- The Louisville loss and the Nebraska loss were really two sides of the same coin. Louisville stacked the box and dared us to adjust. That's a risky strategy against a team with Phillip Dorsett, but they wanted to dictate the action. We failed to adjust, and we lost. Nebraska ran its two top players into the ground and dared us to stop them. We failed to adjust, and we lost.
The easy thing to do is blame the coordinators-- Coley for Louisville, D'Onofrio for Nebraska. But I know that Coley has a borderline irrational confidence in Kaaya. I have also been told that Coach Golden spends way more time in the offensive meetings than the defensive meetings due to his trust in Coach D and their shared defensive philosophies.
At the end of the day, the head guy is responsible. And what I see is a lack of confidence. For me, one play crystallizes everything. In the fourth quarter, Nebraska ran a pick play in the red zone and got flagged for PI. The confident decision would have been to accept the penalty, take the third and long and potentially force a long field goal. Instead, we declined the penalty, and the kicker barely bounced in a short FG that made it a two-score game.
I have always been patient with head coaches. I grew up in the Butch era and remember a large section of the fan base (including the early message boards) giving up on him before his plan fully came to fruition. But this is a results business. Three years in, the results say that we cannot accomplish the most basic goal of a well-prepared team: stopping the run. When Notre Dame bludgeoned us, we blamed it on youth. When Duke and Virginia Tech killed our season, we were on the cusp but not there yet. Now it's year four, and nothing has changed but the names of the players getting thrown under the bus. The results speak for themselves.
I don't see any coaching changes happening before the end of the season. He will be judged on the end product. I will be at every home game cheering like crazy for a miracle turnaround. But the Golden era is trending in the direction of the Shannon era. Year One was a rebuild. Year Two was when the young players showed signs of life. Year Three brought a brief moment of national relevance followed by a late-season collapse and a dispiriting bowl loss in Orlando. Year Four was when the team quit. Let's see how it plays out.
- One of the saddest things about the loss is that we aren't talking about how special Brad Kaaya is. One-third of the way through the season, he is leading the ACC in passing yards, tied for the lead in passing TDs, and on pace to set the UM single-season touchdown record. His poise and accuracy on the road was astounding. No matter what happens with the coaches, Kaaya gives all UM fans a reason to keep the faith.
- In terms of the players, the most disappointing thing for me has been the safety play. In spring and August camp, these guys were setting tone by playing fast and physical. However, they have started the season by missing tackles, taking horrible angles and at times looking just as slow as Highsmith and Rodgers. This unit needs to make a huge leap if this team wants to make any noise in the ACC.
See you at the Duke game.
