• Very grateful for Coach Petrino’s time here and the success he brought to the program. We’ve used some of that in recruiting, showing kids what is possible here. Missouri State is ranked highly in the FCS. They have a good team and went to the playoffs last season. We know we have to be ready for a fine team to come in here.
• Our penalties stood out rewatching film. We have to get those cleaned up. Most defensive penalties came on third down. It just can’t happen. We have to emphasize it, and the coaches will help with that. It’ll come back and bite us if we don’t clean it up.
• Drew Sanders had a hell of a game the other day. I got asked after the game what I thought of his play and I knew he played well, but he played a hell of a game.
• These weeks are about seeing who can help us win ball games. We have enough things to work on to get better. We have a team I’m proud of. We’ve been good about putting games away once they’re over and moving on.
• Petrino has been able to go in there and get Missouri State to the playoffs. He’s a really good coach and has a good staff. Got some key guys from the transfer portal likely because of his rep as a good coach. He’ll keep doing a good job there.
• Hopefully we can get Dominique Johnson back this week. He’s cleared. It’s kind of up to him.
• Kendal Briles is really using our personnel well and calling games effectively through the first two games.
• I’d like to see Keuan Parker play some at corner this week. Khari Johnson is going to play middle safety and possibly boundary safety, and maybe nickel. Myles Slusher, I don’t know. He’s going to have to play safety and nickel. I don’t know where we’d put him to start with. Jayden Johnson is probably better suited at nickel, which could push Slusher back to safety.
• Jadon Haselwood brings a lot of confidence to the offensive side of the team. I hope he’s having fun again, because I’m having fun with him being on the team. He’s a man. He will speak his mind.
• I think we’ve got to watch Trey Knox. We have to watch him this week and weekend. Same thing with Latavious Brini, who is probably a little bit healthier than Knox at this point.
• On Bumper Pool and Drew Sanders: They’re close and good friends. They’ve earned each other’s respect. This group plays really well together and they’re both good players. Drew Sanders is a really, really good player.
• I don’t believe I’ve crossed paths with Bobby Petrino, but I do have a lot of respect for him and what he did here.
• Again, have to clean up penalties. I’m disappointed in myself on that one. The hands to the face flags, three different guys had one. We’re not getting close enough to the O-linemen. We went back and looked at tape, and we’re certainly going to emphasize that.
• Ricky Stromberg, who won SEC co-offensive lineman of the week this morning, would probably say he didn’t play his best game vs. Cincy, but he had one of his better games last week.
• Bobby Petrino is a fantastic offensive mind. He’s got some wideouts who are good players. Uses lots of formations, runs the quarterback, throws it when they need to. He knows the personnel he has.
• With Brini, it wasn’t super swift when he first got here because he didn’t take an official visit. Him saying he got off to a rocky start at Arkansas had something to do with that. But he’s settled in and been a nice player for us.
IMO, Sam is saying exactly the correct thing to be saying about Bobby. He does have an amazing offensive mind for football and is able to implement his game plan. During his last 2 years at Arkansas, he put the Razorbacks back into the National spotlight. Sam mentioned he used that in recruiting.
We certainly don’t want the players to be going into this game, thinking about the next 2 huge games, or we may end up like A&M or Notre Dame. Sam seems to be great at keeping them focused on one game at a time.
Do you not think that A&M and Notre Dame had better talent at every position than the 2 teams that beat them last Saturday? Maybe an exception or 2 with App St.
Jimbo got outcoached. Which isn’t hard. His offense is stuck in the distant past, and his defense couldn’t get off the field. App State was much more dominant than a 17-14 score suggests.
Jimbo reminds me of Gene Chizik: Won a national title behind a quarterback, but basically can’t coach his way out of a wet paper bag.
Notre Dame has had problems before. They should have lost to Toledo in Week 2 last year, and their QB sucks. Yes, having watched the game, I think Marshall’s QB is better than ND’s guy (who got hurt anyway). And Marcus Freeman isn’t inspiring confidence either.
