ManOfVision said:
It is not too early to judge coaching. Penalties, poor play calling, and poor execution can largely be attributed to the coaching staff, JG and Mouse in particular. There is little excuse for those problems regardless of personnel or scheme. As for the overall state of the program and the growing pains related to transitioning from one scheme to another, I am willing to wait for the offense to come around under Mouse recruits because the run and shoot is superior to whatever Walsh thought he was doing. However, I am much less forgiving on the defensive side of the ball. We had arguably the best I-AA defense in the country two years ago under Lupfer and JG insisted on blowing it up. I saw no need for this then and don't now. Even if he insisted on switching schemes, couldn't he have gradually transitioned over about a 2 year period as recruiting brought in alternate personnel? I know that the cold turkey approach might be better in the long run, but I am not yet convinced.
I'll disagree with you re cause. The plays called were the same they run through practice everyday,
perfectly, over and over. Repeatedly, however, on O, the balls were overthrown, the timing was off, or like the first play of the game, the pass was thrown way late after the receiver had passed through the zone. Over and over, there were just a bunch of bad, very, very poorly timed mistakes, from personal fouls to illegal motion on 3rd and goal, to broken coverages, to missed assignments, and on and on. What's really upsetting is that despite a noticable size difference, athletically, that game was not a mismatch. This wasn't a "failure" of the 3-4 or the Coach's fault, it was simply the team, and that means everyone, not playing to their ability. Coach G hit the nail on the head when he commented he wanted everyone to get out on the field and get some stink on them. All the guys out there know what it feels like to win and be a champion...and sometimes the best way to get them there is to remind them what it feels like to lose...especially in a big game like Sat.'s when they KNEW going into the game they had the ability to win it. Losses like that can be a big motivator, especially since it was OC, if everyone's angry enough about the loss, they'll pull it together this week, go down and knockout Slack State decisively.
M of V, I've seen too many programs go through the, "...when XXXXXX was here..." diatribe. The run and shoot is a very appropriate and successful scheme for any FCS or Mid-Major program. We have 3 (and a fourth on the way) QB's who can all run the R&S successfully. While I personally would like to see Howland get more field time, Drew can run the offense too, and Kavanaugh has looked great in practice, although we haven't really had a chance to see him under fire. And when comparing guns, it would be a tough call between the top three. All things said, getting to watch Ty work with D'Ambrosio, Woods and Coleman is a real treat, and I hope we get a chance to see more of that against Slack State
As for our D, the only thing I can say is we HAVE TO STOP arm tackling...I've never seen such a display of missed tackles as the other night. This next week, there's a good possibility that Hilliard will be back from his mild shoulder separation. If he is, Slack State's going to be running the ball all day...and our front will need to meet him head on, 100 mph, hit after hit, body tackling all day. If we don't it's going to be a LONG day.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3605413
