Football. LA Tech transformed under incoming Holtz regime - latechsports.com

[Bolter Blue]

great post!!! That says it all!!

ditto!!!!!

[Dirtydawg]

I'm not trying to suggest winning games is possible without a defense AT ALL. A smash mouth, tough, physical, and dominant defense is a must for any team. But you can't blame the pace of an offense for the poor performance of a defense. It just doesn't make any sense. It may make you think you have an explanation as to why we couldn't finish out the season with 2 wins and a WAC championship, but it just isn't the truth. The offense can't change the fact that our defense would be on the field for 10 minutes and then give up a first down on 3rd and 15. That's just football. We did what we were told to do, and that was score points. Whether it took us 1 play, 7 plays, or 20 plays that was our job. And it was their job to stop ppl and give us the ball back to score again, but they weren't able to do that as often as they should have.

Judging by some of your posts, is it safe to say that there wasn't a great relationship between the offense and the defense?

[BoutThemDawgs]

Judging by some of your posts, is it safe to say that there wasn't a great relationship between the offense and the defense?

I would say the offense would be justified in feeling like they did all the work last season. The only game I can think of where the defense possibly did better than the offense was the NMSU game, and that was a just a crappy game all around.

[SWarner63]

Judging by some of your posts, is it safe to say that there wasn't a great relationship between the offense and the defense?

I wouldn't say there was a bad relationship or tension, but nobody could ignore the fact that there was a pretty big difference in the performances on Saturday. As a player I would say that I kind of expected the problems to be fixed through coaching and players deciding to play better and giving more effort. I thought the problem would almost resolve itself because I thought the expectations for the year were clearly understood by everyone and we had leaders on that side of the ball. However, after the Texas State game it kind of became clear that there were some pretty serious problems that weren't going to be fixed in time for us to be defensively dominant against two of the best offenses in the conference. So going into Utah State, I would say we pretty much new we had to score on every possession to stay in it, and after they scored on the first play from scrimmage we knew that was true. But I will say to our defenses credit, they got some key stops in that game that let us come back in time to make it a game. But overall there just weren't enough stops for us to get a lead. Overall, it was more of disappointment from my perspective because of everything that went into the season and the expectations and just not living up to the standard we set for ourselves.

[DogsWin]

All valid points Warner; you are correct. However, to be fair, there were critical games where our offense showed up extremely "late to the party" too. TX A&M and Utah State were definitely painful starts for us offensively. But on to 2013, with this schedule if we don't win AT LEAST 8 games then we have more issues to fix than on defense. Go Dawgs!!!

[Bigdog13]

All valid points Warner; you are correct. However, to be fair, there were critical games where our offense showed up extremely "late to the party" too. TX A&M and Utah State were definitely painful starts for us offensively. But on to 2013, with this schedule if we don't win AT LEAST 8 games then we have more issues to fix than on defense. Go Dawgs!!!

While I agree the offense had a poor 1st quarter, I guess my problem with that line of thought is we scored 57 points!! It really isn't relevant if they scored them all in the first half or all in the 4th quarter. The bottom line is there is no realistic scenario where you can put 57 points on the board, lose, and it not be 99.99-100% on the defense. Are we really asking the offense to score in the 60's or 70's ? Because if you say part of the reason we lost is that the offense didn't score in the first quarter than you are saying that we lost because our offense couldn't score 60 or 70 points against a pretty good SEC defense. This isn't directed all at you DW. There have been lots of people bring up that slow start in the A&M game.

[Bigdog13]

I wouldn't say there was a bad relationship or tension, but nobody could ignore the fact that there was a pretty big difference in the performances on Saturday. As a player I would say that I kind of expected the problems to be fixed through coaching and players deciding to play better and giving more effort. I thought the problem would almost resolve itself because I thought the expectations for the year were clearly understood by everyone and we had leaders on that side of the ball. However, after the Texas State game it kind of became clear that there were some pretty serious problems that weren't going to be fixed in time for us to be defensively dominant against two of the best offenses in the conference. So going into Utah State, I would say we pretty much new we had to score on every possession to stay in it, and after they scored on the first play from scrimmage we knew that was true. But I will say to our defenses credit, they got some key stops in that game that let us come back in time to make it a game. But overall there just weren't enough stops for us to get a lead. Overall, it was more of disappointment from my perspective because of everything that went into the season and the expectations and just not living up to the standard we set for ourselves.

See my problem with that is not that YOU felt that way. It's that I think Sonny felt that way too. That it would resolve itself. It never did. Drastic changes needed to be made to salvage the season and hit the goals everyone had for the season. Those changes were never made. It made many Tech fans wonder if he even cared about that side of the ball. Either that or if he wasn't a complete enough head coach to solve those problems. Sonny said after the season that he felt like one of his biggest mistakes was not making a change. I assume he meant at DC. I felt like the decision not to make a change is what cost us a BCS bowl. I'm sure you agree Tech would have made a better representative in the Orange Bowl than NIU.

[SWarner63]

See my problem with that is not that YOU felt that way. It's that I think Sonny felt that way too. That it would resolve itself. It never did. Drastic changes needed to be made to salvage the season and hit the goals everyone had for the season. Those changes were never made. It made many Tech fans wonder if he even cared about that side of the ball. Either that or if he wasn't a complete enough head coach to solve those problems. Sonny said after the season that he felt like one of his biggest mistakes was not making a change. I assume he meant at DC. I felt like the decision not to make a change is what cost us a BCS bowl. I'm sure you agree Tech would have made a better representative in the Orange Bowl than NIU.

Yea, I couldn't agree more. I think that was just part of having a first time HC last year, there were going to be growing pains. I just wish that the problems would have been fully recognized before then. I also don't think the problems were solely with coaching or players, I think it was a combination of both. I think Coach Dykes wanted to trust his coaches to fix what needed fixing without interfering too much, but it just got to where it was too many things to fix in too little time.

Also, in reply to not getting our offense going quickly enough, I agree with that to an extent. If we had shot out of the gate quickly and been up or at least tied by the 2nd quarter would our defense have stayed in the game better? I don't know the answer to that. I do know, that as a player, you should NEVER quit at any point in a football game no matter what happens. There should not have been an excuse of "well we're down by 3+ scores, what's the use of playing defense as hard anymore?" After the Nevada game in championship year, there should have been no doubt that we could come back from any deficit. Did that happen? No, I don't think so, and I'm not saying our defense quit on any part of any game EVER. It's just something I've wondered ever since the end of the season. If there was more that I, or anybody could have done to change things. It just really sucks for us to have been as good as we were and not come out with more than 10 wins, and as a team captain I certainly feel that a lot of that blame rests on my shoulders.

[HogDawg]

I have taken the time to watch a football game with a stopwatch and I recorded the amount of time the players actually play. From snap to whistle. The results shocked me.

You know there's something wrong with you, don't you?

[PawDawg]

It just really sucks for us to have been as good as we were and not come out with more than 10 wins, and as a team captain I certainly feel that a lot of that blame rests on my shoulders.

You didn't learn "pass the buck" from being coached by Dykes and Franklin. While they NEVER took the blame for numerous mistakes, they were quick to place blame on players. Thanks for being a great Tech player and a great person.

[Houston Techsan]

It's really good to have our ex players like Steve (and others I sometimes don't recognize) interested enough to post here. Thanks, all.

[ChuckK3]

You didn't learn "pass the buck" from being coached by Dykes and Franklin. While they NEVER took the blame for numerous mistakes, they were quick to place blame on players. Thanks for being a great Tech player and a great person.

Absolutely THIS! Thanks for everything, SW...you're a great Bulldog!

[GermDawg]

Welcome to the board SWarner...

[SWarner63]

Welcome to the board SWarner...

HAHAHAHA that will always be one of my favorite moments at Tech for sure. Can't wait to show my kids how cool their dad used to be one day!

[Rooster]

Can someone post that video again so I can watch it...truly a great one. Thanks Steve for speaking on here and giving some insight and for being a Bulldog. You are great example of younger student athletes to look up to.