2. M. Spurlock proved that he could get the job done. While there is much room for improvement, he protected the ball, distrubuted the ball, minimized turnovers, and made enough plays to get us the W. Looking forward to seeing him steadily improve as he gets more comfortable.
3. Memphis backup QB is going to be a good one ----looked better to me than the starter who was injured early in the game. This QB, under the circumstances, performed very well and gave Memphis an unexpected boost. He just made some freshman mistakes in turnovers that were costly (thank goodness). He was offered by Ole Miss out of high school, as well as by other SEC teams. So, he is not really a "sleeper".
4. UM kicking game lacks a lot to be desired. First the good: The kickoff team did very well ---no returns, with the kicker putting the ball into the endzone. Next, the decent: Punting was average to below average. The only good thing I can say about the punting game was that we had good coverage and did not give up any significant returns. Finally, the horrible: Place Kicking. Missed two out of three field goals and even the extra points looked a little shaky. The one made field goal barely squeeked through the uprights. Need a lot of work in this area. This could have cost us the game. Maybe time to recruit from the soccer team.
5. Patrick Willis is awesome. Despite being banged up, he played through his injury and had 15 tackles. He was all over the field, terrorizing Memphis and the Deangelo Heisman campaign.
6. Coach O, IMO, coached a good game ---especially for a first game. Things appeared to go pretty smooth for the most part. We had a penalty for getting onto the field late to start the second half ----Coach O admitted he got a little carried away with the halftime pep talk.
But, the kicker booted the ball into the endzone for a touchback anyway, so no harm, no foul.
7. Offensive Coordinator Noel Mazzone appeared to have a good game plan. The failure to execute on several wide open pass routes cost us an early rout of Memphis, especially on critical 3rd downs. The play calling in the red zone appeared a little too conservative at times, especially the way our field goal kickers were performing. I look for this to be an area of emphasis in getting ready for Vandy.
8. The OL is struggling. A couple of needed players are injured and out, and some are playing hurt. Hopefully the off week will give us time to get the OL regrouped. The QB needs more time to set up for the longer pass routes, and the RBs need room to get off the line of scrimmage. Often times, our RBs were having to break tackles just to get to the line of scrimmage.
9. Running game was anemic and must improve for us to have any significant success this season. (See 8 above as one of the key reasons). In addition to poor OL play, our RBs looked a little slow to me. We need more explosiveness. Mico McSwain (recently converted to RB) looked pretty good on the corners and is fast. We need Abrams back on the field to see what he can do. Disappointed in Pittman. He needs to take his game to another gear or two. A balanced offense will be critical to win enough games to get to a bowl game.
10. After losing against this Conf USA opponent the 2 previous years, I'll take the W, regardless of how we got it. An "ugly" win is still a thing of beauty to me. Overall, not a bad performance. Got the W. Need to improve in several areas.
