Here for the Wins

I think we’re kicking butt this year. Just play our game and the offense will hum along. Almost time to sit back and enjoy.

Stroh’s overall grade was 59.7. His pass blocking efficiency was 94.7. Not good but not horrible. And since he hasn’t played in 3 years, I’d expect growth out him. Brooks was 36.6 and sub-90. Drastic differences. And I don’t fault Brooks, but that’s the biggest head scratcher as to why he played. CJ also pointed out in the past week that Brooks allowed pressure on 16% of pass plays whereas all others were 6% or lower. Only one of those was horrible. Basically the same as efficiency just calculated differently. So why am I so adamant in defense? Because the narrative starts off misleading. Some plays yes. Some plays no. Guys miss blocks all the time. I’d guess it’s much closer to 0% of plays than 100% that all 5 make a block on a given play. And you know Arch can dodge one on just about any given play. And versus OSU we had more yards rushing and yards per carry than anyone. So that doesn’t really compute as to how he screwed that all up. Ole Miss. Of their top 5 Olinemen in terms of snap count, two graded lower than Stroh. You do not get sub-60s by winning every play. I’m not arguing Stroh is better but rather all the other points. On any run, that’s at least two guys losing the play. It didn’t destroy their run game.

Here is where I sit. Not an Oline expert but understand the game. PFF grades aren’t the end all, be all, but they provide a ton of context when no one can watch all their games. I understand why people watch only certain games, but that doesn’t convey context of whether that’s the standard game or a players best game or worst game. I will reiterate one of my points from several weeks ago. That essentially came up today. Our supposed strengths of the Oline last year had too many errors to start the season. It’s asinine to focus on the least experienced guy when versus OSU the majority of the big downs that we failed to execute was off the right side. Most teams 5th guy is mediocre at best. Go look at Ole Miss blocking grades. Compare our offensive output to Miamis, and they were universally a top 3 unit. LT, C, and Baker should all start better than we were a year ago. If Baker has a single with either 5 pressures or 2 penalties, I’d be surprised. And that was just OSU last year. Siani should ready. And the pass blocking efficiency outside of one LG was in a normality range. That alone works with this team. And without looking, our highest yards per carry last year came at the LG area. I’m not saying that’s because the LG but rather you can still make some hay even if you don’t have a plus player. And underappreciated last year was the return home. That helped the offense but also Sark opened up the screen game. Sub-10% versus OSU/UF, 20% versus Vandy. Our gameplans seemingly focused on us. Outliers early were UTEP at 70/30 run-pass and UF average depth of target at 20 yards. OSU didn’t replicate either. So a ln inexperienced team and we’re rolling different gameplans. I’m reasonably confident UF and Kentucky used their bye weeks to attack differently too. So that’s a lot of words to say if LG stands out, it’s likely because of unexpected issues elsewhere.

This is it. And Goosby had what 2, 3 starts? Not sure how many snaps at Center Hutson had either. And Campbell for whatever reason had more penalties than ever. We aren’t even close to that this year. Sikorski may have more starts at Guard than anyone else we had back at their same position.

Doing well so far. Thanks for asking. He’s striving to be the next Carson Tinney in your eyes.

Seymore or whichever dude takes LG will be just fine. But y’all’s review of him is pretty weak. 2nd team All American. Yet 2nd team all conference. Not 2nd team all SEC or Big 10. Odd. His grades put him nowhere near all American and outside of WKU people who watches all their games? Phil Steele I suppose. WKU on straight drops got rid of the ball a half second faster than Arch on non-screens. So keep that in mind. Yeah he did well versus LSU. They had another OLineman give up no pressures. Another in addition to Seymore gave up 1. LSU’s interior guys graded out pretty meagerly on the season. The best guy at either run d or pass rush graded out at about 160th best in the country or something like that.Their overall rush defense graded at 43rd, pass rush 71st. That 71st tied with Arkansas. Did we score on them or not? I forget. The defensive teams WKU played were 123rd per FEI. In other words, his grades were compiled versus garbage. He had a stellar pass block game versus Sam. An atrocious run block game versus Sam. None of that means he won’t be fine or good. The experience and talent surrounding him is significant. We simply need to not have a repeat of one guy from last year (and I’m not talking about the guy that many of you morons throw out). But go on, continue with your misguided narratives and your limited perspectives. Thanks for your time.

They should be student athletes. They should have to attend classes. Carson Beck received far greater benefit from college football than he gave to it for example. As I understand it, he wasn’t actually a student attending classes. That’s ridiculous. The SEC is protecting Kentucky and Vanderbilt and maybe some others. The Big 10 is protecting others yet little talk about kicking them out. lots of talking out each side of the mouth.

Thought maybe you were having a stroke or something. 20-30 points more without Wisner is interesting.

Goodness gracious. 4th and Five we need some prayers for some of these dudes.

As for Hill, my view is that he’s a better secondary level pass rusher than straight beat you man to man. He has nice hands. So his best matchup is situational. In 2024, he was in the box on 77% of snaps, DL on 9%, slot 14%, and CB 1%. In 2025, he was in the box 76% of snaps, DL 7%, slot 16%, and CB 1%. Rounding comes in to play so the difference in box snaps is actually 0.2%. So pass plays. In 2024, he pass rushed 16% of plays versus 84% in coverage. In 2025, he pass rushed 26% of plays versus 74% in coverage. His alignment is similar year over year. For those saying he should have rushed the passer more in 2025 relative to 2024. He did. Sixty percent more. As the Vandy game has been beat to death, I’ll hit it again. 3rd and whatever inside our 20. We rush 5 leaving the middle exposed. This is an example of too much aggression. Believe Hill was the 5th pass rusher. 4th and 19. We sacked Pavia on 3rd with a 4 man rush. On 4th and 19, we rush 5 with Hill being the 5th. My opinion is overly aggressive. Both of those plays could have been denied with proper deployment and execution from your LBs. That’s my recall anyway.

Vs USF. They blitzed 55% of the time. 1 TD with no picks. Higher completion % versus the blitz. 1 pick, no TDs when no blitz. UF versus LSU. They blitzed 45% of the time. Versus the blitz Lagway he completed 78% of his passes. No picks. 6.4 yards per attempt. So when they did not blitz, he completed 58% at 5.3 yards per attempt. 1 TD and 5 interceptions. That was without Dallas Wilson. Vs Miami the numbers were similar with 58% no blitz, 42% blitz. Texas blitzed 42% of the time. Numbers were reasonably similar with a pick on the blitz but otherwise 10-12 versus the blitz and similar passing yards although 5 fewer attempts versus the blitz. Both TDs to Wilson, the guy that hadn’t played up to that point. One versus a blitz, one not. Pretty sure his long TD was press coverage when he tossed Black aside. The other TD had a drawn up safety. We did a pick versus the blitz. A&M blitzed 18% of the time. Georgia 36% blitz. Ole Miss 43%. The results were reasonably balanced. Dallas Wilson only played a full game versus the Aggies. Kentucky blitzed 13% of the time. 3-3 for largely insignificant yards. Versus no blitz? 19 dropbacks, 1 TD, 3 picks. So exactly what about these results show that more blitzing was the desired gameplan? Most of these teams didn’t get Wilson who was a tougher man matchup in theory. And many of those matchups were on the road when blitz pickup communication is often stressed more.

I’m always a Team guy. I won’t blame one guy, which happens a fair amount on boards. As I’ve aged, I’m more “just win” whether that’s ugly, by 1 point, by 30, just win. 2023 OU. Obviously if the defense shuts them down, we win. The offense was in position to shut it down completely, but that didn’t happen. I’m not blaming them for the loss. Neither unit was blameless. As for last years offense, injuries matter. Mosley out early didn’t help. I think Wisner being out set us back, but the tenor here is that he was expendable. But my point about DB injuries is that those guys are more easily exposed. We talk about Taaffe being a high IQ guy but act as though him being out is not impactful then we McDonald goes out early against the # 1 OFEI offense in the country that is more impactful than Mosley being out, who at that time had never even played here. And I think if you actually look at last years UTEP game - Wisner out, Baxter out after play 1, Moore out, Mosley out - that was part of the reason the offense looked shoddy. The play calling failed to get the QB in rhythm early then everybody’s confidence tanked.

Again, the only team with legit pass catching threats in 2024 were Clemson and OSU. One threw for 330. Even Clemson had limited skills at Oline, their RBs pedestrian, and the QB had one better than average college season. ASU was missing their top WR threat. Qb a frosh. Middling OLine talent. That matters. The Georgia guys had talent but couldn’t catch. Go watch Barron get his butt torched versus TCU in 2023. It wasn’t because his IQ grew from nothing to something. Taaffe was there too. He was there this year except when hurt. 2023 and 2025 ran up against better offensive talent, and they did it with more significant injuries. Backups are backups for a reason. That’s absolutely part of it. And part of the reason Sayin wasn’t pressured was because we had no points through 3.5 quarters. I take 14 points allowed on the road versus a top 10 every time. No one said PK was without blame.

“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.” Akina wasn’t here in 2023 or 2024, right? So it couldn’t have been his doing in those years. Gideon couldn’t solve it in 2023 but could in 2024? PK couldn’t figure it out in 2023 but did in 2024 then forgot in 2025. A defensive coach for decades. None of that makes sense. There’s no doubt Sark would prefer someone else to PK. Obviously PKs style doesn’t suit everyone. You ignore injuries. You know who screws up coverages? Backups that don’t have experience in high leverage situations. You ignore the pass rush. Let’s call it the secondary when our LBs don’t get depth. Our 2023 schedule had roughly 15 top 100 NFL picks in that NFL draft. That is 15% for those that struggle with math. That is a lot. Maybe even historic. That doesn’t include a fair number of underclassmen drafted the following year. DFEI provides you and others insight into the relative strength of the opponents offenses yet some people ignore it. Easy to play defense against WRs that can’t get open when being thrown to by inept QBs being protected by mediocre lines. The secondary didn’t let us down in 2023. It was a team effort. No sacks. Two turnovers. The offense inside the opponents 20 with 4 chances at the end of the game. Washington’s defense was JV level relative to their offense. The next to last offensive possession we had 1st and 10 from the 13. We have to kick a FG. If we score a TD there, all that was needed on the last possession was a FG. Maybe I’m wrong but thought Moore returned to show the NFL he could be versatile. Spirited football talk. It’s time.

Disregard for context. The offense threw a pick on possession 1 versus OU. Very short field. Texas had 1st and 10 on the OU 30 or so with roughly 3 minutes to go. One more first down and chances OU scores go down significantly. That didn’t happen. Now OU’s TD drive started with the LBers being attacked. First down, stoppage of clock. 2nd play, Manny misses tackle first diwn. Starting corner Watts out the whole game. The big play was the 28 yarder in which the pass rush helped cause the issue. I believe the TD was a LB miss. So blaming the secondary is not completely accurate. As for Washington, that was a boatload of offensive talent. I’m not even sure that the entire regular season in 2024 schedule included as many first round picks as this UW team. Maybe not even as many NFL guys as that UW team. I don’t think that’s true cause Georgia. But no sacks. Penix had several great throws with pretty solid coverage. And still the offense had 4 shots inside the 20 in the final minute. Houston wasn’t good, but Barron and I think Watts were hurt. M Golden was better than given credit. And Houston only scored 20- something points. And one of their TDs came when PK dialed up a free blitzer that missed. Maybe the defense wasn’t great, but it absolutely gave the offense a chance. And in the two losses, there were 4 turnovers that impacted the scoreboard.