SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
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- We are not a 1-10 program. Last year we had basically the same team that had gone a disappointing 5-7 the year before. We expected to return to having a winning record and go to a bowl game. Instead, we had out top two running backs opt out for Covid, had the schedule completely re-done, giving us 10 ACC games, including road games against North Carolina, Clemson and Notre plus on non-conference game against Liberty, who went 10-1 and we ranked #17. You can break your teeth trying to chew on that – and we did. Then there were the injuries. At one point we had 57 available scholarship players, the normal being 85. That means we had 2/3 of a team. Naturally most of the missing players were on the two-deep. We got down to our 3rd string quarterback and our 6th string running back. The offensive line was a shell-hole and we had several injuries on defense as well, including to future NFLers Trill Williams and Andre Cisco, who shut it down early, looking ahead to the draft. Cisco’s freakish injury, the result of a bump in a pre-game workout, symbolized the season. That team was an empty shell of itself.
- We should bounce back at least to the level of the 2019 team just because we are much healthier than we were last year. The Covid guys are back and we have six ‘super seniors’ looking t make a statement. On top of that we’ve got most of the injured guys back and the guys who got to play because they were injured are still here. Depth has been a big issue for SU for years and we are going to have more of it that we’ve had in years. Other teams will have also have more depth but the big leap is from inadequate depth to adequate depth and we’ve made it.
- We are finally going to be able to protect Tommy DeVito and that means we’re finally going to find out what he can really do. He has an NFL and NFL accuracy when he can set and throw. He was recruited to give us the big numbers Jimmy Garoppolo, (53TD 9int) and Mett Johnson (46TD 8int) gave Dino in this offense at EIU and BG.
- Here’s a biggie, literally: There may be times when we have both 6-6 216 Damien Alford and 6-5 210 Orande Gadsen in there as wide-outs with 6-2 180 Taj Harris in the slot and 6-4 240 Luke Benson in at tight end. The Bobcats secondary goes 5-10, 5-11, 5-10, and 5-10. Jess Sayin’….
- Mr. Tuggle is very good but Sean Tucker, Abdul Adams and Jarveon Howard might be as good. (Watch out for Howard: he’s lost weight: I think he’s determined to compete with these guys and may surprise people who just thought of him as a power back this year). Cooper Lutz is a different type but also very good.
- I like Tony White’s 3-3-5. Somehow, we were second in the country in takeovers with 24, (actually two teams had 25 but they both played in more games), yet we went 1-10. Part of it was that when we weren’t making big plays, we were giving up big plays. The other part was that the offense was so bad that we couldn’t capitalize on the turnovers and often got them well into our own territory. Tony’s had a spring and fall practice to work with these guys and feels they are now all on the same page. That and a productive offense could make those takeovers matter like they are supposed to matter.
- Ohio’s played 3 football games in this decade. Is that enough to be the efficient machine they aspire to be? They went 2-1 with the wins over Akron and Bowling green, both of whom stink. The Zips were 1-5 after going 0-12 the year before. The BeeGees were 0-5 and are 12-41 since Dino left. Their loss was 27-30 at the hands of a 3-3 Central Michigan team. Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Bobcats?
- Their placekicker was 2 for 6 on field goals, missing two under 30 yards. Our kicker is Andre Szmyt, a Lou Groza award winner.
- August optimism is an easy thing to create, (you might as well be optimistic in August because you might not get the chance later). And a projection of a team coming off a 1-10 year is not going to be very reliable. But my gut felling is that not only do we win this, but we blow their doors off.
0-0 and 12+ to go!
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
- We should bounce back at least to the level of the 2019 team just because we are much healthier than we were last year. The Covid guys are back and we have six ‘super seniors’ looking t make a statement. On top of that we’ve got most of the injured guys back and the guys who got to play because they were injured are still here. Depth has been a big issue for SU for years and we are going to have more of it that we’ve had in years. Other teams will have also have more depth but the big leap is from inadequate depth to adequate depth and we’ve made it.
- We are finally going to be able to protect Tommy DeVito and that means we’re finally going to find out what he can really do. He has an NFL and NFL accuracy when he can set and throw. He was recruited to give us the big numbers Jimmy Garoppolo, (53TD 9int) and Mett Johnson (46TD 8int) gave Dino in this offense at EIU and BG.
- Here’s a biggie, literally: There may be times when we have both 6-6 216 Damien Alford and 6-5 210 Orande Gadsen in there as wide-outs with 6-2 180 Taj Harris in the slot and 6-4 240 Luke Benson in at tight end. The Bobcats secondary goes 5-10, 5-11, 5-10, and 5-10. Jess Sayin’….
- Mr. Tuggle is very good but Sean Tucker, Abdul Adams and Jarveon Howard might be as good. (Watch out for Howard: he’s lost weight: I think he’s determined to compete with these guys and may surprise people who just thought of him as a power back this year). Cooper Lutz is a different type but also very good.
- I like Tony White’s 3-3-5. Somehow, we were second in the country in takeovers with 24, (actually two teams had 25 but they both played in more games), yet we went 1-10. Part of it was that when we weren’t making big plays, we were giving up big plays. The other part was that the offense was so bad that we couldn’t capitalize on the turnovers and often got them well into our own territory. Tony’s had a spring and fall practice to work with these guys and feels they are now all on the same page. That and a productive offense could make those takeovers matter like they are supposed to matter.
- Ohio’s played 3 football games in this decade. Is that enough to be the efficient machine they aspire to be? They went 2-1 with the wins over Akron and Bowling green, both of whom stink. The Zips were 1-5 after going 0-12 the year before. The BeeGees were 0-5 and are 12-41 since Dino left. Their loss was 27-30 at the hands of a 3-3 Central Michigan team. Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Bobcats?
- Their placekicker was 2 for 6 on field goals, missing two under 30 yards. Our kicker is Andre Szmyt, a Lou Groza award winner.
- August optimism is an easy thing to create, (you might as well be optimistic in August because you might not get the chance later). And a projection of a team coming off a 1-10 year is not going to be very reliable. But my gut felling is that not only do we win this, but we blow their doors off.
0-0 and 12+ to go!
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
