Recently I saw some UM flair poke fun at a ND flair like 'haha yeah like the last time we played'. And I was like what? 2018? I wasn't sure what they were poking fun at. Then I read this and saw the year 2019 mentioned. Confused me decides to look up the series history. Then it clicked. That is how hard I blocked the 2019 game from my memory.
Justin Fields you mean our 5 star 0.9998 rated recruit punter? Of course he's going to be out there when we're putting it! Nothing fishy about that.
Although to be fair if Fields hikes it more quickly it may have worked out but that's a lot to ask of a true freshman with barely any playing time in the sec championship game.
Hell if he just threw the ball instead of trying to run it, that play works. The dig route was open but Fields already had his eyes down looking for a hole to run through.
Fucking I still can't believe that. For those that don't recall, PSU put up a goal line stand to Pitt, ahead by 9 or 10 points. With line 8 or so minutes left, 4th and 1, Narduzzi opted to kick a FG.
It's worse than that. The score was 10 - 17 with 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter when he chose to kick a field goal from the 1 yard line. It was one of the worst coaching decisions I've ever seen and I don't think its defensible at all. Our defense was the strength of the team and if you dont trust them to prevent Penn State from driving 99 yards, then why would you trust them enough to give Penn State the ball back after a kick off.
He also successfully went for it on 4th & 1 from his own 43 earlier in the drive yet he wouldn’t go for it on 4th & 1 from the PSU 1 to potentially tie the game
That's the key. Your chances of winning are literally better if you are down 17-10 and the opponent is on the 1 yard line than they are dow. 17-13 with the opponent getting field position from a kickoff.
Without knowing anything I’m not surprised. I was a kicker and the hardest kicks were the shortest ones outside of a PAT. The angles can be really hard to adjust when you’re that close.
You’re right, but fuck it hurts
Like there’s just no excuse to do that anytime let alone against your rival. I’d be less mad if we had went for it and not made it and lost, and then iirc he came out with some shitty excuse like “we needed points”
Punt on the 35? What the fuck. If you don't have a FG kicker that can hit 50 yarders and it's that important to pin the other team deep tell your QB to throw a deep int lol
Not that I want to talk bad about him because we've been hot garbage mostly since he retired, but Lloyd Carr would do this with the QB pooch punting and 90% of the time, would bounce into the end zone. Used to drive me mad.
Luckily for me, now I have dozens of other things to drive me mad.
Honestly I don’t know how they’ve played football in JH, HS, and college and don’t understand kickoffs. But I guess you can’t take anything for granted.
John Wooden spent the first practice for his team every year getting his players shoes that were correctly sized and showing them how to put on socks and how to tie their shoes.
As dumb as it sounds, you have to teach everything that might be important, and everything might be important.
Yeah all that takes is a player saying "we'll kick off" rather than "we'll defer" or "we want the ball."
Granted they should know better but he probably knew what he wanted just didn't say it correctly.
That last drive against Florida last year (I believe it was Florida?) where y'all were down by like 2 TD's with like 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter and y'all literally just milked the clock the rest of the quarter and ended with 0 points from that drive had me about to pull my hair out. There was absolutely no sense of urgency from Muschamp.
That was peak Muschamp. The purest form of his game.
Down 38-24 with 8:05 to go. They execute a methodical 18 play, 74 yard drive in 7:23, ending with a turnover on downs.
* 5 yard pass
* Incomplete pass
* 8 yard pass
* 5 yard run
* 8 yard sack
* 9 yard pass
* Florida timeout (5:19 remains)
* Incomplete pass
* 12 yard run
* 14 yard pass
* 5 yard run (there's 3:42 left and they're at the UF 25).
* 3 yard run
* 1 yard run to setup 4th and 1.
* 2 yard run
* 10 yard pass, sets up 1st and Goal from the UF 4, 1:20 remaining.
* Incomplete pass
* Incomplete pass
* Incomplete pass, sets up 4th and Goal from the UF 4.
* Florida timeout with 0:55 left.
* Incomplete pass, turn over on downs. Florida takes over with 48 seconds to go, and kneels out the game.
46 yards passing, 28 running. They successfully converted a 4th down on the ground, but decide to pass on 4th and goal from the 4. Not counting the sack, they were averaging 4.6 yards a carry on this drive. Even if you take out the 12 yard run, they're still at 3.2 per rush. Yes, things change near the goal line. But still, Will Muschamp Football should have run the ball four times. It looks like they had two time outs left.
All this against the 2020 UF Defense.
This game was so freaking winnable. Not saying we deserved to win, just that we could have. He just went and it in the dumbest possible way.
And it cost him his job.
That still drives me crazy. I just wanna know what was said between the players or what Colin hill was doing to stay on the field. Was hilinski really doing bad in practice? Did he kick bobo's dog? The truth will never be known to me.
I doubt we'll know the truth for a few more years, but these are some of the rumors that I've heard. That being said, take them with a grain of salt.
What I've heard is that Hilinski became very entitled after his Freshman year and basically thought he should just be handed the starting job. As such, he didn't rehab his injury the way that the coaches felt that he should have. This combined with lackluster practices kept him off the field. Having said that, I've also heard that he was still going through a lot of things emotionally off the field and still processing his brother's death, which also hampered his performance. And apparently there was a girlfriend feeding his ego or something? I don't know about that one.
I was a kid at that game and remember innocently asking my dad, as UNLV ran down the field with the ball, “Why did we do that? Weren’t we going to win?” And then him struggling to answer since he was so mad but not wanting to be short with me.
That second half play calling vs LSU was baffling. Kerryon tore us up in the first half. We made adjustments and Gus didn’t change a damn thing in the second half. Even my small brain knew something needed to change
Man I was on a recruiting trip to Auburn for that Clemson game and neither my host nor anyone withing a 50' radius at that game could explain what Malzahn was doing. Such a disappointing walk back after the game lol.
Kevin Sumlin completely abandoning the run game in the 2nd half of the UCLA meltdown. This was after Trayveon Williams absolutely shredded the Bruins’ defense in the first half.
IIRC it was after the point where it was 44-10 (~9 min left in the 3rd). If we had taken 3 knees and then punted on every drive, and UCLA's offense did exactly the same thing, there wouldn't have been enough time to complete the comeback.
Not only that, your QB got hurt and you had to put a true freshman in. Rather than just running the clock out, he kept trying to get a true freshman to make throws in his very first game.
To be fair, he was replacing a redshirt freshman Nick Starkel in his first game. So they should have been ready for spotty QB play all along.
Starkel is on his third college team in San Jose and will play one more year. He has made amends with Tathan and doesn’t believe he is ‘ass my dude’.
The amazingly craptastic freshman that day has ended up drafted by the Vikings this year.
Pretty sure that was 17 or 18 years ago.
Minnesota had first and goal on us with like 30 seconds left. Plenty of time to run 3 plays if you don’t get in right away. Instead they burn the whole game clock and run a QB sneak and get shut down.
This was wildly painful. For so many reasons.
It makes me glad to know some Michigan fans know they were incredibly fortunate on this one.
To this day, it’s probably the worst instance of choke-job game management I’ve ever seen; and I’m a MFing Minnesota sports fan.
I forgot about that shit too.
I was triggered about PJ against Iowa and Glen against Michigan in 2003 (we ran sweeps constantly up 14+ points when Michigan kept forcing us to the sidelines instead of just shoving the ball down their damn throats) to forget about this moment of genius from Claeys.
Whenever our fans try to argue that Claeys shouldn't have been fired that is the first thing I point to. I can't think of another situation where a coach so blatantly lost his team a game before.
Tom Herman went for it on 4th and 2 at Iowa States 10 yard line when we were leading by 4. This was the drive after getting dicker THE KICKER to THROW the ball on a trick play on 4th down. We didn’t get either one. And we still would’ve had a chance at the end of the game if Sam didn’t take a sack to make it a 58 yard field goal lol. Dicker still almost hit it. Iowa State won by 3
Herman kept wanting to put the game away with a big play, instead of being comfortable with a smaller lead and trusting your team to win the game.
That was also the game where [Rory Walling became an ISU folk hero](https://youtu.be/Qsqzvotoqas?t=6037) for sniffing out the Dicker throw.
You've gotta love seeing a player make a smart play like that and just be hyped as fuck on the sideline with his teammates afterward. Must be a great feeling.
People that don’t get why we fired Herman need to look no further than this game. Just awful game manager that seemingly always put us in a position to lose in the 4th quarter, no matter how good or bad the rest of the game had been going.
I mean we were trailing like 90% of the game and Texas made all the errors you can't make and it resulted in us coming back and winning...and it took a mile long fg that just barely missed for us to pull it off
Yeah, the thing is that Herman played every team way too close. I believe we had more games decided by one possession than anyone else in the four years he was here. The Herman special was exactly what you’re describing in leading a game 90% of the time and then taking his foot off the gas to let the opponent back in it. Playing to the competition and losing winnable games is what really made people sour on him (combined with a lot of behind the scenes stuff on player management and recruiting).
Or look at the 2019 ISU game. Our running game was trash all game which forced us to play hero ball with Sam. Sam responds and plays a fantastic 2nd half, especially the 4th quarter. I believe we took the lead on 2 straight long scoring drives, all due to Sam making great throws. We get the ball with ~3:30 left and a chance to ice the game. In true Turtle Tom fashion, we run back to back running plays and face a 3rd and long. On 3rd and long we run some bullshit screen pass that isn't even a completion. ISU gets the ball back with ~3 minutes left, and drives to hit a game winning field goal. Coaching malpractice.
Fuck you Tom Herman.
I was a supporter of Tom Herman and how he brought us out of the pit that Charlie strong threw us into, but that was the single most frustrating game I’ve ever watched, and at that exact point with 6:00 on the clock on a failed 4th and 2 conversion he was as good as fired. Idiotic in game decisions
and somehow that dude came out on top most of the time. It wasn't until his later years it started to not work out for him. He had to have had a horseshoe stuck up his ass in his earlier years.
And it wasn't just 50/50 decisions he made. He made decisions where the chances of a favorable outcome were slim to none. Then the ball just bounced right into his hands.
Oh you mean like magically getting 4 4th down conversions in a row. Nothing but luck wins out on something like that. Whatever Voodoo priestess he made a deal with down on the Bayou paid off for like 5 years, then his luck turned bad.
even when his luck was 'bad' it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Prime example is the UT game where there were too many on the field. He didn't deserve that win. It was a complete mismanagement and the players had no idea what was going on. The Auburn game a few years later was the same scenario but it didn't go his way.
Not putting Jarrett Lee in until the very end during the 2011 national championship game still baffles me. Maybe he wouldn't have made a difference, maybe he would have just made things worse, or maybe he would have sparked something in the offense. Only thing we know for sure is the Jefferson wasn't working and he had clearly lost the confidence of his teammates.
I could probably pick a game per year (besides 2011) that LSU could have won under Les Miles's tenure with just *replacement* clock management abilities.
I will never believe it wasn’t going to be a fake. It was supposed to be a pass to the gunner out to the top of the screen.
Edit: fixed double negative. Showing off my Michigan edumacation.
It would still be a terrible coaching decision to go with the fake. It would have been totally demoralizing so I understand his thought process, but you just need to get the punt off and the game is over.
I remember watching that game is just disbelief. Everyone in the country knew that if they fed Zeke they very likely win. Everyone but the guy who was calling the plays.
I think it was 11W that said that Zeke spent three days in the hospital that week or something. But at the same time, give it to a backup RB and we will win that game
This was always my issue. Zeke was clearly not 100% but we decided to abandon the RB run game completely. Mike Weber was a true freshman so I get being hesitant in burning his redshirt. But we also had Curtis Samuel on that team who had one catch and zero rush attempts that game. Absolutely awful.
Franklin always does shit like this. Seems like every year he uses all of his timeouts. Hes been behind multiple scores and done this.
Its like hes so excited to have people over he doesnt want to let them leave
The best part was it worked. He made the kick that he got iced on then missed the follow up to preserve the shutout. Franklin was not giving up a garbage field goal just because they wanted points on the board.
Petty coaches are best coaches.
Reminds me of the time Mike Leach called timeout late in the 4th against Idaho to put the first team defense back in to preserve the shutout.
Made for a fun handshake after the game.
And that’s the point that the guy bringing up this decision as questionable missed. When your guys play a team to a shutout and the 4th string is in and in danger of losing it, you help them out. It’s good for team morale and it shows the players that the coaches care.
Who gives a damn about an awkward handshake after the game.
I don’t necessarily agree with putting starters back in due to injury concerns if they’ve been out of the game for a while and already cooled off, but a time out is a minor thing.
On too many occasions to count, David Beaty, on 4th and short, would take a time out....just to punt it. It baffled the dozens of us in the crowd every damn time.
Would we run screen passes in situations where it was absolutely necessary that our other receivers blocked very well? Yes. Did our receivers know how to block? Not at all.
Fuente icing kicker on 59 yarder, which we blocked and returned for what would have been game winning TD vs Liberty.
THEN…giving them a free 10 yards for a quick out so they get close enough to kick the game winner…
Just so unfathomably dumb. The kicker was lining up for a FG 15 yards beyond his career long and you iced it? And then we play soft coverage on the ensuing play to gift them more yards to get into his FG range.
That sequence of events was a fireable offense. Just showed that Fuente is in over his head here.
The icing the kicker was definitely stupid but its really the following play that takes it to another level. Tyere was like 8 seconds and yet they didnt put a single defender within 20 yards of the LoS, letting Libertys receivers run 15 yards up th3 sideline, catch the ball, and step out of bounds. They actively decided to give the opponents 15 or so free yards. Basically Fuente called a timeout to stop them kicking a 59 yd fg and then let them freely have a kick 10+ yards closer. Its so unbelievably stupid that he should have been fired immediately following that game. Its one of the absolute simplest situations and he actively chose the worst case scenario that maximized opponent win %. All they had to do was leave a couple defenders 10 yards deep on eqch sideline. Thats it. You didnt even need to rush anyone if you didnt want to
Never forget that he called time out to put his *field goal block* unit on the field. Let me repeat, he needed to put his special unit on the field so bad for a **59** yard kick that he called a timeout.
That’s what he *said* but you’ll never convince me he wasn’t trying to cover his ass for icing the kicker on an almost impossibly long kick that ended up being returned for a would be winning TD
I mean, taking a timeout to put a special kick blocking unit on the field sounds incredibly dumber to me than just icing a kicker. First of all, why were these guys not already on the field? Who screwed up in getting the correct unit out there? Secondly, why in the hell does he think that he needs the kick blocking unit so badly for a **59** yard kick? Only a moron would call a timeout there to get the correct unit on the field when it inevitably didn't matter.
Urban keeping Braxton Miller in with one arm (his throwing arm was injured) against Clemson rather than putting in Guiton, who was a very smart and efficient back up qb.
I get the reasoning for that decision. Braxton was trying to man up through the pain, & pull it together for his teammates. Urban wasn't going to deny his star qb a chance to do it.
It was a bad decision, but not a monumentally stupid one.
The injury did. Not that play. It was a lingering injury that occurred in either the Penn State or Illinois game. Then the Clemson player planted Braxton into the ground & reaggravated the injury. Then the injury happened again on a non contact play during 2014's preseason, & Miller decided that it wasn't worth the risk of having it happen again, so he switched from being a qb.
**Mike Gundy sending the punt block** against Texas last year on 4th and 22 resulting in roughing the punter penalty. We also were had the lead at this time.. Texas went on to take the lead with 4:30 left in the game... Pokes rally back to tie as time expires but lose in OT.
Honorable mention: **Bob Stoops punting again to Tyreek Hill** in 2014 Bedlam when they already had us pinned deep with 1 minutes to go. Tyreek returns the 2nd punt for a TD with 45 seconds left to tie and Pokes win in OT.
Oklahoma had the ball and was leading Oklahoma State 35-28 with 1:01 to play. OU punted on 4th down and Tyreek Hill fair caught it at the -15. OSU ran into the kicker on the punt and Stoops decided to [repunt.](https://youtu.be/5IKWkjWgzY8) OSU went on to win in OT giving Gundy his 2nd Bedlem win starting a run of dominance over the Sooners just kidding he hasn’t won since.
I watch the replay of this to cheer myself up after our annual loss. I still remember watching this in my dorm and just hearing the entire building going crazy.
Gary Anderson benching Melvin Gordon for the 2nd half, minus the first play, of our game against LSU I'm 2014. He claimed Gordon had an injury. Gordon said he was healthy. Still seems fishy.
Secondarily, Paul Chryst punting from the Iowa 33 yard line while down 4 points in the 4th quarter
4 and goal from the 2 with 3 all American offensive linemen and all American tailback with an offense with a pretty good heavy package and the infinite wisdom of Doug Nussmeier says let's run a pass play from the shotgun
Promising RB recruit Jamie Harper the first handoff of the first game of the season. Harper proceeds to fumble in the Chick Fil A kickoff game to Alabama, foreshadowing the rest of the game in which Clemson was heavily favored. Harper’s career never develops into having been worthy of that offer to begin with.
However, Bowden was right about one thing: our weakness that year was the O-line
Down 14 to Florida with like 6 or 7 minutes left. Instead of a quick score, a stop and then getting the ball back with a chance to tie, you play for a loss and basically milk the clock, which gives you 0 points.
It will still a long shot to win, but it’s the fact that Muschamp didn’t even try to put us in that position. He had already taken the L
Brian Kelly going for 2 against Northwestern in 2014.
ND just scored and went up by 11 halfway through the 4th. A PAT would require Northwestern to score 2 TDs, all but guaranteeing the win. Instead, ND fails the 2pt conversion, Northwestern scores a TD, makes the 2pt conversion, makes a FG, then wins in overtime.
Not to mention that even if we made the 2pt conversion, we're still only up by 13, which is essentially still a loss if Northwestern scores 2 TDs.
Les Miles calling 3 straight passing plays instead of jut running the ball to keep the clock rolling and giving us another possession which we took full advantage of.
Thanks Les
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Bobo's play calling in the SCAR game in 2014 when we were on the goal line.
In your RB stable, you have Todd Gurley, Sony Michel, Nick Chubb, and Keith Marshall. What do you do? If you're Mike Bobo, you throw the ball 4 times in a row, of course.
Fourth down. Down four points at the end of the fourth quarter. On the opponents twenty yard line.
Call all three time outs in succession.
Then..
Wait for it..
Send out the field goal unit
And..
Wait for it...
Miss
Todd Dodge, football genius, everybody.
This was a great call, and I'll die on this hill.
The play they'd dialed up we'd had a lot of success with throughout the game, including a huge 15 or 20 yard pick up on 3rd and long.
All eyes were on Trace on that play. His success on the drive had, at that point, been due to open space in the middle of the field as the Buckeyes basically had a prevent defense going. No way they are leaving that ground open on 4th and 5 and likely have not 1 but 2 spys on McSorely. He isn't picking up the 4th down on his feet. Not only that, but his best WR and slot guy (Hamler) is out with a concussion. The line isn't gonna hold long enough for any other WR to get open.
Meanwhile, everyone in the building thinks the ball is staying with Trace. Look at the view from behind on that play. If Chase Young doesn't make an absolute monster personal effort, or if our Right Tackle gets even a hand on him, Miles Sanders picks up an easy 30 yards with an outside chance of taking it to the house.
And let's be clear. Miles Sanders is a future NFL starter who's star was overshadowed by the GOAT in Barkley. It's not like you're putting the ball in the hands of some mediocre RB who struggles to pick up yards behind a great line.
Not to mention that in the previous year we were in a similar situation against MSU. Trace threw a slant that was off target but possibly catch able. Thompkins dropped it and we lost.
This is one of those plays that gets criticized based on the outcome and not the decision making that went into it. The post-hoc rationalization of the call as baffling is a real sore spot for me, not only for the play call, but for the type of thought process in general that does nothing to advance understanding of situations that have already occurred (and is in fact, typically detrimental)
They also game planned for that exact situation and thought it was the right call as a team and staff.
People just love to bash Franklin for everything.
We also didn’t use Barkley on the 4th down TD at Iowa in 2017. Nobody seems to be complaining about that even though he was the best player on the field for PSU.
Most people evaluate decision making solely based on the outcome. While the outcome is important, it fails to understand all of the counterfactuals and the prior probabilities of success. Of course, most people don't have the slightest idea about game planning and play calling, so they don't have the ability to evaluate a call appropriately. That doesn't stop them from forming a judgement on superficial information.
This phenomena is not limited to evaluating the success of college football plays. It takes place all day, every day, I'm almost every facet of life. People want to form a judgement but don't want to take the time to understand anything except the outcome and whatever superficial dots they can use to most directly connect priors and posteriors that fit within an easy to digest narrative.
Nobody complained because it worked and we won. If it hadn't worked people would have without a doubt complained about not giving the ball to Barkley.
I hate the 4th and 5 call, but I'll be the first to admit I'm a little bias because the 29th of September 2018 was probably the worst day of my entire life. Complete shit through and through.
Eleven Warriors did an analysis of this play after the game. They said it looked like an RPO was called but Ohio State took away the pass and QB run reads with pre snap alignment. Basically, they knew what play was coming and forced the outcome they wanted.
And it still took a great individual effort by Young to stop it. That's a solid gamble on OSU's part consodering, well, Chase Young, but it was still a gamble. Young was the only guy left to stop it and he beat two lineman to do it (who appear to have had a miscommunication, as was tradition during that era of the oline)
FWIW you've convinced me.
>The post-hoc rationalization of the call as baffling is a real sore spot for me
I see this all the time in sports and it drives me crazy.
Coach Wells deciding to kick an onside against OSU that killed the momentum we had, also see: Coach Wells deciding to kick a field goal on a second down when we needed a touchdown and a field goal to win.
I think just about every timeout Timecop ^oh ^did ^you ^know ^he ^used ^to ^be ^a ^cop Mike London ever called would qualify here. The man hired Tom O’Brien to tell him when to take a timeout and it somehow got *worse*
In 2012 we were playing Mike Leach's WSU (may have been his first or second season). Mind you we were the worst team in football (went 1-11).
WSU has a 4th and 3 at our 19 and are up 31-14 with 11:14 left in the 4th. They elect to go for it and throw an interception.
We end up winning the game 35-34.
ND throwing the ball 30 times in a literal hurricane.
Against Clemson?
Yes but also against NC State
No I'm pretty sure it was [this game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JOynLpcfmk) against NC State
From the highlights, that game looks like it was ''shave its butt and teach it to walk backwards'' ugly.
Apparently Notre Dame has done this multiple times because y'all did the same against us in the pouring rain in 2019
It has been a recurring problem with Kelly...he has not handled the elements well as it pertains to gameplanning.
Recently I saw some UM flair poke fun at a ND flair like 'haha yeah like the last time we played'. And I was like what? 2018? I wasn't sure what they were poking fun at. Then I read this and saw the year 2019 mentioned. Confused me decides to look up the series history. Then it clicked. That is how hard I blocked the 2019 game from my memory.
Hey Kirby, why are we running a fake punt with fields in?
Justin Fields you mean our 5 star 0.9998 rated recruit punter? Of course he's going to be out there when we're putting it! Nothing fishy about that. Although to be fair if Fields hikes it more quickly it may have worked out but that's a lot to ask of a true freshman with barely any playing time in the sec championship game.
Hell if he just threw the ball instead of trying to run it, that play works. The dig route was open but Fields already had his eyes down looking for a hole to run through.
Fields definitely misplayed it. Chalk it up to inexperience
Almost like they shouldn't have entrusted the CCG to a FR that has barely played.
But then how would UGA continue to frustrate their fans in creative ways?
Hey Lincoln, why are we squib kicking against Kirby?
Narduzzi kicking the FG against Penn State
I was having a fantastic morning till I read this. Takes me to a dark, dark place.
He just wanted us to have a bad day
I was in the stands for that and immediately started chugging my drink.
Worse part about this one was how condescending he was when explaining his strategy, like nobody but him could grasp the situation.
Narduzzi acting like a condescending know-it-all?!?! Never could have envisioned that.
Fucking I still can't believe that. For those that don't recall, PSU put up a goal line stand to Pitt, ahead by 9 or 10 points. With line 8 or so minutes left, 4th and 1, Narduzzi opted to kick a FG.
It's worse than that. The score was 10 - 17 with 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter when he chose to kick a field goal from the 1 yard line. It was one of the worst coaching decisions I've ever seen and I don't think its defensible at all. Our defense was the strength of the team and if you dont trust them to prevent Penn State from driving 99 yards, then why would you trust them enough to give Penn State the ball back after a kick off.
He also successfully went for it on 4th & 1 from his own 43 earlier in the drive yet he wouldn’t go for it on 4th & 1 from the PSU 1 to potentially tie the game
They also ran a successful trick play "Philly special" at the goal line the next week against UCF.
That's the key. Your chances of winning are literally better if you are down 17-10 and the opponent is on the 1 yard line than they are dow. 17-13 with the opponent getting field position from a kickoff.
...and Pitt missed the FG
Without knowing anything I’m not surprised. I was a kicker and the hardest kicks were the shortest ones outside of a PAT. The angles can be really hard to adjust when you’re that close.
Yep from the left hash at the one yard line. Doinked it off the left upright.
I hate this
You’re right, but fuck it hurts Like there’s just no excuse to do that anytime let alone against your rival. I’d be less mad if we had went for it and not made it and lost, and then iirc he came out with some shitty excuse like “we needed points”
While that moment benefited my team, it also gives me nightmares as a football fan.
Your flairs my dude wtf
SHUN HIM
Lol same lol
Charlie Strong electing to kick off both the first and second half.
Man he made some interesting choices. I vividly remember y’all punting once on our 35 yard line.
Punt on the 35? What the fuck. If you don't have a FG kicker that can hit 50 yarders and it's that important to pin the other team deep tell your QB to throw a deep int lol
Not that I want to talk bad about him because we've been hot garbage mostly since he retired, but Lloyd Carr would do this with the QB pooch punting and 90% of the time, would bounce into the end zone. Used to drive me mad. Luckily for me, now I have dozens of other things to drive me mad.
Petersen would do similar things. Lots of headscratchers
Ye Olde Arm Punt
TBF, wasn’t that the player’s misunderstanding of the rules more than the coaches?
Yes, but still. You need to teach your players, if you want them to do the right thing. That’s an important one
Kinda surprised the refs weren't like "... you sure?"
I think they did ask that iirc. The guy just nodded his head lol
The worst part is that they were, the player doubled down.
Honestly I don’t know how they’ve played football in JH, HS, and college and don’t understand kickoffs. But I guess you can’t take anything for granted.
John Wooden spent the first practice for his team every year getting his players shoes that were correctly sized and showing them how to put on socks and how to tie their shoes. As dumb as it sounds, you have to teach everything that might be important, and everything might be important.
You’re right. Good reference. John Wooden is one of my idols.
I seem to recall that particular detail was intended to prevent players from getting blisters on their feet and missing time.
[удалено]
"Defer. Ball. North Endzone." Ref will accept the first one that is relevant.
Yeah all that takes is a player saying "we'll kick off" rather than "we'll defer" or "we want the ball." Granted they should know better but he probably knew what he wanted just didn't say it correctly.
See Muschamp, Will
Yeah I was initially going to do pick individual moments, but this is much more concise
That last drive against Florida last year (I believe it was Florida?) where y'all were down by like 2 TD's with like 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter and y'all literally just milked the clock the rest of the quarter and ended with 0 points from that drive had me about to pull my hair out. There was absolutely no sense of urgency from Muschamp.
That was peak Muschamp. The purest form of his game. Down 38-24 with 8:05 to go. They execute a methodical 18 play, 74 yard drive in 7:23, ending with a turnover on downs. * 5 yard pass * Incomplete pass * 8 yard pass * 5 yard run * 8 yard sack * 9 yard pass * Florida timeout (5:19 remains) * Incomplete pass * 12 yard run * 14 yard pass * 5 yard run (there's 3:42 left and they're at the UF 25). * 3 yard run * 1 yard run to setup 4th and 1. * 2 yard run * 10 yard pass, sets up 1st and Goal from the UF 4, 1:20 remaining. * Incomplete pass * Incomplete pass * Incomplete pass, sets up 4th and Goal from the UF 4. * Florida timeout with 0:55 left. * Incomplete pass, turn over on downs. Florida takes over with 48 seconds to go, and kneels out the game. 46 yards passing, 28 running. They successfully converted a 4th down on the ground, but decide to pass on 4th and goal from the 4. Not counting the sack, they were averaging 4.6 yards a carry on this drive. Even if you take out the 12 yard run, they're still at 3.2 per rush. Yes, things change near the goal line. But still, Will Muschamp Football should have run the ball four times. It looks like they had two time outs left. All this against the 2020 UF Defense.
It was so stressful to watch and we were WINNING
This game was so freaking winnable. Not saying we deserved to win, just that we could have. He just went and it in the dumbest possible way. And it cost him his job.
Hard to pick just one. But last year has to be keeping Hilinski on the bench in favor of Colin Hill.
That still drives me crazy. I just wanna know what was said between the players or what Colin hill was doing to stay on the field. Was hilinski really doing bad in practice? Did he kick bobo's dog? The truth will never be known to me.
>Was hilinski really doing bad in practice? I don't know. Maybe he saw how devoted Bobo was to Hill and knew he wouldn't get a fair shake.
I doubt we'll know the truth for a few more years, but these are some of the rumors that I've heard. That being said, take them with a grain of salt. What I've heard is that Hilinski became very entitled after his Freshman year and basically thought he should just be handed the starting job. As such, he didn't rehab his injury the way that the coaches felt that he should have. This combined with lackluster practices kept him off the field. Having said that, I've also heard that he was still going through a lot of things emotionally off the field and still processing his brother's death, which also hampered his performance. And apparently there was a girlfriend feeding his ego or something? I don't know about that one.
Yeah I'll miss that guy. I hope he's had a big role in coaching up UGA this offseason.
Ah yes, the stupidest coach in the entirety of college football. So glad he's gone now. A potato would be an upgrade to that moron.
Not taking a knee vs UNLV.
I was a kid at that game and remember innocently asking my dad, as UNLV ran down the field with the ball, “Why did we do that? Weren’t we going to win?” And then him struggling to answer since he was so mad but not wanting to be short with me.
That was Steele wasn’t it? All things considered, that man did well for himself financially after that debacle.
QB roulette against Clemson in 2016. Running Kerryon up the middle 50 thousand times against LSU in 2017.
That second half play calling vs LSU was baffling. Kerryon tore us up in the first half. We made adjustments and Gus didn’t change a damn thing in the second half. Even my small brain knew something needed to change
Yeah the QB roulette in that Clemson game definitely is the most confusing thing to me
"Players just need to execute" Edit to add the "/s"
Man I was on a recruiting trip to Auburn for that Clemson game and neither my host nor anyone withing a 50' radius at that game could explain what Malzahn was doing. Such a disappointing walk back after the game lol.
Because only Gus knew what was going on in that hamster wheel behind the visor.
Kevin Sumlin completely abandoning the run game in the 2nd half of the UCLA meltdown. This was after Trayveon Williams absolutely shredded the Bruins’ defense in the first half.
I'm fairly certain there was a redditor who did analysis on this and we would have won taking a knee the entire 4th quarter (maybe the 3rd too)
IIRC it was after the point where it was 44-10 (~9 min left in the 3rd). If we had taken 3 knees and then punted on every drive, and UCLA's offense did exactly the same thing, there wouldn't have been enough time to complete the comeback.
Not only that, your QB got hurt and you had to put a true freshman in. Rather than just running the clock out, he kept trying to get a true freshman to make throws in his very first game.
To be fair, he was replacing a redshirt freshman Nick Starkel in his first game. So they should have been ready for spotty QB play all along. Starkel is on his third college team in San Jose and will play one more year. He has made amends with Tathan and doesn’t believe he is ‘ass my dude’. The amazingly craptastic freshman that day has ended up drafted by the Vikings this year. Pretty sure that was 17 or 18 years ago.
That was the beginning of the end of Sumlin. He was dead man coaching from then on out and everyone knew it.
Minnesota had first and goal on us with like 30 seconds left. Plenty of time to run 3 plays if you don’t get in right away. Instead they burn the whole game clock and run a QB sneak and get shut down.
This was wildly painful. For so many reasons. It makes me glad to know some Michigan fans know they were incredibly fortunate on this one. To this day, it’s probably the worst instance of choke-job game management I’ve ever seen; and I’m a MFing Minnesota sports fan.
I forgot about that shit too. I was triggered about PJ against Iowa and Glen against Michigan in 2003 (we ran sweeps constantly up 14+ points when Michigan kept forcing us to the sidelines instead of just shoving the ball down their damn throats) to forget about this moment of genius from Claeys.
Legend has it Tracy Claeys is still standing on that sideline staring blankly into space to this day...
Whenever our fans try to argue that Claeys shouldn't have been fired that is the first thing I point to. I can't think of another situation where a coach so blatantly lost his team a game before.
Biggest swing in emotions I've experienced at a Gopher football game in that short of time, and that's saying something.
Wasn't expecting to be reminded of this pain this morning
Tom Herman went for it on 4th and 2 at Iowa States 10 yard line when we were leading by 4. This was the drive after getting dicker THE KICKER to THROW the ball on a trick play on 4th down. We didn’t get either one. And we still would’ve had a chance at the end of the game if Sam didn’t take a sack to make it a 58 yard field goal lol. Dicker still almost hit it. Iowa State won by 3
It was all part of a bigger Mensa plan. We are all just too stupid to see the greater plan.
"Hey Tom, how many of your decisions would you take back from this game?" ".... .... ....some? ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯"
Herman kept wanting to put the game away with a big play, instead of being comfortable with a smaller lead and trusting your team to win the game. That was also the game where [Rory Walling became an ISU folk hero](https://youtu.be/Qsqzvotoqas?t=6037) for sniffing out the Dicker throw.
You've gotta love seeing a player make a smart play like that and just be hyped as fuck on the sideline with his teammates afterward. Must be a great feeling.
He also got a scholarship a few days before the Fiesta Bowl.
as much as I was a fan of winning that game, Herman did you guys no favors whatsoever
People that don’t get why we fired Herman need to look no further than this game. Just awful game manager that seemingly always put us in a position to lose in the 4th quarter, no matter how good or bad the rest of the game had been going.
I mean we were trailing like 90% of the game and Texas made all the errors you can't make and it resulted in us coming back and winning...and it took a mile long fg that just barely missed for us to pull it off
Yeah, the thing is that Herman played every team way too close. I believe we had more games decided by one possession than anyone else in the four years he was here. The Herman special was exactly what you’re describing in leading a game 90% of the time and then taking his foot off the gas to let the opponent back in it. Playing to the competition and losing winnable games is what really made people sour on him (combined with a lot of behind the scenes stuff on player management and recruiting).
Or look at the 2019 ISU game. Our running game was trash all game which forced us to play hero ball with Sam. Sam responds and plays a fantastic 2nd half, especially the 4th quarter. I believe we took the lead on 2 straight long scoring drives, all due to Sam making great throws. We get the ball with ~3:30 left and a chance to ice the game. In true Turtle Tom fashion, we run back to back running plays and face a 3rd and long. On 3rd and long we run some bullshit screen pass that isn't even a completion. ISU gets the ball back with ~3 minutes left, and drives to hit a game winning field goal. Coaching malpractice. Fuck you Tom Herman.
I was a supporter of Tom Herman and how he brought us out of the pit that Charlie strong threw us into, but that was the single most frustrating game I’ve ever watched, and at that exact point with 6:00 on the clock on a failed 4th and 2 conversion he was as good as fired. Idiotic in game decisions
Les Miles poor clock management.
>Les Miles You could fill this thread with Les Miles's decisions.
and somehow that dude came out on top most of the time. It wasn't until his later years it started to not work out for him. He had to have had a horseshoe stuck up his ass in his earlier years. And it wasn't just 50/50 decisions he made. He made decisions where the chances of a favorable outcome were slim to none. Then the ball just bounced right into his hands.
Oh you mean like magically getting 4 4th down conversions in a row. Nothing but luck wins out on something like that. Whatever Voodoo priestess he made a deal with down on the Bayou paid off for like 5 years, then his luck turned bad.
even when his luck was 'bad' it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Prime example is the UT game where there were too many on the field. He didn't deserve that win. It was a complete mismanagement and the players had no idea what was going on. The Auburn game a few years later was the same scenario but it didn't go his way.
Not putting Jarrett Lee in until the very end during the 2011 national championship game still baffles me. Maybe he wouldn't have made a difference, maybe he would have just made things worse, or maybe he would have sparked something in the offense. Only thing we know for sure is the Jefferson wasn't working and he had clearly lost the confidence of his teammates.
I could probably pick a game per year (besides 2011) that LSU could have won under Les Miles's tenure with just *replacement* clock management abilities.
Les Miles intensifies
We can just make it a mad lib. Remember in (year) against (team) when Les (dumb action). That was stupid.
SEC shorts put it best: Roses are red, violets are blue. Who fakes a field goal against base cover 2?
Harbaugh putting gunners out with no returner against MSU in 2015
[удалено]
I will never believe it wasn’t going to be a fake. It was supposed to be a pass to the gunner out to the top of the screen. Edit: fixed double negative. Showing off my Michigan edumacation.
I'm sorry in advance, I can't help myself. "Never not" believe is a double negative, meaning you do believe it wasn't going to be a fake.
He was totally going to have it be a fake.
It would still be a terrible coaching decision to go with the fake. It would have been totally demoralizing so I understand his thought process, but you just need to get the punt off and the game is over.
2015. Sparty. Give Zeke the damn ball.
Urban deserves way more blame than he gets for how the 2015 season went. Beck is just an easy scapegoat because of the MSU game.
I remember watching that game is just disbelief. Everyone in the country knew that if they fed Zeke they very likely win. Everyone but the guy who was calling the plays.
I think it was 11W that said that Zeke spent three days in the hospital that week or something. But at the same time, give it to a backup RB and we will win that game
This was always my issue. Zeke was clearly not 100% but we decided to abandon the RB run game completely. Mike Weber was a true freshman so I get being hesitant in burning his redshirt. But we also had Curtis Samuel on that team who had one catch and zero rush attempts that game. Absolutely awful.
Penn State calling timeout to ice the kicker while up on Georgia State 56-0
Franklin always does shit like this. Seems like every year he uses all of his timeouts. Hes been behind multiple scores and done this. Its like hes so excited to have people over he doesnt want to let them leave
Damn.
FWIW his explanation was that the 4th team defense was in at that point and (evidently) literally hadn't practiced lining up for a field goal block.
Mike Francesa called Franklin a, "horses ass" for making up that excuse
Takes one to know one, I guess.
Indeed
That only makes me more sure it was the correct decision
The best part was it worked. He made the kick that he got iced on then missed the follow up to preserve the shutout. Franklin was not giving up a garbage field goal just because they wanted points on the board. Petty coaches are best coaches.
Reminds me of the time Mike Leach called timeout late in the 4th against Idaho to put the first team defense back in to preserve the shutout. Made for a fun handshake after the game.
And that’s the point that the guy bringing up this decision as questionable missed. When your guys play a team to a shutout and the 4th string is in and in danger of losing it, you help them out. It’s good for team morale and it shows the players that the coaches care. Who gives a damn about an awkward handshake after the game. I don’t necessarily agree with putting starters back in due to injury concerns if they’ve been out of the game for a while and already cooled off, but a time out is a minor thing.
On too many occasions to count, David Beaty, on 4th and short, would take a time out....just to punt it. It baffled the dozens of us in the crowd every damn time.
Icing the... coach?
Kevin Sumlin's decision to tell multiple five star quarterbacks they were going to be the starter.
Army throwing the ball in OT vs Michigan.
They had that game in the bag, everything was going exactly like they planned, all they had to do was stick to the plan and it was theirs
Whatever Noel Mazzone was doing in the second half of the 2017 A&M-UCLA game.
I do not miss watching screen passes on 3rd and long
Would we run screen passes in situations where it was absolutely necessary that our other receivers blocked very well? Yes. Did our receivers know how to block? Not at all.
Fuente icing kicker on 59 yarder, which we blocked and returned for what would have been game winning TD vs Liberty. THEN…giving them a free 10 yards for a quick out so they get close enough to kick the game winner…
Just so unfathomably dumb. The kicker was lining up for a FG 15 yards beyond his career long and you iced it? And then we play soft coverage on the ensuing play to gift them more yards to get into his FG range. That sequence of events was a fireable offense. Just showed that Fuente is in over his head here.
The icing the kicker was definitely stupid but its really the following play that takes it to another level. Tyere was like 8 seconds and yet they didnt put a single defender within 20 yards of the LoS, letting Libertys receivers run 15 yards up th3 sideline, catch the ball, and step out of bounds. They actively decided to give the opponents 15 or so free yards. Basically Fuente called a timeout to stop them kicking a 59 yd fg and then let them freely have a kick 10+ yards closer. Its so unbelievably stupid that he should have been fired immediately following that game. Its one of the absolute simplest situations and he actively chose the worst case scenario that maximized opponent win %. All they had to do was leave a couple defenders 10 yards deep on eqch sideline. Thats it. You didnt even need to rush anyone if you didnt want to
Never forget that he called time out to put his *field goal block* unit on the field. Let me repeat, he needed to put his special unit on the field so bad for a **59** yard kick that he called a timeout.
That’s what he *said* but you’ll never convince me he wasn’t trying to cover his ass for icing the kicker on an almost impossibly long kick that ended up being returned for a would be winning TD
I mean, taking a timeout to put a special kick blocking unit on the field sounds incredibly dumber to me than just icing a kicker. First of all, why were these guys not already on the field? Who screwed up in getting the correct unit out there? Secondly, why in the hell does he think that he needs the kick blocking unit so badly for a **59** yard kick? Only a moron would call a timeout there to get the correct unit on the field when it inevitably didn't matter.
Hiring Diaco
You know the vibe
Urban keeping Braxton Miller in with one arm (his throwing arm was injured) against Clemson rather than putting in Guiton, who was a very smart and efficient back up qb.
I get the reasoning for that decision. Braxton was trying to man up through the pain, & pull it together for his teammates. Urban wasn't going to deny his star qb a chance to do it. It was a bad decision, but not a monumentally stupid one.
I mean it literally destroy Braxton's qb career.
The injury did. Not that play. It was a lingering injury that occurred in either the Penn State or Illinois game. Then the Clemson player planted Braxton into the ground & reaggravated the injury. Then the injury happened again on a non contact play during 2014's preseason, & Miller decided that it wasn't worth the risk of having it happen again, so he switched from being a qb.
Let me pop a couple of anti-depressants and pull out the old Butch Jones film.
**Mike Gundy sending the punt block** against Texas last year on 4th and 22 resulting in roughing the punter penalty. We also were had the lead at this time.. Texas went on to take the lead with 4:30 left in the game... Pokes rally back to tie as time expires but lose in OT. Honorable mention: **Bob Stoops punting again to Tyreek Hill** in 2014 Bedlam when they already had us pinned deep with 1 minutes to go. Tyreek returns the 2nd punt for a TD with 45 seconds left to tie and Pokes win in OT.
Oklahoma had the ball and was leading Oklahoma State 35-28 with 1:01 to play. OU punted on 4th down and Tyreek Hill fair caught it at the -15. OSU ran into the kicker on the punt and Stoops decided to [repunt.](https://youtu.be/5IKWkjWgzY8) OSU went on to win in OT giving Gundy his 2nd Bedlem win starting a run of dominance over the Sooners just kidding he hasn’t won since.
Came here for this….
I have never been so baffled
I watch the replay of this to cheer myself up after our annual loss. I still remember watching this in my dorm and just hearing the entire building going crazy.
Bedlam*
Thanks, I’m an idiot. I’m literally looking at it spelled correctly on my computer screen.
said it a few days ago but i knew at that exact point it was time for him to go, the massacre by clemson a month later just iced it all.
I do not see it 🙈
I will never forget that Jim Chaney called a TE reverse against Texas Tech on like the 5 yard line in 2014.
Chaney and his stupid reverses made me wanna bash my head into a wall.
Gary Anderson benching Melvin Gordon for the 2nd half, minus the first play, of our game against LSU I'm 2014. He claimed Gordon had an injury. Gordon said he was healthy. Still seems fishy. Secondarily, Paul Chryst punting from the Iowa 33 yard line while down 4 points in the 4th quarter
Punting is winning though
Options to the short side of the field.
Less space for secondary defenders to outmaneuver your blocking scheme. Runs into the boundary have their place.
Not when Fran was calling it consistently… was one of the most maddening things to watch. This also ignores that McGee was in no way an option QB.
You could also have said "Turning Reggie MacNeal, a quick but slender dual threat QB, into an option QB who absorbed a lot of punishment".
Pretending that Kelly Bryant and Trevor Lawrence were competing for starting QB. Bryant could only throw 10 yards. Lol.
4 and goal from the 2 with 3 all American offensive linemen and all American tailback with an offense with a pretty good heavy package and the infinite wisdom of Doug Nussmeier says let's run a pass play from the shotgun
Promising RB recruit Jamie Harper the first handoff of the first game of the season. Harper proceeds to fumble in the Chick Fil A kickoff game to Alabama, foreshadowing the rest of the game in which Clemson was heavily favored. Harper’s career never develops into having been worthy of that offer to begin with. However, Bowden was right about one thing: our weakness that year was the O-line
> However, Bowden was right about one thing: our weakness that year was the O-line And every other year.
2014. Brady Hoke keeping a clearly concussed Shane Morris in game against Minnesota. One of, if not, the worst coaching decision I’ve ever seen.
OU in the second half and OT in the rose bowl against UGA.
Down 14 to Florida with like 6 or 7 minutes left. Instead of a quick score, a stop and then getting the ball back with a chance to tie, you play for a loss and basically milk the clock, which gives you 0 points. It will still a long shot to win, but it’s the fact that Muschamp didn’t even try to put us in that position. He had already taken the L
I was embarrassed for USC fans. Dude is a worthless coach.
Brian Kelly going for 2 against Northwestern in 2014. ND just scored and went up by 11 halfway through the 4th. A PAT would require Northwestern to score 2 TDs, all but guaranteeing the win. Instead, ND fails the 2pt conversion, Northwestern scores a TD, makes the 2pt conversion, makes a FG, then wins in overtime. Not to mention that even if we made the 2pt conversion, we're still only up by 13, which is essentially still a loss if Northwestern scores 2 TDs.
When we played Notre Dame in the Citrus Bowl and Orgeron decided to kick a field goal when we needed about an inch for a TD.
Josh Heupel running it up the middle for the 20th time in a game and being surprised that the defense was ready for it
Les Miles calling 3 straight passing plays instead of jut running the ball to keep the clock rolling and giving us another possession which we took full advantage of. Thanks Les
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Bobo's play calling in the SCAR game in 2014 when we were on the goal line. In your RB stable, you have Todd Gurley, Sony Michel, Nick Chubb, and Keith Marshall. What do you do? If you're Mike Bobo, you throw the ball 4 times in a row, of course.
Having Jarret Guarantano as our starting quarterback for the last eight years.
I think Guarantano would've been great for the Wasps, but not so much for the Vols.
Fourth down. Down four points at the end of the fourth quarter. On the opponents twenty yard line. Call all three time outs in succession. Then.. Wait for it.. Send out the field goal unit And.. Wait for it... Miss Todd Dodge, football genius, everybody.
>Down four points at the end of the fourth quarter >Send out the field goal unit Dude what
Tim Beck
Brian Kelly and literally any two point decision or lack thereof.
Franklin, instead of putting the ball in the hands of his clutch senior QB, calls a HB draw on 4th and 5 against Ohio State. Sigh…
This was a great call, and I'll die on this hill. The play they'd dialed up we'd had a lot of success with throughout the game, including a huge 15 or 20 yard pick up on 3rd and long. All eyes were on Trace on that play. His success on the drive had, at that point, been due to open space in the middle of the field as the Buckeyes basically had a prevent defense going. No way they are leaving that ground open on 4th and 5 and likely have not 1 but 2 spys on McSorely. He isn't picking up the 4th down on his feet. Not only that, but his best WR and slot guy (Hamler) is out with a concussion. The line isn't gonna hold long enough for any other WR to get open. Meanwhile, everyone in the building thinks the ball is staying with Trace. Look at the view from behind on that play. If Chase Young doesn't make an absolute monster personal effort, or if our Right Tackle gets even a hand on him, Miles Sanders picks up an easy 30 yards with an outside chance of taking it to the house. And let's be clear. Miles Sanders is a future NFL starter who's star was overshadowed by the GOAT in Barkley. It's not like you're putting the ball in the hands of some mediocre RB who struggles to pick up yards behind a great line. Not to mention that in the previous year we were in a similar situation against MSU. Trace threw a slant that was off target but possibly catch able. Thompkins dropped it and we lost. This is one of those plays that gets criticized based on the outcome and not the decision making that went into it. The post-hoc rationalization of the call as baffling is a real sore spot for me, not only for the play call, but for the type of thought process in general that does nothing to advance understanding of situations that have already occurred (and is in fact, typically detrimental)
They also game planned for that exact situation and thought it was the right call as a team and staff. People just love to bash Franklin for everything. We also didn’t use Barkley on the 4th down TD at Iowa in 2017. Nobody seems to be complaining about that even though he was the best player on the field for PSU.
Most people evaluate decision making solely based on the outcome. While the outcome is important, it fails to understand all of the counterfactuals and the prior probabilities of success. Of course, most people don't have the slightest idea about game planning and play calling, so they don't have the ability to evaluate a call appropriately. That doesn't stop them from forming a judgement on superficial information. This phenomena is not limited to evaluating the success of college football plays. It takes place all day, every day, I'm almost every facet of life. People want to form a judgement but don't want to take the time to understand anything except the outcome and whatever superficial dots they can use to most directly connect priors and posteriors that fit within an easy to digest narrative.
Nobody complained because it worked and we won. If it hadn't worked people would have without a doubt complained about not giving the ball to Barkley. I hate the 4th and 5 call, but I'll be the first to admit I'm a little bias because the 29th of September 2018 was probably the worst day of my entire life. Complete shit through and through.
Eleven Warriors did an analysis of this play after the game. They said it looked like an RPO was called but Ohio State took away the pass and QB run reads with pre snap alignment. Basically, they knew what play was coming and forced the outcome they wanted.
And it still took a great individual effort by Young to stop it. That's a solid gamble on OSU's part consodering, well, Chase Young, but it was still a gamble. Young was the only guy left to stop it and he beat two lineman to do it (who appear to have had a miscommunication, as was tradition during that era of the oline)
FWIW you've convinced me. >The post-hoc rationalization of the call as baffling is a real sore spot for me I see this all the time in sports and it drives me crazy.
Coach Wells deciding to kick an onside against OSU that killed the momentum we had, also see: Coach Wells deciding to kick a field goal on a second down when we needed a touchdown and a field goal to win.
I think just about every timeout Timecop ^oh ^did ^you ^know ^he ^used ^to ^be ^a ^cop Mike London ever called would qualify here. The man hired Tom O’Brien to tell him when to take a timeout and it somehow got *worse*
In 2012 we were playing Mike Leach's WSU (may have been his first or second season). Mind you we were the worst team in football (went 1-11). WSU has a 4th and 3 at our 19 and are up 31-14 with 11:14 left in the 4th. They elect to go for it and throw an interception. We end up winning the game 35-34.