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Just happened upon CMU's coaches show earlier tonight (man how I miss ours!) and a couple things jumped out at me.

Brian Kelly must be a really nice guy. Most coaches seem to grunt and groan their way through the show without noting much on the opposition. Kelly complimented quite a few of our players and some individual plays. (Namely Freddie's TD catch and a CP catch) He also talked up Devon Parks a bit. It was actually fairly pleasant to watch, even knowing the miserable outcome.

Another thing.... when we have 3rd and less than 1 or fourth and less than 1... can we please stop lining up in the shotgun or "pistol" or whatever the hell it is? we're forcing ourselves to get six yards instead of a half and it's bitten us numerous times this year. Hell, if you want to run some kind of speed play, line up under center and pitch out to Bullock or Freddie!

We got saved by the left turn at the goal line on the Rojas punt, but the momentum was killed right about there. It was early in the third, we had moved the ball pretty well on the drive after coming back in the second quarter, and not getting that half yard didn't help.

TG1996 wrote:
Another thing.... when we have 3rd and less than 1 or fourth and less than 1... can we please stop lining up in the shotgun or "pistol" or whatever the hell it is? we're forcing ourselves to get six yards instead of a half and it's bitten us numerous times this year. Hell, if you want to run some kind of speed play, line up under center and pitch out to Bullock or Freddie!

Why? All we have to do is put Freddie or Bullock in the shotgun and just have them dive up the middle. I don't think I ever remember that play not getting the job done on 3rd or 4th and 1 since Urban got here.

The formation isn't the problem, it's the stupid playcalling out of it. We continue to out-cute ourselves when the shotgun dive play is as effective as it gets.

Recent example -- on the goal line against CMU, Freddie runs it up the middle for the TD, 3rd and 1 in CMU territory, the stupid pistol handoff gets destroyed. This stuff ain't rocket science, but our staff simply can't figure it out.