Random thoughts and observations

[GoSU96]

This was the first year since ‘98 that the team didn’t have at least two losses back to back.

Won 10 games giving up 29 pts per game, that’s crazy.

Incredibly consistent on offense, only one game held under 24.

As good as the offense was, only one game over 50. 2018 - 5 games 50 or more

Highest ranked total offense that I can see. 2012 a couple yds per game but ended up 17th.

Most points per game other than 18, 98 and 97

The offense was built around a bunch of guys with NFL levels skills if not athleticism. Kudos to Nixon for building around players and execution. It’s a great watch.

Ran 1000 plays without playing uptempo, long drives and ball control but not being able to run at will. Highly unusual play and style profile, almost unique. Third in the country in plays for 10+ yds, 91st in plays over 50, only one play over 60.

Nixon maximized a team that lacks game breaking score from anywhere athletes and a pure pocket qb into an excellent offense.

 

[Nick44]

This was the first year since ‘98 that the team didn’t have at least two losses back to back.

Won 10 games giving up 29 pts per game, that’s crazy.

Incredibly consistent on offense, only one game held under 24.

As good as the offense was, only one game over 50. 2018 - 5 games 50 or more

Highest ranked total offense that I can see. 2012 a couple yds per game but ended up 17th.

Most points per game other than 18, 98 and 97

The offense was built around a bunch of guys with NFL levels skills if not athleticism. Kudos to Nixon for building around players and execution. It’s a great watch.

Ran 1000 plays without playing uptempo, long drives and ball control but not being able to run at will. Highly unusual play and style profile, almost unique. Third in the country in plays for 10+ yds, 91st in plays over 50, only one play over 60.

Nixon maximized a team that lacks game breaking score from anywhere athletes and a pure pocket qb into an excellent offense.

Good summary. To me there is a glaring blinking red light heading into next season….Schedule difficulty aside, assuming McCord does not come back, the defense and ST units better improve and improve quickly. If the offense is just “good, not great” next year, this could be a 3-4 win team next year if those other units don’t improve substantially.

 

[Cusefan69]

We lose a ton of leadership/tackling on the defensive side of the ball with Wax, Barron and Clark.
Who is the face/leader of the defense in 25? It will be really interesting to see who steps into that void. Are we looking at the college version of the ole Miami dolphins "No name defense "(relatively speaking).

 

[OttoinGrotto]

Good summary. To me there is a glaring blinking red light heading into next season….Schedule difficulty aside, assuming McCord does not come back, the defense and ST units better improve and improve quickly. If the offense is just “good, not great” next year, this could be a 3-4 win team next year if those other units don’t improve substantially.

Yeah, our profile of "high level offense, bad defense, historically bad special teams" plays with fire. It worked out this time. That's bucking the odds.

 

[LAOrange]

I'm pretty sure we're looking at a low of 7 wins without McCord. I'm not sure about Duke and North Carolina. Fran won't lose when he's evenly matched. Eli is going to get them to tackle better. As good as Marlowe, Barron and Diggs were, they weren't incredible. We can replace them. Special Teams won't be the reason we lose next year.

 

[anomander]

All i know is this season was so much more enjoyable then trying to white knuckle a defensive struggle where each touchdown feels like a victory. Other than the last half of 2012 this was one of the few times i felt we could score anytime we touch the ball. The first few years under Babers was kind of like that but the defenses were so bad it didn’t count (Minus 2018).

Basically, what we witnessed this season was special. We had 2 unicorns and 3 other very good college football players. If we come close to seeing anything like this again we will be extremely lucky.

 

[upperdeck]

We won the little battles on offense.

We ran so many good plays it covered up we really were not that explosive.

 

[shu 49]

We won the little battles on offense.

We ran so many good plays it covered up we really were not that explosive.

I do think we started throwing long more towards end of year as Gill turned it up a few notches. Kid has a lot of talent as did all our recievers. He just seemed to get alot of long stuff going that we didnt have early.

 

[upperdeck]

We seemed to only throw deep on presigned plays when we got the perfect coverage.

What we only got a few of was Homerun plays made by the players.

It didn't help that Allen couldn't house the few running plays that broke clean

 

[OttoinGrotto]

All i know is this season was so much more enjoyable then trying to white knuckle a defensive struggle where each touchdown feels like a victory.

 

[All4SU]

If the D had been better at creating turnovers, the scoring might have been through the roof. The bend but don’t break D gave the O very little help in scoring or field position.

 

[721Comstock]

If the D had been better at creating turnovers, the scoring might have been through the roof. The bend but don’t break D gave the O very little help in scoring or field position.

144% this.

2018 D gave up a ton of yarfs.

But - they were great on 3rd down,
solid in the red zone, and very opportunistic w forcing turnovers, often giving the O good to great field position.

It really is remarkable how great the O was in 2024,
when they got nearly nothing from the D and less than nothing from ST’s.

 

[PAcuse]

We where light on long explosive play due to all the back shoulder passes Kyle threw (which he is a master at). They will get 20-25 yards but not the 50 plus if you are truly throwing deep. Completion percentage also goes up with the back shoulder throw.

 

[shu 49]

also didnt have great protection but as season progressed it got much better.

We where light on long explosive play due to all the back shoulder passes Kyle threw (which he is a master at). They will get 20-25 yards but not the 50 plus if you are truly throwing deep. Completion percentage also goes up with the back shoulder throw

 

[NKR1978]

If the D had been better at creating turnovers, the scoring might have been through the roof. The bend but don’t break D gave the O very little help in scoring or field position.

But the fast 50+ yard TD's got the offense right back on the field!

 

[GoSU96]

also didnt have great protection but as season progressed it got much better.

28th in sack rate, that is really good.

 

[721Comstock]

28th in sack rate, that is really good.

Ah, I think that’s more a function of Kyle getting the ball out quickly,
than the O-line being that good.

Also - Kyle knew when to just chuck it to the cheerleaders.

 

[anglerman]

28th in sack rate, that is really good.

Thanks to Kyle reading the defense quickly and getting his passes off fast

 

[Fat tire 13]

This was such an enjoyable year

One other part that stood out was our ability to convert on 3rd down, even if 3rd and long. You could actually believe it would happen, and not be drunk/insane. Even with great QBs like Dungey, we would need a scramble to convert those plays.

 

[721Comstock]

This was such an enjoyable year

One other part that stood out was our ability to convert on 3rd down, even if 3rd and long. You could actually believe it would happen, and not be drunk/insane. Even with great QBs like Dungey, we would need a scramble to convert those plays.

144% THIS.

There was one drive vs Wazzu where we went from 2nd & 21 to 3rd & 21,
and I truly wasn’t worried about whether we could pick that up or not.

It didn’t have to be a freakish play or ridiculous scramble to convert.

And it ended up being the 50 yard BOMB to Gill.

 

[GoSU96]

This was the first year since ‘98 that the team didn’t have at least two losses back to back.

Won 10 games giving up 29 pts per game, that’s crazy.

Incredibly consistent on offense, only one game held under 24.

As good as the offense was, only one game over 50. 2018 - 5 games 50 or more

Highest ranked total offense that I can see. 2012 a couple yds per game but ended up 17th.

Most points per game other than 18, 98 and 97

The offense was built around a bunch of guys with NFL levels skills if not athleticism. Kudos to Nixon for building around players and execution. It’s a great watch.

Ran 1000 plays without playing uptempo, long drives and ball control but not being able to run at will. Highly unusual play and style profile, almost unique. Third in the country in plays for 10+ yds, 91st in plays over 50, only one play over 60.

Nixon maximized a team that lacks game breaking score from anywhere athletes and a pure pocket qb into an excellent offense.

On defense, gave 41 Td’s, 19 Rushing, 22 passing. There were 6 non defensive Td’s this year.

Last year, 16 and 21, 2 non defensive TD’s

22 17 and 18, 3 non defensive

21 12 and 22 , 3 non defensive

19 26 and 21, 0 non defensive

18 20 and 20, 2 non defensive

17 28 and 19, 2 non defensive

16 35 and 20, 6 non defensive

They were solid on 3rd down. Gave up way to many bust plays, but bend don’t break was consistent from a scoring defense perspective from what we have seen here in the recent past. Does it need to get better, absolutely, but it wasn’t awful.

 

[721Comstock]

On defense, gave 41 Td’s, 19 Rushing, 22 passing. There were 6 non defensive Td’s this year.

Last year, 16 and 21, 2 non defensive TD’s

22 17 and 18, 3 non defensive

21 12 and 22 , 3 non defensive

19 26 and 21, 0 non defensive

18 20 and 20, 2 non defensive

17 28 and 19, 2 non defensive

16 35 and 20, 6 non defensive

They were solid on 3rd down. Gave up way to many bust plays, but bend don’t break was consistent from a scoring defense perspective from what we have seen here in the recent past. Does it need to get better, absolutely, but it wasn’t awful.

Thanks for doing this.

So, it does confirm 2 things:

The 3-3-5 was better at not allowing TD’s than this year’s D.
37, 35, 34 are a non-trivial amount fewer than 41.

But - the non-defensive TD’s crushed us.

3 pick-6’s vs Pitt were that game.

And the one pick-6 where Villari ran the wrong route and gifted that TD was a killer vs Stanford.
We were driving for a score, and instead it went for a TD the other way.
14 point swing in a game we lost by 2 at the buzzer. Sigh.

 

[sufandu]

We where light on long explosive play due to all the back shoulder passes Kyle threw (which he is a master at). They will get 20-25 yards but not the 50 plus if you are truly throwing deep. Completion percentage also goes up with the back shoulder throw.

That kinda goes both ways. We also used the back shoulder throws because our guys couldn't consistently beat secondaries over the top. McCord's accuracy and the WRs ability to make contested catches kept us humming.

 

[kingtidge]

Mora says he's going tattle-tale on tampering and coaches/programs they've caught doing it ...

 

[SUalldway]

This was the first year since ‘98 that the team didn’t have at least two losses back to back.

Won 10 games giving up 29 pts per game, that’s crazy.

Incredibly consistent on offense, only one game held under 24.

As good as the offense was, only one game over 50. 2018 - 5 games 50 or more

Highest ranked total offense that I can see. 2012 a couple yds per game but ended up 17th.

Most points per game other than 18, 98 and 97

The offense was built around a bunch of guys with NFL levels skills if not athleticism. Kudos to Nixon for building around players and execution. It’s a great watch.

Ran 1000 plays without playing uptempo, long drives and ball control but not being able to run at will. Highly unusual play and style profile, almost unique. Third in the country in plays for 10+ yds, 91st in plays over 50, only one play over 60.

Nixon maximized a team that lacks game breaking score from anywhere athletes and a pure pocket qb into an excellent offense.

Gill came on strong as a fast & tough receiver the last few games. Hope he continues to be that deep threat next year.