many on here will be the first to tell you that he's not a great Head Coach (spin this as you may)
***EDIT*** I'll leave the previous sentence the way I wrote it, as to avoid any confusion, but based on some of your responses (really appreciate hearing everyone's perspectives), I will say that I think Kirby is an amazing coach and I probably misinterpreted a lot of the complaints on the Vent about how they perceive CKS as a head coach in general. I think the consensus is that we love him as our Coach and he will continue to get better, especially with his decision making and game management on Saturdays. Thanks again, guys! *****
Sorry in advance for the long post. If you read it, thanks and please add to the conversation. This is going to be a special season and I think we have a lot to be excited about. If it was TLDR, that's okay too haha!
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but for me.. I see a young head coach who is in just his 4th season. He has had his ups and downs; he has made questionable calls, but he has also led us to some incredible wins. I'm confident he's going to continue to improve. This man does not sleep and he will not rest until our Dawgs finally get that national championship. And even then... I would say Coach takes a quick nap and gets right back to it.
I made the personal mistake of getting on and reading the Vent during both the ND and Tennessee game (some people never learn: Me). I was pretty frustrated with the starts in both games because I too expected this to be the season where everything clicks and we blow these lesser teams out the water. I have yet to rewatch the Tennessee game (I plan to soon), but after going back and rewatching the ND game without emotionally being invested in the outcome, there was a lot to like and a lot to look forward to. I actually thought about writing my "expert analysis" on what I observed in the ND game on here, but I ended up deleting it halfway through. I'll try to steal Dash's job another day
I'm intentionally leaving out statistical rankings because I don't want to get into the whole "strength of schedule" debate, comparing apples to oranges.
In 5 games...
Our defense has 15 sacks (I think the total was 24 last year), 5 ints and 3 FF (all three fumbles recovered with two being returned for TDs). They're giving up less than 60 rushing ypg, and around 220 passing ypg. And I would say, if not for two busted plays by our secondary (60 and 72 yd TD passes), we could be talking about how our defense is allowing less than 200 passing ypg. I understand blown coverage is part of the game and it happened, so there's not much of a point point in including "ifs" and "buts". But it's still something to consider.
Our Dawgs have allowed just over 10 ppg, and 6 total TDs (zero rushing TDs). 1 TD was a pick six by Stetson and another TD was a result of a muffed punt inside our own 10 where our defense almost came away with a goalline stop. So our defense has actually given up <10 ppg. Of the remaining 4 TDs, two were conceded on blown coverages (that's gotta be addressed and I think we will improve moving forward) and the other two were scored on good drives by Tennessee and Notre Dame (sometimes you gotta give credit where credit is due).
I think there are a lot of positives to point out on defense. There is plenty of room to improve, there will always be room to improve. But we are young and veryyyyyy talented. I absolutely trust our staff and in my honest opinion, I think this defense will continue to grow and the end product, come postseason, is going to be terrifying.
Our offense has been criticized aplenty by fans on this site, and I'm sure they all mean well. At the end of the day, WE ALL JUST WANT A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! I've been critical of the offense at times too, but I think it would be good for everyone's health if we took a look at how good our offense is and can be.
Jake Fromm is completing 78% of his passes with an 8:0 TD to INT ratio. He has been sacked once this year. We've had 5 different running backs get into the endzone and each of them is averaging over 6 ypc. It was just a few weeks ago when there was a lot of concern with the lack of experience at WR this year, but I would say it's working out pretty well.
I can't remember any calls or missed calls that stood out to me from the first three games, but I believe a PI should have been called on at least one of the two no-calls against ND. And, Cager probably catches that TD against Tennessee without tugging on the defenders jersey. Considering these scenarios, including a few slightly underthrown balls to Pickens in the endzone, Jake's TD:INT ratio could be ever better. But the refs believed there weren't any penalties on those plays, and Jake underthrew his man. It is what it is, but still... Something to consider.
I know a lot of this comes off as glass half full, but I think if we're going to be highly critical of our Dawgs who are ranked #3 in the nation, it is only fair to point out what they've done in order to maintain that spot. I personally hope we stay at #3 for the rest of the regular season and I will happily take any spread where Bama is favored to beat us (if we meet in the SECG)
Not everything is sunshine and rainbows; we have a lot of room to improve. But that just goes to show how talented we are. We need to be better on 3rd/4th and short, I would like for us to find better ways to utilize James Cook, our secondary needs to limit explosive plays, and we need to get healthy. Andddd we need to do something about our punter. Yikes.
Overall, this team is good. Really good... And I think we are about to hit our stride, starting with USCjr. It's coming.
Lastly...
This past offseason felt like an eternity for me, personally. Probably the longest offseason that I can remember. The 2018 season was a blur. It's crazy to think the NC game was nearly two years ago, and we are already 5 games into the season. I'm not going to try and tell anyone what to do or tell anyone how they should feel, but my goal for the rest of this season is to enjoy as much of every single game on our schedule. It's flying by and I want to remember every moment of this season. It's going to be a good one. A really good one.
Thanks for reading,
Go Dawgs!
***EDIT*** I'll leave the previous sentence the way I wrote it, as to avoid any confusion, but based on some of your responses (really appreciate hearing everyone's perspectives), I will say that I think Kirby is an amazing coach and I probably misinterpreted a lot of the complaints on the Vent about how they perceive CKS as a head coach in general. I think the consensus is that we love him as our Coach and he will continue to get better, especially with his decision making and game management on Saturdays. Thanks again, guys! *****
Sorry in advance for the long post. If you read it, thanks and please add to the conversation. This is going to be a special season and I think we have a lot to be excited about. If it was TLDR, that's okay too haha!
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but for me.. I see a young head coach who is in just his 4th season. He has had his ups and downs; he has made questionable calls, but he has also led us to some incredible wins. I'm confident he's going to continue to improve. This man does not sleep and he will not rest until our Dawgs finally get that national championship. And even then... I would say Coach takes a quick nap and gets right back to it.
I made the personal mistake of getting on and reading the Vent during both the ND and Tennessee game (some people never learn: Me). I was pretty frustrated with the starts in both games because I too expected this to be the season where everything clicks and we blow these lesser teams out the water. I have yet to rewatch the Tennessee game (I plan to soon), but after going back and rewatching the ND game without emotionally being invested in the outcome, there was a lot to like and a lot to look forward to. I actually thought about writing my "expert analysis" on what I observed in the ND game on here, but I ended up deleting it halfway through. I'll try to steal Dash's job another day
I'm intentionally leaving out statistical rankings because I don't want to get into the whole "strength of schedule" debate, comparing apples to oranges.
In 5 games...
Our defense has 15 sacks (I think the total was 24 last year), 5 ints and 3 FF (all three fumbles recovered with two being returned for TDs). They're giving up less than 60 rushing ypg, and around 220 passing ypg. And I would say, if not for two busted plays by our secondary (60 and 72 yd TD passes), we could be talking about how our defense is allowing less than 200 passing ypg. I understand blown coverage is part of the game and it happened, so there's not much of a point point in including "ifs" and "buts". But it's still something to consider.
Our Dawgs have allowed just over 10 ppg, and 6 total TDs (zero rushing TDs). 1 TD was a pick six by Stetson and another TD was a result of a muffed punt inside our own 10 where our defense almost came away with a goalline stop. So our defense has actually given up <10 ppg. Of the remaining 4 TDs, two were conceded on blown coverages (that's gotta be addressed and I think we will improve moving forward) and the other two were scored on good drives by Tennessee and Notre Dame (sometimes you gotta give credit where credit is due).
I think there are a lot of positives to point out on defense. There is plenty of room to improve, there will always be room to improve. But we are young and veryyyyyy talented. I absolutely trust our staff and in my honest opinion, I think this defense will continue to grow and the end product, come postseason, is going to be terrifying.
Our offense has been criticized aplenty by fans on this site, and I'm sure they all mean well. At the end of the day, WE ALL JUST WANT A NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP! I've been critical of the offense at times too, but I think it would be good for everyone's health if we took a look at how good our offense is and can be.
Jake Fromm is completing 78% of his passes with an 8:0 TD to INT ratio. He has been sacked once this year. We've had 5 different running backs get into the endzone and each of them is averaging over 6 ypc. It was just a few weeks ago when there was a lot of concern with the lack of experience at WR this year, but I would say it's working out pretty well.
I can't remember any calls or missed calls that stood out to me from the first three games, but I believe a PI should have been called on at least one of the two no-calls against ND. And, Cager probably catches that TD against Tennessee without tugging on the defenders jersey. Considering these scenarios, including a few slightly underthrown balls to Pickens in the endzone, Jake's TD:INT ratio could be ever better. But the refs believed there weren't any penalties on those plays, and Jake underthrew his man. It is what it is, but still... Something to consider.
I know a lot of this comes off as glass half full, but I think if we're going to be highly critical of our Dawgs who are ranked #3 in the nation, it is only fair to point out what they've done in order to maintain that spot. I personally hope we stay at #3 for the rest of the regular season and I will happily take any spread where Bama is favored to beat us (if we meet in the SECG)
Not everything is sunshine and rainbows; we have a lot of room to improve. But that just goes to show how talented we are. We need to be better on 3rd/4th and short, I would like for us to find better ways to utilize James Cook, our secondary needs to limit explosive plays, and we need to get healthy. Andddd we need to do something about our punter. Yikes.
Overall, this team is good. Really good... And I think we are about to hit our stride, starting with USCjr. It's coming.
Lastly...
This past offseason felt like an eternity for me, personally. Probably the longest offseason that I can remember. The 2018 season was a blur. It's crazy to think the NC game was nearly two years ago, and we are already 5 games into the season. I'm not going to try and tell anyone what to do or tell anyone how they should feel, but my goal for the rest of this season is to enjoy as much of every single game on our schedule. It's flying by and I want to remember every moment of this season. It's going to be a good one. A really good one.
Thanks for reading,
Go Dawgs!
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