Arizona Football: 2018 Territorial Cup post game reaction and commentary
Players listen to the coaches, coaches demand they follow instructions.
When you feel the sting of a loss, the first thing everyone wants to do is place blame. And usually blame can be pointed in various directions. Yes, the player’s mistakes contributed to the loss, but mistakes happen in every game. The coaches devise the strategy and are supposed to adjust to the other coaches adjustments, support and pump up their players. Do anything it takes to win.
In the post-game press conference, Coach Sumlin stressed he expects the players to do what the coaches tell them to do. So for all of you who say that all the plays were up to Tate to fix and that it’s not his job to follow orders from coaches, you are wrong and Sumlin corrected you.
The buck stops with the coach and his staff, period. But when asked about why the team lost the game, even though he stressed that players follow coaches instructions, Coach Kevin Sumlin blamed the loss on the players turning over the ball. “Two turnovers on your side of the 50,” said Sumlin, “I think the turnovers are the key — you can’t do that in a college football game – I think the biggest momentum shift was the turnovers.” True, but there is more to the story.
I spoke to some former Arizona Football players, and they unanimously felt it was the coaching that was to blame for the loss. Media, for the most part also felt it was the coaching from what we saw on Twitter. Although not having Jace Whittaker and Lorenzo Burns in the game didn’t help the defense.
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It’s a mystery what Sumlin’s organization looks like. How much do Sumlin and Mazzone discuss the strategy during the game? Do they ever adjust their game plan or usually stick with the original? Is it pure trust? Is there a time Mazzone’s decisions get overturned? Ever? A lot of fans on our feed feel the coaches took their foot off the gas and tried to milk the clock with way too much time left.
If your opposing coach is a former NFL coach, 6-8 minutes is an eternity. As it was happening, predictable run plays that worked for most of the game but stopped working, Twitter was abuzz with warnings to coaches on this strategy.
Yes, there were turnovers, that happens in most games, but they came at a bad time and that is on the players, but they shouldn’t have been put in that position either. If they were still ahead after the second turnover if they had kicked extra points, just maybe they still win that game.
Again, it was evident that this coach and coaching staff did not want to build upon what worked with mostly the same players last season. That was their choice. They benefited from Quarterback Khalil Tate’s performance in the prior year selling a bunch of season tickets. But they did not call plays to his strength and they let him take the fall in most cases even though he played on an injury that should take at least six weeks to heal.