Grades - Southern Miss

[melscott62]

rewatched the 1st half.... d line played a lot better than I thought.... LB played a lot worse. I thought compton played ok watching it live.... he was TERRIBLE

['SkersRule]

rewatched the 1st half.... d line played a lot better than I thought.... LB played a lot worse. I thought compton played ok watching it live.... he was TERRIBLE

 

Are you sure you aren't confusing Compton with Whaley? I'm holding out hope that Whaley shows improvement and gets better as the season progresses but in the first game he was terrible in pass coverage and missed several tackles.

[The Dude]

An F seems to be unnecessarily harsh and overly critical.

Ok.

[tschu]

An F is probably harsh and overcritical...that's why I gave them a D+. But a kick return TD, two terrible field goals (weren't just missed - they looked downright ugly), a kickoff out of bounds, a shanked punt...it doesn't get much worse than that. But like I said, based on what we've seen from Maher last year he probably had jitters or something and this performance was likely a huge fluke. Hope so at least.

[GBR #1]

How can you not give the O Line anything less than an A? I guess our pipeline is "walk-on based." Whatever works!

[Foppa]

Special Teams: D+

 

A kick return showed that our kick coverage, a problem for the last couple of years, is still a major issue. And Maher, who was so consistent last year, had two really bad kicks. Hopefully this game is just a fluke...our special teams should be a strong unit for us.

 

About the only thing I really disagree with is your grade of the special teams. Yes Maher missed two FG's and we gave up a kick-off for a TD. But Maher did make seven extra points and aside from that one kick-off return our coverage (on punts as well) was solid.

 

Overall, I'd grade the special teams as a C.

You forgot a shanked punt and a shanked kickoff. The special teams units aren't on the field long enough to have that many blunders in one game. Anything above an 'F' seems disingenuous.

 

Maher was Mr. Reliability last season, I expect him to shake off Saturday and have a decent season though.

 

An F seems to be unnecessarily harsh and overly critical.

 

If the shoe fits...

 

Maybe we should give them an 'A' so we don't hurt anyone's feelings?

 

Look...the good thing is it was a report card for one game. I could've came into the game and kicked and NU still would've won. Maher has proved that this game was an anomaly, and even though I have my doubts on kick coverages, Maher won't let the special teams look that bad again this season. First game, sh*t happens. Personally, it was almost funny how special teams, which are the strong suit, were awful, and all the problems with penalties and game management, a weak point, were mostly nonexistent.

 

Fix the former, leave the latter, and that aspect will be fine.

[bshirt]

QB - A+

RB - A

WR/TE - A+

Oline - A-

 

Dline - D

LB - D

Secondary - C+

 

Special teams - D-

OC - A+

DC - C- (cutting a little slack for an opponent with new coaches)

 

 

[Junior]

The team played well, but I'm worried about two things.

 

First and most obvious, the run defense.

 

Second, the continued unwillingness to put in the back up QB. Taylor played a great game... but that last drive he was in on, should absolutely have been Kellogg's drive. Sure Ron got in the next drive so he could hand off 5 times to Cross... But he needs real playing time to develop as a competent backup. It scares me just how much we rely on Taylor staying healthy.

[ZRod]

QB: A-

Taylor had a pretty good game, there were a few passes that he forced and should have been intercepted, but overall I thought he showed really good improvement for the first game. Nice to see him stand in the pocket and go through all of his reads too.

 

RB: A+

Not much to say here they stepped up when Rex went down and everyone of them looked good. Was impressed with Abdullah's pass pro too, he took on some fat boys pretty well.

 

TE: A

Solid performance as usual.

 

WR: A+

They were pretty impressive and heady, i.e. the Bell touchdown. Looks to be a lot of weapons this year.

 

OL: B+

I thought they played well throughout the game but I saw a lot of things I didn't like. Pass protection was much better, but we'll see how it holds up against elite defenses. There were quite a few missed assignments, and a number from the center position. I think Jackson will be a good center in time, he's quick athletic and powerful, but he has a lot of things to clean up. Quite a few times he either didn't make his block on the second level or just chipped the linebacker and didn't engage him, turning a 10 yard play into a 5 yard play. And he had a few issues pulling as well, The most glaring one was when he pulled so wide that he ended up behind Abdullah who was the ball carrier. Fortunately I think most of those can be cleaned up with reps and game day experience, and that goes for the whole line as well. Not to harp on the guy, that's just the position I focused in on the most.

 

 

DL: C+

Seems to be the same old line we've had the past few years. Not enough pressure, trouble against mobile QB, and sketchy against the run.

 

LBs: B+

I think Compton provides good leadership and he's a good anchor in the middle. Would have like to have seen him be a little more aggressive in the run D and meet the back in the hole instead of a yard past the line of scrimmage. Whaley just needs some more experience and needs to come in under control on tackles, still a little sketchy in coverage as I think he got beat once or twice.

 

DBs: A-

They didn't face a stellar receiving corps but I think they were pretty good in pass coverage and they provided excellent run support. Loved seeing Stafford fly around out there, just wish he would keep his head up and wrap up on tackles more often. They along with Compton could end up being the D's saving grace this year. Strange as that sound after last year.

 

Special Teams: Needs some work, don't even feel comfortable giving it a grade because I couldn't be bother to watch.