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I always remember Skip after one of the MSU games saying he didn't really expect to win it. I didn't hear that tonight.Originally Posted by FriscoDawg
Cumbie has a mountain of work ahead of him and it remains to be seen if he can actually do it. But I think he will try.
Talent extended Skippy's career at Tech longer than it deserved. The adjective of Skippy's tenure to me will always be "underachieved".
I have never felt anything like that attitude from Cumbie.
I pray they pull the second stringers early!
We were terrible in many ways tonight. We had some glimpses of being a real team at times.
This is a program that has been under the same head coach for 9 seasons until this season. We have lovingly welcomed a first time head coach as our head coach. He has a lot to figure out. It will take time. He hired a DC from a top FCS defense and probably completely gave him the defense while he figures out how to deal with all of the ins and outs of being a new HC and also calling plays. I think Cumbie will figure this out.
Parker McNeil needs to take the first snap of the next game. He played well. Also, the game flow could have affected that. He came in, we are down, so of course he is going to sling it. Cyrus Allen is a burner. I was very disappointed with our top two WR’s dropping passes. McNeil can throw the deep ball? Tre and Isaiah were disappointing tonight but I still believe they are good receivers and they’re both tall and rangy. I think McNeil is a better match at QB for them to have success.
Practice is awesome but there are plenty of practice warriors that can’t step up under pressure. Cyrus Allen will be a freshman all American. He showed true speed and hands that we haven’t seen since Carlos henderson. If the two outside guys can catch the ball from here out and we get Cyrus in the mix as well we have true threats.
Defense… we are slow. We have a ton of coverage DBs. Our d line gets shoved out of the way and then our slow linebackers look idiotic and then our DBs are just arm tackling. If I were Cumbie, I would talk to my DC tomorrow morning about why his defense is grabbing and not wrapping up.
It’s one game. We sucked, but I did see enough to think we can have a winning season with immediate improvements.
I think we can pull out a winning season, as well. I was horribly disappointed, but believe this coaching staff was embarrassed as well and will be trying to fix the problems quickly. That was a tough opener and we all knew that - I was expecting us to be in the game, though. We lost this one in the second quarter with a bundle of mistakes. I am discouraged, but not without hope. I will say that I have never been so happy that a game was over as I was last night. I ended up just cheering for the clock.
No wonder we were paid only $500K, we ain't worth any more than that.
I realize it's "only one game" but I didn't see anything to be hopeful about. We suck!
I feel optimistic that the offense will be serviceable by the end of the season. Not great, but serviceable. We have plenty of talent at the receiver position, just need to get some consistency at the QB spot, and I believe that will be QB2 going forward. We also need to be looking for a couple good RBs on the recruiting trail, because we are sorely lacking in talent at that position. We also need more speed at LB. I know Grubbs is a great player, but when you come in and start as a Freshman, that should tell you a lot about the lack of talent at that position. And it seems to me that the easiest recruiting fix on this team is punter. You could literally go to any winning Texas High school program and grab their punter, and it would be an upgrade. How in the world can we continue to find the worst punters in the world and put them on scholarship? That’s got to be some kind of record. Having a decent punter last night would have probably cost Missouri at least one TD. You are asking for failure when you have a sputtering offense under a brand new coach and a punter that averages 30 yards. 30 yards
My season prediction is highest likelihood 4 wins, 5 wins is the absolute ceiling. Possible wins remaining are SFA, FIU, Rice, Charlotte, and possibly NTX. We could easily lose any of those five too.
Would I have liked to have been more competitive, of course! A new coach and staff, a QB that threw what 5 passes last season.... and the biggest factor the bulk of this group was recruited and exposed to 1 to 3 years of Skippys patented brand of apathy. This wasn't like Skip left him a national title contender, come on Skip didnt even leave him a CUSA title contender. It is going to take some time, but the fact the he isnt happy with field goals when Skip would have been tickled to score 3 tells me we are already in better hands than last year.
I agree... I, also, strangely was okay with the interceptions. Well..... not OKAY, but it did show that we are taking some chances against an SEC team. I was tired of boring football. If we can right the ship after 1 game, I will be happy. SFA is NOT a game we can afford to lose.
Agreed. When we elected to receive after the coin toss and went with an empty backfield on the first play, I got excited for what kind of approach we have from our HC now. The results weren't there last night, but if we keep that mentality good things will eventually come our way.
Missouri was a faster team both on offense and defense. As far as scheme, I like it. This brand of football is more interesting than Skip's if executed better. We just aren't their yet but this team will respond and this will be a respectable season. Defense will hear it on game review of their poor tackling. This can be corrected. McNeil wins the start next game. Downing just not there and I felt he had the jitters. RB didn't get to showcase much. DC Baker really brought it and shut us down on the ground game. Kudos to our former DC. WR needs to stand in front of jug machine and practice catching. Too many drops.
Last year's team was the slowest Tech team I've seen in awhile (thank you skip). Cumbie and co will need to find faster players and they will. I feel pretty good with this staff. Cumbie looks very engaged and not just looking at a waffle house menu card like Skip.
Three things that MUST be improved immediately:
1) Punt Game. Averaging 30 yds a punt is absurd. Not sure I understand why Cumby can't fix this immediately. Recruit a punter out of the student body if you have to.
2) Run Game. 13 yds rushing on 26 carries is not acceptable. Quit screwing around in the backfield, and quit trying to run wide on an SEC team with fast DB's hugging the LOS. Frankly, many of the run-play calls were just ugly, with several of them requiring runs behind the LOS (reverses, etc...). Our OC has got to be smarter. I think Tech would have had much better results by running straight at Missouri.
3) Tackling. This was bad. Real bad, as exemplified when a Missouri RB bounced off of four (4) separate would-be LA Tech tacklers on his way to the end zone for a nice TD run. Embarrassing yes. Fixable? Yes. Poor tackling is not uncommon early in a football season because coaches typically don't allow "contact" in pre-season practices. However, a couple of weeks of really hard "tackling drills" will help mitigate many of the tackling problems we saw last night.
There is good news.
Tech QB2 Parker McNeil (7/11 for 142, 12.9 avg, 2 TD's 0 INT's) has somewhat of a "gunslinger" attitude , and it showed well last night. McNeil has a STRONG arm, and can throw a very pretty deep ball, which he demonstrated on two long TD passes late last night. IMO, McNeil should get the starting nod over last night's QB1 Matthew Downing (20/35 for 194, 5.5 avg, 1TD, 3 INT's) who had 3 INT's and appears to hold the football far too long. Tech also has a very impressive corp of receivers; Freshman Cyrus Allen (5 rec, 121 yds, 2 TD's) proved that he has the talent to be a bonafide star; Griffin Hebert (3 rec for 93 yds, 1TD) continues to be a deep threat and had a 75-yd TD reception; Smoke Harris (4 rec for 38 yds, 9.5 avg) is still a threat as a receiver, and a dangerous punt returner for Tech. Tre Harris (6 rec for 37 yds, 6.2 avg) also looked good at times and contributed.
Also, the LA Tech OL seemed to do a pretty good job of protecting our two QB's last night as they combined for 27/46, for 336 yds, 3 TD's and 3 INT's. Officially, the Tech OL gave up 3 sacks to an SEC team, but QB Downing routinely held the ball too long and was solely responsible for an intentional grounding call in the 1st half. So, let's call it two legit sacks for the night. That's not bad for 46 pass attempts against an SEC team on the road.
I am thinking about the same as you on the possible wins. I think we might get to 6. You do not think either South Alabama or MTSU are possible wins?I feel optimistic that the offense will be serviceable by the end of the season. Not great, but serviceable. We have plenty of talent at the receiver position, just need to get some consistency at the QB spot, and I believe that will be QB2 going forward. We also need to be looking for a couple good RBs on the recruiting trail, because we are sorely lacking in talent at that position. We also need more speed at LB. I know Grubbs is a great player, but when you come in and start as a Freshman, that should tell you a lot about the lack of talent at that position. And it seems to me that the easiest recruiting fix on this team is punter. You could literally go to any winning Texas High school program and grab their punter, and it would be an upgrade. How in the world can we continue to find the worst punters in the world and put them on scholarship? That’s got to be some kind of record. Having a decent punter last night would have probably cost Missouri at least one TD. You are asking for failure when you have a sputtering offense under a brand new coach and a punter that averages 30 yards. 30 yards
My season prediction is highest likelihood 4 wins, 5 wins is the absolute ceiling. Possible wins remaining are SFA, FIU, Rice, Charlotte, and possibly NTX. We could easily lose any of those five too.
You think maybe they give us an extra $250K for making it so easy for them?
I know what you mean. After Parker McNeil connected on his first deep TD pass to Cyrus Allen, I found myself actually excited about seeing if they/he could do it again. And they did, of course. But it was the first time I've been excited about watching a LA Tech offense late in a game in a while.
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