Lose by 15 to Oklahoma

[WaveProf]

Played an amazing quarter and a half (facepalm)

Time will tell if we downgraded in coaching philosophy/approach from Fritz, but this should put to rest the idea that it was a slam dunk upgrade.

Poseidon was spot on about starting a freshman QB against this lineup, but I have high hopes for him longterm. Lets hope Sumrall can fight the tides of change and keep the transfer and retention magic for next year. Things line up better then if we can do that (though it's a tall order).

[tumbuuh]

I'm gonna try to start focusing on an optimistic look at the rest of the season. I griped plenty about this game in the scoreboard thread. We need to use Thompson a little more. Give him a drive per game even, but don't let him go dull as a tool. I also have high hopes for Mensah though. We have a good chance of winning out from here as long as we make adjustments and properly prepare for every game from here on out. We made mistakes in all phases this game, including coaching, so I just hope they identify those and do better from here.

[waverider]

Mensah looked ok considering his first road game was in an environment that is nothing like the first two games in Yulman. He looked like a freshman too many times but he wasn’t the reason we lost. I’m not sold on Craddock as some play calls were questionable and the OL is still bad. There’s no depth so guys are too tired in the end.

Good news is that was the best defense we face until Memphis. But speaking of defense, we looked lost in the first half but adjusted well.

As my cousin said, “last week was a good game plan but we didn’t adjust. This week looked like a bad game plan but we adjusted”.

[tulaneoutlaw]

This is pretty much what vegas predicted. I'm proud we battled back but I never really thought we could pull it off.

ULL is a must win next week. We are in real danger of falling to 1-3 in embarrassing fashion if we don't flush these last two weeks and come ready to play.

[Poseidon]

Well we decided to go with a RS Freshman at QB and we have seen 2 quarters of good offense vs FBS Schools.

This isn't on Mensah, he has played ahead of schedule. However 14/33 today with 1 int, 1 fumble, and 1 td is not what you needed to win this big game. He fumbled last week to lose the lead and ended the game with an int. Again I am NOT anti-Mensah, rather this young staff showed its youth by putting this on him when you had two other older more experienced Qbs with talent. This is on the coaches.

Also any argument that Mensah is dangerous with his legs at this point is a lie. Mensah has responded to pressure by running backwords over and over like you know... a RS freshman playing his first games. Pratt did it vs Tulsa and others in 2020 and we lost some we shouldn't have.

This is on the coaches for playing someone who has talent, potential, and a bright future, but clearly not ready for the 4Q against these teams.

[wwave]

The INT was obvious PI. Two games ruined by major no calls. Convert that 3rd down at that time - totally different game. Outside that, other than inexplicable 1.5 quarters no show start we showed some playmaking.

Beat ULL, run the AAC and see where we are. Still tons to play for.

[waverider]

This is pretty much what vegas predicted. I'm proud we battled back but I never really thought we could pull it off.

ULL is a must win next week. We are in real danger of falling to 1-3 in embarrassing fashion if we don't flush these last two weeks and come ready to play.

I was thinking ULL would be a loss had we beaten either KSU or OU. Now we have to win it.

[Poseidon]

Perhaps if we had someone like Horton on the roster who already ran a comeback at the end of the game and OT on the roster.

Perhaps if we had real running threat with talent like Thompson on the team who could come in with a spark to slow their pass rush.

[waverider]

Well we decided to go with a RS Freshman at QB and we have seen 2 quarters of good offense vs FBS Schools.

This isn't on Mensah, he has played ahead of schedule. However 14/33 today with 1 int, 1 fumble, and 1 td is not what you needed to win this big game. He fumbled last week to lose the lead and ended the game with an int. Again I am NOT anti-Mensah, rather this young staff showed its youth by putting this on him when you had two other older more experienced Qbs with talent. This is on the coaches.

Also any argument that Mensah is dangerous with his legs at this point is a lie. Mensah has responded to pressure by running backwords over and over like you know... a RS freshman playing his first games. Pratt did it vs Tulsa and others in 2020 and we lost some we shouldn't have.

This is on the coaches for playing someone who has talent, potential, and a bright future, but clearly not ready for the 4Q against these teams.

I agree about Mensah’s mobility. He doesn’t run nearly as well as he looked to have in HS and that may be the competition he faced.

If he’s the best QB we have, then you have to play him in these games. It provides experience at a level he won’t face with most teams in conference play.

[Poseidon]

It sickens me neither of the other QBs were given chance. The only logical explanation is we are playing for just the conference or for next year.

We never went 4 wide and always went 6-7 man protection which tells me they are trying to protect the QB.

[Poseidon]

Well we decided to go with a RS Freshman at QB and we have seen 2 quarters of good offense vs FBS Schools.

This isn't on Mensah, he has played ahead of schedule. However 14/33 today with 1 int, 1 fumble, and 1 td is not what you needed to win this big game. He fumbled last week to lose the lead and ended the game with an int. Again I am NOT anti-Mensah, rather this young staff showed its youth by putting this on him when you had two other older more experienced Qbs with talent. This is on the coaches.

Also any argument that Mensah is dangerous with his legs at this point is a lie. Mensah has responded to pressure by running backwords over and over like you know... a RS freshman playing his first games. Pratt did it vs Tulsa and others in 2020 and we lost some we shouldn't have.

This is on the coaches for playing someone who has talent, potential, and a bright future, but clearly not ready for the 4Q against these teams.

I agree about Mensah’s mobility. He doesn’t run nearly as well as he looked to have in HS and that may be the competition he faced.

If he’s the best QB we have, then you have to play him in these games. It provides experience at a level he won’t face with most teams in conference play.

I don't think he is the best QB we have for pressure situations. Horton played very clutch at Houston and saved our season. Yet everyone dismissed that. That is BS we don't have a cotton bowl if not for Horton. Thompson came in and threw a TD today. Why are we married to Mensah at this point?

[tulaneoutlaw]

It sickens me neither of the other QBs were given chance. The only logical explanation is we are playing for just the conference or for next year.

We never went 4 wide and always went 6-7 man protection which tells me they are trying to protect the QB.

To do so might have sapped Mensahs confidence. I understand your point about Kai. I do not understand your point about Thompson. Sure he is athletic. He has not seen any meaningful minutes and could not win this job in camp when he was the clear frontrunner and should have been athletically superior. Maybe the coaches are just dead wrong on him, but I think there's probably a reason he's been relegated to specific packages

[Wandering Quaker]

I could pick a few nits with Mensah, but nothing serious. For his level of experience, he played well.

I'm concerned about the delay in shifting gears on both sides of the ball. The first twenty minutes of the game was a disaster. That's far too much.

We should all have seen results like this coming with so much roster turnover and a mostly new staff. My expectations for this team were far too high. (Not for the program, which is not the same thing, even though it feels that way.)

It's a shame this is our lot right now, when we need marquee wins.

[waverider]

We never went 4 wide and always went 6-7 man protection which tells me they are trying to protect the QB.

I think that says something about our OL and the coaches’ thoughts on their ability to protect our inexperienced QB.

[tjtlja]

Said this on scoreboard - The piling on Mensah’s play is BS. Pile on Sumrall. Since 24-13, we have had four series and Mensah is 0-5. Five passes in four series with the majority of them behind the chains due to running the ball almost 90% of the time. Our coach went conservative. Just a crappy offensive game plan from the beginning. Blame this on Sumrall.

And huge kudos to the defense. Played great in second half. We need to bring the pressure like we did.

Both of these games were winnable. Just awful to be 1-2. Both losses by mid-September sucks.

[Poseidon]

It sickens me neither of the other QBs were given chance. The only logical explanation is we are playing for just the conference or for next year.

We never went 4 wide and always went 6-7 man protection which tells me they are trying to protect the QB.

To do so might have sapped Mensahs confidence. I understand your point about Kai. I do not understand your point about Thompson. Sure he is athletic. He has not seen any meaningful minutes and could not win this job in camp when he was the clear frontrunner and should have been athletically superior. Maybe the coaches are just dead wrong on him, but I think there's probably a reason he's been relegated to specific packages

I'm just upset because I saw this coming. Fritz was suspect on his OC hires, but he knew the value of experience. Our young coached show themselves to be young coaches throwing a QB out there against KSU and OU with no experience. It was gutsy and foolish. On top of that I really like Mensah it was just unfair to him and to the team because now we ain't making the playoffs. I'm going to leave it at that.


The schedule was not built this year to start a RS/FR when you had other good options.

I'm going to leave it at that.

There are other real reasons we lost like officials and terrible first half game plan today, but this needs to be said because it is on Sumrall/Craddock for not putting the team in the best position to win.

[Man in Green]

Every time Thompson comes in good things happen. He’s electric with the ball in his hands. Mensah is a fine young QB, but he no mobility. This reminds me of the the 1980 season when we started Paul Cantonese only to discover that Mike McKay was the man.

[tjtlja]

Some people on the board have said Mensah has as much speed as Pratt. We’ll see. But piling on him today is wrong. The game plan sucked. He was constantly being put in terrible situations. This is on Sumrall. Conservative play calling against anyone is going to cost you. They never mixed it up at all unless we were down 3 plus scores and we scored 2 TD’s on those drives.

[Johnny Mac]

Every time Thompson comes in good things happen. He’s electric with the ball in his hands. Mensah is a fine young QB, but he no mobility. This reminds me of the the 1980 season when we started Paul Cantonese only to discover that Mike McKay was the man.

couple things... 1981, second I believe McKay was injured and didn't see the field until we were 0-3, third Wade Elmore actually stepped in an nearly won the Ole Miss game for us (season opener) and I believe started the next two games, one against national champs Clemson

[Johnny Mac]

of all the whining in this thread, the only thing I agree with is questioning Craddock's suspect play calling

if we bring Thompson in on the goal line last week, we score and possibly go for two and win in regulation, instead we throw on first down and get that Dumas call for OPI and that's all she wrote.

if we bring Thompson in for the 2 point conversion today, we're driving for a FG to tie and not a TD to take the lead.. possibly keeps us churning on the ground rather than...

why did we throw on 3rd and 1 when we were finally finding success on the ground? Another play where Craddock was trying to get too cute... either sneak Mensah or hand to Makhi

we didn't lose today because of Mensah's inexperience.. we lost because we played zone in the first half while putting zero pressure on the QB and couldn't get out of our own way on offense until late in the 2nd quarter

[FW]

Kai Horton is not the answer. Are guys serious? He was bad most of that Houston game. He made like 3 plays all game.

[visualmagic]

Well we decided to go with a RS Freshman at QB and we have seen 2 quarters of good offense vs FBS Schools.

This isn't on Mensah, he has played ahead of schedule. However 14/33 today with 1 int, 1 fumble, and 1 td is not what you needed to win this big game. He fumbled last week to lose the lead and ended the game with an int. Again I am NOT anti-Mensah, rather this young staff showed its youth by putting this on him when you had two other older more experienced Qbs with talent. This is on the coaches.

Also any argument that Mensah is dangerous with his legs at this point is a lie. Mensah has responded to pressure by running backwords over and over like you know... a RS freshman playing his first games. Pratt did it vs Tulsa and others in 2020 and we lost some we shouldn't have.

This is on the coaches for playing someone who has talent, potential, and a bright future, but clearly not ready for the 4Q against these teams.

You may not be Anti-Mensah but you’re too Pro-Horton/Thompson. There’s a reason that they got beat out for the job.
Mensah looked better against KSU than anything we’ve ever seen from Horton and we really haven’t seen much from Thompson.

The Houston team Horton beat was not on the level of Kansas St or OU

[Man in Green]

Not saying Horton is the answer. He can’t run either. Thompson is the best athlete on the team, and he needs to play more if not start. Mensah is a good passer, but he is a freshman and freshman will make mistakes that cost games.
The good news is we don’t play another defense as good as OU or KSU so it probably won’t matter.

[tulaneoutlaw]

Not saying Horton is the answer. He can’t run either. Thompson is the best athlete on the team, and he needs to play more if not start. Mensah is a good passer, but he is a freshman and freshman will make mistakes that cost games.
The good news is we don’t play another defense as good as OU or KSU so it probably won’t matter.

You know what else can cost games? Athletes who aren't qbs. I'm not saying that he can't play the position at all but the only facts we have are that he didn't win the job at Oregon or here. That says something about his ability to play the position, not just be athletic.

Also, the reason a freshman might lose games is inexperience. Guess who has more experience starting these kinds of games? Mensah. His 2 starts before this one are 2 more than Thompson.

I'm in agreement we could find more ways to use Thompson as a weapon but acting like Mensah cost us these games is silly. He put us in position to win the Kansas St game and only a bad turnover, which are generally very fluky, and a jobbing by the refs kept us from winning. We don't have a qb on the roster that was going to win today's game without a more complete defensive showing

[waverider]

I really liked the play with the fake to Ty on the TD pass to Hughes. I’m guessing we will see a lot more of him as the season goes on. It’s reasonably possible he converts to WR at some point in his career and utilizes his athleticism in multiple ways.