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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
UH receivers couldn’t
beat man coverageHERE is the most shocking realization from Hawaii's telling loss to Tulsa last Saturday:
It wasn't losing to Tulsa.
It wasn't the 24 unanswered points.
It wasn't the second half shutout.
It was this -- that Tulsa got into a Rodney Dangerfield (no respect) defense and put a sleeper hold on the run-and-shoot.
Tulsa spent a lot of time in man-to-man, safety free.
If you're a receiver, that's an insult, and you'd better make them pay.
Here are the two rules of receiving (actually the first rule is "catch the ball," but you get the idea):
1) If it's a zone, they can't stop you. They have no shot. You know their moves before they do, you see it coming, you're always a step ahead.
Have you seen those safeties try to play zone against UH? It's pick your poison. It's impossible. It's no-win. I would rather be a bomb defuser or a local strike negotiator than a zone defender against smart receivers like Britton Komine or Gerald Welch.
This offense eats zones for lunch.
So why does everyone play two-deep zone against UH? Well, because if you play too much man they'll kill you, and quickly. In zone, you slow them down, make them work, and hope something goes wrong. Hope you get lucky. Maybe you'll get to the quarterback. Maybe he'll serve one up. Maybe somebody will fumble.
(Basically, the UNLV game film.)
But let's get back to the second rule ...
2) If it's man defense, just beat it.
That's it. Just beat the guy across from you.
Except Hawaii couldn't.
"We didn't do a very good job of getting open," June Jones said yesterday. "And then when we were open, we didn't hit guys."
Guys got open a few times. Jones can show you on the film. Hawaii had chances.
"We had them," Jones said.
But in the end, it worked. Tulsa got away with it.
That's stunning.
You beg guys to play you man-to-man.
Passing teams drool over it.
But you've got to be able to beat your man. "You'd better be physically better than them," Jones said, "and get up on top."
UH is missing three starters in those positions. Hawaii clearly misses the ankle-sprained Jeremiah Cockheran, who can certainly beat a man-to-man, but who still isn't a shoo-in to return to the lineup this week.
"You don't make those plays," Jones said of Cockheran's heroics against Appalachian State and Rice, "and all of a sudden those two are different games."
At Tulsa, it was.
And Fresno State is coming. Fresno State has better talent than Tulsa does.
"They look better on defense than they have in the four seasons that I've played them," Jones said.
Hawaii's receivers have to be heroes Saturday. They can do it. They'd better. Or the most sophisticated of offenses could be stopped by the simplest of premises.
Again.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com
