The State 10/10/2004 A deflating defeat
I'm tired of this being acceptable. I want someone to be accountable for this!
After being favored by 17 points and having every commentator on talk radio guaranteeing a victory, we come out unemotional and give the game away.
Mostly I blame the coaches. The players did fail to execute a few key plays, but the coaching staff never put the team in a position to win this game. Unlike the Georgia game, where conservative play calling cost us the lead and the game, here conservative play calling allowed Ole Miss to grab an emotional edge. Because of this we've lost 2 games and almost lost a 3 (against Troy).
I heard several arguments on the radio after the game supporting the coaching staff. Things like:
"If anyone had told us we'd be 4-2 at the beginning of the season we would have been excited" or "Holtz is experienced and knows what his doing" or "We can't get any better the Lou".
No! I'm tired of accepting a loss like this. We should expect and demand more. I don't care how many games Holtz has coached, this loss is unacceptable.
Here are my main problems with the game and the coaching staff.
First, Holtz is one of THE best motivational speakers in the world. The entire first half our players played flat and with no emotion. There is no excuse for that!
Why does the quarterback have more rushing attempts than a Parade All American Running Back? We struggled to get a running game going all day. Why did we not use Demtris more?
With 7 seconds left in the half we go for a touchdown pass instead of kicking the fieldgoal. This miss by us gave Ole Miss a big lift going into the half, and took away all momentum we had built. I heard many people say that this is an easy call to sideline quaterback. Like in Poker, it's easy to say you should have played a hand after you throw away an 8-3 and the flop comes 8-8-3. But if you always make the right call, you'll come out ahead. If you take the risk and play it, there is a small chance you'll hit something big, but a large chance you won't. We didn't make the right call there and we paid for it.
In Lou's first few seasons (when we lost 22 in a row) discipline was key. If a player fumble or made a mistake in the game he was benched for at least a few plays if not the game. For the last few seasons the discipline and fundamentals of the team have declined. Saturday I saw people fumble and drop easy passes, only to return the next play and the next series. Where is this hard nose discipline of Holtz?
Late in the 4th quarter we continued to call quaterback run plays. This play had only worked once during the day and ate up precious seconds.
Again I heard arguments on the radio that the game hasn't passed Lou by. Well if it hasn't I want to see proof. We have yet to beat Florida or Tennessee under Holtz. We rarely beat teams when we are underdogs and we've given up several wins against teams we are favored against.
To me it is no longer acceptable, as a USC fan and alumni, I demand better!
