Are we better?

[SURules]

The people that are “too sold” on the offense with Angeli, remember that he wasn’t here for Spring ball and even though he had some degree of significant playing time at ND he still was a relatively inexperienced starter at the beginning of the season. They also remember things clicking for Angeli in the 4th quarter of the UConn game which was only the second game of the season, and that from then on he played well enough to lead the nation in passing. Yes we all know the teams we played, but that’s how most teams start the year.

Angeli got better every game and like you said, things started to click at the end of the UConn game. Hopefully he comes back 100% and now with time in Nixon’s offense now, he can thrive. Angeli was learning the offense on the fly.

 

[sufandu]

Vs. UConn JRS had 5 catches and 2 TD's, including a dandy in the front corner of the end zone in OT.

Oh yeah. I missed that. He had a good game too. I may have incuded him in that other post I made weeks ago. Another "what might have been" had Angei not been hurt.

 

[Oakland]

I saw Connolly’s final S&P rankings today. We finished 115th, only Ok State was worse amongst P4 teams. 4-8 Bowling Green and 4-8 Wyoming were ahead of us. Yes, we will be better

Supposedly, Boone Pickens donated $265 mil to the OKSt athletics in the early 2000s; maybe it wasn’t well spent.

 

[djorange1989]

Supposedly, Boone Pickens donated $265 mil to the OKSt athletics in the early 2000s; maybe it wasn’t well spent.

Yeah it was for a long time but not the last two years for sure

 

[Dcuse]

We should have beaten UNC and BC. As bad as Collins was, why did he not get to play a single down against the only two sub. 500 teams after Angeli got hurt? Might have helped his confidence and given us a better evaluation of some of the younger guys.

Meanwhile, for next year, ND, SMU, and Louisville are already in preseason top 25s. That is 1/2 of our home slate. I think 2026 may end up being tougher schedule than 2025. We are going to need to be better than we were in Games 1-4 in 2025 to get to a bowl.

I was understanding of trying Filardi on Halloween. But running him out there after seeing what you had after that game? My only major criticism of Fran to this point. Obvious to anybody with eyes that Joe was overmatched at this level.

 

[Ozone!]

I believe we are…​

I trust in HCFB and first his new coaching hires are upgrades in player development
I believe many of the new portal players will help us improve
I believe in supporting our coaches and players!

 

[Chip]

I was understanding of trying Filardi on Halloween. But running him out there after seeing what you had after that game? My only major criticism of Fran to this point. Obvious to anybody with eyes that Joe was overmatched at this level.

I wouldn't have run him out there in the 2nd half of UNC. He was something like 1 for 10 at that point. You proved your point that there is something worse than Rickie, so give him the 2nd half.

Rickie was 17/29 for 224, 1 TD, 0 INT the previous week. Rushed for 41 yards. Not great, but still, not the time to go to the lacrosse player either on national TV against Belichick and his improving defense (at the time).

 

[SU94]

The floor was raised

Not eye popping, but raising the floor is absolutely a viable route to improving a football team YoY.

 

[NKR1978]

This year they don’t lose Angeli they win 7 or 8 even with the defense

This schedule is not any harder and harder games are at home

And they were playing really good football when Angeli went down. There's no reason to think that wouldn't have continued. I could see up to 9 wins, but think 8 is more realistic. I'm super optimistic for next season.

 

[NKR1978]

The people that are “too sold” on the offense with Angeli, remember that he wasn’t here for Spring ball and even though he had some degree of significant playing time at ND he still was a relatively inexperienced starter at the beginning of the season. They also remember things clicking for Angeli in the 4th quarter of the UConn game which was only the second game of the season, and that from then on he played well enough to lead the nation in passing. Yes we all know the teams we played, but that’s how most teams start the year.

I can't recall seeing someone go from awful to great so quickly. He was brutal to watch for the first 3/4 of that game and then something really did just click. That was fun.

 

[Archbold44]

The underestimated part of the game is that schools have coaches too. They are not surprised by Nixon's tendencies anymore. Eventually, we might see $100k jobs just to study/scout each of the non-FCS opponents on the schedule next year. Spend all year working on that one school. Why not? What is $1-$1.2 M anymore?

 

[Ttk.gman2]

Yes we got a lot better, especially with coaching

 

[mathgeek444]

And they were playing really good football when Angeli went down. There's no reason to think that wouldn't have continued. I could see up to 9 wins, but think 8 is more realistic. I'm super optimistic for next season.

I raise your "up to 9" with my "at least 9 wins!"

 

[NKR1978]

I raise your "up to 9" with my "at least 9 wins!"

If your name is true, who am I to argue?

 

[tep624]

I wouldn't have run him out there in the 2nd half of UNC. He was something like 1 for 10 at that point. You proved your point that there is something worse than Rickie, so give him the 2nd half.

Rickie was 17/29 for 224, 1 TD, 0 INT the previous week. Rushed for 41 yards. Not great, but still, not the time to go to the lacrosse player either on national TV against Belichick and his improving defense (at the time).

Maybe Filardi was Ethan Cole in practice?

 

[Dick_in_MI]

Maybe Filardi was Ethan Cole in practice?

Or in this case, Mike Powell.

And while we are on the subject, Joe is a long stick. He isn’t used to trying to score. Shouldn’t Gary Gait have given Fran Joey Spallina instead of Joe?

Fran wants a safety? Sure, Filardi is your guy. But we really needed an attack man at QB and this is where we need better communication between football and lacrosse coaches on intersport exchange of players . JW needs to stay on top of coordinating these resources within the Athletic Dept. if you ask me.

It goes both ways as well. Fran can send Gary a goalie. Let the opposition try to score when Gait has a 320 lb offensive lineman hogging up space in front of the net.

 

[OrangeXtreme]

Or in this case, Mike Powell.

And while we are on the subject, Joe is a long stick. He isn’t used to trying to score. Shouldn’t Gary Gait have given Fran Joey Spallina instead of Joe?

Fran wants a safety? Sure, Filardi is your guy. But we really needed an attack man at QB and this is where we need better communication between football and lacrosse coaches on intersport exchange of players . JW needs to stay on top of coordinating these resources within the Athletic Dept. if you ask me.

It goes both ways as well. Fran can send Gary a goalie. Let the opposition try to score when Gait has a 320 lb offensive lineman hogging up space in front of the net.

Joey don't pass.

 

[florange44]

I can't recall seeing someone go from awful to great so quickly. He was brutal to watch for the first 3/4 of that game and then something really did just click. That was fun.

I don’t think something “ clicked”. He got hit in the head early in the UConn game and it took until the 4th quarter for his head to clear so he could play as he had been prior to the hit. JMO.

 

[longtimefan]

Or in this case, Mike Powell.

And while we are on the subject, Joe is a long stick. He isn’t used to trying to score. Shouldn’t Gary Gait have given Fran Joey Spallina instead of Joe?

Fran wants a safety? Sure, Filardi is your guy. But we really needed an attack man at QB and this is where we need better communication between football and lacrosse coaches on intersport exchange of players . JW needs to stay on top of coordinating these resources within the Athletic Dept. if you ask me.

It goes both ways as well. Fran can send Gary a goalie. Let the opposition try to score when Gait has a 320 lb offensive lineman hogging up space in front of the net.

"intersport exchange" sounds vaguely pornographic.

 

[Sdot]

Interesting Graph.

 

[anomander]

Interesting Graph.

I’m assuming they used HS ratings, which really makes our poor performance in this graph useless considering the highly ranked HS kids that didn’t work out that we got in the portal. I think you get a better idea factoring in your portal ranking since those are going to be more accurate after 1-3 years in college. Even though this does show the same schools that you would expect all clumped together at the apex of the graph. That should tell you all you need to know.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Portal is closed now minus some last minute entries needing to be processed. What are everyone’s thoughts? To be honest, I expected a few bigger names. Maybe we were spoiled by Fran’s magic right after he was hired.

I like some pieces we got on defense, productive guys from smaller conferences. I would have preferred we retained our guys on offense, think we got worse at WR. Yasin can be replaced by the committee of guys we brought in.

I don’t know where I stand, but I guess I expected more. Time will tell how it shakes out. Biggest upgrade by far was the coaching staff.

It's really hard to sell 3 wins. I felt like we had to at least get 6 this year.
Now we have to get at least 8 next year, or their sales pitch becomes much harder.

I don't see that much talent, honestly. We will have to coach them much better on the lines this year to be any good. That, and Angeli stays healthy.

 

[IthacaMatt]

Not getting more probably means we couldn’t afford more.

We got 19, I think it is. That's more than last year.

 

[IthacaMatt]

I see what you are saying. But the guys I’m about to list were pretty significant adds that we should be very happy about

1) Odom- we saw last year how important the back up QB is in this offense. Odom was a 1st team all conference player at an FBS school that Missouri wanted too. Great get
2) Weaver- very underrated add here. Weaver was crushing it at Miami (OH) before they lost their starting QB and then everyones production went way down once the back up played (very similar to here) has great size, athletic ability and ball skills
3) Flounoy- we needed some serious help on the inside of the D-line. Good size, very productive player as a freshman at GA St. Will have 3 years here and followed his position coach. Very good get
4) Miller- will be RB1 here opening day. Doesn’t have burner speed but above average speed. He’s MEAN. Can run between the tackles and isn’t afraid of contact. Can catch out of the backfield as well. Was extremely productive at Jackson State. Great add
5) D’Appolonia- followed the DC over. Obviously the DC thinks highly of him. Great size for the position, good speed and coverage ability for the position. Was very productive at Toledo and All-MAC. He is the exact linebacker we needed. Great add
6) Keyshawn Johnson- Probably my favorite add. This kid has game wrecker potential. Was uber productive at his last school and defensive player of the year in his conference. Double digit sacks. A ton of TFLs and Clemson wanted this kid. He has Sunday potential after this year. He is reallllly good. Great get
7) Fontus- great size for the interior of the D-line. Once again a position of huge need. Was a starter at Maryland so comes over with a ton of experience. He’ll be a starter or at the very least the 3rd DT and first off the sideline in the rotation. Doesn’t have huge stats but he’s a big dude and his role is to fill gaps and let linebackers do their things behind him. Which we missed big time last year. Good get
8) Ward- was extremely productive at WKU. He’ll likely be the third corner behind Samuels and Peal. Good size and speed at the position. Good numbers at WKU. Good add
9) Adeleye- was very productive at UNLV. Good sack numbers from last year, good Paso rusher along with Johnson. Adeleye and Johnson are likely our starters at DE this year. Both would have been our best pass rushers if they were on the team this year. He was a wanted man in the portal. Great get
10) Outten- this kid is uber talented at Versatile. He’s different than any receiver we have on the roster. Wouldn’t be shocked if he finishes second or Third in receiving yards by the end of the year. He can be used in multiple ways. He’s also just scratching the surface. He was a big time add. Expect big things from him this year. Great get
11) Meyers- productive at WKU last year. Good size, speed and athleticism for a tight end. If we didn’t get the New Mexico State tight end. This kid was my second favorite we were going after. I think he’s going to be a good part of this offense. He’s good and I think he’ll put up even bigger numbers than he did last year at WKU. Good add

Now the other ones I didn’t list. It doesn’t mean I don’t think they are good. I just see these guys making big impacts THIS YEAR. I think a few of the guys are obviously just depth pieces and we are taking fliers on them. But these 11 I think will be high impact players this year (obviously hopefully Odom is not lol) these 11 guys with what we have coming back….I dont think we are going 10-2 I think 8-4 is realistic. I think our new DC was a huge addition and might win us a game or two himself compared to what we had the last two years. Nixon is just a much better play caller with a competent QB. I think we go 7-5 or 8-4 next year

Although some might find that a little on the optimistic side, you provide a lot of great info to get us excited about. We need to find 15-20 guys for the 2 Deep, between these portal kids and the freshmen / 2nd year kids in the program. Hopefully between them all, we get what we need depth-wise.

 

[sufandu]

I’m assuming they used HS ratings, which really makes our poor performance in this graph useless considering the highly ranked HS kids that didn’t work out that we got in the portal. I think you get a better idea factoring in your portal ranking since those are going to be more accurate after 1-3 years in college. Even though this does show the same schools that you would expect all clumped together at the apex of the graph. That should tell you all you need to know.

Yeah. I don't disagree that Indiana maximized their talent better than anyone, but rating their talent around 75 while we're around 35 can't be at all accurate. Am I supposed to believe that teams like Stanford and Rutgers had more talent than them?