Acock's Wrap Up: Arkansas

[Acockolypse Now]

What a cathartic day for me. After years of expecting us to compete with if not beat Arkansas, only to see them beat the crap out of us, it feels so, so, SO good to get some measure of revenge. I don't care that their team is in shambles, I don't care their coach claps to turn the lights off at night.

I don't care.

We owed Arkansas, and we paid them this week.

OFFENSE
QB: B
Shaw played an overall fine performance (check his stat line against Wilson), and I think it's obvious that everyone's too critical of the QB position. However, Shaw continues to miss open receivers and struggles with the long ball. Whether this is a result of his being injured or not there's a lot of debate, but it doesn't largely matter. It is, as they say, what it is. We rolled him out a good bit more this week, which I was actually looking forward to seeing, but it resulted in a few lawn darts, and...is it just me, or is Connor hesitating to use his feet now? My guess is that it was his foot injury, because he didn't use his speed consistently throughout the game. Hope he heals up, we'll need his feet against Clemson.

RB: B
Admirable games by both Miles and Davis. Kenny is now two weeks in a row where he was one shoe-string away from a long touchdown run. No real complaints about either guy, except for the fact that Davis needs to work on ball security. He's holding it high and away from his body. He can't keep doing that.

WR/TE: B
Bruce Ellington SHOWED out. If Connor could have thrown the long ball he would have had close to 200 yards. We need to find some way to get Byrd back into the offense, and Ace needs to touch the ball more. HOWEVER... dear coaches, NO ONE can cover Anderson on the drag over the middle. By the time the LB realizes it, IT IS TOO LATE. Run it early and often please.

OL: C
Pass protection was fantastic for the most part. Run blocking seems to be a lost art. Here's hoping they figure it out.

DEFENSE
DL: A
Yes, they held Clowney all game. No, it did not matter. It was especially great to see us getting push from the interior, as Quarles and Byron being back made a HUGE difference. Solid outing.

LB/Spur:C
Pretty decent early, but the worst job of tackling from this unit that I can remember. Too many of our guys getting juked out of their shoes by Arkansas RB. Come on guys, we can't have missed tackles .vs Wofford or Clemson.

CB/S: B
Compared to what he's done to other teams, the guys shut Hamilton DOWN. Great effort against one of the SEC's premiere passing teams. Gives me hope about stopping Clemson.

SPECIAL TEAMS
Overall: B
I swear, our Special Teams coach needs to go. What the hell is the kick it down the middle on the ground so quick that the up guy can make it to the 45? What the HELL? When that didn't work, we decided to go ahead and kick it into the end zone. JUST DO THAT. Great job by Hull, he's getting better and better. Ace was great as usual, but hey man, it's OK to let it roll into the end zone. Yates did good to, I thought his 50+ had it, certainly had the distance.

COACHING
Overall: B
Great adjustments by Ward. For the most part, we shut Arkansas down. Yes, we gave up a garbage TD, but the defense came to play. Not great play calling on the side of the offense. I hate how we tend to follow up a great drive by three straight three and outs. We have got to start giving the defense some rest and some help. It's almost as if our philosophy is to get a lead and let the defense take it from there. We could have, and should have, hung 50 on Arkansas. This needs to improve, and it's important that we score as many points as possible against Clemson.

INTANGIBLES
Overall: B
It would have been easy for our players to sleep walk through this one, and they didn't. They knew Arkansas was a hot mess, but were still focused enough to take care of business. That's important in the SEC. You have to go to work EVERY week, no excuses.

FINAL THOUGHTS
I really hope we are able to rest some folks against Wofford and get the backups some meaningful experience. That usually means the game will be close and we'll win it on the last drive.

So far, I like how the end of the season seems to be playing out. Although we can't control our bowl destiny at this point, there will be a LOT for Spurrier and the team to play for in Death Valley. I also like the fact that Clemson is thinking Sugar Bowl. I want them to think they're better than us, and that this year will be different.

I want them thinking that they're on a different level than us.

It will make it all the more shocking to them when we hit them in the mouth for the first time.

Take care of business this week guys, we still have work to do.

[Ownage McGee]

Excellent work!

[Ownage McGee]

And your screen name is awesome

[Kickerspl80]

I understand your frustration with the special teams. But the truth is we just have nobody that can kick. Imagine if we had a kicker that could actually determine where he wanted the ball to go.

If that was the case then Im sure the grade would be A+ bc its easy to look good on special teams when your kicker is good and puts the ball where it should be.

[Red Devil]

The grade for run blocking on the line worries me. If they haven't figured it out 10 games in, will they? Elliot has been here 3 years, can he figure it out or is it time?

[MillerTime843]

Yeah this S/T coach needs to go.

[bryarx]

Right now, we would be best served to kick it deep for the touch back every time. We can do that. We just call for the random deep squib, or high-within-the-five too often. JUST GET A TOUCHBACK. Geez, it's not hard. Our special teams have NEVER been special. It boggles the mind how bad our kick off coverage is. Just get a touchback!

[LegalCock]

I don't think you fire the ST coach in his first season when he's got a track record. Elliott's seat might be starting to warm just a little.

[LegalCock]

Originally Posted by bryarx

Right now, we would be best served to kick it deep for the touch back every time. We can do that. We just call for the random deep squib, or high-within-the-five too often. JUST GET A TOUCHBACK. Geez, it's not hard. Our special teams have NEVER been special. It boggles the mind how bad our kick off coverage is. Just get a touchback!

I dunno, when we had rychleski we were pretty good.

[Cock Kool-Aid]

Originally Posted by Red Devil

The grade for run blocking on the line worries me. If they haven't figured it out 10 games in, will they? Elliot has been here 3 years, can he figure it out or is it time?

We had good run blocking in 2010. The Coach can do a lot, but in the end, a Coach is only as good as his players.

[Cock Kool-Aid]

Originally Posted by bryarx

Right now, we would be best served to kick it deep for the touch back every time. We can do that. We just call for the random deep squib, or high-within-the-five too often. JUST GET A TOUCHBACK. Geez, it's not hard. Our special teams have NEVER been special. It boggles the mind how bad our kick off coverage is. Just get a touchback!

Um no we can't. We can do that MAYBE 50% of the time WHEN the wind is at our backs. Have you watched the games? If we could kick it atleast 3-5 yards into the endzone consistently then our coaches wouldn't be calling squibs.

[garnet_black215]

In three years with Elliott as the OL coach, our record is 28-9. I know Lattimore and a strong defense had a lot to do with that, but that number can't be ignored. We knew the OL may struggle a little bit this year, but they haven't been downright terrible.

Next year will be the big year for Elliott with four of five starters from this unit coming back next year. If they still struggle, then maybe it's time.

I think Robinson deserves at least one more year, but that's just me.

[Acockolypse Now]

Well, the offensive line is up and down. Last year, as the year went on the unit got better, and we dominated guys up front towards the end of the year.

I've seen too much inconsistency from guys that should have had the light come on by now.

I'm still a big supporter of Elliott, but I think we really need to see some progress next year. We've had some really good OL recruiting over the last three years, it's time to start seeing it.

As for special teams, I was kind of joking about firing the special teams coach...BUT I do feel like we have the ability to kick it in the endzone. I think that the high kicks to the 5 and the squibs are planned, hoping to force the other team into a mistake or keep them inside the 20.

On occasion, it's worked.

For the most part it results in starts past the 30. Stop doing that to your defense.

[bryarx]

Originally Posted by Cock Kool-Aid

Um no we can't. We can do that MAYBE 50% of the time WHEN the wind is at our backs. Have you watched the games? If we could kick it atleast 3-5 yards into the endzone consistently then our coaches wouldn't be calling squibs.

Um, yes, we can. They are CALLING for high-within-the-five kicks because the first 3 kicks of the season we had good coverage and stopped them within the 25. You realize the NCAA moved kickoffs up 5 yards this year to encourage more touch backs right? This means that even AVERAGE kickers can get touchbacks all day. Look at the height on the balls that go down within the 5 - they are trying to get coverage down there for a stop less than the 25 yard line - we just can't make that stop.

[snoopcockycock]

i think you guys have finally flipped your wigs! the special teams finally start doing well, with the most touchbacks all year, hull booming 50+ yard kicks, fg's being made (can't blame the 50+ yard attempt for missing), a returned punt for a td against conference foe, ace being like third in the sec with return yards... etc... one bad kick down the middle, and you want johnson gone? give me a break! he's not going anywhere, i guarantee you that.

on another note, why are you now combining wr/te and cb/safeties? i liked when you use to give them individual grades. i don't agree with the grade for the cb/safeties, as they got torched most of the game, although i was glad to see them do better at the end of the game. and i don't think the ol should get anything above a c+ until they improve in run blocking.

i agree with the sentiment on the te's, especially busta, and i would like to see bruce and ace get more balls as well. let's hope the lb's get their shit together by this saturday. we can't let their fb beat us up the middle. shut that down, and the option becomes more predictable.

[LegalCock]

Good point. Last game was probably the best special teams performance of the season. Delayed reaction?

[Acockolypse Now]

No, more of a reaction to our horrible kick-offs until we finally started TRYING to get touch-backs.

The ST coach thing was a bit of an overreaction, I'll give you. Perhaps I should have been more muted in my criticism, but I can't stand watching us try to pin somebody deep only to have them start from the 40. It's frustrating as hell.

I've always ranked WR/TE together along with CB/S.

I'm lazy like that. I usually talk about both units individually, but I've always given them a single grade.