mogrits on 
AParker on 
Willy Mac on After letting the victory over MTSU marinate for a day, I’ve come to a conclusion: We’re extremely unfocused and have a great deal of room left for improvement.
The defense looked like world-beaters during certain parts of the game, but they also gave up some huge plays to some incredibly slow players. The defensive line was probably the standout unit of the entire game. That’s not based on any kind of box score or anything. They gave the right pressure, closed the right gaps at the right times, and allowed the linebackers to do their jobs. The major things they did were not slowing down and not taking any plays off. Now that I’m done playing rah rah cheerleader, the linebackers and defensive backfield are pretty good and can knock the shit out of people. They had a ton of incredible plays but it seemed like they took some plays off on purpose. I know it’s MTSU, but it’s easy to get in a mind set like that for the rest of the season. You can get away with it sometimes, but it’ll bite you in the ass further into the season. We gave up some huge plays to slow MTSU players. We had the potential to really thump Middle Tennessee and we didn’t take it.
Now, to the offense. First off, my theory on the CJ Spiller injury is that they wanted to give him a look and needed a reason to pull him after the first quarter without pissing off the Tigernet crowd who payed $35 a pop. It wouldn’t be the first time a team made a political move like that. I’ll chalk most of the dropped passes from this game up to nerves, but our best receiver shouldn’t be dropping 5+ passes. We did a lot better blocking the skill guys on the other side of the ball than I thought we would. Runningbacks did great. Offensive line didn’t push anyone around, but they didn’t give much ground either. I think we’re slightly better in that aspect than we were the day after the Gator Bowl. Parker obviously hasn’t gotten his timing down, but i think we’re in good hands. He even got a helmet sticker from Heath Dinich.
The biggest sour note of the game has to be Willy Korn. You’ve got to feel beyond terrible for him. Let’s just hope he doesn’t go off the deep end. I’m sure he’ll get back on his horse.
The biggest play has to be the the hit DeAndre McDaniel put on someone to bust a wedge during a kickoff return.
All in all, we’re still against a wall when we play Georgia Tech, but they looked severely disappointing on defense and in terms of ball handling against a FCS Jacksonville State. Also, if we lose to Duke, Maryland, or Virginia someone is going to have to coax me off of my roof.
1Daniel
on Sep 7, 2009 at 3:19 pm:
EXTREME CONFIDENCE LOSS
You do have to feel for Korn, though. Poor guy came in here with the world at his fingertips and was unfairly annointed as the savior of the program. He was an all-world local talent and I think alot of people failed to realize that Parker was just as highly regarded coming out; he just wasn’t from around here. Then Korn goes and has two fairly serious shoulder injuries and that had to have set him back. I agree Willy Mac, I hope he doesn’t get to down in the dumps.
2lola
on Sep 7, 2009 at 3:46 pm:
I choose to believe that we just didn’t want to show GaTech anything on film. It’s a stretch, I realize……
3chris simp
on Sep 7, 2009 at 4:17 pm:
On the subject of Willy Korn, yeah it sucks he had a tough game, but I’d much rather see Parker kick ass this season. Honestly, I don’t care who’s at QB as long as they are winning. But our Defense looked awesome, and you have to consider that Steele didn’t play Cooper or Conner hardly at all, and substituted ALOT in the 2nd half. All in all we played great, let’s hope the receivers can learn to catch though…They were the only thing bad about Saturday.
4Tom
on Sep 7, 2009 at 4:54 pm:
Hopefully Korn wears a hat and holds a clipboard for the rest of his career.
5Eric
on Sep 7, 2009 at 6:48 pm:
Defense should only get better since we’ll be out of the dime/nickel packages we used the entire game. Didn’t notice it at the game, but Kavell Conner didn’t play a single snap on defense.
Still scared at OL and WR, and like Daniel said, you’ve gotta feel bad for Korn. Good guy who screwed up at a horrible time.
6IM A MAN IM FORTY
on Sep 7, 2009 at 7:50 pm:
Didn’t see the game up here in Ohio. But… every asshole has an opnion.
You have to love the energy, intensity, and attitude of the defense. I believe they will only get better week to week. Also, very encouraged with KP’s poise and lack of farthead decisions that the previous two QB’s brought to the party.
Have to believe we will be better than last year. Agree, that we did not see the entire enchilada – have no idea what the absolute upside of this team could be.
We should encourage a ban on talking about uniforms in the post-CTB era, but am I the only dude from the 80′s that love the larger paw and pin stripes on the britches? Looked like a real football team for a change.
Beat Tech!
7CUTigersinDV
on Sep 7, 2009 at 8:08 pm:
Fumble was offensive lines fault. Interception was receivers fault. Not Korns. Moving on.
8joe
on Sep 7, 2009 at 9:15 pm:
@7 that post has all kinds of fail going on
9Willy Mac
on Sep 7, 2009 at 9:24 pm:
@8 – I gotta agree. That was all Willy.
10Sharp
on Sep 7, 2009 at 9:40 pm:
@7 – agree on the interception, I really think Harper should’ve made the catch. But the fumble was all Willy, ball just slipped out of his hand before he was touched.
11PenthouseTiger
on Sep 7, 2009 at 9:55 pm:
I’m with Sharp on that one
12CUTigersinDV
on Sep 8, 2009 at 7:34 am:
It looked to me like he fumbled it as the guy mushed his face which would be the offensive line’s fault for not giving him any time to breathe whatsoever. But you can make the case that it was his fault. You cannot do the same for the interception. I’d like for someone to try and make the case that that was in some way Willy Korn’s fault that Harper bobbled the shit out of that ball.
13Willy Mac
on Sep 8, 2009 at 7:46 am:
@12 Willy totally floated that ball. It was a mid range pass. You have to shoot that one. Floater. Pretty floater. But a floater, none the less.
14PenthouseTiger
on Sep 8, 2009 at 8:26 am:
@13 harper shouldn’t have bobbled a floater. a bullet is understandable since you have less time to catch it. Willy could have made a better pass, but I still call the pick shitty luck on his part
15flaact
on Sep 8, 2009 at 8:54 am:
I don’t know what you guys are talking about. Willy saw that the defense was taking plays off, so he gave MTSU a TD to get them back into the game. Since Willy knew that by the end of the season he’ll have 10,000 yards passing and 150 td’s, he knew it would be ok to take one for the team in game 1 to get everyone else up to his level.
You think Willy floated that pass? Only because you could only see the residual image trail left by a pass that was thrown at near light speed. Harper bobbled it because no mortal could possibly catch a ball with that much zip.
16dwight_clark87
on Sep 8, 2009 at 9:38 am:
I know I’m not alone in having some serious Tecmo Bowl: SB flashbacks when Spiller ran the kickoff back for a TD. There was just something about the way he ran from one side of the field to the other…honestly, I heard the Tecmo music playing in my head as I watched it happen. Awesome.
Yeah, the Tech game Thursday should be a lot of fun. Really looking forward to seeing how our DL and LBs handle Dwyer and Roddy Jones. Oh yeah, and all the other Tech RBs.
Hey Willy Mac and Chili, are you guys going to do a Q&A with those Tech guys again this year? Last year’s was entertaining to read!
17Sharp
on Sep 8, 2009 at 10:12 am:
@12 – I got the watch the replay of the game Sunday on TV, which helped with the fumble. I couldn’t tell what the hell happened at the game, but on TV, it was very clear that he just lost the ball on his own. Now, it could’ve been because the were running at him, but he wasn’t touched until after the ball was gone.
18Willy Mac
on Sep 8, 2009 at 10:19 am:
@16 – Yeah we are
19Judge Jeff Davis
on Sep 8, 2009 at 11:28 am:
LONG LIVE THAT BIG FUCKIN PAW!!
20Tom
on Sep 8, 2009 at 11:40 am:
@14 you guys are missing the point. The floater gave the DB time to get in harper’s face. Had Korn delivered that ball like a real quarterback, Harper could have bobbled it and still caught it.
21CUvinny
on Sep 8, 2009 at 11:58 am:
About the fumble, the O-line let 2 people go by almost untouched and were immediately in Korn’s face. He tried to get rid of the ball to quickly and it slipped out of his hand (looks like he gripped it to hard pulling it up). He should of ate the sack I guess but it was more the lines fault then anything.
22PenthouseTiger
on Sep 8, 2009 at 12:52 pm:
@20 can we at least say it wasn’t ENTIRELY Korn’s fault?
I’m tired of this EXTREME BLAMESESSION
23dwight_clark87
on Sep 8, 2009 at 1:29 pm:
@18 -Looking forward to it. Be sure to mention Bobby Ross several times.
24Judge Jeff Davis
on Sep 8, 2009 at 5:18 pm:
EXTREME DEAD HORSE BEATING
25Kyle
on Sep 8, 2009 at 8:20 pm:
I don’t think either one of Korn’s gaffes was really a big deal. That fumble was just a freaky thing. Such an automatic thing to bring the ball up that he had no idea it left his hand. As for the INT, that ball had to be a floater because he had to throw it over a defender jumping directly in front of him to get it out to the flat. Any attempt to throw a bullet there would have hit the MTSU guy square in the head or chest.
26Lloyd Christmas
on Sep 8, 2009 at 9:24 pm:
Kyle, I actually disagree. That throw is supposed to be your safe bet. It should NEVER lead to a turnover, whether it should have been caught or not. Also, you NEVER throw a floater on a checkdown like that. With a proper throwing motion, and that distance, it doesn’t have to be a bullet, but a normal speed pass would have done the job. If you don’t think you can get it there with a normal pass, don’t make the throw. But I do agree with you on the fumble. That could have happened to anybody.