I apologize in advance for this being long... I don't expect you guys to actually read it, it's more of a vent for me. Where to begin... First I'll address the QB thing. This is conjecture, based on what I've heard from friends who are much closer to the locker room than me. Allen was named started by default. Anyone who watched that abortion of a game against ULM could see that. Hill was suspended so Kyle is the guy for at least two games. Hill apparently has a problem with not only drinking, but weed as well. You have no idea how that 'trills" me to hear it. This team is still in total disarray, with no easy fix. We do have some talent deficiencies (LB), but a lot of it is coaching/scheme related. When Sumlin came in he had a hip, and fairly young staff that was a great bunch of recruiters, but not necessarily proven as coaches. OFFENSE: Our iteration of the spread offense was developed by Dana Holgerson with Sumlin, and Kliff K as an understudy at Houston. Holgerson went to WVU, and you see what it SHOULD look like from his teams. Sumlin finds Johnny Football, and decides with KK that they can tweak it to get the most from Manziel's skill set. It works pretty well in 2012. KK goes to TT, and we need a new OC and QB coach. Sumlin chooses Clarence McKinney as the new OC with young Jake Spavital (who's been with Holgerson) as his new QB coach. After the offense is less than stellar in 2013 with questionable play calling Sumlin moves Spavital to OC, and McKinney back to RB coach. 2014 We open with a fire-bombing of SCAR in Columbia, and everyone thinks the offense is in high gear. Then comes the Rice game. Their staff realizes we are totally dependent on throwing short quick throws, and WR's breaking tackles and then running the ball when the defense spreads out to cover. They bring EVERYONE in to within 10 yards of the LOS, and suddenly our offense is required to use smaller and smaller windows with no room to break tackles. Hill's imperfect accuracy starts to become an issue, and the WR's aren't quite as stellar at catching/running in heavy traffic. Next come the SEC defenses. They play the same basic set, but with far superior athletes. Each game gets progressively worse and culminates in the Alabama debacle. Was Bama's defense that much improved over when they played WVU? I don't think so. They still have some trouble with air assault offenses, but they used the same formula to perfection and we NEVER varied from what had failed before. SO... EVERYONE... and I mean even the most staunch "fan" of our staff wants Spavital FIRED. I'm in with them. ULM... vaunted defense that they are... did the same thing. Their safeties were never more than 10 yards off the line, and most plays they didn't fall back at all. They KNEW we wouldn't try to go over the top, so they didn't support an defense of it. The Aggie offense continued to try the short stuff, and the east west stuff. Not a SINGLE ball was thrown near the hashes in the second half. And then the cherry on top: With a 21-16 lead and a few minutes left we got the ball back. Spav calls runs up the gut and blasts out 3 first downs. With two minutes left, and on the ULM side of the field (ULM has 1 time out left) we suddenly decide to throw the ball on 1st and 2nd down. Both incomplete. We of course do not convert and have to punt. Fortunately the defense rose up, but at that point... Spav made it CRYSTAL clear he does NOT know what he's doing. He may know the formations and the plays of this offense, but he does NOT understand the full concept, or how to attack the defenses that have been deployed against if for the last 5 games. Added on to the poor play calling is the crappy offensive line play. BJ Anderson was Sumlin's choice of OL coach. A young guy who had only worked at Texas FCS schools a few years when Sumlin took him on at Houston. Many folks questioned this hire when Sumlin came to A&M, but deferred since Sumlin had done well at UH. The 2012 OL was a group of bad men, and it showed during Johnny's Heisman run. They were the key ingredient we needed to roll against SEC defenses. They were all recruited and coached up by Mike Sherman - who many of us consider an OL guru. So BJ was able to coast - you don't need to coach up an AA LT and RT who will both be top five picks when they go to the draft. The 2013 group was basically the second verse. Again the Sherman talent and coaching was there although not quite as dominant. Here we are at 2014, and the OL is still pretty talented, but they are soft. I've been told by more than one coach who has watched that our footwork is not good, and our guys are NOT getting their positioning right most of the time. It's showing. We are projected to have 3 first rounders for this year, but you sure can't tell it from their performance. All of this falls at the feet of their position coach who again doesn't seem to know what he's doing. DEFENSE: I've been a defender of DC Mark Snyder since he gave our defense a pulse in 2012. They improved throughout the year to be a decent unit at the end. 2013 had some GLARING holes, mostly due to an empty cupboard on DL and LB... and I gave him a pass due to that lack of tools to work with. 2014 still has holes - some we weren't anticipating (LB losses) but is overall a more talented group. With that said, you have to put them in a scheme that makes sense. (We lost a very good MLB, Darian Claiborne to knucklehead syndrome, OLB Shaan Washington broke his clavicle in summer camp, and OLB AJ Hilliard destroyed his ankle in the SCAR game) Right there you lost all your projected starters by game one. And that was an area we did not have ANY margin for error. To balance that out, the football Gods gave Snyder a major weapon in DE Miles Garrett. The kid is a beast. He now has 8.5 sacks which I believe is the SEC freshman record. That's fine... but Snyder seems to be unwilling to leverage that. It became blatantly obvious against ULM that he also is a little too smart for his own good. When he deployed a 4 man front with a nickle or dime package against the ULM spread, our front destroyed them, and usually caused a no gain, a loss, or an incompletion. This defense's strength is getting up field, and attacking the line. So why go away from that against a weaker opponent??? As part of the shake up after Bama, we played three freshman at LB... and they did fairly well. (Washington is back from his injury) We saw our first tackle for loss by an LB on a run play THIS SEASON!! We were all high-fiving! "Did you see that? he read the gap, and hit the RB in the backfield!!!" Of course let's say that happened on first down, and now it's second and 12. Snyder then subs in another DB... removes a DL, and only rushes 3. We are now in "Coverage mode"... the absolute WEAKEST facet of this defense. The ULM QB surveys the field... and eventually finds a wide open receiver, or simply runs for a first down due to a loss of contain with only 3 rushers... And so it would go... we get them in a 2nd or 3rd and long... and then sit back while they converted it... again and again and again. When the redzone closed up the gaps by not leaving as much space we'd be able to force a FG, but that doesn't happen against the much more talented offenses of the SEC. Our defense has some talent... but like the offense it is being so badly misused it doesn't have a chance to succeed. If this is frustrating to me, I can only imagine how it feels to the kids. So... now I'm in the "Fire Snyder" boat as well... We need a DC who understands the talent he as, and how to use it to cover the holes, not how to help the offense exploit them! This game showed that Kyle Allen is definitely a freshman, and is NOT really ready for the speed of the game. His footwork would get shoddy, or he rushed quite a few throws that were then off target. Unfortunately... he's going to be fed to Auburn ready or not. And after seeing what the coordinators tossed out after two weeks to prep for ULM, I can only imagine how bad this is going be... :x
I read it Scott. It reminds me of ND when Willingham took over. The first year was successful because the prior staff had developed players. As the years went on, it became more and more apparent that the staff was not teaching what had to be taught. I hope when you try to correct the problem you don't hear the same unwarranted claims that ND heard.
Scott, I know it is trite, but I really think you take the win and move on. No one seems to be clearly dominant or winning with ease, well except maybe for Marshall. :wink:
I read it all.. some thoughts. 1. Maybe they are sand bagging for Auburn? Not likely, but it's possible. 2. The offense grew out of original thought. What troubles me is when originality is stemmed by throttled by pedigree on the resume. It happens everywhere. You're gonna have to let this staff do their thing, and we'll see how it shakes out. I'm quite sure people are tired of hearing me say it, but I don't believe Weis recovered from losing the man he never hired. He had Al Golden picked to be his DC. Shockingly, the guy stayed at UVa. A year later, he made the move to be a HC and it was now clear why we never landed Golden. In my opinion, Weis could have lasted for several years longer had he nabbed Golden. Which brings me to, if you look at Weis (and several other coaches) they make great initial hires... but the truly great coaches are still making great hires 20 years later. You're gonna lose assistants and coordinators. There just aren't a lot of 'long time coordinators' anymore and they are reducing in number by the day. Bad hires happen, how does he correct it (or does he?) is what will determine Sumlin's worth. 3. You're gonna have a tough time with defense because of the offense that you run. Every defense can be had with enough exposure, and your defense (over the course of a season) is exposed so much that people get a lot of looks at you. They know your limitations and strengths. One of the things I love about Uncle Rico is that we aren't on the field a lot. We take our chances, we get burned, but we get off the field and get the O back out there. I can never get a finger on the pulse of what you're trying to do defensively. As you mentioned, you get upfield well, but I don't think your DC utilizes that very well. It reminds me a lot of Diaco's defense.. it's a lot of bend but don't break relying on athleticism to make big plays/turnovers. I may be wrong, but that's what I see. You guys need to get off the field. Better days ahead I think!
And you can't lose the recruiting edge. If A&M can continue to successfully recruit then they will be back. I don't care about the rankings but they need to get the talent that they need to run their scheme. :wink:
Thanks for your thoughts guys, I always like to hear other points of view. gip, if it comes to that, i sure hope we can avoid that, but I'm never suprised... Corey... no doubt our defense needs to GET OFF THE FIELD. Snyder has shown a distinct lack of propensity for doing that the last two years. He's used up his pass! kp, Unfortunately that's exactly what could happen. There are too many sharks in the water in Texas for us to show signs of drastic decline like this...
Texas struggles this year and the last couple of years sort of give you a reprieve for this year..maybe. But as you well know the recruiting fortunes in Texas can change fast. Texas under Mack before his last couple of years got pretty much any Texas kid it wanted, at the time of course you guys were struggling on the field. Before Mack Arrived you guys had dominated with RC and Jackie Sherrill. Fame is fleeting..so is recruiting dominance.
I agree that poor on field performance and program disarray is the danger that A&M faces because it allows Charlie Strong back into the recruiting inner circle in Texas.... and he's a damn good recruiter. That is what has happened at UF this year.... not so much keeping FSU out of that inner circle but UF is finding itself on the short end with recruits due to Muchamp's and the program's uncertainty and that is the real danger to me of UF losing it's mojo and having to spend more time in that "barrel". I hope a strong finish to the season will help keep some recruit's interest and if Muschamp is not retained it needs to be a homerun hire done before mid-Jan. Sumlin's not going anywhere so a nice win or two on the field would help considerably.... like say..... beating Missouri? :wink:
New twist Scott, what do you make of Hill and family hiring Sean Salisbury to be his QB Coach? Is that a reflection on their faith in the A&M OC/QB Coach? It doesn't sound like the same thing as when college QB's go to Calif in the off season to get tutored by Whitfield. Sean Salisbury to coach Kenny Hill
just a question, was Salisbury able to convince his mother to hire him after sending her a text message?
I had forgotten that Salisbury was on ESPN. Does the above comment have something to do with why he left?
Sid read this article...only the first paragraph. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/11/sean-salisbury-says-his-life-has-become-a-walking-train-wreck/
I'm just saying, if Sean Salisbury comes up to you and says 'Hey, you wanna see a picture of my baby?' The answer is no.. always no. Unless you're into that sort of thing, but the answer should still probably be no.
You guys derailed any chance I had of a serious answer to this... Now all I can do is try to control the laughter. Dude is a trainwreck? Well you were at the wheel dipshit! Now you want us to feel sorry for you?!?!
Sorry Scott. Back to serious discussion.. I didn't mind Golson hiring a QB coach because he was booted out of school. I took that to show he was being proactive in his training and serious about his commitment to play. However, a guy who is still in school, and has had an entire season's worth of training is hiring a coach on the side? It kinda shows a lack of respect for the staff on hand. Even if the kid is right, I'm not sure that displays the kind of characteristics you want in the leader of your team.
Turns out he didn't hire him. Dad had some discussions with Salisbury but never made a deal. I agree with what you are saying but Spavital is so badly being outclassed by opposing DC's he needs all the help he can get. :x