KENTUCKY -vs- South Carolina Game Thread

[Katmendo]

A big win, But....


And there's fair room for the but.

Last week we looked "young" on offense, and slightly behind the talent curve on defense. Last night we looked as talented as we are on offense, as capable as we can hope to be on defense, but Dawson looked like a rube. Out of those three things, the one thing NO team can afford is bad coaching/playcalling.

He was bad in that second half. The good news is, he got a pass with a W. With some hindsight, and now a good three weeks of having his team play/practice, and be mostly healthy, he can start to really evaluate the strengths and weaknesses, and get it rolling. He WILL have to find some scheme to work the middle of the field, whether it's a tight end, back out of the back field, or crossing or slants. He's not using it.

Great commitment to the run, early. My motto is you don't stop you. You make them stop you. The problem is, in the second half, they did stop you. It was the 8 and even close to a full 9, in the box that the D showed (which he apparently couldn't see) showed it. He just didn't adjust to adjustments through an entire quarter and half. Unacceptable, but fixable.

The good news is that Florida is not much better than we are, and I think that, with some good film study, and some reflection by Dawson, we'll be in a great shape to put together a competetive game in our house versus the Gators. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see the game with us a slight favorite, maybe a push at home field.

[Joneslab]

Probably too much running in the second half, but we did work the middle of the field quite a bit in the first. I saw a whole slew of quick slants.

We haven't been good so far at countering when the other guy makes a change. Both Louisiana and USC have made halftime adjustments, and we've not been able to make the counter-adjustment. I'm not sure the coaching staff has full trust in Towles yet...which is understandable, because he's still sketchy and isn't the kind of guy you can just let go out there and sling it.

[Brasslock]

I think some credit has to be given to the SC defense. I could be wrong but they seemed to me to step up their intensity. I can't fault Dawson's first half offense. It was the best I've seen in more than a few years. I think we stopped ourselves 3 times in the third quarter with penalties and the momentum had definitely shifted. I watch the SC game last week and I was more impressed with the steadiness of the second string QB. He may not have the arm or the upside of the starter, but he was much more consistent and throws the ball well. We got first downs when we had to at the end of the game so I'm going to give Dawson's play calling some credit. I'm certain he will continue to learn. I think he's definitely a keeper from the little I've seen. I've seen more than a few years of ugly loses to be bothered by an ugly win. We're playing 6 true freshmen and 7 redshirt freshmen? I'll take an ugly win next week myself.

[Katmendo]

Probably too much running in the second half, but we did work the middle of the field quite a bit in the first. I saw a whole slew of quick slants.

We haven't been good so far at countering when the other guy makes a change. Both Louisiana and USC have made halftime adjustments, and we've not been able to make the counter-adjustment. I'm not sure the coaching staff has full trust in Towles yet...which is understandable, because he's still sketchy and isn't the kind of guy you can just let go out there and sling it.

Not really. Slants from the outside to the hash, isn't the middle of the field. The middle is in between the hashes, and generally from the flanker spot IN.

To be specific, working the middle of the field should create the side effect of forcing the linebackers and/or the safeties to honor pass assignments. It should/could have been fruitful with some meaningful play action. But, we never seemed to utilize a set that allowed that.

We had a couple of plays there, but really only a couple. By comparison, USC had *many* of the throws I'm talking about to Cooper and their tight end, exactly in that area, in that second half, and it torched us (including the the phantom defensive holding). It's a simpler, shorter throw, with less chance of getting picked, and allows the QB to step into the middle of the pocket.

-I've never been a fan of simply countering what the other coach does. That's fine on defense, where you have to make personnel adjustments, and change schemes and packages. But on offense, when the guy adjusts to you, you *attack* differently. THIS is what we didn't do. We went, fairly predictably, back to the first-half well, on MULTIPLE series. We didn't really change our sets, we didn't do anything. Admittedly, we had a couple of penalties, but those penalties were STILL in the course of us going back to the now dry well.

To Eliot's credit, he showed some real moxie by throwing in those corner blitzes (one of my longtime measurements for a quality defensive coordinator). Used sparingly, but still used, they do just what the did, create doubt, and force the offense out of sync. Plus, they can give you BIG hits on the QB that they see coming.

Dawson wasted first and second down on three straight possessions and we were right back to the good old days of third and ludicrous for too many sets.

I'll watch it again, but I'm pretty solid on what I evaluated.

[RV]

What a tremendous win.

That's the exact kind of game that UK football tends to let slip away. The fact that we didn't, on the road, against a desperate opponent, is definitely a sign that a new era is here.

Re: the third quarter, I thought Horton could have helped. The holding calls were the real killers but Mychal may've been able to grind out some necessary yards on those 1st and 2nd downs.

This ^

and of course it's Mikel.