I'm going to start with the defense because if you take the first two quarters against Texas and yesterday's game they have played very well in longer spurts. Against Texas they held the Longhorns to 180 yards of offense at half.
I know people are going to sit there and point that Boykin was out but let's not kid ourselves TCU still has some really good play-makers and speed on the field. Between Green, Turpin, and Listenbee those are three of the fastest guys on the field and that doesn't count Dochtson.
The linebackers really pursued and were aggressive. Roberts had 12 tackles and Dineen had 11. Arnick is back off injury and added five. They used Duckworth to spy the QB at times. The LB group should be pretty solid next year.
I think the corners and safeties have been playing better. There were some times they were in bad positions because in open space they just weren't as good as the TCU athletes. In the second the TCU OL started to open up nice holes for the running game.
Going back and watching the game the kid who stepped up was Damani Mosby. He was pretty active. I don't know how many tackles he made but he was in on several of them.
The defensive coaches are doing a nice job. There are a lot of first year players and juco transfers who are starting to develop.
Rob Likens has a tough job. You have Cummings, Cozart, and Ford who have gone down. Willis isn't close to healthy. You can really see some of the zip and accuracy he has that has been minimized with the injuries to both legs. There is a young OL and young WR. I know the plan all along was to go uptempo and fast. But they started to get away from that week some in week three against Rutgers and even more the next game against Iowa State.
With the young OL trying to develop it is tough to call the game in my opinion. You have to be careful what you are calling in the pass game because you are trying to protect a banged up true freshman QB. They are not strong enough to line up and run it especially out of the zone read look because you know teams are going to key mainly on the RB.
With all of the young WR playing they are going to be good going forward. That is going to be a deep group.
If there was a play that signified the season it was the last play where the TCU DL just pushed McCauley away and sacked Willis. I say that because in a year or two that will happen less. McCauley is just a pup (with so many other players) who is basically doing on the job training. It will them all better but now sometimes they are just over-matched.
You just keep waiting for the offense and defense to click together. Against Texas for close to a half it happened. The closest game that has happened this year was Texas Tech. That game the defense played really well especially in the red zone and held TTU to 30 points their second lowest point total of the year. Willis thew for 300 yards and the offense had something going.
In four of the last six games the offense has scored 13 or less points. That makes it tough on the defense with field position and possessions.
I heard the team was engaged on the sidelines all game and there was a lot of energy. I think Beaty has done a great job keeping this team focused and playing hard. When Gary Patterson said... "It was senior day, and you have to give KU credit. They had far less to play for, and they played hard."
He's right. KU is a winless team that will underdogs in every game they play. Some teams wouldn't play hard in that situation but Beaty has got them to buy in during a difficult year. It will be interesting to see how they respond with the final two games being at home.
I know people are going to sit there and point that Boykin was out but let's not kid ourselves TCU still has some really good play-makers and speed on the field. Between Green, Turpin, and Listenbee those are three of the fastest guys on the field and that doesn't count Dochtson.
The linebackers really pursued and were aggressive. Roberts had 12 tackles and Dineen had 11. Arnick is back off injury and added five. They used Duckworth to spy the QB at times. The LB group should be pretty solid next year.
I think the corners and safeties have been playing better. There were some times they were in bad positions because in open space they just weren't as good as the TCU athletes. In the second the TCU OL started to open up nice holes for the running game.
Going back and watching the game the kid who stepped up was Damani Mosby. He was pretty active. I don't know how many tackles he made but he was in on several of them.
The defensive coaches are doing a nice job. There are a lot of first year players and juco transfers who are starting to develop.
Rob Likens has a tough job. You have Cummings, Cozart, and Ford who have gone down. Willis isn't close to healthy. You can really see some of the zip and accuracy he has that has been minimized with the injuries to both legs. There is a young OL and young WR. I know the plan all along was to go uptempo and fast. But they started to get away from that week some in week three against Rutgers and even more the next game against Iowa State.
With the young OL trying to develop it is tough to call the game in my opinion. You have to be careful what you are calling in the pass game because you are trying to protect a banged up true freshman QB. They are not strong enough to line up and run it especially out of the zone read look because you know teams are going to key mainly on the RB.
With all of the young WR playing they are going to be good going forward. That is going to be a deep group.
If there was a play that signified the season it was the last play where the TCU DL just pushed McCauley away and sacked Willis. I say that because in a year or two that will happen less. McCauley is just a pup (with so many other players) who is basically doing on the job training. It will them all better but now sometimes they are just over-matched.
You just keep waiting for the offense and defense to click together. Against Texas for close to a half it happened. The closest game that has happened this year was Texas Tech. That game the defense played really well especially in the red zone and held TTU to 30 points their second lowest point total of the year. Willis thew for 300 yards and the offense had something going.
In four of the last six games the offense has scored 13 or less points. That makes it tough on the defense with field position and possessions.
I heard the team was engaged on the sidelines all game and there was a lot of energy. I think Beaty has done a great job keeping this team focused and playing hard. When Gary Patterson said... "It was senior day, and you have to give KU credit. They had far less to play for, and they played hard."
He's right. KU is a winless team that will underdogs in every game they play. Some teams wouldn't play hard in that situation but Beaty has got them to buy in during a difficult year. It will be interesting to see how they respond with the final two games being at home.
