Good: A win, no injuries and Auburn next week
Bad: going to JH
Ugly: Fans booing Talty. Dude’s confidence is probably gone. Hope we don’t need a FG to win anytime in the near future
Well he was also making gestures at the crowd as well. The dude really needs to drop the attitude and move on
Good -- The defense. Surrendering the fewest yards in 85 years. I don't care if it is Eastern Illinois, that's impressive.
Bad -- Really average....QB 1 play. Ty looks hurt to me.
Ugly -- Placekicking and fan reaction. Details below.
The fans -- especially students -- booing Talty isn't good for his confidence. We might need him next week.
That said, Talty has made his own bed.
He wasn't performing all that great anyway. Then last week he chewed out the long-snapper for a high snap despite the fact that the holder did a magnificent job of getting the ball down on time and perfectly. IOW, the high snap shouldn't have mattered. But it's clear that the high snap distracted Talty's focus. He shanked the ball, dang near missing the whole end zone, and pointed his ten fingers in every direction except at himself.
A more mature person would have said something along the lines of, "In the PK team, we all have roles to play. Snap. Hold. Protect. Kick. I thought I put a good swing on the ball, but obviously that wasn't the case. We make kicks as a team. We miss them as a team. If I had done my job better, we might not be having this conversation. I will do everything in my power to make sure this doesn't happen again."
But he didn't do that. In fact, based on his behavior, I can't picture those words coming out of his mouth.
He pointedly and publicly (on the field in front of 100K+ live spectators and who knows how many million TV viewers) chewed out a teammate in a humiliating fashion for an error that was at least as much his own fault as it was the teammate's. Later, there was no backing down. No apology after the emotion wore off. Only a deafening silence.
If you're going to be a kicker and be a jerk, you best not miss. Talty has the jerk part down. The part about not missing, not so much.
I don't think the students booing and lifting overly-enthusiastic mocking cheers for made extra points was smart. But Talty's own divisive behavior, coupled with a lack of publicly-expressed remorse, has a lot to do with his current situation.
