DiderotsGhost
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Before this game, I said Kentucky was the opponent remaining that scared me the most. I knew they would be out for revenge after last season and they had the bye week to prepare for us. It wasn't pretty but I'm ecstatic to escape with the win. We've now won 4 out of our last 5 after a dismal start.
Overview
Kentucky's gameplan. It's funny that I see a lot of our fans and Kentucky fans calling Stoops "garbage", but I disagree 100%. I think this was a brilliant gameplan by Stoops to attack our defense at its weakest point, as exposed in that Georgia State game. And we still won. That's huge! I think if Stoops and Gran come up with a more traditional gameplan, UT wins this game by at least 2 touchdowns. This was a team that threw everything at us, had a bye week, and home field advantage, and still came up short. Give our guys credit.
Defensive stops. The 3rd and 4th down stops at the end of the game are obviously the most important plays. Absolutely huge for our D to come up with those stops in spite of being out on the field for over 40 minutes.
4 out of 5. We've now won 4 out of our last 5 after starting 1-4. I never thought we'd have a shot at a bowl game after that loss to Florida, but here we are. Let's hope we can keep the momentum. While it's been pointed out that we are in exactly the same spot we were last year, it should also be pointed out that Mizzou and Vandy are both significantly weaker this year than last.
More poor officiating. It feels like every SEC game this season, our opponents have gotten away with murder, and we get called for everything. Felt like that once more. So many nitpicking calls against us, but our opponents get away with blatantly obvious holds, starting fights, etc. The flag against our coach for breaking up a fight was completely ridiculous. Kentucky started a fight; we tried to stop it, and *WE* got flagged?
#40 in Sagarin. Early in the season, we were ranked down in the 90s on Sagarin. Now we're up to #40, and even higher on the Sagarin score that weights "recent" performance more (we're #35 on that metric). This is a completely different team than it was in September.
Quarterbacks
JG. Excellent game for JG and he continues playing well coming off the bench. At this point, while he's re-earned the starting job, I'd rather we continue to bring him off the bench since he seems to play better that way. JG was 7 for 8 for 115 yards, with 2 TDs, and he averaged 14.4 ypa. And that's with a key TD being called back on a stupid penalty.
Maurer. Did not play well; particularly struggled starting the game, but did seem to find some rhythm as the game went along. Still, Maurer looked very much like a Freshman in this game going 7 for 16 for 98 yards, and making several big mistakes. While he's struggled with decision-making at times this year, this game, accuracy was his biggest issue; so many passes completely off target for Maurer.
Overall. The JG haters may not like it, but he's the best QB on the roster right now. I think both Maurer and Shrout have huge potential, but they just aren't there yet. JG has been on a rollercoaster ride this season, but I don't see how anyone can dislike the guy. He's just one of the toughest dudes to ever wear the UT uniform. He's fought through all the adversity this season and his entire career. I'm hoping he's turned the corner for good. If he can continue to play like he has the past few weeks (aside from 1 very bad play against Bama), we can be pretty good. And if not, we'll have 4 backup QBs next season to chose from.
Offense
Callaway. Callaway had an A+ performance. Kentucky's defenders did an excellent job covering him and he still just found a way to come down with the ball every single time. He had 4 recs for 103 yards total and was the offensive MVP for this game IMO.
O-line mixed. The O-line struggled quite a bit. Kentucky got very good penetration on several passing plays and our run game never really got going. We ran for a paltry 83 yards on 21 carries and most of that was JG, who had 30 yards. Get rid of JG's stats and it was 15 carries for 53 yards. Not great. The O-line is banged up quite a bit right now, but we also can't be making stupid penalties, and we saw a lot of them last night.
Annoyed. By the 1 TD called back (I think it was to DWA). I had the sound turned down, so I didn't hear exactly what happened (other than I know they declared one of our receivers ineligible), but whether we made a big mistake or the refs were nitpicking, still very bad to have that TD called back on an otherwise perfectly executed play.
Fumbles. Major problem this week. We had 4 fumbles, 2 of which had a major impact on the impact. The Chandler fumble nearly allowed Kentucky to win the game.
Defense
Resilience. Very rough start for the D but after Kentucky took a 13-0 lead in the 1st Quarter, we shut them out. Great job by our guys adjusting. When you consider 6 of those points came off a turnover (the botched punt), our D could be reasonably said to have held Kentucky to 7 points.
Bituli. Dude was a beast this game. 19 tackles! Pretty obvious in hindsight that Bituli being out the first 2 weeks made a huge difference in our play. Scary that we lose him after this season; we have to hope that some other guys can step up.
Warrior. Nigel Warrior may be playing himself onto an NFL roster the 2nd half of this season. I don't know that he'll get drafted, but I think he'll at least get a shot as a UFA. That interception was huge and sucks that the TD got called back. I do think he stepped on the line, but it was very close and I was surprised they reversed it so quickly. In any case, Warrior has played extremely well in this 5 game stretch.
Bumphus. I continue to think Latrell Bumphus' performance is one of the best stories on this team. Dude was a Tight End last year, who many people all but wrote off, and now he's arguably our 2nd best D-lineman. Last night, he came up with big 2 tackles for loss.
Solomon. Seems to be very banged up right now, but probably our best D-lineman. Hopefully, the bye week does him a lot of good.
Upcoming
Mizzou. A month ago, I was terrified of this game. Suddenly, Mizzou has gone from looking like a top 10 team nationally to looking like a bottom 3 team in the SEC. That said, they are 5-0 at home and 0-4 on the road. Unfortunately, we have to play them in Columbia. Also just feels like this is a different team with Kelly Bryant injured. If Bryant is close to 90% for our game, I could see them giving us problems, but we'll see. The great news is that we get a week off, which we desperately need!
Vanderbilt. This feels more like a throwback 1990s Vanderbilt team. They are bad! Losing Kyle Shurmur to the NFL has had a major impact on this offense. Right now, Sagarin has them rated at #109 or roughly at about the same level as UAB. We should absolutely beat Vandy this year, but we somehow always find a way to struggle against them.
Bowl game. We have an excellent shot, boys and girls! We just have to win 1 out of 2 and both of these games are very winnable. Who would've thought after the 1-4 start that we'd be here?
Miscellany
Quick Firings. Arkansas fired Chad Morris in his 2nd season. This is after Willie Taggart was fired midway through the 2nd season, as well. I think teams are making huge mistakes with these early firings. With the current scholarship limits, it's very difficult to turn around a roster in less than 3 years minimum. Taggart inherited an absolute mess at Florida State, not that much different from the one Pruitt inherited here. Morris always had a 4-5 year rebuilding job and now Arkansas gives up in Year 2? Right now, I think having Fulmer at the helm is a competitive advantage. These ADs sacking new coaches after one and a half seasons are harming their programs more than helping them.
That's all for now.
GBO!
Overview
Kentucky's gameplan. It's funny that I see a lot of our fans and Kentucky fans calling Stoops "garbage", but I disagree 100%. I think this was a brilliant gameplan by Stoops to attack our defense at its weakest point, as exposed in that Georgia State game. And we still won. That's huge! I think if Stoops and Gran come up with a more traditional gameplan, UT wins this game by at least 2 touchdowns. This was a team that threw everything at us, had a bye week, and home field advantage, and still came up short. Give our guys credit.
Defensive stops. The 3rd and 4th down stops at the end of the game are obviously the most important plays. Absolutely huge for our D to come up with those stops in spite of being out on the field for over 40 minutes.
4 out of 5. We've now won 4 out of our last 5 after starting 1-4. I never thought we'd have a shot at a bowl game after that loss to Florida, but here we are. Let's hope we can keep the momentum. While it's been pointed out that we are in exactly the same spot we were last year, it should also be pointed out that Mizzou and Vandy are both significantly weaker this year than last.
More poor officiating. It feels like every SEC game this season, our opponents have gotten away with murder, and we get called for everything. Felt like that once more. So many nitpicking calls against us, but our opponents get away with blatantly obvious holds, starting fights, etc. The flag against our coach for breaking up a fight was completely ridiculous. Kentucky started a fight; we tried to stop it, and *WE* got flagged?
#40 in Sagarin. Early in the season, we were ranked down in the 90s on Sagarin. Now we're up to #40, and even higher on the Sagarin score that weights "recent" performance more (we're #35 on that metric). This is a completely different team than it was in September.
Quarterbacks
JG. Excellent game for JG and he continues playing well coming off the bench. At this point, while he's re-earned the starting job, I'd rather we continue to bring him off the bench since he seems to play better that way. JG was 7 for 8 for 115 yards, with 2 TDs, and he averaged 14.4 ypa. And that's with a key TD being called back on a stupid penalty.
Maurer. Did not play well; particularly struggled starting the game, but did seem to find some rhythm as the game went along. Still, Maurer looked very much like a Freshman in this game going 7 for 16 for 98 yards, and making several big mistakes. While he's struggled with decision-making at times this year, this game, accuracy was his biggest issue; so many passes completely off target for Maurer.
Overall. The JG haters may not like it, but he's the best QB on the roster right now. I think both Maurer and Shrout have huge potential, but they just aren't there yet. JG has been on a rollercoaster ride this season, but I don't see how anyone can dislike the guy. He's just one of the toughest dudes to ever wear the UT uniform. He's fought through all the adversity this season and his entire career. I'm hoping he's turned the corner for good. If he can continue to play like he has the past few weeks (aside from 1 very bad play against Bama), we can be pretty good. And if not, we'll have 4 backup QBs next season to chose from.
Offense
Callaway. Callaway had an A+ performance. Kentucky's defenders did an excellent job covering him and he still just found a way to come down with the ball every single time. He had 4 recs for 103 yards total and was the offensive MVP for this game IMO.
O-line mixed. The O-line struggled quite a bit. Kentucky got very good penetration on several passing plays and our run game never really got going. We ran for a paltry 83 yards on 21 carries and most of that was JG, who had 30 yards. Get rid of JG's stats and it was 15 carries for 53 yards. Not great. The O-line is banged up quite a bit right now, but we also can't be making stupid penalties, and we saw a lot of them last night.
Annoyed. By the 1 TD called back (I think it was to DWA). I had the sound turned down, so I didn't hear exactly what happened (other than I know they declared one of our receivers ineligible), but whether we made a big mistake or the refs were nitpicking, still very bad to have that TD called back on an otherwise perfectly executed play.
Fumbles. Major problem this week. We had 4 fumbles, 2 of which had a major impact on the impact. The Chandler fumble nearly allowed Kentucky to win the game.
Defense
Resilience. Very rough start for the D but after Kentucky took a 13-0 lead in the 1st Quarter, we shut them out. Great job by our guys adjusting. When you consider 6 of those points came off a turnover (the botched punt), our D could be reasonably said to have held Kentucky to 7 points.
Bituli. Dude was a beast this game. 19 tackles! Pretty obvious in hindsight that Bituli being out the first 2 weeks made a huge difference in our play. Scary that we lose him after this season; we have to hope that some other guys can step up.
Warrior. Nigel Warrior may be playing himself onto an NFL roster the 2nd half of this season. I don't know that he'll get drafted, but I think he'll at least get a shot as a UFA. That interception was huge and sucks that the TD got called back. I do think he stepped on the line, but it was very close and I was surprised they reversed it so quickly. In any case, Warrior has played extremely well in this 5 game stretch.
Bumphus. I continue to think Latrell Bumphus' performance is one of the best stories on this team. Dude was a Tight End last year, who many people all but wrote off, and now he's arguably our 2nd best D-lineman. Last night, he came up with big 2 tackles for loss.
Solomon. Seems to be very banged up right now, but probably our best D-lineman. Hopefully, the bye week does him a lot of good.
Upcoming
Mizzou. A month ago, I was terrified of this game. Suddenly, Mizzou has gone from looking like a top 10 team nationally to looking like a bottom 3 team in the SEC. That said, they are 5-0 at home and 0-4 on the road. Unfortunately, we have to play them in Columbia. Also just feels like this is a different team with Kelly Bryant injured. If Bryant is close to 90% for our game, I could see them giving us problems, but we'll see. The great news is that we get a week off, which we desperately need!
Vanderbilt. This feels more like a throwback 1990s Vanderbilt team. They are bad! Losing Kyle Shurmur to the NFL has had a major impact on this offense. Right now, Sagarin has them rated at #109 or roughly at about the same level as UAB. We should absolutely beat Vandy this year, but we somehow always find a way to struggle against them.
Bowl game. We have an excellent shot, boys and girls! We just have to win 1 out of 2 and both of these games are very winnable. Who would've thought after the 1-4 start that we'd be here?
Miscellany
Quick Firings. Arkansas fired Chad Morris in his 2nd season. This is after Willie Taggart was fired midway through the 2nd season, as well. I think teams are making huge mistakes with these early firings. With the current scholarship limits, it's very difficult to turn around a roster in less than 3 years minimum. Taggart inherited an absolute mess at Florida State, not that much different from the one Pruitt inherited here. Morris always had a 4-5 year rebuilding job and now Arkansas gives up in Year 2? Right now, I think having Fulmer at the helm is a competitive advantage. These ADs sacking new coaches after one and a half seasons are harming their programs more than helping them.
That's all for now.
GBO!
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