Carrying Cord: A USF Football Pod
Carrying Cord: A USF Football Pod
Blazed and Confused (UAB Recap)
Send us whatever is on your mind.
I don't know man, we lost in epic fashion. The guys try not to overreact but in USF fashion they fail at that too. Tune in for solace and comfort.
oh my god, oh the humanity. Won't someone please think of the children?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Oh no Pooka, what happened? Did Trent Dilfer steal all the donations from the charity like the Grinch? Nice,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:No, not the children of the harbor. The poor USF fans that had to watch that. Oh my god. So this is what losing looks like? Who would have thought?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Not me.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh my god. It feels like it's my first time all over again. Folks, it's Karen Korn. And well, that sucked. But, reality is a bitch. Hey! We're three and three and I think that's better than most people could have hoped for this season so far. What do you think, Red?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah, that's definitely better than I thought. We know that. and... We'll get into this, but, breaking down all of the different aspects of this game, and then we'll quickly burn the tape and bleach our eyes and try to forget about it, and hopefully we're not recapping endless amounts of losses like we had to last season,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I just, maybe we don't burn the tape. maybe we play it in the locker room over and over again. Like one of those CIA black site type things where, but instead of heavy metal, we just play the sound of UAB scoring like seven million touchdowns.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I think we tried that experiment without playing the tape over and over, just by playing games over and over all of last year, and It didn't seem to, improve the players, no.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Here's the thing, it doesn't work when you suck. So, there's gotta, the idea has to be that it's repairing motivation. yeah, it can't repair lack of skill. But I mean, okay. We lost. is it finally done?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Oh my god, that game would never end. The announces were awful, the refs were awful. Fucking watching Trent Dilfer on the sidelines was awful.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:He was just stoic. Do something. I felt like that meme where they poke him with a stick. And do something like how are you gonna scream at your coaches and then not do anything just be completely stoic on the sideline
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:did scream at the refs that one time for completely legitimate reasons. Call by the refs, but that was like in the dying minutes of the game. You may have stopped watching by that point because for some reason, both teams continued to play like this was a tie ball game up until the final five seconds.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Kept go for it. Even ESPN was like we're done. We're done. We're
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:they switched it over to ESPN news.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah, like we're not even doing this anymore no, I watched the whole game all the way through I put it on mute because after a while I just couldn't listen to it And I watched probably the last 10 minutes on mute, but, yeah,
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:should have done that a lot earlier and just listened to, the USF radio broadcast instead, but good god, it was... Obviously, the game itself did not improve my mood about anything, but yeah, 3 3 man, that's okay. That's, we gotta look big picture. It's a shitty ass game. We're 2 1 in conference. That was our first conference loss in, how long? Long time, right?
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I think three games, I don't think it was necessarily that long I saw this on online on Reddit and I thought this was actually a good thing. It's like, I guess we all kind of forgot or maybe thought that we skipped the rebuilding phase of a program. And I mean like, you know, this is only six games for goalish. It's, we're not, it's not going to be, there's going to be highs and lows and we saw kind of the stutter start in a season, in a new program. there's gonna be these moments of these two steps forward, one step back. This is gonna happen.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah. for sure. And I think what's important to remember is even the ones that have been highs to date have not been perfect games. this was by far not a perfect, positive game. but we still saw some of the same problems we saw in other games that ideally, you know, we still have potential to get. Not just better from this game, but potential to be better. I feel like we all thought it was just going to be straight upward trajectory. That we were going to fix all the problems from the other games. And keep doing the things we were doing right. And it's nowhere but up from here. Like no, other things are going to break. We're going to keep doing some of the same. Some of the problems are just talent and aren't going to get fixed this year. We're going to, and some of the problems are created because we're trying to scheme around talent and those types of things. Six games in. We're still, have goals on the season at
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah, ha. I mean, the season's not done. Last season, six games in, it was like, alright, do we win another game? Right now it's Hey, we're, we still have the potential to go bowling, right? It almost feels blasphemous to say it.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:It does. it. does now. it felt great to say it last week, and now it sounds like it's completely out of the realm of possibility. So it's just the highs and the swings of everything here.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:highs and lows. The other thing is we talked about losing and forgetting how to win, but I feel like when you start winning, you get a little complacent and you forget what losing means, right? You need to get punched in the mouth to know, like you are not impervious to losing. You are not impervious to making mistakes. Teams will capitalize on your weaknesses and I mean, you just need to be able Next play mentality next game mentality. I mean we have FAU next week. Let's roll. Let's put this one behind us Let's learn and let's roll.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Hopefully when we're at home for FAU next week, we got more fans than there were in stands for that game because Jesus, I thought our attendance was bad. There was like 10 people behind the goalposts when the shots
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:even know if they had did people know there was a football game. It's the first conference home game nobody
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:In your brand new conference, FAUAB. Yeah exactly.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:And then, I thought it was kind of funny, about halfway through the game, they, showed, the five students, and they were like, Vote for the best Taco Bell student section. I was like, I don't know if that's
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Man, if they win, you know, you figure Taco Bell allocates like 10, 000 or something to that. Those five students are getting a big chunk of
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah, exactly, those five students were like, oh my god, I'm rich. I'm gonna waste it on Natty Light Kegs or something.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:But supposedly there was 23, 000 there was the announced attendance.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:What?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:need Joey Knight to go investigate That for us. Really put journalistic powers to good use.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Go do something else, man. That, that, feels like some fake inauguration numbers. Like I just don't, how do you get to 23, 000? I don't think there were 23 people.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:One thing I did notice, though, is even in the dying, waning moments of the fourth quarter where there was nothing going on, you could hear a little USF chant from some of the...
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh yeah.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:coming through. So that's nice support.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:There was also, they had one of the microphones, apparently there was some Birmingham special up in the higher rows like next to the camera, the microphone who would weigh in on some of the plays and you could hear him. So there was like one of those late catches. I don't know if it was like Brown Stevens or who it was, but he was like sliding
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Oh, that was Atkins. Yeah. I remember that one. Yeah, he was definitely out. by the way, but
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:was definitely
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:finally, that was the one time the refs finally were like, you know, we just gotta get this game over
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:just, let's
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:this
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:moving. But all of a sudden, as you watch, as you get ready for the replay here, I'm pretty sure he was out of
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah. Yeah. No, I heard
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:that guy knows what he's talking about. So this was the Children of Harbor game. We knew, I mean, going into this, they were 5 1, now they're 6 1 in this game. Never underestimate the power of the kids.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:well, the one thing I didn't realize they were doing was putting the names of the kids on the jerseys going into it. And I felt like that really fucked with us. I think That was our tackling problem. Because we don't want to go blow up sick or dead kids, you know,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I'm just a child.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:exactly,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:It's I can't hit that guy.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I mean, that's my only explanation for why we decided we just weren't going to touch anyone this week.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh, man.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:on the good side of that though, you know, a lot of USF fans, done like a pledge to donate. To that charity based on whatever the final score was I Would like to remind and I have seen them follow through with that. So that's great I just want to remind people when you do something like that You may be thinking oh, we're gonna we're gonna destroy this team and whatever amount of points I'll feel happy with my donation, but you still gotta you gotta do it when those 91 is the total if you're pledging by the number of points and folks most of those were not in our favor
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh, man. Come on, folks.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah, football gods are always watching too. So if you think a Woody curse is bad, just wait until, You know, follow through on donating to SickKids.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:You gotta donate to sick kids. I mean, I didn't donate.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I'm not saying everybody needs to donate. I'm just saying if you pledge to donate, you gotta
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh yeah. See, that's what you get. keep your shit to yourself, so that you don't get held accountable in the public space, like we're doing. I didn't promise. I didn't promise to donate, cause we're in a fucking recession, man. I'm not trying to spend any damn money. I'm sorry, I feel for these kids, but health care is capitalism. Anyway, moving on.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:We gave them a, we gave them lots of free pub instead,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah, we helped out. Children's Harbor. I do hope they, I do hope they did well with donations and good on
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:What did you think of those Children's Harbor uniforms? And then we can get into our own.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Ooh,
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:feel right, I don't feel like putting, feel right putting their uniforms into our hot and not segment, but I feel like we can lead into it with it.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I hated their uniforms. I thought they were ugly. I hated the color scheme. I hated the slime with it. we had some people in the group chat who did not share the same opinion, but I thought they were... Ugly and then it's the other thing where you put a kid's name on the back and you're like I can't make fun of that But you can you can't that was a shit color scheme I thought it looked disgusting. I hated it
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I wasn't a fan, definitely, and I also, you know, like you said with the kid's name on the back, that's cool, but it's also really fucking confusing of who's who out there.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:jay
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:done the Toy Story mode and just use some technology to broadcast a kid over on top of the regularly
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh, man, that's brutal But you know what if it were me what I would do if you're gonna do something like that because you're already spending money Put their name on the helmet Get a decal, right? Get a decal with the kids names or something like that and put it on the helmet or just say, Hey, beforehand, like these are the numbers that are linked to this. don't change. I think it's a cool idea to put the names on the jerseys, but it just makes everything really difficult. So if you're going to spend money, keep the names and put a, put their name on a decal.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I'm also curious about that. Did they have a draft? did players get to go oh, I want this kid's name, I've met this kid in the hospitals, stuff like that. Or was it just Hey, here's a random name, because you know a lot of'em, if that's the case, don't have the same connection to that name or whatever.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:But that's the thing. I was also thinking of well, who's the unlucky kid. Who's not only sick. But his name is on the back of the third string punter, right? he's not even gonna see his name. How much does that suck?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:his name's on the player who's missing tackles and getting blown up out there and
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:he's what a horrible play by number 12.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Little Johnny. misses another tackle.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh mom, can we turn it off? I don't feel well. Brutal. I mean that takes us into hot or not. Ooh, hot or not uniforms where we talk about our uniforms. I'm going to talk about an unrelated equipment thing. Let's talk about our uniforms first. But I saw something that I think was bad equipment sportsmanship.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:with the ever watchful eye. Yeah. I mean, my take on the uniform is pretty fast. White on white. Hate it. Gold helmet. Fine. Burn the all whites, man. We're owing two of them.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah. Gotta get
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:of them. Give me some green pants. Bright jersey, green pants, all the way.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:White and greens I something up with the decal on our helmets. I don't know what it is, I don't know if there's like a gold fleck in the decal or there's something in there that makes it almost look like it's bubbling on the TV coverage when you see it something up with the decal. I like the helmets. I like the decals, but something's up with it. Now. The equipment thing I saw is what some folks might not know about equipment. When you go to away games, it's actually a lot of times the way team that gives ball boys to the home side is, and it's usually the equipment managers that do this. So those ball boys you see on the sideline are USF equipment managers. So the, if you go back and watch the game, you'll see our guys kind of like calling for the ball, calling for whatever there was a, I can't remember what touchdown it was. I think it was like, I don't know, the fourth or fifth touchdown by their Brown. And the ball boy went over because the players took the ball over the sideline and he was trying to get the ball back because you have to get that ball back, you have to get the ball back from them and as he's going, he's reaching for the ball, one of the players who's congratulating Brown on the bench turns around and smacks the ball out of the equipment manager's hand and the equipment manager's just standing there looking at him like, really man? And that's the thing guys, it's not just sportsmanship on the field, these guys are just doing a job. These guys, the equipment managers are there all damn day. They're doing a job that's not glamorous. I understand you're feeling the emotion of the game, and feeling excited to take it to it. It's just a fucking ball boy. Give him the ball and move on. Oh, I was heated when I saw that. Go back, you can see it. You can watch it. I mean, it's pretty hard to miss. And it was definitely deliberate. God, act like you've been here before, which UAB hasn't. They're 1 and 4 coming into it, and it makes a lot of sense now. But, I mean, don't do that to the ball boy. Cause then he's standin there you're feelin silly. Like he's, you gotta, pick up the ball off the ground. Like you could've just handed it to him. Be a fuckin good sport, you asshole.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Agreed. Usually if you're on the opposing sideline like that, that was my job a lot of times on road games. There's usually, you usually get introduced to a strength coach or one of the, or maybe even the head coach. Someone like that who's gonna be like, hey, if anyone on the sideline gives you a problem. Let me know, just to set the tone of hey, you're obviously alone in opposing territory essentially, right, for most of the
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:you, on that same note, you don't cause shit, You keep your mouth shut, and you're,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:You just
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:right, exactly,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:boys lookin scared for their lives and not sayin shit.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:and you stay out of the way too, cause obviously there's like a lot of substitutions and play calls and stuff like that, and no one wants to think you're spying or something, shit. like that over there, but, Yeah, yeah.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:it's already not an easy thing. And that's the thing. It's not like you're going to run to the coach and be like, he just hit the
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Oh, no, but yeah, I don't mean that as like a tattletale, more of just like a, he'll say something like that in front of people just to set the tone early of
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:hey. The other thing is fans. If you get a ball, give it back to the equipment manager, because you may think, Oh, it's fucking free football. Woo. And you know, kick goes into the stands or whatever. I'm taking this home with me. Yeah. The only problem is there's official game ball. Like we don't have an unlimited number of game balls for a game. if you get a practice ball or something during warmups, whatever. Liesl hate this, but fucking steal that ball and run with it.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Take that ball and go. Cause we got bags of those things.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:But game balls. Those have to get signed off by the refs, there's a limited number of those, so you gotta get those back for the game to continue.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:You'll actually see if you look. and maybe folks have seen this. Maybe they haven't usually in the white stripe on a football. You will see maybe the refs initials or something. or they'll write something in there showing that they have looked at that ball beforehand because you have to bring all of the game balls to the rest for them to look at. And I mean, there was, we could talk ad nauseam about the game balls because there's a lot that goes into prepping the game balls. They don't get busted out till the end of the week. Like you are scrubbing them. I don't know if they're still doing it this way, but I mean, it used to take, I remember, it was Steve and I, we would work game balls, where you're taking a wet rag, and you're wiping them down, and you're scrubbing them, and you're wiping them, you're scrubbing, you're doing a lot to prep, you're checking the, inflation on those things, there's a lot that goes in the game balls.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:And that's our episode for this week, folks.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah, and that's it. We don't even gotta talk about what the fuck happened on the field. Did you know about game balls? Did you know there's a football on the field?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:ha! The footballs were, the gameballs were definitely the problem with our performance, for sure. but Yeah. Let's recap this shit, I guess. We'll go through it
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:guess. You know what? You were
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I don't want to be right. I don't want to be a fucking sourpuss over here about I knew this was gonna happen like fuck I will say the one good part about being right is, even though I had the, I did actually predict a loss this week, but I was worried that if we kept winning when I was predicting losses that I would never be able to do anything but predict a loss, you know, there's going to be a mojo thing. So this one
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Sure.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:kind of gets that monkey off my back and I can just not worry
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh, well, thank God. Thank God we've gotten the monkey off your back, Red.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:appreciate it. But, yeah, I mean, we.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:gonna, you're just not gonna win that game playing the way we did. There's just no way.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Too many mistakes, like I said. We're still a very mistake prone team. But also beyond that, we just got straight up beat to a man. across the board. In the trenches, one on one battles outside. Tackling everywhere. if it was mano a mano, they won. and Yeah. I mean, let's go through the different units. Offensively, One thing I asked for was a unique game plan, like a wrinkle that they weren't going to be ready for, they wouldn't be stopped. We actually got that. That little QB draw, we put that in based on their coverages and it worked pretty much every time. Got the huge opening touchdown with it. Now the one thing with that is I'd like it to be more of a wrinkle and Less of a, hey, this is our go to play. Yeah.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:This is what we're
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:it works even better if we can pull that out in key situations, or in, in like our actual normal run game works, which it didn't again, which was another one of our keys. early down success at the run game just wasn't there still. I mean, how many times were we in second and long and then we're trying to chuck it deep and then third and long and we're trying to chuck it deep and then fourth and long and we're still just trying to chuck it deep because we're just constantly behind the sticks the whole way.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:There were, there was those three plays where it's like we chuck it deep three plays in a row, and it hits the defender's hands, and finally on the third one he caught it. It was like, how many opportunities are we gonna give you, man? And that just... they just threw off our rhythm early on. And when this offense can't get into a rhythm,
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah, we were forcing things both within series because of like exactly he said, you know, just over and over and then obviously the score made us force things as well too. I mean, it was weird. The whole game was just forced offensively, which just can't have for down two scores every week. That's what's going to happen. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter how bad a defense is if they know exactly what you're going to do each time because you're just forced into it based on the down and the situation. Yeah.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:cause we have no choice.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I say it doesn't matter how bad your defense is if you know what you're gonna do, but does when it's our defense, apparently. we asked for them to get after the QB, didn't really happen. He had a high completion percentage still. We got two sacks, but
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:What was his, he was
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:he was like, 20 for 24 or something like that, 20 for 29 maybe, I don't know.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:20 for 29 with one interception, what a wild completion percentage.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah. I mean, he also stopped playing at the end of the third quarter or so, We asked for no easy touchdowns. I think that was probably the biggest red flag. Maybe. No, I think even, you know, that was a problem. The biggest red flag though, was we asked for them to tackle. and that was just apparently no. go on the tackling this week. I don't.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I mean, they just, oh... I don't know, let's not even get into it just yet because that was bad. They did not tackle, arm tackles, guys overrunning tackles, bad angles. I mean, we even got penetration in the backfield and then they would just be, this was the defensive old, where it's like, Ooh, we got back there. And then it's just standing there.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I don't know if it was, certainly there. was a problem with the turf of slipping, but it almost felt like our guys were. And this is easy to blame conditions, but I don't know why, like those situations where you talk about, we'd have a D lineman coming through untouched and he'd just get like his feet stuck in the ground And the guy would be gone. you're like, Oh, he's going to destroy him. DJ Gordon had one where he came untouched. That was one of their touchdown runs. He blitzed through the hole and then was just like, Oh, there goes the running back. I'm not going to try and tackle him.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:And you're just standing there. And it's are you tired? Are maybe your
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:know what it was.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I know Kay said, and I don't necessarily disagree with this, maybe a little bit of hangover from playing the triple option, of just that's such an exhausting defense to play. but, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, that's tough.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I don't know. I mean. The Navy hangover was a thing, certainly the past where they could cut block you all over the place and you were just physically destroyed after a game against Navy, just your knees and everything you're just done for. Rules don't really let them do that the same anymore. I mean, but even a lot of the concepts that we were getting beat on, you would have thought Navy would have prepared us for like with those end arounds and things where you're having to be disciplined in your gap. And watch each of the different ball, potential ball carries and all that kind of stuff. And we were just getting destroyed on all of it. And, Yeah.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I mean, it doesn't help. Well, let's talk about it, because the penalties, it doesn't help the penalties, and it doesn't help some egregious holds that were missed. Oh my god, did the refs miss some wild holds. I mean guys, arms up in the air, they're already past the O lineman or the offensive blocker and it's they're still being held. Oh my
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:One of their touchdown passes, or maybe it wasn't actually a touchdown pass, but one of their touchdown drives they had like a fourth down conversion or something. And RDN does like a loop and he's coming through and just gets literally tackled from behind. It was just egregious and there was no call.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:There was no call and that's the thing they're throwing flags and reviewing all this other shit The holds that they got away with and we're not gonna blame it all on holds It's not gonna be like, oh, we lost on penalties, but it's like god bless America. We could have used a couple of those
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:the penalty, they had penalties too. It wasn't even there weren't the Just dumb penalties like we've seen, but it was just, I don't know. There was a lack of penalties in certain situations. I'm glad, one thing I'm glad of, there was no end of game or down by four touchdowns. We're going to fight unsportsmanlike penalties. You know, there was some chirping back and forth, but we kept it smart and guys would pull each other apart and go off the field and stuff like that.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:there was that There was that late hit that you ate you might be played a little chippy They got that late hit one. They were 11 for 74 on penalties. We were only 9 and 86. I mean, that's a huge change last week when we were like, what, 1 for 12 yards? But I mean, It's gonna
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:And maybe that's where some of the Navy hangover that you and Kay were talking about comes in of like last week is a very clean game, will, against Navy, you know, they're, they know what they're doing. They're running it just disciplined in there. playing it and we're just kind of playing them straight up, if you will. This week is a little more of a dog fight, you know? And you gotta be ready for that fight. And I feel like we weren't. We got kind of blown back a little bit because we just weren't ready for that nastiness of what this was gonna be like.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Well, you know whose fault that is.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:There's only one man whose fault it could be.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Hey! Should we fire Coach Alex Golas yet?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I don't... know, should we? I mean, we talked about last week, he's setting the bar in reasonably high by winning. That was his first mistake. He thought he could win games and get away with it.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I'm gonna need you to stop winning, sir. Please, if you could quit doing that. Yeah, he lost. So he's not meeting his own standard.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yep, he fucked up. That's what, you know, whenever you take a new job, now I'm a little bit serious about this, maybe not when it comes to football coaching, always gotta underperform compared to what you do. So then people are like, Oh. okay, so that's a standard.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Mm
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:And then they really need you to do something, you know, they ask for you to put in that overtime, then you can always just bump up that effort whenever you need to, within your standards, without really having
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:that maximum effort. Yeah.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:so you're like a 75 percent effort and then like when the task comes around it's oh we got a really heavy deadline, you're like I've got 25 percent left in the tank.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Exactly.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I'm ready to bring this to bear.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Doesn't really work when it comes to a football program, because you kind of need, full effort all the time. You're competing against people versus just competing against yourself,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:That's what Jeff Scott tried it,
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:he was keeping it in the tank. for when we made that bowl game eventually, or that.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah, because he, I, what did he, I think he said sometime, we're not, we're not trying, we're trying for progress, not perfection, and I'm seeing progress or something like that. that's a 75 percent in the tank kind of statement there.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah. Keeping them thinking about, keep it in the tank. What about, what do you think about perhaps saving Byron Brown for another game?
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh my god, what were we doing? What were we doing? This is a legitimate, I understand fight until the end. Oh my gosh, I understand, we are not waving the white flag, that does not seem like, Alex Gholish's thing where he's going to just kind of give in no matter what. But we still have a full conference slate. We still have to go out and play and you're still running Byron Brown. You're still getting him out there where he could potentially get hurt. You've got all your starters. Now, there was a point where the broadcast said, I can't believe USF has all their starters still out there. I'm like, who else do we have? You know, it's not like we have a shit ton of people that we could put out there, but also Put Bryce Archie out there. Just do it. Just get him some in game reps in conference to a game That's already lost and I think what happened there is when UAB saw us doing that like they were still they didn't even go victory Formation at the end. They were still legitimately running the ball to the very last play of the
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yup. yeah I think we pissed, I don't, I didn't see any bad blood necessarily between Golish and Dilfer, but I felt like, Yeah there was definitely a little bit of. Fuck you, you're doing this, I'm gonna do this, type of thing at the end,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:But, I don't know. I go back and forth. I'm a very... My own personal opinion would be, get the guys out of there, it's a lost cause. Hey, save it and fight another day, right? But to have that kind of belief in that you can win any football game, that it's never over until it's over. You have to kind of walk the walk, right? If you're going to talk the talk. I mean, you look at... something like the Georgia Tech Miami game, where it's not over till it's over. Coming down to the very final play, well, or the Baylor UCF game the week before, of if Baylor gives up in the fourth quarter, they don't get this miracle comeback. Well, if you
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:on it, then it's never going to happen. it's not what I would do, but I understand the thinking behind it.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:And I like that. I like that way to motivate a program. It's a balance, right? I mean, just look at, with the Red River Showdown that was right before this game that came down to the last... The last drive, like the last play, I mean, you never want your guys to give up. And so that's this tough thing in college football. I think there has to be a little bit more caution when you really struggle with depth, right? Where there needs to be a little bit of like gathering the team on the sideline and being like, all right. We're not giving up. We're still playing, but we need to look forward, right? We need to play strategically. And this kind of gets into where maybe people have a legitimate complaint about Alex Gola. She could be a little bit too aggressive.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Sure. With the onside kick, with just the non stop fourth downs, all that kind of stuff, Yeah,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:but I mean, he's got a style and he's playing it. He is exactly who he told us he was.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:it's good. It's facts, final, question about should we fire Alex Golish, I guess, is trust the process becoming the new, program around the press conference and coach speak. Is that going to start wearing on people here?
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah, it 100 percent is. Trust the process. I'm done with the process, man. I want to be at the outcome. I want to be done. You want to know what I want to be done with? This game, but we got to highlight it. Let's talk
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I'm going, quick through. this, man. process wasn't right this week. It result, here are the results. just the first half. What the fuck happened? I don't know. Hey, we go up seven, nothing with a nice opening touchdown drive. we're not going to sport spot the other team of 14 point lead this week. Hooray. Oh fuck. Nevermind. After that, it was a two play TD for them. then we had the infamous throw three INTs in a row to them, But they only catch the last one.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:They only catch the last one which is wild to
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:then the 61 yard touchdown for them. And then we come back and fumble on the next play. And next thing we know, it's 21 7 and there's that 14 point hole. You know, that was just shades of last year.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:huh.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I had hope again because... They were driving, we got the interception in the red zone, and then we come down and score a touchdown. Hey, we can, maybe we're gonna climb out of this. It's a game. 21 14. Again, never mind. They just, this is probably where the most backbreaking part was for me, of Fuck, this is over. They just drove the, like their other touchdowns have been one play type stuff. We can get it corrected if we defend it right. This one, they just drove the field. They had different conversions in there, all that kind of stuff, and Then we just punted it right back to them, and they did the same thing again, and then we punted it back to them And yeah, it's 35 14 now at the half. For the second quarter, I don't know if you? know this, up until the like end of the two minute drive or whatever, We had zero yards in the entire second quarter. We ended with 10 yards or something like that. Like it was just so
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:surprised our entire offense and here's the thing all those mistakes that the interceptions and the fumble were Byron Brown and all the touchdowns were Byron Brown. There was no other because he Up to that point, those 14 points, he had rushed both those touchdowns in, right? there was no other offense mistakes or positives that were there. So I'm not surprised because we just couldn't get any rhythm going. We couldn't get, and then the defense is getting out there. And, I mean, the defense could stop a sick kid from scoring a touchdown.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:They could have put the actual children of the harbor or whatever out there, and they would have been scoring.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:And they would have been scoring, we would have been down 35 14 and a half.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:So that was the half. The second half, I don't even know if you can call that football. The first drive, they come out, we get a huge stop, you can see the coaches trying to build the team off of that, get some momentum. Nope. We go four and out, turn it over on downs, they come right down and score a touchdown again. So now it's a four score game. And the rest of the game was just, like we said, just fucking a battle of who can be more stubborn that this game isn't over.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:back and forth, going forward on fourth downs. I mean, our stat line in the second half is we had three turnover on downs, one interception, and three touchdowns. like you were kind of saying about Brian Brown, it was just boom or bust all day. We were desperate. We were just pushing it back and forth. It was,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:it's just brutal and that just sucks to watch. It was like watching an old yeller, right? We're like everybody's
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:just put him down already, please.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:just please God make it stop and everybody's crying nope We're going for it. It's oh
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Nope, we're giving Old Yeller the shot of steroids. He's gonna...
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I got him this, I don't know, blue Buffalo dog food. And we're going to put them out there
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:We got some ivermectin for him
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I found this light bulb. Let's put it up his ass. And then he's like running down the field.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:oh yeah, he scored a touchdown. Yeah, it worked. Oh, no Now he's collapsed again. Okay. Yeah.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:dead. That's all he had left.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:All
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:So
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:was the game
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:we lost out of newsflash. We lost.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I feel bad about doing the Matt Hill Player of the Week award. One, because he's barely playing anymore, He shouldn't be singled out. But the whole team played awful, so I don't know what one player I want to give it to.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:It's gonna be the Todd Orlando player of the week because the defense was
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I like it.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:The defense was that bad. I mean, there was this one point in the beginning when we were trying to review that, the onside kick and they did like that
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:back angle?
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:from the back angle and you can't see it because Matt Hill is just in the fucking way. How are you always in the way? For me, because it's the bad players this week. It is the entire receiver room. I don't know what you all are doing. I don't know what game you all were trying to play. Yeah. Catch the ball. Run your route. They weren't getting the best passes to them. Understand that. But fight for the ball. High pointed. you understand this is football, right? This is not pitch and catch. This isn't skelly. This isn't 7 on 7. Go get the fucking ball.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:That includes the tight ends, too, because...
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh, I'm not even talking
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:know this is your fuckin Player of the Week award, but... Fuckin Weston Wolf on that one INT is Just walkin across the goddamn field.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:What are you even doing, man? Get over there and fight We don't have Titans. Tight ends are dead to me. We have no tight ends.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I'm not done on the tight ends. I'm sorry. You just, you got me started and I can't stop. And then we'd run that little, play action, hit the tight end and the flat pass. Every other team hits that, it's wide open, the tight end rumbles for 10 15 yards, there's wide open space. Our tight ends catch it, it doesn't matter which tight end it was, Gunner, or Wolf, or even. Little John out there.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Uh
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:they catch it, they take fucking 15 seconds to turn around from catching it and turn themselves up field. And it's just a two yard game,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:If even.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:there's no one on the screen when they catch the ball. And then it's oh, we didn't get anything, okay,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:What? we don't have a tight end room. I don't care. We just need to go, they just need to be blocking every play. Do not use them in passing. Get our offensive line a little bit of help, and that's it.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah. mine's going to go to just the entire DB room, I guess. we're maybe hurt by injury. Some on the outside at corner with, Brown going out, but inside at safety and nickel, I mean, the ever reliable Evans was just bad this week, just missing tackles, indecisive, had some bad penalties and coverage and stuff too. Just getting toasted in man coverage. I don't know if he was just still banged up or what. And then Barry Hill, God, he. I think three of their touchdowns were just results of bad angles or missed tackles by him. I mean, sometimes it wasn't just, he'd missed the tackle. He'd missed, he'd take a tackle. Our guy who maybe could have made a play on the,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:that one where he like misses a tackle and then takes out like two or three defenders at the same time. That was some like,
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:for sure. I feel. Conflicted putting Beryl in there because I did I don't know if you saw this, but for the post game press conference, they threw him to the wolves. Like, Hey man, you just had the worst game of your life. Go talk to the media about it. which is fine if you're an NFL player, but usually for college, they try to stick to the guys who hadn't an all right game or leaders, I guess. But he's one of our leaders, I suppose. but yeah. he took full accountability out there. It was like, Hey, I got to make those plays. I got to make those tackles. It wasn't a scheme thing. It wasn't a preparation. We knew what plays they were running. It wasn't anything like that. It was not a bad week of practice in his opinion. It was just, hey, you got to make the plays when they're there to be made. And it's not even, hey, I got to blow that up for a loss or anything like that. It's my job is to make the tackle 20 yards downfield. Someone else has already made a mistake for it to get to that point, but I can't let it get worse. I got to stop it from being a touchdown, which he didn't do today. So
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Well, at least he took some
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:yeah, I liked the
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:like a plane crash, where it's very rarely, there's so much redundancy built in. Very rarely does a plane crash happen because of one mistake. Usually it's a collection of mistakes. And, I don't know, that, Barry Hill missing the tackle is like the pilot being drunk. It's like the very last mistake.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I mean, unless you're Denzel Washington, I don't feel like you usually survive the plane crash to, get to talk about and take accountability for it.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:By the way... Spoiler alert. What happened in that movie is not possible. just want y'all to know.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:You know what else is impossible?
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:What?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Some of those Matt Grothy, holy shit, how do you do that play of the games?
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Holy shit, how did he do that? Were there some good...
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:It's kind of mediocre how they do that play.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh, yeah.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:my one, Matt Hill doing a kickoff return. Apparently, we only think it's possible to do fair catches. So to actually see him take one off for 60 yards is kind of nice.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:That was
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Didn't know that was possible.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:good about that?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:there's another one too where Atkins caught like a, he did a couple times where he'd catch like the slant or the hitch, but on the back shoulder. So he'd spin out of it. There was one where he made three guys miss to fight for a first down. That was the closest I had to a holy shit. How'd he do that.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I saw him doing that a couple of times and I'm like, man, he just, it's so ingrained in how he catches the ball where it was just natural. He's catching the ball and he's spinning
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah. Using that momentum.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:there. Yeah. And, I mean, that's just, that's a sign of talent.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:There you go.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:The guy's going to be playing in the league. He was a walk on.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Boom. one going the other way was, the onside kick. I mean, we both had onside kicks and they were just completely different, results. Theirs was perfectly dribbled to the ten and, you know, it was a battle and we're saved by the skin of our teeth if they blocked us too soon. Ours, we fucking kick it straight to the guy and he almost returns it for a touchdown.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:How bold to just open the game up with an onside kick that they almost
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah, they probably should have had it, to be honest, but...
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah, I think we got kind of lucky,
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:It's, that's, it just goes to how hard it is to do an onside kick in today's rules of you can't make contact before the ball has gone 10 yards, you can't touch it before, so basically all a defender has to do is stand exactly at 10 yards
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:and just get the
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:and get the ball. because you can't touch him,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Mm
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:you, and he can come forward if he wants to get the ball, if he initiates the contact, then it's not a penalty and stuff like that, but it's just so hard to do, and even if you do a one bouncer, you can technically fair catch those now, so it's so hard to get an onside kick with today's rules.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Well, they tried. They
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:and They almost did. that just goes to our... our ineptitude there.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:And it also goes to the refs. Cause refs kinda, I don't know that they got that necessarily right. And I mean they were reviewing everything at the beginning of the game. They just it was like the first couple minutes of the game we had three reviews already. What are we doing
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:They didn't stop at just the beginning of the game. It was, like, two minutes left and they're still doing reviews of spotting the ball and all that kind of shit. They just looked confused the whole time. They were calling dumb penalties. there was one the announcers even called out of, they, caught Golesh, laughing or smirking on the sidelines after the refs called a penalty. It was just like, what the fuck, guys? this game's over.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:what can you even do? I think my biggest complaint with the refs is just like those, the misholding calls and that's, I will say this, that when you're out there, you're playing and you're playing your ass off and you're getting held there, it starts to chip away. You start to become demoralized. there's nothing more I can do. I'm getting held on the outside. Like I'm there to make the play and I'm not getting any help. Right? And so you start to play a little emotional, you start to lose the fundamentals, and those big plays start opening up. I mean, good for UAB. Good for UAB getting away with it. Tried Dilfer. We got Dilfed.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah, you become a little jaded out there and you quit trying to fight through it and or you go the other way And you're like, well, they're gonna get away with that. Can I get away with this that type of stuff? And I mean to be fair, I don't think it cost us the game Like I didn't think it was unfairly roughed one way or the other right like we were it was pretty even in the end But... Yeah. we just got a again. That's that mentality of hey things aren't gonna go your way It's not gonna be a clean game. You got to fight through it
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:You know what? We didn't fight through.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Well, we gotta learn to fight through it.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah. You got creamed!
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I got nothing.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I got nothing. We got great. I mean, there was some damn good blocks. there was on, I don't know if it was UAB's first or second touchdown out of the 17 that they had. but there was a bad ass block on the outside that just opened up around their runner. I mean, we got stuck. I'd have to go back and see what it was, but that block was CLEAN. And then Barry Hill just took a horrible angle.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah. I
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:But, whoever that was on the USF defense, you got creamed.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:think it was Logan.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah, got just straight up creamed. You just, what do you do in that situation? You just lay on the turf and think about your life. this is, this sucks. You got creamed. Which... Takes us kind of into the fact that we're the ones that got creamed. Dad, dammit,
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Goddammit, we got creamed.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:gammit. We got creamed. We had a lot of coaching mistakes. How do you pick just one?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah, I mean, like we talked about the Byron Brown turnovers. I mean, a lot of that's on coaching, too, of just situational stuff. I mean, the fumble isn't. I mean, he's just gotta have better ball security there, but the... First INT, certainly, I felt like we were just trying to take the shot too much. and then the second INT late in the game was definitely us just heaving the ball over the place at that point. the one that really infuriated me was, Jaden Alexis just dropping the touchdown. That was,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:And these like legs crumble underneath him at the same time as he's trying to catch it. what are you doing, man?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:was just, I guess it just
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Mm-hmm.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:outside shoulder instead of the inside shoulder, but he just, And then of course the ultimate dagamits is just nightmares of last year with these one play touchdowns of missing tackles. Oh, they're hitting a reverse. We got some guys flown to the football. Maybe this'll be a five, 10 year. Oh, nope. That's a touchdown. Dagamit.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:D Gambit. That's Because that was last year's defense. That's like it too. Remember like the kids get old, they grow up and they think the clown is gone. But then all of a sudden they start having visions of the clown again. Like they've gone decades without seeing Pennywise. I feel like that's what, we went a couple games without seeing last year's defense. And then all of a sudden, pops up on the sideline like, Hey, we got candy down here. You wanna miss some tackles?
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:This is brutal.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I mean, it was brutal, but it was a good humbling. I think I can. Motivate us, if used correctly, if, absorbed and taken, take the lesson away, right? I mean, Golish called it, it's important not to necessarily have an emotional response this week, which I don't necessarily agree with. I get it, he's saying, you know, if you're truly about your process, you bring the workman mentality every week, and it's not about outside factors dictating your response, right? you're coming with the same attitude to be prepared each week. But on the other hand... It's pretty obvious that people use outside motivation, both real and manufactured, the greatest of all time, Michael Jordan and Brady have both talked about how they would intentionally, make up slights, essentially, from other people who, to, to motivate themselves, right, to get pissed off in the moment and use that anger,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I think to that point, it's like having, it's about motivation and where I think some folks get emotion wrong is they take emotion to change the process, right? I'm going to react. I'm going to lash out. I'm going to change what I'm doing emotionally where MJ and Brady did it is they used emotion to motivate the process they already had
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Right, in the moment, to kind of push it into overdrive, right, yeah.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Whereas like when I respond emotionally, I'm changing everything. I'm throwing the baby out with the bath water. I'm throwing the sick kid in the harbor. Right. and I'm not like, I'm not sticking with what I got. That's where get angry, get pissed off, but use that to motivate you in the process that you've already got going.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Right, we can't get pissed off to go have a good week of practice. Like it's gotta, we can get pissed off for game day or whatever, but if that's, what's motivating you to go practice, well, what happens when you then win, you don't, you're not pissed. So you don't practice anymore for the right way anymore. Right.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Exactly. it's all how you use that emotion. get out there and stick to the process. Stick to the fundamentals. But remember, when that guy is holding you next week, when you get that perfectly done fucking swim move, and he's holding you, punch his ass in the fucking side. Hit him. Punch that motherfucker. No one is paying attention. I mean, do it discreetly. Don't, I'm not condoning, full on haymaker dom in the side. But I mean, dig your thumb in his ribs or something. I don't know.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:You want the, replacements play where just to open the half, we all just drop kick the
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Exactly. Just run out there. What is it where they run down the field, what movie is that? And he just pulls out a nine millimeter and start shooting
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Oh, that's last boy scout.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah. That was the last Boy Scout. Don't do that. Actually, don't do that. I'm not condoning that at all. I don't want that. But it is just let's not get emotional. This is one game at a time. Stick with the process. Stick with it. There's nothing wrong with it. We've seen that it works. We've seen that it can win. There's gonna be times where it works and times where it doesn't. It's not a polished thing yet.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:we talked about it's not a polished process. We saw some things, good and bad, mainly bad in this one. But let's just run through each of the different units. Pass offense. We adjusted to what they would give us. We, can't, at the start we were doing alright with it. With the QB draw and those types of things against the different coverages. But later in the game, we just start trying to go up top every play, and their guys are just playing off coverage, and we're in good position, and you're just banging your head against a wall. but also on that note, sometimes we just need to man up and beat someone. your wide receiver needs to go make a play on a tough 50 50 ball, or just needs to be in man coverage and run a route so that he gets separation. Or your left tackle is one on one with someone and just needs to stonewall that guy and say, you're not getting my quarterback today, and we didn't do that.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:we also didn't catch the ball. And that's, there's no greater drive killer than just not catching the ball. Especially a ball that you should catch.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yep. rushing the ball, we gotta, I don't know what we gotta do. Besides Byron Brown, there's just nothing there.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:It doesn't make sense. Is it that we need another blocker? Is it that the only reason that's so successful is because Wright comes up or Dukes comes up and block? Because we had some success with Dukes.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:And I feel like earlier in the season we had some success with Wright. I don't know what's happened to our run game.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I think it's just, it's just the old line, man. we need some more talent there.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I don't know. Let's just use the tight ends. Not, stop using them in pass. And just use them in rushing offense and that's it. Go heavy all the time.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:The most upsetting part for this game for me was the run defense. Because we'd been praising it all year, how we were making tackles, we were getting penetration, we were getting tackles for a loss. All I can say is don't Do what we did this week. Whatever we did in Run Defense this week, it wasn't, it
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Do the opposite.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:we didn't set the edge. We didn't make tackles when we had guys one-on-one in the hole. We didn't make tackles when we were outside in space. We
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:about assignments on certain guys. Like it was just bad all around.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I have nothing more to say.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Pass defense. I think we knew this was a little bit of a weakness. we managed the two sacks we talked about. Hey, we caught the easy INT this week. Well done Braxton Clark. It was thrown right to You and you caught it.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:You caught it. It hit you in the hands. So they are listening. Now, I wanna call out that you said you thought we were gonna get more than 7 sacks.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Oh, I said that, did I? Yeah.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:go back and listen.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:ha.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Nobody go back and listen to the FOD. But yeah, you definitely said that.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:But... But even more in the past defense this week it really exposed like man coverage is a weakness for us like we just cannot stay with sort of guys on crossers across the middle or double moves and We had some defensive holding and stuff like that where for the bliss doesn't get there Our guys just are not especially when our top guys are out and we're playing deep depth there
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:that's a really kind way to say it. the other piece though is that's where you need the safety help, and without the safety plan, and safety was a weakness for us last season too, we've done a little bit better, but I mean if your safety's not playing well, the whole back end of the field's open. You're not stopping shit.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah. Alright. Well, I'm not even going to talk about special teams. Not much happened there. We barely punted the, you know, there were the onside kicks we talked about. We were just going for it on fourth
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:that takes us into something more fun.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Our happy place, the dumb tweet of the week. this is what we get. We were bitchin last week about, Oh, it's no fun when we win, there are no dumb takes, and... Now there's plenty of dumb takes. But honestly, the game is dumb all around, Even though we're gonna highlight some takes here, It doesn't really, I, don't blame anyone. We're gonna make fun of you, we're gonna mock you, but... We're right there with you, first one is a nice little lady called Nancy Caro. She's a big USF supporter, I've met her in person.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Okay.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:said, this makes me not want to even go to Homecoming.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Ugh.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:You can't have that. You just can't.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Don't do, what? Ugh.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:I know you're a diehard USF fan. You support them through thick and thin. You don't have to put, even if you're thinking that, just leave that thought in your brain. don't need, you don't need to share that with everyone else. That's, Good. news is she has, responded to the tweet and said she is going to Homecoming.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Here's the thing. That's like a parent being like, you didn't clean your room? Well, I'm not coming to your third birthday party because I, it's in protest. come on. We're gonna have bad games like this. don't do that shit. I understand being frustrated. Stick with the team. Stick with the team. It is cool to question. It is cool to call stuff into question and call them to account. But don't be like, you know what, this is like the people that's I'm not buying season tickets until I see results. Okay, well then you're never gonna fucking see results because the school relies on you. Without people in the stands, without people watching the game, We're not getting ticket revenue. We're not getting concessions revenue. We're not and it's gonna be even worse when we have an on campus stadium. Stop using this I'm not going to the game as a way to Think you're holding the team to account because what's gonna happen you think they're gonna fire coach Alex Golich because your ass ain't going homecoming It's not happening. Go to the game. Stop being like this people
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah I mean, the real bad part about that one is all the replies were like, oh man, if she says this, things must be really bad because this is it's like this is your straight A student who hadn't cleaned their room all of a sudden,
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:yeah Hahaha,
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:you want to do this next one from Dr. Twerp at Little Mikey McD.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Little Mikey McD. What is it? He says, I mean, yeah, there's nothing more USF football than dropping a winnable conference game in October after a surprising September, LOL. That 7 5 record is still in play. I mean, he's kinda right. What is more USF? What is more USF than that shit? Oh, I mean, like we do well, we're feeling ourselves. And then all of a sudden we come out and it's it doesn't even make any sense. It makes zero sense about how this happened. I mean, he's right. Seven, five records still in play. So it must've been listening to my preseason picks because we did both pick this as a loss.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:We did. We did.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Yeah, I was just didn't want to be right.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:The, the next one is from that Anthony guy who did the, media rankings, if you want to read that one too.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Oh, yeah. USF Parade. Yeah, the next one. I'm kind of, I'm liking the back forth. I'm liking when we call people out on the pod and then they respond on Twitter or anything like that. And then our social media manager K great at what he does comes right back at you. but at USF parade, he kind of responds after hitting us with the rankings last week. It says, I have never been told fuck you on a national podcast before here are my top USF media of the week. Number one at Karen cord. Fuck you too, guys. First off, no one's ever called us a national podcast before. Let me not necessarily wrong. When I look at the downloads, we're all over, but technically we're international. Less this last pod, we had a download from Chiudad Juarez, Mexico. I said that wrong, We've had a download in Germany before. I don't know if these are just people using VPNs. But I'm saying we're international. And you know what? We really needed this pick me up after this loss.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:It was nice. It was a nice little pick me up. yeah.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:It was a nice little pick me up. Bullspen had a bunch of good content. I can't pick anything. there's always some overreactions and underreactions on the Bullspen. Their game day threads are great. I can't even keep up. cause I'm trying to do it on my phone. To where eventually I just get overstimulated and give up. But I mean, the whole bunch of stuff on there, I can't even pick anything, That was good. That's some good stuff. I mean, read this. This should feel pretty familiar to us. But for some reason it hurts worse than before.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:It's that hope again, man. I mean, I mean, if I really want to get nerdy and technical with you, it's all about kind of like relativity and derivative rates of change. You see like the differential between winning and losing is more than just like consecutive losses over and over again.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about now. All I know is that I no longer feel on top of the world.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:Yeah, me too. I mean, I know I predicted a loss, but this was worse than expected.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:I think that's kind of what kills us, is like, we, maybe at the beginning of the season thought there was going to be a loss. But, ooh, I didn't know it was going to be like that. I didn't know we were about to get bitch slapped. Ash. Y'all tune in later this week. We're going to preview FAU. We're red. He's probably going to predict why this is just the beginning of the downfall of this team, like he does in his doom and gloom. And that there's more losing to come.
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:But hey, that's still better. I'm sure the fans would prefer that to me trying to defend Jeff Scott like I did all of last year.
pookah_1_10-08-2023_105219:Amen, baby. And GO BULLS!
squadcaster-8168_1_10-08-2023_105218:BULLS!