Changes in offseason...

[916bengal]

I have been along on every single trip. Of course the traveling is not fun or convenient, but I'm not going to blame the losses at all on the traveling. The way I see it, our program needs more help with issues off of the field before we start looking at X's and O's. Just my opinion. We have kids giving Cal Poly's student section high 5's when we are down by 30 points. At other games players have come off the sideline throwing their helmets...the fact is, when you turn on the TV and watch the USC's and the Texas's and the Ohio State's you dont see this kind of behavior. Lack of discipline is something that can be fixed real fast if they choose to do so.

 

[blackfootbengal]

Granted there are other issues than travel, but that is not what you said the first time. As to discipline, that is an issue I won't address. What you or I see as unacceptable behavior is a perception that is strictly ours. The coaches and the players have their own perception of acceptable behavior that may or may not match ours. For example we have one individual who defends Rashad Richards behavior, other denounce it. I cannot change what the coaches or the players find acceptable and will not try too.

 

[blackfootbengal]

As to a championship team, the team is still working on being a middle of the pack Big Sky school. Citing disipline as a problem is just one more excuse for losing, not a reason. Miami won National Championships with the worst disiplined teams I have ever seen.

 

[bhumble2]

blackfoot, great points and I agree for the most part.

 

[916bengal]

I agree with what you have to say blackfootbengal, I'm just saying that disciplinary issues could be taken care of fast and easily. Miami had a lot of disciplinary problems yes, but they had it right with the X's and O's. In my opinion, we can atleast be a disciplined team if we can't execute the X's and O's. And yes these are OUR opinions not the coaches. This board is meant for people to share their opinions, though, isn't it?

 

[Bengal Roar]

Good Points. I have to chime in on the discipline thing. Do the coaches have control? Do the players respect the coaches? The players from the get go need to understand what is expected of them. How disiplined are they now? I don't know. I remember watching the Northern C. game and watching us chase our tail the whole game. Mis-reads, bad tackling, off snapcounts, personal fouls etc. We looked like the bad news bears. i hope i never have to watch a game like that again. The coaches/players need to show discipline "on" and "off" the field? FYI- did anyone see the police blotter today? If it is the same guy? He was in there a month or so ago for a different reason. Isn't he an assisstant coach? I am sorry but that sets a BAD tone for the players. If coach so and so can do it why can't I? It starts at the top people. I hope we are not a bunch of loose cannons. Lets get our crap together. Even if we are losing we must still stay disciplined like 916 said. Discipline is king.

I have to give props to the OC. The play calling in my opinion has gotten better (way better). I just don't know if we have the speed and bodies to execute?

 

[bengalbeliever]

what is ur basis for "giving props to OC" Roar?
I mean what has changed lately for you to say it has gotten better, much better? I'm curious.
Frankly, I don't see it that way though.

 

[bhumble]

what is ur basis for "giving props to OC" Roar?
I mean what has changed lately for you to say it has gotten better, much better? I'm curious.
Frankly, I don't see it that way though.

after all, they are the worst scoring offense in the conference

 

[blackfootbengal]

Firing both offensive and defensive coordinators is not a option. For one you would most likely lose the head coach as well if that happened and we would be back to square one. Change is hard enough without making it worst by changing what we doing on both sides of the ball. The offense played well enough until injuries became a problem, the defense has never been stellar. Other than Portland State the defenses that held us down offensively were pretty good. Northern Colorados defense has improved and has done well against everyone they have played. NAU is no slouch. Again realistically we would just hurt ourselves by firing both. My concern is the same as everyone else concerning Zamberlin's being to loyal, it is what took Lewis down in the end and will take Zamberlin down as well if he does not make the right decisions. I'm not saying that Strandly cannot coach, it's not may place to make that call, what I am saying is he has not shown the ability to recruit consistently. I believe Durr is going to be good as will Rouser and Whimpey, but what about the JC kids we brought in to provide help right away. Nothing, they are not even average and are being beat out by kids who walked on. You have to be able to recruit to be successful in college footbal. We knew last fall who was graduating and that most of them were D-line. We brought in one JC tackle who cannot beat out a walk-on from Snow. We did not bring in any D-ends and now we can put no pressure on a QB without sending LB'ers. Were giving up something like 219 yards a game rushing and 267 yards passing, who else would you blame except the D-coordinator. Were going to be depending on freshmen next year to replace seniors, when has that ever worked at this level. Frankly, we are going to have to get at least three to four JC linemen both Tackles and Ends to have any chance of improving next year. And unlike the ones we have now, they will have to be able to beat out someone.

 

[Bengal Roar]

Those are fair questions humble and believer. I never said the team was better. I said the play calling was better. We just CAN"T execute. It has been nice not to predict the call every play. I believe we are mixxing it up but just can't perform. When i mentioned way better i was reffering to the last 2-3 years. As i mentioned above also, our speed lacks and our assignments lack execution.

 

[blackfootbengal]

Let me clarify my saying the head coach needs to be the head coach not a position coach and head coach. I don't believe a head coach can be the worker bee for the D-Coordinator, especially a young inexperienced DC. Who is the boss and whom do the other coaches and players look to as the boss. I don't think it can work. In addition, I would recommend reassigning the DC to Line coach if I thought that could be done. However, that would not be fair to any new DC who may want to bring his own coaches. The only way I see to fix the problem on the defensive side of the ball is remove the DC. If the head coach and DC believe the problem is a position coach, then remove the problem. If nothings done and the defense is as bad next year as this year, the head coach should expect he and his staff would be fired. While no one expects a complete turnaround in three years, we all expect improvement. Simply stated, our defense has taken a step backwards. I believe our secondary is better despite the mistakes the two young safeties make. We are solid not spectacular at linebacker, the D-Line has taken a step backwards and frankly has hurt the entire defense. As I have said, we have kids who did not get offers anywhere walking on and beating out scholarship players for playing time. I don’t care what the reasons are, that should never happen. Recruiting is the lifeblood of any program and we needed JC players who could shore up the line until the underclassmen could grow up. That did not happen.

 

[GOBIGORANGE]

Blackfoot, I will agree with most of your posts but I believe the linebackers are our weakest spot on the whole team. IMO
I said way early in the season Coach Z needs to take control of HIS team and not give the power to the assistants. I was wondering about Coach Miller as an OC. Being as he played QB at Montana and I believe someone said his dad is a college coach I would think he is knowlegeable and knows what that winning feeling is all about. Maybe Coach O would be a great DC. Just throwing stuff around for comments! I still hope next year they actually play more Idaho kids not just have them on the team!

 

[bengalbeliever]

Great point Blackfoot, I do agree and I think our staff knows that to be most effective,
Coach Z needs to not be 'position coach' and spread his will and attitude around each and every position.
He has been forced to handle the LB's this year due to the late departure by Christoff-remember??!!
And correct me if I am wrong, he was the DC also??
I believe in Strandley, IMHO he is the best position coach we have. I have seen him coach, he is legit.
Being a DC? Well, I'm not sure about that, but that isn't knocking him, just opinion that he would be best
served to our team to focus on the dline.
Is it conclusive that a new DC would require 'his own staffing' ??, I am not sure.
However, I will say in fairness on the defense more than anything, it all starts up front and we DON'T HAVE THE HORSES TO COMPETE, right now.
Not to mention, GBO is spot on about the LB's. A few have disappointed after having so much hype going into season.

It will all come down to recruiting, like it usually seems to.
We will need to go heavy JC again.
3 DL, 2 CB, 2 LB, 1 QB, 1 RB, 1 OL something like that, then the remaing freshman.
It won't be that bad as long as we can get the 'impact' DL players. And....the staff gives them a 'fair' opportunity to do their thing.
There are plenty of them in California, we just gotta find them and get em up here.

As a side note, I understand that the public loves a 'winner', however it really bugs me that we can't get a sellout at The Holt (or at least something close to it)!!! Come on people of SE Idaho!! For once, what do you think a pack house screaming and yelling for the Bengals would do in support of our team and VICTORY??
I will say, just like everyone out there has expected more of this team, I have expected more of the community support and even the students. I would like to see the community "bring it" just one time like each of our players do each and every game. If I was grading our support base, I would get a big "F" regardless of what people might think about the admin or lack of promotion or whatever.
Poky vs. Highland drew 10,000 so don't tell me they aren't out there.
I do my part by driving a LONG way to games and bringing plenty of people with me.
Let's take today: what more is there going on in this area that we can't have 10K at the game today????

That's all for me this morning. If you can't notice, I am on my 3rd cup of joe.

GO BENGALS!!!!
Let's put 4 QTRS of ball together and get the guys out there that wanna leave it on the turf every down.

 

[blackfootbengal]

I'm struggling with why we keep going back to the offensive coordinator. In half of our games we scored enough to win the game if the defense had held on even one or two series. We are giving up 40 points a game, to win we have to score fourty-one points a game. That's seven points more than the highest scoring offense in the Big Sky is scoring. With the injuries of late we don't have the same personnel who were scoring 27 points a game on the field, the defense is going to have to step up. Hill has had two bad games, Northern Colorado and Portland, yet he is still one of the best QB's in the Big Sky. Eddie has been no factor for about three weeks and we are playing our second and fourth string runningbacks. While I don't alway understand what Orthman is doing, I don't have the experience to challenge him on what he is doing. We are not losing games because of the offense, we lose games because we cannot stop anyone when the really need to score. Time and time again the offense goes down and scores and the other team just marches right down and gets the points back. Quite frankly, the defense has put the offense in the postion of forcing the ball down the field trying to score which has led to some of our turnovers. A change at the OC is not going to change anything as long as we are giving up fourty points a game.

 

[blackfootbengal]

I cannot dispute the comments on our Linebackers, I have never focused on thier play enough to question how they play. The only game I saw where we really showed bad was North Dakota and I believe that was a scheme issue not a player issue. Note in the second half they did a better job of getting out and making the plays. Poor run defense could be a combination of poor line play and poor LB play, or as I believe your LB are only as good as you D-Line. As is evident by the stats, we are terrible on the D-line. If the other teams O-line is able to get into the backfield and engage your LB your are going to have trouble stopping the run, thus your defensive backs will have high tackle totals. Take a look at our stats, guess what players are up at the top of the tackle totals. Wright and Clark should never be that high, your safeties maybe but never your corners. Rather than poor LB play, I see the poor play on the line as a major issue.

 

[bengalbeliever]

Blackfoot I agree, I stated the DL play needs help and we don't have the horses right now to get on it.
But to sidestep and think the OC doesn't need to make some serious changes is being naive.
If you have been to every game, then..
How many times have you seen 3rd and 1's and see us passing?
How many times do you see use the middle of the field?
How many times do you see players on a 'shuttle bus' coming in and out of the game?
How many times have you seen the opposing defense be fooled by our myriad of formations?
How many times have you seen us give up on running the ball when been effective?
How many times have you seen us use our TE?
How many times have you seen us on 1st and goal inside the 10 only to pass on every down?
How many times have you seen 2 or 3 WR' in the same 5 yard space?
How many times have you seen us in spread only for the last 8 minutes of the game?
How many times have you seen our WR's in downfield routes 10 and 15+ yds when we only needed 6 or 7?
How many times have you seen an inside curl route?
How many times have we pounded the LOS with the running game when our OL has shown dominance?
How many times do you see a player in for 1 play then go stand on the side for the next 4,5 or 6 plays?
And finally, I ask you how many times do you see the other sucessful teams do the things on offense that we do, regardless of situations?

 

[blackfootbengal]

Cristoff was the linebacker coach.

 

[blackfootbengal]

What we are discussing is not Orthman's offense it how you think the offense should be ran. I'm not saying I agree with what we do; just that until were hired as offensive coordinators we are not going to have any say in what is ran. The offense has not lost any games, they score in every game and have for the most part put up good numbers. I checked the Big Sky stats page and found that the best offense in the league scores 34 points a game; they could not win with our defense. You have to pick your battles and I do not see the offense as a problem that warrants firing the OC. There are problems with every offense and every defense, no one team is perfect, and frankly, I'm not naive at all. I just think you are asking for too much change, change that would have a harmful effect rather than positive.

 

[bengalbeliever]

You're right.
Just changing things up would be a start tho.

 

[letuknow]

Our defense is playing terrible and they have to change things up a little. I wouldnt mind seeing Blum play and see what he has to offer. They really need to get Eddie the ball, as he opens things up for the offense.