Sac State Musings...

[Miguel]

I found myself confused by Coach Collin's statement after Saturday's debacle that the Sac State game would give his team something to build upon. I am most interested in what he thought the Bears did well on that soggy field. Let's recount what happened:

Teams: The Bear team, composed largely of Colorado kids, used to the altitude and mostly experienced in playing in foul weather, should have had an advantage on a cold, windy day. But it was the Sac State kids from California, who essentially play at sea level and not usually in bad weather, who looked better prepared for the elements. Sac State played like a team determined to win; when given an opportunity, they took advantage of it. The Bears looked beaten by the second quarter and seemed to go through the motions in the second half...

Offense: 72 yards total. That breaks down to 35 yards a half. Five first downs, one gained through penalty. The Bears fumbled seven times (2 lost), gained 43 yards on 49 attempts rushing, and went 3-13 for 29 yards passing. Once again Orms relieved Lobato but the result was the same; the Bears did not even manage to follow this year's pattern and score meaningless second half touchdowns after the game was lost. I doubt the Sac State defense ever seriously thought they were going to...

Defense: 177 yards given up. Sounds good until you realize that Sac State has 51 plays on offense and ran the ball 51 times (the one pass play was nullfied by a penalty). The Bears knew exactly what was coming every play and still gave up over one hundred yards to the Sac State running back. If Bumpas had not transferred in, I shudder to think where the defense would be right now...

Coaching: Once Sac State scored, their coaches realized the game was over. After watching the UNC offense sputter series after series, they knew the Bears were not going to score a touchdown. So they decided to rush on every down, run the clock, and get out of Greeley and the cold with a win. Our coaches looked lost as usual, once again desperately trying to find a quarterback who could inspire and move the team...

The end result was like the weather: sloppy and depressing. The Bears are 0-6 and heading to Eastern Washington where they will no doubt get stomped into the red field. A Bear team that ended last year at 3-8 with a win at Portland State and seemed ready to take the next step is now arguably the worst Division I squad in the nation. Hinrichs was told to fire Coach Downing, and then Jay proceeded to run one of the most inept head coaches searchs I have ever seen (remember the farce that was the Dave Logan affair?). He ended up hiring a well meaning but overwhelmed and underprepared Coach Collins rather than a proven leader like O'Boyle or Stitt. For the sake of the poor student athletes, I hope Coach Collins will prove me wrong, but I am afraid after more "building years," Hinrich's replacement (we can hope) will be looking for a new head coach...

 

[Blofeld]

It's a bit shocking what a step backward they have taken. Quite often coaching changes bring a lift but that's certainly not the case here...

We'll go 0-11 I've come to accept that but next year will be the key... another year like this and I think Collins will take the dignified way out and just accept an assitant job someplace else and just act like it was a promotion. He won't get fired but I think he'll realize it's a lost cause or he's in over his head and abandon ship.

But yeah, I just can't get over how much worse we are than last year...

 

[Beardown]

I would like to see what Collins can do on the job when he's been here for more than 8 months. Give him some time. He hasn't even had a real recruiting class. I think he will do some good things here, but I am disappointed with his selection of assistant coaches, especially the two coordinators.

As for Hinrichs. I've defended some of his actions, but his scheduling is horrible. Fallis was bad, he Hinrichs is worse. I would like to get an AD who will rally the city as well. Get more marketing involved, etc.

 

[gobears2010]

I don't know how anyone can try to draw any sort of conclusions from what happened at Nottingham Field yesterday. It was barely football. That wasn't a fair or accurate representation of either team, quite frankly.

 

[DaBears11]

I agree that Coach Collins deserves a chance to recruit the players he thinks he can win with and I hope he is successful in that area in the coming year(s?), but it is not the talent level of this team which is really the core problem with this season. These young men are not being coached. They may be getting yelled at, drilled, conditioned, or whatever else, but in my opinion, the only factor that can explain the almost non existent progress this team has made in 6 games is that they are not being given the feedback they need to understand how to be better..

Why are we seeing the same problems, mistakes, blown coverages etc week after week? Hell, why are we seeing it half after half, qtr after qtr, series after series, with what appears to be no adjustments?

I don't want to bash this coaching staff or Coach Collins. I do not dislike the man or think he is not capable of moving this program in the right direction, but so far, the entire staff really seems paralyzed and unsure and I think that translates through to the team and they become paralyzed and unsure and then things go from bad to worse.

You can blame the young men on the team for not winning if you want to, but you have to blame the coaches for no improvement.

 

[DaBears11]

Sac State played like a team determined to win; when given an opportunity, they took advantage of it. The Bears looked beaten by the second quarter and seemed to go through the motions in the second half...

I agree, Sac State looked like they were determined to win...at least until they had a couple touchdowns, then they just seemed determined to hold on. As for the Bears looking beaten, I think the elements had a lot to do with that. But I won't make excuses for them. At the end of the game they WERE beaten, so what else can really be said.

I did notice, and correct me if I'm wrong, that we did a decent job of stopping the run until Sac State realized they could run outside of the tackles? It seemed like our DB's were really having a hard time reacting to and shedding Sac States WR blockers so even when the D-line and LB's reacted and the entire LoS shifted towards the sideline it did so at an angle that resulted in us giving up a minimum of 6 yds each time once the back or QB rounded the corner?

Running a similar play, we were stuffed at least one time that I clearly remember where their DB shed the WR blocking him and stepped up, closing the gap and forcing us straight to the sideline for a loss of 1 or 2 yards. Those small things made a huge difference IMO.

It also seemed like their secondary was quicker to respond in general and were able to hold any running gains we had to just a few yds with some pretty good tackling. There was one play fairly early on where we broke through to the secondary and the Safety slipped and fell but was able to get to his knees and lunge in for the tackle. It was a nice display of athleticism and a real missed opportunity for us as there was no one else around to stop us from scoring.

Overall, I didn't care for the play calling. Several really bad attempts at deep passes, but not one single quick pass to the sidelines which have been somewhat sucessful for us? Seems like you would want to at least try to spread the DB's and LB's out a little since they were what 9 deep in the box? Speaking of 9 deep in the box, Sac State had so many guys playing the run, our option was almost completely ineffective. They were bringing at least one LB every play if not two, and the rest were staying home so no one was biting. Not the best time to have your QB and RB messing around with the exchange 2 yds behind the LoS. Why try to fake it, RB leads and QB follows and run the damn thing. Am I wrong here?

 

[townbear]

The truth is that it was VERY cold and wet. Hands and feet were numb and very few games are played in those conditions. Rain is one thing, its typically wet but not numbing and snow is cold but not wet. Both rain and snow combined with the wind made this a very unusual game. I have been to A LOT of games in some pretty bad weather. This was in the top two for worst conditions. daBears11, you are correct. What we saw with sac state was a slower version of the same stuff we've seen so far. The reason the score was not higher was the weather and the inability to pass, made it impossible for sac state to exploit our secondary. You can not play every down of every game in a cover 2, adjustments need to be made quickly and based on the circumstances...we are not seeing adjustments from either cordinator. This is a problem. This is a very athletic group, the talent IS on the field, they need guidance and leadership. They need to be coached. Maybe that is occurring in meetings and at practice but I don't see much on game day. I think these kids like thier head coach (Collins) and they respect him. I'm told that they think he's smart and they want to follow him, this is good. He can not do this by himself, his cordinators need to run the action for him on game day. The Bears game plan now is VERY predictable. Everyone knows what to expect as will Eastern Washington UNLESS they seriously mix up the delivery on both sides of the ball. Mix things up, go for it on 4th and a foot and put the QB under center and surge for a first down, if it doesn't work oh well, try something different next time. Take calculated risk and make it FUN TO WATCH and FUN TO PLAY.These kids and coaches need to find some swagger and a bit of an attitude in the face of adversity. That is what builds confidence. There is no downside now in changing thier approach. I promise you this, NOBODY left on this schedule is expecting any of that... my two pennies. Best to all and to Coach Collins and the boys.