It took about 2:30 into Mike Leach’s press conference previewing Arkansas to be asked about not wearing mask enough … and the response is perfect.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast – Grade the QB play after Week 1
Tye & Tommy on Feleipe Franks’ Game 1, the Chiefs win, Tom Murphy, plus your favorite coffee on #NationalCoffeeDay
SEC Network’s Shockley after Bulldogs’ win over Hogs on opening weekend
ON HALFTIME: Color analyst D.J. Shockley with Phil Elson, Matt Jenkins and Matt Travis about the game Saturday and looking around the SEC.
Hogs will need lot of points to have any shot against Mississippi State
Sam Pittman knows exactly what he’s up against going into Starkville this weekend and getting the offense on track and fixing special teams will be huge.
Both are fixable in the short term. Effort and organization weren’t the problems against Georgia.
Quarterback Feleipe Franks looked like a traffic officer directing traffic at times to get players in the right spot.
“That slows everything down,” Pittman said.
It also takes away one of Franks’ experience looking at defenses in the SEC.
“We really didn’t have that problem at practice, but we did the other night,” Pittman said. “The quarterback was getting everybody lined up instead of looking at the defense seeing how we can attack that. So that has to be a big thing for us this week.
“We have to calm the quarterback down so he can make plays. The only way we can do that is if everyone else knows what their assignment it.”
Maybe the biggest change from the last couple of years is there are no questions from anybody that Franks will be the quarterback behind center.
The offense could never get in sync. It would be nice to hear from offensive coordinator Kendal Briles, but that isn’t happening so we’ll just have to go with what we have.
“I don’t think any of us were happy with the rhythm of the offense,” Pittman said. “Too many misalignments.”
The other issue was the inability of Arkansas’ wide receivers to consistently get any separation from the Georgia defensive backs. Mississippi State won’t have a secondary that good.
“We’ve got to get open,” Pittman said. “We’ve got to get separation. That was one of the things that stood out.”
Treylon Burks was targeted 11 times in the game. All the other receivers combined had 13 targets so it probably won’t be a secret if Burks doesn’t have someone on him from the time he gets off the bus Saturday.
For the Razorbacks to have any sort of hope at all they’ve got to put points on the scoreboard and this may not be the type game where either offense can blink.
Part of the problems last week was Georgia’s defense.
“I knew that we were going to struggle up front against Georgia’s defensive line,” Pittman said Monday. “Going into the game I didn’t think we were going to be able to pound the ball at ’em.”
Mississippi State gave up 117 on the ground against LSU last week, but knocked that number down in the boxscore by sacking Myles Brennan for 37 yards in losses.
The Hogs will have to figure out ways to get into the end zone and it will probably be by passing (State gave up 345 yards in the air to the Tigers).
That and fix some of the technical things on special teams.
Forget about the defense. They couldn’t stop Georgia’s third-team quarterback Saturday when it counted the most and State’s offense is going to probably come out flinging it around and probably won’t stop.
Oh, and Pittman made it clear there are no plans to slow things down offensively, either.
“That’s who we are,” he said about the tempo they want out of the offense.
Which means everybody has to line up correctly and stop the game of musical chairs like against Georgia.
“We’ll get that done and get those corrections made this week,” Franks said after the Georgia game.
If they don’t, well, it could turn into a track meet for State.
Pittman on problems in opener; looking ahead to Mississippi State
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman’s complete press conference Monday in advance of game with Mississippi State on Saturday.
O’Gara on predicting Burks’ first touchdown, but not much else on opening weekend
ON HALFTIME: Saturday Down South’s Connor O’Gara predicted Treylon Burks would score the first touchdown Saturday, but the rest of the day wasn’t as good.
OLSON ON HALFTIME: Impact of 15 high school football games in state cancelled
Nate Olson of Scoreboard Central talking with Phil Elson, Matt Jenkins and Matt Travis about the problems with playoffs following Covid-19 halting some games.
Oliver on Hogs’ skill players obvious, but needing help on offensive line
ON THE MORNING RUSH: Chuck Oliver of The Fan in Atlanta really liked what he saw from Hogs’ Treylon Burks and Trey Knox, but thinks line needs to improve.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast – Defense the only unit that shows up
Tye & Tommy recap the Game 1 loss to Georgia
ANDY’S NOTES: When it mattered, Hogs’ defense couldn’t stop average offense
The initial knee-jerk reaction on the state of Arkansas football is the defense looked better while the offense is cause for concern after a 37-10 faceplant against Georgia.
Let’s wait until after Mississippi State to start forming any opinions.
The reality is the Razorbacks’ defense was improved for about a quarter until the Bulldogs figured out D’Wan Mathis wasn’t quite ready at quarterback.
After halftime, Kirby Smart and his staff had made the adjustments, but you could see the change starting in the second quarter.
In just the second and third periods, Georgia had 27 first downs while the Hogs managed just 3 (all in the third period). The Dogs had 241 yards of total offense to the Hogs’ 112.
Add in a 91-10 edge in return yards and you have defense and special teams not playing as expected and Georgia wins in a blowout.
The Bulldogs’ offense will finish in the middle of the pack in the SEC and their special teams aren’t anything particularly special. The Hogs’ defense and special teams made them look good.
But it wasn’t realistic to expect the Hogs’ offense to run up and down the field on what will be one of the best defenses in the country, particularly up front.
Arkansas’ defense couldn’t stop an average at best offense struggling at quarterback when it counted the most, particularly in the passing game where the Bulldogs had 266 yards, but 166 of that in the second and third periods.
That’s when the Razorbacks couldn’t get a stop. And Georgia didn’t manage to stop itself.
Now they face an offense that had over 600 yards in passing against an LSU defense that was put together with bailing wire and chewing gum. We’ll find out Saturday night if that’s still better than what the Hogs have.
Mississippi State doesn’t have a defense like Georgia.
The key this week is going to be pretty simple. The Hogs have to score points and keep up with Mike Leach’s offense.
Alabama’s preseason type win
It was strange watching Nick Saban treat the Crimson Tide’s opener like an NFL preseason game, which is exactly what happened in a 38-19 win.
Saban backed off the throttle midway through the third quarter and started playing backups, including highly-touted freshman quarterback Bryce Young.
What he did was get some valuable road game experience for his backups because even though the Tigers got a couple of scores late that game could have been 63-10 if Alabama had kept playing.
Just one interesting observation.
As usual, the Aggies are still the Aggies
Maybe no team has failed to live up to expectations more in the last 45 or so years than Texas A&M.
The latest exhibition of that by the Aggies was a struggle win (17-12) over Vanderbilt … in College Station.
If Jimbo Fisher can’t show that to be just a first-game issue with all of the craziness involved this year in just managing to play games, he’s going to have a problem.
He’s not getting paid $75 million to have the Aggies holding their breath to win a game at home against Vanderbilt.
So, Arkansas State could beat Oklahoma
The truth is, no, that probably wouldn’t happen. Yes, I remember the Red Wolves beating Kansas State at home but that probably wouldn’t happen again, either.
An old saying in the football world is the most improvement a team makes is between the first and second games of the season. The Wildcats certainly did while the Sooners once again hit the wall head-on against a K-State team that shouldn’t have stayed close.
The reality is Oklahoma got comfortable and let up.
How Lincoln Riley handles it will be interesting.
Auburn is over-rated maybe as badly as A&M
Despite what you heard from the talking heads all day Saturday, Chad Morris hasn’t exactly made Auburn’s offense any better.
Kentucky was absolutely hosed on a touchdown call that would have made it 14-8, eliminating the pass inerception return Gus Malzahn got so worked up about.
The Wildcats out-gained the Tigers 384-324 on offense, but committed three turnovers that killed them.
As if Gus Malzahn wasn’t goofy enough all by himself, he’s added Morris as the offensive coordinator and alleged caller of offensive plays … and there are people that think that’s going to get them to the top of the SEC West.
It will be somewhat surprising if quarterback Bo Nix is not in the transfer portal by Thanksgiving … that is if Morris is actually in charge of anything on offense.
