ranco said:
Probably worth mentioning that the non-conservative coach lost the game.
Idaho scored right before the half. They get the ball at the start of the 3rd and imediatly drive to the Girz 12. Idaho goes for it on 4th and 6th - Interception. May have cost them the game. Any reasonable coach, kicks the field goal. Going for it on 4th down was not a conservative play , but a dumb play.
Next, Idaho scores late in the 4th quarter and attempts to 2 point conversion to tie the game. They try a reverse - taking the ball out of the hands of the QB who kept them in the game - no score. Certianly not a conservative play, but a dumb play.
Next thing you know, Montana wins. I was not happy with how conservative Montana was in the second half but turns out Ol' Coach Hauk got it right.
Yeah... No.
That NC coach watched Montana hang twenty on his defense in the first half. He was facing the fact that they were having trouble containing the other team, not that he was calling dumb plays. He dodged a bullet when a pass overshot #14 early in the second half. I would say unequivocally that his defense had no particular answer for the Montana offense had they just continued on. Instead, the conservative coach gave up on his game plan, literally, right afterward. The Conservative coach managed to bang out nineteen plays in the half after the one they owned with the game plan they brought. The biggest gift the NC coach could ask for. Keeping Montana's offense off the field gave Idaho a chance at a comeback after a literal disaster of a first half. A field goal might have helped, but he was still thinking he was going to have to fight it out with Hauck's offense, you remember - the one they had no answer for in the first half. Not a dumb call at all.
Montana's defense was the reason the plays didn't work. McCoy hasn't been harassed like that this season. Not one game, including the FBS games played. He threw two interceptions, one bouncing off the hands of the best receiver in the FCS at the goal line. Not a dumb play for a team that honestly believed they could win if they just ran their offense. That same guy slipped on the two-point conversion attempt, or there might have been a more preferable outcome. That likely wasn't something that they had shown on film prior, because, like Hauck, Eck has some specials trickeration up his sleeve. You might also recall the onsides kick that turned the tide in last year's game.
Bottom line, Eck believes in his guys and will put the game in their hands. Hauck on the other hand, is Conservative. He puts everything on the backs of the defense.
Hauck got lucky. He knows that as well.