I made it no secret that I was happy with the departure of defensive coordinator,Todd Grantham. I think he did a good job for most of his tenure but he reached a point where the defense no longer was getting better even with NFL talent. I mean, if I could figure out that he was going to blitz on every third down then so could any division one coach.
I also made it no secret that the hiring of Peter Sirmon was questionable in my opinion. Not because he wasn’t a good coach but the fact that we didn’t know if he was or not. I believe that being a coach at Louisville is no longer a stepping stone job but rather a destination job. Therefore I felt we didn’t need to hire an up and coming young coach who needed to prove himself. We needed to go out and get the best proven guy that we could.
Many people blasted Sirmon from the start because of his stats from his last job at Mississippi State. I decided to reserve judgement and give him a chance to prove himself.
Well, it’s only been six games but I’m seeing trends that I don’t like. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt because he has not had the services of his preseason All-American, Jaire Alexander, due to injury and Drew Bailey has been injured as well. Now linebacker Stacy Thomas is out. But that is all part of it and he needs to make adjustments to play with the personnel he has.
Injuries aside, I’m seeing poor tackling and no adjustments being made. It appears as though we have only blitzed about three times all year. We need to be more aggressive in the play calling (In my opinion). Somewhere between where we are now and where we were with Grantham would be nice. I though that Sirmon was playing that bend but don’t break defense when he was having his defensive backs give about 12 yards of cushion to opposing receivers, but the don’t break part isn’t working.
I am not a coach and maybe my opinion is just some Nunnsense but here are the facts…
Out of 129 FBS football teams, Louisville ranks 41st in total defense – 63rd in red zone defense – 56th in 3rd down conversion defense – 61st in 1st down defense – 96th in team passing efficiency defense and tied for 66th in sacks.
Despite the 4-2 record, Louisville still has an outside chance at making the Orange Bowl. In order to have a chance, they can’t lose another game – And as long as #8 in behind center, that is possible.
But it doesn’t do any good if he is standing on the sidelines. The defense has to get stops and give Lamar, and his weapons, a chance. Louisville ranks 53rd in time of possession.
Here are the ACC-affilited bowls –
The ACC winner will have a spot in the college football playoffs. It appears as though Clemson will take that spot. The next best bowl would be The Orange Bowl. As of now, Miami would have that spot but if Louisville wins out, they could be the highest ranked team not named Clemson. If the ACC opponent in the Orange Bowl is from the Big Ten, the league will also send a team to the Citrus Bowl. The next highest ranked ACC team would go to the Camping World Bowl. The next tier of bowls are the Belk Bowl in Charlotte, North Carolina; the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas; the Pinstripe Bowl in New York City; and either the Music City Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee, or the TaxSlayer Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida. The bottom ACC teams will go to the Military Bowl in Washington, the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit or the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Most prognosticators have Louisville in the middle tier of ACC bowl games. For this fan, if it’s not the Orange Bowl then I would prefer the Music City Bowl because it’s so close and I would travel to that game. What bowl are realistically wanting?
As Always, GO CARDS!
