What We Learned: South Alabama Edition

I am going to temper my excitement about the run game, which was good, because of the level of talent we played (not to mention the stark size difference between our OL and their DL). Still, I liked to see this staff has shown an ability to be self-aware, identify their flaws, and make adjustments to improve them (though my personal bias is that if you are going to have a featured back, it should be Wilbon).

Good

+TA has shown his growth during the off-season with Riley and Langsdorf in two games. Great to have him for another season.

+Alonzo Moore has had back to back good games. I like what they are doing with him in the run game.

+WR are playing great. We have good depth with Westy, Reilly, Hovey, Morgan, and Moore (never thought I would be able to say that about Alonzo). Catch the ball, make the first guy miss.

+Welcome back, Rose-Ivey! LB has played well, despite injury and lack of depth. If we could get Bando, Rose-Ivey, and D. Young on the field at the same time, this group could show up in a big way.

Bad

-We have no pass rush. If our LB get healthy, hopefully, we will see less nickel and more LB blitz to help to get pressure on the QB.

-Our CB are struggling in this scheme. We have not really lost any talent at that position from last year, actually we are deeper now. My guess is they are still adjusting to not playing two-high and the absence of a true pass rush is giving the QB really good looks and more time.

-One thing I think the staff is missing (or have not utilized up to this point) is TA's running ability. I thing we could have good success in the option game with TA and Wilbon (not Newby).

-Our punt return game (and more generally special teams) is pedestrian. We have fair caught every punt except one, when our returner had a chance to catch them. Last year, DPE led the nation in punt return attempts, at least for part of the year. Now, we have only gained 5 yds in the punt returns over two games.

 
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1995 Redux said:
Couple of shots I took last night

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Awesome pics, thanks for sharing. I remember there being some debate about the stylized football over the big screen. Looking at in these pics, at night, I think it looks absolutely awesome.

 
74Hunter said:
Moiraine said:
74Hunter said:
Rike Miley said:
74Hunter said:
Rike Miley said:
74Hunter said:
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I was underwhelmed. I have no idea how good SA is.

The tackling overall has been better. The run D looks ok, the pass D is terrible. No coverage, no pass rush even when blitzing.

The offense is not good. The play calling is horrible. The best I can say about Tommy is that he was invisible tonight. He missed a few passes but he didn't have all of the miss reads and turnovers that he is prone to. He was as solid as I've seen him.

And, we still have the penalty issues that Riley teams are known for.
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Color me shocked...
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The truth is a very bitter pill to swallow.

So, is AS now some dark horse for the playoff?
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No, we were expected to beat them and beat them bad and that is exactly what we did. We did what we were supposed to. What else did you want to see other than Pelini on the sidelines?
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Sorry, I didn't see a whoop a$$ performance tonight.

And since you obviously don't pay attention I don't care if Bo is on the sideline.

I guess I remember what the 80's and 90's were. This was no whoop a$$. We gave up a lot of yards and big plays. The offense was mostly pedestrian against a sub par opponent. I'm not ready to crown this team as playoff ready.
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No one really cares what you think, because regardless of what happens, you're negative. We could win the national championship and you'd find something to complain about it. You'd either cry about how we did it or you'd whine that we didn't win a national championship in both football and basketball.
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I'd appreciate you not personally attacking me, but I hope that we win both of those national championships.
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Boo f'n hoo. You need to learn what a personal attack is. Have you been taking lessons from devnet? People are sick and tired of your constant b!^@h, moan, and complain. The Huskers went out, did what they were supposed to do and dominated an inferior opponent. There were a few things that were less than perfect. What do you do? You focus on those things as well as make up sh#t that wasn't bad. Our offense and play calling? What f'n game were you watching. Don't act all surprised when you post this crap and people call you on the carpet for it. It's not a personal attack. Take some responsibility for the crap you spew.

 
1995 Redux said:
I was thrilled to see Newby become a lot more effective last night. But comparing BYU and USA when talking about Run Defense, I think they are light years apart. It is looking more and more like BYU is a decent measuring stick to what our Big Ten Schedule will look like. If that is the case I think we could fair pretty well if we continue to improve. I don't know that I expect to win the division, but I expect us to compete.

It was a feel good win, no doubt. I left the stadium in a great mood, had a blast, helped clap for the Jags as they exited, fun stuff. But we have a real test in Miami, even if they looked awful against a comparable opponent on Friday. I still don't know we win that game, I think it is still mid season before we are truly clicking as a team. But last night was truly a move in the right direction.

Some notes.

-Davie, WTH man? You had some good plays, but a lot of that nonsense needs to be worked out. Maybe it was just my seat but you had some awful plays.

-Tommy had a great game overall. I hated when he missed his receiver on the right. Guy practically had to throw a chair at him to get his attention.

-If we were going to have a big day bringing down the QB, last night was it. And we only got 1 sack on the night. That has got to improve.

-Nate Gerry is an animal. Enough said.

-Michael Rose-Ivey is an animal. Enough Said.

-The flag for the two #55's on the field during the extra point was.......interesting. I got a nice laugh out of my section when I said "I can see how that gives us an unfair advantage and all".

-I am really excited to see what Cethan Carter does for the team when if he returns next week. Should effect us in a really positive way.
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Fixed that for ya....or has it been officially announced he will indeed be allowed to play?

 
We did what we were supposed to do.

Is this the real Tommy? Or will he revert back to his 2014 self?

DBs on islands looks like it is here to stay,

 
What we learned from this game? What I learned is So. Bama is a pretty poor team and we didn't learn much besides the secondary needing to turn around and grab an interception.

Everybody I know is saying they'll wait and see how we do at Miami.

Not much more to say.....Still mighty impressed with our receivers this year though....catching is catching, no matter where you do it.....ok, all I got for now.

 
51 plays of 10+ yards already. That's...pretty good and a rough count puts that number at 14 more 10+ yard plays than through 2 games last season.

 
My big takeaway was the team did exactly what they should've done. On a day where Arkansas was upset and Auburn needed overtime to win against an inferior opponent, a team doing what they should've done should never be scoffed at, and I think a lot of the fan base would agree. The defense also made big stops when they needed to and pitched a half game shut out, and that's never an easy task.

Another thing to keep in mind - according to the announcers, quite a few of those players are UAB transfers from when the football program got shut down. That doesn't mean they were great players, but, definitely better players than what USA has had in the past. Even one of the announcers said he didn't know where USA would be without those transfers, for what that's worth.

The positives far outweigh the negatives from this game - I liked most of what I saw. The two areas of concern remain the pass rush and parts of secondary. We brought quite a bit of pressure this game and tried various ways to get to the QB and we weren't overly successful. And Davie, most notably, had a rough game.

Now, I didn't hear today's press conference, but hopefully having Banderas and Rose-Ivey on the field together bumps up the overall consistency and ability of the front seven to get pressure. Also, USA's objective was clearly to try and make something happen on the deep ball. Four TD's the week before for them came on plays of 40+ yards I believe, and they were taking a ton of shots down field against us. Eventually, a QB and WR are going to hit on some of those if they try hard enough.

I think we obviously got better from week one to week two and I just hope we can carry the progress over into the Miami game.

 
What did we learn? We learned that the -27.5 was a sweet bet and that the halftime line of -11 was even sweeter! Winner winner chicken dinner

 
I learned that we can go out and beat a team decisively that we should beat in that manner. We had a very disciplined team that didn't have nearly as many stupid mistakes, penalties, turnovers...etc. They looked crisp and prepared.

I also continued to like seeing our coaches actually coaching and improving the play on the field. This staff is feeling their way with these kids. They have been in practice with them but they are learning what kids can do and what to expect when the lights come on on Saturday.

I also believe we have more depth at LB than we thought. This probably is the result of better coaching.

I learned that if TA has time, he can do a very good job distributing the ball with good technique and decision making. The more he does it time and time again with very little pressure, the better he will be when he does actually get pressured.

 
I'll gladly give up big plays if it means I can actually stay and watch 3rd and 6+ instead of hitting the concession stand because we actually have a chance of converting.

 
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