Munson also asked CMR how many games, or parts of games, he got to watch? CMR
– college football is a great game, and it's getting better and better because
of parity, as the talent pool becomes more equally distributed.
A caller later in the show asked CMR if he watches games as a fan or trying
to coach against them. CMR said a bit of both – trying to study defensive fronts
and coverages, but also enjoying an exciting brand of football in the SEC. Another
later caller says we must really be good to make fools of the SC team that dominated
Tennessee.
What about the big leads? CMR says it's momentum swinging (used Ark-Bama
game as an example). It looked like
Arkansas was a much better team when
that game started, then Bama gets all those big plays early in the second half.
But Arkansas kept its poise and fought through some mistakes.
CMR also noted the one guy (at Texas Tech) who threw it for over 660
yards last night. The guy he was going against went for over 400 and it didn’t
seem like much.
Is pass defense hard to teach or coach? Lots of schemes are good, but you have
to have the personnel to do it. Some teams decide to put their best players
on offense and hang on. Most teams in the SEC put their best athletes on defense.
About six of the best defenses in the nation are in our league.
Injuries - Greene, Pollack and Taylor should play; hopefully Watson as well.
Not sure about Gibson yet. Elmore, Blue and others also have a chance. Tony
Taylor is slowly getting better but we’re not sure how fast.
Regarding Gibson, hamstring injuries are a funny thing. We want to make sure
he is 100% ready. CMR will have a much better feel after seeing him tomorrow.
(Excellent Robert Palmer bumper music tonite, courtesy of 750dawg)
Curt in Tifton opened up tonight wondering if Thomas Davis would play LB at
some point this season. Davis will stay at safety with Curry gone though he
does play LB in the dime package. Even with Blue returning, CMR does not think
we have enough depth.
Bert from Norcross wondered if parity meant the SEC was down, but he thinks
it is up. What about the BCS if a bunch of teams end up stacked up? CMR agrees
regarding the SEC. Some teams are racking up numbers against inferior opponents
while every week in our league is a war. Look at
Kentucky having
Florida on
the ropes – the same Florida team that had Miami seemingly beat. Every week
you’re looking just to find a way to win.
Good thing about our league regarding the BCS – you’ll have a strong strength
of schedule rating which is an important part of that formula.
CMR thinks college football is such a great game because every week is a lot
like a playoff. We may have the most exciting regular season of all sports combined.
If we went to a playoff, you may have a true champion but at what cost? The
smaller the playoff field, the more important the regular season would still
be.
Jeremy from Memphis asked about recruiting – OL, DL, LB, WR. Year in & year
out, the line of scrimmage is important. As it is, we’re playing a very young
OL. You hate to have a 2-3 year gap. We’ll continue to work to get the numbers
up. At LB, speed is the name of the game. You have to find guys who can play
OLB. Sometimes they grow into great rushers. WR? CMR thinks it’s the #1 issue
for us.
Regarding my questions & comments on special teams, CMR doesn’t like to
gripe, but if you look at the film and saw some of the things that happened
on that last kickoff return, it was a real shame that some of that stuff at
the point of attack – particularly to two of our guys right next to each other
who were in their lanes – didn’t get called.
We are glad to be getting guys back to bolster the special teams overall, but
you have to be careful not to throw them in over guys who have been getting
reps for several weeks. Special teams have been strong for us the last two years
but we have been running hot & cold so far this season. We will have to
play well on special teams or we won’t have a chance to be a champion.
A later caller wondered if Bennett’s leg gets tired from kicking and handling
kickoffs. CMR doesn’t think so. Other than this
LSU game, CMR can’t think of
a day he’d consider Bennett having a bad day.
At WR – some guys missed a couple of games due to suspension and had to work
with the scout team before the games they were going to miss. At QB, Shockley
is more ready to play but Joe T. is progressing well. Time will tell that DJ
will play very well for us.
People will see one or two things and make judgment, which is understandable
because they don’t see what the coaches see everyday in practice.
How is the mental state of the team following the LSU game? CMR says right after
the game it was very emotional and disappointed. Once we settled down, we understand
players know there is a lot to play for. We’ve got to get ready to play an emotional
game here and for the rest of the year.
Frosh DBs – Flowers, Oliver and Henderson all seem to have great speed, agility
and the ability to play the ball in the air. Oliver’s body is closest to being
ready. All three have great ball skills and have the ability to make great INTs.
We just have enough depth there now to be able to redshirt them.
About Hollis – the knee is fine. There was nerve damage and its still a bit
in his foot. He is still getting the strength back in his foot and calves. Little
by little he has improved but we’re not putting him in a game until we think
he is strong enough there.
Taylor in Rabun Co. wonders about RB by committee. CMR says they’re trying to
earn it by running and blocking. CMR thinks Browning, Cooper and Lumpkin are
all capable of doing good things and considers it a dead heat. We may just end
up splitting it and let them separate themselves by how they play on the field.
Tyson Browning has never had a problem being tough, he’s just a bit light. He
is getting back into good shape for that kind of assignment.
Why wasn’t more done about the blitz last week? CMR thought we had a good plan
but we didn’t execute it well. If we had it to do over, we might max protect
more. We might try more screens. Sometimes you can roll out against the blitz
and sometimes you can’t It’s a shame we didn’t hurt it early when we had the
chance to discourage it.
The one time that Shockley got sacked, the center got beat on the protection.
Also, a ball got batted down. When teams blitz from the middle, those on the
outside tend to take a very wide rush to keep containment.
Dee Matthews from Albany – head of the Albany Bulldog Club - wished Munson a
happy birthday (the second such wish, after me) and suggested to CMR
we needed to win this game for Munson then go on and win another championship.
She also wanted to verify the time of the Dawg Walk on Saturday (2:00).
One caller asked why we didn’t put Greene & Shockley on the field together
to try and slow LSU down. CMR is more concerned with the basics which are more
likely to win the game. And we had only one starter from last year who started
on offense against LSU.
We have the ability to run or pass in the red zone, but sometimes teams load
up so much that you have one on one chances. We had some plays there but dropped
passes. You don’t want to bang your head against a defensive set. You may have
a certain play called but the defense might not line up like you think.
Chase Green is doing a good job as a walk-on. He busted up his hand but just
stuck a cast on it and kept going.
Regarding Bama, Shaud Williams is one of the top runners in the nation. They
have good lines and good team speed. No way we’ll be looking at Tennessee. There
will be two teams hungry for a win going at it Saturday so it should be a real
battle.
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