When talking about the the starters and the guys behind them, as Kirk was speaking about and how good or bad they are….lets consider first, that they ALL are top quality athletes…that have all the physical and measurable skills necessary to be there…and i know he is speaking about thier quality of performance…and he spoke of this continual rotation…well, to me that is the biggest part of the answer to,our problem- consider that Coach Coombs continually speaks about playing “depth”, (multiple guys rotating, he is locked in on that),even saying many guys “ deserve to play”…( because they are all so close in skills at this point) and Coach Day has continued to say that we need to play guys , and play “ depth” also….and see how it all “ shakes out”, and that guys will need to solidify positions, so they know we have a lot of inexperienced guys there, that have not had a chance to LEARN HOW to play yet !…and thats the path they are taking to give us the best chance to win in the long run….and that is what we are seeing….so many elementary mistakes, due to the lack of EXPERIENCE.
And so for me, that is the biggest part of this whole thing…we just have SO many inexperienced guys on defense, that havent had a chance to play enough to get it figured out yet, and the constannt rotation isnt helping - YET…but is giving guys a chance to learn and solidify starters, and backups, …they knew this and were telling us this all along….so it should not be a surprise…i believe they believe this can get ironed out in the next four games - a ton…but thats what I believe we are seeing anyways…yes, the schemes are messed up, and simple…but again when you have all this inexperience, you havent those solid guys next to you to cover your mistakes, as we did in the past and it becomes glaring…remember too, thst we were literally one pass from tying this game up, and possibly winning it…and remember too, they had Joe Morehead,… heck that guy is a tremendous coach, knew us well, and has always given us trouble…and Oregon played a really great game, lets face it, so all that said, its just where we are with losing so much really good experienced talent…I do say that we have several experienced guys that have not lived up to expectations, on the D line, at end especially and at nose, some other spots too…that needs to change somehow… and yes i agree there is coaching things that need to be changed, for sure…but to me this is the biggest problem we are facing, and it isnt gonna get better till a lot of these kids get better and learn through experience….we have one heck of a potent offense , and it almost carried us through this tough opponet….but i have confidence that this defensive group can improve enough to help our very potent offense carry us far the rest of this season…case in point, guys like that safety, #17, the kid has wheels and can hit ! but he looked really bad due to i experience….and he will learn just like the rest of them…and be just fine…its just gonna take some time…and im sure the coaches will get it right, too, we have way too much experience and too many very good coaches on that staff to not make the correct adjustments, so have faith and be patient. Its gonna work out in due time. Thats my take and my hope. Thank you.