So, it’s a wrap. Put a big, fat ugly bow on this season and move into 2024. Is 6-7 what we wanted? Of course not, but guess what, that’s pretty much what 95% of the analysts and experts predicted for this squad. They knew it, and I believe Freeze knew it as well. If you have no dog in the fight, and don’t even own a pair of orange and blue sunglasses, it wasn’t hard to make that prediction. If you stayed up to watch any of the Horns/Huskie match up last night, you had to nod your head and go, “Oh….naggers.” Reality is, talent-wise, we are light years away from competing for anything meaningful.
You don’t have to go beyond the simple fact that those two teams had absolute gazelles playing wide receiver, catching passes from QB’s who could actually place a ball where it should be. (Granted, Penix is another level.) Go back to Saturday. Other than Revolver Goodfellows, can you name a WR on this club who legitimately has the talent to even compete in this league? And even if there were, do we really expect Payton Thorne to get the ball to them? In fact, there’s very little legit SEC level talent on this team, save a handful of DB’s, and most of them opted out.
We tend to forget that Freeze was late to the party, and had only a few short weeks to establish himself, hire a staff and save a recruiting class. Then, he tried to plug an ass load of gaping holes (See what I did there) on both sides of the ball, with a bunch of Group of 5 guys in the portal. Our offense consisted of players from East Carolina, Tulsa, Western Kentucky, South Florida, North Texas and Jackson State. Defensively, we ran new faces out there from Vanderbilt, Purdue, Appy State, North Texas etc. And 6-7 surprises anybody? It shouldn’t.
Personal observation here. As for Freeze, I think the guy just took his lumps this year. He’s been around the game long enough to know his team wasn’t going to compete for anything. Could he have been far more involved in running the offense? Of course he could have. But, I think he left that to Montgomery and let things run their course. Was that the right thing to do? Probably not, but I truly believe he’s looking at the bigger picture, and has been concentrating all his efforts in the only area that matters, building this roster with big time talent. If he doesn’t do that, none of this matters.
What does he need to address immediately? Two things, IMO. First, I think he may have screwed the pooch with the QB position. If Saturday didn’t scream the fact that Payton Thorne sucks, Freeze may not be as smart as we think. Deciding to roll with him into 24’ and not hit the portal just might turn out to be a YUUUGE mistake. He needs to try and salvage that. But hey, Hank Brown. Second, send Phillip Montgomery packing, or vow to take the offensive reigns himself this upcoming season. One of the two has to happen.
I’m not getting caught up in any debate over Freeze being the right man, or not. I believe he is, but the bottom line is, if he’s not, they’ll go get somebody else. It’s big business. Get the shit turned around, or we’ll try to find somebody who will.
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