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Week 10: Sac State at Montana

SDHornet

SDHornet

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Week 10: Sac State at Montana

Hornetsports Preview: http://www.hornetsports.com/sports/fball/2014-15/releases/20141028sprfar

State Hornet Preview: http://www.statehornet.com/sports/f...cle_2955260e-5ed1-11e4-8e39-001a4bcf6878.html

Sac Bee Preview: http://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article3457540.html

Both teams are coming off of embarrassing losses to Cal Poly. I think all the remaining games for the Hornets are winnable, however UM is exceptional at home. Hornets are left playing the role of spoiler given their failure in BSC competition.
 
If Safron is on and the Griz get off to a slow start then we have a chance this weekend. We’ll need 50+ to beat UM (or anyone for that matter).

We should be favored to win the final 3. SUU has struggled all year and PSU’s offense has been nonexistent this year. Then of course there is the Causeway in which we always find a new way to lose a football game. Given the deterioration of Hornet special teams as the season has progressed, my early guess is that unit probably costs us another Causeway.
 
SDHornet said:
If Safron is on and the Griz get off to a slow start then we have a chance this weekend. We’ll need 50+ to beat UM (or anyone for that matter).

We should be favored to win the final 3. SUU has struggled all year and PSU’s offense has been nonexistent this year. Then of course there is the Causeway in which we always find a new way to lose a football game. Given the deterioration of Hornet special teams as the season has progressed, my early guess is that unit probably costs us another Causeway.
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We lost last year and gave up 51, and the defense, sadly, was arguably better last year. We are going to need to go TCU vs Tech on em to get the win. I cannot see us getting 82 pts.
 
I will say this about the Special Teams. Kick-Off Return team has done well had a nice return to start the game vs. Cal Poly and consistently gets the ball close to the 30. Punt Return has to Blocked punts this year which is pretty good since we barley ever make the other team punt in a backed up territory. Punt team is ok Heath is not as good as weldon last season but has done ok. Protection has never been an issue. Cornish may go down as one as the best kickers in Sac State History. Awesome that was taken care of from last season, the season before and the season before. Then the Kick-Off Team. Montana State sticks in our minds. But I will say it was much improved vs. Cal Poly. If they can keep it going again this week. I would have more confidence.

Offense needs to score points. Need to start fast and score points in the 3rd Quarter. We have not started the 2nd half fast at all. Defense needs to get turnovers. No penalties. We lead the Big Sky in Penalties. Especially after we score. Do something good then something bad. Hornets win this one 45-42
 
Don't forget the blocked PATs.

Game is on Root Sports tomorrow so that means no internet video, plan accordingly.
 
I will give you that, every team in Big Sky has blocked PATs, it is bound to happen. Especially when your leading scorer is the kicker. He is kicking a lot of PATs. You would think our NFL O Line coach would help with that
 
31-13 Loss. I was only able to stomach the first 3 qtrs. I’m not surprised at the loss, but I am surprised at the score. The Hornets battled in the 1st half. The offense was able to move the ball only to have Peterson’s head up his ass on the red zone play calling. It probably would not have made a difference in the outcome but the game would have been less of an embarrassment. Credit is due to the Griz D, they kept everything in front of them and didn’t give up a big play.

Defensively the Hornets battled early. I liked the aggressive play calling on 1st and 2nd down only to have Sears have his head up his ass on 3rd and long situations where he only rushed 3 DL and let UM’s QB shred the awful secondary with ease.

The 2nd half was an all too familiar no show on both sides of the ball. The first Hornet drive where Peterson called successive dive plays to the smallest RB on the roster on short yardage situations pretty much set the tone. This was yet another game in which the coaching staff was completely outcoached in the 2nd half and the players were completely out played. Not a good indicator of the direction of this program, clearly this program is in full on regression.
 
At some point we have to look at the players we have. Need to recruit better. To many players leaving. Can't have that. Safron has done great for us but I felt he was bad again the 2nd consecutive game. Can we get a catch and run? Every time we catch the ball we have to lay out for it. We go as he goes and he has not done it the past two weeks. That interception on the screen play was terrible. How many times did we have the RB stuffed at the line and see him bounce to the outside. That is not play call it is jimmys and joes. We were out matched personel wise. Cornish made 2 more field Goals, last year we would have been shut out.
 
I got in with the score at about 7-3 Montana. SD is correct that the boys battled in the first half. Just a few of my observations.

1. Once again, there was horrible officiating. No, it had no bearing on the final score, but it was crazy nonetheless. Our receivers were wearing Griz DBs like capes all afternoon, and weird Hornet penalties were getting called out of nowhere. In no way, though, would reversals of those bogus calls/non-calls have affected any of the scoring.

2. Playcalling was atrocious. Fourth and less than a yard, and they call a short pass out of Pistol to a receiver who is AGAIN wearing a Griz defender?!? OK, one could lay the results of THAT particular play at the feet of Safron, but the APPROPRIATE call there would have been quarterback sneak out of a "normal" set. This apparent "need" to have a fancy look is killing us.

3. The staff up and quit in the second half. When it got to the point (about mid-third quarter, say) where we should have been throwing and considering going for it on fourth down, we PUNTED.

I normally don't hold with mid-season coaching changes and multiple coaching changes in the same calendar year, but Sears is proving that he has no clue how to be a D-I football coach. Whatever one thinks of MY choices, I think it's clear that we've got to go in a new direction VERY soon. Both SD and OH make good points here. We have to clean house. The question is how we go about doing it. As you all know, I'd like a return to the Volek era, whether it's Big Cat himself or one of his assistants. You others want a national search. EITHER choice would be better than enduring another season of THIS. Better than Mooshagian, but we're getting tired of having our emotions yanked early and ruined in the second half of the season. Whether it's MY choice or YOURS, SOMETHING has got to happen, and I'm past caring which....
 
The Big Cat Era was 15 years ago and it wasn't that great so please please stop. I do believe you need to be on the inside to look at what Sears has done. Is the team playing harder. Academics and are players staying? I would love to hear players thoughts on Sears. It is his first year. If we had a new staff this year we wouldn't be ready to fire him just as Davis is probably not in panic mode with there coach. Just need to look at the whole picture maybe Sperbeck went 6-5 every year because that's what they had. 6-5 players. We need good recruiters. Recruiting Coordinators while Sperbeck was in charge. Brown, Osterhout, Ingram.
 
Hornetsports Recap: http://www.hornetsports.com/sports/fball/2014-15/releases/20141101ng24o2

State Hornet Recap: http://www.statehornet.com/sports/f...cle_176aa202-6223-11e4-bd0d-0017a43b2370.html

Sac Bee Recap: http://www.sacbee.com/sports/college/article3519720.html

Recruiting hasn’t been an issue; there has been some good talent on the roster the past few years. I think player development has been the bigger issue. IMO the various coaches (and their respective staffs) that have cycled through here just haven’t been able to put things together.

I have a hard time putting this disappointing season on Safron, he could be better but overall he has been far from bad. If we are depending on him to be perfect in order to have a successful season then that means we have some serious issues with the team (mainly an awful defense). No college QB is going to be perfect, hinging success on perfection is just an unreal expectation. That INT on the screen pass was just the typically shitty luck this program has had during its existence. The pass wasn’t on target but the tip off of Robinson went perfectly into the hands of a UM defender. Unfortunately we are just usually on the shitty end of those bounces.

The bigger issue I have is the poor 2nd half showings the past month or so. That tells me the coaches aren’t making the right (if any) halftime adjustments and the team leaders aren’t stepping up and motivating this team to finish strong.
 
In regards of second half adjustments I would assume you would only be talking to the defense, but the defense has actually had more forced punts in the second half then first halves this season. Besides the last two games the Offense has put up plenty of points in the second half. Montana State we had 14points at halftime. Doubled the scorer vs. Northern Colorado. These are examples. I am still a believer in recruiting. Recruiting is not only getting good athletes but good people. These players are leaving why? Grades? 3 local recruits from last years class no longer on team because of grades. Cole Hannum Nevada Union, Jordan Vincent Rio Americano and Villiami Umufuke Monterey Trail. That is just 3. Players need to take care of there responsibilities off the field. To me this falls on Bob Shook the Academic Coach doesn't it?
 
The team looked extremely flat in the 3rd qtr (I didn’t stick around to watch the 4th). The team no showed in the 2nd half against CP, and imploded in the last 10 minutes of the UNC game and almost blew that one (poor play calling on both sides of the ball had a key role in that one). This team is getting outplayed in the back stretch of games and that is not good.

As far as the grades go, eh. I don’t know if those players struggled with grades in HS or not but that could be a factor. Or maybe they just aren’t up to snuff for college level classes. Either way there will always be some turnover on a roster with over 90 players on it and that is something the coaching staff will have to manage and hopefully minimize. I wouldn’t hit the panic button on grades being an issue with this program unless this problem intensifies and persists. We have a long way to fall to reach Moosh era type of roster implosions.
 
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