Complex of issues here. Agree pretty well on what Swayin is pointing out. 8 games to play, long way to go. We all new it would take time to bring in some much needed talent and at seasons end any new coaches he feels to make a change in, if he wants to or not. This his call to make.
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No what I hoped for but about where I expected us to be. UK was a toss up coming into the season for me and it played out that way. I'm happy with defensive play and effort for the most part. We should all question OL play, play calling, player knowledge of the plays on offense. We've seen a few good plays sprinkled in by routine miscues. We need a system that can take advantage of whatever talent we may have on that side. Lining up and running right at people is a struggle.
FurmanCock
Grand Poohbah
I'm not sure what the answer is on offense...we can't run the ball nor can we pass block -- that presents difficulty when trying to call a game. Is it scheme or personnel?
Whatever the root cause, it's hard to watch. I suspect "patience" is going to be a critical component for fans this year.
Whatever the root cause, it's hard to watch. I suspect "patience" is going to be a critical component for fans this year.
My thoughts are this is a must win for us. Got to find a way to sustain drives and score points. UK handed us the ball 3-4 times, and we got zero points off the turnovers. That is not good.
we are just not that good...we beat a FCS team and squeaked by ECU...I look at teams like Arkansas who was worse than us and how would be the doors off of us and wonder how they could turn it around so quickly...hopefully Beamer is on the same level as Sam Pittman once he gets his players in here (and Kendall Briles helps as well)
The O.L. is just awful no other word to say it, I though and said if we got turnovers that would be the key but you have got to run the ball to open up the passing lanes some. The talent is not there yet on the wide out's it's just not there I believe they have got to get Doty on the perimeter rolling out and if it's not there tuck it and go, we had little motion all night the fakes to the running backs was awful , needs an lot of work.
I thought that we had Kentucky if could just have moved the ball, and not mention of some of the dumb play calls at 4th and 5 if you can't get it with 4th and 1 what make you think you can at 4th and 5 late. Made no sense .
But hey it's easy on Monday or after the game to make the calls, so I've always said if you don't have the Jimmie and Joe's you can't play with the big boys on the X'S and O 'S .
I thought that we had Kentucky if could just have moved the ball, and not mention of some of the dumb play calls at 4th and 5 if you can't get it with 4th and 1 what make you think you can at 4th and 5 late. Made no sense .
But hey it's easy on Monday or after the game to make the calls, so I've always said if you don't have the Jimmie and Joe's you can't play with the big boys on the X'S and O 'S .
I was trying to think of a time that occurred before and I couldn't. ZERO points?
Let’s face it. We aren’t good. Coaching seems to be working on Defense but our Offense is still struggling. You can’t keep putting the D on the field all the time without giving them some optimism from the O. I was hopeful maybe we can compete with UT and Missou but not playing like that. The only reason it was as close as it was is because of the turnovers. We can’t expect that many every game. There is just too many holes on offense right now.
I believe our defense will remained stabilized and continue to improve.
I thought our defense would be our biggest liability going into this season. Let's face it, if the D continues to play well that will have happened much sooner than anyone thought.
Shane will reinforce his staff's effort and improve our offense much faster than anyone thinks.
I think an OL is more likely to "take downs off" to rest when a DT QB is under center, because they believe the QB can run his way out of the problem if the OL let's down on a block or two in a possession.
I thought our defense would be our biggest liability going into this season. Let's face it, if the D continues to play well that will have happened much sooner than anyone thought.
Shane will reinforce his staff's effort and improve our offense much faster than anyone thinks.
I think an OL is more likely to "take downs off" to rest when a DT QB is under center, because they believe the QB can run his way out of the problem if the OL let's down on a block or two in a possession.
Harmony between the OL and QB.
Both were Shane's recruits.
We'll get there.
Both were Shane's recruits.
We'll get there.
My head has been telling me we need to be patient, and that I knew this wouldn't be a magic turnaround. My heart got excited and wanted more. The most frustrating part of Saturday night for me, was that we should have won that game, but we didn't. I am so sick of losing to KY, probably more than any other team except Clemson. We are better than last year. Our defense is light years better than last year, and I do have confidence in Coach Beamer, that he recognizes the problem, and will get it fixed, but it will take some time. He hired the right guy to run the defense, and he hired the right guy to run special teams, so either he has hired the right guys to run the offense, and OL, or he will fix it.
I do believe we will get better throughout the year, and I still believe we will beat someone we aren't supposed to. If we can get the offense to play consistently like they did in the first possession of the 2nd half, we'd really have something.
I do believe we will get better throughout the year, and I still believe we will beat someone we aren't supposed to. If we can get the offense to play consistently like they did in the first possession of the 2nd half, we'd really have something.
I believe we can be even with Clemson by November. It would be cool if we somehow were to get ranked higher than the Taters, too, at some point.
The "five in a row" stuff will bubble back up in the heads of the Taters and Dabo if that happens.
A winning season that culminates in a win over the Taters would go along way with Gamecock Nation.
We're not there yet by a long shot, but I think it's possible this year with Shane.
The "five in a row" stuff will bubble back up in the heads of the Taters and Dabo if that happens.
A winning season that culminates in a win over the Taters would go along way with Gamecock Nation.
We're not there yet by a long shot, but I think it's possible this year with Shane.
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Personally I believe the Doty foot injury hurt more than we want to believe, the receiving corp had to adjust to another QB. Now they are readjusting. The deep balls Doty has to either take some off of or put a little more air under them. I am a bit concerned by the OL but hopefully we will start to see some adjustments.
There was one run in the second half where he scrambled to get out of bounds and you could just tell his foot still hurt him ... he's not all the way back at all. And he also just look ay less explosive running than he did last year, IMO.