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Impactful coaching moves: The best and worst decisions of Week 1
By Randy Capps
Published:
Week 1 of the college football season is in the books, and if you’re reading this, odds are your team celebrated a victory on the opening weekend.
In the wake of a 12-1 mark for SEC schools, 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 1:
GOOD MOVE
Some coaches put a lot of stock in a quarterback’s confidence. So much so, in fact, that a coach hesitates to pull a starter for fear of somehow damaging him long term.
Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin isn’t one of those guys.
Sophomore Kyle Allen got the start, but Sumlin started rotating in freshman Kyler Murray in the second quarter. Murray played most of the third quarter before Allen returned early in the fourth to finish off a scoring drive with a 12-yard run.
Both guys are talented. Maybe riding the hot hand isn’t the worst thing.
BAD MOVE
With the lone loss on the SEC ledger for the weekend coming from Vanderbilt, it’s fair to start in Nashville when looking for less-than-perfect coaching moves.
One play didn’t decide the Commodores’ 14-12 loss to Western Kentucky, but a successful two-point conversion from Vanderbilt with 33 seconds left would have tied the score and likely forced overtime. Instead, Nathan Marcus was stopped short of the goal line after catching a short pass from Johnny McCrary.
Apparently, offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig has fallen into a bit of a pattern on two-point tries.
“We kind of studied what they liked to do on two-point conversions,” Western Kentucky linebacker Nick Holt told a reporter after the game. “They ran the exact play that offensive coordinator (Andy Ludwig) has run for years for two-point conversions. We had the perfect call. … We sat right on it, and Joe Brown made a heck of a play cutting down a big, strong, physical receiver.”
GOOD MOVE
Normally, a 61-13 win over New Mexico State wouldn’t be seen as an especially big deal for Florida. But with a new coaching staff taking over after a season of offensive frustration, this result is important.
The Jim McElwain era began with a solid game plan — all the way down to his rotating of quarterbacks Treon Harris and Will Grier — and ended with a school record for points in a coaching debut and 606 yards of total offense.
Credit McElwain for establishing some momentum offensively, and for getting two quarterbacks ready for tougher foes down the road.
BAD MOVE
Kentucky got a 12-yard touchdown run from Mikel Horton in the final minute to push the Wildcats past Louisiana-Lafayette, 40-33.
But it never should have come to that.
Kentucky had a 33-10 lead with just under four minutes left in the third quarter, but in the next three drives, the Ragin’ Cajuns were able to tie the score.
It’s how they did it that’s alarming. Of the 21 plays Louisiana-Lafayette ran, 17 of them were runs. You’d like to see a faster adjustment from defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot — and some better drives from the offense probably would have helped, too.
Randy Capps is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers SEC football, South Carolina and Georgia.
