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Submissions for 3 random thoughts about Arkansas game
Posted on 9/19/26 at 2:32 pm
Posted on 9/19/26 at 2:32 pm
1) This is a vintage Kirby Smart team from a physicality standpoint. Feels like we're playing with a bunch of grown men instead of one too many pups trying to grow up for the first time since 2023. The DBs are so much more physical this season. Zykie Helton is an honorary grown man even though he's a true freshman. That first block when he was at fullback will end up being one of the highlights of the season. I think it was Rusty Mansell who said that someone in the program said "Rusty, you're gonna wanna hear this. Rusty, the Georgia coaches think that they've found their Chance Warmack."
2) The pass rush is still obviously a work in progress. The fact that our first two pass rush specialist OLBs are both true freshman is a little concerning. My hope is that they eventually train Zayden Walker at OLB and let him be our main pass rush specialist OLB. Zayden Walker is different. He barely played today for some reason.
3) We could've beat Arkansas' arse regardless, so I wish we would've thrown more than 6 passes in the first half, because we need to develop and ID the receivers we can count on in games. Kirby sort of reverted to the conservative beat their arse approach in the first half. I was glad to see that we kept passing in the second half. White-Helton had 3 third down conversions. We definitely need to develop the go-to receiver on third down, and Gunner and White-Helton looked really comfortable doing it. White-Helton is an incredible player. He's not Zach Branch, but there's not much of a dropoff.
2) The pass rush is still obviously a work in progress. The fact that our first two pass rush specialist OLBs are both true freshman is a little concerning. My hope is that they eventually train Zayden Walker at OLB and let him be our main pass rush specialist OLB. Zayden Walker is different. He barely played today for some reason.
3) We could've beat Arkansas' arse regardless, so I wish we would've thrown more than 6 passes in the first half, because we need to develop and ID the receivers we can count on in games. Kirby sort of reverted to the conservative beat their arse approach in the first half. I was glad to see that we kept passing in the second half. White-Helton had 3 third down conversions. We definitely need to develop the go-to receiver on third down, and Gunner and White-Helton looked really comfortable doing it. White-Helton is an incredible player. He's not Zach Branch, but there's not much of a dropoff.
Posted on 9/19/26 at 2:41 pm to Violent Hip Swivel
Didn't get to watch the first half but I like your assessment.
Pass pro sounded like an issue in the first half. Stinchcomb and Shockley said it seemed to be related to communications with the backs on who had who. Bobo and Gunner are expericed enough where that shouldn't be happening. Sounded like the freshman okgoko or whatever was playing early.
Would still like to see more down field passing success like you said. It appears the he WR narrative will continue as Taylor didn't have a catch.
TE usage is odd too. Maybe saving the good stuff for better opponents?
Next week against Venables and a OK team with their season on the line more or less will tell us a lot about Gunner and the offense I think
Pass pro sounded like an issue in the first half. Stinchcomb and Shockley said it seemed to be related to communications with the backs on who had who. Bobo and Gunner are expericed enough where that shouldn't be happening. Sounded like the freshman okgoko or whatever was playing early.
Would still like to see more down field passing success like you said. It appears the he WR narrative will continue as Taylor didn't have a catch.
TE usage is odd too. Maybe saving the good stuff for better opponents?
Next week against Venables and a OK team with their season on the line more or less will tell us a lot about Gunner and the offense I think
Posted on 9/19/26 at 2:51 pm to Wwarmouth
quote:
Didn't get to watch the first half but I like your assessment.
Pass pro sounded like an issue in the first half. Stinchcomb and Shockley said it seemed to be related to communications with the backs on who had who. Bobo and Gunner are expericed enough where that shouldn't be happening. Sounded like the freshman okgoko or whatever was playing early.
Would still like to see more down field passing success like you said. It appears the he WR narrative will continue as Taylor didn't have a catch.
TE usage is odd too. Maybe saving the good stuff for better opponents?
Next week against Venables and a OK team with their season on the line more or less will tell us a lot about Gunner and the offense I think
Now I understand why The Film Guy thinks that Gaston will be a guard in the NFL. I'd imagine that the hope is that Ogboko can become competent enough at right tackle to move Gaston back to guard. Helton is a phenom, but he still isn't all that great at pass protection and it's not good to count too much on a true freshman.
We threw 6 passes in the first half. The wide receivers weren't utilized either. It's not good to already be thinking about the off-season because we're in the middle of this season, so why think so far ahead? But you can't help but watch a game like this today and at some point think about how many wide receivers and tight ends will transfer out.
This post was edited on 9/19/26 at 2:53 pm
Posted on 9/19/26 at 4:06 pm to Violent Hip Swivel
I was at an event and only got see bits and pieces live.
From what I saw, the pass protection got exposed a bit; most likely the result of complete talent mismatches in the first two games. Arkansas may be a mess, but they do have legit FBS players.
Perhaps it will be a good wake up call for this coming week.
From what I saw, the pass protection got exposed a bit; most likely the result of complete talent mismatches in the first two games. Arkansas may be a mess, but they do have legit FBS players.
Perhaps it will be a good wake up call for this coming week.
This post was edited on 9/20/26 at 9:59 am
Posted on 9/20/26 at 7:03 am to Wwarmouth
quote:
It appears the he WR narrative will continue as Taylor didn't have a catch.
Wasn't it Taylor that got the 2 PI calls in the end zone that led to Bowens TD run?
Posted on 9/20/26 at 7:24 am to AlaCowboy46
One was Taylor and the other Reddell
Posted on 9/20/26 at 7:44 am to Wwarmouth
quote:
Maybe saving the good stuff for better opponents?
USUALLY I don't really buy much into this concept, but we truly ahve played 3 awful teams. I don't think we really know what we have on our hands until next Sunday. not that OU is all that great but they will by far be the toughest matchup we've seen and shoudl be a good litmus test. At this very moment, the OL in pass pro is concerning, gabe harris has been non existent, demello got picked on often, and in the only SEC game we've played so far sevearl of our top WRs (talyn, humphries) and all of the TEs were barely looked at.
Now I don't put a ton of stock into all those negatives because as mentioned we could pretty much do what we wanted against arkansas and this is a classic kirby game where he just wants to boa constrictor the opponent until the game finally mercifully ends. If we come out and look solid and beat OU handily like we're supposed to I'll be feeling real good. If we slog out a 21-20 type of affair I'll likely be worried.
I'm also getting more concerned wiht our schedule. Before the season started I chalked up losses to OM and one more, either bama or OU. OM still looks incredible, bama is improving by the week, SC doesn't look like complete trash, and florida looks to have one of their better teams in several years.
I still love our team but I'm just ready to see them put it all together against a decnet team, although to be fair to them they haven't played one of those yet. Will be very looking much looking forward to saturday.
Posted on 9/20/26 at 9:35 am to WG_Dawg
This is what is maddening and ends up biting us for at least one loss. We under utilize our best playmakers in order to execute a game plan that is specially tailored to the type of outcomes Kirby wants.
For Arkansas, it was run and nothing else but to the detriment of touches to the players when OU stuffs the run, we are in sync on pass. Also, our pass pro seems to be suspect already, I can’t imagine when we face a real edge rusher which forcing Stockton to run for his life. I.E Tenn game last year. And not being used to going down field like he should.
I would be shocked is this approach wasn’t all Kirby. Why not play our game and not try to grind it out on the ground only just because it’s Arkansas.
Time will tell this year, however, everyone looks beatable across all conferences.
For Arkansas, it was run and nothing else but to the detriment of touches to the players when OU stuffs the run, we are in sync on pass. Also, our pass pro seems to be suspect already, I can’t imagine when we face a real edge rusher which forcing Stockton to run for his life. I.E Tenn game last year. And not being used to going down field like he should.
I would be shocked is this approach wasn’t all Kirby. Why not play our game and not try to grind it out on the ground only just because it’s Arkansas.
Time will tell this year, however, everyone looks beatable across all conferences.
Posted on 9/20/26 at 9:36 am to WG_Dawg
It's worth noting that the team Ole Miss fielded last night had a lot more experience than LSU, and it was P4 experience, not lower levels. That's a big advantage in an early season game. They also returned about 40% more players from last year's roster than LSU did. LSU only returned 32 rated offensive and defensive players from 2025, 2nd lowest of the 17 teams I looked at (Auburn returned 29).
OLe Miss' had 9 seniors and super seniors (2 juniors) starting on offense last night, and their offensive starters averaged about 640 snaps last season. Their defense started 8 seniors and super seniors (3 juniors) and also averaged about 640 snaps last season. Those returning snap numbers are the highest in the SEC by a considerable margin. LSU started 6 Sr/SSr. (4 Jr, 1 Soph) on offense with an average of 385 snaps last season. Their defense started 6 Sr./SSr. (3 Jr, 1 Soph, 1 Fr) with an average of 480 snaps last season. Taken in aggregate, those snap numbers are almost like LSU had a 2025 second team facing 2025 starters, in the 3rd game of 2026. Considering LSU was the road team in a very hostile stadium, not surprising they got off to a very slow start on offense and defense.
Just for comparison purposes, UGA's experience numbers are much closer to LSU than Ole Miss. Fortunately we didn't have to go to Oxford in week three.
OLe Miss' had 9 seniors and super seniors (2 juniors) starting on offense last night, and their offensive starters averaged about 640 snaps last season. Their defense started 8 seniors and super seniors (3 juniors) and also averaged about 640 snaps last season. Those returning snap numbers are the highest in the SEC by a considerable margin. LSU started 6 Sr/SSr. (4 Jr, 1 Soph) on offense with an average of 385 snaps last season. Their defense started 6 Sr./SSr. (3 Jr, 1 Soph, 1 Fr) with an average of 480 snaps last season. Taken in aggregate, those snap numbers are almost like LSU had a 2025 second team facing 2025 starters, in the 3rd game of 2026. Considering LSU was the road team in a very hostile stadium, not surprising they got off to a very slow start on offense and defense.
Just for comparison purposes, UGA's experience numbers are much closer to LSU than Ole Miss. Fortunately we didn't have to go to Oxford in week three.
This post was edited on 9/20/26 at 11:35 am
Posted on 9/20/26 at 9:37 am to Violent Hip Swivel
quote:
I'd imagine that the hope is that Ogboko can become competent
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If tweet fails to load, click here. Seems to be the plan. Played early yesterday and got a dumb penalty, but Gaston clearly has issues at RT.
PFF heads say he's grading very well, so here's to hoping he grows up fast.
This post was edited on 9/20/26 at 9:38 am
Posted on 9/20/26 at 9:43 am to Dawg4Life47
quote:
This is what is maddening and ends up biting us for at least one loss. We under utilize our best playmakers in order to execute a game plan that is specially tailored to the type of outcomes Kirby wants.
What's maddening to me is people on message boards who dissect and crticize Kirby's strategy without the slightest hint of uncertainty. If you're gonna inform us what Kirby Smart's doing that costs us at least one loss per season, at least give your credentials for successfully running a major college football program.
Posted on 9/20/26 at 9:54 am to grey
Ogboko played more snaps in the first three games than any other OL.
This post was edited on 9/20/26 at 10:43 am
Posted on 9/20/26 at 10:14 am to wdhalgren
ah, shut up...this is the Rant and its for opinions, go somewhere else if you want to suck all the coach's dicks
Posted on 9/20/26 at 10:27 am to Dawg4Life47
quote:
ah, shut up...this is the Rant and its for opinions, go somewhere else if you want to suck all the coach's dicks
And now the 3rd grade mentality is on display. I completely understand why you think you've diagnosed Kirby Smart's deficiencies that cost us at least one game per season.
Just imagine if Kirby didn't cost us that one game per season; we'd have only 2 losses since the start of 2021. He should've hired you as his special advisor.
This post was edited on 9/20/26 at 10:34 am
Posted on 9/20/26 at 10:32 am to WG_Dawg
quote:
I'm also getting more concerned wiht our schedule. Before the season started I chalked up losses to OM and one more, either bama or OU. OM still looks incredible, bama is improving by the week, SC doesn't look like complete trash, and florida looks to have one of their better teams in several years.
I feel good about USCe and FL and Bama will be a coin flip.
BUT, if Chambliss plays more like he did last night that might be the first game I can remember going into not expecting to win. He was money on those crossing routes and pulled his usual BS with the scrambling. Pls their defense was a lot better than I expected. We’ll have to control the clock, score on every possession and try to get some stops.
The only good news is that LSU managed to slow them down in the second half so hopefully we’ll have some tape on what they did.
ETA: and if we DO manage to pull it out we’ll probably have to play them again unless they stumble down the stretch.
This post was edited on 9/20/26 at 10:45 am
Posted on 9/20/26 at 11:12 am to SquatchDawg
Moo State looks like they're coming to play, so the Egg Bowl could bring some Game 12 heartburn for OM.
Posted on 9/20/26 at 11:53 am to SquatchDawg
quote:
The only good news is that LSU managed to slow them down in the second half so hopefully we’ll have some tape on what they did.
Just my jumbled impression from watching multiple games, eating, drinking and talking simultaneously, but it looked like LSU got more qb pressure in the 2nd half. On one play they knocked Chambliss down hard, forced a bad throw that was picked off, and he seemed less effective for a while after that. Sometimes college defenses play more contain when facing a mobile qb, don't blitz or stunt as much and end up giving him extra time in the pocket. Chambliss throws well on the run but he's very good in a clean pocket too. If you're getting shredded either way, I'd rather make him move and hit him a few times than let him sit in the pocket with no backfield clutter, no fatigue and a clean jersey.
This post was edited on 9/20/26 at 12:09 pm
Posted on 9/20/26 at 12:15 pm to wdhalgren
quote:
On one play they knocked Chambliss down hard, forced a bad throw that was picked off, and he seemed less effective
They sent like 6 guys after Chambliss on that play and got to him right when he released. So I guess his Achilles Heel is sending over half the defense after him and hope they get there.
Posted on 9/20/26 at 12:27 pm to wdhalgren
quote:
What's maddening to me is people on message boards who dissect and crticize Kirby's strategy without the slightest hint of uncertainty. If you're gonna inform us what Kirby Smart's doing that costs us at least one loss per season, at least give your credentials for successfully running a major college football program.
It's sort of complicated. Anyone complaining about the end result is misguided. With Gunner on the field we ran 52 plays for 380 yards. That's 7.3 yards per play, even though we were really run heavy. With Gunner on the field we've averaging almost 10 yards per play this season.
I think the nitpicking is more about needing to develop our pass catchers, but Kirby decides to revert to his old ways of playing out the game against an inferior opponent. But then again we also need to develop our running game.
Who the frick really knows?
Posted on 9/20/26 at 12:27 pm to SquatchDawg
quote:
So I guess his Achilles Heel is sending over half the defense after him and hope they get there.
Well, he's a pick your poison kind of quarterback. If I'm possibly gonna lose either way, I'd rather the quarterback know he's played a football game. Sometimes that chaos in the pocket and a hard tackle or two can affect his composure. I don't know if that's what happened, but Chambliss went 5 for 11 and a sack on the next two (scoreless) Ole Miss drives after that interception. But selling out is obviously also a risky strategy against a good qb.
This post was edited on 9/20/26 at 12:40 pm
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