Everyone is a critic when you lose. Everyone starts nitpicking, and that is amplified when you have won as many games as we have lately. He made one horrible call, in my opinion. Not kicking the FG in the 4th quarter (on 4th and 2).
We didn't play our best football nor did we have great coaching but Pitt had a lot to do with that as well. We did enough to win with that FG.
Everything else is stuff the staff and players need to learn from.
Let's be honest as football fans. We have had an unprecedented run of great play calling and even more importantly, execution. In Memphis the "bone" play on 4th down worked for a TD and that changed that game. Even in the LSU game, that whole game momentum seemed to swing not on play-calling but the personal foul penalty on the kid running off the field that spiked the ball (which I thought was a BS call but it is what it is).
We switched 100% of our staff in 2018 and didn't miss a beat. The one constant in all that was a Heisman-level, all-world QB called Milton. You can't place enough emphasis on that. Just go through your memory and think about great college QBs such Weurfel, Kellen Moore, Tebow, Winston, or Bortles in our case. The kind of gamesmanship they brought just isn't instantly replaced. None of the teams following them played at the same level. They were still very good in general but that extra "it" factor is hard to get back to.
After Weurfel, 10-2, 10-2, 9-4 (Only played in conference title game once and got crushed)
After Moore, 11-2, 8-5, 12-2 (1.3 Mountain West titles)
After Tebow, 8-5, 7-6, 11-2
After Winston, 10-3, 10-3, 7-6
After Bortles, 9-4, 0-12, 6-7 (.3 AAC titles)
This is just a few examples. Just remember to have some perspective with the situation, and who we are.
We are now playing a true freshman QB and there are limitations to what they can do and execute. We just to live with that, and this is a first time head coach as well. He's done an exquisite job so far. Just like the coaches talk about kids learning lessons, they have lessons to learn as well.
Looking forward to friends and UCF football Saturday night!