Lane Kiffin shares his thoughts on Saturday night's win against ASU.
He has some interesting observations, here are some of the highlights from WeAreSC...
* (the development of special teams) – I think it’s been the most exciting part of the season so far. It’s been great to see the work pay off, the things we put in during spring and work on every day. We always talk about playing special teams with the same attitude you play with on offense and defense, look at someone like T.J. McDonald who played 70 plays on defense then he is going out there and blocking punts and knocking back punts inside the 5 yard line. At the same time we gave up a 100 yard kickoff return and John Baxter was bothered by that. Schematically we did everything right but he can’t help it if 4 or 5 guys miss tackles. I think you’re going to see special teams improve even more in the coming years as guys buy in more and continue to get used to our drills.
* I thought Michael Reardon played well, it was his first time in a starting role and he played every snap. He graded higher than any other offensive lineman out there, it’s a great lesson to other guys who aren’t playing to stay ready for when your chance comes. Marshall Jones made some plays and tackled well but he also had a critical penalty. Chris Galippo started at MLB and rotated with Kennard, Malcolm Smith started at WLB and rotated with Morgan because we went with so much nickel package in this game. Marc Tyler ran well after being benched and he didn’t pout. Nickell Robey moved inside in the nickel and we played Torin more but Torin didn’t play very well, that was disappointing. Nickell played great.
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* (Daily News writer commented about earlier Kiffin quotes praising special teams by asking him to comment on going 1-3 on field goals) – You couldn’t let me be positive, could you? Yes, I was very disappointed in those FG’s but on special teams as a whole I was talking about blocking punts and a PAT that you score from. We also averaged 45 yards per punt and one of those was left-footed.
God, Wolf is such a tool.
This isn't some pink elephant in the corner of the room. I mean its not like anyone didn't see the two missed field goals. Its not like Joe Huston suddenly forgot how to kick....he hasn't been very good all season. There were some positives on Special Teams. The kicking issues won't get fixed until we get A NEW KICKER...
Kiffin rightly took note of the great game by Michael Reardon and rightly called out Torin Harris.
'SC is making some progress, this game showed it. But we still have a long way to go.
Because I haven't been able to listen to all of it, just a few snippets I wonder what was said about Matt Barkley's performance...particularly that endzone INT.
Anyway, give it a listen...