GQ03

Its cool man. We're obviously just going to have to agree to disagree on this topic. With the offense, you guys hold them to a certain standard and don't really take injuries or opponent into consideration. If they score 34 vs Vandy but didn't score for a quarter then they should've scored more. For the defense it feels like there's a lot of excuses made for pk. Just as the offense could score a td and end the game vs OU in '23, the defense could've also went out there and made a stop after we took the lead to end the game the same way. You would take 14 points given up on the road vs a top 10 opponent every time. So would I. I'd also take outgaining them by over 100 yards and nearly outrushing by 100 at a 4.5 ypr average every time too. But that doesn't take into account the Monstars stealing Arch's talent for the better part of that game and the first half of the season for that matter.

It wasn't Akina or Gideon's job to solve that. They aren't in charge of the entire defense. Your defensive coordinator should be able to coordinate the entire defense and not just the front or back half. The difference between '24 and '23/'25 isn't that PK figured it out and then forgot. The difference was we had extremely high IQ guys in Mukuba, Taafe & Barron that were basically coaches on the field working together. I don't disagree with you that the offense has had rough stretches or even that the defense has largely been better than the offense (especially in big games) over the last 3 seasons but I just don't think PK is without blame. The Florida game plan was downright embarrassing and while we held Ohio St down yardage wise, we never made Sayin uncomfortable in his first ever start. Didn't touch him once with all of the gifted pass-rushers this team had last year.

You said with better production we would have a national title. The defense, most notably the secondary, let us down in 2023 and kept us from a national title. The offense (mostly due to injuries) let us down in 2024. 2025 was a bit of both. Lack of personnel on Offense & bad coaching on Defense imo. The defense was not good against Florida & Mississippi State while the offense was hot garbage against Ohio St, UTEP & Kentucky. Then they took turns being inept vs Vanderbilt & Georgia. Overall, I liked PK but I prefer a DC that can call the entire defense so that we don't have to worry about this "front not being married to the back" nonsense that we dealt with in '23 & '25. Also, looking at last year's defense, I had high expectations due to the great talent we had but in looking back I don't believe we maximized that talent. Ant Hill should've been put in position to have been much more disruptive and I still can't figure out why we took a great Edge in Trey Moore and moved him to LB while taking a good LB in Brad Spence and moved him to Edge? The result was that both Moore & Spence (along with Hill) had disappointing seasons.

Would you say the same for the '23 season when PK's secondary was getting carved up by OU, Washington and (checks notes) Houston??

I agree but in that Georgia game once the offense finally got into the endzone, the defense immediately goes out and gives a score back. Then the special teams falls asleep and the defense gives up another score. Complimentary football was anything but that last year.

A couple things: 1) Choate wasn't here in 2024...that was Nansen's first year here. 2) 2010 defense was elite but their performance dropped off because of the complete garbage that was the Texas offense that year constantly sending them back out on the field and giving them nothing.

Flood gets a pass because a) He is Sark's guy b) Sark always wanted him on staff and c) Sark might be the reason Flood didn't have the personnel necessary so he might take the blame for that. Sark always wanted Muschamp and didn't want PK as DC. Why do you think PK was the last defensive hire of Sark's initial staff when its usually the other way around? The struggle of last year plus Muschamp being available is what led to the dismissal.

Yup. If I'm understanding things correctly, Hutson is only trying to get what the two classes ahead of him received and every class after him will receive going forward.

The defense had much better personnel. Had pre-season All-American gamebreakers at every level of the defense while the offense had none of that. Sark made the DC change to add what the defense was missing but also brought in Coleman, Smothers, Raleek, Siani, Seymore & Masunas to add what Sark believes the offense was missing.

PK was good but the problems I had with PK was his passivity in just allowing easy first down throws which would allow some quarterbacks to get in a rhythm instead of being aggressive and getting our defense off the field. In addition to that was also his inability to coordinate the whole defense. In 2023 & 2025, he seemed to not be able to marry what the secondary was doing with the rest of the defense which cost us greatly in 2023 vs OU & Washington. @Jeff Howe @Gerry Hamilton @Bobby BurtonWhich game do you think was it that made Sark think that he needed to make the DC change? Was it as early as Florida or Mississippi St? Or was it the 4th quarters of Vanderbilt or Georgia?

I've been thinking this too. The more I watch Smothers and look at our options the more I see this group as the 2023 version with Smothers being to our offense what Brooks was to that one and Raleek & Cooper being what Blue & Baxter were (if not better). Plus you've Coleman as your Mitchell, Wingo as a pseudo Worthy and Mosely as J-Whitt. Even Bishop getting some reps the way Johntay did (hopefully with a much better outcome). Just need Nick Townsend to develop into Sanders lite and we're off to the races.

Explosive scorer but his archetype won't be #1...too small.

Get Cooper Flagg out of your head. Flagg is a generational prospect that doesn't come around often. Spears is good but Flagg is a different level prospect entirely. Just wanting to set realistic expectations.

The same way you mention Isaiah Johnson being an issue for Black, do you not see Derron Rippey being a similar problem for Duke or do you think Rippey transfers after the year if he's playing backup minutes to Foster all year...??

Also, forgot to add Georgetown since step brother went there.