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Bye Week...Thoughts To This Point???

BSCfan1

Active member
Four games into the Taylor era and with a bye this weekend, how is everyone feeling about the team as they get ready to start the Conference portion of the schedule on Oct. 5?
 
I would say very pleased and excited about the future of the program. I was at the game on Saturday and they clearly showed they can compete. I just get a sense that the team under Coach Taylor feels like they should win each time they step on the field no matter the opponent. Go Hornets!
 
Feeling pretty good!
I feel like we have a shot at every game we're in just because of how confident this coaching staff is!

PROs:
Team morale. Love for the game by the players and everyone seems to have a lot of fun
Pride in playing for Sac State from the players
I have not felt like we've been "out-coached" at least once this year which is rare to say especially since we just played last year's MWC Champ and a recently ranked ASU (former NFL coach Herm Edwards)
Recruiting...recruiting

Cons:
-Stubborn? Especially with how 2pts conversion has not work very well, if we're talking about percentage
-Working the D too much? This kind of running around might take a toll on the team by the time Causeway rolls around. Especially at the FCS level where scholarship players are about the starters and that's it

Anything else?
 
This might be the best D-line in Hornet history, no joke. They've now been dominant in four games, including against Pac-12 and MWC O-lines.

Not worried about the offense, they will take care of themselves in the Sky.

If the D can continue without major injuries, I like our chances against anybody.
 
I'm disappointed we didn't beat Fresneck, but the final spread was close enough that should we have a decent conference season, we could be looking at extra play in November....
 
I like what I am seeing on both sides of the ball and am encouraged with the upward trajectory this program is taking under Taylor and his staff. This team has shown that it can compete with anyone on the schedule so the Sky is the limit. That said, it's early and there are plenty of things to clean up (kicking game, offensive execution) and I don't think anyone should get carried away with lofty expectations for this season...so I guess I'm managing expectations.
 
I believe the defensive performance this season HAS to be the most surprising and impressive factor thus far.
Did anyone expect it? I mean, they were among the worst in the Big Sky last season.

Andy Thompson has done a fantastic job putting his players in the best positions possible while also finding creative ways to hide their deficiencies. That's exactly what good coaches do!

The defensive turnaround also shows that the Hornets had more talent than most realized last season. It just wasn't maximized.

Offensively, I believe they're ahead of schedule too. They've really only struggled to score and maintain consistency against 2 FBS programs. And much of that has been because they didn't have the same level of talent and depth on the lines. But they held their own considering.

This staff has only been in place for about 7-8 months and only has ONE recruiting class under their belt. Even then, the one recruiting class was a bit of a cluster due to the timing of the firing and hiring of the new HC. So this upcoming class will be the 1st with an elongated time frame. Let's see what they pull off. On twitter, some of coaches have already hinted that they are seeing increased interest in the program from prospective recruits.

But with regard to THIS season, I think it's clear through only 4 games that the program is on the rise.
 
GreenArmySwarm said:
Cons:
-Stubborn? Especially with how 2pts conversion has not work very well, if we're talking about percentage

I HATE the Swinging Gate Formation! Either line up and kick it or line up and pass/run for the 2!
 
Likes:

Playing all 60 minutes. Nothing frustrated me more than seeing Opie letoff the gas if we ever got a lead. Playing to win is refreshing.

Defense. The one thing the former staff did was upgrade the type of players we were getting, too bad they could not figure how to utilize and improve the players. This defense is scary good. I think in conference we stop some teams we were not expected to shut down.

Exciting offense. Can’t remember a time we played up and had a 3rd and a country mile and I expected to see us convert. (I called a catch and if you look at the tape you can see his hands were under the ball , we was robbed)

Challenges:

Consistency. This is a growing pain of a new staff. Special teams, offense, defense, they are getting used to new coaches. I think this improves through October.

Schedule. This is a tough schedule, I am trying to temper my enthusiasm with the number of ranked, good football teams we will face in conference. We get done with this schedule we will see how much work remains to get to the next level.

Overall I love the direction here!
 
BSCfan said:
GreenArmySwarm said:
Cons:
-Stubborn? Especially with how 2pts conversion has not work very well, if we're talking about percentage

I HATE the Swinging Gate Formation! Either line up and kick it or line up and pass/run for the 2!

I don't mind it. But they got to figure out whether the numbers work in their favor a lot faster than they did against FSU.

I think it's more of tactic to see how the opponent will respond. Kinda like a poker tell. It could be helpful info in a late game situation.

But, again, get the play off quicker -- whether it's a kick or an actual 2 pt attempt. They seemed to do fine with it in previous games.


HornetHope said:
Likes:

Playing all 60 minutes. Nothing frustrated me more than seeing Opie letoff the gas if we ever got a lead. Playing to win is refreshing.

One thing you don't have to worry about with Troy Taylor is him taking the foot off the gas.

I've seen Taylor coach a lot of game going back to HS (in fact, I was lobbying on this board for his hire many years ago) and he was often criticized for the tactic while at Folsom.

Coach Taylor will put in his subs in a blowout, but he won't stop running the entire playbook. His philosophy seems to align with those that believe it's not their job to stop themselves from scoring. LOL.
 
We ran the Swinging Gate for 2? I'm not sure I like that idea. It's fine at about mid-field. (That's assuming, of course, that your back knows to stay along the sideline; the year we ran it at Capital Christian, where I was the QBs coach for the JV team, the back who just HAD to get out to the sideline for most plays chose the Swinging Gate to cut back into traffic. Ugh!) I also like the Duck (a modification of the Swinging Gate which maintains a back behind the line screen, but has the Y over the ball, the QB in the Shotgun, and a back and flanker on the same side as the Y; it provides more options depending on how the defense deploys, from a screen a la Swinging Gate to routes by the eligible snapper (we had him run a wheel route, a post or a K route by the flanker, and a check-thru flat route by the back), to just having the QB take off).

For the two, I would prefer running the triple option or perhaps a toss sweep throwback. Since it's college and not that bogus moved-back PAT we see these days in the NFL (Goodell has GOT to go!), I could even see lining up for the PAT and running our old Volek-era Oregon fake, where the holder gets up and runs speed option with the kicker as the pitch man....
 
Thanks everyone for your input so far, I appreciate it. Since we're "new" to the program, we don't have a sense of the football history there...we're still learning! So far my son has enjoyed his time at Sac State and has enjoyed being part of the Hornets program. He's really feels like he's in the right place after playing JUCO ball at Siskiyous the past two years. My wife and I are looking forward to more trips to Sac over the next 2 or 3 years (depending on if he ends up being shut down and redshirted this year). And hopefully over the next couple of weeks of practice they get the PAT/FG team cleaned up...right now it has issues.
 
Missed the Hornets playin today as they are so fun to follow.

Listened or watched other games.

Montana looked very good over the Aggies today in Davis
Idaho State blew out Portland State
Cal Poly squeezed by Southern Utah.
Northern Arizona was up big against Montana State and then lost big
Weber State took down Northern Iowa from start to finish
Eastern Washington took down North Dakota
Northern Colorado beat Idaho
New Mexico State scored less points than Sac State against Fresno State in a loss at their place today
Arizona State scored more points on Cal today than Sac State in a win in Berkeley Friday night

Hope I got all this correct.
 
josephpoint said:
Missed the Hornets playing today as they are so fun to follow.

I totally agree! Watched some of the other games buy it felt weird not seeing the Hornets play yesterday. Makes me extra stoked for this weekend, as we're heading down from Washington to hopefully see a win over my state's Big Sky school. I think we have a decent shot...EWU lost at Idaho 2 weeks ago, Idaho lost at Northern Colorado yesterday and we beat the heck out of Northern Colorado. What's that all mean? Probably not a danged thing other than I had way too much time to overthink things! 🙂
 
josephpoint said:
Montana looked very good over the Aggies today in Davis
Idaho State blew out Portland State
Cal Poly squeezed by Southern Utah.
Northern Arizona was up big against Montana State and then lost big
Weber State took down Northern Iowa from start to finish
Eastern Washington took down North Dakota
Northern Colorado beat Idaho
I saw the Montana UCD highlights, Davis looked a little flat, but Montana definitely improved. Idaho State meh Portland State underperforms regularly. Northern. aZ imploding is a surprise, looked good early but MT State looked good. Weber is improved from last year IMHO. I watched part of EWU UND, not sold, I think they can be beat.

Idalol is another story. I watched a lot of this game. Petrino’s son threw a pick late and threw a temper tantrum and cost his team. I think they can be rattled easily and definitely beatable.
 
HornetHope said:
Craig Haley’s tweet regarding the Hornets

https://twitter.com/craighaley/status/1178777573909774337?s=21

Murderer's Row!

Some FBS teams would be lucky to be .500 with that gauntlet.

If the Hornets are respectable and davis continues to float, there is absolutely no reason why Hornet Stadium should not be at capacity for the Causeway!
 

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