(11-22-2021 04:34 PM)HiddenDragon Wrote: Even Rece Davis couldn't believe Clark didn't go for the 1st down. He just made a joke about it on Off Campus w/Mark Packer.
got a link?
Gotta have Sirius/XM my man. Rece also picked UAB to upset UTSA, he said he should have went with Louisiana over Liberty.
(11-22-2021 04:35 PM)BlazinBham Wrote: Vincent and Grass are the same guy. No, thank you.
Freeman is making $120,000 plus.
Go to UAB where the playbook is outdated and not allowed to be changed or stay at Thompson where he can recruit who he wants with the AHSAA not batting an eye?
Vincent makes $266k so he could more than double his pay.
Also, I would've thought our coordinators were making more like $400k.
(11-22-2021 12:58 PM)blazerblazer Wrote: If we decided to get a new OC (and maybe a separate QB coach as well) who would you want to go for?
I agree and say nay with Grass, he seems too similar to Clark.
Does anyone think Thompson’s Mark Freeman will make the jump to OC on a FBS team if he wins another 7A championship? Do you see him trying to go after the Troy or JSU job?
As for QB coach, I’m still hoping we could get Joe Webb if he’s willing. We already have former QBs on offensive staffs - Bryan Ellis (co-OC/receivers at WKU) and AJ Erderly (OC/QB at Northeast Mississippi Community College - also was at Southern Miss).
Freeman has a great offensive mind, but I highly doubt he would go anywhere where he would not be in control of his offense. I doubt if he would jell with a control freak either.
Can we go position by position and see who we feel good about at this point? That's
OC - I could go either way. The past few games the offense has looked like what we thought it would.
QB - We don't have a QB coach, guess it falls under Vincent? No wonder we haven't seen any development.
RB - Guy deserves a raise.
WR - Maybe not as deep as we'd like but I feel good about this group
TE - Guy deserves a raise
OL - Probably the biggest question mark this season. This was supposed to be the strongest group on the team and it's been hit or miss.
DC - Guy deserves a raise
DL - Guy deserves a raise
LB - Guy deserves a raise
CB - Guy deserves a raise
S - Guy deserves a raise
I say all of this though with the expectation that we bring in someone to fix the damn penalties. We will NEVER reach the heights Clark has outlined for this program until he does something about it.
OL -- the questions I have about OL are not technique or strategy. It's recruiting there. We had some injuries at that position that definitely disrupted some things. We didn't really dig into the depth to fix it, just moved guys around. Do we have guys who can step in there? Otherwise, UAB has built the best or 2nd best starting OL in this league TWICE since 2017 with some of the most consistent and productive players in. the league. That OL that wasn't as "dominant" as we hoped was still pretty damned good and it is that OL more than anything we do that is the reason we have won more games than any program in this league since 2017. We're going to have to rebuild it again in 2022 probably, so that's my question: Are we sandbagging some guys there or do we need to recruit a few immediate contributors.
QB -- How can we say there is no development? Hopkins came in after a year off and took the job from a senior. He looks to be developing VERY nicely to me. He probably played his two best games back to back. He looks like he'll be one of the best QBs in the conference for the next two years.
WR -- We've sent four WRs to NFL camps, will send another with Shrop, got some nice things from RJS and have some very nice young players developing. Fans just expect some of these jucos and transfers to step right in and be Ubosi, Mitchell and Watkins. We forget that all those guys mostly played very little their first years here and were all-league level by the time they left. They didn't show up that way -- they were coached and developed. Also, UAB WRs can be Jerry Rice hands but if they are gonna play at UAB, they are gonna block. Another reason we see some of these guys take some time to get PT. By the time they get onto the field, they are very good blockers.
Defensive coaches are REALLY showing out with the player identification and development. UAB was having to go 3, 4 and 5 deep into the depth chart at a lot of positions this year due to injuries and keeps trotting out guys making plays.
(This post was last modified: 11-22-2021 05:40 PM by DuelingDragon.)
Statistically speaking, not going for it on 4th and inches is the wrong call, especially when all of your running backs are averaging at least 6 yards a carry. And Dylan was averaging 4. Really no other way to spin it.
We would've had a 70-80% chance of getting the 1st down at a minimum and immediately winning the game. By punting it, you are conceding that chance of winning the game outright and now you're looking at UTSA's odds of winning going from something like 5% to as high as 30%. Sure, if you don't convert the 4th down, UTSA's odds of winning go from around 20% trying to win from their own 23 yard line to around 40% on UAB's 42 yard line. But 8/10 times you don't even get to this step...because the game is already over and you have won the game.
Pretty dumb way to lose. With that said, I do hope we see some staff changes and Clark changes a few things up. And props to the coaches and players for a hard fought game against a good UTSA team.
(This post was last modified: 11-23-2021 02:23 AM by ShrackUAB.)
(11-22-2021 04:34 PM)HiddenDragon Wrote: Even Rece Davis couldn't believe Clark didn't go for the 1st down. He just made a joke about it on Off Campus w/Mark Packer.
got a link?
Gotta have Sirius/XM my man. Rece also picked UAB to upset UTSA, he said he should have went with Louisiana over Liberty.
(11-22-2021 05:37 PM)DuelingDragon Wrote: QB -- How can we say there is no development? Hopkins came in after a year off and took the job from a senior. He looks to be developing VERY nicely to me. He probably played his two best games back to back. He looks like he'll be one of the best QBs in the conference for the next two years.
Hopkins, to me, didn't take the job as much as Johnston still hasn't (and probably never will) recovered from his shoulder injury. We saw him look good last weekend in a dome, sure, but he's had a tough time hitting on deep passes all season, and this offense needs those more than most to be successful. I thought that it would improve as the year went on, and he was able to get more reps, but we didn't see it with the consistency we need (until last weekend which again was in a dome).
Well, I'll tell you this ... there's a whole bunch of teams in C-USA, the American and Sun Belt who'd take two more years of Hopkins no questions asked. It was his 8th career start. He rose to the occasion with the two best games of his career in the two biggest games UAB played this season. His ceiling is pretty high for the next two years. I'm more concerned about who'll be blocking for him in 2022 and 2023.
Webb was the closest to it. UAB has never really had a what I would call a prolific QB by modern standards. Hackney and Ellis put up some pretty good numbers ... for UAB. Outstanding Blazers. But their numbers were not superlative relative to what truly prolific numbers were then or now. Webb was a truly outstanding dual threat but I wouldn't ever say he was more than an average passer.
I'd love to see UAB QB put up numbers like the pro-style WKU QB or even the UTSA QB who is a true dual threat, but we've just never had anything like that yet in terms of either scheme or talent under any coach.
(This post was last modified: 11-23-2021 10:05 AM by DuelingDragon.)
I think Hopkins has made some nice improvements in his game since taking over the starting role. He has enough zip on medium range throws (which Johnston never really did), has improved his deep ball, and improved decision making (throwing it away, checking down, not forcing as many throws, etc). He still needs to work on his internal clock - sometimes he holds the ball too long which results in a sack that maybe could've been avoided.
(11-22-2021 04:34 PM)HiddenDragon Wrote: Even Rece Davis couldn't believe Clark didn't go for the 1st down. He just made a joke about it on Off Campus w/Mark Packer.
got a link?
Gotta have Sirius/XM my man. Rece also picked UAB to upset UTSA, he said he should have went with Louisiana over Liberty.
(11-23-2021 10:02 AM)DuelingDragon Wrote: Webb was the closest to it. UAB has never really had a what I would call a prolific QB by modern standards. Hackney and Ellis put up some pretty good numbers ... for UAB. Outstanding Blazers. But their numbers were not superlative relative to what truly prolific numbers were then or now. Webb was a truly outstanding dual threat but I wouldn't ever say he was more than an average passer.
I'd love to see UAB QB put up numbers like the pro-style WKU QB or even the UTSA QB who is a true dual threat, but we've just never had anything like that yet in terms of either scheme or talent under any coach.
Hackney was 14th in the country in passing yards for two straight years.
Agree 100% about Webb. If he were a little more accurate he likely would have been an nfl starter for at least a few years. The WKU qb is the definition of a system qb. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that, but we would have to change our entire offense to make that switch.
I'm not sure anyone on the staff deserves a raise as much as Joe Craddock, TE coach. It wasn't long ago that TE was a blocker that the QB used as last resort safety valve when under pressure.
This season we have 800 yards and 7 TDs between Prince and Pittman, and both of them block well to boot. Admittedly part of that is because Prince is an athletic freak, but still. It wasn't long ago that TE was barely part of our offense.
(This post was last modified: 11-23-2021 03:25 PM by UAB Band Dad.)
(11-23-2021 03:24 PM)UAB Band Dad Wrote: I'm not sure anyone on the staff deserves a raise as much as Joe Craddock, TE coach. It wasn't long ago that TE was a blocker that the QB used as last resort safety valve when under pressure.
This season we have 800 yards and 7 TDs between Prince and Pittman, and both of them block well to boot. Admittedly part of that is because Prince is an athletic freak, but still. It wasn't long ago that TE was barely part of our offense.