Thoughts of the Day: August 4, 2022

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning:

JEEPERS, CREEPERS WHERE’D THAT BLITZER COME FROM It is called “The Creeper” defense, attributed to Ron Roberts, the one-time head coach at Delta State and Southeastern Louisiana, who spent a couple of years as Billy Napier’s defensive coordinator at Louisiana before he went to work for Dave Aranda at Baylor. At SLU and Louisiana, Roberts mentored Patrick Toney, now Florida’s co-defensive coordinator.

“The Creeper” or a version of it will be a staple of a Florida defense that is attempting to rebound after two sub-par seasons under the previous head coach and coordinator. While it sounds rather exotic, Toney says it’s not all that complicated.

“Really all you're saying is you are blitzing an unknown rusher and dropping a known rusher to replace him, right?” Toney said Tuesday at Florida’s version of media days. “It's still a four-man rush. Just a different way to create pressure.”

Spread offenses more or less dictated the need to find a way to get the same amount of pressure with a four-man rush as teams were getting with five.

“I think you’ve kind of seen football evolve where early on if you blitzed it was man, and there was a lot of high risk/high reward to that,” Toney said. “Then it became zone blitz where you still rushed five but were able to play with zone integrity and zone eyes. Then it’s kind of come full circle with the advent of spread. And, really the passing game is become more sophisticated where you don’t always want to sacrifice coverage, right, to send another rusher, but you can create the same amount of pressure by blitzing a second level, third level defender to replace him with a first level defender.”

Translation: You drop a defender that is expected to rush the passer with a blitzer who comes from out of nowhere. It’s not all that complicated for the defense, but if it is carefully disguised it’s very confusing for the quarterback who has to determine which of your typical four pass rushers is dropping and where the fourth pass rusher is coming from.

“You haven’t sacrificed anything in coverage and you are just doing something to affect the protection by sending someone they may not be prepared for or asking the running back to have to block in protection rather than the five-down,” Toney said. “That’s the way I see it.”

Got it?

A question for each SEC team as fall camps begin

Alabama: We associate every Nick Saban-coached team with big, physical guys on both sides of the line yet last year the Crimson Tide gave up 41 sacks and the last time the running game was this unproductive was 2007, Saban’s first year at Bama. Everyone expects Alabama to win the national championship but even experts are nervous about the offensive line. Bryce Young won the Heisman Trophy last year. Georgia Tech transfer running back Jaymyr Gibbs is supposed to be the greatest thing since Gaylord Perry discovered how slippery elm makes a baseball dip, but can the Bama O-line keep Young’s jersey clean and open up gaping holes for Gibbs?

Arkansas: Which is the bigger issue for Sam Pittman: Who will catch the ball for KJ Jefferson or can the Razorbacks stop the run? Matt Landers, who played two years at Georgia, caught 20 passes for 514 yards and five TDs last year at Toledo, not to be confused with the SEC. He’s expected to be the stud. At Georgia, Landers caught 12 passes in two years. The Hogs return only one starter on the D-line and one at LB from a unit that allowed 151 yards a game last year.

Auburn: It only took one year for those zany Auburn boosters to decide they had enough with head coach Bryan Harsin. Somehow he survived an attempted coup and he’s back for a second year minus Bo Nix, a good place to start when looking for a place to improve the team. The Tigers should be better than last year’s 6-7 but can they get to eight wins? That’s what it will take to keep those boosters with more money than brains from running Harsin out of town.

FLORIDA: So much of the preseason focus seems to be on quarterback Anthony Richardson. Everyone admits he may be the most physically gifted QB in the SEC, maybe even the nation. For Richardson to be all that and more in 2023, someone is going to have to stretch defenses. If Florida can’t prevent opponents from loading the box to stop the run, then the Gators are going to struggle offensively. You really need two fast wide receivers to do that. If UF can find a pair of receivers who can back the safeties out of the box, then Richardson becomes an absolute wrecking crew. Can the Gators find two receivers who can stretch the field?

Georgia: The Bulldogs ended their 41-year national championship drought last year. Eight starters are gone from probably the best defensive unit we’ve seen in college football since Alabama’s 2011 unit that gave up 183 yards and 8.2 points per game. But, Kirby Smart has recruited lights out and there will be plenty of talent on that side of the ball in 2022. The question has nothing to do with talent, but can Kirby instill the kind of hunger it takes to overcome the natural instinct to let down after a big championship season? After all, only Nebraska (1994-95) and Alabama (2011-12) have gone back-to-back since 1990.

Kentucky: NFL scouts are enamored with quarterback Will Levis, but who is he going to throw to now that Wan’Dale Robinson and Josh Alli are gone? The fine folks up in Lexington are hoping that Virginia Tech transfer Tayvion Robinson (113 career catches for 1,555 yards and 9 touchdowns) is the answer, but he seems more of a possession type and not the field stretcher the Wildcats will need to keep teams from loading the box to stuff Chris Rodriguez. Finding someone opposite Robinson seems to be an issue as well.

LSU: Quarterback is unsettled, but whether it’s Jayden Daniels, Myles Brennan or Garrett Nussmeier, someone better be able to block, but who? Left tackle Cameron Wire has 20 career starts and Tre’Mond Shorts, a D1AA All-American at East Tennessee State, is projected as a starter at guard, but beyond those two there is a ton of inexperience.

Mississippi State: Third-year starters at QB tend to have monster seasons in Mike Leach’s offense so everyone believes Will Rogers (4,739 yards last year, 36 TDPs) will set SEC passing records in 2022. Throwing it isn’t the problem. Can the Bulldogs run the ball when they get inside the five? They averaged only 63 rushing yards per game last year and just 3.04 per carry.

Missouri: The good news is there are eight returning starters on defense. That’s also the bad news. The Tigers allowed 33 points and 227 rushing yards per game last year. The Tigers gave up four or more touchdowns in nine of their 13 games. The Vols hung 62 on them. Can they stop anyone this year? If they can’t it will be a long season.

Ole Miss: Don’t worry at all about the offense as long as Lane Kiffin is in charge. The Rebels reloaded through the transfer market and they’ll score plenty of points this year. Can they actually stop anyone, particularly on the ground? Ole Miss gave up 190 yards per game and 25 rushing touchdowns last year. Fortunately for them they could outscore people. They may have to win shootouts again this year if they can’t lop off about 50 yards per game from opponents’ running stats.

South Carolina: Spencer Rattler is a monstrous upgrade at QB from the three who played QB last year – Zeb Noland, Jason Brown and Luke Doty. The Gamecocks have people who can catch it and they think Wake Forest Gump transfer running back Christian Beal-Smith is the real deal. They’re going to score some points, but can they stop anyone, particularly from running the ball down their throats? The Gamecocks gave up 175 yards per game and 18 rushing TDs last year. Other than Zach Pickens, everybody else is inexperienced up front.

Tennessee: You figure that with Hendon Hooker back at QB after a season that he threw for 31 touchdowns and ran for five more, that the Vols will do just fine when they’ve got the football. The problem is can they stop anyone, particularly since that unit that gave up 29 points and 273 passing yards per game last year? One year older doesn’t necessarily make you one year better.

Texas A&M: Jimbo Fisher has won a national championship (FSU 2013) and he’s shown his recruiting chops with a 2022 class that had eight 5-stars in it. The Aggies don’t lack for talent, but they don’t have a lot of experience at key positions. They also have a brutal schedule that includes an October 8 “payback” game in Tuscaloosa. If he goes 9-3 – or worse – in 2023, will Aggie alums, who have ponied up $95 million to give him a fully-guaranteed contract, be patient or will they start the kind of rumbles that will have Jimbo looking for the next greener pasture?

Vanderbilt: Name a position and there is a real question mark. Clark Lea says his goal is to make Vanderbilt the best football program in the country. It’s a noble idea, but donkeys might fly first. The Commodores are going to lose nine or ten games this season. The big question is how many years will the alums and boosters give Lea to put a winning program on the field? James Franklin he isn’t.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The passing of Vin Scully had me thinking all day about putting together a top ten list of the greatest sports radio broadcasters I’ve ever heard. So, here goes:

1. Vin Scully: Every game was like a personal conversation with his listening audience. You should hear his call of Sandy Koufax’s perfect game in 1965.

2. Cawood Ledford: He had the ability to make you feel like you were at center court for Kentucky basketball broadcasts.

3. Woody Durham: His finest moments were calling Carolina basketball games when Dean Smith was the coach.

4. Jack Buck: He could give you chills describing Bob Gibson staring down a batter.

5. John Ferguson: I got hooked on him when I was 12 years old. My little radio would pick up WWL in New Orleans and I would listen to LSU football games with Ferguson capturing the emotion of the crowd when the Chinese Bandits took the field.

6. Jon Miller: I got hooked on him in 1983. I was teaching in Taiwan and my radio picked up the Armed Forces Network in The Philippines with his broadcast of the Baltimore Orioles winning the World Series.

7. John Ward: You didn’t have to be a Tennessee fan (I wasn’t and never will be) to appreciate how thorough he was calling the Vols. His signature line was “It’s football time in Tennessee.”

8. John Forney: You should hear him call the goal line stand Alabama had to win the 1979 national championship game with Penn State.

9. David Steele: I’m sitting on the 50 watching the 1984 Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville, earphones on, listening through my earphones to David Steele call the game on radio. His call of UF’s goal line stand followed by Kerwin Bell to Ricky Nattiel for 96 yards was classic.

10. Mick Hubert: You didn’t think I was going to put Larry Munson here did you? Everybody remembers “Doering’s got a touchdown” or Mick describing the heave to Cleave in 2017, but my favorite Mick moments were in 2010 when he described Chandler Parsons’ 75-footer to beat North Carolina State then three weeks later Chandler’s three to beat South Carolina in the O-Dome.