FAYETTEVILLE — Follow along as Bret Bielema, Dan Enos and Paul Rhoads review the New Mexico State win and preview South Carolina.
Bret Bielema
— "Hopes, prayers and thoughts to those involved in Las Vegas."
— Offensive MVPs to Jordan Jones and Deon Stewart. Brendan Young was the defensive scout MVP. Dwayne Eugene the defensive MVP. Some nice pass rush moves. Offensive scout MVP was Daulton Hyatt. Freshman QB was really impressive this week. Special teams MVP Ryder Lucas, scout team Byron Keaton.
— Came out of the game healthy. Flu bug was going around late last week. Hayden Henry had some food poisoning, but played well Saturday.
— Liked how certain new players arose Saturday.
— South Carolina lost a tough one Saturday, but has a good QB and will always have a good defense under Will Muschamp. Thinks players are excited to play.
— La'Michael Pettway has made progress, but as of now wouldn't play Saturday. Have a big academic meeting Thursday.
— David Williams decided to not make himself available to the media this week in order to focus with the trip back to South Carolina coming up. Everyone at SC has been really complimentary of Williams. He's been a blessing in disguise. "He's been an unbelievable addition."
— Brendan Young came from OBU and made a name for himself in the spring. Knocked offensive guys around on the scout team. Stepped up in the kicking game along with Derrick Munson. Munson is an explosive player. Always able to find the ball. Fearless kid who liked the physicality. Another great kid out of Rummel. Went off his high school coach's recommendation.
— Repped Montaric Brown last week he's just not quite there yet. Might possibly play, but after game 4-6 it becomes a point of no return.
— Watched Texas A&M-South Carolina at home with Jen and Briella on Saturday night. Was able to recognize what Texas A&M was doing and note how SC responded.
— Did the Hokey Pokey. Emphasized players need to have fun despite all the negativity. "It definitely got a reaction, which is what I was hoping for."
— SC WR Deebo Samuel (out) is a tremendous player. Their TE is really dynamic and they use him in a variety of ways.
— Muschamp is a defensive-minded coach. They play solid.
— Frank Ragnow is playing incredibly well. Hjalte is playing fairly well. One or two plays to get better, but he's playing well. Colton Jackson played one of his better games. Don't know if Ty Clary is ready to play 60 SEC snaps yet. Johnny Gibson has been versatile and Paul Ramirez did well other than the holding call. Brian Wallace is "knocking on the door" and could play this week. Been very positive.
— Liked Dwayne Eugene at a camp when he was a safety. He takes notes for everything and has great attention to detail. Now, physically, he's a 240-pound SEC athlete. His leadership skills have been off the charts.
— Eugene takes notes more than most, but a lot of players take notes during non-football speakers.
— Deon Stewart had been knicked up since fall camp when he twisted his ankle. Wanted to get him 6-8 touches in the bowl game but hurt his ankle when he scored. Had ankle surgery during the offseason and then tweaked his foot more than his ankle. Was finally healthy Saturday and the bubble screen was an indication of what he can do. One of their quickest guy.
— Would've grabbed more LBs and OL in his first 2 recruiting classes, going back. Scoota Harris played his best game Saturday. They tried some pipe routes where they sent guys vertical and Harris showed his speed. Dre Greenlaw didn't have his biggest game, but gets people organized. Don't know if many players make the read Grant Morgan did on his interception. Read the quarterback's eyes.
— When asked about SEC blowouts across the league, things can go sideways quick in this league. If you're not one of the top 2 personnel teams in the league, a critical injury can be devastating.
— Never been to South Carolina.
— Will have the offense inside and pipe in crowd noise this week.
— Plans to take 3 kickers to South Carolina. Cole Hedlund "does some things that we would ask him to do in the course of a game if they came up." Connor Limpert has done a good job. Blake Mazza is the backup, but might go with Hedlund if he warmed up well because he's been in games.
— Connor Limpert can hit from 41, he actually has a big leg. First 2 games, Hedlund's limit was a 43-yarder. Other than that, it was going to be Limpert. Has made a 56-yarder.
— Devwah Whaley had a good week of practice. He does a good job of getting his 4 yards, knowing 40-yarders stem from that. Chase Hayden and a little bit of David Williams were trying to make something big happen when it wasn't there. But those 3 are into it in the sideline. Hayden and Williams did a good job, too, Saturday.
— South Carolina has had the injury bug on the line. Jake Bentley is smart and knows where to go with the ball.
— Nice connection on later downs with Austin Allen and the young WRs. The fourth down completion to Stewart was nice. To do it in a live game situation is big. Allen had his best game of the year. Want to keep him on his feet, but the OL did a better job.
— Heard about Vegas this morning and googled to see who the country singer was because he knows some. When you're dealing with large crowds in today's world, you see things like this happen unfortunately.
— Started breaking down SC film in the offseason. Really admired the way their TE plays. Defensively, admires and respects what they do.
Dan Enos
— Not surprising David Williams has picked up the offense as quickly as he has. When you've played football and graduated, obviously he's bright. Told Allen that Williams was a nice free agent pickup and Allen's response was, 'Yeah. And he's a great guy, too.' Been a good teammate who's earned the respect of the locker room.
— Likes the RB by committee. Made a commitment to running the ball first and foremost. When you run the ball as much as they do, to have 3 guys is essential. All got a good workload against NMSU. They can feed off each other and have different running styles.
— Getting the young WRs involved will really help us. To get Stewart, Jones, Nance and Cheyenne O'Grady in the pass game was good. Whole idea of the offense is to make defenses defend multiple guys. Would love to see T.J. Hammonds going. "We've got to help him as a staff." Need to find ways to get him more touches because he's close.
— Thought A&M gave Jones confidence. Just getting started this year.
— Muschamp is obviously a very good coach. They're well-coached and sound. They're multiple.
— Auburn is a 4-down team that gets into 3-down. They get into Bear and choke looks. Multiple coverages. Thinks multiplicity plays into why they have a lot of TFLs. They move their defensive line around a lot. They've got a really nice blitz package. May not blitz a ton, but they're very effective when they do.
— Stewart got more opportunities and got open and caught the ball when he had opportunities. Can't dictate teams' coverages, but they try to get guys involved each week. Bubble screen got him going and he ran a great route on the comeback. Confidence helps and he got some.
— Was discussing the fumble and didn't see that Cole Kelley still signaled first down. Will discuss him signaling now.
— Feels "really good" about the OL. Did a good job against a multiple team that blitzed about 60 percent of the snaps. Hadn't run a CB blitz this year and ran one of a few the second play of the game. Colton Jackson had a few plays he'd like to have back but also had a few of the best plays he's had this year. Run blocking well. Have to continue to work on pass protection and get better in that area. Line has done a good job in the screen game. Thinks Kurt Anderson has done a tremendous job teaching timing and details of the screen game.
— Thinks Williams can talk to the team about the environment in Columbia. Can give strengths and weaknesses of SC guys.
— Allen was "outstanding." Had just 2 minuses in the game. Very accurate. Great feet. Hung in there twice and delivered the ball when he got hit.
— Bielema is good about telling him he has 4 downs to work with early, so that can affect the earlier down calls.
— Never been to Columbia.
— Going to be a challenge playing on the road, but Arlington was a good warmup. Will work playing on the road this week. Puts a premium on communication.
— Didn't know Bielema was going to do the Hokey Pokey. "Thought it was very interesting. ... After a win he can go in there and do just about anything." He joined in. Bielema was pretty loose. A lot of guys knew how to do it already. Team needs to practice how to clap.
— Cheyenne O'Grady is emerging. Had 2 drops against A&M, but those will happen. He's playing really fast. They feel like they have to get him in and get some targets. Nice route on the fourth-down catch. Probably underrated him in run-after-catch scenarios. Really getting better as a blocker, too. Want to be able to play him in all situations. Working really hard at it.
Paul Rhoads
— NMSU is a very good offensive team. Tyler Rogers is an outstanding player. Called him "Mr. Clean Jeans" going in because no one ever touches him. 16 was the kind of player advertised going into it. Kids did an excellent job catching 3. "Were we satisfied with how we played overall? No sir." Higher expectations for passing yards, but held them 120 yards less than their average and they tied their lowest scoring total.
— Dwayne Eugene has been very intent on his move and mastering Hog and Razor. Has to make up for missing 2/3 of Tuesday practices because of class. He's often here past 10 p.m. to make up for it those days.
— SC is taking advantage of all resources they have without Samuel. Bentley is a coach's son and understands the offense thoroughly. Smart but can let it fly. They're working hard to get the running game going. Have big, thick RBs that get downhill and force you to get physical. Thinks their TE has gotten more targets than others they've faced. Have a number of WRs who've stepped in. They do some challenging things formationally. They have 2 primary formation groups and do a ton out of them.
— Won't adjust to SC having OL depth issues.
— Thinks former players can provide insight to kids, but not a system and what they're trying to accomplish.
— Grant Morgan can go in at either position in any situation. His tip was "spectacular." Showed the play to the defense and emphasized this is why football is a game of inches. His final tackle wasn't any less spectacular. His reps will continue to increase. He was nursing a bit of an injury a few games ago, but is healthy. The back came strong to Scoota's side. Scoota was with him. They'd run it 1 time against Arizona State and ran it 4-5 times. Grant was with him in the flow too and helped out with an excellent angle.
— Brendan Young wasn't even with them in the 105. Very smart player. In limited reps in the spring, he impressed by doing things right. Was where he was supposed to be. Plays hard. Gives exceptional effort on scout team. Jumped out enough to be brought up and can help the team.
— Brown is a talented late arrival. Has the length you want. Really runs. Plays downhill and there's not much hesitation when he does it. He's aggressive. He's an ideal special teams player because of it. Could have an opportunity to help if Bielema decides.
— Depth perception to blame on the long TD where Josh Liddell was there. Have to remember the ball isn't thrown to them and track the WR and catch the ball at its highest point. The WR cut it off at the highest point. They're going to add some deep-ball drills to help awareness of where the WR is.
— Thinks SC might be an opportunity to pressure the QB more and make calls to go after the QB. Pleased with the 2 sacks and number of hits they got Saturday, which was by far more than anyone got earlier this year.
— Any time you can stop the run, you have a chance to play great defense. Did that against NMSU. If you can get that done and force a team into a passing game, you can make more favorable calls. Think they can do that Saturday.
— Scoota Harris is just going to get better each week. Dre Greenlaw being behind on reps has shown through the first 4 games. He's still learning lessons. There's still upside and a high ceiling to Dre. Grant Morgan has the ability to play both spots. All players have more to give.
— Thinks every time you win, anything you can do is fun. Bielema added a twist to the Hokey Pokey.
— Bentley looks like a seasoned player. Growing up with a dad as a coach is evident.