We've become soft.
After the Oregon blowout in 2022, one pundit described us as "an 800 pound rolling ball of chainsaws."
We were methodical, unrelenting, brutal, lethal.
We had fire in the belly, focus in our eyes (remember the look in Nakobe's eyes before the 2021 NCG against Bama - contrast that with the look in Beck's eyes), and violence in our DNA. Heart, toughness, grit, attention to detail and excellence were defining characteristics.
Kirby's one word answer before the 2022 NCG summed it up: "Aggression."
Now?
I don't see any of it. We were exposed in Atlanta last December by a tougher Bama team, called out postgame by Jalen Milroe, and then had no spirit or fire to make him eat his words this past September.
When is the last time we physically whipped an opponent? When was the last "Kirby Death March?" When have we made a team quit in the last 2 seasons, as we did to TCU in 2022 in the NATIONAL TITLE GAME?
It appears to me that something has fundamentally changed in the DNA of this team. Maybe it's just the natural by-product of sustained success. Maybe hunger becomes too difficult when you're full on championships and in-game sideline chicken wings.
But of all the lack of talent, poor coaching, regression of key players and questionable play-calling, this descent into softness is the most alarming to me. And perhaps the most difficult to fix.
After the Oregon blowout in 2022, one pundit described us as "an 800 pound rolling ball of chainsaws."
We were methodical, unrelenting, brutal, lethal.
We had fire in the belly, focus in our eyes (remember the look in Nakobe's eyes before the 2021 NCG against Bama - contrast that with the look in Beck's eyes), and violence in our DNA. Heart, toughness, grit, attention to detail and excellence were defining characteristics.
Kirby's one word answer before the 2022 NCG summed it up: "Aggression."
Now?
I don't see any of it. We were exposed in Atlanta last December by a tougher Bama team, called out postgame by Jalen Milroe, and then had no spirit or fire to make him eat his words this past September.
When is the last time we physically whipped an opponent? When was the last "Kirby Death March?" When have we made a team quit in the last 2 seasons, as we did to TCU in 2022 in the NATIONAL TITLE GAME?
It appears to me that something has fundamentally changed in the DNA of this team. Maybe it's just the natural by-product of sustained success. Maybe hunger becomes too difficult when you're full on championships and in-game sideline chicken wings.
But of all the lack of talent, poor coaching, regression of key players and questionable play-calling, this descent into softness is the most alarming to me. And perhaps the most difficult to fix.
