Week 2 is now in the books for the 2015 college football season. We’ve seen some teams shock us, both positively and negatively. Some of the hyped-up teams have struggled while some of the overlooked teams have come out of the gates hot.
The season is still young, but here are some things we’ve learned.
Chad Kelly has put up video-game numbers at Ole Miss, leading the Rebels to more than 70 points in both games. Is he really this good, and what do you expect from him this week against Alabama?
I haven’t heard much about Swag Kelly anymore, so maybe this new guy Chad Kelly is legit!
It’s really difficult to say how good he and the Rebels offense is right now, but I can assure you, putting up 70 points is hard to do no matter who you’re playing against. I think their confidence is extremely high right now and that is such an undervalued portion of football.
I don’t expect them to put up 70-plus against Bama but I do think they are going to put up points. From what we’ve seen from Bama thus far, Ole Miss will be able to move the ball on them. I believe it will come down to the red zone and Ole Miss has scored 10 touchdowns on 11 trips in two games, so the Tide has their hands full.
LSU quarterback Brandon Harris played much better against Mississippi State. What were your thoughts on his game, and why did the Tigers stray from the pass so much in the second half?
He did play much better, but you have to take that with a grain of salt at this point. By playing better, I mean he didn’t hurt his team. He was accurate and made some very good checks.
His stats won’t wow anyone at all, going 9-of-14 for 71 yards. Harris didn’t throw any picks and managed the game very well. When you have a back like Fournette and the lead, you tend to use him to drain the clock.
From what I saw, Brandon Harris had some very good pre-snap reads and checked to a run play away from the Bulldogs blitz. I thought it was a very simple and effective game plan and he ran it very well. We’ll find out more as the season goes on because you can fully expect that teams are going to start loading the box and daring him to beat them with his arm.
Brandon Allen threw for more than 400 yards and Arkansas still lost. Are his 2015 numbers happening because defenses don’t respect him? And is that a bad sign for the team’s running game?
I was as shocked as anyone when I saw the score of the Arkansas game. I believe Brandon Allen is severely underrated but I also think that was the case because the Razorbacks running game was so strong and he didn’t necessarily have to do much.
After watching some of the tape from their loss, Allen played very well. How in the world they only managed to score 12 points is beyond me, especially to a non-conference team. Arkansas averaged 320 yards on the ground last year against non-conference teams, so that should tell you something.
I’m not sure if they are trying to be too cute with the play-calling or what but they need to fix that red zone offense and do it in a hurry. I’d expect them to get back to the basics and get their run game back along with the play-action passing.
The offense did get a major blow when their leading receiver Keon Hatcher got injured and is expected to miss the next six weeks.
Have you seen Drew Lock at all? If so, do you think there’s any chance he overtakes Maty Mauk at Missouri between now and the end of next season?
I have seen him and think the kid will be a hell of a player for the Tigers in the future. That being said, this is Mauk’s team and unless an injury occurs or he just completely falls off the deep end, it will remain Mauk’s team.
Maybe with some experience this year and an entire offseason he will compete with Maty next year, but this year he will remain the backup unless something drastic happens.
How long should we wait before we decide we overestimated Jeremy Johnson, or any quarterback in general? He can’t be considered a Heisman Trophy candidate any more this season, right?
For as much hype that this kid had coming into the season, he has not lived up to it.
I figured he would have been lighting up the stat sheet already and Auburn would be flying up the rankings, but that clearly didn’t happen. Not only has he underperformed, some folks are calling for his replacement.
Now I’ll say this, I love his game. I love the gun-slinging quarterbacks because they don’t just dink and dunk. They trust in their arm and try to move the ball down the field.
With that said, Johnson has to remember that sometimes you have to hit the underneath guy that’s open rather than throw into triple coverage downfield. I think he may have read too much of the offseason hype and was just trying to live up to it too hard. I do expect him to settle down and I think this last game may have been the game he needed to get himself, and the Auburn offense, on track.
As far as Heisman goes, I don’t think he’s in contention at all at this point, but as I said earlier, the season is extremely young.
It seems like Alabama and Georgia have emerged as the early-season favorites in the SEC. Which quarterback gives his team a better chance to win if those two teams met right now, Jake Coker or Greyson Lambert?
This is a toss-up honestly. I almost feel like they are the same player.
I believe that I would go with Greyson Lambert right now because he has the experience. I haven’t seen enough of Coker yet and from what I have seen, he doesn’t look like a confident Alabama quarterback. Maybe he’s still getting the cobwebs off but he needs to find that confidence soon.
Lambert on the other hand struggled mightily the last game and Brice Ramsey came in to save the day. I assumed that Ramsey would be the starter Week 1 but coach Richt liked what he saw in Lambert. We’ll see how that situation plays out in Athens.
As I’m typing this I feel like I’m contradicting myself. Greyson didn’t show too much confidence this past weekend and was eventually replaced. I just don’t know who I would take at this time. Give me a few more games and the decision may become a tad easier.
We just saw Dak Prescott play a very good game against a strong LSU defense and still only put up 19 points. Is that a function of a drop-off at offensive line, and how frustrating is that as a quarterback?
I was very impressed with Dak throughout the entire game. He kept his demeanor high and his teammates rallied behind him.
Going 35-of-52 for 300-plus yards is no easy feat against a very stingy LSU defense. Again, the red zone offense just killed them. When you’re playing against tough defenses and good teams, you have to be able to convert and make plays down there.
Red zone offense is vastly overlooked because we see so many teams running the spread and just scoring from all over the field. It almost seems like red zone offense is a lost art in college football.
I don’t think it’s because of any drop-off at the line position as much as it is execution. Of course only scoring 19 points in a losing effort is frustrating. However, if the kicker would have made that field goal at the end, 22 points wouldn’t have been frustrating at all!
The Man. The Myth. The Legend.
