sutomcat
No recent Cali or Iggy awards; Mr Irrelevant
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Couldn't attend the game, but I recorded it and watched later. What follows are my thoughts...
Offense
Tried to have an open mind when it was announced Tim Lester was going to be the OC in 2015. It was concerning to me the way the offense performed in the latter part of the 2014 season, even though I knew most of the best skilled players were hurt, as was most of the OL, as well as most of the QBs. He had little to work with and worst still, he was stuck with an awful mess after McDonald was demoted. The 'system' he attempted to install was even worthy of being called a scheme...as I think everyone knew, even George.
So anyway, given all that and Lester's inexperience as an OC, I was worried about the offense coming into 2015. Was pleasantly surprised that Lester was able to put points on the board and move the ball this season after Hunt went down. The scheme wasn't overly imaginative but it got the job done. Great sign that a true frosh could do reasonably well against decent defenses so early in his career.
Was really excited by how the offense was working last weekend before Dungey got hurt. And then, was back to being concerned after the offense completely collapsed with Dungey out.
And now? I am convinced we have the right guy running our offense. Thought coaching up Mahoney to put up all those first downs and points against a solid, extremely talented LSU defense was a remarkable achievement. Thought the play calling was inspired all game long. He did a great job taking advantage of Mahoney's talents and putting him in a position where he could be successful.
While talking about coaches, wanted to compliment Scott Shafer on playing to win all game long. Loved the uber aggressive play calling. This was his finest hour as SU HC.
Moving on to player evaluations, thought Mahoney did great given his position in the program. The easy thing to do would be to play Wilson, or even Long. Glad he decided to use Zachary and continue to run his base offense. Mahoney had some nice throws. Doesn't have a strong arm but his arm strength isn't bad. Missed on a lot of short and intermediate throws but showed a knack for making his best throws in pressure situations. And the kid runs the option well. Really well.
Thought Fredericks played well. Didn't have a lot of daylight but ran hard and got what he could. Ditto Morris and McFarlane.
Perhaps Lester's biggest mistake this year was giving Shanley the starting job at RG. After 3 disastrous games, he was benched. Trudo's injury was a blessing in disguise, as it showed him to be far more capable than Seamus. I think Emerich is about a draw compared with Trudo at C. Trudo is a better blocker but Emerich is a far better snapper. Meanwhile, RG goes from the weakest link on the OL to the strongest position with Trudo playing there. Though I have to say, Foy is having a nice season at LT.
Anyway, bad misstep with the initial OL chosen, good recovery with the changes made today. Though Palmer played quite well. Robinson always strikes me as a solid run blocker and bad pass blocker.
We used the TE a lot for the first time in a long time. Props to Lester for figuring out this would work and props to Paris for getting open and making some good catches. Good to see. Good to get on tape.
So of all the receivers we talked about in the preseason, we are effectively using Ishmael, Estime, Strickland and Lewis. And Custis in the red zone. It will be great to get Philips back for USF. I wonder if the staff might move Lewis to the slot when Philips returns? It would balance out the units better. Lewis has been productive and solid but his inability to be effective on running plays is becoming a problem.
Let's move to Special Teams next.
Riley Dixon continues to have a great senior season. Playing that well in such a high visibility game better positions him for post season honors. Great play hurdling the LSU defender to get a desperately needed first down. The only down side was the time his booming punt out-kicked the coverage, which helped contribute to the back breaking punt return for a TD. Anyway, great job by Dixon.
Haven't talked enough this season about Ryan Norton and the excellent job he has been doing kicking off. Don't know what he did in the off season, but his kickoffs are much longer and higher than in the past and he has played a key role in getting us good field position do far this season. It is nice to see a senior go out like he is doing.
I haven't run the numbers but I suspect Estime has more yards returning punts after 4 games than anyone has at SU since the days of Coach P. Good to finally have a real threat returning punts. And he is doing well returning KOs too. I am seeing a lot less penalties on the return and coverage teams too, which is very encouraging. Yes, we gave up a punt return for a TD, and it was a key play in the game. But that is going to happen when you face the kind of athletes LSU has.
Let's move on to the defense now.
Fornette was the real deal. Without him, we win this football game. He was worth, IMHO, at least 20 points today. Awesome performance. Hard to justify saying our defense played well given they gave up 27 points and Fornette got almost 250 yards. But...they did.
Thought Thompson was again dominant most of the game. That unsportsmanlike penalty called on him early was BS. He brought a ton of pressure, even making the pas rush a problem when we only brought 3 guys. Simmons had a couple big plays, Arciniega wasn't as successful as last week. Don't like seeing young Clark with a knee brace on and don't like seeing him favoring it. Despite that, I think he us getting more PT and having more success each game. Thought Raymon continues to get better with each game. Slayton and Samuels look like they are Playing reasonably well too.
Franklin did a generally good job blowing up running plays and flying around when they tried to pass the ball. Smart and athletic. Nice combo. Bennett runs as well as any LB we have had in years, he played well and Taylor does a nice job backing him up. Hodge isn't spectacular but he is getting the job done too. Thomas backs him up ably.
That leaves the secondary. I thought Cordy played well and was best defensive back. He made some outstanding tackles in the open field and looked as athletic as the studs LSU trotted out there every play. He is going to make mistakes but is going to turn into a fine player down the line. Williams missed some tackles and was late helping out in pass coverage but he has the speed and ability to be good. Scissum is consistently a step behind but I think he is getting a little better.
At CB, they went after Whigham and had good results. To be fair, LSZu has a couple really talented WRs but the play that lost the gene was when Whigham got beat deep on 3rd and 9 with 11:40 or so to go in the 4th quarter. That can't happen. I think he was supposed to have help from a safety that unfortunately never materialized. Anyway, Julian continues to get beat deep with alarming regularity. Not good. Winfield played better and had a nice open field tackle. Progress. Good to see. Dowels is playing more but he got beat too. Morgan tackled Fournette hen he was running full speed, but didn't play much. This group has to step up their play.
Great effort. I didn't see a lot of injurIes either. Very encouragIng. I lIke this team....
Offense
Tried to have an open mind when it was announced Tim Lester was going to be the OC in 2015. It was concerning to me the way the offense performed in the latter part of the 2014 season, even though I knew most of the best skilled players were hurt, as was most of the OL, as well as most of the QBs. He had little to work with and worst still, he was stuck with an awful mess after McDonald was demoted. The 'system' he attempted to install was even worthy of being called a scheme...as I think everyone knew, even George.
So anyway, given all that and Lester's inexperience as an OC, I was worried about the offense coming into 2015. Was pleasantly surprised that Lester was able to put points on the board and move the ball this season after Hunt went down. The scheme wasn't overly imaginative but it got the job done. Great sign that a true frosh could do reasonably well against decent defenses so early in his career.
Was really excited by how the offense was working last weekend before Dungey got hurt. And then, was back to being concerned after the offense completely collapsed with Dungey out.
And now? I am convinced we have the right guy running our offense. Thought coaching up Mahoney to put up all those first downs and points against a solid, extremely talented LSU defense was a remarkable achievement. Thought the play calling was inspired all game long. He did a great job taking advantage of Mahoney's talents and putting him in a position where he could be successful.
While talking about coaches, wanted to compliment Scott Shafer on playing to win all game long. Loved the uber aggressive play calling. This was his finest hour as SU HC.
Moving on to player evaluations, thought Mahoney did great given his position in the program. The easy thing to do would be to play Wilson, or even Long. Glad he decided to use Zachary and continue to run his base offense. Mahoney had some nice throws. Doesn't have a strong arm but his arm strength isn't bad. Missed on a lot of short and intermediate throws but showed a knack for making his best throws in pressure situations. And the kid runs the option well. Really well.
Thought Fredericks played well. Didn't have a lot of daylight but ran hard and got what he could. Ditto Morris and McFarlane.
Perhaps Lester's biggest mistake this year was giving Shanley the starting job at RG. After 3 disastrous games, he was benched. Trudo's injury was a blessing in disguise, as it showed him to be far more capable than Seamus. I think Emerich is about a draw compared with Trudo at C. Trudo is a better blocker but Emerich is a far better snapper. Meanwhile, RG goes from the weakest link on the OL to the strongest position with Trudo playing there. Though I have to say, Foy is having a nice season at LT.
Anyway, bad misstep with the initial OL chosen, good recovery with the changes made today. Though Palmer played quite well. Robinson always strikes me as a solid run blocker and bad pass blocker.
We used the TE a lot for the first time in a long time. Props to Lester for figuring out this would work and props to Paris for getting open and making some good catches. Good to see. Good to get on tape.
So of all the receivers we talked about in the preseason, we are effectively using Ishmael, Estime, Strickland and Lewis. And Custis in the red zone. It will be great to get Philips back for USF. I wonder if the staff might move Lewis to the slot when Philips returns? It would balance out the units better. Lewis has been productive and solid but his inability to be effective on running plays is becoming a problem.
Let's move to Special Teams next.
Riley Dixon continues to have a great senior season. Playing that well in such a high visibility game better positions him for post season honors. Great play hurdling the LSU defender to get a desperately needed first down. The only down side was the time his booming punt out-kicked the coverage, which helped contribute to the back breaking punt return for a TD. Anyway, great job by Dixon.
Haven't talked enough this season about Ryan Norton and the excellent job he has been doing kicking off. Don't know what he did in the off season, but his kickoffs are much longer and higher than in the past and he has played a key role in getting us good field position do far this season. It is nice to see a senior go out like he is doing.
I haven't run the numbers but I suspect Estime has more yards returning punts after 4 games than anyone has at SU since the days of Coach P. Good to finally have a real threat returning punts. And he is doing well returning KOs too. I am seeing a lot less penalties on the return and coverage teams too, which is very encouraging. Yes, we gave up a punt return for a TD, and it was a key play in the game. But that is going to happen when you face the kind of athletes LSU has.
Let's move on to the defense now.
Fornette was the real deal. Without him, we win this football game. He was worth, IMHO, at least 20 points today. Awesome performance. Hard to justify saying our defense played well given they gave up 27 points and Fornette got almost 250 yards. But...they did.
Thought Thompson was again dominant most of the game. That unsportsmanlike penalty called on him early was BS. He brought a ton of pressure, even making the pas rush a problem when we only brought 3 guys. Simmons had a couple big plays, Arciniega wasn't as successful as last week. Don't like seeing young Clark with a knee brace on and don't like seeing him favoring it. Despite that, I think he us getting more PT and having more success each game. Thought Raymon continues to get better with each game. Slayton and Samuels look like they are Playing reasonably well too.
Franklin did a generally good job blowing up running plays and flying around when they tried to pass the ball. Smart and athletic. Nice combo. Bennett runs as well as any LB we have had in years, he played well and Taylor does a nice job backing him up. Hodge isn't spectacular but he is getting the job done too. Thomas backs him up ably.
That leaves the secondary. I thought Cordy played well and was best defensive back. He made some outstanding tackles in the open field and looked as athletic as the studs LSU trotted out there every play. He is going to make mistakes but is going to turn into a fine player down the line. Williams missed some tackles and was late helping out in pass coverage but he has the speed and ability to be good. Scissum is consistently a step behind but I think he is getting a little better.
At CB, they went after Whigham and had good results. To be fair, LSZu has a couple really talented WRs but the play that lost the gene was when Whigham got beat deep on 3rd and 9 with 11:40 or so to go in the 4th quarter. That can't happen. I think he was supposed to have help from a safety that unfortunately never materialized. Anyway, Julian continues to get beat deep with alarming regularity. Not good. Winfield played better and had a nice open field tackle. Progress. Good to see. Dowels is playing more but he got beat too. Morgan tackled Fournette hen he was running full speed, but didn't play much. This group has to step up their play.
Great effort. I didn't see a lot of injurIes either. Very encouragIng. I lIke this team....
