Energy and basics.

[Carl Spackler]

I've been wondering how to put what I'm thinking and feeling into words, but it's not clear, so I'm just startng to type and let it go, it's probably going to sound negative, but it's not. I really hope that the inspiration that led to what happened Saturday continues, and you've got to take a hard look to see what happened and move it along. Energy and basics, two words keep bouncing around in my head, get to that soon. this is going to be a long post, because I have no idea what to write, which means I'm going to write a lot, ad who knows where it goes and ends up.

Absolutely nothing has changed from what I wrote after Louisville. What I mean, is everything I wrote about. How we lost that game. Some didn't understand what I was writing about when I said we lost because of talent alone, they won that game because they had athleticism to make plays we couldn't. Many people around, here, pretty much everybody except one or two, thought I was talking about the dropped balls. It wasn't. I was so disheartened, and angered by that stuff, becasue we could have, and should have won hat game if we did the basics, even a little bit at a time. Not make incredibly athletic plays, just the basics. BUt do it with passion.

Everything was on clear display again on Saturday. Especially if you can get down close to field level. Except this time, for three quarters. We did all the basic things we're capable of, and we did it with passion. Tackling. Passion. Blocking. Passion. We broke their will. OUr fullback plowed a path a mile wide on the running play in the beginnig. Our tacklers destroyed them. Broke them. Not dirty. Not head hunting. CLEAN. Broken wills.

But - The fourth quarter Rutgers rang up? The 92 yard pass play? #17 pulled away from everybody on our team like we were standing still. During the game, There was a kickoff coverage where #6 in white took the kick and our #15 came down with a full head of steam, and #15 is one of our biggest, and #15 got him down, but #6 was still going forward. Their #6, on one play we busted, ran to the numbers on one side of the field, then completely reversed field, and from a dead stop sprinted to the other side of the field and outran everybody we've got, we pinned him to the sideline though on that one before he could turn the corner. THey put up two TD's and were ready for another in the fourth quarter, and they moved the ball at will, because our foot came off their throat, and they had better athlets.

But we had one play maker back on the field, make a play. Anyway, hopefully I've made my point, and if not, just line up our players side by side up and down the board, especially on kick units, and do an eye test. I am not speaking badly about our players or insulting, or degrading. I have full trust and expectation that if a guy is 5'9 180 and on the field, he knows what he's got to work with, and he knows that a 6'2" 200 guy that can run, has different tools in the toolbag.

We beat a physically superior team this week, soundly, becase we did do what we're capable of, and they still made lots of plays relying on athleticism, and destroyed us in the fourth quarter.

We lost to a physically superior team last week, because we didn't do what we're capable of, and they simply made plays relying on athleticism. Louisville did not play much better, at all, than Rutgers did. We didn't bring the energy, and we didn't do the basics. We brought both on Saturday, and we'll need both again next saturday if we're going to put together our first win streak of the season.

And speaking of #6's, ours had a really nice game, and I was so proud. Husky pride. FOr everybody. I hope that what I write here today, doesn't get misinterpreted. I had a smile on my face on Saturday, that well, my wife made a funny comment about it after the game, because there's only one thing that compares to it other than football, and you make babies doing it.

BUT:

It's never as good as it seems and it's never as bad as it seems, and it's just my personality I suppose, who I am, in that it's now Sunday night, and for as good as I felt, it's time to strip everything down, and what I remember the most, was the fourth quarter of that game, and everything about Louisville.

WHY? only reason I can come up with is between the ears and in the chest. Basics and energy.

We simply cannot ever, EVER take the foot off the gas. It's not who we are. In the fourth quarter of that game, the throttle came off.

and here I go again, with the stream of consciousness, we punched the ball in when we got close on Saturday, but there were at last 4 plays I can think of, where were running free with our players, but some thoroughbred racehorse in white comes all the way across the field at an angle and stops us from taking all the way to the goal. So we've got to run a few more plays to get it across, when just a little more speed, and we're in. It's who we are, and we have to play the game to fit who we are.

Energy and basics.

We are who we are, and I am not speaking ill of any athlete, I love my Huskies. But we need to work harder, play smarter and be more focused and play with more "want to" and heart and passion then our opponents.

It was there on Saturday, which means it was there the week before in practice, I hope it's there again this week. and again, i'm incoherent...but energy.

Special teams / tackling. Kicker puts the ball through the back of the endzone? Pretty good sign every body is pumped. Guys making tackles? The kind of tackles that break an opponents will? But oh year, kicker kicks the ball out of bounds on a kickoff too? Basics.

Energy.

So many MVP's on Saturday, but it's who we are. WE don't have stables and stables full of thoroughbreds. We don't have race horses. We don't have physical specimens that make you go hmm all over the field.

When we play well, every single player is contributing evrything they got, and they all shine.

Anyway, no - I haven't been drinking.

Just hoping that the same passion and energy and focus and discipline that went into kicking the out of Rutgers ----- FOR THREE QUARTERS......

Just want that for four quarters on SAturday. WE still have't done it. And we still haven't won back to back games this year.

Now would be a great time

and once again, to all the seniors, the rest of the team and the coaches, thanks for making the final home game of the season so enjoyable. It was one of the nicest days.

Unfortunately though, it's just who I am, it's never as good as it seems, its never as bad.

 

[businesslawyer]

No matter how long you take to make your point, I still disagree that either Louisville or Rutgers had more talent up and down the roster than we did. Mohammed Sanu is, by far, the most athletic playmaker in the Big East. But we were more talented in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

 

[noeynox]

No matter how long you take to make your point, I still disagree that either Louisville or Rutgers had more talent up and down the roster than we did. Mohammed Sanu is, by far, the most athletic playmaker in the Big East. But we were more talented in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

Have to agree here. I don't think they have single player on either line that starts over our guys. That includes "four star recruits" like Scott Valone and Art Forst. Vallone is a nice player, but for us he is maybe the third or fourth tackle. Trevardo Williams out quicked and overpowered their tackles all day. There were a couple of noticeable holds that didn't get called against Trevardo, one of which was on the fourth down conversion to their full back over Blidi's outstretched finger tips.

I do agree that we need our WRs in the future to have some of the tools that theirs have.

 

[Carl Spackler]

You cannot coach height, weight, speed business lawyer. I don't know a single football player or coach that doesn't know it, whereve they happen to be on the spectrum.

You don't win alone with height, weight and speed either, I am not saying that. this is where people misundrstand what I am writing.

Randy Edsall actually spoke eloquently about what I'm writing once. Idon't remember when. BUt he went into detail about how a play can work out exactly as it's drawn up to work out, and everyboy does EXACTLY what they'r supposed to do. The only dffernce in those situations, in the difference between a successful and unsuccessful play, is the talent level. The UN-coachables,and how those matchups play out wherever the ball happens to be on the field.

Trevardo Williams is one of those kinds of guys. He might not have the height, or weight, but he's got the speed, and when everything works out right, and he's 1-1 with a tackle on pass rush, he's goingto win that battle and affect the play, by getting to the ball with speed.

Anyway, i just want to see the same kind of energy, because we need everybody to play to their capababilities for us to be successful, on every play. We can't rely on what Rutgers relied oto put up nearlly 300 yards of offense in the fourth quarter, and what louisville relied on to beat us.

We see differently on this. I believe we are better in the trenches than Rutgers, by far. We weren't against Louisville. I think we're technically and skilled better than Louisivelle in the trenches.

 

[Carl Spackler]

Man, I wish I knew how to communicate what I'm talking about better.

Oh well. How many people have actually competed in athletics at a high level? Coaching or playing, any sport?

Not everybody on the field is equal.

Unless you've been running full speed, pouring every ounce of everything you've got, and simply watched another guy pull away for you, or watched another guy run you down and there's nothing you can do, I guess you can't understand.

It's why I was so pained after the Louisville game, because we ruined our chances to win, not because we couldn't catch a player in a footrace, but because we didn't do basics and we didn't have the energy, and I'm so concerned about the Cincy game, because we need to find that same focus, but it's harder to do after a win, than it is after a loss.

 

[noeynox]

Unless you've been running full speed, pouring every ounce of everything you've got, and simply watched another guy pull away for you, or watched another guy run you down and there's nothing you can do, I guess you can't understand.

I get this. And I don't want to speak for anyone else but I would guess most on the board would as well. At certain skill positions they had more skill and nowhere was that more evident than at WR. We simply don't have the same slew of athletes they have at the position. Look at the other positions. Their RBs are nothing to write home about. Jamison looked slow to me, Huggins earlier in the year ran very upright to my eyes. Deering is a WR masquerading as a RB. While not a great athlete, McCombs is probably a better RB than anything they have. We have better or equal tight ends. The only LB who can't match up athletically would be Jory Johnson probably. Their DBs, not single one stood out as a stud to me, while I think Blidi and Gratz are both very good, and Byron Jones is a stud athlete to my eyes.

I hate the premise of your point, because it somewhat validates the mantra the RU fans like to repeat. We recruit better (according to the recruiting rankings), so they view losing to UConn as some sort of insult.

I think the major reason you don't see a dominant, consistently highly ranked program in the Big East, is because by and large the talent is pretty equal. It is why SU can pound WVU, we pound SU, and WVU pounds us and so on and so on.

I do think both their QBs Dodd and Nova are better than/have better tools than JMac and that makes their WRs look better as well.

 

[Carl Spackler]

I think it's because of being such crazed fans, which is not a bad thing, but I don't believe that when I write the things I have, that I am insulting our players in any way, and I also do not believe that I am supporting the concept that because TEAM X has a higher star ratings in their recruiting classes, they should win more, or be insulted at lsoing to a team with less stars or however you want to say that.

The bottom line is that Rutgers put up just under 300 yards of offense and nearly 3 TDs if not for a fantastic play on the ball from Blidi in a single quarter, and they did it for one reason only.

They're athletes were faster, bigger and stronger around the ball. Seriously, go rewatch #17 do the 92 yard dash and be accelerating away from our team from the 30 yard line in to the endzone. WAtch him pull the ball in for a long grab between two defenders trying to jump for it.

We played like we were capable of and we went up 40-10, and at the end of the third quarter, the crowd gave a standing O. I don't remember the last time that happened. I was SO happy, but then the fourth quarter happened.

Do I need to bring up the former head coach again? Fourth quarters?

I said to myself, oh boy, don't let off the gas. But we did, and they ran right past us.

We simply can't do that. We don't have the ability to get it back quickly, the points, the momentum.

Foot on the throat, all the time.

That's what I hope happens next week. I'm not going to write any more on this, because it's not turning out to be what I'd hoped.

 

[noeynox]

Brandon Coleman's physical capabilities are impressive no doubt about it. He looks like Kenny Britt part two right down to the inconsistent hands. He is a true freshman. His long TD catch and run looked an awful lot like Marcus Easly's catch and run against WVU a few years back. Sanu while a way better player probably doesn't have the raw athleticism of Coleman or even CT native Mark Harrison.

At WR they have athletes we cannot match man for man. I don't feel the same about other positions across the board. We can agree to disagree here. We need to land those type of athletes at the WR spot going forward. Edsall rarely did, and one walked on to his team, he languished on the bench til his Sr year.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Dogmania-ish in length sans the positives.

We won, and they lost. Even better multiple time zones removed from The Rent, a typically over-confident, loud-mouthed Rutgers' fan / colleague now owes me dinner.

 

[Duncan Idaho]

Carl,
I think the confusion came as a result of you also saying that the kids failed to make plays that they were capable of making and/or had made in the past. IMHO the kids came out with a lack of focus coming off a bye week right from the opening kick.

 

[SAMCRO]

Rutgers was not physically superior. They were better at some positions, and we were better at some positions, but IMO the talent level was pretty even when you add it all up. Sanu is a stud, and probably the best athlete on the field, they had better WR play, but they didn't have an answer for Nick Williams returning kicks, and we owned the trenches on both sides of the ball. I'd take our LB's too. RB's were a push, secondary was a push (although ours definitely had a better day on Saturday). I think UConn was more prepared to play, and Schiano was out coached (he owned Edsall, but PP owns him).

 

[ZooCougar]

Rutgers imploded. We made them pay for it. That was how the game was won.

I can't believe teams still bother to kick to Nick Williams.