You are all losing site of the bigger picture

[FrancoPizza]

Biggest issue is we need a new defensive coordinator in the worst way, and maybe even a new DL coach. But only if Fran can find someone who is qualified and the right fit.

 

[PhatOrange]

Biggest issue is we need a new defensive coordinator in the worst way, and maybe even a new DL coach. But only if Fran can find someone who is qualified and the right fit.

I always thought Elijah Robinson was the DL coach.

 

[kingtidge]

Losing Angeli ruined the season but the thought of having him for 2 years going forward is promising - regardless, losing by 35 to Duke at home is not moving forward - you are kidding urself - there is not 50 yards in front of us - we have 99 yards in front of us with 30 secs - I don’t know what to make of Clemson - I see UCONN managed to escape Buffalo - beating UCONN was a fluke and they suck

If there was ever a season to take a mulligan after losing Angeli to injury, this season is it for sure. Sucks to say, and I know Fran views every game as a win to be taken and I love that attitude...

And also Sucks to say, but reality - it's looking like a real daunting row to hoe at this point...

I can take the fact that the QB situation with Angeli out may be untenable to build a competitive offense this year. A harsh reality.

My only gripe is the defense laying a massive egg against Duke.

We should be able to be comptetitive in other facets of the game, including defense.

The Duke game seemed somewhat like Stanford last year from the standpoint that we needed to make adjustments and the coaches could not do it/get the players to do it. You could argue a similar adjustment issue with UCONN on O, but Nixon finally figured it out in the final 10 minutes to salvage a win...

I think the coaches need to chessboard "plan b" execution better and get the players effective in executing changes when necessary. HCFB and staff are young coaches and some of this will get better with more experience, hopefully, but we need to get better at effective in-game adjustments, or there will be more WTEFF losses here and there when plan A goes sideways.

The Duke game rang that bell loud and clear again.

 

[Scooch]

?

You said we're all losing sight of the big picture. Who's "you"? I'm not sure I've seen much of that here.

 

[Chip]

Hope springs eternal ever year around here.

Next year will be no different, no matter what happens this year.

 

[RedtheGOB]

If there was ever a season to take a mulligan after losing Angeli to injury, this season is it for sure. Sucks to say, and I know Fran views every game as a win to be taken and I love that attitude...

And also Sucks to say, but reality - it's looking like a real daunting row to hoe at this point...

I can take the fact that the QB situation with Angeli out may be untenable to build a competitive offense this year. A harsh reality.

My only gripe is the defense laying a massive egg against Duke.

We should be able to be comptetitive in other facets of the game, including defense.

The Duke game seemed somewhat like Stanford last year from the standpoint that we needed to make adjustments and the coaches could not do it/get the players to do it. You could argue a similar adjustment issue with UCONN on O, but Nixon finally figured it out in the final 10 minutes to salvage a win...

I think the coaches need to chessboard "plan b" execution better and get the players effective in executing changes when necessary. HCFB and staff are young coaches and some of this will get better with more experience, hopefully, but we need to get better at effective in-game adjustments, or there will be more WTEFF losses here and there when plan A goes sideways.

The Duke game rang that bell loud and clear again.

Well said.

One thing that gives the Defense a mulligan (for this game only though) is that this was the first NFL level QB that we had played against in my opinion. We showed up at Clemson and showed what the talent can do when they click, yet a week later we are still running a ton of youth and first year starters and it's still September.

Aguilar and Klubnick are not slouches but you can tell they aren't going to play Sundays in my opinion.

Mensah on the other played like a Sunday QB not because he killed it with his arm but because he saw the field, made perfect reads all day, called audibles that killed us and then managed the game with no mistakes. He basically MCCORD'ed us.

In comparison Klubnick had no clue and at times seemed to play exactly into what our defense was doing. We'd blitz and his reads were off and and timing/passes were even worse. Seemed like he would try to elude the pressure instead of throwing to where the blitz came from. Mensah crushed us with that. Waited for the blitzer and then went right to a short easy pass for 10 yards.

Like you said we're clearly just too predictable on Defense and it's not the first time.

Offense I really believe will be even better next year. Losing Nixon may hurt if he goes pro but if we're hitting the portal and working on staff upgrades the whole offseason better be spent on upgrading Defense.

 

[0.2 YNdeeR]

Oh come on, I’d expect Cuse on 3 not to understand the analogy, but you, I’m disappointed.

any given sunday

 

[dasher]

2026

This is all tune ups for next year.

Right now it’s 41, 42. Remainder of the year is 43 and 44.

Next year is victory. Play the long game and don’t get fixated on the 50 yds in front of you.

I have been saying that since the start. The only troubling issue to me is the Defense and that includes the d-coordinator.

 

[Cuseregular]

Whats the impact of NIL after 1 bad game?

Think he’s referring to later after the season craters out.

As for 2026 in the old days you could plan for some consistency with logical expectations for the following year, but now with the new paradigm of whatever the hell college football is now, nothing about next year or any year is guaranteed in terms of any continuity, roster etc. It’s mostly a crapshoot year to year.

 

[corpjet]

Jeff Nixon is key to this program and this offense.

Need him back leading the O next season to have the year we all hope for

 

[JonB]

Sorry Go can’t sign off on mailing in a year, it’s not fair to the players and fans. We weren’t competitive against Duke, please don’t try to sugarcoat that. It was Duke.

Go run some sprints and hit the showers.

Brown has said he wants to be competitive, and win national championships. Is he delusional about a national title at Cuse? Debatable, but what’s he supposed to say, “we suck this year, hopefully we win more next year”

 

[Archbold44]

Well said.

One thing that gives the Defense a mulligan (for this game only though) is that this was the first NFL level QB that we had played against in my opinion. We showed up at Clemson and showed what the talent can do when they click, yet a week later we are still running a ton of youth and first year starters and it's still September.

Aguilar and Klubnick are not slouches but you can tell they aren't going to play Sundays in my opinion.

Mensah on the other played like a Sunday QB not because he killed it with his arm but because he saw the field, made perfect reads all day, called audibles that killed us and then managed the game with no mistakes. He basically MCCORD'ed us.

In comparison Klubnick had no clue and at times seemed to play exactly into what our defense was doing. We'd blitz and his reads were off and and timing/passes were even worse. Seemed like he would try to elude the pressure instead of throwing to where the blitz came from. Mensah crushed us with that. Waited for the blitzer and then went right to a short easy pass for 10 yards.

Like you said we're clearly just too predictable on Defense and it's not the first time.

Offense I really believe will be even better next year. Losing Nixon may hurt if he goes pro but if we're hitting the portal and working on staff upgrades the whole offseason better be spent on upgrading Defense.

The more film we have, the more that other teams can use it. They are figuring out when/how to attack our defense. The flip side is that, as the season goes on, players start falling and becoming less than 100% for all teams. So, even a team with more knowledge about us can lack the bodies to do anything about it. But the same applies to us.

Then, throw in that these are college-age kids, rather than mature professionals, there is the randomness of games just slipping away and out of hand. Duke got blown out by Illinois and blew us out. We blew out Clemson (essentially) and got blown out. This is not as surprising as you think. Look at the results of most rivalry games. Talent and coaching cannot explain everything. The same Syracuse team that got shut out 19-0 by Rutgers (and had beaten then-lowly Northwestern 13-12 the weak before that), beat Nebraska the next week. And then did not make a bowl (in fairness, they were 6-5).

I just cannot believe that so many fans have such short memories to think that even a subpar QB cannot have a few above average games and get wins. Everything is either... .we are winning out and going to the playoffs... or we will not win another game. College football is almost always between those extremes. The Collins that played Duke--without getting substantially better or ever being a QB1 again--will win one more football game this year. If he improves more than that, we might win another. If he improves a lot, maybe we win 3 more games. But it's been one full game.

 

[newmexicuse]

My take may be overly simple, but it sure looks like we lack team speed. Cant tackle what you cant catch. I like our skill position players, but I dont see any of them really "running away" from their defenders.

As for Collins - a long ways to go. He has a live arm, but man, the reads are mediocre - and that is being kind. He seems to lack any scrambling ability.

I hold by my pre-season prediction that just squeaking into a bowl is as much as can be hoped for this year.

I cant imagine that Carney as a true frosh is the immediate answer, but I sure would love to see a glimpse of that kid.

 

[DonutHole]

The more film we have, the more that other teams can use it. They are figuring out when/how to attack our defense. The flip side is that, as the season goes on, players start falling and becoming less than 100% for all teams. So, even a team with more knowledge about us can lack the bodies to do anything about it. But the same applies to us.

Then, throw in that these are college-age kids, rather than mature professionals, there is the randomness of games just slipping away and out of hand. Duke got blown out by Illinois and blew us out. We blew out Clemson (essentially) and got blown out. This is not as surprising as you think. Look at the results of most rivalry games. Talent and coaching cannot explain everything. The same Syracuse team that got shut out 19-0 by Rutgers (and had beaten then-lowly Northwestern 13-12 the weak before that), beat Nebraska the next week. And then did not make a bowl (in fairness, they were 6-5).

I just cannot believe that so many fans have such short memories to think that even a subpar QB cannot have a few above average games and get wins. Everything is either... .we are winning out and going to the playoffs... or we will not win another game. College football is almost always between those extremes. The Collins that played Duke--without getting substantially better or ever being a QB1 again--will win one more football game this year. If he improves more than that, we might win another. If he improves a lot, maybe we win 3 more games. But it's been one full game.

I think your second paragraph sums up the whole nature of the college game. The rankings are suspect.