We’ve seen Deontay Greenberry execute the same pitch-and-catch plays so many times this season, launching him into one of the most lethal receivers in the nation last season.
Thursday night, he dropped the ball — many balls — en route to a nightmarish performance in the Cougars’ 17-12 loss to Central Florida at TDECU Stadium.
The junior star receiver managed just three catches for 26 yards, with one going for 21 on the Cougars’ final drive. Greenberry was targeted 11 times and dropped a recorded two balls, though I counted at least four.
In the second quarter, senior Daniel Spencer’s 4-yard rush for a first down to the Knights’ 34-yard line was wiped out due to a crucial 10-yard holding penalty by Greenberry. The drive stalled and led to a punt. UH committed a season-high 11 penalties for 99 yards.
Two drives earlier, the Cougars failed to build a two-possession lead and put pressure on the Knights due to a questionable 4th-down play call. O’Korn’s pass to Greenberry (6-foot-3; 200 pounds) from the Knights’ 1-yard line was broken up by the Knights’ Jacoby Glenn (6 foot; 186 pounds) and forced a turnover on downs.
“We’ve seen a lot of 1-yard touchdown fades to Greenberry from John O’Korn in the last year,” said head coach Tony Levine.
“We work on it in practice, and we had the match-up and coverage we wanted. It never comes down to that 4th-down play if we get two yards on first down, second down and third down.”
UH, at one point, was 1st-and-goal from the UCF 2-yard line, and after an incomplete pass and run for one yard, Levine forwent the field goal attempt.
“(We) wanted to try and be aggressive there. If we could convert, we had a chance to go up 10-0 early in the game and get some momentum,” Levine said. “If not, we felt like we’d have them pinned back deep (and) give our defense a chance to create a turnover; or if we hold, they punt it and we’d get it back at mid-field in good field position.”
Sophomore quarterback John O’Korn finished 12-26 with two interceptions and was benched in favor of Greg Ward in the third series of the third quarter.
Both of O’Korn’s interceptions were passes targeted to Greenberry. O’Korn should have hit his receiver earlier on the inside slant route, but after waiting too long and staring Greenberry down, he allowed Knights defensive back Clayton Geathers to jump the route and intercept it.
Then in the third quarter, the two ran a similar route. O’Korn hit him perfectly in the chest this time, but Greenberry was unable to gather the ball before he hot-potatoed it right into the arms of the Knights’ Brandon Alexander.
“I’ve seen him catch that a thousand times in the last two and a half years,” said Levine, whose Cougars lost seven of their last nine Football Bowl Subdivision opponents.
Greenberry — who led the American Athletic Conference last season with 1,202 receiving yards — was the recipient of several pitch-and-catch inside slant routes that led to him either racing past defenders after catching it in stride or ripping off huge gains.
After Greenberry said last week, “We don’t expect this game to be close,” the bold statement backfired and led to his least productive game as a pass catcher since Oct. 17, 2012, when he hauled in just three balls for 17 yards in a 45-35 win over UTEP.
I don’t know if this is true, but what about the rumor that one of the Coog QB’s snitched on some weed-smoking teammates?
There is no such rumor. A comment like that is totally unfounded and would never be made by a cougar friend.
if true, it would help explain why our offense fell apart and it might explain a recent personnel change
the rumor is being discussed over on the coogit.proboards site
From the Memphis Newspaper:
Let’s go through the rest of the Memphis football schedule. Because, suddenly, it’s a wonderfully entertaining thing to do.
This week Memphis is home against Houston. Las Vegas says that’s a W.
Then it’s on the road to SMU, which is a mess. So that’s another W.
WOW!! Just like that… Houston is no threat.. on to the next team. No respect from opponents becasue they know we will not score. The Defense is everything but staying on the feild for 48 Minutes is crazy. These Coaches. (Levine, Bush, New Reciever Coach)… they have let us down. Im hoping Rohades and Mrs. Pres can see this… its clearer than glass outside with windex on a sunny day. Let’s rethink this.. Keep Gibbs, he is great. Go apologize to Jason Phillips, Make him your HC. He has been there and done that. Air Raid is all he knows and he is an AWESOME Recruiter. Give Greenberry, Ryan Jackson, Farrow and these new recievers a Coach that knows what he is doing. These players, along with the fans deserve better. Sumlin left our program in great shape.. just for a clean shaved, great talker and recruiter to destroy it. The resume wasn’t there..: Grad Assistant > Reciever Coach> Co offensive coordinator > Offensive Coordinator > HEAD COACH!!! We need that order… JASON PHILLIPS has the Resume. Lets go COOGS!!!
I just know know if Jason has ALL the qualities needed to be a head coach, including managing and gaining respect of those that would be under him. And, I don’t see SMU killing anything offensively, so, no, his most recent adds to his resume don’t look good at all. But, I do agree that we need a known winning HC or P5 OC.
With so many players performing funky all at once, it just reminds me of the Sumlin fiasco in the CUSA championship game. It looks too weird for something behind the scenes to not be happening.