The reason we've lost since 2023 has been Sark missing on evaluations. Period. In 2023 we had no pass rush. Sure we could shut down anyone's running game but if you just didn't waste downs trying to run on us you could throw it all over the lot. The two games we lost, OU and Washington, we got one sack. One. Penix and Gabriel dropped back a combined 76 times. One Sack. We came back and fixed the pass rush by adding Simmons.
The other issue is we missed wildly on O-line and RB. Our interior O-line has been a problem since Sark got here. I don't give a shit if we sent linemen to the league, the truth is in the film. We cannot combo block and climb to the second level. Someone is always getting defeated. Always. Whenever we tried to run inside zone it just ended up resulting in a pile in the middle for the back to run into. Sark found a little something with outside zone and split zone, but as soon as we played a disciplined front with some wiggle they blew that shit up. See Ohio State, Georgia, and Arizona State. Our running backs are a miss too. Watching Baugh from Florida set up his own lanes was frustrating. He would set an aim point, and then redirect when the LBs committed. We get none of that from everyone not named Wisner, and he is lacking in the speed/power dept. Then on the off chance we do get a run bounced outside, we get holding calls.
That leaves our QBs to play hero ball in big games and is precisely why we keep losing to the top 5. YOU CANNOT be one dimensional in those games and win them, and that's what we've been the last couple years. It was the same way with Quinn last year. He outplayed the opposing QB in all 3 games and still lost. The area we keep losing in is running game. If you look at the 6 losses we had the last two years, plus the ASU game we should've lost. We got outrushed 908 to 412.