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(11-21-2021 01:38 PM)demiveeman Wrote:  

(11-21-2021 11:59 AM)GreenFreakUAB Wrote:  

(11-21-2021 11:40 AM)HiddenDragon Wrote:  

(11-21-2021 11:18 AM)The Answer UAB Wrote:  

(11-21-2021 11:04 AM)HiddenDragon Wrote:  Clark will never man up to the fans and nor should he regarding his playcalling. But I absolutely expect him to man up to his players privately and that's what really matters the most.

Yeah he's already said he'd do it 100/100 times. Incredible. My faith in him wavers a little every game. Worst coaching decisions in UAB football history last night with what was on the line.

He's basically saying in a non direct way to his offensive players is that he didn't have confidence in them to gain a chain link for a 1st down.

...OR, (playing devil's advocate here, as I totally agree you, but, humor me here), if we went for it, it would have been sending the message to the defense that we have no confidence in you stopping them from scoring if they get the ball back (which is the general conclusion you would expect from a defensive-minded coach)...

I think it says you have MORE confidence in your defense if you are willing to take the (very small) chance you don’t get it to seal the game. We had already put trust in the defense and they got the stop we needed to win. You want to ask them to do it again when you only need a sneeze to seal the game? I’d wager that 90% or more of the defensive starters wanted to see us go for it.

There were multiple avenues and options for us at the end of the game and somehow we picked every single one that could lead to the worst case scenario. That’s poor game management and it isn’t new.

When we didn’t go for it, we sucked the passion/pride out of the offense, put way more pressure than may have been necessary on a spent defense that already felt as though they won us the game, and maybe even worse…ignited the UTSA crowd, players, and coaches when they thought they were done. The last two would’ve happened had we not converted the 4th down, but at least there was a significant upside attached that made it worth the risk. Instead we put blood in the water ourselves.

This impacts a lot more than just a W/L: it will have dramatic impacts on attendance on Friday, we lost the chance to host a 6th home game for the championship in our first year with a new stadium, we lost a visible Top 25 win (even being on ESPN’s Top 25 scoreboard with a W is huge), and we lost some autonomy on our bowl game selection which could impact fan travel ability (and interest)/create a conflict with a big basketball game we are trying to host/promote.

That’s a lot of opportunity cost for a couple of inches.

...oh I totally agree, but - just trying to figure out what Coach was trying to figure out... who knows, hopefully we can salt away future games without these decisions...

...we need more of a 'short' pass game (which currently appears to only consist of the 'throw it sideways and hope that the receiver can get 5 yards to get back to the line of scrimmage' play) - I remember Rice had those little 5 yard 'inside slants' or whatever and converted quite a few 3rd and shorts on us that way. After we burned UTSA's secondary a few times in the first half, they decided to blitz quite a bit more - for the most part, Hopkins 'kept it in the road' (save for the one INT), by either taking off running or just throwing it away... BUT, we need a 'short pass' (upfield) option to dilute a blitz attack... I think that was the ultimate difference in the game.