Sept. 7, 1999
We beat a real bad team on Saturday -- bad especially on offense. We might very well have a great defense, but this game doesn't prove it. Polk and M. Brown were all over the field, and our line was disruptive. But Iowa's line was awful. The only positive that the Iowa announcers could talk about after the game was that they had great snaps on their punts.
On offense, our play calling was slow to attack what at times was a 11-man line. We need to go to play-action passes quicker. The plays got into the game much better than they did at times last season. What I didn't like was that like last year we lacked the killer instinct. They were trying to give us the game in the first half and we wouldn't take it.
Crouch was clearly the better QB on Saturday. But next week it could be Bobby. As I said preseason, the best thing for the team is for both to play and go with the hot hand. That is how we did it with Tagge and Brownson, and that worked. Saturday the team ran better with Crouch. Hell, he even looked better coming out of the huddle. Bobby was rusty and pressing and he will get better. The line still had some breakdowns but overall I thought was fine. We need Josh Davis to work at WB, and this week Frank said Walker will play WR when he returns. That is good because he is great with the ball and is out of position a lot on defense. Alexander was by far our best back Saturday. If he can stop tackling himself he will really be something. Evans looked very tentative and I hope he improves because we will need both before the season is over.
Don't try and pick a QB -- the games will sort that out and they are two of
our best athletes and we need both on the field. I watched Southern Miss and
they will give us a hell of a test. Beware.
-- The Colonel