If our OL performs/holds up we are going to score some pts.

[RF2044]

All the things you mentiond are the exact reasons why I feel Hunt will be better. Even though we were disapointed in Hunt early on I did see him improve on some defeciencies. He threw a better deep ball. I think people forgot how bad he was before the last two games in 2013. The int's and stuff he threw last year, I blame McDonald for. He was trying to do things with him that he wasnt ready for. Lester will not put him in those situations.

People also forget about how terrific he was in his first few games in 2013. Here's hoping he can replicate some of that efficiency / consistency during a big senior campaign. Hunt playing well would go a LONG way toward helping us get to a bowl this year.

 

[Ottoble]

Two words RED ZONE. Our per play and per sustained drive yardage wasn't bad last year. Between the 20s we moved the ball in mid level clips.

Our red zone efficiency was bad, really bad.
We were 87th of 128 for overall red zone scoring conversions. Thanks to our Kickers.
We were 127 out of 128 in Touchdown Red Zone conversions! (CFBSTATS)

We need to practice the HELL out of our redzone package. We need to have a team that hits the field absolutely confident in automatic TD from inside the 20. That is what will make this team dangerous.

 

[florange44]

All the things you mentiond are the exact reasons why I feel Hunt will be better. Even though we were disapointed in Hunt early on I did see him improve on some defeciencies. He threw a better deep ball. I think people forgot how bad he was before the last two games in 2013. The int's and stuff he threw last year, I blame McDonald for. He was trying to do things with him that he wasnt ready for. Lester will not put him in those situations.

I agree with you Money. This brings up 2 additional points on coaching

1). It is unbelievable to me that coach McF$&@it would change the offense so much between 2013 and 2014. And not realize the negative impact it could have. That indicates someone who is over his head in the job.

2). If Lester doesn't change the offense to suit hunts strengths, then he's the wrong guy. In that case, we get a new OC. I'm hoping Shafer can survive in that case and we have some stability at the top. I think Lester has made the changes necessary, now the question is whether the talent gets us to 4 wins or as many as 7 wins.

Florange44

 

[qdawgg]

I agree with you Money. This brings up 2 additional points on coaching

1). It is unbelievable to me that coach McF$&@it would change the offense so much between 2013 and 2014. And not realize the negative impact it could have. That indicates someone who is over his head in the job.

2). If Lester doesn't change the offense to suit hunts strengths, then he's the wrong guy. In that case, we get a new OC. I'm hoping Shafer can survive in that case and we have some stability at the top. I think Lester has made the changes necessary, now the question is whether the talent gets us to 4 wins or as many as 7 wins.

Florange44

If changing the offense was such a dumb idea between 2013 - 2014, isn't Lester doing the exact same thing?

I'm not saying that Lester shouldn't but if it's a dumb idea when the OC everyone hates did it, isn't it a dumb idea now?

 

[Orangepace]

I believe Hunt will have a solid year. He is experienced. He will have a system that fits, he will be more healthy. I really believe he will pass for 2300 and run for 400.

I hope Hunt matured this past season. If so, I could see him being a very quality college QB this coming season and winning some games for SU. I'm always nervous though that he can't keep his cool and make mature decisions.. reflecting on his five-hand discount issue and his throwing a punch in the Villanova game.

The injuries were horrific but that point does not explain Villanova. The only explanation for Villanova was that the team was not prepared correctly and not clear and confident in what they were doing.

I agree with you mostly, but a few points I want to make. It was the first game of the season, so teams typically are rusty for the 1st half at least. I can write that off to getting back into the swing of things.. you wish it clicks from the first whistle, but 'Cuse wasn't prepared for that 'Nova QB and his mobility. I truly believe that if Hunt is there for the second half of that Villanova game, SU wins by 21+. Such a bad move him losing his head. He CANNOT do that this year, because without him, SU is looking at another 3-4 win season.

That all said, I'm thinking he matured a bunch sitting in the box with Lester last season. If so, SU is going bowling. Count it.

 

[money3189]

Two words RED ZONE. Our per play and per sustained drive yardage wasn't bad last year. Between the 20s we moved the ball in mid level clips.

Our red zone efficiency was bad, really bad.
We were 87th of 128 for overall red zone scoring conversions. Thanks to our Kickers.
We were 127 out of 128 in Touchdown Red Zone conversions! (CFBSTATS)

We need to practice the HELL out of our redzone package. We need to have a team that hits the field absolutely confident in automatic TD from inside the 20. That is what will make this team dangerous.

I didnt like what I saw from the redzone stuff in the Elmhurst film's. Lots of wildcat with his star RB. Thats not going to be the answer for our redzone issues. I would hope Lester has something different in mind at SU.

 

[tep624]

If changing the offense was such a dumb idea between 2013 - 2014, isn't Lester doing the exact same thing?

I'm not saying that Lester shouldn't but if it's a dumb idea when the OC everyone hates did it, isn't it a dumb idea now?

McDonald changed it in a complicated direction from a more simplified version. Lester is supposedly doing the opposite.

 

[javadoc]

If changing the offense was such a dumb idea between 2013 - 2014, isn't Lester doing the exact same thing?

I'm not saying that Lester shouldn't but if it's a dumb idea when the OC everyone hates did it, isn't it a dumb idea now?

Not if it's moving back to something that the personnel is more comfortable with. Not if it's moving to something simpler. "Changing the offense" means more than changing the playbook. Is Lester's scheme something the players are more comfortable with, and closer to what we were running in 2013? I dunno. Based on multiple comments it does seem like it will be simpler, though.

I also like a few tidbits dropped. Someone on here said that during spring ball the defense had real problems defending the offense and that some of the D coaches were getting rather frustrated. There was a quote this past week (I believe) from someone in the program about how it took the defense about two weeks to figure out what to do against the O. I like the congruence between those tidbits.

 

[Orangepace]

I didnt like what I saw from the redzone stuff in the Elmhurst film's. Lots of wildcat with his star RB. Thats not going to be the answer for our redzone issues. I would hope Lester has something different in mind at SU.

I hope that we are all arguing at midseason about the constant use of the wildcat in the redzone. Well, at least compared to, "Why the hell did we just run a pistol formation toss wide to Ameen-Moore in our own endzone?!?!"

 

[tep624]

I can assume that you have no clue as to how tightly orchestrated blocking schemes are. An OL is like a Ferrari engine; one little thing goes out of whack, and the whole engine turns to crap. It's not a "plug and play" kind of thing. From what I can see, there wasn't a 2-3 game time frame where the OL didn't change. And the guys coming back from injuries weren't even close to 100%.

Ironically, we ran into the same situation in 2011 which was our other "dent" in the rebuilding of the program as far as W/L's. We started out 5-2 that year, had a pretty impressive win over a top 20 WVU team, then lost the next 7. A big part of that was playing guys on the D line that were capable of playing, but weren't near 100%. Marinovich is the poster child for that. We had serious , upper classman depth issues on that team due to the purging that Marrone did when he took over the program. It was very similar to how our situation played out at QB and OL last season.

 

[OrangePA]

Yep. Like it's been said - Marrone great game planner, very very average recruiter.

Give him the ACC, the IPF and more time with the upgraded Football Offices and Marrone would have been fine.

He was regarded as a very good recruiter while in Georgia.

 

[TheCusian]

Give him the ACC, the IPF and more time with the upgraded Football Offices and Marrone would have been fine. He was regarded as a very good recruiter while in Georgia.

Could be. We'll never know.

 

[qdawgg]

McDonald changed it in a complicated direction from a more simplified version. Lester is supposedly doing the opposite.

Not if it's moving back to something that the personnel is more comfortable with. Not if it's moving to something simpler. "Changing the offense" means more than changing the playbook. Is Lester's scheme something the players are more comfortable with, and closer to what we were running in 2013? I dunno. Based on multiple comments it does seem like it will be simpler, though.

I also like a few tidbits dropped. Someone on here said that during spring ball the defense had real problems defending the offense and that some of the D coaches were getting rather frustrated. There was a quote this past week (I believe) from someone in the program about how it took the defense about two weeks to figure out what to do against the O. I like the congruence between those tidbits.

Excellent points and I agree.

 

[money3189]

Not if it's moving back to something that the personnel is more comfortable with. Not if it's moving to something simpler. "Changing the offense" means more than changing the playbook. Is Lester's scheme something the players are more comfortable with, and closer to what we were running in 2013? I dunno. Based on multiple comments it does seem like it will be simpler, though.

I also like a few tidbits dropped. Someone on here said that during spring ball the defense had real problems defending the offense and that some of the D coaches were getting rather frustrated. There was a quote this past week (I believe) from someone in the program about how it took the defense about two weeks to figure out what to do against the O. I like the congruence between those tidbits.

Yes I heard that about the defense too. Also another thing I think we should keep in mind and this was also mentioned somewhere else but the offensive line didnt cut block at all during the spring game. Not sure if they did it all spring. Lester relies on that. Those Elmhurst films showed a lot of backside cut blocks that opened huge gaps for the RB's to run through.

 

[Orange4]

Give him the ACC, the IPF and more time with the upgraded Football Offices and Marrone would have been fine.

He was regarded as a very good recruiter while in Georgia.

Yep plus Marrone and Shafer took very, very different approaches at recruiting. Marrone was much more business like and had his assistants do all the recruiting with him having final say. Shafer takes more of the family approach and is much much more hands on in recruiting.

 

[SoBristol]

...

I also like a few tidbits dropped. Someone on here said that during spring ball the defense had real problems defending the offense and that some of the D coaches were getting rather frustrated. There was a quote this past week (I believe) from someone in the program about how it took the defense about two weeks to figure out what to do against the O. I like the congruence between those tidbits.

Keep in mind, though, that the defense lost its 3 best DBs, both outside line-backers, two veteran DEs, and several DTs who played in the rotation. The D coaches view this as a transition year. In comparison, the offense has returning starters in most spots. Maybe the new scheme was tricky; and maybe the new guys on defense needed a couple of weeks to find their roles.

Having said that, I am more optimistic than most that Hunt will lead the offense, that Lester will be OK, Palmer & Roberts will be adequate, and guys like Ishmael & Phillips will be legit. Not banking on fooling ACC defenses with fancy schemes as much as expecting the offense to settle down with a senior QB who has won some games for us in the past. Our situation at QB in the second half of last season is not something we want to repeat, ever.

 

[SoBristol]

Ironically, we ran into the same situation in 2011 which was our other "dent" in the rebuilding of the program as far as W/L's. We started out 5-2 that year, had a pretty impressive win over a top 20 WVU team, then lost the next 7. A big part of that was playing guys on the D line that were capable of playing, but weren't near 100%. Marinovich is the poster child for that. We had serious , upper classman depth issues on that team due to the purging that Marrone did when he took over the program. It was very similar to how our situation played out at QB and OL last season.

Yes, and the secondary was banged up by mid-season 2011 with hand and shoulder injuries all around. The defense tried but was just worn out.

The difference in 2014 though is that the QB and OT issues were foreseeable. It was evident there was no ready back-up behind Hunt, and no capable OT behind Hickey and Foy. I imagine there are programs that would have worked the JUCOs in October - November 2013, knowing that the roster had these holes. Shafer is not high on JUCOs per his comments, but a lot of programs go that route (Louisville, K-State, Mississippi State).

 

[tep624]

Yes, and the secondary was banged up by mid-season 2011 with hand and shoulder injuries all around. The defense tried but was just worn out.

The difference in 2014 though is that the QB and OT issues were foreseeable. It was evident there was no ready back-up behind Hunt, and no capable OT behind Hickey and Foy. I imagine there are programs that would have worked the JUCOs in October - November 2013, knowing that the roster had these holes. Shafer is not high on JUCOs per his comments, but a lot of programs go that route (Louisville, K-State, Mississippi State).

Yeah but at QB and OT, in order to really have guys that are going to be quality starters, you have to go after the elite JUCO's. And there is a very small quantity of those guys available. They did go after Chad Mavety really hard and he would have been perfect but he chose Florida State and his second place school was probably Ohio State.

RB/DB/LB would be a different story because they are far more quality JUCO prospects at those positions than there are at OT and QB.

 

[baggerbob]

I didnt like what I saw from the redzone stuff in the Elmhurst film's. Lots of wildcat with his star RB. Thats not going to be the answer for our redzone issues. I would hope Lester has something different in mind at SU.

We better see Custis, and Enoicy in the red zone packages, get one coming across the middle, the other in the corner of the end zone for a jump ball opportunity.

 

[Full_Rebar]

I didnt like what I saw from the redzone stuff in the Elmhurst film's. Lots of wildcat with his star RB. Thats not going to be the answer for our redzone issues. I would hope Lester has something different in mind at SU.

I wonder if it's like last year's red-zone offense, which seemed to feature runs for Hunt. I remember comments last year from both OC's about how the injury really hurt the red-zone packages they had because the other Qb's couldn't run them.

 

[qdawgg]

Yep plus Marrone and Shafer took very, very different approaches at recruiting. Marrone was much more business like and had his assistants do all the recruiting with him having final say. Shafer takes more of the family approach and is much much more hands on in recruiting.

Revisionist history. Amazing how the story of recruiting under Marrone has been so distorted. Clearly people have created their own history of recruiting under Marrone but never followed it.

I'll say it again, read the comments from the recruits when they were being recruited. We heard all the same words and phrases then, that we do now.

- Family atmosphere
- Easy to talk to
- Coaches care about them
- My parents really got a great feeling from him (yes, even Dougie)

 

[money3189]

Revisionist history. Amazing how the story of recruiting under Marrone has been so distorted. Clearly people have created their own history of recruiting under Marrone but never followed it.

I'll say it again, read the comments from the recruits when they were being recruited. We heard all the same words and phrases then, that we do now.

- Family atmosphere
- Easy to talk to
- Coaches care about them
- My parents really got a great feeling from him (yes, even Dougie)

Yeah I think there's a misconception that Marrone wasnt a good recruiter because he wasnt on twitter and he doesnt have the personality of Shafer. There are many great head coach's who recruit well with Marrone business style. You dont have to have phrases like orange revolution and hardnosed to win over recruits. Cutcliffe comes to mind. He's doing great bringing in talent.

 

[TheCusian]

Yeah I think there's a misconception that Marrone wasnt a good recruiter because he wasnt on twitter and he doesnt have the personality of Shafer. There are many great head coach's who recruit well with Marrone business style. You dont have to have phrases like orange revolution and hardnosed to win over recruits. Cutcliffe comes to mind. He's doing great bringing in talent.

I think Marrone didn't like it much. That translates. I think he valued game planning and experience over youthful enthusiasm and the ability to relate (trade off is clear).

I don't think Twitter hashtags do a thing - I think that Shafer gets CFB better than Doug and that it translates pretty clearly to recruiting. Business works better with NFL guys.

 

[TheCusian]

Revisionist history. Amazing how the story of recruiting under Marrone has been so distorted. Clearly people have created their own history of recruiting under Marrone but never followed it. I'll say it again, read the comments from the recruits when they were being recruited. We heard all the same words and phrases then, that we do now. - Family atmosphere - Easy to talk to - Coaches care about them - My parents really got a great feeling from him (yes, even Dougie)

This isn't revisionist. He didn't like it and thought he could coach lesser talent to more wins (which he did). The truth is is the numbers. I think people are underrating Shafer and co because of the IPF and ACC - they are solid recruiters. If this season goes well, we'll see a really, really good 2017 class.

 

[money3189]

I think Marrone didn't like it much. That translates. I think he valued game planning and experience over youthful enthusiasm and the ability to relate (trade off is clear).

I don't think Twitter hashtags do a thing - I think that Shafer gets CFB better than Doug and that it translates pretty clearly to recruiting. Business works better with NFL guys.

your right, he probably had a higher emphasis on game planning and experience but just because he doesnt show enthusiam doesnt mean he's not as good of a recruiter. Give him the ACC and the IPF now and see what he would do.