re: Brandon's high school coach comments

The rant sources who endlessly quote themselves about Harris not knowing the playbook or calling a play wrong have taken one or two isolated instances and blown it out of proportion. (Remember Harris had the nation's highest QB rating and led 13 of 15 drives for scores prior to the Aub game plan that took him out of the shotgun read option with 3+ WRs.) And they overlook the dozens of times that AJ did the same thing or worse, being sacked 22 times, throwing 7 INTs, only throwing 5 TDs in his last 10 regular season games, an FBS all time low. After his 3 turnover performance at NMST, a senior said "we got your back". And after 75,000 fans walked out of the Miss State game and booed the abysmal first half of the NMST game, it was Harris who came to AJ's defense, publicly admonishing the fans for not supporting the team. AJ never reciprocated. Even after the 17-0 Arky game when he dropped to 128th in the FBS, he said in the post game interview that he would not leave the game for Harris, even for the good of the team, because he was the leader and just needed some more film study and to get his completion percentage up. That hubris defines AJ and his support group, he was satisfied with his performance at Ark. Harris never was satisfied and always said he wanted to do better even when he led 13 of 15 scoring drives for TDs before they stuck him under center in the Auburn game.

As far as the Auburn game, that was Cam and Miles sticking Harris under center, not utilizing his talents, not putting him in his comfort zone, and running a predictable I formation circa 2007 ground game that had absolutely no chance of keeping pace with a modern quick scoring offense. That even astounded Malzahn. That deficit in scheme and playcalling is defended on the rant as having been good in years gone by. It is also a factor in how Cam left the Ravens, how he said he should have done better fitting scheme to the QB talent, and how he is used to working in the pros with experienced QBs. But the Raven's Flacco and Harbaugh said it was like he was from a bygone era in terms of # of WRs, routes, lack of HUNH, and 3rd down playcalling. Pro-Style 2014 is a shotgun passing attack. The Pats just beat the Ravens with 14 yds of rushing. The average is 75% (2013) for plays from the shotgun, with Flacco at 87%, Manning 86%, and the Eagles at 92%. But every offense is tailored to personnel and every team has a different scheme, just like the SEC West.

Messing up calls has even happened to Kevin Steele (Chavis' best friend) a time or two. He has also admitted to using too complex of a defensive scheme. But in his introductory remarks he said it has been 7 years since the SEC West was an I formation, slow paced, high injury, low scoring, ground and pound league. He said now it is a spread, fast-paced league, and defense is about trying to limit the number of explosive plays to 3-4 per game (28+ pts) and defending the red zone. He should know. ALA gave up a record number of yds (630), pts (44), lost TOP, lost turnovers, and still won by going 5 for 5 inside the red zone, while AUB settled for 5 FGs and 2 TDs.