sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
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Ouch. That hurt to watch.
Props to Wake. They had a good game plan. Clawson is a solid coach. They don’t do anything flashy on offense and lack star power, but year after year, they play well and are tough to beat. One big reason is that they rarely beat themselves. Not sure where they stand this year but I bet they are last or 2nd to last in the conference in penalties. I bet they are similar in terms of turnovers. It really stands out when we play them given how miserable we are, year after year, at making self inflicted penalties.
The lack of discipline is constant. It has been from day one of the Dino era and it shows no signs of improving. I used to think a lot of it was just a necessary part of running a really high tempo offense. But Wake runs their offense really fast too and has none of the problems we have. And frankly, you don’t have to watch this program long to see that many of the penalties have nothing to do with tempo. We have issues with our talent level, with our depth level and our discipline. I think we will eventually get to a mediocre level of talent and depth in the ACC. I have my doubts these days whether we will ever get where we need to on discipline. It was good to see Taj get suspended for a game for his gesture to the camera. I think the players need to see more examples of what happens when you do repeatedly do things that hurt the team,
To me, it looked like our team played most of the game like they were sleep walking. Players seemed to be playing half hearted, almost like they were going through drills. No sense of urgency or emotion. Very weird. Hartman seemed to have unlimited time to throw on every passing play. On running plays, SU defenders looked content to let Hartman stand in the backfield for a few seconds and handoff or run...they just seemed to stay in there positions and wait for something to happen. Is this what a normal 3-3-5 defense is supposed to do? We rushed 3 almost all game long. Rarely blitzed. Still had horrible problems covering the undistinguished Wake receivers. Very disappointing.
For what seems like the hundredth game in a row, the defense had to be on the field most of the game and got badly worn down in the second half. Boy, our offense is horrible at running sustained drives.
To me, the one shining spot on defense was Garrett Williams, who continues to make big plays all over the field. He often makes tackles on plays run 25 or 30 yards from where he is supposed to be. The kid plays the game the right way. I wish some of the others were more like him. Sweetwood got picked on a lot and burned a far amount. Right now he is undersized and a step too slow. Hanna is way too skinny but seems to be in the place a lot. Labrosse got a lot of PT for the first time and it looked like it was his first time playing a lot. He is a fine athlete and I think he will get a lot better over time.
We obviously really missed Trill. Our LBs are going to be fine players some day but right now, a lot of the time they are physically overmatched and overpowered. Lots of mental mistakes too. Hopefully they will learn from all the mistakes down the road.
Rex had some nice moments. He is a tough kid and I am sure he tried his best. Hard to criticize him. To me, it looked like Wake allowed us to complete short routes to the flat early in the game but slowly tightened coverage as it became evident we were going to keep doing this indefinitely. They started to jump our routes and got some picks and some other near picks. Disappointed we did not make adjustments when they did this. That is what good offenses do.
Rex doesn’t have a really strong or really accurate arm, so when those short passes to the sides are taken away, he doesn’t have much left to take advantage of. When our receivers are covered or the rush comes in hard, he lacks the speed and strength to get a first down on a broken play. There is so little margin for error with the offense now. One run stuffed behind the LOS, one incompletion, one penalty...it seems the minute something goes wrong, the drive is over.
Props to Lutz, who today looked like he belonged on the field against a pretty good defense. He plays hard, he is tough and is a football player. Looks like one of our best blockers, is a fine receiver out of the backfield, makes good choices in space...there is a lot to like here. I still think he is best suited to playing in the slot, and maybe he gets moved back there against next year, but if he stays at RB, I think his role is as a 3rd down specialist, where his blocking ability picking up blitzes and his abilities to run and catch passes really fit the bill.
I wouldn’t go crazy over Morgan. Note that when he came in, Clawson subbed out the first team defense. It is a different world playing against the second string. I am glad Jacobian did well out there but I don’t think it means much given the leve of the defense he was playing against. Still it was good to see. I liked his mobility and his vision finding someone open on the run. It has been a while since we had a QB who could do that. Yes, it looks like his throwing motion is funky and I am not sure just how strong his arm is right now. We have to finish out the season. It is clear that Rex is not going to lead us to a bunch of wins. I am okay seeing what one of the kids can do with the playing time that remains.
Nyk continues to do well returning punts and KOs. Cooney has been excellent all year at punting and kicking off. Our long snapper, Aaron Bolinsky, has been solid all year. Kpogba looks to me to have the most raw talent of all of the LBs (though he is not playing a lot right now). That play where Richards faked an injury was really bad. Someone get him some acting lesions.
Hopefully the decision to sit Tucker will allow him to play the rest of the season at or close to 100%. While Lutz did well (especially running outside), Tucker is first team now for a reason.
You know I am kind of down on this team when I start doing this in October. Let’s talk a little bit about next season.
I think we are going to be good on the OL. I expect Vet will move to OT. He and Bergeon will probably start, though I haven’t given up hope Servais comes back for one more season. He has played hurt all season and it has to hurt his evaluations for pro ball. Hoping he wants to come back, maybe finish his master’s and see what he can do playing at 100% all year. Anthony Red will battle for a starting spot at OT and might be a big X factor there.
I think Bleich and D Davis will probably start at OG and Ilaoa or Froumy at C. Tisdale and whoever does not win the starting job at C should be capable backups.
I think we will be much improved at WR, where we will actually be among the better units in the conference. Hoping Nykeim decides to come back for one more year. We are good at OWR but need someone else in the slot. Lutz or Jordan would also be well suited here, I think.
At RB, we could have Tucker, Jordan, maybe Howard, Lutz and Hough. Personally, I would love to see Tucker and Hough featured here and have Jordan and Lutz split out at the slot. Lots of talent, quite a bit of experience and a nice range of skill sets.
The big concern for the offense is at QB. I am very confident Tommy will have what he needs to be successful. We should have a fine OL, loaded with experience and some pretty solid talent. We will have a bevy of receivers to throw to, including Benson at TE (and maybe even Hackett too!). A man can dream. But there are a couple of kids with athletic ability and size in the wings in case he decides he is done. No reason we can have a really good offense. If Tommy decides he has had enough and wants to go elsewhere, hey, I understand and wish him the best. Regardless, we have to bring in a transfer and I think with the scheme and the talent we have returning, this is a situation a lot of talented transfers will be vert interested in. This is one of those areas that has to be addressed. We have to add an experienced QB. Hopefully it happens soon. Would love to see the transfer QB arrive for the spring semester. Ideally, it will be a senior who can battle it out with Tommy, and hand things over to Justin for 2022.
I like our young LBs and secondary. We should be pretty well set there for the next couple of years. The only questions are defense are on the DL. Hope to see us bring in a couple DTs and maybe a DE or two. Better still, hope to see McKinley announce he is staying for another year to work on his masters and to get a bit bigger and stronger. Another free year of education is a very good thing.
Better times are coming. Be patient. War Damn Otto and full speed ahead!
Props to Wake. They had a good game plan. Clawson is a solid coach. They don’t do anything flashy on offense and lack star power, but year after year, they play well and are tough to beat. One big reason is that they rarely beat themselves. Not sure where they stand this year but I bet they are last or 2nd to last in the conference in penalties. I bet they are similar in terms of turnovers. It really stands out when we play them given how miserable we are, year after year, at making self inflicted penalties.
The lack of discipline is constant. It has been from day one of the Dino era and it shows no signs of improving. I used to think a lot of it was just a necessary part of running a really high tempo offense. But Wake runs their offense really fast too and has none of the problems we have. And frankly, you don’t have to watch this program long to see that many of the penalties have nothing to do with tempo. We have issues with our talent level, with our depth level and our discipline. I think we will eventually get to a mediocre level of talent and depth in the ACC. I have my doubts these days whether we will ever get where we need to on discipline. It was good to see Taj get suspended for a game for his gesture to the camera. I think the players need to see more examples of what happens when you do repeatedly do things that hurt the team,
To me, it looked like our team played most of the game like they were sleep walking. Players seemed to be playing half hearted, almost like they were going through drills. No sense of urgency or emotion. Very weird. Hartman seemed to have unlimited time to throw on every passing play. On running plays, SU defenders looked content to let Hartman stand in the backfield for a few seconds and handoff or run...they just seemed to stay in there positions and wait for something to happen. Is this what a normal 3-3-5 defense is supposed to do? We rushed 3 almost all game long. Rarely blitzed. Still had horrible problems covering the undistinguished Wake receivers. Very disappointing.
For what seems like the hundredth game in a row, the defense had to be on the field most of the game and got badly worn down in the second half. Boy, our offense is horrible at running sustained drives.
To me, the one shining spot on defense was Garrett Williams, who continues to make big plays all over the field. He often makes tackles on plays run 25 or 30 yards from where he is supposed to be. The kid plays the game the right way. I wish some of the others were more like him. Sweetwood got picked on a lot and burned a far amount. Right now he is undersized and a step too slow. Hanna is way too skinny but seems to be in the place a lot. Labrosse got a lot of PT for the first time and it looked like it was his first time playing a lot. He is a fine athlete and I think he will get a lot better over time.
We obviously really missed Trill. Our LBs are going to be fine players some day but right now, a lot of the time they are physically overmatched and overpowered. Lots of mental mistakes too. Hopefully they will learn from all the mistakes down the road.
Rex had some nice moments. He is a tough kid and I am sure he tried his best. Hard to criticize him. To me, it looked like Wake allowed us to complete short routes to the flat early in the game but slowly tightened coverage as it became evident we were going to keep doing this indefinitely. They started to jump our routes and got some picks and some other near picks. Disappointed we did not make adjustments when they did this. That is what good offenses do.
Rex doesn’t have a really strong or really accurate arm, so when those short passes to the sides are taken away, he doesn’t have much left to take advantage of. When our receivers are covered or the rush comes in hard, he lacks the speed and strength to get a first down on a broken play. There is so little margin for error with the offense now. One run stuffed behind the LOS, one incompletion, one penalty...it seems the minute something goes wrong, the drive is over.
Props to Lutz, who today looked like he belonged on the field against a pretty good defense. He plays hard, he is tough and is a football player. Looks like one of our best blockers, is a fine receiver out of the backfield, makes good choices in space...there is a lot to like here. I still think he is best suited to playing in the slot, and maybe he gets moved back there against next year, but if he stays at RB, I think his role is as a 3rd down specialist, where his blocking ability picking up blitzes and his abilities to run and catch passes really fit the bill.
I wouldn’t go crazy over Morgan. Note that when he came in, Clawson subbed out the first team defense. It is a different world playing against the second string. I am glad Jacobian did well out there but I don’t think it means much given the leve of the defense he was playing against. Still it was good to see. I liked his mobility and his vision finding someone open on the run. It has been a while since we had a QB who could do that. Yes, it looks like his throwing motion is funky and I am not sure just how strong his arm is right now. We have to finish out the season. It is clear that Rex is not going to lead us to a bunch of wins. I am okay seeing what one of the kids can do with the playing time that remains.
Nyk continues to do well returning punts and KOs. Cooney has been excellent all year at punting and kicking off. Our long snapper, Aaron Bolinsky, has been solid all year. Kpogba looks to me to have the most raw talent of all of the LBs (though he is not playing a lot right now). That play where Richards faked an injury was really bad. Someone get him some acting lesions.
Hopefully the decision to sit Tucker will allow him to play the rest of the season at or close to 100%. While Lutz did well (especially running outside), Tucker is first team now for a reason.
You know I am kind of down on this team when I start doing this in October. Let’s talk a little bit about next season.
I think we are going to be good on the OL. I expect Vet will move to OT. He and Bergeon will probably start, though I haven’t given up hope Servais comes back for one more season. He has played hurt all season and it has to hurt his evaluations for pro ball. Hoping he wants to come back, maybe finish his master’s and see what he can do playing at 100% all year. Anthony Red will battle for a starting spot at OT and might be a big X factor there.
I think Bleich and D Davis will probably start at OG and Ilaoa or Froumy at C. Tisdale and whoever does not win the starting job at C should be capable backups.
I think we will be much improved at WR, where we will actually be among the better units in the conference. Hoping Nykeim decides to come back for one more year. We are good at OWR but need someone else in the slot. Lutz or Jordan would also be well suited here, I think.
At RB, we could have Tucker, Jordan, maybe Howard, Lutz and Hough. Personally, I would love to see Tucker and Hough featured here and have Jordan and Lutz split out at the slot. Lots of talent, quite a bit of experience and a nice range of skill sets.
The big concern for the offense is at QB. I am very confident Tommy will have what he needs to be successful. We should have a fine OL, loaded with experience and some pretty solid talent. We will have a bevy of receivers to throw to, including Benson at TE (and maybe even Hackett too!). A man can dream. But there are a couple of kids with athletic ability and size in the wings in case he decides he is done. No reason we can have a really good offense. If Tommy decides he has had enough and wants to go elsewhere, hey, I understand and wish him the best. Regardless, we have to bring in a transfer and I think with the scheme and the talent we have returning, this is a situation a lot of talented transfers will be vert interested in. This is one of those areas that has to be addressed. We have to add an experienced QB. Hopefully it happens soon. Would love to see the transfer QB arrive for the spring semester. Ideally, it will be a senior who can battle it out with Tommy, and hand things over to Justin for 2022.
I like our young LBs and secondary. We should be pretty well set there for the next couple of years. The only questions are defense are on the DL. Hope to see us bring in a couple DTs and maybe a DE or two. Better still, hope to see McKinley announce he is staying for another year to work on his masters and to get a bit bigger and stronger. Another free year of education is a very good thing.
Better times are coming. Be patient. War Damn Otto and full speed ahead!
