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Man, I'm just PUMPED that I'm motivated to write anything about us minutes after a game against USC has ended. Obviously, the program came to life on the road against a quality opponent for the first time in about two years. Here are some things that I saw out there that we need to solve for and things that should have us ecstatic about the next 3-4 years.
Let's get the bad out of the way first:
- Our return teams are as bad as they have ever been. We had a punt fielded and fumbled inside the five and each kickoff return had us starting inside the 20 except for some SC penalties. This needs some time spent on it in practice as we are offensively challenged and going 85+ is not going to happen very often. Nevertheless, that's a more minor nit in the grand scheme of things.
- Our tight ends and tackles are brutal right now. All are awful at blocking....period. Tony Thompson is a decent pass catcher but his pass protect on blitzes was atrocious. Tyson Pencer was educated today. He was made to look awful on several occasions. Hopefully he's a guy that will continue to grow....and quickly or Tuel won't make it to Apple Cup. Not much heard from right tackle today and that's a good thing.
- The interior line is in tatters. I will say that our interior run blocking was excellent tonight. Mitz and Tardy really were consistent at 4-6 yards a pop. Kenny Alfred.....mix in a shotgun snap that isn't at your QB's ankles. Nevertheless, getting Guerra and Williams back can't happen soon enough. SC clearly saw interior issues on film and most of their blitzes were over the A gap.....and they were highly effective.
- Pass protection is still awful. We had eight sacks tonight and it would have been double digits if it hadn't been for the best scrambling QB we've had since Jason Gesser. I'm not sure there is a remedy for this other than health and experience. Health at the guard spots is coming....experience is only going to be acquired at the tackle spots through pain. Hopefully they learn quick.
- Lobster is not a Pac-10 QB. Yes, he might be on a gimpy knee but he looked tentative, scared, indecisive, inaccurate and soft out there today. Get well Lobster. I hope you make a fine program QB that doesn't have to see many more meaningful snaps in a game for us again.
Now on to the stuff that we should be ecstatic about.
- Ladies and Gentlemen: Jeff Tuel. I haven't been this excited about the future of one of our QB's since Gesser as a sophomore. He's clearly an excellent scrambler. DO NOT let anyone tell you this kid "looks like Alex Brink" just feel free to punch them in the face. Tuel is quicker than Brink on the scramble, appears to have better pocket presence and the arm is already better than Brink as a Senior. More than anything else he was a leader tonight and the Cougs need one badly at that position. He's still clearly a freshmen. Locking on receivers at times (pick on the goal line) and short on the playbook (he looked a little lost coming in) but that is stuff that is learned with reps. After seeing him tonight it's clear that pulling his shirt was the correct decision and it could be a program changer. He led 3 drives of 10 plays or more tonight. That enabled the defense to get a blow and I guarantee that those drives kept USC from hanging 40 on us.
- Kudos to the staff on timing with Tuel. It should be recognized that the staff timed Tuel's entrance perfectly. He still doesn't have a grasp of the full playbook and playing him to start the season or the first couple of games could have been disastrous for his psyche and perception of his skill. They waited to game four when we were down and when we got the ball in a spot where we weren't pinned deep. This staff is putting kids in position to play well. They just don't have enough kids that are capable of playing well.....yet.
- Logwone Mitz. The drive to end the half was engineered by a freshmen QB and sophomore RB. Both looked excellent. He's absolutely the perfect back for a shotgun option. He was impressive running on the interior. Are you kidding me on that 4 and inches run....against USC? We go off tackle and Mitz just grinds 4 yards. Love and with the health problems that Tardy continues to have it will be interesting to see how this guy develops.
- Travis Long, Daniel Simmons, Alex Hoffman-Ellis. As I said last week. These guys represent real hope at all three levels of the defense. Long was a man tonight. Highly productive against one of the best olines he'll see this year. I think there are going to be a couple games where he will absolutely devour left tackles. Simmons looked solid in pass defense and defending the run. He's a little short but he's thick and looks quick enough to play corner with anyone. Hoffman-Ellis was everywhere tonight. He didn't make all of the plays that he should of but he was in the mix. I think this guy with Bland will be very good for us by the time we get to the bye week.
- Gino!! Gino still needs 20 pounds on this frame. However, his hands and route running are as advertised. He was excellent tonight out of that slot. He's also clearly Tuel's guy for better or worse. Tuel hit Simone for 10 receptions tonight....but he was also locked on him when he threw that pick.
- Todd Sturdy. For the first time, we started to see the Sturdy offense with Tuel in the game. An interesting mix of run and pass out of shotgun and under center. A faster pace no-huddle and emphasis on a run and pass QB. This is an offense that we can win with and it's clear to me that we just haven't had the QB to run it until now. Believe me, I was questioning whether Sturdy should be back next year until tonight. I've felt like his play calling was WAY to passing skewed. However, I caught a glimpse of a really interesting offense to run with Tuel. I'll be curious to see how it looks in the coming weeks as Tuel picks up more of the offense and gets more reps with the first team in practice.
- The blitz is back! I still didn't love the 3 line front on 3rd down passing situations but I was really happy to see a variety of blitzes run tonight. We got burned on several early.....no question about it but running our blitz package against quality olines will only help our linebackers as they learn how to read gaps and use their hands. It also helps TLong and he got home on several occasions and even forced a fumble. It's still not the exotic package that we used to run but it's definitely a start.
Ok, now just imagine continued improvement from our young guys and imagine layering in Darren Markle at linebacker, Anthony Carpenter and Nolan Washington in the secondary, Carl Winston at running back, Kaufusi at dend, Barrington at linebacker, Rankin at dend, and who know who else.....fuck man. We could be fun to watch next season and maybe even bowling for a tasty spot the year after.
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