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Week 2: SAC @ ASU

Obviously the Hornets are overmatched in all aspects in this game, but ... this game still shows what many us have been saying for some time.

Sperbeck and his staff have no clue.
Safron isn't a good QB.

The latter point intersects with the first point.

When your starting QB lacks the arm strength and accuracy to throw a pass beyond 10 or 15 yards, he has no business playing the position. Not only that, he has no awareness. How many times has he not been aware of the playclock already this season? Why the coaching staff has hitched their wagon to him is beyond me. Forget these meat grinder games against a competent FBS opponent, the Hornets are going nowhere and will not beat the best of the BIg Sky with Safron at the helm. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against the kid personally. He seems to be a good guy. He just isn't a good QB. That's all.

Regarding the coaching staff, their schemes and lack of adjustments when those schemes don't work is simply baffling. Play calling is suspect, to put it mildly. The only thing I give them credit for is an improvement in local recruiting. But they don't seem to be very good game day coaches. That's my observation, anyway.

Let's hope I'm wrong and things start turning around next week.
 
Wow, ugly game.

Good to see Vercher get a chance and see what he can do. He's already held in the game, so there is no going back now!
 
This is a horrible showing no matter who your playing. I knew they wouldn't win this game. What I didn't know is that they would show this bad. Safron has regressed big time from what I've seen from last year. From what I can see we don't have a QB this season. Vercher is too young and not ready either. If he was I believe Sperbec would have started him. Bad QB play spells doom no matter what.
 
Yes he does look poised but I wouldn't expect us to go far if we have to go with a freshman this year. There is just to much to learn. As bad as this game is with ASU, the Big Sky can be tough. So I'm very worried.
 
Geez, you people are too negative! :roll:

Pretty pathetic when you cant even score 3 points in 8 quarters of football. :thumbdown:

If Vercher is in now, keep him in rest of the year. Would rather have ANOTHER 4-7 season with somebody who can throw the ball more than 10 yds.
 
Stating what I see. Just honesty. QB position is too important to have looked this bad the first two games win or lose. Vercher is a freshman and its to early to believe he will be the savior. Safron looks lost for some reason. I hope I'm wrong I really do. But this is bad even versus fbs schools.
 
Green Cookie Monster said:
Geez, you people are too negative! :roll:

Pretty pathetic when you cant even score 3 points in 8 quarters of football. :thumbdown:

If Vercher is in now, keep him in rest of the year. Would rather have ANOTHER 4-7 season with somebody who can throw the ball more than 10 yds.
Click to expand...

Seconded. Like I said all along. Vercher will start the SOU game this week. Safron has lost his mind and regressed.
 
iSac said:
Good to see Vercher get a chance and see what he can do. He's already held in the game, so there is no going back now!
Click to expand...

Further proving what I stated earlier, Sperbeck put Vercher in the game but only allows him to handoff. 2 pass attempts in a quarter of play? Seriously?? You can't allow the kid to a few more passes, maybe even a few DOWN the field?

Ridiculous. Why put the kid in unless you are gonna give him a chance to prove himself and gain some experience in the process? DUMB.

Footballnow13 said:
Yes he does look poised but I wouldn't expect us to go far if we have to go with a freshman this year. There is just to much to learn. .
Click to expand...

You say that as if we are going to go further with Safron at the helm. That ain't happening. Why not throw the kid into the fire and speed up his learning curve. Whatever advantage Safron might have in game experience is negated by the fact that Safron can't throw the ball downfield, which seriously hampers the offense. Expect every Big Sky defense to try to take advantage of that.

Green Cookie Monster said:
Pretty pathetic when you cant even score 3 points in 8 quarters of football. .
Click to expand...

Man, I got super excited during the first drive of the game when they actually threatened to score. Just like the first game against SJSU, Safron can't hit on the one opportunity we had to score a TD. The play was there, he just can't make the throw.

BTW, when we lined up for the FG, was there anybody that DIDN'T think it was getting blocked?? Pathetic.

Green Cookie Monster said:
If Vercher is in now, keep him in rest of the year. Would rather have ANOTHER 4-7 season with somebody who can throw the ball more than 10 yds.
Click to expand...

Agreed 100%. I'd agree more if it were possible. Vercher is the future at QB for this program. Since we aren't going to challenge for the Conference title and since the playoffs are gonna be a long shot after an 0-2 start, I'd be fine with another losing season as long as it meant the development of what appears to be a very talented prospect at QB. We KNOW what we've got in Safron. Let's find out what we've got in Vercher. At worse, Sperbeck needs to give him a few series every single game from here on out.
 
No big surprise in the outcome, and to be honest no surprise in the performance.

The offense had a great first drive that ate up half of the first quarter and Safron looked very sharp. However it all went downhill from there as Safron quickly regressed into his regular inaccurate self and had many terrible throws and reads. Too many “WTF was that” throws that resulted in easy INT’s. The running game didn’t get anything going but that should have surprised anyone, ASU’s DL is stacked.

Defensively…meh. I didn’t expect them to be able to stop ASU’s offense. However it was concerning seeing Williams look like a statue and continually get burned on the seam post by the slot receiver. It was also sad to see Washington continue to embarrass himself with pathetic tackling. Other than that I don’t have much else to say, the defense was just out matched with the talent of the ASU offense.

Special teams was a mixed bag. Punting and punt coverage was solid. FG unit continued its abortion from last week. The lone Hornet scoring opportunity from the opening drive resulted in a blocked FG due to poor blocking on the left side of the line. Since the same thing happened last week it is evident that Kelley has no idea how to make improvements on the FG unit; however it’s hard to fault him as he has never coached ST and has zero ST coaching experience coming in so the blame has to fall on Sperbeck for making this hire at ST coach.

It was nice to see Vercher and other back up players get some time in the 2nd half. I do wish the coaches would have let Vercher throw the ball more, even if it was some short screen passes to let him build some confidence. It does bring into question if the coaches are really looking to get Vercher into the mix or if this was to prevent Safron from further embarrassment. I wouldn’t mind seeing Vercher get the start against Southern Oregon, if there was ever a time to break in a new QB it would be this game.
 
Why didn't Sperbeck and Peterson hit the JuCo road in the off season to find a QB!?!?!? Ted Landers from Mt. SAC ended up walking-on at USC. He would have fit Pete's offense very neatly. Magleby, the trasnfer from Nev, is no longer on the team, right? Last night was very disappointing to watch.
 
I can understand we're 0-2, it's not realistic to expect us to beat an FBS opponent every year. But it's very unsettling with how the Hornets have looked in these two games. It shouldn't matter who you're playing, you can't get shut out two weeks in a row, or be out scored 79-0 in the first two games!

I don't think I'm overacting when I say this team is in real trouble for the remainder of the year. Whether it's offense, defense, special teams, QB or coaching - it doesn't matter, they have been horrible in every aspect of the game. Unfortunately I don't see this getting turned around, I hope I'm wrong but I see this as a VERY long season.

:ohno:
 
We have been absolutely terrible. I expected losses too, but not these kind of losses. We have been absolutely terrible. Less scholarships, less speed, and less strength isn't responsible for missing a blocking assignment, 39 delay of game pentalies/wasted timeouts, etc...

Would it be the perfect ironic reward for us tortured Hornet fans that we might start so terribly and finish in a heavenly fashion with a Frosh QB? Meh, who am I kidding, we're screwed... :rofl:
 
Buckeye, what I was saying since it doesn't seem that you understood what I posted is that yes Safron has been horrible and yes Vercher should start but I don't expect a freshman with no college game experience to save the day to much to learn this year..but yes he should start over Safron..
 
My guess is we would still see about 4 wins with Vercher at the helm the rest of the way. That is probably only 2 less than the wins we would have seen if Safron played at the level we saw from him last season. Well worth the QB change imo.

As bad as it has been through 2 weeks, there is still plenty of talent on the roster (we got through those tough games with minimal heath impacts) and plenty to play for. This next game against a talented D2 program will give us an indication of how these players respond to these two horrid weeks.
 
I understand the frustration (and the embarrassment), but this was a body bag game and we should keep it in perspective.

Last year, NAU got blown out by ASU 63-6 and finished 8-4 and in the top of the Big Sky conference. For me, the conference starts with the Southern Utah game.
 
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