what do the optimists predict for yardages this year?

[orangenauburn]

10% Improvement across the board (offense and defense)

 

[Millhouse]

I see the light has come on.

i thought i've been pretty clear where i think the problem with the offense is (QB) and that the solution is not to run an offense that allows him to throw even more passes even faster. (i wanted them to take their lumps with someone else not knowing that kinder just flat out can't do it)

maybe i need to stress that i think the problem is Nassib more

"PLEASE GOD NO" says everyone

 

[Millhouse]

By the way, I find the defense rank of 43 to be pretty shocking. Seems like a lot of teams had their way with us last year, either on the ground or thru the air. Hard to imagine that our defense wouldn't be a better unit than last year, but I guess it might not show up in the rankings if those were last year's #'s.

it's just conference games. and our conference is 2 girls 1 cup unwatchable offenses. 2013 2013 2013

 

[Chip]

it's just conference games. and our conference is 2 girls 1 cup unwatchable offenses. 2013 2013 2013

I think that's why people still think we can win games. I just went back to look at the box scores because I thought we gave up more yards than that. Turns out that USF was really the only game where the defense was completely abused (almost 500 yards). WVU had 406, but that's probably good to hold them to that. The other 5 games, each opposing O was held under 370.

Even if we do continue to slow the game down. If we assume the D improves (it just seems like we're adding more than we're subtracting), and the offense can use the likes of Sales, Kobena, Broyld for a bigger play here or there, you would think we should be able to win 3 games in this league. Northwestern and Minnesota are complete toss ups. Have to get 6 and be bowl eligible to keep recruiting momentum moving forward.

 

[Millhouse]

I think that's why people still think we can win games. I just went back to look at the box scores because I thought we gave up more yards than that. Turns out that USF was really the only game where the defense was completely abused (almost 500 yards). WVU had 406, but that's probably good to hold them to that. The other 5 games, each opposing O was held under 370.

Even if we do continue to slow the game down. If we assume the D improves (it just seems like we're adding more than we're subtracting), and the offense can use the likes of Sales, Kobena, Broyld for a bigger play here or there, you would think we should be able to win 3 games in this league. Northwestern and Minnesota are complete toss ups. Have to get 6 and be bowl eligible to keep recruiting momentum moving forward.

another optimist argument i could make is while it's hard to argue that a team should have more big plays when they already have some, for us, it's not so much hoping for more big plays, it's hoping for any at all

i could maybe be talked into a broyld plus sales plus less bad luck might get us to 6 wins.

 

[javadoc]

another optimist argument i could make is while it's hard to argue that a team should have more big plays when they already have some, for us, it's not so much hoping for more big plays, it's hoping for any at all

i could maybe be talked into a broyld plus sales plus less bad luck might get us to 6 wins.

Broyld plus Sales plus kicking off from 5 yards further out.

 

[billsin01]

i'd like to stick to conference games. out of conference is tricky - skewed by whether you roll it up or take foot off the gas against fcs teams. Maine, Colgate, URI etc.

Last year, offense 353 ypg against conference teams. 83rd in the country.
60th = 385
40th = 409
20th = 454

Defense, 365 ypg allowed against conference teams. 43rd.

60th = 388
40th = 362
20th = 332

If I were optimistic about this year, I would argue that they don't need to be that much better on either side of the ball to have a better record. 353 yards gained and 365 yards allowed will rarely result in a 1-6 conference record. Rutgers and UCOnn jump out. A 3-4 record would line up with the yardages more than 1-6.

If you think we get to 7 wins, let's just assume we go .500 out of conference and 4-3 in conference.

Where does the yardage come from? I doubt it'll come from the defense - 30 more yards puts us in top 20.

I assume that most optimists think we'll get 30 more ypg out of the offense and hope the defense holds steady at 43rd. (With the losses on defense, "would you take it - 43rd in the country" applies. I think most would)

I think the defense falls back and the offense stays where it is. You know how i feel about the passing game and I think they'll miss bailey tiller and hay more than others do.

I think 2 wins out of conference and 2 wins in conference is most likely. Yards isn't everything, turnovers make or break seasons, I get that but it's impossible to predict that.

I'll split the difference and say 370 offense and 355 defense. I have a lot of faith in shafer and not a lot of faith in our OL/offensive system. I'd be thrilled to be proven completely wrong on the latter and absolutely correct on the former.

 

[upperdeck]

still one has to hope that at some point playing an aggressive D with better athletes turns into a better 3rd down unit. so many blown coverages in big spots we never seemed to control a game , other than the WV/Rutgers games and we only split those.

pitt had the ball late to win, the Pitt D scores.
uconn up 21-14 allow a 60 yd return , then after the tie an INT and another short field score, 28 pts on 311 yds
rutgers just a huge blow up..

we were an 8 win team on the field turned into 5 wins. will having probably 10-15 more solid players make that change?

I think we could play marginally better and be a 10-2 team cause the BE is avg at best

 

[Millhouse]

Broyld plus Sales plus kicking off from 5 yards further out.

we need to keep more kicks in bounds. that'll help more than the 5 yards which the other team will get too.

Marrone's had 11 kicks go out of bounds in 3 years. That's really bad.

figure that's 15 yards per, that's about 4 or 5 yards per game. maybe the extra 5 yards will help there.

we need to keep kickoffs and deep passes in bounds. how bad is it that such low hanging fruit even exists for us to talk about

 

[IthacaBarrel]

good thread here and like I said, we arent that far off from being 7-5 and really still aren't that good, we played really poorly last year in so many games, yet we SHOULD have won the Rutgers game, has 10 chances too, UCONN could have been won, the gape has been narrowed, need steady improvment in all areas and a winning conference record and we should at least be bowling.

I am one the believes this year will be a lot like the last two and where that leaves us record wise we shall see, some tweaks and slight improvement and we should at least have a respetcbale record... That said, heading into the ACC we will need to see vast improvement to go 7-5

 

[Chip]

we need to keep more kicks in bounds. that'll help more than the 5 yards which the other team will get too.

Marrone's had 11 kicks go out of bounds in 3 years. That's really bad.

figure that's 15 yards per, that's about 4 or 5 yards per game. maybe the extra 5 yards will help there.

we need to keep kickoffs and deep passes in bounds. how bad is it that such low hanging fruit even exists for us to talk about

Part of that is probably that we haven't had anyone with a very strong leg, so they try to overcompensate and it leads to out of bounds kicks.

Not sure if that will change this year, but the freshman we recruited, from what we read and hear, has a stronger leg than anyone we've had in recent history.

But I digress, this should really be for the soccer board.

 

[Millhouse]

good thread here and like I said, we arent that far off from being 7-5 and really still aren't that good, we played really poorly last year in so many games, yet we SHOULD have won the Rutgers game, has 10 chances too, UCONN could have been won, the gape has been narrowed, need steady improvment in all areas and a winning conference record and we should at least be bowling.

I am one the believes this year will be a lot like the last two and where that leaves us record wise we shall see, some tweaks and slight improvement and we should at least have a respetcbale record... That said, heading into the ACC we will need to see vast improvement to go 7-5

another way to look at it
2010, we gained 12 yards less than BE opponents per game. 4-3 record
2011 we gained 12 yards less than BE opponents per game. 1-6 record.

Each year looks weird on its own. Add it up, we're 5-9. probably shoulda been 6-8 or 7-7 with that discrepancy

better that it worked out the way it did, i'll take good luck and a bowl rather than two 3-4 records.

 

[OrangeMojo]

good thread here and like I said, we arent that far off from being 7-5 and really still aren't that good, we played really poorly last year in so many games, yet we SHOULD have won the Rutgers game, has 10 chances too, UCONN could have been won, the gape has been narrowed, need steady improvment in all areas and a winning conference record and we should at least be bowling.

I am one the believes this year will be a lot like the last two and where that leaves us record wise we shall see, some tweaks and slight improvement and we should at least have a respetcbale record... That said, heading into the ACC we will need to see vast improvement to go 7-5

bright side there is that I think the defense that returns for 2013 will be NASTY and will keep SU in a lot of the games that first year while they break in the new QB

 

[JrodCuse]

i'd like to stick to conference games. out of conference is tricky - skewed by whether you roll it up or take foot off the gas against fcs teams. Maine, Colgate, URI etc.

Last year, offense 353 ypg against conference teams. 83rd in the country.
60th = 385
40th = 409
20th = 454

Defense, 365 ypg allowed against conference teams. 43rd.

60th = 388
40th = 362
20th = 332

If I were optimistic about this year, I would argue that they don't need to be that much better on either side of the ball to have a better record. 353 yards gained and 365 yards allowed will rarely result in a 1-6 conference record. Rutgers and UCOnn jump out. A 3-4 record would line up with the yardages more than 1-6.

If you think we get to 7 wins, let's just assume we go 3-2 out of conference and 4-3 in conference.

Where does the yardage come from? I doubt it'll come from the defense - 30 more yards puts us in top 20.

I assume that most optimists think we'll get 30 more ypg out of the offense and hope the defense holds steady at 43rd. (With the losses on defense, "would you take it - 43rd in the country" applies. I think most would)

I think the defense falls back and the offense stays where it is. You know how i feel about the passing game and I think they'll miss bailey tiller and hay more than others do.

I think 2 wins out of conference and 2 wins in conference is most likely. Yards isn't everything, turnovers make or break seasons, I get that but it's impossible to predict that.

I think we'll end up around 50th in offense whatever that requires and our defense will end up around 35th at worst, with upside around 20-25 range. Don't be such a negative nancy. Its a bad way to go through life.

 

[rrlbees]

Part of that is probably that we haven't had anyone with a very strong leg, so they try to overcompensate and it leads to out of bounds kicks.

Not sure if that will change this year, but the freshman we recruited, from what we read and hear, has a stronger leg than anyone we've had in recent history.

But I digress, this should really be for the soccer board.

We used the boundary kickoff which is always a gamble. Most were when Krautman was hurt. I don't know why we used it the other times. Didn't some happen when Casullo was here and Long kicked off?

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[rrlbees]

375 offense
350 defense

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