Obviously there were a ton of issues on that side of the ball… The OL struggled, QB injuries, RB injuries… What really sank us though?
Turnovers. Last time I checked we lead the SEC in fumbles, and we absolutely had too many INTs though Doty and Noland both protected the ball well (Doty had like one pick prior to re-aggravating the never fully healed foot vs Vandy, then he threw two in that game before they took him out).
When we won the turnover battle we faired pretty well this year. When we lost the turnover battle we lost the game, often by a lot of points….
Turnovers are hard to place blame for sometimes but MOST of the time it comes down to execution not coaching or play calling. I can assure you the coaches were not telling guys to fumble the ball. When Satt called that play vs clemsun where Brown went deep and threw it right to their safety, I am sure the call included a check down if a safety was helping to cover Vann/ Brown flat out did not see the safety. Think back to the Mizzou game- that early fumble prevented us from scoring in the red zone to go up two scores early and really turned the game around… We had what? 3 picks vs cu? How many turnovers vs TAMU?
This more than anything was a hindering factor for our offense. Sure, we were not going to blow the doors off of teams without the turnovers, a strugglung OL and a revolving door at QB but we likely win 2-3 more games if we protected the ball better.
Now- onto the debate of coaching vs talent, which is to blame for the turnovers? Well our coaches were in their first year with this unit and had a very limited Spring to work with some of our most important players on offense (Doty and Harris mainly). How could they have coached them up better to prevent this with three different QBs playing and freshmen accounting for many of the fumbles? Experience and comfort with a system can help a QB grow and reduce mistakes. Improved strength and experience helps a RB or WR/TE cut down on fumbles. Guys like Bell, Lloyd and Brown accounted for many of our turnovers. All first year guys basically- Bell and Lloyd RS last year I believe, had never played an SEC snap before 2021 and Brown sat out last year and also had never played a snap at this level. It is hard for me to put all the blame for our struggles on coaching when turnovers played such a large role in our lack of success. Can we fix it? We BETTER. The only way we can over achieve against better teams is to tip the scale to our advantage in metrics like this. Is Satt the guy to do it? That is up to Beamer..
Turnovers. Last time I checked we lead the SEC in fumbles, and we absolutely had too many INTs though Doty and Noland both protected the ball well (Doty had like one pick prior to re-aggravating the never fully healed foot vs Vandy, then he threw two in that game before they took him out).
When we won the turnover battle we faired pretty well this year. When we lost the turnover battle we lost the game, often by a lot of points….
Turnovers are hard to place blame for sometimes but MOST of the time it comes down to execution not coaching or play calling. I can assure you the coaches were not telling guys to fumble the ball. When Satt called that play vs clemsun where Brown went deep and threw it right to their safety, I am sure the call included a check down if a safety was helping to cover Vann/ Brown flat out did not see the safety. Think back to the Mizzou game- that early fumble prevented us from scoring in the red zone to go up two scores early and really turned the game around… We had what? 3 picks vs cu? How many turnovers vs TAMU?
This more than anything was a hindering factor for our offense. Sure, we were not going to blow the doors off of teams without the turnovers, a strugglung OL and a revolving door at QB but we likely win 2-3 more games if we protected the ball better.
Now- onto the debate of coaching vs talent, which is to blame for the turnovers? Well our coaches were in their first year with this unit and had a very limited Spring to work with some of our most important players on offense (Doty and Harris mainly). How could they have coached them up better to prevent this with three different QBs playing and freshmen accounting for many of the fumbles? Experience and comfort with a system can help a QB grow and reduce mistakes. Improved strength and experience helps a RB or WR/TE cut down on fumbles. Guys like Bell, Lloyd and Brown accounted for many of our turnovers. All first year guys basically- Bell and Lloyd RS last year I believe, had never played an SEC snap before 2021 and Brown sat out last year and also had never played a snap at this level. It is hard for me to put all the blame for our struggles on coaching when turnovers played such a large role in our lack of success. Can we fix it? We BETTER. The only way we can over achieve against better teams is to tip the scale to our advantage in metrics like this. Is Satt the guy to do it? That is up to Beamer..
