Is this the peak or are we still climbing?

[T1]

It is based on what Holtz SAID about the game along with how we played in the second half. Going into the game, I expected Dixon to play but can understand his not being ready. I never heard Carlos might be held out and was scratching my head on him. What we did early on was not sustainable for an entire game, not with the absence of both Carlos and Kenneth. My main complaint is how the strategy conspicuously fizzled into waving a white flag after we surrendered the lead. It was diametrically opposed to what we saw at Auburn the year before. It don't think it's a stretch to say that Holtz believed we could win the conference and decided to save the team for that (or whatever) in contrast to how we played our way into conference title game under Sokol. That's a bad mentality and it could have contributed to the butt-whipping we took at the hands of Southern Miss compared to the gutsy effort we showed against Marshall the previous year.

I think the unsustainablility (due to Manny's adjustments though) gave the impression we were waiving the white flag (in the absence of Dixon and Henderson). I can't comment on Dixon and Henderson being held from the game because I don't have enough information. If they were 85% or better, I would have played them. If they were below that, I would have let them heal a bit for the remainder of the schedule. I have no idea just how banged up they were.

[70TECHGRAD]

Before I get jumped on for not recognizing what happened at North Texas and Rice and Middle or whatever, let me say this: ANY time you don't go into games to WIN them it messes with the psyche of your team. For example, the week going into our match-up with Southern Miss all the coach talk related to our "seniors" and honoring them and what not. Guess what? Southern Miss came to Ruston to WIN the game. I don't believe our team was prepared to WIN the game. The mentality was off. Mike White did the same thing with his "seniors". If you want to honor the seniors, best thing to do is WIN the game!

When the teams came out of the locker room before kickoff, the Dawgs strolled over to the bench like it was another day at the office! The Southern Miss players were yelling and jumping up and down! They were fired up and READY. I had seen the exact same thing when Northwestern came to Ruston and beat us. So, I thought, uh oh....here we go again!!!