re: Why isn't Kelly getting more criticism for end of game clock management?

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On third down we had no timeouts remaining.

Final sequence of plays:

2:24 left - Diggs runs to the 7 and picks up the first. Kelly lets the clock run down to 1 and calls first timeout.

1:44 left - 1st down at the 7- short run (takes longer than kneeling). Kelly lets the clock run down to 1 and calls 2nd TO. 59 seconds left on the clock.

:59 left. 2nd down at the 4 - short run (takes longer than kneeling). Kelly lets the clock run down to 1 and calls 3rd TO. 11 seconds left.

:11 left - no timeouts left - pass out of EZ. 8 seconds left.

How is that different/worse than kneeling it? What am I missing?

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Had he not used the timeouts beforehand he could have kneeled on 3rd down instead of needing to throw a pass to waste a few seconds, had a timeout to use at 3 seconds remaining in the game and the FG would have been the last play of the game and not have to kick back off to Arkansas to have any shot at a hail mary or kick return. That's what you're missing.

The fact that Arkansas was unsuccessful in converting a kick return or hail mary doesn't override the fact that letting them have a chance to attempt one at all was due to poor clock management. We've seen times where teams do convert hail marys when the opponent left clock after a FG (Bluegrass Miracle, Cal/Stanford band play, etc). There's no reason to even allow a chance, as low % as it might be, when you have the choice to give them a 0% chance.

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This shouldn’t be hard at all LSU had the ability to run every second down and we didn’t because of piss poor management

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Yeah. Just because it worked out in the end doesn’t mean it was good coaching.

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But he did not leave Arky any time

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Really??? Who had the ball with a chance to win on the last play

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We can be happy we won but still admit it was misplayed. We gave Arkansas a shot at a kick return and a hail mary against our defense that had been struggling.

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This is correct. It was miscoached, but it wasn’t a big deal. Their chances increased from 0% to 0.1%. Not good coaching but not terribly important when compared to the fabulous coaching and play calling that got us to the seven yard line with complete control of the game.

We were 17 point favorites the mismanagement of the time outs and clock were icing on the cake.

Also hard to win titles when you can’t do basic things like clock management

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Posted byMessageLou PaiWhy isn't Kelly getting more criticism for end of game clock management? by Lou Paiquote:Because there were several ways to handle that situation.

The way I see it, there was only one acceptable way to handle the situation

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What about punching in a td? Go up 7 and make the other team go the length of the field and have to score a td, in under a minute. That’s not terrible. Youre as likely to miss a fg as you are to give up the 80 yard drive.
Or maybe you run some clock and then punch it in on 3rd with timeout and fg option on 4th if needed. (that’s what I would have done) . Like I said, several decent options. Don’t act like Les miles just clocked the ball on 4th down or something that level.

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He’s an analytics guy

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He may think he is, but he clearly isn't, in-game. This situation was plain as day, and it amazes me so many are struggling to grasp it. There are some very slight differences in the way you can go about this (when you choose to take your timeout, how you go about kneeling it, where you place the ball to set your kicker up) but the outcome is clear as can be. We should have been kicking a FG with 1 second left.

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Or could have tried to kneel and center the kick

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To me, this was the play. I was disappointed to not see it, but to say that it was severely misplaced is focusing on a couple worst case scenario type results without also taking the alternative's negative possibilities into account as well.

Every decision has a possible negative outcome. Then it becomes a zero sum game, and you pick the decision that has the lowest probability for a catastrophic outcome.

Kicking off isn't nearly the gamble it used to be since they moved the ball up.

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We should have been kicking a FG with 1 second left.

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Did time left on click; down & distance, allow for us to?