9/15 FIU Game
How many of you guys paid to see Saturday’s game against FIU on pay-per-view? I tried to, but AT&T evidently has a “don’t take Kenny’s money” policy, so I wasn’t able to rent it. However, I was able to watch the game on-line, and after watching it, I’m pretty glad I didn’t pay to see it. For the second year in a row, we followed up a rousing season-opening victory with a rather lackluster performance against a sub-par team. Ultimately, we beat Florida International 40-14, so let's talk about what happened, both good and bad.
First, the bad. You all know what I’m going to start with. We absolutely, positively have to improve our kickoff coverage. For the second game in a row, our opponent returned a kickoff for a TD, and for the second week in a row, it completely changed the flow of the game. At the time, it cut our lead to 10-7, but later in the half, after a hard-fought FIU drive, we actually trailed 14-13. Luckily, we were playing FIU, so we had plenty of time to reassert ourselves. Actually, let me be more specific. Luckily, we were playing FIU, and we weren’t being coached by Shula or DuBose. It’s hard to erase the memories of Louisiana Tech, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois, and Mississippi State. Yes, I haven’t forgotten about Louisiana Monroe, but we were so decimated by injuries by the time that game rolled around (thanks Textbook Posse!) that we really were only equivalent to a MAC team from a talent perspective. Now we have the talent and discipline to overcome things like that. But I digress from the initial subject, which was kickoff coverage. The problem is that’s a very difficult thing to improve during the season, because practicing kickoff coverage at full speed is a death wish. That’s by far the most dangerous part of the game, so it will probably have to be dealt with through discussions and film work. Hopefully we can get it straightened out soon, because the consequences are going to get much more dire very soon.
Staying with the bad, we were really hurt by injuries in this game. We played almost the entire game without Julio Jones and Roy Upchurch. In addition, Mark Ingram still appeared to have lingering effects from the flu, so he wasn’t 100%. That meant most of the RB duties fell to true freshman Trent Richardson. Luckily for us, Richardson is probably the most talented RB we’ve ever had here, so there wasn’t much of a drop-off (some folks would argue that he was an upgrade). He certainly produced, and I expect him to be a huge part of the running game as the season progresses. As for the injuries, Julio should be fine, and he might play next week against UNT. Upchurch is more up in the air. I expect him to be back, but it might be a couple of weeks. To be honest, I’m just guessing; the coaches have been very tight-lipped about Upchurch, but I think he has a high-ankle sprain, and those typically take a few weeks to recover from. I’m sure all of you saw Damian Square go down in the fourth quarter, and unfortunately, his injury is much more serious, a torn ACL that will make him miss the rest of the season. And don’t kid yourself; this is a bigger loss than you think. He was more than depth, he was a tremendous young talent that was going to push for more and more playing time as the season progressed. Keep your fingers crossed for this kid.
Now for the good. For the most part, I thought we had really strong effort from the players. I thought that there were some mental errors that cost us early, but I didn’t get the feeling that the players weren’t into it like last year’s Utah game. As for the players, McElroy looked great, not only passing with pinpoint accuracy, but also spreading the ball around to several different receivers. It really looks like his strong finish against VT carried over into this game.
Something else that I really like was the defensive adjustments that we made in the second half. In the first half, we couldn’t seem to get them off the field, but in the second half, they couldn’t do anything. I know that some of you have mentioned that you didn’t feel like our defense played very well, but I should point out that the defense only gave up 7 points, and less than 200 yards total. That’s pretty solid against anybody.
I know I already mentioned Trent Richardson, but since I’m now in the “Good” category, I feel like I should mention him again. I swear; that kid hits the line of scrimmage like William Wallace tearing into Longshanks. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I have never seen a more perfect marriage of a running back and an offense like Richardson in our power running attack. And he’s third string!
Finally, we were able to get more true freshmen into the game this time. I’m not sure I caught them all, so please chime in if I missed anybody, but I believe that Chance Warmack (OL), Kerry Murphy (DL), Nico Johnson (LB), Dre Kirkpatrick (DB), and Michael Bowman (WR) made their debuts. Congratulations guys!
That’s it for now. Next week we play North Texas, and even though they have a wide open, spread-style offense, it should be pretty much like this week’s game. Hopefully, it will be even better. Until next time, feel free to send me any questions or comments.
Roll Tide!
Kenny
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