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Impactful Coaching Moves: The best and worst decisions of Week 12

Randy Capps

By Randy Capps

Published:

It’s hard to believe that we’ve arrived at the final week of the regular season. It’s certainly been one to remember.

Week 12 had its share of memories as well, with Mississippi State’s thrilling 51-50 win over Arkansas, South Carolina’s stunning loss to The Citadel and narrowly averted disasters for Georgia and Florida.

As always, there are plenty of positive coaching moves on which we could reflect. Of course, there are also some decisions worthy of criticism.

With that in mind, here are the best and worst coaching decisions from around the SEC in Week 12:

GOOD MOVE

The Texas A&M offense gets plenty of press, but the Aggies defense stole the show in their 25-0 victory over Vanderbilt.

It was the first shutout for the school since a 31-0 win over Wyoming on Sept. 11, 2004, and defensive coordinator John Chavis had the perfect game plan in place to stop the Commodores offense.

Now, I understand that Vandy’s offense isn’t exactly prolific, but Texas A&M still held them to 23 yards passing while picking up 4 sacks and an interception along the way.

On a night where the Texas A&M offense struggled to find the end zone aside from a spectacular 95-yard pass from Kyle Allen to Josh Reynolds, the defense did more than enough to secure the win.

BAD MOVE

Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen was terrific. He was 30-for-43 for 406 yards and 7 touchdowns. He wasn’t sacked, he didn’t fumble and he didn’t throw any interceptions.

In other words, he was matching the equally impressive Dak Prescott (508 yards passing and 7 total touchdowns) step for step.

So, why would Arkansas, after driving from its own 11-yard line all the way down to the Bulldogs’ 19, suddenly get conservative in the final minutes?

Cole Hedlund is a decent kicker, hitting 8 of his 12 tries before the fateful block at the end of this game, but in a game in which Allen is absolutely shredding the Mississippi State defense, why not give him a chance to finish it?

Instead, the Razorbacks dialed up three straight running plays before lining up for a 29-yard field goal:

Sometimes, playing it safe turns out poorly.

GOOD MOVE

I hate to praise an SEC team for beating Georgia Southern in overtime on its home field, but the Georgia defense and its coordinator Jeremy Pruitt, made a play when it mattered most on Saturday. The Eagles got the ball first to start overtime and were facing a fourth-and-1 from the 16-yard line. Rather than take a chance on a short field goal, Georgia Southern lined up in the Wildcat and snapped the ball to running back L.A. Ramsby. Pruitt’s men weren’t fooled. Jordan Jenkins and Leonard Floyd tackled him in the backfield, and Sony Michel won it on the very next play with a 25-yard touchdown run. The Eagles came into the game leading the nation in rushing with almost 375 yards per game. The Bulldogs “held” them to 233 yards in this contest, and unlike some of their SEC East brethren, managed to slow down a potent rushing attack enough to grab a win, however ugly it may have been.

BAD MOVE

There are plenty of other reasons (350 of them on the ground, to be exact) that The Citadel walked out of Williams-Brice with a win to go along with its guaranteed check of $275,000, but trying a screen pass on a 2-point conversion to a lineman deserves special mention:

A normal play may have been a better choice.

As it stood, South Carolina’s fourth-quarter lead was only five, at 22-17, and The Citadel scored the winning touchdown on the ensuing drive.

While a better effort from the defense or more efficiency in the red zone from the offense would have rendered this play moot, it still stands out as a bizarre play call from G.A. Mangus.

Randy Capps

Randy Capps is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers SEC football, South Carolina and Georgia.

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