I have no idea how you justify getting the ball down 17 with 9:49 on the clock & ending up kicking off down 10 with 4:14 left as the plan to execute.
Even if it is, it’s complete incompetence on the coaching staff that the ability to call plays & get to the line faster is so poor that the best option is to go slow. It being the right decision because you suck so bad at doing the standard play calling method for most other teams actually makes Klieman/Mess worse coaches.
I'm certain that if I checked the game thread from last year's game you'd be pissed about the pace when we used the same pace to come back from a 28 point defect, right?
Playing slow is the best option because we don't match talent and you need to limit possessions. It's worked for Kansas State football since 2009. Even if we did play faster I'm not aware of too many college football offenses capable of erasing a 17 point defect in less than 17 minutes. I'm sure you would have been perfectly fine if we sped up on that last drive and committed 2 penalties, whiffed a block to give up a sack because we didn't get into the right play, then had to punt after 5 plays.
Our offensive pace is what it is and 95% of the time it's to our benefit, the moral of the story is don't get down 17 points with 10:00 minutes left.
I was pretty angry at a punt in Texas territory last year. (Re-read your post, the angry down 28 triggered me into the Texas game because I was angry at a punt down 28 to Texas last year. I don’t remember how I felt down 28 OU last year because I had a house full of sick family & probably didn’t have many feelings during that game besides exhaustion).
The decision to still go slow down 17 with 10 was conceding the game. I would have much rather had to punt with 8 minutes left trying to come back than plan to kickoff down 10 with 4 minutes left to make the score closer. I really don’t care about the difference between a 6 point loss conceding with 10 minutes left than a 24 point loss trying to make a comeback. Outside of one of the worst onside attempts I’ve ever seen, the last 10 minutes went about as well as it could have with the go slow plan & we still had no shot. If we’re were even halfway competent at going semi-fast we would have been kicking off down 6 with 3-4 minutes left & had a shot to get the ball back.
The deflating thing to me is the coaches have so little confidence in the ability to go fast, after being aggressive the rest of the game to win, that we must be absolute dog crap at it & won’t be able to effectively use it later when it’s needed. If we can’t use it down 17 with 10 we’ll probably fail at it down 7 with 3 minutes left in another game. I guess I can’t think of another coach that’s choose not to be competent at hurry up & everyone just goes “it’s ok, that’s not who we are.”
