re: Hester & Flynn debating on which play was more indicative of bigger problems

My issues are 1) Sam is so inconsistent and doesn’t trust reads (2) how soft the defense plays in crucial times. If aggressiveness gets you where you are, stay aggressive. That punt should have ended the game, but that stupid defense was the dumbest thing I’ve seen.

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The defense we played on the final series was atrocious. No pressure brought and sat back in a soft zone. Made zero sense.

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yeh that is why you go for it. made no sense letting an inaccurate qb sit back and have all day to pass.

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Could not get over all the pre-snap penalties and confusion. But the most egregious play to him, that capsulized a much bigger issue, was the delay of game coming out of a timeout. The one where Harper tried to sprint on the field late for the jumbo package. You had a timeout, you talked about what play you were running, knew the formation and the personnel it called for, have 80 coaches on the sidelines, but at least Lane, Wolford, and Craig with Charlie in the booth. And enough GAs to count to 10. How do not have all 11 guys ready to go run out there for this crucial play?

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Previous staffs would have been crucified for this. I guess Lane's honeymoon is preventing a lot of that.

again, the the poor decision was to totally abandon what was working for you defensively in the 2H

They didn't need to go the length of the field to tie it, so letting them gash you to trade for clock was a bad plan

We also need to circle back to the loss of Trey’Dez. He’s arguably the only guy on this roster who creates legitimate matchup problems for an opposing defense—the guy who can consistently beat his man even when the defense has the right call and everyone is where they’re supposed to be.

With everyone else, it feels like you need the play drawn up correctly and executed almost perfectly to get the desired result. Trey’Dez gives you some margin for error. He can turn a covered play into a completion or a routine catch into something bigger because of his individual ability.

That’s a huge loss for an offense that already struggles to create easy opportunities. You’re losing more than his production; you’re losing the guy defenses have to account for and the guy who can make a play when the scheme alone doesn’t give you an answer.

Given that you're breaking in a totally new offense to 90% of the guys on that side of the ball and you take away the best returning playmaker, I can't say I'm overall unhappy with the offensive production.

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Flynn—Could not get over all the pre-snap penalties and confusion. But the most egregious play to him, that capsulized a much bigger issue, was the delay of game coming out of a timeout. The one where Harper tried to sprint on the field late for the jumbo package. You had a timeout, you talked about what play you were running, knew the formation and the personnel it called for, have 80 coaches on the sidelines, but at least Lane, Wolford, and Craig with Charlie in the booth. And enough GAs to count to 10. How do not have all 11 guys ready to go run out there for this crucial play? Where was the communication line broken? Or did we run something we hadn’t practiced in a while? Did Harper think it was supposed to be Borderlon? If so, why? If it was supposed to be Borderlon, where was he? Was he hurt? Why hadn’t all this been relayed and communicated clearly already?

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It almost seemed like they were waiting to see Kentucky’s personnel, which would make no sense. It’s like they were deciding last second which you obviously can’t do… call you best play and run it.

No, not it’s not. You JUST got one first down. 1 yard to end the game and while up by 3, you take that 1000 times out of 1000.

Lane needs to realize we didn’t pay him to be an idiot, adderaled out awkward sloth in the sideline. Be aggressive and be confident. Otherwise he’s BK all over again

All season it’s been 2 steps forward 1 step back.They have improved but it’s obvious they have yet to gain total confidence in their overall game.Im not surprised I expected the inconsistency and like LK said they can beat anybody on their schedule or lose to them, they have to play their best every game to win.They are not at that point yet.

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has he? He's had some horrid drops the last 2 weeks and looks completely disinterested at times.

and harris is fine but probably more of a WR2, opposing Ds are not overly worried about him. He's not a matchup nightmare.

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Dude, you're taking a couple plays vs Mcneese and acting like it's been an issue all season.

Watkins has made a ton of plays and we continue to go to him a lot.

Your Harris comment sounds like someone who is pretending to know the intricacies of the game. The frick do you know about opposing defenses preparing for him?

Name 3 "matchup nightmares" across CFB?

Harris has been nothing but solid whenever we feed him.

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On the 4th down call look we judge them on the end result and not the actual decision at times. His D had been playing well that half and the kicker was coming off 2 bad shanks, it’s not insane to think pinning them deep was the better move over potentially giving them good field position at home. The D didn’t do its job but the decision and thinking was sound.

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I wanted to go for it in the moment, but I certainly understand the reasoning behind punting, and it was sound. But I think Hester’s point was not just about this individual game. That trust Lane could shown in his offense could have made them more confident and been better for them long-term. Even if they don’t get it.

And like another poster said, it could have even shown trust in the defense too. “Hey, we’re going for this to try to end the game on 1 play. But even if we don’t get it, I have trust in you guys to keep them out of the end zone with under 90 seconds left, even on a shorter field. Again, this is more long-term thinking, not just about winning or losing this particular game.

And while I probably agree with him, this is me reading into a bit and interpreting what Hester was trying to say. It’s a totally different game now, and Les was a totally different coach. But Jake said in that situation—and not just the Florida game—in ‘07, they wouldn’t have even had to look to the sidelines. They knew they were going for it and knew what the play call was going to be. The coaches had trust in the players and the players had trust in the coaches. Which, psychologically, made them more likely to pick it up. And that matters long term.