Three phases win and I would point out...how many times has Louisville started out 0-1 in league play in football AND basketball in the last 20 years? There is no extra value for going 1-0 when outscoring your opponent by 1 or by 12. There is no scoring differential value in college sports for anyone but oddsmakers. We covered, we won. We're 1-0 in the ACC league standings September 22nd 2024.
1. The Georgia Institute of Polytechnology didn't get to where it was by admitting a bunch of imbeciles. Brett Key is a hell of a coach and he managed a game by playing the percentages about as well as you can in the modern game. The defense--and special teams--continually turned those odds against him. They were perfect in the Red Zone this year until yesterday and if Ashton Gillotte was upright scraping down on Jamal King's instead of being turned to the endzone the half would have ended 17-7. Much respect for Key...he actually micromanaged a 12 point loss as a 10.5 point (finishing as an 8.5 point) underdog.
SEC America won't recognize it, but had we played a lesser coached team that game wasn't even competitive. The great play by Riley to get our first TD was setup by a great punt to pin GT to the Louisville 5. Say what you will for Haynes King, but his greatest play yesterday might be running to the sidelines upright after his lateral gaffe play by Quincey Riley. Antonio Watts put a shot to his ribs that propelled him two yards in reverse that fortunately for King didn't result in a collapsed lung. On 4th down we had to beat a good offensive line multiple times to thwart a GT drive.
2. Special Teams played a huge role. Immediate attention will go to Holloway with the block and return, but the pin to the five yard line contributed to the first score for Puryear and the missed FG in the first second quarter from the right hash when it was 7-7 saw penetration straight through the B gap that if the FG kicker had it on frame instead of going wide right it would have been blocked. We might have had a scoop and score in the second quarter instead of the fourth and I'm not so sure that didn't contribute to Keys' hesitation at 4th and 14 at that point in the game.
3. I made the mistake of posting on Twitter on a Keith Wynne thread of saying that I didn't think the UofL d line was very disruptive outside of Tramel Logan. Upon further review, Rene Konga is very disruptive and a big part of Gillotte's theoretical lack of disruptiveness is they're sliding him down into the B gap. I suspect against ND he'll be anchoring on the TE/strong side if for no other reason than to body blow Mitchell Evans and force him to devote more attention to his blocking abilities.
4. Flags. I always compare our reaction to that of the garden variety UK fan that we all know who upon losing a basketball game on a cold night in January at Vanderbilt will always pull out the canard "it was 5 on 8"...the callback of Jamari Johnson's 30 yard plus gainer was laughable when you watch it back. The only crime was that it was pinned on Austin Collins...three O linemen were FIFTEEN yards downfield with Collins being the least downfield among the three. It was a screen intended to have Jamari Johnson getting the ball behind the line of scrimmage making it immaterial that the three linemen were downfield; a wayward NT who couldn't find the ball blew the play up forcing Johnson off his route and Shough having to hesitate to get him the ball. The refs got that right.
...but they blew the timeout situation which was criminal considering it directly contributed to the safety. Truth be told Ga Tech probably caught a one point differential because they would have settled for a FG instead of getting the safety when it was all said and done. That blocking below the waist call on Blue Hicks was straight up garbage and so was the call on Duke Watson who flat made a pancake block out of nothing. If I have one common complaint it was there was a gross inconsistency in holding. Louisville was beating on the edge and getting held consistently; Thor Griffin in one of his few snaps got blatantly held. The old adage of you can call holding every snap is among the first things dispelled by any official I've ever met, but teams have gotten away with it quite a bit against Louisville already.
5. Position-by-position I believe we can all reach the consensus that wide receiver and tight end are an aggregate improvement over 2023. Clearly we can say the same of quarterback. The jury is still WAY out on the offensive line though I will politely say the RIGHT side of the offensive line. Mendoza and Rasheed Miller were bleeding missed blocks yesterday and we basically have right guard platoon between Vic Cutler and Austin Collins. I don't know what the situation is with Renato Brown, but it is crying out for his contribution. Offensive line is a position where we recruited well in Brohm's first year but the secret sauce hasn't been found. We lost Burgess to transfer, we still have Madden Sanker and Joe Crocker who aren't contributing yet. Somehow in the 25 years since I left Lexington they have an embarrassment of riches from the prep ranks with O linemen going to UK, Alabama, Clemson, et al and St. X, Trinity, Ballard, etc. have produced butkus. It's one area where if we are being honest UK is just beating the hell out of us by comparison. Whether we enjoy the thrill of the initial playoffs or not, we don't have a Playoff caliber offensive line set of talent. It's not a matter of not having a Mekhi Becton, an Eric Woods or a Roman Oben. Georgia, Michigan, Alabama and Texas have those NOW...not spread out over a couple decades.
6. That said...we are really good at WR and TE with NFL projected talent. And we appear to have a QB that can deliver the goods to it in a scheme to do it. Brooks is the real deal. Chris Bell is going to be the actor in any Terrell Owens biographical movie. He's a weightroom marvel. Redman looks NFL ready and Jamari Johnson looks like a dead letter certain first day draft pick in two years. I didn't like how Jadon Thompson's injury looked yesterday but am looking forward to Caullen Lacy.
Notre Dame is a very intriguing matchup. To say they should be focused, hungry and motivated on their home field is an understatement and it's a fascinating matchup of strengths vs. weaknesses. Their backs are against the wall in a way that won't become clear until we kick it off Saturday. We have leaked QB runs the last two weeks and Notre Dame has seemingly gone MIchigan's route of assuming the best way to cover a a poor passing QB is to just run the ball 90 % of the time. We aren't getting the Riley Leonard with a bum ankle like we got last year but hopefully we will be the 2nd consecutive ND QB taking the field against us trying to outrun the demons of their last matchup against our defense. Make no mistake about it...our task in South Bend is monumental. There wasn't anything that happened yesterday that convinced me we could do anything against them running to the right side of our formation and their Front Seven is significantly better than a well schemed Ga Tech front.
1. The Georgia Institute of Polytechnology didn't get to where it was by admitting a bunch of imbeciles. Brett Key is a hell of a coach and he managed a game by playing the percentages about as well as you can in the modern game. The defense--and special teams--continually turned those odds against him. They were perfect in the Red Zone this year until yesterday and if Ashton Gillotte was upright scraping down on Jamal King's instead of being turned to the endzone the half would have ended 17-7. Much respect for Key...he actually micromanaged a 12 point loss as a 10.5 point (finishing as an 8.5 point) underdog.
SEC America won't recognize it, but had we played a lesser coached team that game wasn't even competitive. The great play by Riley to get our first TD was setup by a great punt to pin GT to the Louisville 5. Say what you will for Haynes King, but his greatest play yesterday might be running to the sidelines upright after his lateral gaffe play by Quincey Riley. Antonio Watts put a shot to his ribs that propelled him two yards in reverse that fortunately for King didn't result in a collapsed lung. On 4th down we had to beat a good offensive line multiple times to thwart a GT drive.
2. Special Teams played a huge role. Immediate attention will go to Holloway with the block and return, but the pin to the five yard line contributed to the first score for Puryear and the missed FG in the first second quarter from the right hash when it was 7-7 saw penetration straight through the B gap that if the FG kicker had it on frame instead of going wide right it would have been blocked. We might have had a scoop and score in the second quarter instead of the fourth and I'm not so sure that didn't contribute to Keys' hesitation at 4th and 14 at that point in the game.
3. I made the mistake of posting on Twitter on a Keith Wynne thread of saying that I didn't think the UofL d line was very disruptive outside of Tramel Logan. Upon further review, Rene Konga is very disruptive and a big part of Gillotte's theoretical lack of disruptiveness is they're sliding him down into the B gap. I suspect against ND he'll be anchoring on the TE/strong side if for no other reason than to body blow Mitchell Evans and force him to devote more attention to his blocking abilities.
4. Flags. I always compare our reaction to that of the garden variety UK fan that we all know who upon losing a basketball game on a cold night in January at Vanderbilt will always pull out the canard "it was 5 on 8"...the callback of Jamari Johnson's 30 yard plus gainer was laughable when you watch it back. The only crime was that it was pinned on Austin Collins...three O linemen were FIFTEEN yards downfield with Collins being the least downfield among the three. It was a screen intended to have Jamari Johnson getting the ball behind the line of scrimmage making it immaterial that the three linemen were downfield; a wayward NT who couldn't find the ball blew the play up forcing Johnson off his route and Shough having to hesitate to get him the ball. The refs got that right.
...but they blew the timeout situation which was criminal considering it directly contributed to the safety. Truth be told Ga Tech probably caught a one point differential because they would have settled for a FG instead of getting the safety when it was all said and done. That blocking below the waist call on Blue Hicks was straight up garbage and so was the call on Duke Watson who flat made a pancake block out of nothing. If I have one common complaint it was there was a gross inconsistency in holding. Louisville was beating on the edge and getting held consistently; Thor Griffin in one of his few snaps got blatantly held. The old adage of you can call holding every snap is among the first things dispelled by any official I've ever met, but teams have gotten away with it quite a bit against Louisville already.
5. Position-by-position I believe we can all reach the consensus that wide receiver and tight end are an aggregate improvement over 2023. Clearly we can say the same of quarterback. The jury is still WAY out on the offensive line though I will politely say the RIGHT side of the offensive line. Mendoza and Rasheed Miller were bleeding missed blocks yesterday and we basically have right guard platoon between Vic Cutler and Austin Collins. I don't know what the situation is with Renato Brown, but it is crying out for his contribution. Offensive line is a position where we recruited well in Brohm's first year but the secret sauce hasn't been found. We lost Burgess to transfer, we still have Madden Sanker and Joe Crocker who aren't contributing yet. Somehow in the 25 years since I left Lexington they have an embarrassment of riches from the prep ranks with O linemen going to UK, Alabama, Clemson, et al and St. X, Trinity, Ballard, etc. have produced butkus. It's one area where if we are being honest UK is just beating the hell out of us by comparison. Whether we enjoy the thrill of the initial playoffs or not, we don't have a Playoff caliber offensive line set of talent. It's not a matter of not having a Mekhi Becton, an Eric Woods or a Roman Oben. Georgia, Michigan, Alabama and Texas have those NOW...not spread out over a couple decades.
6. That said...we are really good at WR and TE with NFL projected talent. And we appear to have a QB that can deliver the goods to it in a scheme to do it. Brooks is the real deal. Chris Bell is going to be the actor in any Terrell Owens biographical movie. He's a weightroom marvel. Redman looks NFL ready and Jamari Johnson looks like a dead letter certain first day draft pick in two years. I didn't like how Jadon Thompson's injury looked yesterday but am looking forward to Caullen Lacy.
Notre Dame is a very intriguing matchup. To say they should be focused, hungry and motivated on their home field is an understatement and it's a fascinating matchup of strengths vs. weaknesses. Their backs are against the wall in a way that won't become clear until we kick it off Saturday. We have leaked QB runs the last two weeks and Notre Dame has seemingly gone MIchigan's route of assuming the best way to cover a a poor passing QB is to just run the ball 90 % of the time. We aren't getting the Riley Leonard with a bum ankle like we got last year but hopefully we will be the 2nd consecutive ND QB taking the field against us trying to outrun the demons of their last matchup against our defense. Make no mistake about it...our task in South Bend is monumental. There wasn't anything that happened yesterday that convinced me we could do anything against them running to the right side of our formation and their Front Seven is significantly better than a well schemed Ga Tech front.
