Make Aggie Football Great Again

Thoughts On The Miami Game

R.C. Slocum once famously said that half the teams in college football lose every week. That comment infuriated me at the time but now in Year 6 of Jimbo Fisher I realize how prophetic R.C. was.

The Aggies are just going to lose important games here and there. Stop thinking things are going to change.

Silly me. Here I was thinking yet again that things would FINALLY change with Aggie Football. In Week 2 of Jimbo Fisher’s sixth season, we all got a dose of reality. Some of the names associated with Jimbo’s time in Aggieland may change but the results are going to continue.

I mean, half the teams in college football lose every week. Sometimes it’s going to be the Aggies.

As for the game itself, I don’t know where to start.

I’ll start with the fact if you told me the Aggies would score 33 points while limiting Miami to under 100 yards rushing with no rushing touchdowns I would have been certain the Aggies won. I wouldn’t have even questioned it.

That’s what happened and somehow the Aggies lost.

I’m not going to do my usual breakdown of groups on both sides of the ball because the issue on Saturday afternoon was coaching. Sure, there were certainly miscues by players at times but by and large coaching lost the game on Saturday.

HC Jimbo didn’t do anything different than OC Jimbo. Jimbo didn’t see what Miami was doing and made enough adjustments on both sides of the ball. We’ve seen this same movie several times now. It just has a different title and names from time to time.

Miami did two things on Saturday that Jimbo and his staff refused to address during the game:
1) Apply pressure off the edges on defense.
2) Attack the Aggie defense through the air.

Miami’s Defensive Pressure:

Miami did an obvious job of watching film from last year and even last week. The Aggies are susceptible to pressure from the edge. It was the Achilles Heel last season and even against New Mexico, we struggled to pick up pressure via the blitz.

The Miami staff likely realized they have much better athletes than New Mexico and they could apply pressure. They were right. Time and time again Miami brought pressure from the edge where Conner could never get comfortable.

I thought Conner played a decent enough game but he was barely a 60% passer. He could have been a much more effective passer if the coaching staff had addressed the pressure off the edges.

Most importantly, the backside pressure that Miami applied all night long. There were several times we let a Miami defender run untouched from the left side of our line. We weren’t even chipping him with our running back. The running back was flaring out into the flat as a safety valve but Conner never hit him.

I don’t know why Conner never hit the running back right out of the backfield to see if they could slow down that backside pressure. It seemed obvious when that pressure was coming and that defender was allowed to run free. We never took advantage of the space they were leaving even though it seemed obvious they were coming. We hit that back flaring out a couple of times for decent gains and that pressure likely goes away. At least slow it down some.

I was also hoping Conner would have stared that pressure down giving him a juke to buy more time. He never did that. I think Conner can juke a blitzer and buy more time but for some reason, he never tried it.
Instead, all he did was let that pressure dictate how quickly he got rid of the ball. That edge pressure never let our offense settle in and make the plays we wanted. We simply passed the ball sooner than we wanted to.

At least that’s what it looked like. Way too many Miami defenders running untouched and unaccounted for in the backfield.

Some of why Conner went from an 80% passer to a 60% passer in one week is because of the Miami athletes but a big part of it was Miami’s scheme. The Miami defense simply did what other defenses did against us last year. Make the Aggie quarterback throw before they want to.

Jimbo and Petrino have to address this pressure off the edges and cause teams to stop doing it. That happens through scheme and coaching.

Lack of Aggie Defensive Pressure:

Conversely, because A&M under D.J. Durkin rarely blitzes or applies pressure the Miami coaching staff smartly realized they could attack downfield because Van Dyke would have more time.

The ironic thing about all of this is Miami is a running team at heart. Durkin got ripped last season for not stopping the run. The Aggie team did a REMARKABLE job of stopping the run against Miami.
It was clear the Aggie defense was committed to not letting Miami run the ball. They succeeded in doing that.

The problem is Miami adapted by attacking the Aggie defense through the air. Jimbo and Durkin never adapted to that threat.

The Aggies had two sacks but had exactly ZERO quarterback hurries. Not a single one. At least according to the stat sheet on the A&M website.

Van Dyke attempted 30 passes and wasn’t hurried on a single one.

Durkin was so focused on stopping the run he had NOTHING in his arsenal to apply pressure or confuse the Miami offense to make mistakes in the passing game. A lot of that is on Durkin but at some point, Jimbo needs to ask on the headset if Durkin has any unique blitzes he can call.

Don’t forget Durkin works for Jimbo and Jimbo needs to be held accountable for what happens on defense as well. Jimbo has a set of eyes and can question the in-game planning.

All the Aggie defense did was send their four down linemen upfield while the linebackers waited to see where the ball was going. I feel like we sent a linebacker a time or two but we sure as hell didn’t disguise anything with our secondary at the line of scrimmage to make it look like we might blitz.

We just had our four down linemen and two linebackers in position all game long while the secondary stood back waiting to see what happened. We did nothing to confuse or pressure the Miami passing attack.

We have a TON of defensive line talent and I thought Cooper and York were fine at linebacker on Saturday. However, you have to scheme against good teams to give them looks they’re not prepared for. I didn’t see any of that on Saturday.

I simply saw a defense that thought they could be very basic and out talent the opponent. It didn’t work. Miami has enough talent to overcome a basic defensive plan.

Coaching Mattered:

Miami did the exact opposite of Jimbo and his staff by scheming and adjusting during the game. Cristobal got the best of Jimbo.

I know that’s not a lot of analysis on the game but if you watched the game it was the Same Old Jimbo that’s stubborn as hell at in-game adjustments. I don’t know if he can’t see it or just isn’t prepared for it.

I’ll give Jimbo and his staff credit the original game plan worked. We moved the ball for a quarter and a half and shut down the Miami run. The problem is Miami realized that and adjusted.

It’s like Jimbo walks into a game with a set plan and if it’s not working or stops working then he’ll be damned because he’s going to force it to work. Yet time and time again it doesn’t.

Saturday was no different. There are now at least 10 games in the last three seasons where Jimbo could have made a few adjustments to win a game but he didn’t. He just comes in with a plan and keeps repeating it hoping it’ll work rather than adjust it.

Meanwhile, the coaching staff on the other side of the field is making adjustments to their plan of attack.
It’s getting really old.

Looking Forward:

I had this Aggie team at 9-3 in 2023. I think that’s a little ambitious at this point. There are probably three to four more losses based on what we saw on Saturday. That will put us at 7-5 or 8-4. It’ll be better than last year but it’ll still be a VERY frustrating season.

The good news is the SEC and especially the SEC West looks down this season. The Aggies have the talent to run the table. I’m not kidding. This team has enough talent and there’s not a team the Aggies can’t beat.

I said earlier this year that until we were done with Tennessee we won’t truly know what we have for the 2023 season. I still feel that way but what I saw on Saturday doesn’t make me feel any better.

Jimbo and his crew will decide how many games the Aggies win for the rest of the year.

This is still a VERY talented team. Talent isn’t the issue at all. It’s all coaching and it starts with the man with the title of Head Coach.

It’s up to you, Jimbo. Aggie fans will just be here sitting on our hands hoping you can figure out something that’s different than the last two seasons and what we saw on Saturday.

A few names have changed on your staff but the product on the field hasn’t changed much.
It’s getting old, buddy.

Just Win, Jimbo.

Thoughts From the New Mexico Game

Overall:

I’m beginning with the most obvious thing from Saturday night – For the first time in a long time, it seemed like an Aggie football team was prepared for their first opponent of the season.

I know it’s just New Mexico who’s not that great but this Aggie team came out with a plan and executed it to damn near perfection. It was refreshing to see.

In addition to the overall execution, it seemed Jimbo may have changed as a coach. The most telling of this was at the end of the first half when he was calling preserved timeouts to get the ball back with less than a minute to go in the game.

I feel like “OC Jimbo” would have let New Mexico run out the clock and get to halftime. “HC Jimbo” was wanting the ball back for another possession already up 35-7. Those timeouts resulted in a blocked field goal but that was a smart use of timeouts. It gave us an extra field goal attempt in a game situation. You can’t simulate that in practice.

The kick got blocked so we obviously needed the practice.

The worst part of the game was the opening possession of the second half. The Aggies got the ball to start the second half and immediately got a substitution penalty before they ever took a snap. How the hell does that happen coming out of halftime? The Aggie offense then had a 3 and out resulting in a punt. I saw flashes of 2022 Aggie Football all over again.

They got the ship righted and scored 17 points in the second half so that drive seemed like just a blip. I was worried for a moment. Decades of Aggie Football will cause trauma to a person.

It’s only one game against New Mexico but I felt Jimbo managed this game as a true head coach. Of course, it’s easy to manage when your units are having their way for the most part. However, Jimbo seemed to be a true head coach and not just an offensive coordinator moonlighting as a head coach as well.

Offense:

Play Calling:

The main thing I remember about great Bobby Petrino’s offenses is his ability to not complicate things and attack obvious opportunities. That’s exactly what he did on Saturday night. New Mexico was essentially daring the Aggies to pass by loading up the box and committing to the run. They weren’t giving their defensive backs any help so Bobby decided to just go at them. No need to complicate it.

If they’re going to give you something then take it.

If I have one complaint about the playcalling on Saturday night it’s that I didn’t see any creative play designs. They weren’t needed so I do agree with why call them if they’re not needed.

As we face tougher teams I hope we have unique playcalls that haven’t been seen before to surprise a defense.

One game at a time…

Quarterback:

Not much to say about Conner Weigman other than he looked OUTSTANDING. I was SHOCKED to learn he only threw for 236 yards. It felt like he was constantly lighting up the New Mexico defense. That’s a testament to our defense for the field position our offense started with.

He was 18 for 23 passing which is almost 80%. I know it’s New Mexico but he was accurate as hell.

His best pass by far was his final touchdown pass to Evan Stewart. He hit Stewart in perfect stride running away from his defender in the end zone. It wasn’t an easy pass but Conner put it right on the money. That’s the photo above so you can see the perfect placement.

You can critique some of his throws as he probably should have let them go a little sooner but by and large, he threw passes only his receivers could catch and defenders couldn’t defend. Once again, I know it’s New Mexico but it’s always good to see a quarterback not only make smart decisions but execute on those decisions. Conner saw the obvious plays early and executed them quickly.

From a running standpoint, he had a nice scramble but it seems the plan for Weigman is to use his arm over his legs. I’m good with that.

I know a lot of Aggies want to compare him to Johnny but I think he’s more of a Patrick Mahomes-type quarterback. He has elite decision-making and accuracy with above-average scrambling ability. If we get the second coming of Patrick Mahomes in college I’m not going to complain about it one bit.

He’s likely not going to put up gaudy numbers like some quarterbacks but he’s making smart decisions leading his offense to points. That’s WAY more important than gaudy numbers.

Zero complaints about number 15 on Saturday night.

Running Backs:

The running backs split carries about as equally as you can on Saturday night. New Mexico was focused on not letting the Aggies get loose on the ground containing the Aggie running game for the most part.

The Aggies still managed to gain 102 yards on 20 carries with their three running backs which is 5 yards a carry. That’s not a bad yards per carry at all.

Individually they all look different. Amari Daniels looks like the most explosive back by far. His issue is that he doesn’t seem to have much patience to watch holes develop. If there’s a hole he’s going to get a chunk of yards but if there’s not a hole he’s getting stopped.

Laveon Moss looks like he’s lost a little weight but is definitely the physical back of the three. He converted a nice 3rd and 1 at the 2-yard line for a touchdown. He looks like the short yardage back. His problem is he seems to get banged up quite a bit. He limped off the field a couple of times and even went to the locker room once. He seemed to be fine though as he kept going back out.

Rueben Owens got 7 carries for 26 yards which isn’t spectacular but he is a true freshman playing in his first college game. He’s got the most talent but just needs to get some experience.

It’ll be interesting to see how things develop. It seems like Petrino is willing to use all three until a hot hand emerges.

Receivers:

The night at receiver belonged to Evan Stewart and Noah Thomas. We all know about Stewart’s talent and Thomas came on strong last year.

They both had a night scoring 5 touchdowns between them. Much like Weigman it’s a little shocking to learn Stewart only had 115 yards receiving and Thomas 74 yards. It seemed like they had 300 yards between them.

As mentioned earlier New Mexico dared the Aggies to beat them one-on-one and that’s exactly what Wiegman and his pass catchers did. These guys are dialed into one another when it comes to throwing and catching.

Ainias had a couple of nice catches as did Moose late in the game.

The surprise of the night was Jahdae Walker. I heard he had a good camp but he made a couple of nice catches to show he can carry practice over to a game. He looks like he’s going to add some solid depth to our receiving group.

All of these guys are going to get used differently week to week depending on what the defense does. When it’s man you’re likely going to see Stewart and Thomas shine. When it’s zone coverage I think we’ll see a lot of Ainias, Moose, and the tight ends.

Just let the defense decide how they should be attacked.

Offensive Line:

THE BEST THING ABOUT THIS GROUP WAS NO FALSE STARTS AND NO HOLDING PENALTIES.

These guys looked like an actual unit on Saturday night. They weren’t dominant by any stretch as the running game couldn’t quite get going and Weigman had pressure from time to time. That was mainly due to numbers but there were a couple of snafus so they weren’t perfect.

However, for the most part, they played like an actual unit which was a far cry from last year when they were flat out lost at times.

They’ll have a big test against Miami this weekend but this was a good first step for this unit.

Defense:

Overall:

This unit wasn’t completely dominant as they gave up 255 yards but they looked impressive for most of the night save for a few passes and one run. They seemed to play better as the night wore on.

A lot of guys got significant playing time so looks like we might have legit depth across the whole defense. Hope I didn’t say that too early…

I did see us in a 3-man front a few times. It’s obvious Durkin doesn’t read Aggie message boards. Or maybe he does…

All in all, it was a good night.

If I have one complaint it’s the lack of pressure resulting in sacks but the New Mexico quarterback wasn’t holding the ball very long. He didn’t seem comfortable and was letting the ball fly. Their starting quarterback was a 60% passer for 115 yards. He was just letting the ball fly as soon as he could so not a lot of sack opportunities.

Defensive Line:

This group played a TON of guys on Saturday night just like you would have guessed.

Walter Nolen looks like he’s ready to take that next step. McKinley Jackson looked solid.

Everyone who played had moments where they looked great. It’s hard to single out everyone’s play because so many guys played and looked great together. You want to see these guys playing as one on every snap and that’s basically what they did.

The most impressive play of the night was when Shermar Stewart ran down New Mexico’s running back for a 7-yard loss. He unfortunately grabbed the running back’s facemask but his display of speed for a man his size was unreal. If he misses his facemask it’s a total highlight reel play.

We know what this group is capable of. On Saturday they showed they have a ton of depth and talent and it’s going to be hard on offensive units going up against this group.

They’ll get tested in a big way on Saturday as Miami is going to want to impose their will. We’ll find out real quick if they’re up for the challenge.

Linebackers:

Ladies and gentlemen, the Fightin’ Texas Aggies may have a rotation of linebackers for the first time in I can’t remember when.

Edge Cooper, Taurean York, JD Davis, and Chris Russell all got snaps at linebacker. Cooper looked like his 2021 self making a lot of plays. Davis seemed to be around the ball quite a bit.

A little hard to fully judge this group on Saturday night due to the opponent but it looks like we do have depth and talent at the linebacker position for the first time in a long time. Damn. That feels good to say.

I’m interested to see if two guys separate themselves from the rest of the group. I think Cooper is on his way but curious if Davis or York start getting the majority of the snaps next to Cooper.

We’ll also find out more about these guys in Miami. They’re going to have to step up and stop the run. They can’t blow assignments or Miami will gash us on the ground.

Secondary:

I’m repeating myself but I’m not sure what else to say about this group. These guys showed up spending most of the night in the right places.

They too played a ton of people and they all looked really good.

The safety trio of Demani Richardson, Bryce Anderson, and Jardin Gilbert looked as expected. These guys are legit.

Tyreek Chappell was solid as usual.

For me, the surprise of the night was Josh DeBerry. We’ve been wondering who was going to take the other corner across from Chappell. If Saturday night was any indicator that question has been answered by Josh DeBerry.

He’s a fifth-year senior from Boston College but he was all over the place on Saturday night. He leads the team with 7 solo tackles, a sack, an interception, a pass breakup, AND a quarterback hurry.

It’s just one game but it was a hell of a performance.

True freshman Dalton Brooks even flashed on a couple of plays.

Like the rest of the defensive unit, I feel good about this group based on what happened on Saturday night.

Special Teams:

You saw it. We botched a field goal attempt and nailed the other attempt. Our punter only punted twice. Not much to talk about with field goals and punting.

Ainias looks like he’s still fearless on punts which isn’t a bad thing.

We covered kicks and punts well.

Looking Ahead to Miami:

I watched a good portion of “The Battle of Miamis” on Friday night.

The U didn’t do anything special and just leaned on the Ohio Miami. Their quarterback, Van Pelt, looked decent but he didn’t look spectacular by any stretch. He looked like he did last year. He’s a decent enough quarterback but I don’t think he’s going to light the world on fire.

I think we’re going to see a similar Miami from last year with a little more talent. They going to try and establish the line of scrimmage and keep our offense off the field.

Defensively they’re going to see if they can expose our offensive line by shutting down the running game and applying pressure to Weigman. I have no idea if they can.

If this is a close game then I think Miami wins it simply because that’s the kind of game they want. I think HC Jimbo is going to want to apply pressure from a scoring standpoint early and often looking to make a statement. I don’t think HC Jimbo will want to grind this one out as it’ll work in Miami’s favor.

If we can grab an early lead I think the Aggies cruise to a victory.

If it’s a slugfest I think Jimbo’s second game struggles in Aggieland continue with a loss.

Either way, I can’t wait until Saturday at 2:30 so we can learn more about HC Jimbo.

College football is back, y’all.

2023 Aggie Position Preview

Offense:

Coordinator:

I’m lukewarm on the Bobby Petrino hire. I think it’s a solid hire. I don’t think it’s the magical elixir that solves all of the Aggies offensive woes from last season.

Having someone with Petrino’s experience and ability to focus on the offense will be an improvement over 2022. I have zero doubt our offense will be better in 2023. I just don’t know how much better since Petrino and the offensive talent will have to mesh together.

Petrino won’t be the sole reason the Aggies all of a sudden break out if they do.

I know it’s popular to tout offensive geniuses by the media but the reality is there are very few. There is not one offensive coordinator in college football that consistently puts out a dominating offense. Lincoln Riley is probably the closest but I think he’s more a product of quarterback talent and playing in conferences with little to no defense. He’s never had to grind an offense in a conference with defense.

Can you name the offensive coordinators for Georgia’s back-to-back titles? Steve Sarkisian was Bama’s OC in 2020. Joe Brady was the hottest name in sports in 2019 but turns out maybe it was the collection of talent and not just his influence.

Do you even know who Tony Elliott and Jeff Scott are? They were the Co-OCs for the 2018 and 2016 Clemson national champions. Brian Daboll was the OC for Bama in 2017. Lane Kiffin did it for Bama in 2015. Some guy named Tom Herman did it for Ohio State in 2014.

Hopefully, you get my drift a new offensive coordinator is just a single component of a championship football team. There is no schematic advantage as some like to pretend. At the end of the day the best offensive coordinators get the most out of their talent by running a system everyone understands.

I do believe Petrino will advance this offense and let the talent do what it can do. I just don’t think Petrino has some key that will unlock this offense to something better than everyone else’s in college football.

Quarterback:

Jimbo has been playing coy this summer saying there’s a quarterback battle coming into summer camp. I hope he’s wrong.

I’m Max Johnson’s #1 fan but this better be Conner Weigman’s team from the jump. He offers the most upside with his mobility and arm.

Weigman still has a MASSIVE leap to make to live up to his billing but I see no reason why he can’t do it. Nobody knew who Johnny Manziel, Jameis Winston, Joe Burrow, or even Max Duggan was coming into their breakout year.

Conner isn’t getting a ton of press coming into the 2023 season which I’m okay with. Guys tend to come from nowhere with breakout seasons rather than live up to some artificial hype by the media and fans.

If Conner struggles or gets hurt I feel we’re in good hands with Max as the backup but I’m hopeful Conner breaks out like he has the talent to do.

Wide Receiver:

We have the most starting receiver talent since the 2012 season. Evan Stewart can be one of the leading receivers in college football. Moose Muhammed has a knack for big catches and we know what a healthy Ainias Smith can do. Add Noah Thomas to the mix and there’s enough talent to finally be productive at the receiver position.

We haven’t had a productive receiver since Jimbo took over in 2018. We’ve had some receivers flash in moments and over a few games but we haven’t had someone and especially a full unit truly produce for a full season.

Hopefully, Jimbo’s sixth year is the year we have some receivers produce every game all season long. The starting talent is certainly there.

We have some talented youth but I’d rather not find out if they can produce. Let’s hope the starters stay healthy and live up to their talent.

Tight Ends:

Like the receiving talent, Donovan Green and Jake Matthews should be big contributors to this offense. Green especially looked good at times last year. I think these two guys can stress a defense by giving the defense a lot more to defend from a passing standpoint.

Max Wright is back for his 12th season it feels like. He’s not going to be super productive as a receiver but he’s proven to be a worthy blocker and sneaky pass catcher when defenses aren’t paying attention.

I hope this unit doesn’t cover a good portion of receiving yards like under Jimbo in the past five years. It’s time for our actual receivers to catch a lot more than our tight ends.

I do believe this unit will be a massive asset in the passing game allowing the entire passing game to finally flourish.

Running Back:

I’m a little nervous about the running back position simply because none of these guys have any experience. We have talent and depth with Moss, Daniels, and Owens so I’m hopeful a couple of these guys can turn into a nice tandem.

I do think their success is going to be more of a product of the offensive line than their own doing. If they have holes to run through they’ll be productive.

They’re not going to create yards on their own as Devon Achane did. That’s not a knock but more what Achane brought to the table. He was special.

Oh, if Jimbo had given the ball to Achane on the last play against Alabama we would have beaten them in back-to-back years. Just a little reminder…

Offensive Line:

This unit right here will be the biggest key to the Aggies success in 2023.

If healthy we have one of the best interiors in college football. Kam Dewberry, Bryce Foster, and Layden Robinson can be as good as any interior in college football. I won’t go so far as to say they’re hands down the best in college football but they’re up there. These guys have the talent and experience to be great.

Tackle is where we have the biggest question marks and will be the biggest key. Appalachian State exposed our two tackles last year. They showed if you just bull rushed the outside shoulder of our two tackles you could usually have your way with them.

Deuce Fatheree took a massive step back in 2022 but I’m hoping he can regain his 2021 form and improve on it.

I feel bad for Trey Zuhn last year as he was playing with a dislocated kneecap. How in the world we had a starting left tackle with a dislocated kneecap is beyond me but apparently, that happened.

Reports from spring practice is that true freshman Chase Bisontis is challenging for a starting spot. No offense to Zuhn or Fatheree but I hope it’s true. Let’s get some competition and find the best pair of offensive tackles we can.

I have no problem with a true freshman playing offensive tackle. I don’t think Bisontis will be on the level of Luke Joeckel or Jake Matthews as a true freshman but I’m not against it if he’s willing to compete and earn the spot.

We just need to find two offensive tackles that are assets and not liabilities. I don’t care which two it is and on which side of the line. We do that and this offense is going to take a massive leap.

Defense:

Coordinator:

I’m one of the few Aggies that isn’t completely down on D.J. Durkin. I certainly experienced frustrations with him in 2022 but I saw a lot more good than I saw bad. If Petrino and the offensive line step up then this defense is going to have a much bigger margin of error.

It’s MUCH easier to defend a lead than play defense against an offense just trying to wear you down.

I might be proven wrong but I think Durkin and this defense take a massive step in 2023 for a host of reasons. These mainly include a second year in his system, experienced youth, and a more productive offense.

I’m not saying this will be the best defense in college football but I think this can be a Top 10 defense and good enough to win the SEC West when it’s all said and done.

Defensive Line:

This unit right here is why I think this can be a Top 10 defense. It’s still a little young but the talent and depth are as good as any team in the country.

McKinley Jackson and Walter Nolen will anchor the middle. Both of these guys have first-round NFL talent. They can be unblockable at times destroying an offensive line. Behind them are Isaiah Raikes, Albert Regis, and Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy. They’ll all rotate to some degree which is a massive luxury in the SEC.

At defensive end, it’ll likely be Shemar Turner and Fadil Diggs starting but the depth is even more impressive with Shemar Stewart, LT Overton, Enai White, and Malick Sylla providing depth. LT Overton should have been in high school last year. Instead, he was holding his own against SEC opponents. I’m excited about him simply because of how young he is and what he did last season.

You also have true freshman DJ Hicks who’s going to find playing time. It’s uncertain if he’ll be at end or in the middle but he’s going to see snaps.

On most defenses, Hicks would likely be a day-one starter but with this defensive line, he’s going to have time to acclimate. That tells you the amount of depth and talent this unit has.

If I have one concern about this unit is the lack of a true pass rusher. I’m not going to complain too much as I think with the right scheme we’ll be able to apply pressure from different areas.

This unit has been the heart and soul of Jimbo’s teams and this year will be no different. I think it will be the best unit he’s had in six years of Aggieland. That’s quite the statement as there have been some solid defensive lines in the last five years

If the Aggies win the SEC West it will be because of this unit.

Linebackers:

I’m interested to see what Durkin does at linebacker mainly because he’s coaching this unit now. It’s all his.

We’ve been running a 4-2-5 for a while now so we’re only using two linebackers which makes sense because offenses are more spread out.

Coming into the season Chris Russell and Edge Cooper look like the obvious starters. I think Cooper is an obvious starter if he’s healthy simply because of his talent and experience. Russell is long on experience since he’s a senior but I think he’s going to get pushed by Taurean York and Jurriente Davis. York is a 3-star freshman out of Temple but he’s 6’0″/230 so he has size. He was the three-time district defensive MVP. He seems like a defensive football player and football instincts matter at linebacker more than any other position.

Jurriente Davis is a transfer from Jackson St. He goes 6’1″/235 so he also has size. I know Jackson St. isn’t the level of competition as the SEC but he was productive at Jackson St. At worst he provides some nice depth where we need it.

Backing up Cooper will be Martrell Harris who looked good at times last year and true freshman Daymion Sanford. Many think Sanford was the best linebacker in Texas high school last year.

We’re still short on SEC experience with this unit but I feel like there’s some depth and talent to not be a massive hole like we’ve seen in years past.

Secondary:

This unit is a slight question mark simply because the floor is lower than last year but the ceiling is higher.

The return of Demani Richardson is a MASSIVE boost. This doesn’t happen without NIL so thank goodness for that. He’ll be the anchor of this unit just like he’s been for the last couple of years. I don’t know if he’ll ever make it at the next level but he’s been an EXTREMELY productive member of our secondary. His knack for turnovers and scores are key reasons we beat Bama in 2021 along with Arkansas and LSU last year. Hopefully, he can keep on rolling.

Jardin Gilbert looks to fill the free safety spot which I’m okay with as he’s played well in his two years at A&M. Jacoby Mathews will be in the mix as well for both safety spots as he would have likely started if Demani didn’t come back.

Assuming those three guys stay healthy we’re going to be just fine at the safety spots.

Bryce Anderson looks to fill Antonio Johnson’s spot at Nickel which seems like a massive hole but I’m big on Bryce Anderson. The dude is an absolute athlete and played well last season. Jarred Kerr will back him up who played great in limited time last year. Great talent and depth here.

Strange to say but I think we’ll fill the hole of Antonio Johnson just fine.

At corner, it looks like Tyreek Chappell and Tony Grimes will start. Chappell has been a really good corner in his two years at A&M. Others may have more raw talent but Chappell can play football in the SEC. Give me production over talent any day.

Grimes is a transfer from UNC. He was the top-rated corner when he came out of high school and chose UNC over A&M at the time. He did pretty well at UNC but hadn’t quite flashed his true talent potential. Hopefully, he can make that leap in Aggieland as he has NFL talent.

Backing them up will be Sam McCall and Josh DeBerry who are also both transfers. McCall comes from Florida State where he didn’t see a ton of playing time but has plenty of talent. DeBerry is a senior from Boston College who started in the secondary for two years. He’s got plenty of experience. They add some great depth and flexibility to this unit as they both can play safety as well.

We’ve got some talented freshmen in Dalton Brooks and Bravion Rogers but I hope they’re not rushed into action this season.

If this unit stays healthy and lives up to its talent it can be one of the best secondaries in college football.

Couple that with our defensive line and a serviceable linebacker group and that’s why this could be a Top 10 defense in college football.

Special Teams:

Special Teams has never been anything special under Jimbo other than the raw talent of the individuals. We had some swing moments with special teams in 2022 when Mississippi State blocked a field goal attempt and returned it for a touchdown. Then South Carolina opened the game with a kick-off return for a touchdown we never recovered from.

Maybe with his new role as “CEO Coach,” he’ll spend some time making sure special teams are sharp and even having a few wrinkles. I doubt it, but it’s more possible than someone whose main focus was calling offensive plays.

Nik Constantinou returns to punt the ball. He’s been a solid punter for a couple of seasons now.

Randy Bond comes back to kick field goals after taking over when Caden Davis buried his foot before the ball against Appalachian State. Yes, I’m still frustrated by that botched attempt. Bond was solid enough last season.

I’m assuming Ainias will return punts which I’m totally fine with. If not him it’ll be Moose.

No clue who will return kicks. Maybe it’ll be a combination of a running back and receiver since we have a little depth there.

I don’t expect a lot from our special teams. I just don’t want them to potentially cost us games like they did in 2022.

Summary:

Top to bottom at the starting positions I feel good about what we have other than our offensive tackle position. It’s potentially there but it’s the biggest question coming into the season. We solidify those two spots along with staying mostly healthy and we can win any game on the schedule.

We can afford a handful of guys missing a handful of games but not much more.

We won’t win every game but the front-line talent is there to compete in every game. That’s all you can ask for the SEC West.

Winning will come down to coaching which includes planning, preparation, and execution. It’ll also involve no longer blaming the players for lack of execution.

At some point when you’re in charge of players who aren’t executing what you’re telling them, you might want to look in the mirror. I’m hoping there’s at least one mirror in the head coach’s office when things go wrong in 2023.

Hopefully, Jimbo starts looking in the mirror for the whole team’s performance instead of his playsheet for the next offensive play.

Just Win, Jimbo.

How Bad Was D.J. Durkin in 2022?

I’ve heard and read a lot of complaints related to D.J. Durkin and the 2022 Aggie Defense. My overall thoughts of Durkin’s defense in 2022 were it wasn’t as bad as most people made it out to be. I thought the 2022 Aggie Defense played much better than the 5-7 record showed. I felt the anemic offense was a MUCH bigger issue and the defense got unwarranted blame because the offense was just so putrid.

I went back and looked at each game looking at high-level stats to see if I could put some level of objectivity to grading the 2022 Aggie Defense. You can find those here.

Beyond those raw stats above I went back and looked at details from each game via the box scores. Mainly I was looking at scoring rhythms and what stuff lead to scores along with a few stats of specific players.

This is in no way a scientific analysis but more looking at the whole body of work by the Aggie defense in 2022. I felt there were some obvious imperfections but as a whole it was a decent enough defense to win more games than the 5-7 record showed.

Before I get to reviewing the 2022 Aggie Defense I need to point out we were spoiled for 4 years with Mike Elko at the helm. Mike Elko is a defensive genius. That dude can run circles around any other defensive coordinator in college football. Some are close to being as good as Elko but not many.
There was no way the 2022 Aggie Defense was going to be as good as what we’d seen in Jimbo’s first 4 seasons. It was going to drop off but the question was how much.

I knew that going into 2022 so maybe that’s a factor in my analysis. Mike Elko isn’t walking back through that door. At least not as Defensive Coordinator…

Let’s get to the games…

Sam Houston State:

Not much to say here due to the competition and weather. The defense got to play one-half of football against an inferior opponent. It did fine holding Sam Houston to below 200 total yards, getting 2 turnovers, and shutting them out. Not much more you can ask for.

Appalachian State:

Ugh. Yes, this has to be discussed. I can’t put into words the disappointment of this loss.

This is the game where I think the defense gets a HORRIBLE rap. You hate to see the defense give up 181 rushing yards to an opponent of this level. Because of the anemic Aggie offense that day Appalachian State smartly decided to see if they could keep the ball away from the Aggie offense. It made perfect sense as the game wore on. Just hold onto the ball so the Aggie offense won’t have more chances to get going.

App State wasn’t ripping off big runs or plays. They were churning out 3-4 yards a carry burning clock. When it was all said and done App. State ran 82 plays compared to the Aggies’ 38 plays. That’s right, App. State ran over twice as many offensive plays as the Aggies.

From a time of possession standpoint, App State held the ball for 41:29 while the Aggies only held it for 18:31. The Aggie offense only converted 8 first downs and gained less than 200 yards of offense.
Jimbo’s vaunted Aggie offense put Durkin’s defense in a massive hole.

I don’t see how anyone can put any level of blame on the Aggie defense for this game.

While the defense could have stopped App. State on key 4th downs the Aggie defense should have never been put in the position where late 4th down conversions were so meaningful.

This loss is TOTALLY on Jimbo and his offensive blindness.

Miami:

This is a weird game to analyze because the Miami team wound up being so bad.

The Aggie defense gave up almost 400 yards to the Miami offense but kept them out of the endzone while the Aggie offense broke in a new starting quarterback.

The defense did plenty for the Aggies to win and the Aggie offense did just enough.

No issues here for me.

Arkansas:

Arkansas had a little over 400 yards of total offense. The Aggie offense would only muster 343 yards of offense.

This one is weird to analyze because if it wasn’t for the fumble return for a touchdown the Aggies lose this game and the defense looks horrible. That was a massive 14-point swing right before the half.

By far the worst part of this game was the 4th quarter touchdown given up to Arkansas and then letting Arkansas get in range for a chance to win the game with a field goal.

I do think the Aggie defense outplayed the Aggie offense in this game. While I’m disappointed in some things they did I’m not going to rail on them for a horrible performance.

They played well enough to win while the Aggie offense struggled to get and keep any momentum.

This is by far the luckiest win of the Jimbo era getting the key breaks in a game to go our way.

Mississippi State:

This is such a tough game to analyze from a defensive standpoint. Mike Leach pulled Jimbo’s pants down from the get-go and the entire Aggie team never had a chance of winning this game. Jimbo will tell you we were just a few plays away from winning this game but that’s pure denial on Jimbo’s part.

Mike Leach and his staff knew exactly what to expect from this Aggie team and exploited it.

Jimbo’s vaunted offense did nothing in the first half while Mississippi State scored a couple touchdowns in the 2nd quarter. We went into the half down 14-0.

We opened the second half with a long drive that resulted in an Aggie field goal. The score is 14-3 so there’s a chance the Aggies can come back.

Mississippi State gets the ball back and the Aggie defense forces a turnover on Mississippi State’s second play of the half. The Aggie defense gives the ball to the offense at the Mississippi State 32-yard line. VERY favorable field position for Jimbo and his offense to make a statement we’re back in this game.

What does the offense do? Fails to get a first down resulting in a 44-yard field goal attempt. A little deflating but at least we have a chance at some points to make it a one-score game.

What happens next? Mississippi State blocks the field goal and returns it for a touchdown. Instead of it being 14-6 it’s now 21-3 in Starkville. Game. Over.

The Aggie defense would give up 473 yards but the Aggies turned the ball over 4 times that game. That’s not exactly helping the defense. The final score was 42-24 but 14 of those points came off a blocked kick and a Haynes King interception return.

By far the worst moment for the defense that day was the Aggies scored a touchdown halfway through the 4th quarter to make it a 28-17 game. 11 points isn’t impossible with half a quarter of football.
Unfortunately, the Aggie defense gave up a 75-yard touchdown on Mississippi State’s very next offensive play and any hope of a comeback was dead in the water. Dead.

I’m giving the defense an “Incomplete” in this game. The offense didn’t help turning the ball over 4 times including a Pick 6 along with the special teams getting a field goal blocked and returned for a touchdown.

However, when the team needed a stop the Aggie defense couldn’t come up with one so they’re not clean in this game.

It was just another nightmare in Starkville where Mike Leach pulled down Jimbo’s pants because the game plan for the Aggies was so obvious.

R.I.P. – Pirate.

Alabama:

What everyone thought might be the game of the year in college football thanks to Jimbo’s offseason press conferences wound up being a big dud as both teams started their backup quarterbacks. The Battle of the Backups if you will.

Alabama started true freshman Jalen Milroe. I don’t think Milroe had taken 10 snaps all season before this game.

Milroe came out of high school as an exceptional runner and athlete but had questions about his passing ability. Similar to Jalen Hurts.

It was no secret that Saban and his offensive staff weren’t going to let Milroe throw much. Anybody with half a brain knew that Nick Saban was going to grind out an ugly game against a very questionable Aggie offense.

That’s exactly what Alabama did where they rushed 51 times compared to 19 passes. They ground out 288 yards on the ground and their passing game was VERY effective completing 12 of 19 passes for 9.3 yards per completion and 3 touchdowns. Ironically they didn’t score any touchdowns running the ball.
This was a much tighter game than anyone expected thanks to one reason – the Aggie defense forced the Bama offense to turn the ball over 4 times. In doing so they held the Bama offense to under 400 total yards and only 3 touchdowns. That’s not super impressive considering they were playing a true freshman making his first start with very limited starts. However, it was a night game in Tuscaloosa so you take it all day long.

This was in no way a dominant effort by the Aggie defense but they did take advantage of that young quarterback with 4 turnovers. What they gave up in yards they took back with 4 turnovers.

There’s no doubt in my mind that if Bryce Young starts this game it’s a blowout win for Alabama. I’m not that naive. But I do have to give credit to the Aggie defense as their play that night gave the Aggies a chance to win on their final offensive possession.

I’ll go to my grave believing two things:

1) If A.J. Hinch doesn’t pull Zack Greinke when he did in Game 7 of the 2019 World Series the Astros win that game.
2) If Jimbo Fisher gives Devon Achane the ball on the final possession the Aggies beat Bama in back-to-back years.

As it was the Aggie defense did enough to win that game that evening and Jimbo Fisher squandered it by getting too cute on the final play. That loss wasn’t on Durkin and his crew. It was on the man who wears the main headset and calls the offensive plays.

South Carolina:

Another tough one to truly judge the Aggie defense. Coming off a bye week Jimbo spotted the Gamecocks 17 points thanks to an opening kick return for a touchdown and turnovers on our first two offensive possessions.

In the first five minutes of the game Jimbo’s special teams and offense spotted the opponent 17 points. Unreal. What a damn hole to dig out of.

This wound up being a pretty close game and the defense did PLENTY to win this game. They held the South Carolina offense to under 300 yards and even got two turnovers.

This game was all on Jimbo for not having special teams and offense prepared coming off a bye week. The fact this was a 6-point game despite spotting the opponent 17 points in the first 5 minutes is a testament to the defense.

This loss wasn’t even close to being on Durkin and the Aggie defense. Once again, it was 100% on Jimbo Fisher.

Ole Miss:

I believe this to be the game where people decided to turn on D.J. Durkin.

I get it. Ole Miss rolled up 390 yards on the ground. There’s ZERO defending that. We flat-out dared Ole Miss to run on us and that’s exactly what they did.

I’m not going to rehash this game but this is where I think Jimbo as the struggling OC has to take some blame for the struggles on defense as well. At some point, the head coach has to tell his defensive coordinator to stop the damn run. Get out of the 3-man front and stop the damn run.

I think Jimbo was so caught up in his fist full of plays and notes he wasn’t paying attention to what was happening on the field when Ole Miss had the ball. I’m not absolving Durkin but I’m curious what would have happened if Jimbo had given him more direction on shutting down the run.

It didn’t help the Aggie offense didn’t score in the 2nd and 3rd quarter but that wasn’t the biggest issue.
Letting Ole Miss roll up 390 yards of rushing at Kyle Field was the biggest issue that night. This defensive outcome is on Durkin and I get it.

Florida:

A week after the Ole Miss game a very bad Florida football team would roll into Kyle Field and thump the Aggies 41-24.

This is the infamous Flu Game where it seemed like half the team was out. Still, this should have been a winnable game for the Aggies.

It wasn’t. The Aggies went into the half leading 24-20. Things were looking okay as the Aggie offense was moving the ball and scoring. Anthony Richardson had a couple of frustrating touchdown runs but he’s an exceptional athlete so you knew you weren’t going to shut him out.

For whatever reason the entire Aggie team failed to show up in the second half. Florida outscored the Aggies 21-0 in the second half. 21 unanswered points at Kyle Field by an inferior team.

The Aggie defense gave up 492 total yards including 291 rushing yards.

In back-to-back games at Kyle Field the Aggie defense gave up 390 and 291 rushing yards. That’s embarrassing and that’s on Durkin. Teams shouldn’t be able to roll up 300 yards of rushing against any Aggie defense at Kyle.

Durkin and his defense didn’t show up this day.

Auburn:

For me, this is the most frustrating game of Jimbo’s time in Aggieland. Yes, more than App State. This was a VERY beatable Auburn team who had an interim coach and no quarterback. This was the 10th game of the year and Jimbo should have had the issues worked out by this game.

There was no doubt that Auburn was going to try and run on the Aggies. Auburn did a pretty decent job rolling up 270 yards on the ground but the Aggie defense didn’t allow a rushing touchdown.
They limited the Auburn passing game to 60 yards passing while getting two interceptions. The Aggie defense also recovered a fumble for a total of 3 turnovers for the game.

Meanwhile, Jimbo’s vaunted offense spent their first 10 possessions punting the ball. Read that again – in their first 10 offensive possessions they had to PUNT the ball. Not even a field goal attempt. That is completely anemic and that’s totally on Jimbo. I didn’t even know that was possible in this age of college football where the worst teams still put up points.

10 offensive possessions and 10 punts. Even R.C. Slocum knows that’s an embarrassing offensive effort.
The Aggie defense did everything they could to try and win this game. Jimbo’s offensive did nothing but sputter around the whole damn game.

This loss wasn’t on Durkin. Not even close.

UMass:

One of the most miserable games at Kyle Field in the stands and on the field.

The defense held the UMass offense to 168 total yards and no touchdowns.

They were fine in this game.

LSU:

In a classic Jimbo big win at Kyle Field, he finally pulled his head from his ass and ran some offensive plays the opposing defense wasn’t expecting. The Aggie offense FINALLY moved the ball and scored some points.

The Aggie defense wasn’t dominant that night as LSU still compiled 384 yards of total offense including 3 rushing touchdowns.

They did however come up with the biggest play of the game when Edge Cooper sacked Jayden Daniels who fumbled the ball and Demani Richardson scooped it up for a touchdown. LSU was getting a little momentum but that play squashed it.

The Aggie defense stepped up and swung all the momentum back to the Aggies who would walk away with a convincing win over the SEC West champ.

There’s no doubt I would have liked to have seen a more dominant defensive effort but they did plenty enough to win so I’m not going to dog them at all.

This LSU game is what the whole season should have looked like. We weren’t going undefeated in 2022 but it’s much easier to play defense when you have a competent offense that can score points and not turn the ball over.

Summary:

If Jimbo had pulled his head out of ass at the beginning of the season things would have been different from a defensive perception I believe.

D.J. Durkin is no Mike Elko but I think he got a bad reputation in 2022 due to the Ole Miss and Florida games. There’s no defending him in those games but I felt the Aggie defense did enough to win plenty of other games if Jimbo Fisher had just pulled his head from his ass running a competent offense.

That 5-5 record in those other 10 games could have EASILY been 8-2 as we had plenty of defense to beat App State, South Carolina, and Auburn.

While 8-4 would have still been a disappointing season it would have been MUCH better than 5-7. The Aggie defense did plenty to get to that 8-4 record. Jimbo failed the team and the fanbase. It wasn’t totally on D.J. Durkin.

This could have been a 10-2 team with a little more offensive production. Ole Miss was a very winnable game even with the defense giving up almost 400 yards of rushing. The Aggie offense went absent for almost 2 quarters of football so just a little more offense would have won that game. It’s shocking the Aggies only lost by 3 points.

The Florida flu game could have been different as well had half the team not been out but that game was just a perfect stamp on the 2022 Aggie football season.

10-2 was the absolute ceiling with this defense but 8-4 was easily attainable with how the defense played in most games.

I do expect better things from Durkin and the Aggie defense in 2023. It won’t be Mike Elko level which spoiled us for 4 years but it doesn’t mean it’ll be bad. Durkin is a decent enough coach and will have more mature talent so I think we’ll see a leap in performance.

When you take away the Ole Miss and Florida game from the 2022 slate the defense really doesn’t look that bad.

Durkin will have 12 games in 2023 to prove me right or wrong.

I just hope the hire of Bobby Petrino contributes to Jimbo pulling his head out of his ass to do some head coaching. That’s what we pay him $9.5 million a year to do.

What I Would Do With Jimbo

For this week’s blog I thought about doing the same thing Jimbo does with his offense.  Just posting a previous blog and changing the name of the opponent.  It’s essentially the same thing Jimbo is doing with his offense.

I like to think I’m better than Jimbo so you get a fresh blog this week.

Before I get going on the game I know we’re all numb to losing but let me put into perspective what that loss on Saturday in Auburn means:

  • We lost to a team with an interim coach.  No offense to Cadillac Williams but teams have interim coaches because they’re bad.  Teams that have one of the highest paid coaches in the game are supposed to be good.  JIMBO LOST TO AN INTERIM COACH!!!!
  • Assuming Arkansas beats Missouri we secured last place in the SEC West EVEN with an unlikely win over LSU.  If we lose to LSU then we own last place in the SEC West all by ourselves no matter else what happens.  Jimbo’s FIFTH year as head coach and we’re sitting dead last in the SEC West including Auburn who has an interim coach after firing their head coach because their season is so bad.
  • As we stand now we have as many wins in the SEC as Vanderbilt who is also last in their division.  We have one less overall win than Vandy so we currently sit as THE WORST TEAM IN THE SEC ten games into the season.  Let that one sink in.  The worst team in the SEC including Vanderbilt.
  • Assuming a win over UMass and an LSU loss along with Vandy losing to Florida and Tennessee we will be tied with Vandy for both SEC record at 1-7 and Overall record at 4-8 when the season is done.  TIED.  WITH.  VANDERBILT.

Jerry Reed once sang, “It all sounds sort of funny but it hurts too much laugh.  Jimbo got the goldmine and we got the shaft.”

I don’t know any other way to put it.  Jimbo got the goldmine and Aggie fans got the shaft.

Let’s talk about the Auburn game for just a little bit.

Auburn:

We didn’t know it at the time but that game was lost before we even ran out of the tunnel before the game.  For whatever reason Moose Muhammed’s decision to wear or not wear sleeves created a major issue in the game.

It’s still all kind of murky because  Jimbo “handled it in house” but Moose Muhammed didn’t play in the game because of sleeves on his arms.  That’s right, a player’s decision to wear sleeves on his arms either before the game or during the game caused him to not take a snap.

WHAT THE EFF???

What is going on with this football team when sleeves on a guy’s arm are either an act of confusion or an act of defiance?  Seriously.  It’s minor in the grand scheme but for whatever reason it created a real issue.

I get having standards that players must live by but this is just foolish.  Who cares if a receiver is wearing sleeves or not if they’re producing?  If they fumble while wearing sleeves then advise them to take them off.  A player’s decision to wear sleeves is a minor thing if they’re producing.  WHO FREAKING CARES???

This seems like the epitome of Jimbo’s problem.  I get game preparation and team standards but how in the hell do sleeves on a receiver matter this much where a guy can’t play in the game?

They couldn’t have an adult conversation in warm up or during the game about the sleeves?  He just got an automatic suspension?  It seems like Jimbo is questioning if he has any control of this team so he’s going over the top.  Straight foolishness.

As the game started the following things happened:

  • False start before our first snap.  Auburn is a tough place to play but it’s no different than other stadiums they’ve played in this season.  How in the hell are we still false starting before the first snap in Game 10?
  • We took two time outs in the second quarter to avoid a delay of game after already taking a delay of game.  This was all on the same drive and our last offensive possession of the half. 10th game of the year and we’re still struggling to get plays in and snap the ball before the play clock runs out.  Three times on the same drive.  Unreal.
  • The first 10 offensive possessions resulted in 10 punts.

Read that last one again.  The first 10 offensive possessions resulted in 10 punts.  Not a single scoring attempt in our first 10 possessions of the game against Auburn.  TEN OFFENSIVE POSSESSIONS AND TEN PUNTS!!!!

Jimbo can blame injuries, suspensions, and whatever else he wants but 10 punts in 10 possessions is the definition of offensive failure.  Auburn has a decent defense but they aren’t the 85 Chicago Bears that just dismantled every offense they played.

This Auburn defense has given up the following points to the following teams this season:

Penn State – 41
LSU – 17
Georgia – 42
Ole Miss – 48
Arkansas – 41
Miss State – 39

Okay, Auburn doesn’t even have a decent defense.  They’re a bad defense.  In 10 possessions the mighty offensive genius known as Jimbo Fisher couldn’t even muster a field goal attempt.

We had -3 total yards in the third quarter.  NEGATIVE THREE YARDS IN A QUARTER!!!!  To a defense that’s given up close to 40 or more in 5 games this season.

Winners find a way to win and Jimbo didn’t do that.

He ran the same damn offense that hasn’t worked all season that a junior high coach could figure out how to defend.

The formula is simple – Send your defensive ends straight into the offensive tackles.  Don’t get cute.  Just run as fast you can at the offensive tackles outside shoulder targeting where the quarterback will be three steps back from where he’s standing when he receives the snap.  You both will arrive at approximately the same time.  Then have your defensive tackles and 2 linebackers change up their path and timing headed to the backfield on every play.  You’ll spend the entire night in the Aggie backfield with 6 guys.  If you’re talented enough you can do it with 5.  Then have your other defenders cover crossing routes and the Aggies won’t complete more than 50% of their passes.

Seriously people.  It’s that simple.

Defenses keep doing it over and over again and Jimbo keeps calling plays right into it.

It’s maddening.

Now to the other side of the ball.  While it’s true D.J. Durkin is our defensive coordinator there’s one thing everyone keeps forgetting – D.J. WORKS FOR JIMBO!!!!!

I’m not here to defend D.J. but it’s crystal clear to me that Jimbo is not giving D.J. any guidance or feedback on what’s going wrong.

App State basically broke the code on how to attack this defense – Just run the ball.  We got lucky against Miami because they got behind and thought they had to throw the ball.  We got lucky against Arkansas with the fumble we returned for the touchdown.  This defense did a tremendous job against Alabama with 4 turnovers and against South Carolina with 2.

Other than that teams have run all over this defense.  The last three games against Ole Miss, Florida, and Auburn have really exploited it.

Here’s some rushing stats from those games:

Ole Miss:

Running Backs – 280 yards
Quarterback – 108 yards

Florida:

Running Backs – 180 yards
Quarterback – 93 yards

Auburn:

Running Backs – 242 yards
Quarterback – 66 yards

The last three opponents who aren’t adept at passing the ball rushed for at least 273 yards against this Aggie defense.  Ole Miss racked up 388 yards and lowly Auburn who can’t pass to save their soul gained 302 yards on the ground.  I get there’s injuries and youth but these are one dimensional teams just running it down our throats.

Just running at will and nothing is being done to stop it.

For some inexplicable reason the 3-man front made a regular appearance against Auburn.  I can’t figure out why.  I put this on Jimbo more than I put it on Durkin.  Just like Jimbo gets in a rut with play calls Durkin is clearly in a rut calling his defense.  Jimbo as the Head Coach aka El Jefe needs to tell Durkin he needs to pull out all the stops to slow down the run.  No more 3-man fronts and work with the Front 7 guys on how to scheme to slow down the run.

We’ll worry about the pass when the opponent feels they can’t run on us.  It’s really that simple.

I know it was a 13-10 game so it was technically close.  If you watched that game you know it shouldn’t have been that close.  Sometimes you must make your own fortune and the Aggies did nothing against Auburn to make our own fortune.

That’s why we lost by 3 points.  We put ourselves in that position due to inept coaching.

Press Conferences:

Jimbo is becoming shorter and more defensive in press conferences.  That’s what people do when they have no answerers to what they’re seeing.

Jimbo was asked a question in Monday’s press conference about disarray with the team and recruiting.  His response was this – “We’re not in disarray in recruiting.  We’re not in disarray in our team.”

I got news for Jimbo – Both are absolutely in disarray.  We had a massive de-commit last week with Anthony Hill and since David Hicks we haven’t had a commit for 2023 and we have PLENTY of spots.  We don’t have a quarterback, running back, or wide receiver committed.  We have ZERO offensive momentum and the defensive guys are starting to listen and look.

We’re dead last in the SEC and we had a receiver not play against Auburn because of arm sleeves.

I don’t know Jimbo’s definition of disarray but I will say we’re not in a good state.  If he truly believes everything is fine we’re in big trouble.  Hopefully he’s just giving coach speak to the media. 

I hope behind closed doors he’s being honest to those he reports to with a plan to fix the issues.  I hope those he reports to are asking tough questions he needs to answer.

Things aren’t good, Jimbo.

Here’s What’s Going to Happen:

We’re going to beat UMass convincingly.  Weigman is finally going to break out getting time to throw and to open guys downfield.  He’ll throw for close to 400 yards and 4 touchdowns through the air.  We’ll get another 100 yards on the ground with a score.  Mix in a couple field goals and we’ll score 41 points.

Defensively we’ll keep UMass under 17 so we’ll win by 24 points.  Not sure we cover the 33 points or whatever it is but we’ll win in convincing fashion.

Jimbo and Durkin will think they have everything on track.  They won’t change a thing for LSU.

LSU will roll into town and wipe the floor with us.  They’ll rush for close to 400 yards and put another 150 through the air.  Defensively they’ll attack our offensive tackles freeing up Harold Perkins to make a mockery of everything else we’ll want to do on offense.

It’ll look like we’re playing Auburn all over again with punt after punt after punt.

I’m expecting a 35-10 beatdown.  It won’t be pretty.

Jimbo will look stunned and confused with his glasses staring at his Trapper Keeper.  Durkin will be slinked off on the sideline.

The misery that is the 2022 Aggie Football season will end with absolutely ZERO momentum and a host of questions that can’t be answered for another 9 months.  Questions can only be answered on the field against opponents.  If 2022 taught us anything it’s that.  Practice doesn’t matter.  Performance with live bullets matters.

While most of the teams in college football will get an extra month of practice our young guys will get an extra month to explore the portal.  4-8 with a single SEC win will do that to a team.

All thanks to a stubborn head coach who couldn’t see what was happening to his team or refused to see what was happening and adjust.

My Greatest Concern with Jimbo:

There’s lots of talk over Jimbo hiring an offensive coordinator.  That’s obvious but I’m not sure what it’s really going to do.

Jimbo became Offensive Coordinator at LSU in 2000.  He’s been on the sideline with his trusted Trapper Keeper for 23 seasons now.  Can he stand on the sidelines without his woobie and manage the whole game?

That’s a massive question we have no clue the results because he’s never done it.  He honestly doesn’t appear to have any desire to do it.

Does he really want to hire an Offensive Coordinator or is he doing it because it’s being forced on him?  If it’s being forced on him then it’s pointless.  It’s just doing something to do something and it’s not really going to take hold.

It sounds good in theory and it should keep us from going 4-8 in future seasons but I don’t think it’s going to help us win an SEC West title which should be the goal.

I don’t think Jimbo can be a true head coach.  I think he’d already be there if he wanted to.  We certainly wouldn’t be 4-8 if he can truly see the issues with this 2022 Aggie team.

His offensive staff is full of his closest friends that won’t challenge him.  He already did musical chairs with them and the results got worse from previous years.  He hired an offensive line coach that’s been a massive failure.  That’s on Jimbo because he hired him.

I think Jimbo has been a glorified offensive coordinator for the last 13 seasons since he took over as Head Coach at Florida State.  He’s never adapted his offensive and college football passed him by.

He caught lightening in a bottle in 2013 and in 2020.

He’s not a terrible coach as he can recruit but he’s in a time warp from 15 years ago I don’t think he really wants to get out of.

If he’s truly on board with becoming a different head coach then it’s worth a shot.  If he’s just going to stand around and do nothing or meddle with an offensive coordinator then any staff changes is pointless.

I don’t think Jimbo truly wants to change who he is a head coach.  He’s stubborn and stuck in his old ways.

Maybe I’m wrong.  Actually, I hope I’m wrong but we’ll see.

What I Would Do:

I’m making this decision based on these four things. I have no more insight into any of these than you do but I’m basing my decision on these four items being true because I believe they are:

  1. Jimbo is fighting having to hire an OC and massive offensive staff changes.
  2. Jimbo doesn’t understand he himself has to make massive changes and become a true head coach.
  3. We lose to LSU
  4. We can get the coach I mention

If all four of those things are true I fire Jimbo the morning after the LSU game.  If any of those 4 aren’t true then I give Jimbo one more year.

The remainder of what I write is based on those four factors being true.  If any of those factors are false then I’m not advocating to fire Jimbo.  Let’s be clear on that.

Sure, it’s going to cost us a ton of money but going 8-4 every year is going to cost us even more.  We’ve seen that play out.  I think it’s pretty obvious we have a perennial 8-4 coach in his current form.  There will be a couple of peaks and valleys but I don’t think Jimbo is on the level with Saban, Smart, Kelly, Heupel, Leach, and Kiffin.  That’s his competition.

He’s an NFL coach trapped in a college game he doesn’t understand anymore.

The ONLY thing saving him right now is the struggles in Austin and Norman so recruiting still looks decent.  If that gets turned around in either of those places our recruiting is going to drop like a rock.

If we keep Jimbo and he’s not truly interested in embracing a different college game then he’s a dead man walking.  Offensive coaches won’t want to come here nor will recruits.  Everyone will know it’s not a matter of “If” he gets fired but a matter of “When”.

Same thing happened with Kevin Sumlin which is why he struggled to hire an offensive coordinator after Jake Spavital failed.  Decent offensive coaches knew Sumlin was destined to get let go and didn’t want to take the job.

Unless we have the next offensive coordinator already locked down I don’t think it’s going to be easy to hire someone.  Coaches like some level of stability and Jimbo is going to be clearly on the hot seat.

His contract should be moot on making the decision if we don’t feel he’s committed to being different.  Pull the damn trigger and get it over with.  This isn’t living out some more time with a dog that you love.  This is a football coach that isn’t what we thought he was.  Pull the trigger and move on.

I don’t like a coaching carousel as I do believe Jimbo has had a bad hand dealt to him this season.  However, he’s proven to be a stubborn head coach with ZERO adaptability.  He’s blaming everything but him as the head coach for our failures.  He blames himself with words but his actions say otherwise.

Remember one of Jimbo’s favorite sayings is – “Your actions speak so loud I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

A head coach with some sense of reality pulls off 6-6 even with the issues we’ve faced this season.

At 6-6 or even 5-7 I’m not advocating to fire him.  He’s certainly had a bad hand dealt to him this season but he’s also had his hand in MULTIPLE losses that shouldn’t have happened.

Remember this is the same guy that felt Haynes King was our best option for 2 games and we have a loss to App State to show for that decision.  This is the same coach that for whatever reason didn’t have his team ready after a bye week and we went down 17-0 in the first five minutes at South Carolina.  This is the same coach that held halftime leads at Kyle Field to Ole Miss and Florida only to squander them away.  This is the same coach that couldn’t even attempt a field goal in his first 10 offensive possessions against an Auburn team with an interim head coach.

Decisions he made led to losses in every single one of those games.  I won’t even get into his decision on the last play at Alabama.

It seems weird to say but there seems like a MASSIVE leap from 5-7 to 4-8.  If he runs the same old tired offense and defense out there and gets wiped up by LSU and those other factors are true he needs to be gone.  We will have seen enough. 

He needs to wake up and act like he’s coaching for his job these last two games.  We’re staring down SEVEN consecutive SEC losses.  If he can’t see how he’s contributing to that there’s no point expecting different results in future seasons.

It sucks but it’s true.  We need to correct a massive mistake.

I would go hire Mike Elko as head coach.  Offer him a 5-year $40 million deal.  I’m not sure what he’s making at Duke but I’d guess it’s 5 years for $25 million or in that ballpark.  I believe his mother lives in that area of North Carolina but surely he’d want the keys to the Aggie gig considering what he’d be walking back into.

We send Durkin down the road and can keep our existing defensive staff for the most part.  Defensive recruiting shouldn’t miss a beat.

Let Elko hire an exciting offensive staff along with an ace recruiting staff and we’ll be off to the races.

In case you haven’t noticed Elko is quietly 7-3 at Duke this year.  Duke.  They went 3-9 last season losing their final 8 games.  There’s a good chance he goes 9-3 with losses against Kansas at full strength, an overtime loss to Georgia Tech on the road, and a 3-point loss to North Carolina who’s currently leading their division with no losses.  Elko is 4 points from potentially going to the ACC Championship game with Duke.

That’s one hell of a turnaround.

Mike Elko is a football coach.

If Jimbo is fighting change don’t overcomplicate the decision and extend the misery.  Pull the trigger and make the move.  If he truly realizes the issues with wins and losses are at his feet and he’s willing to change then he can stay.

Based on what Jimbo has said after each loss his look in the mirror is different than everyone else’s.  Sure, he says he blames himself but he clearly blames everything else.  His actions in the last 7 games have told us that.

We got caught up in the coaching salary spike of 2021 and just need to own it.  We made a bad decision and need to correct it sooner than later.

Thoughts On Jimbo After the Florida Game

I could write 12 pages on what we’re seeing with the Aggies but I’m going to keep it as short as possible.  We all see and know the issues.  You don’t really need reassurance from me.  Trust your eyes.

It’s that obvious – Jimbo is an addict.

He’s an addict to an offense that doesn’t work.  Addicts refuse to see reality and go back to comforting activities that are detrimental to their existence.

For Jimbo it’s his offense.  What’s becoming more apparent is his style of coaching.  He’s so enamored with his offense that he’s missing the entire game.

In two consecutive weeks he’s abandoned in the second half what worked for him in the first half.  The run and most importantly play action.

He’ll argue the defense shut down the run and it wasn’t there but he completely abandons it right away in the second half.  Achane got the ball 4 times in the second half against Florida.  How the hell do you know you can’t establish it if you don’t really try it?

The formula on how to stop the Aggie offense has been obvious since the App State game.  If there’s no threat of a run then just pin your ears back and apply pressure to the Aggie offense.  It’s the same damn offense over and over again.  And it keeps getting stopped over and over again because it’s crystal clear how to stop it.

Meanwhile Jimbo keeps doing the same three things:

  1. Shuffling his stack of papers which includes a spiral notebook.  Seriously.  What the hell is he doing with a spiral notebook in his hands during a damn football game?  What could be in there that’s so important?
  2. Yelling at his players that clearly aren’t executing his precious offense when they don’t really have a chance because the defense knows how to shut it down.  He’ll roll his eyes and make faces like he can’t understand why his players are so dumb.  Maybe he’s the dumb one.
  3. Blaming lack of execution by the players after the game for the offensive failures.  The same players he recruited and coaches every day.  He’s blaming the players.  Every now and then he’ll give some coachspeak that he and his staff has to do better.  However, you can tell he truly believes it’s a bigger fault of the players than himself.

That’s what addicts do.  They blame others and deny their involvement in the issues.

We’ve had some injury issues but they’re just excuses.  Sure, the injuries haven’t helped but his lack of coaching is a bigger issue in those losses than injuries.

Let’s look back at our losses this season:

App State – Completely outcoached.  COMPLETELY.  Absolutely winnable game.
Miss State – Mike Leach and his staff completely outcoached Jimbo.  Leach said as much after the game they just took what the Aggies gave them.
Alabama – Thanks to 4 turnovers by the Aggie defense we were on the 2-yard line to win the game.  Jimbo calls a play with ZERO creativity that Bama had seen before and knew how to defend.  Meanwhile LSU beat Bama on the last play by running something Bama had never seen before.
South Carolina – Spotted them 17 points in the first 5 minutes thanks to a special teams screw up and two offensive turnovers.  Coming off a bye Jimbo had a team that wasn’t prepared.  That’s on coaching.
Ole Miss – Squandered a 14-10 halftime lead at home because he apparently didn’t help his defensive coordinator scheme to shut down the quarterback run while abandoning the run himself.  That’s on coaching.
Florida – Squandered a 24-20 halftime lead against a REALLY suspect Florida team.  His precious offense got completely shut out in the second half because he panicked and went back to the offensive plays that didn’t work.  He abandoned the run, the play action, and the middle of the field for the most part.  That’s on coaching.

Obviously this has been a really tough season due to injuries and the flu on Saturday but every one of those games was winnable with better coaching.  To say we could be undefeated is a pretty big stretch.  I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to say we could be 6-3 with better coaching.

Losers make excuses while winners find a way to win.  Jimbo spends his press conferences making excuses because he as the head coach didn’t find a way to win.

If you look back over the last two years it’s nothing but a big bag of excuses.  We blamed the loss of Haynes King for going 8-4.  Guess what?  If Haynes doesn’t get hurt we might have been worse than 8-4.

Turns out Haynes King’s injury wasn’t really the issue. The head coach was fully responsible for going 8-4.  That Bama win was awesome but that feels like a decade ago thanks to what’s happened after that game and this season.

Blame youth, injuries, and whatever else but there’s one harsh reality – Better head coaching has us more wins in the last two years.  There’s ZERO doubt about that.

Jimbo is a stubborn addict that refuses to admit he’s the issue.

Color Me Concerned:

At this point I’m concerned we have another Fran and Sherman on our hands.  A man so enamored with his precious offense he can’t see the whole game.

There’s a big rumor Jimbo is going to hire a high-profile offensive coordinator in the off season.  It’s an obvious need.

My big question is if Jimbo will then see the entire game in front of him.  He’s been missing it for at least two seasons now.

Can Jimbo convert to a walk around coach that sees his entire football team?  I’m talking about recruiting, player development, and schemes.  I don’t know that he can because I don’t know that he wants to.  I think he just wants to tinker with scheming offensive plays.

He needs to convert to a head coach that sees the challenges with his whole program and what’s happening in college football as a whole.  He’s currently missing it.

He appears to have COMPLETELY whiffed on the turnover with his coaching and recruiting staff.  He hired people that appear to not be capable and it’s showing on the field and in recruiting.  The lack of wins aren’t helping in recruiting but it’s painfully obvious we’ve lost something else in recruiting.  That’s all on Jimbo.  He makes those decisions.

I don’t see us writing Jimbo an $85 million check so him waking up to be an overall college head coach is our only option.

The question is will Jimbo adapt or will he tinker with the offense ignoring everything else on the team?

If he never admits he’s the problem we’ll just have the same old addict at head coach.

If so, in two to three years we’re gonna have to make a costly decision.

I’m pulling for you, Jimbo.  I just don’t have a lot of hope you’ll actually break your addition.

Admittance is the first step…

Random Musings on the South Carolina Game

Before I get going on more stuff from the South Carolina game there’s a couple things to address.

Rumored OC Hire:

There’s strong rumors Jimbo is going to hire a legit offensive coordinator at the end of this season.  It’s so blatantly obvious at this point he needs to do it.  I’m glad he’s doing it but I’m still frustrated it’s coming to this.

For Jimbo’s first three years here (2018-2020) I really felt like he saw the whole football program.  What I mean by that is I felt he was a head coach that understood what was going on with the offense, defense, special teams, talent, development, and recruiting.

There were four games in 2019 I wish he would have managed differently but all four of those teams were ranked Number 1 in the country at one point that season.  I chalked those four games up to never having a chance so Jimbo was just building for the future sticking to a plan.

In 2020 it appeared to all come together during the Florida game.  From then on we rolled that season and never lost another game.  We finished #4 in the country with an Orange Bowl win.

I had the utmost confidence in Jimbo because we truly looked like a complete football team and he was recruiting well.  When he spoke, he spoke about football and not just jibberish like some other head coaches had done.  He sounded like an actual football coach.

In 2021 Haynes King went down in the Colorado game.  I chalked up that nail biter to a quarterback that was wildly inaccurate with no experience.  In the Arkansas game I saw coach that still looked confused on what plays to call but also saw a left tackle and quarterback that were getting beat by an Arkansas defense that just wanted it more.  Those two guys looked scared.  I felt that loss was more players than coaching.

We lost to Mississippi State the next weekend and I chalked it up to our defense having a bad game.

Then we beat Bama and rolled over Missouri and South Carolina.  We beat Auburn with an amazing defensive effort without scoring an offensive touchdown.  I thought it was just Jimbo seeing the whole game and not letting an erratic quarterback make errors that could lead to a loss.

The Ole Miss game last year was the first game I really realized there might be issues with Jimbo’s overall coaching ability.  Ole Miss came out and handed it to us both offensively and defensively in the first half.  We even had a safety on a running play in the first half.  A safety on a running play.  That’s virtually impossible if you know your team.  We went into half only down 15-0 but clearly getting out played.

In the third quarter we shut down their offense and Devon Achane was moving the ball at will.  It was 15-10 at the end of the third quarter so the game was well within our reach and momentum clearly on our side.

We closed it to 15-13 and got the ball back deep in our own territory at our 12-yard line.  We still had 7 minutes to go in the 4th quarter.  Plenty of time to mount a drive and then some.  I would have leaned on Achane but Jimbo called two pass plays.  The first goes incomplete and the second is intercepted.

I was always confused why Jimbo was passing there when Achane was gaining yards on the ground by the bunches.

Thanks to the interception Ole Miss only had to go 14 yards to score and they did.

We get the ball back down 22-13 with 6:32 left on the clock.  We need two scores but still plenty of time.

Achane isn’t even in the game.  This is not a knock on Isiah Spiller but Devon Achane was clearly the hot offensive hand and Jimbo sent Spiller in.  For whatever reason he didn’t recognize Achane was what was moving the offense in the second half.

We run a couple check down passes to Spiller with a false start (sound familiar) mixed in.  On 3rd and 10 Calzada throws an interception Ole Miss returns for a touchdown and puts the game away.

That was the first game that I really questioned Jimbo’s true ability as a head coach.  He clearly didn’t see what was happening on the field and ride the momentum.  He went back to what he thought he needed to do and didn’t adjust.

The LSU game last year was a little different but pretty similar.  I won’t bore you with details on that one but on a 3rd and 2 with a little over 2 minutes left trying to salt away a lead Jimbo called for Calzada to roll left asking him to complete a pass he had no business attempting.  Spiller had been moving the ball but Jimbo felt he needed Calzada to make a play when he hadn’t all year.

LSU totally blew up the play and we didn’t convert the first down.  We had to punt and wound up losing.  I give the ball to Spiller in that moment as he had been chewing up yards for most of the game and the LSU defense looked worn out.  For whatever reason Jimbo felt Calzada could execute a play he had no business attempting.

Both of those games I questioned his head coaching decisions late in the game.  I’ve seen those issues in the App State, Arkansas, Mississippi State, Alabama, and South Carolina games this year. He seems to miss key parts of those games where he’s not adjusting to what’s going on in the game.

I say all of this because I’m not sure how much hiring an offensive coordinator is going to matter.  We’ll certainly score more points which will be nice but if Jimbo can’t see the whole game and guide his team and coordinators then it won’t really matter.  He’ll get out coached and continue to lose games he shouldn’t.

Maybe the struggles of the offense have him buried in his play sheet but he needs to realize he’s the head coach responsible for the entire game.  It’s his job to guide the players and the coaching staff based on how things are going with the game.

You go in with a gameplan ready to adjust based on what you see on the field.  That’s not currently happening and that’s my biggest concern with Jimbo Fisher right now.

Hopefully he does more as a head coach with the addition of an OC.  I suppose it can’t be any worse than what we have now.

Player Issus/Suspensions:

News broke late on Monday night we have some potential suspensions and even potential dismissals with a few guys based on something that happened in South Carolina.

Rumor is some players were smoking weed in the locker room before or after the game.  It’s not crystal clear what the issue was but it’s something that’s not good.

Not sure if these are just a couple of boneheads or indications of a program in trouble.  Based on the names I’ve seen I think it’s just a couple of boneheads that need to be tossed out despite their immense talent.  No reason to let a couple of guys bring down a locker room of 85 scholarship guys.

We’ll look back on this South Carolina game as a turning moment for good or bad.

EDIT (10/27/22 8:27 a.m.) – As more details come out it looks like a few of the freshman were vaping in the locker room after the game. I have no idea what was in the vape but it doesn’t seem like the guys were smoking joints or hitting a bong. It sounds like they’ll be suspended for a game. Obviously not a good look and we don’t know all the details but maybe things aren’t as bad as it was initially made out to be.

Winning cures EVERYTHING so we’ll see if this team can win.

South Carolina Game:

Let’s get to a few things that frustrated me from the South Carolina game.

First Offensive Play:

The Aggies came into this game coming off a bye week.  We kicked the ball off and South Carolina returned the kick 100 yards to take a 7-0 lead.  Not the way you want to start but still in decent enough shape.

We get the ball on the 25-yard line after a touchback.  Before we even snap the ball we get a false start.  Down 7-0 after a bye week we can’t even snap the first ball without a false start.  That is a CLEAR sign for lack of preparation.

You would have thought our offense was fired up to have a big play after not playing football for two weeks.  You would have thought they were looking to make a statement.  Turns out they were making a statement.  Nothing evolved with a week off.

We move back 5 yards and run our first play.  It’s a short pass to Max Wright that’s incomplete.  I love the grit and the guts of Max Wright but there is absolutely ZERO reason why he should be receiving the first play down 7-0 coming off the bye week.  This is a play we had run before.

I don’t blame Max as much as I blame Jimbo.  Two weeks off and for his first play he calls a play that’s been called before to a guy that’s not our best offensive threat.  I couldn’t believe it.

Jimbo didn’t have a wrinkle there?  At least let the defense think for a play they may not be prepared for what’s coming.  I bet the whole South Carolina defensive coaching staff laughed out loud that Jimbo called a play they’d seen before and were ready to defend.

In Max’s defense he’d later score an impressive touchdown but he’s not the guy that should have seen the first ball coming off two weeks of no football and down 7-0.

That’s 100% on the “offensive mastermind” Jimbo Fisher.

False Starts:

As most of you know we had 8 false starts.  I believe two were on special teams but 8 is at least 6 too many.  I know the South Carolina crowd was pretty loud but it wasn’t any worse than what they experienced in Tuscaloosa.  There is ZERO reason for 8 false starts in a football game.

ZERO.

That’s on coaching.

Blockers Standing Around:

I’ve noticed it a lot this season but I saw two or three times in addition to the final plays where offensive lineman weren’t blocking anyone and just standing around.  Offensive linemen’s SOLE purpose is to block people.  They can’t legally catch balls and you don’t want them running balls.

Since there’s 11 people on offense and 11 people on defense that means if an offensive lineman isn’t blocking someone the defense has gained a massive advantage.  That means at minimum there’s two defenders running free looking for the ball since the ball carrier can’t block people.

Once again this is squarely on coaching.

Even if you blow your assignment you should always be looking to block someone.  The last thing an offensive lineman wants is to be on film not blocking someone.  Yet we had multiple moments where our offensive linemen were standing around not blocking anyone.

It’s as if the offensive linemen say to themselves, “Well, the guy I’m supposed to block is not here so not sure what I should do.  I guess I’ll stand here to see if a defender comes along that needs blocking.”

GO FIND SOMEONE TO BLOCK!!!!!

Lack of Commitment to the Run:

This is what’s so confusing to me about Jimbo’s play calling.  In 2020 we committed to the run in the Florida game and had massive success.  We have one of the most underrated running backs in the country with plenty of talent behind him.

For whatever reason Jimbo won’t even try to commit to the run early in the game.  The South Carolina game seemed PERFECT for it.  You have a banged-up quarterback, a line that struggles to pass block, and a defense that’s suspect to the run.

What do you do?  You don’t give your running back the ball until the third play of the third series after turning the ball over the previous two series.

Your best offensive weapon didn’t touch the ball until the third snap of your third possession.  How in the hell does that happen?

It ain’t that complicated, Jimbo.

Run.  The.  Dang.  Ball.

Opposing Defensive Strategy:

The opposing defensive strategy has become crystal clear.  We’ve seen it in EVERY game since the App State game and Jimbo refuses to adjust.

The opposing defensive ends are simply going to fire straight off at the outside shoulder of our offensive tackles.  No moves or anything.  Just fire right off at their outside shoulder.  They’ll either run around them or push them back to the quarterback who for some reason keeps dropping back even though he’s in shotgun formation.

Seriously.  Our quarterback takes the snap in the shotgun formation and if it’s a pass his first move is to step backwards.  I think it’s a massive key that defenses have picked up on.

While the defensive ends are racing to meet up in the backfield the defensive tackles are moving laterally to confuse the guard and center.  They change it up quite a bit but they almost make some lateral movement before heading up field.

As that’s happening the linebackers are looking for the gaps that are getting created and then rushing through them.

It’s the same damn defense over and over again.  It doesn’t change because we won’t do anything about it.  We just let it happen while we try and execute the perfect play.

South Carolina is not a stellar defense but they played great defense based solely on film study.  They learned the cheat code to beat our offensive based on the fact Jimbo would likely trot out the same pile of offensive garbage.

It’s maddening.

Aggie Defensive Turnovers:

I see a lot of complaints about our defense but let’s be clear – If it wasn’t for the defense getting 6 turnovers in the last two games we’re not even in the position to have a play at the end to win.

Without the key turnover in the Arkansas game we lose that game.

This defense isn’t without fault but I’d love for this defense to play with a lead just like they did in the Miami game.  Ideally I’d love for this defense to play a with a two score game to see what they can do.  I think it would do wonders for this whole team.

Unfortunately, we can’t because Jimbo keeps trotting out that same old pile of offensive garbage.

Don’t hate on this defense because there’s only so much they can do with an offensive that can’t score points.  Even worse the offense turns the ball over with a certain quarterback under center.

Yelling At Players:

I’m tired of Jimbo yelling at his players.  He thinks he’s coaching but he’s not.  I’ll give him credit he’s not berating his guys but he’s treating them like they’re inferior.  It’s an old act because his scheme ain’t working.

I have ZERO issue with a coach yelling at a player when it’s warranted.  ZERO issue.  In fact, I want to see someone getting yelled out when they make a mistake so they can learn from it.

We’re not seeing that.  For two years now all we’ve seen is Jimbo yelling at his players because they didn’t execute the play correctly.

If you’re yelling at your subordinates after every single thing they do that’s a massive failure on your part as a leader.  You either recruited the wrong talent for what you want to do, aren’t clear in your teachings, or your teachings are flat wrong.

In this instance it’s Jimbo’s teaching’s are flat wrong.  He can’t see the defense has already diagnosed what’s coming and blowing it up.  Jimbo can only see his precious offense isn’t working so it must be on his players.

I’m not saying the players aren’t botching assignments from time to time.  If you’re constantly yelling at failure you need to look in the mirror as you’re part of the failure.

Jimbo ain’t doing that.

Lack of Quarterback Runs:

One thing that really opened Jimbo’s offense up was Kellen Mond’s legs.  Jimbo openly talked about how he wished Kellen Mond would run more.

It wasn’t designed runs but simply when a hole opened in front of you then tuck the ball and run.  It worked wonderfully as Kellen’s ability to just take off and gain yards changed how defenses had to defend us. 

Kellen wasn’t even the deadliest runner.  He had decent speed but he wasn’t super elusive.  He just simply took off and ran when he saw space and green grass.

For whatever reason Jimbo doesn’t have Haynes King doing that.  I know King isn’t all the elusive as a runner but it’s like he doesn’t even know it’s an option.

I feel like King only runs in these two instances:

  1. Designed run
  2. Running for his life

I know there’s a lot of the running for his life but if Jimbo is going to keep running King out as his quarterback he needs to tell him to tuck the ball and run the second he sees space and green.  Stop going backwards and go forwards the moment you see any gap to go.

Weigman:

Building on the last one I hope Jimbo rolls Weigman out as quarterback the rest of the way.  I have no clue if Weigman is the guy but I know for certain it ain’t King.  Let Weigman develop a rapport with some of these receivers in actual SEC play.

If Haynes King and Max Johnson have confirmed anything it’s that a Jimbo Fisher designed offensive practice is not indicative of SEC play.

Let’s get game film on Conner in at least five games and hopefully six.  The six would be a bowl game.

This notion it’ll stunt his growth is complete BS.  He’ll make mistakes but as most people know the only way to learn from mistakes is to make them in the first place.

Time to let Weigman make some plays and mistakes while hopefully showing those 5 stars were well warranted.

I have no clue what to make of the rest of the season.  I lean to us not going bowling or barely getting eligible at 6-6 with wins over Florida, Auburn, and UMass.

I do believe we can beat Ole Miss.  They’re not as good as their record shows which LSU exposed and we’re not as bad as our record shows.  At least not talent wise.

If Jimbo is willing to do things a little different we can win on Saturday night.  I just don’t think he will because he’s so damn stubborn.

What a season…

Aggies at South Carolina – Breaking Down the Hail Mary Plays

I was jotting down notes for my full blog and one of them was going to be a point on how the final play perfectly encapsulated the entire offensive side of things. We couldn’t even get off a Hail Mary.

I pulled up the video of the game at lunch to see if South Carolina rushed 3 or 4 people. I remember seeing 3 defensive lineman but couldn’t remember if another South Carolina defender rushed in.

Well, what I saw was worse than anything I imagined. I grabbed screen shots so you can clearly see just how bad it was.

Before I get to those screenshots I have to tell you about the offensive series before the final two plays where we kicked the field goal.

For those that watched the game with me they know I was yelling for Jimbo to kick a field goal when we got to the 36 yard line. There was about 22 seconds left and Jimbo called a timeout after a 2 yard Weigman scramble. We had one timeout left. My point was we needed a field goal so let’s go ahead and try it which would give us about 17 seconds and a timeout if we made the field goal.

That’s a 53 yard attempt which is by no means an easy field goal but we’re in a desperate situation. I thought it gave us the best chance to win assuming we hit the field goal and got the onside kick.

Here’s what happened after that timeout:

  • Conner Weigman throws the ball away because he was pressured and nobody was open.
  • The refs called a roughing the passer which moved the ball to the 21 yard line. That’s a 38 yard field goal which is much better than 53 yards.
  • That previous play burned 5 seconds so there’s 17 seconds left and we still have one timeout.
  • 38 yard field goal with 17 seconds and one timeout. It’s a no brainer to me and I’m yelling to kick the field goal even louder.
  • We run a pass play which gets us 15 yards to the 6 yard line and burns 4 seconds off the clock. We’re down to 13 seconds and the clock will keep moving when the chains are set.
  • Jimbo is forced to burn a timeout.
  • Now we’re attempting a 23 yard field goal with 13 seconds left and no timeouts.
  • We could have been attempting a 38 yard field goal with 17 seconds left and one timeout.
  • In reality we’re splitting hairs but give me the 38 yard field goal with 17 seconds left and one timeout all day long. It at least gives you a little more flexibility on play calling if you get the onside kick.
  • In what is only fitting for this game the Aggies false start on the field goal attempt. We got pushed back five yards. The EIGHTH false start of the game. EIGHT FALSE STARTS IN THE SEVENTH GAME OF THE SEASON COMING OFF A BYE!!!!
  • We attempt a 28 yard field goal instead of a 23 yarder. We still make it.
  • Maybe Jimbo was afraid we’d false start on the 38 yarder so he knew we needed more yards before the attempt. That why we pay him $9.5 million a year.

As if that questionable decision making wasn’t enough let me show you why none of it matters.

Thanks to a well executed onside kick the Aggies get the ball on the 49 yard line with 9 seconds left. Plenty of time for at least one Hail Mary.

This is the first snap of the second to last play. Notice South Carolina has three defensive linemen and a linebacker moving forward. Notice the Aggies have five offensive lineman and a running back. That is SIX on FOUR. Should be a big advantage for the Aggies.

The downside to that math is it also means South Carolina has seven defenders to cover four Aggie receivers. This is why they call it a Hail Mary but we’ll worry about that later.

Before we get to the next photo look at the Aggie left tackle above. The defensive end next to him is CLEARLY firing off the ball and headed to the backfield. He should pick up that defensive end as our tackle is clearly the closest to him.

Our left tackle doesn’t even engage that defensive end and for some reason goes inside where nobody is. He leaves that defensive end COMPLETELY unblocked.

To make matters worse notice two of their four guys were CLEARLY coming towards the backfield and aren’t even being noticed by ANYONE in a white uniform. There are two South Carolina defenders in pursuit of Weigman that nobody is even looking at. Our left tackle COMPLETELY ignored that defensive end AND linebacker firing off the ball.

We have SIX people engaged with TWO people when we should have IMMEDIATELY known there were four coming. We somehow completely ignored two defenders. They were there the entire time.

How the hell does the left tackle completely ignore them and go inside leaving them unblocked? We’re rolling the pocket to the right which is another issue but it doesn’t mean we leave the guys on the left alone.

If you look even closer we have FOUR guys on one defender as our right tackle and running back have the other defender engaged. So that’s FOUR on ONE and two running free.

Here’s where it gets real comical.

What in the world is our center doing? There is not a South Carolina defender in his 180 degree peripheral. However, he’s in pass blocking mode doing nothing. At least all of the other linemen are pursing someone.

How does he not know to turn around and find someone? Did he think a defender hit invisible mode and is going to show up out of thin air? How does he think what he’s doing is okay?

You can say what you want about the player but that’s 100% on coaching to me. A well coached lineman knows to turn around and find someone when there’s nobody there. A good blocker is always looking for someone to block even if it’s not their assignment. If you have no one to block go find someone.

Even worse is you still have the two South Carolina defenders running unnoticed. One guys is about to get caught up with the mass of people but the other guy has a clear line to Weigman with nobody picking him up. That’s the guy the left tackle should have engaged from the start but somehow let him run free.

Let’s continue to watch the play develop. Our center continues to do a WONDERFUL job of blocking air. If he turned around he would have picked up the linebacker that no one had noticed. Seriously. If he turns 90 degrees to his right the moment he realizes there’s no one to block he probably picks off number 22.

Our right tackle has dis-engaged which is actually the right thing to do but like our center he’s headed off to block air. In his defense that guy shouldn’t be sneaking up behind him because the left tackle should have engaged him from the start but he’s not looking for anyone else around him. Just headed to green grass with no South Carolina defender. I’m sure his intention is to help wall off anyone from Weigman so it’s not a horrible move by him. No reason to think there’s a guy running full speed behind him at this point.

Next sequence above shows that linebacker and lineman that nobody on the left side noticed with free lanes to our quarterback because nobody even touched them. They had to navigate a little bit of traffic but no Aggie blocker ever engaged them. This entire time SIX blockers have been focused on TWO defenders.

That is TERRIBLE coaching. I have no clue how this is happening at a program like Texas A&M. Blame youth all you want but how do two guys go COMPLETELY untouched this entire time?

Weigman starts to wind up for the throw but he’s got serious pressure coming. He’s running for his life and can’t even fully wind up. He lets it fly and the ball only gets to the 10 yard line. He can’t even get the ball to the end zone because he’s under so much pressure.

Two guys never accounted for are two steps away from him as he’s winding up trying to throw the ball 60 yards in the air.

Look at Weigman’s feet above. He can’t even get a full throwing motion he’s under so much pressure. He never had a shot to get that 60 yards downfield into the middle of the end zone for a chance at a score.

Weigman winds up getting knocked down. The dude never had the chance to set his feet.

Go ahead and scroll those photos from top to bottom just to see how bad it was.

Since the football gods are funny they left one second on the clock so the Aggies could make one more Hail Mary attempt.

Here’s everyone lined up for the final play. Notice anything different? South Carolina has moved their linebacker to their left side which is the Aggies right side. They clearly noticed the Aggies rolled the pocket to the right and are giving their defender a shorter path to where Weigman likely wants to go.

Does it work? Let’s play it out.

Here’s a MASSIVE improvement for the Aggies as the left tackle engages the defensive end. The left guard and center are doing a nice number on the defensive tackle while the right guard and right tackle are in position to intercept the defensive end. The running back is putting himself in position to engage the linebacker.

So far so good.

The blocking looks INFINITELY better but there’s one slight problem. South Carolina’s adjusting of the linebacker appears to have cut off Weigman’s path to the right. Does it work?

It sure does.

Weigman is cut off so he pulls up. The offensive line is doing a much better job of engagement but South Carolina cut off Weigman’s path from the previous play. Wonderful adjustment by South Carolina.

Something else to notice is that Weigman is under SERIOUS pressure and the furthest Aggie receiver is only 10 yards downfield. The South Carolina defender has advanced 8 yards into the backfield and the Aggie receivers are barely to 10 yards.

You don’t need to know anything beyond basic math to know these are not numbers in the Aggies favor.

Weigman pulls up but he finds more pressure. He still wants to go right but there’s barely a lane to get there. At least the Aggie receivers are beyond 10 yards down the field. The math for the Aggies is getting better, kids.

Weigman tries that lane to the right only to find that linebacker South Carolina smartly moved right where he wants to go. This is a WONDERFUL job by the four South Carolina defenders anticipating where the quarterback wants to go and not letting him get there. Notice the bottom two South Carolina defenders just staying in the general area to cut off any potential of Weigman coming back to the left.

Weigman has no choice but to load up and throw because he’s got a defender with a clean line to him.

As he’s about to release the ball and the defender is coming at him.

Weigman gets his arm moving forward but the defender makes contact and the ball just pops up into the air. You can see it around the 48 yard line. It’s that little dot in the air.

It lands at about the Gamecocks 39 yard line while Weigman lands on the ground at the Aggie 46 yard line. A 15 yard Hail Mary attempt. At least the receivers got more than 25 yards down the field at this point.

There’s obviously some execution areas here but there’s also something else I feel like. I feel like the players are overwhelmed in their assignments. The coaching staff also just keeps going back to the same thing not expecting the defense to adjust.

That first Hail Mary attempt probably works if the left side of the line engage those guys that went completely untouched. The pass probably doesn’t get completed but it looks like a real Hail Mary attempt.

However, when South Carolina moved the linebacker to the Aggies right side someone should have picked up rolling to the right wasn’t the best idea. We ran the same exact play and South Carolina shut it down. That’s on coaching for not pointing out what is likely to happen.

I get that it’s a Hail Mary so options are limited but the awareness of what the defense might be doing seems completely lost on this offense. They just have to run the play as it’s designed and called even if it appears the defense knows what’s coming.

Not sure if I’m going to do a full blog this week because it’s so demoralizing going through all the obvious issues. Some of it is clearly player execution but I put more on the coaches for not letting the players have a better chance at executing.

As I finishing typing this I just learned that Bryce Foster and Aki Ogunbiyi are out for the year. That’s our starting center and starting left guard. The hits just keep on coming…

Thoughts At the Halfway Point

I’ve been debating what to write since the Mississippi State loss.  What Jimbo built up with wins over Miami and Arkansas completely fell apart in 60 minutes of football.  Then came the Alabama game which was nothing but a moral victory.  I hate moral victories.

So I sit here as confused as anyone as to what to expect for the final 6 games.  This team could honestly go 6-0 or 1-5.  Neither would surprise me.

The bye week comes at the perfect time.  Problem is I don’t know if Jimbo is going to double down on the things that made this team 3-3 or make some adjustments and make a run at 6-0.  I honestly have no idea.

Just when I think I can see this team trending one way it takes a serious turn and I’m lost.

I’m just going to hit on some random topics.

Jimbo and His Offense:

It hit me on the flight back from Tuscaloosa what Jimbo’s offense is like.  Jimbo is that stubborn dad that wants his son to drive a manual transmission when he turns 16.  Jimbo wants his son to learn how to drive an outdated transmission because it’ll be good for him and that’s how cars used to be built.

So Jimbo buys his son a mid-90s Mustang V8 with a manual transmission.  Jimbo thinks once his son masters that pesky clutch he’s gonna have a cool ass car.  On Sunday mornings Jimbo and his son head to the mall parking lot where Jimbo is going to teach him how to drive that thing.

They spend multiple Sunday mornings screaming at each other because his son just can’t figure it out.  Most of the time his son lets off the clutch too soon and it just lurches until it stalls out.  Other times he just rides the clutch entirely too long and you can smell that burning clutch.  Sometimes he gets the car going but then he presses the brake and not the clutch so the car stalls out yet again.  Every now and then he’s able to make a complete circle of the mall parking lot with no issues at all.

In those moments Jimbo beams with pride forgetting all about the 5 previous attempts that resulted in failure.  Jimbo pictures in his head his son pulling into the high school parking lot looking super cool.  He never envisions his son could become the laughingstock of the school parking lot because he’s repeatedly stalling out.  Jimbo can only see his son in his mid-90s V8 Mustang with the windows rolled down, classic rock cranked, and mullet flowing.

That’s all he can see because he’s blind to the reality of what other kids are driving.  Jimbo is stubborn and lives in the past.

All the other kids are driving more modern vehicles that actually have more horsepower, get better mileage, more reliable, and most importantly – are just plain easier to drive because they don’t have that stupid complicated clutch.

Jimbo just can’t see there’s a MUCH better way for his son to drive.  He doesn’t understand that clutch makes thing infinitely more challenging and completely unnecessary. 

It’s The Scheme:

We can blame the players all we want but the reality of this team’s struggles are centered around an offensive scheme that isn’t working.

I can’t precisely say why it isn’t working but my eyes and statistics say it’s not working.  It’s ranked near the bottom in many statistical categories.  It’s a complete failure at this point.

I think it’s not working because there’s no wrinkles.  Jimbo believes he’s devised the perfect system and if all 11 players do their job then the offense hums along.

NEWSFLASH – Every single offensive play designed by anyone ever is designed this way.  There’s not an offensive coordinator alive that just willy nilly designs offensive plays without accounting for every defender.  If all 11 offensive players execute perfectly then every offensive play ever designed gains large amounts of yards.

It’s a foolish statement for an offensive coordinator to say if the players execute the play is there.  It’s on the coach to create plays that can be executed because it confuses the defense.

This offense isn’t confusing the opposing defense because there’s no damn wrinkles and everything takes so damn long to develop.  App State really exposed this and every defense since then has done basically the same thing.

Here’s the secret to defending this offense – Pin your ears back and apply pressure.  What you see in front of you is what you’ll expect to see.  Don’t worry about a wrinkle you’re not ready for because there is no wrinkle.

The opposing defensive ends basically make a pact to fire off straight into our tackles and plan to meet at the quarterback.  Meanwhile the defensive tackles and linebackers give the interior lineman a little confusion and someone will break through.  It’s not a difficult offense to defend.

I don’t chart plays of this offense but I bet a junior high kid decent at math could chart our plays and predict with 80% accuracy if a run or pass is coming based on offensive personnel and the down and distance. 

Knowing if a run or pass is coming is a HUGE advantage for the opposing defense.  I don’t think it’s hard for opposing defenses to determine what plays are coming.

Jimbo simply thinks if all 11 guys execute we’ll be moving the chains.  He’s not wrong except for one thing – the entire reason the defense exits is to blow up the play.  When the defense has a really good idea of what play is coming they’ll routinely blow it up.

That’s what’s happening and Jimbo is too stubborn to admit it.

Until Jimbo designs some wrinkles and speed things up this offense will be stuck in the mud.  It’s completely maddening and frustrating.

Where Are the Wrinkles?:

Believe it or not there have been some wrinkles.  They’re few and far between but they’ve been there.  Against Sam Houston we had receivers run routes across each other which confused the defense.  I don’t recall seeing those routes since that Sam Houston game.  We seem to have run them once and abandoned them.

Against Bama we finally added some wrinkles including the first reverse I think I’ve seen Jimbo run since he got here.

We also had a beautiful delayed pass to Donovan Green for a touchdown.

We need a LOT more of those.

I’m hoping Jimbo spent the entire bye week drawing up wrinkle plays.

Make Them Defend the Unknown and Space:

Lane Kiffin is one of the best play designers in college football if not the best.  I hate to say it but Steve Sarkisian is not far behind him.  Each week if you watch those teams there will be 5-10 plays the defense never sees coming and they grab big yards if they don’t get a touchdown.

We never see that from Jimbo.  It’s the same old plays over and over again.

Kiffin has less offensive talent but his scheme is totally superior to Jimbo’s.  Kiffin uses the full width of the field and attacks downfield as far as possible.  Jimbo runs plays around the hash marks and as deep as 15 yards at most.

Kiffin makes the defense defend more space while Jimbo lets the defense defend less space.  In case you’ve never defended anything it’s much easier to defend less space than more space.

It’s simple physics and Jimbo can’t figure this out.

There’s No Sequencing of Plays:

The best playcallers think about plays 2-3 plays ahead of the one they’re calling.  Once again, Lane Kiffin is one of the best at this.  He’ll call a play expecting a certain result and has the next play ready to go right after that.

Jimbo doesn’t do that.  Jimbo appears to call plays completely independent of each other.  It’s almost as if he says to himself, “Okay, let me see how this play does and then I’ll call the next play based on the results of this one.”

He has no expectation of what a play will do until he sees it happen.  That’s a big reason he’s so ineffective as a play caller.  He has no expectation of what’s going to happen with every play.  He must call it and then see what happens.

It’s like Congress passing a Bill to figure out how it effects the American people.  Only morons do things like this.

No Urgent Execution:

I’ve talked about this before but Jimbo has ZERO sense of urgency from an offensive standpoint.  I’m sure defenses love this.  This gives them a chance to get set up and read the offense before the snap.

Because Jimbo believes he’s the perfect play caller he’s giving the defense more time to rest and defend his offense.

It’s maddening to watch.  The more you put a defense on it’s heels the easier it is to execute against them.

There’s a reason why up tempo offenses have become so popular – THEY WORK!!!!!!

Meanwhile Jimbo is doing the exact opposite trying to slow things down which gives the defense an advantage.

It makes ZERO sense why he won’t push the throttle all the way to the floorboard on occasion.

This goes back to the lack of sequencing plays.  To run up tempo you must have the offense ready to go on the next play as soon as the ball is set.  Jimbo needs to see the result of the play and then go back to his massive playsheet to decide the next play.

Jimbo is the person that orders an appetizer without looking at the main course or anything else on the menu.  One thing at a time, people.  One thing at a time.

What Do You Want to Be, Jimbo?:

In 2020 after the Alabama game Jimbo decided we were going to be a running team.  It worked beautifully.  Sure, we had a mostly senior offensive line but it really wasn’t that talented.  Only two guys from the offensive line are playing in the NFL.

I say that not as a knock on those guys but just showing what can happen when you decide on your offensive identity.  Creating an identity helps the offense executes.

We should have been a running team the last two seasons but for some reason Jimbo won’t commit to it.  I don’t know why.  I get wanting to be a robust offense but when you can ram the ball down the defense’s throat you’re going to set up other plays.

In the games last year against Arkansas and Ole Miss Jimbo should have committed to running the ball late in the game but he wouldn’t.  We lost both games.

It’s like he sees a run go for no yards and thinks, “Ah shit.  That run got stuffed.  I better dial up some passes!”

He’s completely afraid of establishing the running game.  In order to establish the running game you have to commit to the running game.  He won’t do it for some reason.  We have one of the most underrated running backs in the country along with some talented younger running backs.

We can run the damn ball if Jimbo will commit to it.  I don’t know why he won’t.

You establish the running game and your passing game will flourish if you know how to design and call plays.

Maybe we’re back to the main problem – Jimbo doesn’t know how to design and call plays.

The Final Play at Bama:

The entire season so far was encapsulated in the final play at Bama.  I’m sure you’ve watched the play multiple times.  For any Aggie football fan it’s like watching the Zapruder film.

You watch it even though you know the result is going to be bad.

We can bitch about the officials all we want but the reality is the players executed that play REALLY badly.  The play took way too long to develop, Evan Stewart didn’t get deep enough in the end zone, and after staring Evan Stewart down Haynes King threw a ball that even if caught would not have resulted in a touchdown because it wasn’t in the end zone.

They didn’t execute it well because it was a terrible job of coaching.

Jimbo and the players can say what they want but it was a horrible play call.  It never had a chance.  It really didn’t.  Bama defended the play decently but they didn’t do anything out of the ordinary.  They just defended what they expected to happen and that’s exactly what happened.

Bama knew everything to expect on that play and just played basic defense  The Aggie offense did NOTHING to surprise Bama on that play.

My entire list from above boils down to this single play.  With a chance to pull off a MASSIVE upset Jimbo has nothing special.  I mean nothing at all.  We’d already run this play earlier.  We did score a touchdown on it but Bama was well aware of that and prepared to defend it.

It’s almost as if Jimbo looked at his play sheet and noticed he’d put a star and “TD” next to this play.  He probably thought, “Well, hell.  Apparently this play scored a touchdown already so let’s just call it again.”

Jimbo was playing with house money on one final play and dialed up something the defense had already seen.  He just needed two yards.  No wrinkles, no urgency, no nothing new.  Just the same thing he’d previously called.

I wanted to give the ball to Achane in space.  I know Bama was expecting it but if I give Achane the ball and some space I have more faith in him to get two yards than anyone on this team.  He’s proven that so I would have given it to him.

Jimbo didn’t and I don’t know why.

Even beyond giving it to Achane did we not have some play we’ve been working on since the summer to get two yards?  Something the defense never saw coming?

It’s not surprising based on how Jimbo’s called this offense all year but it’s really disappointing.

House money and Jimbo runs trips to the wide side, five offensive linemen, a lone receiver right, and Achane lined up next to the quarterback in the shotgun.  No motion or anything.

Not a single wrinkle or chance at something the defense had never seen.  Just Jimbo in his head thinking, “If all 11 guys execute this perfectly we’ll win this game.”

The entire first half of the season was summed up in that final play.  A failure because it’s the same old thing over and over again.  The players never had a chance to make a great play happen.

No urgency and no wrinkle.  Just a play off the same spreadsheet he’s been running for 2 seasons now.

Line up a tight end to slip into the endzone, put in a fullback to make it look a run, or run someone in motion to see if the defense will tell you how they plan to defend it.  Do something the defense had no idea what was coming.

We had a chance to upset Bama in back to back years.  We didn’t because Jimbo just called an ordinary play like he didn’t know or care what was on the line.

Just like he was in a mall parking lot on a Sunday morning trying to teach his son how to drive a clutch because he’s oblivious to the advances they’ve made to automobiles.

Maddening.  Frustrating.  Disappointing.  Pick your word.  Hell, pick them all.  They all apply.

Looking Forward:

This team is talented enough to wind up winning 7 games which would include the bowl game.  I don’t see it happening unless Jimbo has a massive epiphany.

That’s not happening so let’s look at reality.

We should beat UMass.

I think we’ll beat South Carolina and Auburn.

I think Florida and LSU are toss ups.

I don’t see how we beat Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss.

I think we wind up 4-2 over those six games for a final record of 7-5. It’s a little ambitious but this is a talented football team. Especially the defense and I think they play well enough to win 4 games the rest of the way.

Even with that it will be a massive disappointment for Year 5 of Jimbo’s tenure.  7-5. Massive disappointment.

Jimbo is not going anywhere as our head coach but there are massive rumblings he’ll be forced to hire an offensive coordinator in the off season.  I hope that’s true.  Everything else about this program seems to be humming along.  Most of the recruiting and the defense appear to be fine.

Ironically enough the positions we don’t have any commits for the 2023 signing class are quarterback, running back, and wide receiver.  Offensive skill players are shying away from committing to Jimbo’s offense.

Strangely the one thing that needs improving is the one thing Jimbo controls.

We’ll find out how stubborn Jimbo is over the next couple of months.

I hope he finds better things to do with his Sunday mornings than spend them with his son in a mall parking trying to figure out how to use a clutch…

Thoughts From the Arkansas Game

Well kids, another week, another Jimbo Special.  It wasn’t pretty and it looked bleak at times but Jimbo pulled out another victory like only he can.  Get just enough offense and pray the defense can hold on.  It worked thanks to Jerry Jones’ super tall field goal uprights.  I have no clue what the call would have been had that ball sailed over the uprights but I don’t care.  A win is a win.

Every year I go to the Arkansas game wishing it was a home and home instead of at JerryWorld.  Nothing against JerryWorld as it’s a wonderful stadium but I just feel college games should be played on college campuses.  However, I leave JerryWorld after an entertaining game with an Aggie victory and wonder if we should just leave well enough alone.

I can’t recall another series like this where it’s been a decade of bizarre games and plays.  Somehow, the Aggies have come out on top most of the time.  We’ve certainly got our share of breaks in JerryWorld.  I’m not complaining one bit.

A win is a win.

Ainias Smith:

Before I get going on the game I have to give a shout out to Ainias Smith.  As most of you know he suffered a broken bone in his leg and will miss the remainder of the season.  I feel horrible for the kid.  He came back for his senior year hoping to prove more on the field only to have this happen.  It’s a horrible literal and figurative break.

For four seasons he’s been the one constant of Jimbo’s offense.  Jimbo has plugged in and played parts with a lot of people that never developed.  Ainias was the one constant every season the last four years.  Obviously there’s Spiller and Achane but for three plus seasons Ainias carried a pretty anemic passing attack.

I wish we could have seen what Ainias could have done with more offensive threats around him.  He was the receiver that defenses keyed on and he still made play after play.

I don’t know what his future holds but I wish him the best.  Get well my man.  You’ve served and represented A&M well in every regard.

Coaching/Mental Mistakes:

There’s a lot to take away from this game but the coaching and mental mistakes are the most mind boggling to me.

We had 9 penalties for 65 yards.  Well prepared players get fewer penalties.  You’re going to have mistakes here and there but 9 penalties is unacceptable.  It really does start with coaching.

Jimbo placed some blame on the players after the game but the reality is it starts with him.  Penalties happen because a player is not prepared or motivated.  That starts with the head coach.  Smart and prepared football teams don’t get 9 penalties at key moments of the game.

The most glaring penalty was the delay of game after receiving the ball from the kickoff.  That’s THE LAST PLACE you should ever get a delay of game.  I have no clue how that happens and that’s squarely on Jimbo.  The other team scores and you know you’re getting the ball.  You have PLENTY of time to prepare your offense and have the play called.  The Aggies didn’t.

The only way that happens is complete indecisiveness by the coach or confusion by the players.  Either way that’s on the coach for not having the play or players ready.  This is squarely on Jimbo’s shoulders.

The other massive mental mistake wasn’t even a penalty.  It was the failed extra point after the amazing defense fumble return.  That also failed because of coaching.  Extra points in college are a free point.  It should be muscle memory.

For some reason the Aggie extra point team was hesitant to snap the ball and everything was out sync.  The snapper, holder, and kicker weren’t aligned.  What exactly happened I don’t know but it’s on coaching because something was off. 

There’s no reason for this because it should be repetition.  The second Demani Richardson crossed the goal line the coaching staff should have been yelling “EXTRA POINT TEAM!  EXTRA POINT TEAM!” 

I’m not kidding.  It’s that basic.  The whole focus of the coaching staff should have been getting the 11 guys out there to kick the extra point.  It didn’t look like that was the case because we waited so long to snap the ball.  That doesn’t happen to a well-prepared football team.  A well prepared and coached team trots out there, lines up, snaps the ball, and nails the extra point.

A team that’s not well prepared is a failure of the coaching staff.  That was a free point and we botched it because we weren’t prepared.  That’s on coaching.

The other concerning coaching decision and execution was at the end of the first half.  Thanks to an Arkansas penalty we got the ball down to the Arkansas 42 with a few seconds left.  We tried a pass that was incomplete to Moose Muhammad leaving us with 4 seconds on the 42-yard line.

Jimbo runs a kicker out there to attempt a 59-yard field goal.  I couldn’t see but I’m guessing it was Caden Davis.  Davis has enough leg to make that distance.  Accuracy is in question but he has the leg to get the ball through the uprights that far out.

I don’t have a problem with that decision because I felt like it was the best opportunity to get points.  Sure, it could get blocked and returned but Davis has enough leg to get it up.  Apparently Jimbo felt it was worth the try at that moment.

Before we snap the ball Arkansas calls a timeout.  After the timeout Jimbo trots his offense out there where we fall on our face in a botched hail mary attempt.  Max didn’t even heave it down field.  He got pressured and just kind of threw it away.  It was completely botched.

Based on what I’d seen so far in that game I had ZERO confidence in a hail mary.  Max wasn’t going to get enough time to throw a ball 50 yards downfield to our receivers.  Nothing in that game up until that moment told me that was a good idea.

At least Davis has the leg to make a 59-yarder if he hits it right.  Maybe it even gives him some confidence.

Here’s my biggest problem with that sequence – What did Jimbo see in that stack of papers in his hand during that timeout he didn’t see once the pass was incomplete to Moose?  Did he find the sheet with the hail mary play so he could show his offense?  Did he find a picture of Auburn and the Kick Six against Alabama?

What changed during that timeout to switch to a play that seemed like a low percentage based on what we’d seen in the game so far?

There’s other examples during the game but those are the three most obvious to me.  When we have the ball there is ZERO sense to do what I call “Urgently Execute”.  There’s a whole lot of standing and looking around trying to decide what to do while the play clock just ticks away.

George Patton once said, “A violent plan executed today is better than a perfect plan executed next week.”  Someone needs to post this in Jimbo’s office.

I like Jimbo as a head coach.  I do have my concerns that being head coach and playcaller are too big for him.  I’m afraid these are more examples.

Defense:

I’m starting with the defense again because these guys won the game for us.  I know a lot of people are disappointed with our defense but they held Arkansas to 21 points.  That’s a damn fine accomplishment.

Arkansas is a damn good offense in their third year of Kendall Briles.  Yes, Art’s son.  The dude knows how to coach an offense.  Unless you’re the 2020 Georgia team you’re not shutting this offense out.

Arkansas is going to score points.  K.J. Jefferson runs the system perfectly and I wouldn’t be surprised if 21 points is the lowest amount of points Arkansas scores all season.

The Aggie defense slowed down the Arkansas offense just enough to win that game.  Would I like a more dominant effort?  Sure.  I’ll take holding Arkansas’ offense to 21 points all day long because that gives your team a chance to win.

The 3-Man Front:

I’ve seen a lot of griping about A&M’s 3-man front.  Perceptionally I don’t like it because the defensive line should be the strength of our defense.  We should be able to run 4 guys out there and just destroy the opponent’s offensive line.

Unfortunately, that’s not really the case and can be used against you in an Arkansas type offense.

Arkansas’ offense is meant to read the defense and exploit gaps and holes.  With a quarterback like K.J. Jefferson and running back like Rocket Sanders it works well.  Those guys generally crank out the yards. 

It’s not a power rushing attack but more of a patient running attack looking for gaps and seams to get to the next level where they can really chew up yards.

I believe Durkin’s reason for running the 3-man front was to see if he could consume the offensive line with 3 defensive lineman and then have the linebackers and safeties fill the gaps that are created.

I think it worked because we held Arkansas to their least amount of yards all season and Antonio Johnson, Chris Russell, and Jardin Gilbert lead the teams in tackles.  That’s two safeties and a linebacker which leads me to believe those guys were constantly sticking their nose in those gaps.

The last thing you want is to have Jefferson and Sanders hitting the second level where there’s no safety or linebacker.  That’s how Arkansas’ offense will destroy you.  The Aggie defense wouldn’t let them do that as they held Jefferson and Sanders to their combined lowest total of rushing yards against any team this season.

I think Durkin wisely made sure he had plenty of safeties and linebackers in the second level so Jeffeson and Sanders didn’t rip off long runs.  It wasn’t perfect but it worked pretty well for the most part.

Do I wish the Aggie defense could have definitively shut down the Arkansas rushing attack with a four-man front?  Absolutely.  However, I’m not going to gripe too much if the end results are an Aggie victory.

Now, I do have a concern if Durkin trots out the 3-man front against Mike Leach on Saturday.  You have to apply pressure to the Mississippi State quarterback or he’ll tear you apart.  He’s not really a threat to run so I’m not as worried about those little gaps.  If the 3-man front was for one game to slow down the Arkansas rushing duo of Jefferson and Sanders then I’m good with it.

Defensive Line:

I talked about 3-man front already but regardless of Durkin’s reason the defensive line did what they were asked to do.  For the much of the night they occupied the 5 Arkansas lineman allowing other defenders to make plays.

The defensive line won’t get any of the individual glory but they’re the guys that made that defense really work on Saturday night.

There were some pretty obvious holding calls that didn’t get called but these guys never relented all night long.  They just lined up and took on the Arkansas offensive line.

This will likely be one of the best offensive lines they face all season so I think it’s a very promising sign for the rest of the season.

Linebacker and Safety Play:

I touched on it briefly talking about the 3-man front but I thought our linebacker and safety play was pretty damn solid this game.  The Arkansas offense loves to exploit linebackers and safeties out of position and for most of the game our guys were where they needed to be.

We all know about the abilities of Antonio Johnson and Demani Richardson but Jardin Gilbert is really playing some good football.  Chris Russell, Jr. played the best game of his career at a time we needed it most.  I’ve been a little concerned with him as he’s been out of position some in the first three games but he stepped up in a big way against Arkansas.

Bryce Anderson again showed he’s likely to be something special.  It looked like he went out with an injury so I hope he’s okay and bounces back for this week.

The defensive line is the heart and soul of this team even with a 3-man front but the linebacker and safety units are proving to be nice complimentary units.

Coverage:

The entire secondary seemed like a swarm of defenders all night.  They had one massive brain fart on the 56-yard touchdown pass.  Other than that I thought they played really well.  That one pass counted for 33% of Arkansas’ total passing yards.  If that play never happens then Arkansas has a total of 115 passing yards and 14 points.

Arkansas doesn’t have the best receivers but we’ve seen plenty of Aggies games where marginal receivers got the better of us.  I feel good about this unit when it comes to covering.  It’s not going to be without errors from time to time but I do like the depth and talent Jimbo has assembled with this group.

Offense:

Devon Achane:

I talked about Ainias and I don’t want to take anything away from him but Devon Achane once again proved he’s the hands down MVP of the 2022 Aggie Football team.  It’s not even close.

What he did on Saturday night was overshadowed by so many things such as the fumble return and the “Oink Boink.”  If Devon Achane doesn’t suit up for the Aggies those aren’t even discussion points.  We’re just talking about Arkansas beating the Aggies in back-to-back seasons.

Achane was without the doubt the heart and soul of this offense on Saturday night.  The dude averaged 8.4 yards per carry on 19 carries.  For a team that sputters offensively that is an insane amount of yards per carry.  He’s the only real threat to the defense and they still can’t bottle him up.

While that yards per carry is impressive this is the most impressive stat for Devon Achane – Out of 60 total offensive snaps for the Aggies he was in on 58 of them.  58 of 60 offensive snaps!!!!

After his 63 yard run he didn’t even come off the field.  He just lined up and took the next two snaps for runs of 5 and 10 yards.  No timeout or anything.  Just hauls ass for 63 yard, hands the ball to the official, and lines up for two more carries for 15 yards.

How many running backs in football do you know that rip off a 63-yard run and don’t come out of the game?  Jimbo just lined Achane up and handed the ball to him two more times for 15 more yards and a first down.  THAT IS INSANE.

Everybody is talking about our missed field goal against App State, Miami’s botched punt return, and the Arkansas plays.  None of those things are being discussed if there’s no Devon Achane.  If Devon Achane is not on this team we might be 1-3 and I’m not kidding.  He’s not the sole reason we’re 3-1 as the defense has played well but without Devon Achance there’s no offense to get a few more points than the defense has allowed.

We all know about his elite level speed but the more he touches the ball I’m amazed at how elusive he is.  It’s not flashy either.  He’s just so damn smooth that he has great vision and ability to cut and then that homerun gear if he gets free.

He is special special and I don’t think most football fans including Aggies realize just how special he is because he looks so effortless in what he does.

Max Johnson:

While Achane is carrying this team Max Johnson has made sure there’s no additional burdens for Achane to carry these last two games.

Max Johnson has not been great by any stretch of the imagination but he’s done exactly what he’s needed to against Miami and Arkansas.  He hasn’t made any massive mistakes and has allowed others around him to make plays.

The best play to showcase this was the touchdown pass to Evan Stewart.  Arkansas’s defensive strategy this year has been very clear – we don’t trust our secondary but we’re not going to give you enough time to test them if we can help it.  Arkansas blitzes like crazy and did all night against A&M.

On that touchdown pass to Stewart Arkansas didn’t disguise the fact they were going to force Max Johnson to throw before he wanted to.  We had an empty back set and Arkansas lined up six guys on the offensive line.  No tight ends.  That’s a math of six defenders to five blockers.  What that means is at least one guy is going to break through and apply immediate pressure to the quarterback.

Max recognized this.  On the snap two Arkansas guys broke free and ran immediately for Max.  Max waits as long as he can and calmly lofts the ball in the air towards Evan Stewart who was able to turn around and make a play for a touchdown.

It was the only play to make.  Max recognized before the snap and after the snap while calmy executing it.  It looks like a lucky pass but if you go back and watch the play it was the perfect call executed perfectly.  That was a big game changer.

The featured image of this post is the photo of Max throwing that ball to Evan Stewart.  Max has two defenders barreling down on him and he releases as perfect of a throw as he can.  It’s actually a very impressive play on Max’s part.  Great job by Stewart looking back to get the ball but a lot of QBs would have scrambled rather put the ball in a spot for their receiver to make the play.

In addition to that play Max had to deal with bad snaps all night long and calmly corralled them while looking to make plays down the field.

Statistically he didn’t do anything impressive as he was barely a 50% passer for 151 yards against one of the worst secondaries in football.

I don’t necessarily like getting excited about a game manager at quarterback but perspective is a funny thing.  I think the only quarterback in the Jimbo era that would have beaten Arkansas on Saturday night was 2020 Kellen Mond.  2018 Kellen, 2019 Kellen, Haynes King, and Zach Calzada lose that game.

Sometimes it’s not what you do at quarterback it’s what you don’t do.  Max didn’t do anything to put the Aggies in a worse position than what they already were from a scheme and talent standpoint.

Max is never going to be Johnny Manziel or even Trevor Knight.  His pocket awareness is pretty good though and he avoids trouble well for a guy his size and without blazing speed.  More than anything as trouble is coming he’s already assessed what’s going on downfield and acts accordingly.  That’s a big key for what you want in a quarterback.

Max isn’t going to be the reason we win football games but considering the 14 games before he took over I’m gaining some confidence he won’t be the reason we lose football games either.

Offensive Line:

This is a tough one for me to assess.

On one hand the offensive line finally did enough to spring Achane.  In addition Arkansas was bringing pressure the entire game.  These guys had their work cut out for them.

On the other hand we didn’t do anything in our first four possessions.  We also didn’t score a point when we really needed points on our only fourth quarter possession that mattered.  We did miss a field goal on that possession but 53 yards from the Arkansas 36 is hardly a chip shot.  We needed to be deeper in Arkansas territory on that drive.

The offense needed to do more on that possession and they didn’t.

During the second and third quarter this offensive line did take the fight to a tough Arkansas defensive front.  They deserve major props for that.  Maybe they would have responded on the final drive if Arkansas made that final kick.  We don’t know and quite frankly I’m glad we didn’t have to find out.  I’ll take the win from the “Oink Doink”.

I hold out some hope maybe this is like the 2020 Florida game where the offensive line finally found some level of identity.

I’ve complained about Jimbo’s decision making in this game but he along with the offensive line deserve massive credit for realizing and executing the run game as the only real hope of moving the ball.  Achane is special but this offensive line executed the play calling to spring him to make some amazing plays.

Now that we seem to be settled on the five guys going forward I’d like to think this unit can only improve and not regress.  Especially as Bryce Foster gets stronger.

We’ll find out more against Mississippi State but it was great to see this unit finally give Arkansas a fight after not doing anything at all for four possessions in the first quarter.

Wide Receiver:

Ugh.  This is where I have to remind everyone that Ainias Smith is out for the year and there’s no clear replacement.

I have no clue what to think with this group.  There’s some flash with Evan Stewart and Donovan Green for sure.

Those two guys lead the team in receptions with 3 each and totaled 86 yards.  Green had 50 yards and Stewart had 36. 

That’s a pretty pitiful showing against one of the worst secondaries in the country.  At least statistically. 

They didn’t light it up but they did make a couple very tough catches at key moments.  Great to see them step up and make plays in moments you need it most.  They are true freshman adjusting to the college game.

I’m disappointed Jimbo didn’t run more hot routes trying to get the ball to these guys in some space to see what they can do.  I think Jimbo realized he had a hot hand in Achane and decided to ride it which I have no problems with.  Jimbo failed to ride the hot hand in a couple games last year and it cost us victories.

Like the offensive line this group is kind of hard to judge because Arkansas wasn’t going to give us time to pass.  I also believe Jimbo didn’t have as much confidence in his passing game as he did his run game.

Unfortunately, I also have to bring up Moose Muhammed who probably contributed to the lackluster performance of this group more than anyone else.  Moose played about as terrible of a game as a receiver can play.  He had 3 penalties but most importantly he dropped a certain touchdown pass where he was wide open.  He completely botched the catch not being in proper position and then kind of jumping where the ball bounced off his hand.

A competent receiver positions himself where he runs under that ball in stride and cruises to the end zone.  It’s the route and pass every receiver dreams of where it’s an easy six points.  The moment was too big for Moose and he botched it. 

We wound up getting a field goal on that drive so it wasn’t a 7 point swing but it was a 4 point swing.  I believe if Moose catches that ball it completely changes the outlook of the game.  I certainly don’t think the “Oink Boink” happens.  Arkansas wouldn’t have been kicking at that moment because it would have been a six point game if Moose caught that ball like he should have.

Like the offensive line we’ll see what happens against Mississippi State this weekend.  Evan Stewart was targeted 7 times against Arkansas so it’s pretty clear it’s in the works for him to be an integral part of our passing game.

I’m not worried about Stewart and I feel confident about Green with him getting more experience.  I’m also hopeful Yulkeith Brown and Chris Marshall can develop as they get more experience.

Paint me optimistic that Max, the line, and the young receivers can develop a serviceable passing game as the season wears on.

Looking Forward:

Since the App State loss I’ve said we’ve got to really take one game at a time.  There was a legit chance we were staring down a 1-5 record.  As it stands we won’t be worse than 3-3 going into our bye which seems like a massive accomplishment.

I’m hopeful we can get by Mississippi State so the worst case going into our bye is a 4-2 record.  That would be remarkable considering how we looked in the first two games.

Mississippi State won’t be easy at all.  Just like we somehow have Arkansas’ number Mississippi State has ours.

We are 3-5 against Mississippi State since 2014.  That’s our first year without Johnny.  We’ve won one game in Starkville in that time and that was the 2020 team in Mike Leach’s first year there.

It goes without saying that Starkville is not our favorite place to play.

This will be a tough game because the Mississippi State defense is better than people think.  We all know what Leach can do offensively but Durkin does have some success against him.  Durkin slowed Leach down last season when Ole Miss beat Mississippi State in Starkville.

As I write this Mississippi State is favored by 3.5.  Vegas doesn’t always get these lines correct but they’re generally a better guide than anything else.

This won’t be an easy game and Jimbo has his work cut out for him.

Let’s just hope he plans to urgently execute on Saturday rather than sift through his stack of papers looking for the perfect play or a good diagram to show his team.