Going into the game, I did not expect us to keep it close. Maybe if the game was later in the season but with all the turnover, it was just not realistic to expect us to be competitive here.
And yet, despite many issues and problems, the team found itself down 12 with the ball halfway through the fourth quarter or so.
So I guess I am pleased in some ways. But it felt like we blew an opportunity to pull an upset here. Kind of.
Heupel is a terrific offensive coach. He has a great scheme and he has high level athletes everywhere on the roster, except maybe QB, to execute his plans. Thought Aguilar did well overall, even though he isn’t very good throwing the ball. Lots of bad passes. But they gave him easy plays to execute and he got the job done.
Looked like they identified a major mismatch with young Samuel, and attacked him whenever they could. The kid really struggled and hopefully learned some things today. He has to improve a lot or this is going to be a long season. It did look like he got better as the game progressed.
On the positive side, it looked like Peal had a good game. Thought Bryant looked good, along with Chestnut. Pretty sure McDonald is playing with an injury so I am reluctant to criticize him a lot. But he struggled.
Thought Omopariola looked good, and Reese was okay too. Liked what Grant did. Made some nice tackles. Our DTs got dominated pretty badly. And a bunch of them got hurt. Rooks, Wilson and Thomas. They all returned to the game but it is not an encouraging thing to see so many hurt so early.
Disappointing we still can’t stop the run. Simple power runs seemingly can’t be stopped. We have a bunch of other schools on the schedule that will exploit this weakness if it continues. Also disappointing was our lack of ability to put pressure on the QB. Did we blitz at all? UT did a lot and it was a big factor in aiding them stopping some of our drives.
On offense, thought we ran it okay. Willis looks legit. Runs hard, tough guy. Nixon looked good too. We all know he is terrific as a receiver out of the backfield. Thought Angeli was good. His best play was when a blitzer came in untouched (that happened way too much), and he sidestepped him, stepped up, and just before getting sacked threw it to Bennett for a completion (pretty sure it extended a drive). Seemed to me as though he made almost all the passes he needed to make. Made the right reads for the most part and hung in there with guys in his grill.
We have to, pass block better. Our RBs have to be better picking up blitzes. Angeli needs to read blitzes and get rid of the ball faster. Thought our WRs did okay against the UT coverage, though Hood won almost every time they targeted him. He also committed PI almost every time they targeted him.
Cook appears to be a legit #1 receiver. He was open a lot and did damage when he got the ball. JRS was good. Russell made a few plays and impressed me. Gill didn’t get a lot of good chances but was there when he did. Villari was very good as a receiver and looked okay as a blocker but I think he was called for a couple procedure penalties where he presumably lined up off the LOS. Veterans can’t do that.
Stonehouse was excellent punting. Oh was good kicking off. Tripp was good kicking PATs. Kerr has to know where the ball is on coverage. Coverage units looked good. Special teams were solid. We looked like we were coached by a special teams coach who had done this job before.
I liked our game plan on offense and thought Nixon did a solid job other than the regular issues he apparently had getting plays to the offense. Plays always seemed to be coming in late and this led to rushed plays and wasted time outs. We need to do better here.
UConn enjoyed a cupcake today while we got banged up against a huge tough team. That is going to make the game more competitive. Hope we come to play and take the game seriously.
