Its time for Wildhack to step up

[Cusefan0307]

“Should have kept Shafer as DC”-serious tweet I saw from a fellow alum yesterday.

 

[qdawgg]

Agree to disagree, pass D being better is pointless when the rush D is one of the worst in America. Were talking about a Pitt team that was annihilated by PSU and scored one offensive TD against UCF. This was a Shafer esque performance.

This is why I'm staying pessimistic until the year plays out. The Pitt game is not the only game like this.

Last year:
56 - 10 loss to UL
42 - 14 loss to BC
64 - 43 loss to a not very good WF team with serious injuries too

2016:
62 - 28 loss to UL
45 - 20 loss to south florida
28 - 9 loss to WF
54 - 0 loss to Clemson
45 - 14 to FSU

 

[OrangeDW]

“Should have kept Shafer as DC”-serious tweet I saw from a fellow alum yesterday.

Lol.

Yeah, because fired head coaches ALWAYS stay on as coordinators when the next regime comes in.

 

[orange79]

Lol.

Yeah, because fired head coaches ALWAYS stay on as coordinators when the next regime comes in.

Hey - it's a job.

 

[SoBristol]

This is why I'm staying pessimistic until the year plays out. The Pitt game is not the only game like this.

Last year:
56 - 10 loss to UL
42 - 14 loss to BC
64 - 43 loss to a not very good WF team with serious injuries too

2016:
62 - 28 loss to UL
45 - 20 loss to south florida
28 - 9 loss to WF
54 - 0 loss to Clemson
45 - 14 to FSU

Does being pessimistic bring you joy? Let's flip this around. The 2018 team looks different and better (though it has some obvious soft spots). Its only losses were to Clemson (away) by 4 points and to Pitt (away) in OT. In both cases, the opponent had to score last, as SU was ahead into Q4. The games you list we clear blow-out losses -- not like yesterday.

 

[OrangeDW]

This is why I'm staying pessimistic until the year plays out. The Pitt game is not the only game like this.

Last year:
56 - 10 loss to UL
42 - 14 loss to BC
64 - 43 loss to a not very good WF team with serious injuries too

2016:
62 - 28 loss to UL
45 - 20 loss to south florida
28 - 9 loss to WF
54 - 0 loss to Clemson
45 - 14 to FSU

And this year we have two last second losses...

So what do those blowouts have to do with anything now? We’re clearly getting better.

 

[Cusefan0307]

This is why I'm staying pessimistic until the year plays out. The Pitt game is not the only game like this.

Last year:
56 - 10 loss to UL
42 - 14 loss to BC
64 - 43 loss to a not very good WF team with serious injuries too

2016:
62 - 28 loss to UL
45 - 20 loss to south florida
28 - 9 loss to WF
54 - 0 loss to Clemson
45 - 14 to FSU

Coach P got blown out by a 4-7 Minnesota team with 10 NFL players on his roster.

 

[MadNY3]

“Should have kept Shafer as DC”-serious tweet I saw from a fellow alum yesterday.

Nooooo!

 

[qdawgg]

Does being pessimistic bring you joy? Let's flip this around. The 2018 team looks different and better (though it has some obvious soft spots). Its only losses were to Clemson (away) by 4 points and to Pitt (away) in OT. In both cases, the opponent had to score last, as SU was ahead into Q4. The games you list we clear blow-out losses -- not like yesterday.

You're missing the point. It has nothing to do with being pessimistic just to be pessimistic. Pessimistic is probably not the right choice of words. I'm just not going to buy into the "we are a 8 - 10 win team" without any proof of that. This years team did look better overall but last years team looked better than 2016's team and still finished with the same record.

I don't think we're going to finish with the same record as the last 2 years but I have no idea what this staff is capable of doing here. A win and down to the wire games against Clemson are nice feel good games but don't mean much if you win 4 - 5 games a season. I'd rather consistently win 6 - 8 than win 4 with Clemson one of those 4 wins. I just have no idea where we are headed.

Some of the same people complaining we need another year or two to build depth before we can really judge anything are the ones who previously touted all of Shafer's recruiting classes and defensive prowess when he was the HC. That's just Rutgers Al (ish) logic. There's nothing wrong with having a wait and see approach to the rest of the season. This staff just hasn't show yet that it can win consistently nor has it shown it possibly can't. I'm just going to wait and see. We should be at 6 wins this year, if we aren't, I will be pretty disappointed.

 

[CuseLegacy]

You're missing the point. It has nothing to do with being pessimistic just to be pessimistic. Pessimistic is probably not the right choice of words. I'm just not going to buy into the "we are a 8 - 10 win team" without any proof of that. This years team did look better overall but last years team looked better than 2016's team and still finished with the same record.

I don't think we're going to finish with the same record as the last 2 years but I have no idea what this staff is capable of doing here. A win and down to the wire games against Clemson are nice feel good games but don't mean much if you win 4 - 5 games a season. I'd rather consistently win 6 - 8 than win 4 with Clemson one of those 4 wins. I just have no idea where we are headed.

Some of the same people complaining we need another year or two to build depth before we can really judge anything are the ones who previously touted all of Shafer's recruiting classes and defensive prowess when he was the HC. That's just Rutgers Al (ish) logic. There's nothing wrong with having a wait and see approach to the rest of the season. This staff just hasn't show yet that it can win consistently nor has it shown it possibly can't. I'm just going to wait and see. We should be at 6 wins this year, if we aren't, I will be pretty disappointed.

When you see true freshman playing, when most teams prefer the luxury of redshirting, it should be obvious that there is still a depth issue and recruiting hasn't caught up yet.

 

[MadNY3]

When you see true freshman playing, when most teams prefer the luxury of redshirting, it should be obvious that there is still a depth issue and recruiting hasn't caught up yet.

But that’s not happening at LB and our experience on OL/DL is massively strong. Sigh...

 

[JeremyCuse]

So...we want Wildhack to lock in Babers right now oh my god what’s taking him so long?????!

AND

Throw down the hammer and tell Babers, who literally changed everything down to the strength and conditioning coach who presided during five different HCs what coaches to fire.

Have people who’ve post here ever managed people before?

Whose demanding an extension? ADs "request" coordinator change all the time. People here dont realize how bad a loss that was yesterday, Pitt is a bad team with zero pass game and we had zero answer when it mattered. I like Babers a lot and this team is clearly light years better then when he first took over but people are whistling past the graveyard on how bad that loss was yesterday.

 

[PhatOrange]

This is why I'm staying pessimistic until the year plays out. The Pitt game is not the only game like this.

Last year:
56 - 10 loss to UL
42 - 14 loss to BC
64 - 43 loss to a not very good WF team with serious injuries too

2016:
62 - 28 loss to UL
45 - 20 loss to south florida
28 - 9 loss to WF
54 - 0 loss to Clemson
45 - 14 to FSU

Considering how bad the talent was none of that really means much to me. The guy has been a defensive coordinator his entire life. I’d be more interested in knowing what all his defenses have done. I’d say that gives a more complete picture.

I think it’s also important to note that none of these up tempo spread offenses have, to my knowledge, been paired with a steel curtain defense. these teams always give up a lot of points just look at the big 12. Texas Oklahoma yesterday was 48-45.

 

[qdawgg]

When you see true freshman playing, when most teams prefer the luxury of redshirting, it should be obvious that there is still a depth issue and recruiting hasn't caught up yet.

I don’t disagree with you. My response isn’t just because of this game and I think my point is being lost because people are taking offense to others being upset about this game.

My main point is; we had winnable games last year and were still a 4 win team. We have to be able to win more of the games we should if we are going even be a consistent 6 win team. This staff hasn’t proven they can do that here, yet. I’m not implying they won’t. I’m glad HCDB is here but for me personally, he hasn’t shown me that we are much better at the end of the year than we were for the last 10+ years. Do we look better, sure. Stats say we are. Stats also said Pitt had no business being in the game yesterday. We have broken all sorts of offensive records in 2-3 yrs. Thise things are meaningless right now because an awesome offense with 4 win season still sucks. Even if it looks pretty. So I’m just not sure what to think about how the rest of the season plays out. So I’m just being slightly pessimistic, cautious, whatever you want to call it. I’m not calling for anyone’s head but another 4-5 win season this year would be telling.

 

[SoBristol]

When you see true freshman playing, when most teams prefer the luxury of redshirting, it should be obvious that there is still a depth issue and recruiting hasn't caught up yet.

I hope we always have a handful of true freshmen good enough to play. It is a sign that recruiting is heading up. We actually don't have that many - Cisco is starting, Harris is in the WR rotation, Howard is the #3 RB, and Williams is in the CB rotation behind the starters. Wallace plays on coverage teams.
The real issue for me is that our best guys at WR, LB and RB aren't as good as we need to win consistently.

 

[4the Dubbz]

Clock ticking. There were 5 minutes left when they got the ball and they didn’t care! Just ran it every play, because they knew they could get enough yards to at least tie the game...where they would just run it every play and score TDs because there was no clock.

*Forgot, they took a shot on 3rd and 4 once in FG range so they did throw one pass to break up the string of runs to end the game.

Well there was one 4th down late in the game where he was short of the first down and got home team spot. That would have iced the game. It was awful. I lost my mind when it happened. My neighbors probably think I’m a physcho.

 

[OrangeDW]

Well there was one 4th down late in the game where he was short of the first down and got home team spot. That would have iced the game. It was awful. I lost my mind when it happened. My neighbors probably think I’m a physcho.

I initially thought that, but on replay I thought otherwise.

However they certainly got a favorable spot on that one first down when they were getting close to scoring.

 

[kcsu]

We have a defensive back playing LB.

I thought your basketball recruiting posts were bad...Yikes.

And why is that?

 

[orange44]

Perhaps it’s not a matter of firing ward. The linebackers are struggling and the defense is struggling. Maybe it’s as simple as Dino and ward getting someone to handle the linebackers and he just goes back to focusing on d coordinator. Maybe he is stretched to thin with an inexperienced group of linebackers to do both. I’ve said a few times this year him running the same three into the ground is going to see these results. You have to put in the back ups and give the starters a rest. After the bye week I assume something has to change. Hopefully the guys and shy will be healthy and rested and we can get rolling again.

Totally agree!

 

[MadNY3]

Whose demanding an extension? ADs "request" coordinator change all the time. People here dont realize how bad a loss that was yesterday, Pitt is a bad team with zero pass game and we had zero answer when it mattered. I like Babers a lot and this team is clearly light years better then when he first took over but people are whistling past the graveyard on how bad that loss was yesterday.

People also forget how crappy the program was after SS plowed an emerging program underground.

I don’t think Wildhack has to worry about Babers’ decision on coaches. It’s not a Desko situation here.

 

[JoeSU]

I mean this with all due respect to my admin friends it's time for the AD to demand Babers go in another direction when it comes to the DC. Ward has had some nice showings but the last two weeks are the last straw. Two teams who clearly have zero intention of throwing the ball just absolutely gashing us. If the starters aren't getting it done make a move, there's 10+ lbs on the roster. The last two drives by Pitt were an absolute embarrasement. Zero completed passes and yet they moved the ball at will. Enough with the excuses a change is needed, period.

I am just as frustrated by our inability to stop a power running game. But I hope the Athletic Director doesn't try to micromanage each sports team he oversees... and certainly not in the middle of the season.

 

[Shenexon]

Whose demanding an extension? ADs "request" coordinator change all the time. People here dont realize how bad a loss that was yesterday, Pitt is a bad team with zero pass game and we had zero answer when it mattered. I like Babers a lot and this team is clearly light years better then when he first took over but people are whistling past the graveyard on how bad that loss was yesterday.

"whistling past the graveyard" is an expression I've never heard. Nice...

 

[JeremyCuse]

I am just as frustrated by our inability to stop a power running game. But I hope the Athletic Director doesn't try to micromanage each sports team he oversees... and certainly not in the middle of the season.

It would definitely be an end of the season thing, letting him go now would be pointless. Hopefully we can come up with something over the bye week to shore up the run d, just hard to feel like this wont be a year long issue

 

[Finwad32]

The only situation I could see where an AD would get involved with a team’s personnel is if that coach did something illegal/bad.

Any call will be Dino’s call.

 

[Ish88888]

Perhaps it’s not a matter of firing ward. The linebackers are struggling and the defense is struggling. Maybe it’s as simple as Dino and ward getting someone to handle the linebackers and he just goes back to focusing on d coordinator. Maybe he is stretched to thin with an inexperienced group of linebackers to do both. I’ve said a few times this year him running the same three into the ground is going to see these results. You have to put in the back ups and give the starters a rest. After the bye week I assume something has to change. Hopefully the guys and shy will be healthy and rested and we can get rolling again.

Soooooo...ward has been DC and LB coach? Thought we had a dedicated LB coach. Yes, of course he is spread too thin trying to make a D scheme new to cfb work in a tough P5 conference. There are 30 guys on the sideline wearing the same gear as Dino and not one of them is paid to coach a position group of 10 players?