I watched the UT vs. Florida game yesterday and couldn't help but walk away from that game thinking that Tennessee did eveything to lose the game and Florida did very little to win it.
I'm not that impressed with Florida, and I am not so sure that had the other QB not been suspended that Grier doesn't get pulled in the fourth quarter of that game. Grier did a good job at the end when UT went into a prevent defense that none of the players knew how to execute.
Florida's positives: Their defense is good, and will probably be the second best defense that Ole Miss will play this year (potentially). They got a lot of pressure on the QB. Their running back is good, but the offensive line was very bad.
Ole Miss: I think people need to keep a couple of things in perspective after the Vandy game. First remember that statistically Ole MIss out performed Georgia against Vandy. Ole Miss offense scored 27 while Georgia's offense scored only 17. (Keep in mind that Georgia scored 14 points on defensive TD's.) The Ole Miss offense put up stronger numbers than Georgia, and the Ole Miss defense was statistically better than Georgia. In the end, Ole MIss beat a better than anticipated Vandy team by double digits. And, that is with Ole Miss losing the turnover margin -2. You can't go back two decades and find an Ole Miss team that would have accomplished that, so lets not give up the season just yet.
Having said that, there were some problems with this football team. I might have spoken to early in giving much praise to Matt Luke last week. The offensive line play this past Saturday looked more like the Ole Miss offensive line play of 2013 and 2014 rather than the OL of 2015's first three games. Chad Kelly was a little off on his accuracy, and the defensive secondary was lost a good bit. Having said all of that, I put the bad performance on the shoulders of the Ole Miss coaching staff. There were a lot of comments from Hugh Freeze, Chad Kelly, Evan Engram etc... that suggested that the Ole Miss team did a very poor job of preparing for Vandy. When the QB says that Vandy ran a scheme that they in no way expected or prepared for, then that is the coaches fault. When Hugh Freeze admits that many of the third down offensive calls didn't have a chance of working against what Vandy did, then that is a preparation issue with the coaching staff. I hope, HOPE, that it has to do with Ole Miss players and staff looking ahead to the Gainsville game, and taking Vandy for granted a little.
Problems going forward for Ole Miss:
Two consecutive weeks SEC teams have played Ole Miss with a base cover two defense. And both weeks Ole MIss was unable to punish them with strong OL play and a running game causing them to abandon that approach. It was alarming to me that the Ole Miss coaching staff didn't anticipate Vandy playing Cover two schemes. Again, I put a lot of the Vandy game frustrations on the shoulders of the coaching staff.
In the end, I wouldn't be surprised if Vandy doesn't beat two or three of those SEC East opponents this year. Their team is better than I thought. If injuries don't start to hinder them, they will show signs of strong improvement and Mason will be retained.
I'm not that impressed with Florida, and I am not so sure that had the other QB not been suspended that Grier doesn't get pulled in the fourth quarter of that game. Grier did a good job at the end when UT went into a prevent defense that none of the players knew how to execute.
Florida's positives: Their defense is good, and will probably be the second best defense that Ole Miss will play this year (potentially). They got a lot of pressure on the QB. Their running back is good, but the offensive line was very bad.
Ole Miss: I think people need to keep a couple of things in perspective after the Vandy game. First remember that statistically Ole MIss out performed Georgia against Vandy. Ole Miss offense scored 27 while Georgia's offense scored only 17. (Keep in mind that Georgia scored 14 points on defensive TD's.) The Ole Miss offense put up stronger numbers than Georgia, and the Ole Miss defense was statistically better than Georgia. In the end, Ole MIss beat a better than anticipated Vandy team by double digits. And, that is with Ole Miss losing the turnover margin -2. You can't go back two decades and find an Ole Miss team that would have accomplished that, so lets not give up the season just yet.
Having said that, there were some problems with this football team. I might have spoken to early in giving much praise to Matt Luke last week. The offensive line play this past Saturday looked more like the Ole Miss offensive line play of 2013 and 2014 rather than the OL of 2015's first three games. Chad Kelly was a little off on his accuracy, and the defensive secondary was lost a good bit. Having said all of that, I put the bad performance on the shoulders of the Ole Miss coaching staff. There were a lot of comments from Hugh Freeze, Chad Kelly, Evan Engram etc... that suggested that the Ole Miss team did a very poor job of preparing for Vandy. When the QB says that Vandy ran a scheme that they in no way expected or prepared for, then that is the coaches fault. When Hugh Freeze admits that many of the third down offensive calls didn't have a chance of working against what Vandy did, then that is a preparation issue with the coaching staff. I hope, HOPE, that it has to do with Ole Miss players and staff looking ahead to the Gainsville game, and taking Vandy for granted a little.
Problems going forward for Ole Miss:
Two consecutive weeks SEC teams have played Ole Miss with a base cover two defense. And both weeks Ole MIss was unable to punish them with strong OL play and a running game causing them to abandon that approach. It was alarming to me that the Ole Miss coaching staff didn't anticipate Vandy playing Cover two schemes. Again, I put a lot of the Vandy game frustrations on the shoulders of the coaching staff.
In the end, I wouldn't be surprised if Vandy doesn't beat two or three of those SEC East opponents this year. Their team is better than I thought. If injuries don't start to hinder them, they will show signs of strong improvement and Mason will be retained.
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