Random Thoughts and Musings

[CIL]

Forgive the odd bullets, but I am too tired as I just got back into town to write an organized post complete with paragraphs and proper sentence structure.

• Minny was a much better team than I anticipated. Their defense will be one of the best we face all year and will probably allow them to beat a superior opponent this year. They somewhat reminded me of our team in 2010. They had a nice game plan, give them credit. Played a lot of 2 deep and 4 deep coverage in trying to force us to dink and dunk our way down the field and slow down our offense, which they did. Their front 4 was pretty impressive and their back 7 showed nice speed. Solid team.
• Thought we abandoned the inside zone running attack way too early. We had a lot of nice success early in the game running Gulley and Smith inside. With the safeties that high, I think you run it until they change things up. That would open up a bit more of the play action game, and allow the TE to come into play a bit more on the seam route.
• Hackett and Marrone have to be sick about that goalline sequence. Unacceptable in every way, from the calling to the execution. It wouldn't kill us to get into an I formation once in a while down there. Just awful.
• Lou Alexander was just abused in the second half out there. I feel badly for the kid, because he is that, a young man not getting paid to play football. He's actually decent in the run game, but really struggles in pass protection, especially when faced with speed. He's a better fit inside, which is where he may go when Pugh comes back.
• The book on Nassib amongst coaches has been to rattle him early and he'll make some poor decisions later. That's the book on a lot of QB's, I'm sure, but you can almost see his mental clock speeding up when he gets pressured a few times. He does a lot of things well, but his obvious weaknesses are throwing the deep ball and his pocket presence. Expect a lot of 2 high safeties and blitzes the rest of the year. Good news is we get perhaps our best player back in Justin Pugh against Pitt.
• Poor, poor Diabate. By all accounts a great kid, great leader. and hard worker. He's also a hell of a special teams player. What he is not is an every down Mike. He wasn't terrible out there, and he's not a glaring weakness that we have to hide out there ala the Mele days. However, he needs to understand his role and allow others to make plays with in the framework of the play. Yes he is undersized, but he has the ability to take on blockers with acumen and he is not doing that right now, instead he is trying to avoid them and make a play, thus taking himself out and allowing a the blocker to run free.
• It wasn't a bad defensive effort by out D. We held them to what, 350 yards? However, they are going to have to start forcing turnovers out there. We have forced, maybe 2 in 4 games? Not enough IMO.
• Don't even know why we try to run the zone read option anymore. Defenses don't respect Ryan to run at all. It's not his fault, as he is a pocket passer. It's just silly at this point.
• Broyld needs to learn how to get upfield when he runs the ball. He's an immense talent, but enough East West out there. He could easily pick up an extra 2-3 yards a run if he just ran N/S. Also missed a block out there. Rookie mistakes.
• Being 1-3 sucks a dick. Especially when we have outgained every single opponent and could just as easily be 3-1. I think that's the harder pill to swallow to every poster here. We handed Minny the game on a platter. Uggghh. I'm also pretty pissed off at this silly schedule. It's ridiculous. I know that TCU bolted and we were forced to schedule Mizzou, but throwing a MAC level team in there somewhere would be nice, as well as opening up with a FCS team for once. Especially with a really young team.
• I think the rest of the season will tell us a lot about this staff. I am encouraged by things, namely the obvious upgrade in talent and systems over the previous regieme. I am discouraged by the constant close losses, the shooting ourselves in the foot. This team has talent to play with every team on our schedule and win. We couldn't say that last year, or the year before, or the year before...Is this going to be like 1986, where Mac's team closes out with 5 straight wins? Or is this a team that just gets used to losing? I don't know that answer.

 

[Ithacaorange]

Good post- do you think they ove Alexander to G and bag the fly Trudo rotation?

If you look at the pics on Syracuse.com - there are some bad signs, Adkins yelling at pretty boy Hackett.. Mackey looking at Trudo in bewildermint.. A lot of heads down. I know it was a loss, but I am wondering if the team and staff begin to unravel, hopefully not, as there is a lot of football to play!

 

[Ithacaorange]

Good post- do you think they ove Alexander to G and bag the fly Trudo rotation?

If you look at the pics on Syracuse.com - there are some bad signs, Adkins yelling at pretty boy Hackett.. Mackey looking at Trudo in bewildermint.. A lot of heads down. I know it was a loss, but I am wondering if the team and staff begin to unravel, hopefully not, as there is a lot of football to play!

Sorry the foy Trudo rotation, flipping iPad!

 

[SoBristol]

Yes, that was random.
We have some talent, and a few soft spots -- OL can't get much push in a goal line or 3rd and short situation; we have OK talent at RB but several rivals have genuine talent at that key position; we don't get much of a pass rush; our QB is under pressure too often; our MLB tries hard and is just OK -- many teams are much better there. We don't have a lot of speed. So, I can't agree that we match up with all the teams remaining on our schedule -- we have to play our best game, with few mistakes, if we want to compete with Louisville, Pitt, Missouri. We can do that -- I just would be more realistic about what we have.
We aren't a "really young team." It is a lame excuse. We have seniors and veterans in a lot of spots; juniors in others; not many frosh in the mix. Many teams are really young (USC is a good example); we aren't.
If Nassib can get better protection (and Pugh obviously is our best OL when healthy), we should move the ball. We have a good set of WRs -- a record breaker in Lemon and a very good possession guy in Sales. Our third receivers (West, Flemming when healthy, Kobena when healthy) are better than we have had. So, we have a good chance to get those 5 more wins.

 

[CIL]

Good post- do you think they ove Alexander to G and bag the fly Trudo rotation?

If you look at the pics on Syracuse.com - there are some bad signs, Adkins yelling at pretty boy Hackett.. Mackey looking at Trudo in bewildermint.. A lot of heads down. I know it was a loss, but I am wondering if the team and staff begin to unravel, hopefully not, as there is a lot of football to play!

I think we are reading waaaay too much into this. If you have ever been on the sidelines you have coaches shouting at each other, partly due to noise in the stadiums and partly due to heat of the moment type stuff.

I'm not sure what they do with big Lou. I think he'd make a halfway decent guard to be honest.

 

[Chip]

I think we are reading waaaay too much into this. If you have ever been on the sidelines you have coaches shouting at each other, partly due to noise in the stadiums and partly due to heat of the moment type stuff.

I'm not sure what they do with big Lou. I think he'd make a halfway decent guard to be honest.

What could Adkins possibly even be mad at? Hackett calling pass plays that required the right side of the line to pass protect?

Couldn't resist.

 

[Crusty]

Good post- do you think they ove Alexander to G and bag the fly Trudo rotation?

If you look at the pics on Syracuse.com - there are some bad signs, Adkins yelling at pretty boy Hackett.. Mackey looking at Trudo in bewildermint.. A lot of heads down. I know it was a loss, but I am wondering if the team and staff begin to unravel, hopefully not, as there is a lot of football to play!

Where are the pix you refer to?

 

[orangeinohio]

Here's the link to the pics that Ithaca referenced:
http://photos.syracuse.com/4456/gal...su_vs_minnesota_september_22_2012_/index.html

 

[GoSU96]

Forgive the odd bullets, but I am too tired as I just got back into town to write an organized post complete with paragraphs and proper sentence structure.

• Minny was a much better team than I anticipated. Their defense will be one of the best we face all year and will probably allow them to beat a superior opponent this year. They somewhat reminded me of our team in 2010. They had a nice game plan, give them credit. Played a lot of 2 deep and 4 deep coverage in trying to force us to dink and dunk our way down the field and slow down our offense, which they did. Their front 4 was pretty impressive and their back 7 showed nice speed. Solid team.
• Thought we abandoned the inside zone running attack way too early. We had a lot of nice success early in the game running Gulley and Smith inside. With the safeties that high, I think you run it until they change things up. That would open up a bit more of the play action game, and allow the TE to come into play a bit more on the seam route.
• Hackett and Marrone have to be sick about that goalline sequence. Unacceptable in every way, from the calling to the execution. It wouldn't kill us to get into an I formation once in a while down there. Just awful.
• Lou Alexander was just abused in the second half out there. I feel badly for the kid, because he is that, a young man not getting paid to play football. He's actually decent in the run game, but really struggles in pass protection, especially when faced with speed. He's a better fit inside, which is where he may go when Pugh comes back.
• The book on Nassib amongst coaches has been to rattle him early and he'll make some poor decisions later. That's the book on a lot of QB's, I'm sure, but you can almost see his mental clock speeding up when he gets pressured a few times. He does a lot of things well, but his obvious weaknesses are throwing the deep ball and his pocket presence. Expect a lot of 2 high safeties and blitzes the rest of the year. Good news is we get perhaps our best player back in Justin Pugh against Pitt.
• Poor, poor Diabate. By all accounts a great kid, great leader. and hard worker. He's also a hell of a special teams player. What he is not is an every down Mike. He wasn't terrible out there, and he's not a glaring weakness that we have to hide out there ala the Mele days. However, he needs to understand his role and allow others to make plays with in the framework of the play. Yes he is undersized, but he has the ability to take on blockers with acumen and he is not doing that right now, instead he is trying to avoid them and make a play, thus taking himself out and allowing a the blocker to run free.
• It wasn't a bad defensive effort by out D. We held them to what, 350 yards? However, they are going to have to start forcing turnovers out there. We have forced, maybe 2 in 4 games? Not enough IMO.
• Don't even know why we try to run the zone read option anymore. Defenses don't respect Ryan to run at all. It's not his fault, as he is a pocket passer. It's just silly at this point.
• Broyld needs to learn how to get upfield when he runs the ball. He's an immense talent, but enough East West out there. He could easily pick up an extra 2-3 yards a run if he just ran N/S. Also missed a block out there. Rookie mistakes.
• Being 1-3 sucks a dick. Especially when we have outgained every single opponent and could just as easily be 3-1. I think that's the harder pill to swallow to every poster here. We handed Minny the game on a platter. Uggghh. I'm also pretty pissed off at this silly schedule. It's ridiculous. I know that TCU bolted and we were forced to schedule Mizzou, but throwing a MAC level team in there somewhere would be nice, as well as opening up with a FCS team for once. Especially with a really young team.
• I think the rest of the season will tell us a lot about this staff. I am encouraged by things, namely the obvious upgrade in talent and systems over the previous regieme. I am discouraged by the constant close losses, the shooting ourselves in the foot. This team has talent to play with every team on our schedule and win. We couldn't say that last year, or the year before, or the year before...Is this going to be like 1986, where Mac's team closes out with 5 straight wins? Or is this a team that just gets used to losing? I don't know that answer.

Really was disappointed at how poorly they handled Minny stunts and twists up front.

 

[RICuse44]

Forgive the odd bullets, but I am too tired as I just got back into town to write an organized post complete with paragraphs and proper sentence structure.

• Minny was a much better team than I anticipated. Their defense will be one of the best we face all year and will probably allow them to beat a superior opponent this year. They somewhat reminded me of our team in 2010. They had a nice game plan, give them credit. Played a lot of 2 deep and 4 deep coverage in trying to force us to dink and dunk our way down the field and slow down our offense, which they did. Their front 4 was pretty impressive and their back 7 showed nice speed. Solid team.
• Thought we abandoned the inside zone running attack way too early. We had a lot of nice success early in the game running Gulley and Smith inside. With the safeties that high, I think you run it until they change things up. That would open up a bit more of the play action game, and allow the TE to come into play a bit more on the seam route.
• Hackett and Marrone have to be sick about that goalline sequence. Unacceptable in every way, from the calling to the execution. It wouldn't kill us to get into an I formation once in a while down there. Just awful.
• Lou Alexander was just abused in the second half out there. I feel badly for the kid, because he is that, a young man not getting paid to play football. He's actually decent in the run game, but really struggles in pass protection, especially when faced with speed. He's a better fit inside, which is where he may go when Pugh comes back.
• The book on Nassib amongst coaches has been to rattle him early and he'll make some poor decisions later. That's the book on a lot of QB's, I'm sure, but you can almost see his mental clock speeding up when he gets pressured a few times. He does a lot of things well, but his obvious weaknesses are throwing the deep ball and his pocket presence. Expect a lot of 2 high safeties and blitzes the rest of the year. Good news is we get perhaps our best player back in Justin Pugh against Pitt.
• Poor, poor Diabate. By all accounts a great kid, great leader. and hard worker. He's also a hell of a special teams player. What he is not is an every down Mike. He wasn't terrible out there, and he's not a glaring weakness that we have to hide out there ala the Mele days. However, he needs to understand his role and allow others to make plays with in the framework of the play. Yes he is undersized, but he has the ability to take on blockers with acumen and he is not doing that right now, instead he is trying to avoid them and make a play, thus taking himself out and allowing a the blocker to run free.
• It wasn't a bad defensive effort by out D. We held them to what, 350 yards? However, they are going to have to start forcing turnovers out there. We have forced, maybe 2 in 4 games? Not enough IMO.
• Don't even know why we try to run the zone read option anymore. Defenses don't respect Ryan to run at all. It's not his fault, as he is a pocket passer. It's just silly at this point.
• Broyld needs to learn how to get upfield when he runs the ball. He's an immense talent, but enough East West out there. He could easily pick up an extra 2-3 yards a run if he just ran N/S. Also missed a block out there. Rookie mistakes.
• Being 1-3 sucks a dick. Especially when we have outgained every single opponent and could just as easily be 3-1. I think that's the harder pill to swallow to every poster here. We handed Minny the game on a platter. Uggghh. I'm also pretty pissed off at this silly schedule. It's ridiculous. I know that TCU bolted and we were forced to schedule Mizzou, but throwing a MAC level team in there somewhere would be nice, as well as opening up with a FCS team for once. Especially with a really young team.
• I think the rest of the season will tell us a lot about this staff. I am encouraged by things, namely the obvious upgrade in talent and systems over the previous regieme. I am discouraged by the constant close losses, the shooting ourselves in the foot. This team has talent to play with every team on our schedule and win. We couldn't say that last year, or the year before, or the year before...Is this going to be like 1986, where Mac's team closes out with 5 straight wins? Or is this a team that just gets used to losing? I don't know that answer.

Completely agree w the above. Especially the point about going I formation on the goaline. Even power I. Cutler at power I. Jerome fullback. Ashton at tail. Also agree Lou would make a better guard than tackle but I think we are better off w picking trudo or foy and letting them play put the year (my preference would be trudo but Ivan has been a pleasant surprise). In the end we are razor thin at tackle which desperately needs to be addressed. I wonder if Dajuan Coleman would want to become a two sport athlete. Kidding. Kind of.