A tale of two home shutouts

[jdb50]

I was a student when we lost at Memorial to Navy 30-0 in 1978. We have had plenty of losses in the Rentschler era but the two shutouts have a lot in common despite the long break in time. When we played Navy I remember how their lines were such a mismatch for our guys who played hard that day. Faster feet, stronger physically, and tougher. The same thing was going on last night. Our O-line is just not good enough even with all the bye week practices. No one on our lines would start for Cinci though Campenni would be the most likely candidate on the defensive line. This is our biggest issue that will prevent success going forward once we get a true D-1 QB. I saw Crozier in at guard and it may be time to look past Samra and start someone else there the rest of the way. On defense Stapleton should take over for the senior at DE/OLB. Play the young QB only and find out if progress can be made. The year has been all over the place on offense which is on the coaches as they were indecisive from the get go. In the 3rd Q after Johnson had a nice run on 2nd down he goes to the bench, we bring in a FB and he lead blocks for the QB to run into the line on 3rd and short. Why did we take Johnson out? Why didn't he run it? The coaching on offense has to get better as we will be working with youthful lines for a couple more years. Getting the lines back to where we were in the year we beat South Carolina in the Bowl is Diaco's biggest challenge.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

Yes!

We can b!tch about QB play, play calling andmany other things until we're blue in the face but until we get our offensive line fixed we have no chance of any sustained offensive success.

I don't want to knock anyone but I could easily see not one OL position having the current starter playing there next season.

 

[BNich]

Yes!

We can b!tch about QB play, play calling andmany other things until we're blue in the face but until we get our offensive line fixed we have no chance of any sustained offensive success.

I don't want to knock anyone but I could easily see not one OL position having the current starter playing there next season.

So we can go through this all over again next year?

 

[FfldCntyFan]

So we can go through this all over again next year?

We'll need to for at least some time unfortunately.

I see Rutherford and Crozier as our starting guards and with the experience they received this season they should be reasonably solid from day one and improve as the season moves on.

The most important positions will be our largest question marks which will play a major role in the overall performance of our line. Oak may well become an exceptional center at this level but it would be a lot to expect for him to consistently perform well from day one (or most of his RS frosh year for that matter).

We will return a LT who doesn't have the lateral quickness for the position and a RT who has all the physical and athletic tools to be a top level LT but still spends too much time thinking, not reacting quickly enough to handle the man across from him. I'll be surprised of Levy isn't moved to RT next season and the makeup of the remainder of the line will depend on whether Knappe can handle LT. If it appears coming out of camp that he can, it will be far easier to go forward as stated above. If not, Rutherford may be moved to LT.

The line will get better, much better. It won't happen overnight and thinking it could would not be helpful.