Golesh said the loss to Alabama was disappointing in every imaginable way with how they finished. How they finished. They talk about winning in the margins, 3rd down, red zone, penalities especially pre-snap and post-snap, turnovers, and for 54 minutes of that game some of it was really good and some wasn't. They've got to get in the red zone(tight zone) and get touchdowns. They have to be better on 3rd downs, they were 2-20 on 3rd/4th downs and really long situations most of the night. 1st and 2nd down were behind the sticks. They created three turnovers between special teams and defense and got off the field on 3rd down on D. When they are on the road against a really good team, the margins are tiny. They all have to go your way and between what they did offensively and how they finished it didn't.
You can have any storyline, there wasn't anything that Bama did different, they just lost composure in every imaginable way in terms of fitting that exact same run. We backed off at CB instead of pressed up like they had all night. That combination of guys trying to make a play, the kids played hard, taking it into your own hands outside of the scheme or lose confidence in a certain technique, that is what they attacked on Sunday like crazy. That is the growth area as a team as those margins shrink they've got to be perfect and they were not, so it was disappointing.
There were positives and that is the easy thing to say. We played really well for a while, but going back to expectations, they expect to win the games on the schedule. He said with humility that coaching those final 6:41 of the game is also critical and there were a couple of things on my side I didn't do well. We went back and coached the heck out of it and we were incredibly real with our guys and they took our coaching in all three phases. We gave up a long punt return that kind of led into all of that, that hasn't been our M.O. That is also the margin he is talking about. It is the fine detail of winning a game like that and they came up short.
The challenge is to turn the page and yesterday when they got on the field they turned to Southern Miss to a place only three people in our building have been to. Against a team that you look at that is well-coached and play hard. Defensively a veteran bunch with 10 seniors that play really hard. Offensively the QB (Tate Rodemaker) who was at FSU a year ago and played their last three games who is really an accurate passer and has good command two games into the offense. They are solid on special teams and they have an elite returner who was all-conference.
Our practice was really good and we were energized and they were pleased with how we approached things, flipping the page and moving on. This is a challenging week to go back on the road and play a team record wise, you can say what you want, they play hard and new coordinators again on both sides, so you watch other tape than the what you got and we have to coach well in all three phases.
On Byrum Brown struggling passing, I think a chunk of that goes on us as coaches that, we did a good job getting him in a rhythm and we are a tempo offense and there is a rhythm to that and playing QB there is a rhythm to that. When you aren't getting a ton going on first down and you are sitting in second down, he can hand it off. When had the ball in his hands running he was so good so you are trying to gauge how many hits I want him to take. A lot on us as coaches, the first drive he was in a rhythm and then we didn't do a good job of that. We tried to get him going with shots vertically and you get behind those guys and don't connect, you keep talking we are inches away, more so it is on us to get him in a rhythm. Our WRs played really hard but they have really good DBs and LBs and those windows are tighter, quicker and faster, I would take all the blame not getting him in a rhythm to execute. He was 3rd and long all night. You look at the call sheet midway through the game and we hadn't used any of our third and short plays or 3rd and medium plays. Literally. You are 15 3rd downs in and they are all long, that is hard to get in a rhythm. Third and medium and you can get it out quick, you can get in a rhythm. We didn't play-action pass as much as we wanted to so that doesn't get him in a rhythm. The pass efficiency deal I get, but he didn't turn the ball over and he wasn't careless with the ball and he gave our receivers a chance to make a play on it. I thought he was efficient in the situations.
On the hits on Brown, I thought he got down when he needed to, he is a hard tackle. The one hit, I thought okay, man. But we were moving the football and we have to be smart with the type of hits he takes. He wasn't standing in the pocket getting shelled as a runner you protect himself, the one hit that was a targeting I thought man, he feels great and he was physically ready.
On the missed vertical passes, protection was really good, he just missed those. Those should be 75-80% balls in our offense and they weren't He has a great arm and overthrew two of them, the challenge to him is to throw it far and we go get it.
