>>> It's amazing that Tech won a game with one side of the ball (defense) having its worst performance of the year. Feels like that hasn't happened in a long, long time. The offense was nails Saturday night, Shough in particular. It was the best performance by a Tech QB this year. His legs and sneaky mobility continue to be an X factor. Bailed us out of trouble throughout the game, not necessarily escaping pressure -- though he did that plenty -- but just making something happen when no one was open. He had 30+ yards rushing on scrambles, forced 3 missed tackles, and picked up 5 first downs with his legs in total. The biggest play of the game -- a 4th down conversion on our last drive of regulation -- where he broke from the pocket and hit Loic Founji was a result of Shough improvisation. Some of his completions on the run to Nehemiah Martinez were NFL throws.
I trust Shough. It's obvious why he's won the QB job at Oregon and Tech the last 3 years -- he's been the best QB on campus.
>>> Caleb Rogers saved his best 3 games for the end of the season. After allowing over 5 QB pressures per game from the beginning of the season through October, Rogers allowed just 2 in the last three games combined!!
I wonder if there's a correlation between the solid, steady QB play we've recevied from Shough over the last 3 weeks and Caleb Rogers finally settling in to being a Big 12 left tackle? I have barely noticed him in pass protection these last few weeks, and that's amazing, considering I spent entire games early on just watching him with a sense of impending doom. It'll be interesting to see what develops with Rogers over the next 7-8 months. The guy has played over 1300 FBS snaps in his career. He's going to be a factor on next year's OL... somewhere.
Some of you (really just @B. Golan) are batsh*t crazy if you think Caleb Rogers is just going to be a back-up the rest of his career.
>>> The decision to run a reverse (pass?) on the first play of the game is worth questioning. But hindsight destroys everyone's ability to do so in a reasonable manner.
I wonder if that was the scripted first play of the game, as we've tried a trick play on the first snap before (v. Murray State)?
Or was it a "shot play" that we had built in the game plan and decided to run it first instead of our scripted plays after the big kick return?
Either way, there's only three things I'm certain of: (1) It was totally blown up and sniffed out, (2) SaRodorick should never have pitched the ball -- that was so dumb, and (3) Kittley was either going to be an idiot or a genius, depending on whether the play would've worked. Of course, with the benefit of watching the rest of the game, we know now that all razzle-dazzle plays should've been thrown out the playbook, as we had no issues running our normal "stuff" against OU. For the record, I wouldn't have ran it... but I do accept that we botched the execution of it and I would've celebrated the play as genius should it have worked.
>>> OU looked like OU to me. For as maligned and criticized as they've been all year, that QB, that RB, that group of WRs, and that TE.... they all would play a ton for us. I mean, it's quite possible that their entire offensive unit would be able to come over and win their respective jobs at Tech.
Now, that's no excuse for our defense allowing what they did, but I truly believe that we did such an outstanding job of leveraging Tyree Wilson's ability this year (by playing aggressive, press man coverage and counting on the DL to get home fast) that, without Tyree, it's no longer a viable strategy and may even be a crutch. McGuire said in the post game presser that we were forced to dial up a lot of pressure to recreate what we were missing in Tyree.
All those different packages may have resulted in blown assignments, as we literally weren't covering guys. And when we were covering guys, OU's WRs were getting behind us and making plays on the football. It didn't help that OU was running the ball with success and, when that's happening, they really do look like a vintage Art Briles' offense.
That said, our defense really showed up when we needed it The Dadrian Taylor interception was enormous. It was the result of an effective pass rush by both our interior DL - Big Tony and J-Boogie. The 4th down stops were also huge. Muddy Waters made an incredible play on a zone read, single-handedly blowing up the mesh-point. DeRuyter dialed up in a good pressure on the 4th and 5 sack by Big Tony and Dadrian.
>>> Handing the ball to Jaylon Hutchings inside the 1 yard line is cool, and it's cute, and he deserves to touch the football. But I think it's also extremely effective. If we get tired of using Donovan as a one-man bulldozer inside the 5-yard line, I'm 100% fine with fullback dives to Hutchings. He's going to get 1 yard.
Speaking of Donovan being a bulldozer, his first TD run was incredible. He put a move on a guy in the backfield and left him in the dust. He's an effective player in college football and our coaching staff has the cajones to use him in creative ways. Not many staffs would be willing to put him out there at RB, TE, WR, and QB the way we did Saturday night. Because if none of that stuff worked -- well, see the above discussion about the first play of the game, people get super mad when things don't work and they send a million text messages about how dumb our coaches are.
>>>> The WR rotation was different Saturday. We essentially just rolled with Brady Boyd, Bradley, Price, Xavier and Martinez. Cleveland and Sparkman and Loic played just 26 snaps combined, although Loic's snaps were very, very loud. Something tells me we will have some portal attrition at the outside WR spot and some of it may even be encouraged. There's just a lot of guys there that are still young. There's also this narrative consistently being pushed out that none are particularly good.
>>> Jerand Bradley is going to be something, though. The guy has 3 years of eligibility remaining and will lead this year's team in every receiving category that matters. He's got a shot in Kittley's pass-happy offense to put up special numbers at Tech. Record breaking ones. I like his personality, too, at least from what I've seen of it. He was on Cloud 9 in the post-game press conference. Just could not contain his excitement about the performance he had, the win, etc. His mood during that interview made Tyler Shough look like an axe murderer in comparison.
>>> Dadrian Taylor is probably the best player on our defense next year. That would be my guess at this point. He's solid in all phases. Very athletic. Plays so much bigger than his listed size.
>>> Reggie Pearson will blow an assignment and miss a tackle or three -- but my goodness, when he sniffs a play out, someone has a real chance of dying. Maybe not right away, but much sooner than they were previously scheduled to die. He's also figuring out a way to make those jarring hits legal, which is really cool. Both of his big hits on Saturday seem to change the momentum of the game, especially the last one. I'm sure the OU staff felt amazing about their decision to let their only QB get destroyed by Reggie "the undertaker" Pearson as a WR on a pass play when they were moving the ball against us at will anyways.
>>> Isaac Smith playing 50 snaps is a sign of things to come. He's been thrust into the action much sooner than we planned on, but it's going to payoff next year and the year after. He's probably going to put on 50 pounds before he runs out of eligibility.
>>> I'm so glad we quit rotating our RBs and featured SaRodorick in a game. He's a special runner. The amount of times that he turned the corner against OU -- even though someone was right there to set the edge -- was amazing. I'm sad to see him go, but he's probably had the adequate amount of usage for a college runner. We're in good hands with Tahj Brooks.
>>> Kobee Minor sighting. It's been tough to get on the field at CB the last few years with all the veterans we've had. Kobe has been biding his time and finally played a big role in a win. I think he's got 3 years of eligibility left.
>>> What an exciting win and what a first year for the new staff. I can't remember a comeback quite like that one in between Saturday and the 2006 Insight bowl. I was impressed with the crowd, too. Only the true radicals were at that game, and it was a loud and energetic crowd. Going 6-1 at home is a great way to get people believing again. Joey will bring back those angry, hostile crowds at the Jones, I'm sure of it.
Ryan left it all out on the field in everything he did. In his honor, we bring you Fields of Gold, so that others facing bone cancer can keep on playing. A portion of proceeds from every case sold is donated to The Little Warrior Foundation.
The Little Warrior Foundation's mission is to fund & find a lasting cure for childhood cancer, with a specific focus on Ewing's Sarcoma.
https://shop.summerlandwinebrands.com/Shop/Fields-of-Gold
@Saynotobarefoot
I trust Shough. It's obvious why he's won the QB job at Oregon and Tech the last 3 years -- he's been the best QB on campus.
>>> Caleb Rogers saved his best 3 games for the end of the season. After allowing over 5 QB pressures per game from the beginning of the season through October, Rogers allowed just 2 in the last three games combined!!
I wonder if there's a correlation between the solid, steady QB play we've recevied from Shough over the last 3 weeks and Caleb Rogers finally settling in to being a Big 12 left tackle? I have barely noticed him in pass protection these last few weeks, and that's amazing, considering I spent entire games early on just watching him with a sense of impending doom. It'll be interesting to see what develops with Rogers over the next 7-8 months. The guy has played over 1300 FBS snaps in his career. He's going to be a factor on next year's OL... somewhere.
Some of you (really just @B. Golan) are batsh*t crazy if you think Caleb Rogers is just going to be a back-up the rest of his career.
>>> The decision to run a reverse (pass?) on the first play of the game is worth questioning. But hindsight destroys everyone's ability to do so in a reasonable manner.
I wonder if that was the scripted first play of the game, as we've tried a trick play on the first snap before (v. Murray State)?
Or was it a "shot play" that we had built in the game plan and decided to run it first instead of our scripted plays after the big kick return?
Either way, there's only three things I'm certain of: (1) It was totally blown up and sniffed out, (2) SaRodorick should never have pitched the ball -- that was so dumb, and (3) Kittley was either going to be an idiot or a genius, depending on whether the play would've worked. Of course, with the benefit of watching the rest of the game, we know now that all razzle-dazzle plays should've been thrown out the playbook, as we had no issues running our normal "stuff" against OU. For the record, I wouldn't have ran it... but I do accept that we botched the execution of it and I would've celebrated the play as genius should it have worked.
>>> OU looked like OU to me. For as maligned and criticized as they've been all year, that QB, that RB, that group of WRs, and that TE.... they all would play a ton for us. I mean, it's quite possible that their entire offensive unit would be able to come over and win their respective jobs at Tech.
Now, that's no excuse for our defense allowing what they did, but I truly believe that we did such an outstanding job of leveraging Tyree Wilson's ability this year (by playing aggressive, press man coverage and counting on the DL to get home fast) that, without Tyree, it's no longer a viable strategy and may even be a crutch. McGuire said in the post game presser that we were forced to dial up a lot of pressure to recreate what we were missing in Tyree.
All those different packages may have resulted in blown assignments, as we literally weren't covering guys. And when we were covering guys, OU's WRs were getting behind us and making plays on the football. It didn't help that OU was running the ball with success and, when that's happening, they really do look like a vintage Art Briles' offense.
That said, our defense really showed up when we needed it The Dadrian Taylor interception was enormous. It was the result of an effective pass rush by both our interior DL - Big Tony and J-Boogie. The 4th down stops were also huge. Muddy Waters made an incredible play on a zone read, single-handedly blowing up the mesh-point. DeRuyter dialed up in a good pressure on the 4th and 5 sack by Big Tony and Dadrian.
>>> Handing the ball to Jaylon Hutchings inside the 1 yard line is cool, and it's cute, and he deserves to touch the football. But I think it's also extremely effective. If we get tired of using Donovan as a one-man bulldozer inside the 5-yard line, I'm 100% fine with fullback dives to Hutchings. He's going to get 1 yard.
Speaking of Donovan being a bulldozer, his first TD run was incredible. He put a move on a guy in the backfield and left him in the dust. He's an effective player in college football and our coaching staff has the cajones to use him in creative ways. Not many staffs would be willing to put him out there at RB, TE, WR, and QB the way we did Saturday night. Because if none of that stuff worked -- well, see the above discussion about the first play of the game, people get super mad when things don't work and they send a million text messages about how dumb our coaches are.
>>>> The WR rotation was different Saturday. We essentially just rolled with Brady Boyd, Bradley, Price, Xavier and Martinez. Cleveland and Sparkman and Loic played just 26 snaps combined, although Loic's snaps were very, very loud. Something tells me we will have some portal attrition at the outside WR spot and some of it may even be encouraged. There's just a lot of guys there that are still young. There's also this narrative consistently being pushed out that none are particularly good.
>>> Jerand Bradley is going to be something, though. The guy has 3 years of eligibility remaining and will lead this year's team in every receiving category that matters. He's got a shot in Kittley's pass-happy offense to put up special numbers at Tech. Record breaking ones. I like his personality, too, at least from what I've seen of it. He was on Cloud 9 in the post-game press conference. Just could not contain his excitement about the performance he had, the win, etc. His mood during that interview made Tyler Shough look like an axe murderer in comparison.
>>> Dadrian Taylor is probably the best player on our defense next year. That would be my guess at this point. He's solid in all phases. Very athletic. Plays so much bigger than his listed size.
>>> Reggie Pearson will blow an assignment and miss a tackle or three -- but my goodness, when he sniffs a play out, someone has a real chance of dying. Maybe not right away, but much sooner than they were previously scheduled to die. He's also figuring out a way to make those jarring hits legal, which is really cool. Both of his big hits on Saturday seem to change the momentum of the game, especially the last one. I'm sure the OU staff felt amazing about their decision to let their only QB get destroyed by Reggie "the undertaker" Pearson as a WR on a pass play when they were moving the ball against us at will anyways.
>>> Isaac Smith playing 50 snaps is a sign of things to come. He's been thrust into the action much sooner than we planned on, but it's going to payoff next year and the year after. He's probably going to put on 50 pounds before he runs out of eligibility.
>>> I'm so glad we quit rotating our RBs and featured SaRodorick in a game. He's a special runner. The amount of times that he turned the corner against OU -- even though someone was right there to set the edge -- was amazing. I'm sad to see him go, but he's probably had the adequate amount of usage for a college runner. We're in good hands with Tahj Brooks.
>>> Kobee Minor sighting. It's been tough to get on the field at CB the last few years with all the veterans we've had. Kobe has been biding his time and finally played a big role in a win. I think he's got 3 years of eligibility left.
>>> What an exciting win and what a first year for the new staff. I can't remember a comeback quite like that one in between Saturday and the 2006 Insight bowl. I was impressed with the crowd, too. Only the true radicals were at that game, and it was a loud and energetic crowd. Going 6-1 at home is a great way to get people believing again. Joey will bring back those angry, hostile crowds at the Jones, I'm sure of it.
Ryan left it all out on the field in everything he did. In his honor, we bring you Fields of Gold, so that others facing bone cancer can keep on playing. A portion of proceeds from every case sold is donated to The Little Warrior Foundation.
The Little Warrior Foundation's mission is to fund & find a lasting cure for childhood cancer, with a specific focus on Ewing's Sarcoma.
https://shop.summerlandwinebrands.com/Shop/Fields-of-Gold
@Saynotobarefoot
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