If we end up with a small line and someone like Sikorski or Chatman at guard, there is a conceivable path to creating down-to-down run game success with Arch threatening the edge, Wingo and a deeper RB room running screens behind an athletic OL, and Coleman stressing the safeties. There’s a pretty clear path to a really good offense. And it doesn’t even disqualify the reintroduction of 12 personnel deep shots. But damn not signing a guard introduces so much risk and doesn’t bode well for red zone and short yardage.
For all the talk about 65 man NFL style rosters, there will be plenty of unsigned players available soon with increasing desperation to join a team for free
Just as I thought the sunshine pumpers were getting more annoying than the doomers, the doomers come back with ‘Sark is more stubborn than Herman and only hires his buddies.’ Really strong response to pull back in the lead. Great battle between two teams giving it their all.
I agree, but 2 guard draft picks in 2 years (Conner + Campbell) is good enough to sell. Hell, Flood might as well say Hutson will be drafted too and Majors is on the Eagles practice squad. There’s only so much negative recruiting you can do against that. These players didn’t spend the last three months watching Stroh getting pantsed and questioning Flood’s coaching + watching the IOL at other schools so they can have an informed opinion about all the P2 OL coaches.
IT poster has good perspective but poor facts (I think, correct me if I’m wrong on the following). Let’s look at the case though because it’s interesting After missing on Graham/Grant in 2024, we only signed one DT in the winter portal window: Tia Savea. The staff had the benefit of the spring portal window, where they signed Lole and Norton (after missing on Damonic Williams) for a total of three DTs. The springs window no longer exists. I think it’s worth noting that the interior of the defensive line turned out great in 2024 primarily because of the development of Broughton and Collins. They were the real disruptors. Savea was a bust (another advantage of the spring window). Lole and Norton were somewhere between good and great in their rotational roles. The biggest issue is that we don’t have a Collins/Broughton for each of the IOL spot. I can be talked into Robertson as serviceable and a Baker/Brooks combo of some kind on the right side of the offensive line, but Kibble was the only other guy that I’ve heard get positive buzz at an IOL spot. I guess it’d be Chatman or Cojoemat LG? It’s not great that every potential guard is a currently tackle. And the leap of faith requires belief in development that we haven’t seen at IOL, another stark contrast to DT going into 2024 (though we were switching from Davis to Baker). That said, the need levels in the two cases are pretty similar. The issue, imo, is that the calculus doesn’t seem to have changed in the last two years despite: A) an opportunity to learn from 2024 and B) the lack of a spring window greatly reducing the margin for error. I think we can be fine with 2 OL, but that’s opening up a lot of risk if either busts or injuries happen. OL is also unique because they’re often hampered by the weakest link. We need to recruit to the point our fifth guy is solid. It’s still too early for me to get worked up but it’s not looking great.
Kinda bad rep but he does do well to peel off the OL in the first place. The real sinner is #3 on the Arkansas defense, who is unblocked and kinda just slides off the QB
This is a good post. I don’t have time for the histrionics of the board anymore like I used to in college. Well, I have time to check a thread or two most days, but neither the time nor the desire to post much anymore.
Woah woah woah. Connor Stroh only stumbled around against Florida for ~ 20 minutes before Nick Brooks took his place at left stumbler. I'm a little disappointed in you satya. That's a detail that opens up so many more doomer angles: the future of our OL is fucked, Flood's whiffing on his big time recruits, it was a red flag that UGA let him get away, etc.
I think y’all misunderstand who the stadium atmosphere is meant for. It’s not for visiting teams, or players, or recruits. It’s for people like me who are too blitzed out of our minds to notice what songs are playing or what the PA announcer says. Except the mariachi. That never hits. move it to the 2Q.
I’d also add Arch and the WRs making timely plays as a reason we won the game.
In the quarters where our offense is good, we’ve been converting third downs through the air. It’s the 2023 Michigan formula, and it’s an area where we can actually find an advantage in this game given UGA’s defensive struggles on third down and with pass rushing.
Sark running off Sam seems like a dumb narrative and it also seems like everyone has forgotten how this program actually developed a good culture for the first time in more than a decade. 5-7 with 6 straight losses, a bunch of blown leads, Iowa State spanking, Kansas, etc. were all an important part of the culture shift. That was the Unfreezing stage that’s required for Moving, for those familiar with Lewis’s model of organizational change.
I would’ve loved to have Sam back at the time, but it’s weird to look back with hindsight and wish there had been continuity from Herman’s teams. We needed the rot to be exposed so it could be removed and replaced by young guys growing into leadership roles like Bijan, Roschon, JWhitt, etc. You can’t say 2023/24 are defensible results but 2021/22 are not. The former are a result of the latter. They’re inextricably linked.
I get we’re sad and mad, but I still hate revisionist history. Our 2023 run defense was elite, but the pass defense was easily our biggest issue as a team. The dynamic of that team was not like the last two
Also, to the playoff discussion, the way we get in at 9-3 would be that the committee uses their new criteria to drop our out-of-conference loss to Ohio State. I don’t know if that happens, but the narrative leading up to the game is that neither team should be punished for scheduling it if they lose. I don’t think there’s really a path to us getting in at 9-3 on resume or eye test.
Pass rush could still be elite. OU 3Q was the first time all year we had a lead against a P4 team and we had 4 sacks from then on.
I will say that I haven’t been very impressed with our blitzes. We haven’t been very good at getting opposing OLs to miss assignments. But we still have some great individual pass rushers (Simmons and Spence especially).
I will say that you could feel our fan base was on edge pregame. OU chants were generally louder, though nobody that I interacted with on either side was overly confident. That punt return TD broke it all loose though and the celebrations matched.
A funny thing was that the area we were at in the fair had two big screens with a 15 second desync between them. We were in the middle so we could watch both. The left screen was the one that was behind and also the one with the rowdier crowd of mostly OU fans. So we watch the punt return on the right, go crazy jumping around with some other Texas fans, then get to turn around and watch it again on the left, complete with sad sooner reactions.
From there the day was just glorious.