🤷
Game Recap in Three Sentences
Like most opponents this season, Louisville ran all over us and couldn’t be stopped on the ground.
Tech swapped QBs all night but neither looked particularly good (though their combined stat line was decent).
The energy was again low as the Cardinals jumped out to a quick dominant lead and never looked back.
Above The Line of the Week
- Justice Haynes. Congrats on 2000 career rushing yards, sorry the OL didn’t let you hit that milestone much earlier this season.
- Mini lobster rolls. I had four of them at a wedding in Maine this weekend and each was better than the last.
- Whoever is in charge of fireworks. This felt like our tenth night game of the season, but I bet we have way fewer next season…
Sabermetrics of the Week
Seven fourth down attempts??? Did someone on the staff finally learn about Kevin Kelley and decide to emulate the finest stratagems that Arkansas high school football has to offer?
5 Star (7 Star, 5 Star) Developmental Program Haiku of the Week
Lost in the
woods, cold Birds with teeth haunt my psyche Let it be done please
Someone Got Fired
Finally some action was taken.
Yesterday it was announced that DC Jason Semore, DE/LB coach Kyle Pope, OL coach Allen Mogridge, and WR coach Jafar Williams were relieved of their duties. All of these groups have been problematic, but I am a bit surprised at Williams given that the WRs have been far from the biggest pain point this season (though they have dropped a lot of passes). Semore doesn’t surprise me from a results standpoint but man it sucks to continue not keeping a DC for more than one season – I have to imagine that the lack of consistency is at least partially to blame for the results. Pope and Mogridge feel obvious; the LBs have looked lost in every game and the OL is probably the most visible weakness we have.
Obviously this doesn’t change much immediately. No one new is coming in yet, all the players are the same, and the rest of the coaching staff is the same. It still feels nice that we’re at least recognizing there are big problems to fix; hopefully doing this now gives us time to find the right replacements instead of needing to scramble at the end of the season. Finding those replacements is the hard part though, and at this point I don’t think any remotely noteworthy DC would be willing to come to a place with our track record of sending them packing each year. Someone’s gonna have to dig deep and come up with a gem. OL is probably the most interesting opening given Key’s history; being an OL guy is the one thing everyone knows about him and I’m curious how that’ll affect the hiring process.
This move also includes whatever “restructuring the offensive staff” means. We know from last year’s bowl game that Weinke can call plays, maybe he’s taking a more active role? I have no idea what to think at this point, all I’m looking forward to is the end of the season.
Look Ahead
Up next is Clemson (11/14, 12:30pm). While the Tigers are having their own version of a bad vibes season, they’re still a much better team than us and I’m sure we’ll take the full brunt of their frustrations. At least we don’t have to stay up late for this one.
