Ten Things: Liberty Edition

1) Strength and Conditioning doesn't start in September.
2) We fired Kaz Kazadi.
3) I am glad I cancelled my season tickets.
4) In spite of everything that has happened, I remained optimistic, but this is going to be an unmitigated disaster.

melon lettuce said:

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The loss was shocking, but it is WAY too early to jump ship on this coaching staff. the schemes on both sides of the ball are very different from the previous years, and I'm sure the technique they are practicing is much different as well. Couple that with the lack of depth, Harvey, the pile of injuries we have had at OL, RB, and the secondary, and Calvert playing out of his mind, and it is not a recipe for a good game.

All I'm saying is lets see how this team and coaching staff responds to this embarrassment in the weeks to come before we jump ship. Herman and Rhule both lost unexpectedly, but they have the jobs they do because they are proven coaches. Next week will tell us a lot about the team's character and the coaching staffs ability to rebound from a loss.

Sic'Em

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The problems I see include the lack of any defensive adjustments - at all, the fact that Rhule kept his best deep passing QB on the bench until it was too late to really make use of him, and the entire coaching staff simply kept repeating mistakes obvious to everyone but the Bears.

I have seen this before, and it always means trouble. Roberts, Steele, and Morris did many of the same things, and sounded much the same when their mistakes cost the Bears games. Also, don't compare Herman's and Rhule's mistakes as if they were on the same level Texas lost to a solid Big Ten team which has been to bowls three of the past four years, while Baylor lost to an FCS school which was barely above .500 at the FCS level last year.

Lots of people are making a big deal about our O line's troubles, but they forget that Briles also had to deal with an iffy O line. One of the things Briles taught his QBs was to be agile. Griffin, Florence, Petty all showed the ability to avoid sacks and line collapse. Ruhle failed to get Solomon ready for pressure that way. Yes, Ruhle is the Head Coach and not the Line coach, but he was still caught by surprise when he ought to have known this was a problem.

Sorry, but what annoyed me the most about last night, is that Ruhle did not seem to have considered many of the problems which came up. A coach who is lazy in game preparation is not a good coach. I don't understand how we should believe Ruhle was so poorly prepared for a game he literally had all summer to get ready for, but somehow he will fix major problems enough to beat a much better UTSA or Duke in the immediate future.

Maybe Ruhle will get the team in shape and start playing well, but we'd better brace for a lot of bad news before that day comes. There is no real reason to believe the Bears will start winning soon.

My take away from yesterday.....damn the beer at the Sic'Em 365 tailgate was good!

Lots of people giving their thoughts on the game, here are mine:

• Overall game presentation was off. Blair Browning is a pretty personable guy but came across like someone told him he was "hosting" the game about 5 minutes before kickoff and made up the script as he went. This is on Rhodes and his staff.
• Most solid to good FCS teams playing FBS schools play tough for a half but then depth takes over and the team with 20 more scholarship players pulls away. That obviously didn't happen yesterday and Coach Rhule and his staff need to take a hard look at how they practice. I'm all for being physical and everything that requires during practice however at some point, you are negating your advantage over an FCS team on pure body count.
• Lots of talk about a lack of defensive adjustments but I'm not not as upset about that. We had guys who should be getting their experience in garbage time, not when the game is on the line. I'm guessing guys like McVea and Lynch know about 2 coverages at this point so the staff's hands are tied to some degree. This goes back to my last point, when you look at the timeline leading up to the game, once you are comfortable with who you have and what they can do, can't just put them in danger when the guys behind them aren't close to ready.
• Thought Solomon did fine, can think of 2-3 just bad passes plus the pick 6. Don't know how much better Zach would have done, especially since the receivers decided to dip their hands in bacon grease pregame.
• Totally bewildered at the absence of the TEs in the gameplan. From the spring game I thought we'd see at least an attempt in their direction.
• Lovett and Hand look like they will only get better with experience and showed lots of promise.
• I forget how many scholarships we have left for '18 but the staff needs to strongly consider going JUCO for OL and DB in February. We lose 4 seniors off the 2 deep on the OL this year presumably to be replaced by either RS Freshmen/True Freshmen (Clemson transfer takes one spot). I like how the staff has made OL a priority but don't want to see freshmen on the line anymore past this year.
• I'm not so down on this team after one game to think they're going winless like some on here think. I've always thought if our OL held together we could win 7. If it is clear early in the season we're not going to a bowl, I'm for getting Brewer out there and seeing what we have in him so he can be ready for next season.

Good post, Glade. I hope you post more often.

BearOnGlade said:

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• I'm not so down on this team after one game to think they're going winless like some on here think. I've always thought if our OL held together we could win 7.

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We're in trouble. Here's why:

Most teams look at what happened in game 1 and make adjustments. We have a week to get ready for UTSA. UTSA is an unfortunate opponent for Baylor, a team that gave Colorado State and Arizona State a lot of trouble last year, and hung all game with Texas A&M. They are expected to be better this year. Baylor will have to be a lot better if they want to win;

The next game at Duke, which just laid 60 points on North Carolina Central. They will destroy us.

After that we play Oklahoma.

We might make it to 1 and 3 by our fifth game.

Oldbear83 said:

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BearOnGlade said:

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• I'm not so down on this team after one game to think they're going winless like some on here think. I've always thought if our OL held together we could win 7.

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We're in trouble. Here's why:

Most teams look at what happened in game 1 and make adjustments. We have a week to get ready for UTSA. UTSA is an unfortunate opponent for Baylor, a team that gave Colorado State and Arizona State a lot of trouble last year, and hung all game with Texas A&M. They are expected to be better this year. Baylor will have to be a lot better if they want to win;

The next game at Duke, which just laid 60 points on North Carolina Central. They will destroy us.

After that we play Oklahoma.

We might make it to 1 and 3 by our fifth game.

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I don't doubt we're in trouble, just not a winless team. UTSA is probably better than Liberty but I'd say we are better than what we showed on Saturday. If Houston and Arnold come back (obviously not by Saturday), Hand becomes the 3rd best corner of the group and that makes the secondary pretty solid. Maybe then we can do some things blitz-wise and generate at least a little pass rush. Same when Terrance Williams gets back, we'll have 3 backs I trust (like what I saw from Lovett).

Bowl game is obviously the goal here and we will struggle to get there and will need some things to break our way to make that happen based on the performance yesterday. I think if the coaches think that's out of reach we need to play the guys who will be counted on in 2018. That sucks for guys like Taylor Young who have been great for the program but it is what needs to be done if we're in that position. Guys like Pitre who might be a Baylor football folk hero one day needs to get run over a few times by a 260 pound tight end and learn to play the position.

Bowl game aside what I want to see this year is a team getting better throughout the season. We will take lumps but hopefully it pays off in 2018 when we'll have some modicum of depth.

BearOnGlade said:

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Oldbear83 said:

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BearOnGlade said:

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• I'm not so down on this team after one game to think they're going winless like some on here think. I've always thought if our OL held together we could win 7.

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We're in trouble. Here's why:

Most teams look at what happened in game 1 and make adjustments. We have a week to get ready for UTSA. UTSA is an unfortunate opponent for Baylor, a team that gave Colorado State and Arizona State a lot of trouble last year, and hung all game with Texas A&M. They are expected to be better this year. Baylor will have to be a lot better if they want to win;

The next game at Duke, which just laid 60 points on North Carolina Central. They will destroy us.

After that we play Oklahoma.

We might make it to 1 and 3 by our fifth game.

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I don't doubt we're in trouble, just not a winless team. UTSA is probably better than Liberty but I'd say we are better than what we showed on Saturday. If Houston and Arnold come back (obviously not by Saturday), Hand becomes the 3rd best corner of the group and that makes the secondary pretty solid. Maybe then we can do some things blitz-wise and generate at least a little pass rush. Same when Terrance Williams gets back, we'll have 3 backs I trust (like what I saw from Lovett).

Bowl game is obviously the goal here and we will struggle to get there and will need some things to break our way to make that happen based on the performance yesterday. I think if the coaches think that's out of reach we need to play the guys who will be counted on in 2018. That sucks for guys like Taylor Young who have been great for the program but it is what needs to be done if we're in that position. Guys like Pitre who might be a Baylor football folk hero one day needs to get run over a few times by a 260 pound tight end and learn to play the position.

Bowl game aside what I want to see this year is a team getting better throughout the season. We will take lumps but hopefully it pays off in 2018 when we'll have some modicum of depth.

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Don't forget Hasty is out for a month, and because of that targeting call Waz can't play the first half against UTSA.

"Don't forget Hasty is out for a month, and because of that targeting call Waz can't play the first half against UTSA."

Can this call be appealed?

Seems as though these type of calls have been appealed involving player disqualifications after the game is over, especially when the call is wrong.

jumpinjoe said:

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"Don't forget Hasty is out for a month, and because of that targeting call Waz can't play the first half against UTSA."

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