FB (Gator Bowl): Ole Miss 52, Duke 20

I knew their offense was explosive and probably too talented for our defense to handle well, which is why I thought the key was to use the clock to limit their possessions in order to keep us in respectable striking distance. The problem with my strategy is that it is pretty dependent on a decent run game when our run blocking has been a pronounced weakness all season.
ya, whether is be by beefing up the current guys or via portalizing and incoming frosh (always tough) this is a very top priority, that and some backs who can hit the hole quicker.
I think many of us saw this problem coming when we only had 4-5 healthy OL in the Spring...tough to make up for 3-4 bad years of recruiting in one year...I'd like think Manny knows what he needs and will go find it.
 
Look, I know a lot of people are saying this morning that Lane Kiffin is by far the biggest A-hole in all of sports and just a terrible, garbage human being, but let's be honest, he proved to the world last night, definitively, that Ole Miss was far more deserving of a CFP spot than the third string of the 5th best team in the ACC was.
 
Does anyone have the participation report from last night? Felt like a lot of younger players got some reps, even early in the game.
 
Is there any price to be paid for Kiffin's obnoxious behavior last night? It's decades later and people still remember and criticize Spurrier for running up the score on UNC and rightfully so. He shouldn't have done it. Does anybody in Mississippi or in the football community generally care? I thought the rule was the same whether it's Pee Wee football or the NFL, you don't run up the score.
 
I like calling LK “thrashy.” Trashy in a thrashing.

Not only did he run up the score, he threw his own starting qb under the bus after the game by saying it was the kid’s decision to throw a bomb on his last collegiate pass. Of course, the sub came in and immediately threw another.

But as my grandma used to say, “if you don’t like getting whooped up on, eschew losing.”

She’d also add, “you hate teams that beat teams by 30, and you can name the top dozen guys on Duke’s basketball roster? Methinks I smell a faint whiff of hypocrisy. ”

I will say that our players never gave up. That kickoff return was one of the crispest, most athletic Duke plays I’ve ever seen—Jones and Hagans were perfect on a play that could have easily gone sideways. Throughout, the coaches called plays to win, not to mitigate disaster. Ole Miss has some players who are more NFL-ready than ours, and they almost all showed up, but we showed we had athletes and we showed we belonged on the field. The game would have gone in a different direction if we’d switched quarterbacks before the game. Dart showed himself to be a jerk, but he’s also the best qb in the sec. Henry did a fine job, and he seems like a good guy, but he’s not, at the moment, a legitimate Div 1 qb.

I don’t recall anybody “hating” Maalik Murphy. We hated that he went into the portal. We didn’t hate him so much when we got a strong replacement qb. We felt some empathy when it appeared that he’d gotten replaced behind the scenes. We hated that we had to go in there with a guy who lacks experience, but we hoped for a breakout game. Instead, we thought he did fine under the circumstances (though it was a reminder that Mensah will be welcome on campus).

By “we,” I mean “I,” but I’m always happy to speak for everyone in the world.
 
I like calling LK “thrashy.” Trashy in a thrashing.

Not only did he run up the score, he threw his own starting qb under the bus after the game by saying it was the kid’s decision to throw a bomb on his last collegiate pass. Of course, the sub came in and immediately threw another.

But as my grandma used to say, “if you don’t like getting whooped up on, eschew losing.”

She’d also add, “you hate teams that beat teams by 30, and you can name the top dozen guys on Duke’s basketball roster? Methinks I smell a faint whiff of hypocrisy. ”

I will say that our players never gave up. That kickoff return was one of the crispest, most athletic Duke plays I’ve ever seen—Jones and Hagans were perfect on a play that could have easily gone sideways. Throughout, the coaches called plays to win, not to mitigate disaster. Ole Miss has some players who are more NFL-ready than ours, and they almost all showed up, but we showed we had athletes and we showed we belonged on the field. The game would have gone in a different direction if we’d switched quarterbacks before the game. Dart showed himself to be a jerk, but he’s also the best qb in the sec. Henry did a fine job, and he seems like a good guy, but he’s not, at the moment, a legitimate Div 1 qb.

I don’t recall anybody “hating” Maalik Murphy. We hated that he went into the portal. We didn’t hate him so much when we got a strong replacement qb. We felt some empathy when it appeared that he’d gotten replaced behind the scenes. We hated that we had to go in there with a guy who lacks experience, but we hoped for a breakout game. Instead, we thought he did fine under the circumstances (though it was a reminder that Mensah will be welcome on campus).

By “we,” I mean “I,” but I’m always happy to speak for everyone in the world.
Regarding Murphy/Mensah/Belin, the announcers were going on and on and on about the injustice of the transfers before bowls. I agree with them that it stinks. But I don't think any of their "solutions" were realistic. They are theoretically still "Student" athletes so they want to be enrolled at the new school for spring semester. So the window is tight and can't be changed. Unless, as we have discussed, NIL contracts are signed where players don't get paid unless they stay for the bowl.

The announcers were also saying how horrible it is for Duke that Murphy lost and this bowl was a big opportunity for Duke that got upended by the QB leaving. Not to be too cynical, but if the bowl meant so much to Duke that it was critical for Murphy to be on the team, we wouldn't have basically recruited over Murphy. I don't blame him one bit for leaving before the bowl - he has to move on with his life. Same applies to Loftis.

The whole system stinks. And I don't know what the right answer is. And I have zero faith in all of the constituencies coming together to find the right answer.

Most importantly, despite the final score, I was proud of the effort by the Duke players and coaches out there. It was not perfect, but there were plenty of positives and they represented the university (and all of its donors) well.
 
Regarding Murphy/Mensah/Belin, the announcers were going on and on and on about the injustice of the transfers before bowls. I agree with them that it stinks. But I don't think any of their "solutions" were realistic. They are theoretically still "Student" athletes so they want to be enrolled at the new school for spring semester. So the window is tight and can't be changed. Unless, as we have discussed, NIL contracts are signed where players don't get paid unless they stay for the bowl.

The announcers were also saying how horrible it is for Duke that Murphy lost and this bowl was a big opportunity for Duke that got upended by the QB leaving. Not to be too cynical, but if the bowl meant so much to Duke that it was critical for Murphy to be on the team, we wouldn't have basically recruited over Murphy. I don't blame him one bit for leaving before the bowl - he has to move on with his life. Same applies to Loftis.

The whole system stinks. And I don't know what the right answer is. And I have zero faith in all of the constituencies coming together to find the right answer.

Most importantly, despite the final score, I was proud of the effort by the Duke players and coaches out there. It was not perfect, but there were plenty of positives and they represented the university (and all of its donors) well.
Agree with you here, CNC. Obviously, a disappointing loss after what had been a much better season than anyone thought possible last Summer. But no disgrace in losing to Ole Miss. They're in a totally different football universe than Duke. As I said when Alabama came to Wallace Wade to play Duke during the Cutcliffe years, the Alabama players (and Ole Miss last night) are bigger, faster, stronger and better football players. Almost impossible (except, e.g., see Vandy over Alabama this year) for a team like Duke to beat a team like Ole Miss (this year) over the course of 60 minutes. Plus, it didn't help Duke to be playing with a QB who's had almost no real game experience at a high level (although I thought Belin did much better than I expected and he looked quite good at time, with both running and passing).
I'm still amazed that the betting sites and bookies had Ole Miss as only a 12-point favorite. I'm not a gambler and wouldn't bet against Duke but, if I were, I would have almost bet the house on Ole Miss with that small of a point spread against Duke. I have to believe most of the betting money was on Ole Miss, although you would have thought they betting sites would have adjusted the point spread more, if that had been the case.
Finally, I don't know if any of the old timers on this board agree with me, but the Ole Miss QB was very impressive and he reminded me of Ben Bennett during his heydays with Duke. Similar throwing motion and very accurate passer.
 
We were at the game, and I thought the decision to try passing plays on third-and-1 and fourth-and -1 after we got the interception return into their territory was a monumental mistake. With a chance to grab some early momentum in a game where we knew they were going to score a lot, it felt like a wasted opportunity and a significant shift in fortunes from which Duke never recovered. Still, the biggest disappointment to me was the defense, which had been strong all season but seemed a step behind and slow to recover all night.
Definitely agree that runs, theoretically, would have made much more sense, but our run game has been just plain bad. When we managed to run only 59 yards on 27 attempts vs a mediocre FCS Elon team (that lost to Hampton and New Hamster), the writing was on the wall (as Mr. Petrik indicates above)
 
Thank you Bob Green.

Doesn't look like as much participation as I thought, although I noticed more of Tyshon Reed and DaShawn Stone than during the regular season.

Obviously a tough game for Duke. Ole Miss came to prove a point, and we simply didnt match them. I thought schematically we had some real head scratching moments. First half, we never seemed to account for Dart running the football. Several times Ole Miss ran a 3 WR to one side of the field and we only had 2 DBs and never moved a third defender over. On many plays our DBs were lined up 10 yards off the LOS. Quite frankly, the Defense was unrecognizable from the regular season. Not to take anything away from Dart who was spectacular throwing the football.

On offense, I simply dont understand our OL blocking schemes. On one play, Ole Miss had a pretty standard 4 man front with DEs line up over the tackles. Our right tackle blocks down to double team the DT and leaves the end a free lane to the QB. We left Jake Taylor or RBs to block NFL level DEs way too many times. Just didnt like any of the game plan schemes last night.
 
Early in the game we had a third and one and our offensive play was to have our inexperienced QB throwing the ball. That set the stage for a night with many head scratchers.
Exactly. The offensive play calls in this game (as they’ve been all season) are just befuddling. Time for an OC upgrade.
 
We were at the game, and I thought the decision to try passing plays on third-and-1 and fourth-and -1 after we got the interception return into their territory was a monumental mistake. With a chance to grab some early momentum in a game where we knew they were going to score a lot, it felt like a wasted opportunity and a significant shift in fortunes from which Duke never recovered. Still, the biggest disappointment to me was the defense, which had been strong all season but seemed a step behind and slow to recover all night.
I agree. Even if we had a sense that running the ball would be tough, I'd hope we could gain a yard on two tries. Those incompletions lost us some mojo.

I did like the general optimism of the play calling, but those calls (and a few others) made me think that the coaches had forgotten that the game was being played without Murphy or Mensah.
 
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