Post Regular Season Ruminations & Next Year

[kingtidge]

I am actually amazed by what Nassib & the O have done this year. Even more amazing is the balls on Marrone to re-do the O-binder 2 weeks before the season and the fact that it worked, by and large, tremendously well! Big props for Marrone on the gamble... and just as big props to Hackett, Nassib and the O for buying all in quickly.

Here's my shortlist of concerns or constructive criticism for next year:

1. Special Teams: This was a fail again this year. Marrone needs to step away from this and delegate to someone with better tailored skills for coaching ST. By late mid-season, Marrone was able to stabilize the unit to NOT be a massive glaring, game-losing facet of our game, but it's never been adequate or close to a strength - particularly in kick returns... And we shouldn't be losing games because of special teams - period. We have speed returners but blocking schemes that continue to be ineffective and are almost guaranteed to not break away any kick return. My Hope: With more ACC money and HCDM's extension, my hope is we get an assistant coach with a proven track record in ST's coaching. We need it.

2. Defensive Consistency: Schafer gets his guys playing consistently for portions of games and does make better in-game adjustments than in the past. That said, the adjustments sometimes take too long and wind up putting the team well behind the 8-ball and digging out of a hole. I also question the D's readiness to play in some games. They have often come out flat / looking unready to play. The Mizzou game was a perfect example of this. The first half (1st qtr. in particular). I am confident in Schafer's coaching skills and my hope is that much of our issues (especially in the secondary) can be solved with more experience (tho I also have concerns about adequate size/speed). That said, we will struggle with 6-6 big, athletic receivers - as most teams do. I do think 75% of our secondary woes are more on poor execution / bad coverage than on matchup issues, however. So definitely fixable room for improvement. Extra bowl month is a BIG plus for secondary development IMO.

3. No More Nassib/Lemon Bailing Us Out: We have been blessed by the development of both these players this year. We haven't seen a QB/WR tandem this good in a long time (maybe since the one year of McNabb/Harrison.) Kudos to both these guys and the truly balanced run and pass game and adequate O-Line blocking that made all this possible. That said, it's likely (90%+) that we will not have the offensive QB effectiveness we've seen this year next year. Loeb, Broyld, Kinder, Allen?? Whoever it is, the odds are they won't be nearly as good as Nassib with Lemon & Sales lining up... which makes fixing points 1 & 2 above that more important. We can't and should not dig ourselves into holes and expect to win next year. That said, I hope the QB play will be stronger than I expect, but I fear it will be a major drop off/transition year in that regard.

 

[Upstate]

Specials turned out pretty nicely, I thought. Progressed through the year, just like nearly everything else about this team. I think if they start out next year at the level that they left off at, they'll be one of the better STs in the ACC.

 

[kingtidge]

Specials turned out pretty nicely, I thought. Progressed through the year, just like nearly everything else about this team. I think if they start out next year at the level that they left off at, they'll be one of the better STs in the ACC.

I think Marrone stabilized special teams from killing the team (and conceding wins) with boneheaded plays and lack of focus. But the kick return issues remain and in need of serious improvement.

YTD, here's our D1A rank on kick returns yardage:
RK TEAM ATT YDS AVG ATT YDS AVG LNG TD
97 Syracuse 35 666 19.0 29 119 4.1 33 0

Sitting at about 100 is simply not nearly good enough and needs to be better next year... and total yardage at the number of the beast is a bit ominous!

On a positive note, remember a few years ago when we were at 100 or worse in virtually every category under Gump?

This can be fixed with the right ST coach, I am confident.

 

[RMH44]

I am actually amazed by what Nassib & the O have done this year. Even more amazing is the balls on Marrone to re-do the O-binder 2 weeks before the season and the fact that it worked, by and large, tremendously well! Big props for Marrone on the gamble... and just as big props to Hackett, Nassib and the O for buying all in quickly.

Here's my shortlist of concerns or constructive criticism for next year:

1. Special Teams: This was a fail again this year. Marrone needs to step away from this and delegate to someone with better tailored skills for coaching ST. By late mid-season, Marrone was able to stabilize the unit to NOT be a massive glaring, game-losing facet of our game, but it's never been adequate or close to a strength - particularly in kick returns... And we shouldn't be losing games because of special teams - period. We have speed returners but blocking schemes that continue to be ineffective and are almost guaranteed to not break away any kick return. My Hope: With more ACC money and HCDM's extension, my hope is we get an assistant coach with a proven track record in ST's coaching. We need it.

2. Defensive Consistency: Schafer gets his guys playing consistently for portions of games and does make better in-game adjustments than in the past. That said, the adjustments sometimes take too long and wind up putting the team well behind the 8-ball and digging out of a hole. I also question the D's readiness to play in some games. They have often come out flat / looking unready to play. The Mizzou game was a perfect example of this. The first half (1st qtr. in particular). I am confident in Schafer's coaching skills and my hope is that much of our issues (especially in the secondary) can be solved with more experience (tho I also have concerns about adequate size/speed). That said, we will struggle with 6-6 big, athletic receivers - as most teams do. I do think 75% of our secondary woes are more on poor execution / bad coverage than on matchup issues, however. So definitely fixable room for improvement. Extra bowl month is a BIG plus for secondary development IMO.

3. No More Nassib/Lemon Bailing Us Out: We have been blessed by the development of both these players this year. We haven't seen a QB/WR tandem this good in a long time (maybe since the one year of McNabb/Harrison.) Kudos to both these guys and the truly balanced run and pass game and adequate O-Line blocking that made all this possible. That said, it's likely (90%+) that we will not have the offensive QB effectiveness we've seen this year next year. Loeb, Broyld, Kinder, Allen?? Whoever it is, the odds are they won't be nearly as good as Nassib with Lemon & Sales lining up... which makes fixing points 1 & 2 above that more important. We can't and should not dig ourselves into holes and expect to win next year. That said, I hope the QB play will be stronger than I expect, but I fear it will be a major drop off/transition year in that regard.

You need to keep in mind that the "binder" is still the core of the offense. It's been retrofitted for the college game and personnel with an up tempo emphasis. Hackett said that the plays are pretty much the same.

 

[Millhouse]

Here's my hope for the offense next year. I swear this isn't to take a thing away from our seniors.

I think QBs are more prepared at every level. Guys are more ready to play going from college to NFL and guys are more ready to play going from high school to the NFL. We think that Broyld is kinda raw but it wouldn't have been that long ago that we would've been pretty blown away by his high school passing numbers alone. And Allen sounds like he is very well prepared to throw the ball in college. It's much less of a crap shoot finding qbs now that so many high schools spread it out and throw.

I'd love to know the trend of qb ratings for freshman or sophomore first year starters. I suspect that it's going up over time.

We lose a lot of talent and experience but Marrone and Hackett keep gaining experience. The line should still be good and the backs will only be better. Alot of the gaudiest passing numbers came early this year so at the end of the year when we look at the averages of the offense, a lot of it came early when the offense was very different. The second half of the year when the team was at its best, we threw less than 30 times a good amount of the time.

This team actually consistently hit's Pasqualoni's 200 rushing 200 passing goals, and really bumps it up to 250-250 which is unbelievable.

Maybe next year falls back to a 425 offense heavy on running but that's damn good. Won't be near the top of the country but if half of it comes on the ground, those yards are worth more. (I'd love to figure out how much more. I might do some amateur regressions this spring to try to figure out how much a rushing yard is worth vs a passing yard. kinda like trying to figure out how much a walk is worth vs a single in baseball. i'll try to be transparent about it so that people can check and correct the work)

as usual i'm all over the place and i can hear a 1 year old clacking the pacifier on the crib rails like an inmate with a tin cup so i'll end this grotto length screed here.

 

[upperdeck]

you look at teams with good St returns and most of them have much more to do with having a dynamic guy than by doing blocking schemes. we dont have a skills player that makes people miss so why do we expect ST returns to do it better? some teams have returned 4-5 punts this year. yet if you watch them they almost all involve making 2-3 people miss and then outrun the contain, oregon looks great on offense until they play a team that doesnt miss tackles like Stanford.

 

[kingtidge]

you look at teams with good St returns and most of them have much more to do with having a dynamic guy than by doing blocking schemes. we dont have a skills player that makes people miss so why do we expect ST returns to do it better? some teams have returned 4-5 punts this year. yet if you watch them they almost all involve making 2-3 people miss and then outrun the contain, oregon looks great on offense until they play a team that doesnt miss tackles like Stanford.

I hear you, but being ranked 100 at kick returns points to more than simply not having a devin hester-type taking the returns... I'd be happy if we halved that ranking to about 50... we have enough talent to do that and the issue is blocking protection... a Kobena, Graham, PTG or Desir have had the requisite speed ... they simply need blockers to open a lane once in a while...

Our blocking has looked out of position and slow consistently (kicking team simply running around blockers with regularity to be on the returner immediately)