Time for Shafer to Step it Up

[SmilinBob]

Yeah, it does seem like they are blitzing a lot less or with fewer guys than in the past but I could be mistaken.

 

[RMH44]

I like the new O. In fact I was calling for us to use it last year. It made more sense given the team we had.

I like that we have a lot of depth all over the field. We no longer have to play a guy like Max Meisel. Ya, but Max brought soooo much more to table than FB.

I like what Marrone does off the field and the type of kids that he is trying to bring in. I admire that he is trying to do things the right way and seems to truly care about the kids. Well said. As I've posted previously, I'd rather down grade the program than win with losers. Call me idealistic.

I like that Marrone is an alumn. He seems to care a lot about SU and if successful would be here for the long haul. Completely agree. I've been lucky enough to talk to Doug a couple of times a way from all the cameras and protocol...he is an awesome guy. Very genuine...very regular and can swear like a trooper. He IS the right guy for this job and, for the most part, his players love him.

I like that Marrone is a student of the game. He knows a lot about stats, history, schemes etc. Yep

I like that Marrone seems to be a lot like me personality wise, is from NYC, and is Italian. So, do you eat fried bologna sandwiches also?

I like that Marrone seems very competitive. I'd love to be able to attend team meetings. He is far more intense than people realize.

Question for you why don't you ever evaluate what is going on and instead take shots at other posters while adding nothing? There is a poster or two that I've "taken shots" at over the years (usually resulting from a personal attack on a player) but I don't consider anything I've written in response to you as a shot. You get away with a ton of negativity because you're smart enough to buffer your posts with the obligatory "IMO" backed-up with your analysis and solutions, which I appreciate. But...I also think you enjoy being one of the board "contrarians" or "provocateurs" simply to ruffle feathers. To be honest, I enjoy your posts even if we don't always agree. Was there anything not true about my post? Or should I just be naive and assume everything will turn out roses?

Do you think given our O personnel last year our best shot at winning was to pound it with a 150lb RB? Ant Bailey? AB is short not small. Played at 190-plus. I defer to the coaches...obviously they were attempting to limit the number of possessions due to lack of depth.

Are you not concerned that we always start off slow and have to play from behind? Not really. I think the slow starts will disappear with time...hopefully tomorrow. The O is developing a new identity which will pay huge dividends on the field and on the recruiting trail.

Do you think we have been bringing in play makers on either side of the ball? This is year 4 already. Absolutely. Most are young i.e. AB, Morris, Funderburke, Foster, Thompson on Offense and Whigham, Reddish, Brewster, Morgan on D. Don't sleep on our current recruits either. Huge upgrade in talent and depth over the last few years.

Are you happy that we have lost 7 straight games against D1A competition? Really?

Are you happy that we didn't make a Bowl last year? Again, really?

Are you happy about the late season struggles every year? Late season struggles are a product of zero depth across the board in previous years. Hopefully we've seen the last of that.

Are you happy that we struggle in the craptacular BE? "Craptacular"...I like it! Obviously, we need to do better.

What type of record talent wise do you think we have this year? Are we on pace to achieve that record? Preseason, I was hoping for 7-5...8-4 record with a bowl game. We'll see.

Are you happy that we have no DEs and no LBs this year and likely next year as well? I happen to like Brewster & Robinson. I think that Sharpe is adequate. I was hoping that Simmons would have an impact this year but he appears buried on the depth chart.

When you have a lot of talent and depth at DB, why not use it more? I'm not sure what your point is here. I've seen all the DB's except Morgan play in one package or another.

Has Shafer's D shown any consistency? Or has it been hit or miss? He has done great against Spread passing teams. He has stunk against pro set teams. If by pro you mean power teams, I agree. Hopefully with the added beef across the DL we can keep our smaller LB's uncovered to make plays. Like many others here, I haven't been happy with the tackling.

Has Shafer been good at making adjustments or have teams gone to the same plays over and over against us? I think he has done a fine job so far this year. Take away the big plays and ST disasters and the D has played quite well.

Have we been recruiting well? All things considered...yes Have our rankings been sufficient? I, for one, could care less about rankings. I think the staff has proven that they're very good evaluators of talent. Are there playmakers on the field? We're getting there and next year should be even better...assuming we get adequate QB play.

Have you been happy with Marrone's in game strategy? Not always, I think he has grown into the job.

Have you been happy that Mr Discipline has a team that is quite undisciplined and penalty ridden?

Do you think it was wise for Marrone to marry a BC grad? Doesn't that show a lack of judgement? Absolutely


There are still a lot of questions and this is year 4. We have 9 games left for this staff to answer/fix these questions. At this point there is no reason to be anything but cautiously optimistic.

 

[wfschrec]

I think MPB has been solid thus far. But he hasn't made an impact in any of the games. If your best DE is solid, then you have issues. I don't think Spruill has been making many plays.

I agree that Shafer can only do so much given these players. But we have seen issues all four years with the D and that concerns me. IMO we have too many holes based on how we play. It isn't just the players. We have our DBs playing too softly too often IMO. We play zone with a three man rush too often. If we get beat because of talent so be it. But I can't stand when we make things easy by the way scheme.

Funny thing is the first 6 games or so were likely Shafer's best IMO. We saw a lot more press coverage. Sure we got beat deep from time to time but it took away the soft stuff. It also made our run D a lot better, as our Ss were playing near the LOS. Not to mention we were more likely to blitz as well. I loved the way we played D early on in 2009. We attacked and put pressure on the O to execute. Since then things have changed IMO. More soft coverage, more zone, Ss playing back, less blitzing. That has resulted in more long frustrating drives. I rather see us go back to early 2009 and if we get beat, we get beat. Its on the kids. But to sit back in a slow death march IMO is hardly trying to stop the other team.

MPB is better than solid and Spruill played very well against USC. As for 2009 vs today you can't even compare the scenarios ... in 2009 the best QB we faced was Kafka from NW ... Rutgers had Savage ... LVille had Froman ... WVU had Jarrett Brown ... USF had a very young BJ Daniels ... Daryll Clark was the only other real QB we faced that year when he was at PSU ... you can't even compare it ... in 2012 we have to square off against Teddy Bridgewater, Barkley, and a much improved Daniels. The fact is we will be facing better QB play this season ... our SOS for 09 was 40 ... this year it is 17 ... you can blindly look at two seasons and compare them but the surrounding factors play a big part in how we manage our squad.

We faced 0 NFL quality QBs in 2009 ... this season we are facing at least two with Bridgewater and a top 10 pick in Barkley ... not to mention the transitional offensive overhauls that teams on our schedule have made, see WVU in 2009 vice the WVU we played in 2010/2011. Who would you rather face Jarrett Brown/Stewart or Geno Smith/Holgerson? Frankly we make too many general comparisons on this board without digging deeper into why the decisions are made. Plus if you want to bring the run game into it ... we had to slow down guys like Dion Lewis, Evan Royster, Isiah Pead, Noel Devine and Jordan Todman in 2009 ... other than Graham of Pitt and Silas Redd how many top flight RBs will we see?

If you look at it like this ... we are playing a tougher schedule with better QBs and a weaker group of tailbacks in 2012 vice 2009 ... and if you look at the section I bolded above the defensive philosophy reflects just that.

Plus here are the OOCs for this season vs 2009:

2009:
NW, Minn, PSU, Akron and Maine

2012:
Mizzou, USC, NW, Minn and SB

USC and PSU is pretty much a wash although I feel USC is better than the 2009 version of PSU and now you are throwing out Akron and replacing them with an SEC foe in Mizzou ... who also has a damn good QB ... quite frankly I am more shocked that people are shocked over philosophy changes than I am the changes myself.

 

[kingottoiii]

wfschrec

You act like 2010 and 2011 didn't happen either. You also act like we cannot change a game plan game to game. That we have one for the entire year. LOL. Why have we not been aggressive vs run teams? Care to explain that? Why in the last 2.5 years could we not stop the run against running teams that had no QB yet we could in 2009? This is so silly.

BTW Weber was a pretty good QB and had a stud WR in Decker. So according to you we planned on stopping their run?

 

[phil77]

Most teams that go up tempo no huddle offense don't have very good stats on D because they are always on the field...

 

[wfschrec]

wfschrec

You act like 2010 and 2011 didn't happen either. You also act like we cannot change a game plan game to game. That we have one for the entire year. LOL. Why have we not been aggressive vs run teams? Care to explain that? Why in the last 2.5 years could we not stop the run against running teams that had no QB yet we could in 2009? This is so silly.

BTW Weber was a pretty good QB and had a stud WR in Decker. So according to you we planned on stopping their run?

Didn't think I had to .. thought you would have the common sense to realize that in 2010 and 2011 we saw Geno Smith twice, Jake Locker, Collaros, Tanner Price is who a good QB in his own right ... Barkley and Bridgewater ... while it is possible to game plan from game to game did you also not honestly think that they knew in 2010 & 2011 that they would struggle significantly on offense and that their defense would spend 2/3s of the game on the field so he is forced to be somewhat conservative? In 2009 I don't think the staff truly knew what they had and felt they could move the ball effectively with a 5th year senior QB in Paulus who knew the offense well enough to be effective. Yet you cite the season with the worst record of the 3 ... 4-8 in 09 ... 7-5 in 2010 and 5-7 last year ... Now this season we are moving at such a rapid pace the defense isn't getting much time to rest ... albeit for a different reason ...

2009 Defense
Ypg Pass Defense 235 Ypg Rush Defense 101

2010
Ypg Pass Defense 165 Ypg Rush Defense 136

2011
Ypg Pass Defense 258 Ypg Rush Defense 128

I think maybe you should worry about the pass defense more ... 28 ypg difference between 09 and 11 ... and a whopping 36 ypg difference between 10 and 09 ... look at the pass defense along with the record for each season and maybe you'll finally see the correlation ... but since you have all the answers we'll just fire Shafer and hire you.

 

[Shrmdougluvr]

I think the problem with SU's defense is pretty simple, it is far too small at four of the five most important tackling positions. Spruill is the only backer with true D-1 linebacker size. Thomas is undersized at SS. He's a beast and that makes up for his size in a lot of ways, but we would be bettered served with him at FS or bringing in a large FS (Eskridge) to compensate. Wilkes was brought in to play corner. That's what he played as a freshman, and he showed his tackling was even subpar for a corner. Now we have a 5'9" 180 lbs FS bouncing off of backs, TEs and receivers all over the field.

Tackling is an issue, and its because SU is too small. That's why the defense gets trucked by UCONN, Louisville and Pitt every year, and why BC beat SU in the Dome two years ago with absolutely no passing game.