re: 4th & 2 with 15s Left in the Half

Do the analytics factor in that you just wasted your last timeout to “think about it”.

Hated the decision, but it blows my mind even more that college football coaches have to call timeouts to think about what play they want to call on a 4th and short. How do you not already have a set of plays that you like for this exact situation and you just pick one you like given the flow of the game. I did that for fricking middle school football yet we see the “think about it” timeout in college football nearly every game.

I mentioned in the game thread, he was thinking at the time that he has got last years Defense and I will need to out score them in a shootout, like majority of LSU games last 2 years. But his defense is light years better then that squad and now he will feel comfortable taking the points, and less 4th down going for it.

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Is anyone else a bit concerned that our 10 million dollar coach didn’t understand that in the moment?

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That was brutal. At least he admitted it today. Even if we get the first we are scrambling to spike the ball then maybe have time for a FG.

Common fricking sense.. throw the analytics in the trash and use your brain, Brian

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it was the wrong call due to not having much time even if you convert.

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Before the time out I can defend it. Once you burn the time out, you have to kick.

This may not be relevant but there is a distinct generational difference in my house regarding this type of thing. I believe that you almost always take the points in the first half. You don’t know how valuable those free 3 points could be later in the game.
My young adult son believes that if you have 4th down and short in the red zone, you always go for it. He loved the call (even with the result), while I was ranting how stupid it was to pass up 3 points in a close, defensive type game.

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I was screaming that at the TV in real time.

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Im sure you were the only one smart enough to figure it out in real time

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I don't mind him going for it. What i do mind is throwing a backwards pass in that situation. That was just shitty playcalling. Slants, outs, roll out to the right, do something other than throw it behind you when you need 2 yards in front of you at the goal line.

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One of the film studies guessed this might have been an audible at the line by Nuss because of the defensive setup pre-snap. He was definitely making some changes before the play. They loaded the box and we had already had some success on screens, so it’s plausible.

If this is the case, the biggest issue wasn’t the call, but who it was to. Nuss needs to know that Hilton just isn’t that guy. If that ball goes to Anderson or Thomas it’s a first down at worst and possible a TD. Hilton slipped before a defender got to him and never regained his balance. The play was over before it started because of him not being able to work in tight space as well as others.

The FG was absolutely the right call, but if you are going to be aggressive and give Nuss the keys to the offense, he needs to understand matchups there. He likely made the call to go to a bad one. Better to throw to the end zone and quickly throw it out the back to preserve the FG if Clemson had it covered.

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The good thing is that it happened game 1, so he’ll know what to do when we get in similar situations going forward

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------- doubtful

[quote]Is anyone else a bit concerned that our 10 million dollar coach didn’t understand that in the moment?[/quot

Very concerned. Because its was such a no-brainer to take the points and its not the first time he's butchered similar situations. Its eerily similar to Miles' constant inability to manage late game/half clock management. People ignored it because we would end up winning the game despite the incompetence. Its going to eventually cost us a game. Though arguably it may already have done that with the USC game last year.