Based on this game, the SMU game, and really all the games this year, TU doesn't have a talent issue. The talent is on par with the top teams in the AAC. Period. Give this team a legit coach and it's an 8-10 win team vying for the AAC West. For the life of me, I don't understand why Monty would trot that kicker out there 5 times on Saturday night, especially the way TU was shredding the Memphis defense.
Memphis Game Thread
- Thread starter TulsaAM
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We don’t have equal or better talent at every position, only some positions. However all of our talent is capable of being schemed into situations throughout the game where the team can be successful and win. It’s why we need to think of Tulsa football in terms of five years/decades and what type of offensive philosophy we are going to have, rather than bringing in the hot new cheap coach who only knows one system whether it works for us or not.
This was vividly demonstrated by the Tulsa defense as a unit on Saturday which played pretty darn well. But certain players, when isolated, did not have an equal footing with the player they were matched up on certain plays. This is best demonstrated by TU running backs and WRs being flat out run and caught from behind without any angle on some plays and running up the middle of the field untouched for a score on others when the scheme set it up that way. On the defense, they tried to isolate Reggie Robinson on some plays and others we put him in man with no help so we can bring extra pressure and he was repeatedly beaten badly by some really good players. Including the play that set up the winning score. He also got beat on the fake punt. Working with help, Reggie is solid, a leader, and one of our best advantages out there. We can win with Reggie, but if you are taking the Pepsi Challenge, you trade him for probably 6 or 7 other AAC CBs.
He would have lost. The failure on that play was the referees to allow the continued stalemate to continue as long as it did before ruling FWD progress was stopped. Had the QB fumbled the football while being held up there, I can pretty much guarantee one of the refs would have come in and signaled that progress had been stopped (but not before the line to gain).
The replay in the stadium showed that while White had been stopped initially, the inordinate amount of time they allowed him to be held up (his kneee never touched) allowed a couple of the behemoth OL to give him the extra shove for the extra half yard he needed.
The refs were bad but I can't say they were against us. They called TU for a terrible PI call but then followed up by calling a bad one against Memphis.
And if we thought we needed a little more time we could have declined the 10 second runoff. Icing our own kicker was probably the worst choice to make.
Could we really have declined that? I thought that was a clock correction that you couldn't decline?
Yes, that’s an election that the team that didn’t fake the injury can accept or decline.
Monty played it by the book and EVERY coach in America, in that position and situation, would have played it exactly the same. And it didn't ice the kicker. We lined our OL up, but if you noticed, Rainey just stood there and Lil Monty stood behind the line gesturing to just hang tight because they all knew the TO was coming with 2-3 seconds left on the game clock. Can't ice the kicker if he knows they're not snapping the ball at that time.
I still contend the failure was kicking the FG on the next to the last possession when a 6pt lead with 5 minutes left wasn't likely to hold up for you knowing the offense Memphis had.
TU is 19-37 on FGA the last 2 seasons. What in that stat would give any coach or fan any confidence whatsoever that a particular kick was going to be made? That's the only fault Monty has in how this went down.
That’s where I am. If we put in Wilkerson and push it in we’re up 10 and we win even with the Memphis TD. Don’t put the game on the back of a kicker who has shown he’ll miss as often as he hits.
Here's all I'm saying.
Who was the field goal kicker when krag first came in? Kid couldn't kick a ball over the goal post... Long story short krags developed him into a excellent kicker that couldn't miss.
Great coaches develop the players they got not hope they find talent so they can just collect paychecks
Who was the field goal kicker when krag first came in? Kid couldn't kick a ball over the goal post... Long story short krags developed him into a excellent kicker that couldn't miss.
Great coaches develop the players they got not hope they find talent so they can just collect paychecks
Brad DeVault. If memory serves his parents paid a lot of money to an outside coach. And Jason worked with him too. The staff had little to do with the development. He wasn’t bad early on, he could just be inconsistent from outside 40. Kragthorpe put a lot on him too. He was asked to win games and keep it close in ‘03 as a sophomore. He hit a 50 yarder against Baylor but still missed probably 6 or 7 kicks that year. He was a great high school safety. He would get in there and mix it up every once in awhile on kick coverage at TU. Ballsy. Great player.