I remember the days when we were sandbagging on offense until the OU game. And then we sandbagged for that game, too, just to be safe.
One thing I will tell you, when I rewatch the game and I'm watching an offensive lineman consistently getting beat, and then I look closer to see who it is, and the number 79 seems to come up often, that's not about Sarkisian preparing for later on in the season. That's a guy who is challenged to perform the task that has been assigned to him.
What I don't know is what's going on in practice? What kind of struggles is Neto Umeozulu demonstrating? Is the witness protection program Nate Kibbles apparently entered into that effective? What happened with putting Robertson at center and moving Hutson over? Maybe Stroh is simply the best option in terms of splitting snaps with Umeozulu, but his future acumen isn't being demonstrated to these laymen eyes. All I know is that when Hutson and Stroh are lined up next to each other on the interior, I don't feel like right now that's a lineup geared for success. And I don't think it has much to do with Sarkisian scaling up the offense.
That said, I do feel like he is going out of his way to give Arch Manning passing reps. I also wonder if Manning is being told to go through his progressions rather than taking off. I have some mixed feelings if that is the case, and I don't know if it is anyway.
I still think the main thing that's not being executed consistently enough is Manning getting the ball into the receivers' hands, and the receivers actually holding on to the ball when he does so.
Also, the offensive penalties were not helpful.
When your average down and distance is 3rd and 9.7 yards to go, that's not good. Against San Jose State. My hope is that we see improvement in that aspect tomorrow.
I do know there are a lot of people on this board who are more down on this team than I am. I continue to hope and expect great things from these guys. Sure, they'll need to show improvement to do it, but we're two games into the season. We have UTEP and Sam Houston State, then let's see what we look like in Gainesville. If we look like hammered shit against Florida I'll have some serious concerns about the season. But I've always pointed at that as a healthy barometer for what kind of progress has been made from the opener until then.