My turn. Just got back in town. Here is my take on what happened. First, the obvious. Our defense looked strong, fast and mean as hell at every position. I'm pumped about every position on that unit. We continually rotated guys at every position all night across the line, at LB and DB. True freshmen Thorpe and Hood were in there right off the bat and made some killer plays.
Special teams was solid all around. Durst is a little inconsistent but once he works that out, we've got an All SEC punter on our hands. Freakin' cannon for a leg and he hits it high.
Offense. I'll say it now. Kodi should be the man and we should ride him til' he proves otherwise. Todd looked like a 5th grader and there's no excuses for it. Now, did either of them look worht a crap in the first half? Hell no. I'm not sure what the frick it was. Neither of them EVER attempted to throw the ball more than 5 yards down field. I have no clue if that was them, Franklin controlling that or what, but like Kevin said...it looked like backyard ball and Northview High School could have stopped that shit.
Prior to getting hurt, Kodi began making things happen with his legs and to a certain extent, with his arm. For those that were in attendance, two incomplete passes were both INCREDIBLE throws. The touch pass to Rod that was called out of bounds in the end zone was beautiful. The long pass to Slaughter that went through his hands was as awesome a pass as I've seen since 04' Jason Campbell. And the sumbitch was thrown about 60 yards in the air. Things finally started opening up some when we at least attempted to go down field.
Now, two observations. As for the 10 plays we ran, I'm 100% certain (I haven't read shit on this forum or elsewhere, except this thread) that Franklin said, "Fuck it, RUN the ball. Do it again. Run the fuckin' ball. Yep, line up and do it again. Scrap all the other shit. RUN the ball." We damn sure all but stopped passing for quite a while.
Second, this alternate QB system may have been half the problem. Anyone who knows jack squat about sports knows a QB, running back etc. has to get a feel for the game. They have to get a rythmn going. Even if the passing game wasn't there, Kodi could still get it going with his feet. If he's ready against USM, I start him and ride him until he proves he can't get it done.