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- Aug 24, 2011
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Well, that was easy. Shockingly easy. I thought we could shut them down, but I didn’t think we could shred them offensively the way we did. Their body language in the second half was like nothing I’ve seen before at the Rent. Those players couldn’t wait to get the game behind them and worry about what they were eating before their trip home. Having sat behind the visitors bench since the date the Rent opened, I’ve never seen a team so obviously quit on themselves.
Another nice fall day for football. Simple tailgate for a noon start — first course of munchkins and mixed fruit, and then French toast and an unbelievable breakfast sausage from Custom Meat in Fairfield, which only purchases from small area farms. And a lot of beer. Crowd was really disappointing. To go downhill from last week’s blow out win was really hard to comprehend. Student section went from full to empty. And the rest of the stadium looked similar. Hopefully, the students come back for the later start next week and we can get the general fan base up at least somewhat as we continue our good play.
Let’s start with special teams this week. We really destroyed them. Freeman was 100%, although we still need to see him make clutch and longer kicks. But all you can do week to week is make the plays you’re asked to make. We shanked the first punt, but killed the next two within the 5. Kickoff coverage was consistently good. And TJ Sheffield was an unbelievable weapon returning punts all day (and kudos to the rest of the punt return unit for helping him).
The defense, for the second straight week, was basically perfect. Both the schemes and the play. When a defense plays like that everyone is doing their job, and it’s hard to single anyone out, but I’ll give three shout outs. One is to Jack Barton. It would be great to have Yates back, but the job the pass rushing Furman transfer did IN COVERAGE on zone blitzes was really top rate. Brown and McDonald are everywhere making tackles, but I expected them to. Hardy at the third LB slot has been making more and more each week and is really carrying his share of the load. And Malcolm Bell, having started for a year and a half, could have sulked when we used NIL funds to bring in players to replace him, but after an early injury there he was, ready to play the same consistent football at corner that he had played as a starter before. Since the pick 6 at Duke (and credit to the Dukies for coming back from 20 down yesterday to remain undefeated), the defense has just been spectacular. Yes, spectacular against our level of opposition, but spectacular nonetheless.
The offense has also been nothing short of spectacular the last two weeks, and FAU and Buffalo were both better defensively than offensively. The running game has simply been spectacular. The yards per carry from each of the TBs yesterday was just great. And the passing game, while not great, was sufficient even before Bell’s two big plays. Blocking by the OL, the TEs and even the wideouts is consistent as anything, and wideouts other than Bell contributing with catches is a big step forward. But the bottom line is you can’t both double cover Bell every play and stack the box against the run. And if we can beat you either way …. I’m not going to say a lot about QB, both because it will be discussed in 80 other threads and because we don’t know what Evers‘ availability will be going forward anyway. Neither is a great college football player by any stretch. But I will say only that the ability of JF to throw downfield, especially with Bell’s ability to make big players, is more important to the offense than having to account for NE in the running game. And that conclusion is not changed at all by whether you think one QB is better than the other,.
So most importantly, where does this leave us going forward? Comparing this team to teams under first Edsall and P is fairly useless as the strength of schedule and quality of opposition is just so different. But I’ll say this. This team is playing far better at home than anyone left on our schedule. Temple next week and Rice are home games that shouldn’t be tons different than our three home games have been to date. Beating UMass even on the road should also not be a challenge. That’s already six wins and bowl eligibility. While maybe Georgia State gives us a game at the Rent, we shouldn’t lose that either. So that’s seven wins and three games worth discussing. Yeah, Wake is a P-4 team but it’s friggin Wake. We would have been favored playing them at home yesterday, before they lost AT HOME to Louisiana Lafayette (they can call it the University of Louisiana all they want, but it’s still ULL). There is absolutely no reason that, with an extra week to prepare and at home, we shouldn’t win that game. So that leaves UAB and Syracuse on the road. We are playing at a level UAB can only dream of, but we haven’t proven we can win on the road so some question there. And Syracuse is a decent football team and it will be on turf at the Dome, so that will be a challenge. But the bottom line is there is no reason we shouldn’t win out on the homestand, get to 7-2, and then how well we can play on the road will define how good the season is. And I will make one more point — this is a very experienced, senior heavy team on both sides of the ball. As fans, this shouldn’t be looked at primarily as a building block for the future — WIN GAMES NOW because, while NIL and the portal means you can rebuild year to year, there is never a guaranty that your rebuild will be successful. We have the ability and the schedule to have a season that changes this 13 year death spiral we’ve been on. It would be a shame to let it go.
Have a good week all. See you next week for what hopefully will be another boring, dominating, easy home victory.
Another nice fall day for football. Simple tailgate for a noon start — first course of munchkins and mixed fruit, and then French toast and an unbelievable breakfast sausage from Custom Meat in Fairfield, which only purchases from small area farms. And a lot of beer. Crowd was really disappointing. To go downhill from last week’s blow out win was really hard to comprehend. Student section went from full to empty. And the rest of the stadium looked similar. Hopefully, the students come back for the later start next week and we can get the general fan base up at least somewhat as we continue our good play.
Let’s start with special teams this week. We really destroyed them. Freeman was 100%, although we still need to see him make clutch and longer kicks. But all you can do week to week is make the plays you’re asked to make. We shanked the first punt, but killed the next two within the 5. Kickoff coverage was consistently good. And TJ Sheffield was an unbelievable weapon returning punts all day (and kudos to the rest of the punt return unit for helping him).
The defense, for the second straight week, was basically perfect. Both the schemes and the play. When a defense plays like that everyone is doing their job, and it’s hard to single anyone out, but I’ll give three shout outs. One is to Jack Barton. It would be great to have Yates back, but the job the pass rushing Furman transfer did IN COVERAGE on zone blitzes was really top rate. Brown and McDonald are everywhere making tackles, but I expected them to. Hardy at the third LB slot has been making more and more each week and is really carrying his share of the load. And Malcolm Bell, having started for a year and a half, could have sulked when we used NIL funds to bring in players to replace him, but after an early injury there he was, ready to play the same consistent football at corner that he had played as a starter before. Since the pick 6 at Duke (and credit to the Dukies for coming back from 20 down yesterday to remain undefeated), the defense has just been spectacular. Yes, spectacular against our level of opposition, but spectacular nonetheless.
The offense has also been nothing short of spectacular the last two weeks, and FAU and Buffalo were both better defensively than offensively. The running game has simply been spectacular. The yards per carry from each of the TBs yesterday was just great. And the passing game, while not great, was sufficient even before Bell’s two big plays. Blocking by the OL, the TEs and even the wideouts is consistent as anything, and wideouts other than Bell contributing with catches is a big step forward. But the bottom line is you can’t both double cover Bell every play and stack the box against the run. And if we can beat you either way …. I’m not going to say a lot about QB, both because it will be discussed in 80 other threads and because we don’t know what Evers‘ availability will be going forward anyway. Neither is a great college football player by any stretch. But I will say only that the ability of JF to throw downfield, especially with Bell’s ability to make big players, is more important to the offense than having to account for NE in the running game. And that conclusion is not changed at all by whether you think one QB is better than the other,.
So most importantly, where does this leave us going forward? Comparing this team to teams under first Edsall and P is fairly useless as the strength of schedule and quality of opposition is just so different. But I’ll say this. This team is playing far better at home than anyone left on our schedule. Temple next week and Rice are home games that shouldn’t be tons different than our three home games have been to date. Beating UMass even on the road should also not be a challenge. That’s already six wins and bowl eligibility. While maybe Georgia State gives us a game at the Rent, we shouldn’t lose that either. So that’s seven wins and three games worth discussing. Yeah, Wake is a P-4 team but it’s friggin Wake. We would have been favored playing them at home yesterday, before they lost AT HOME to Louisiana Lafayette (they can call it the University of Louisiana all they want, but it’s still ULL). There is absolutely no reason that, with an extra week to prepare and at home, we shouldn’t win that game. So that leaves UAB and Syracuse on the road. We are playing at a level UAB can only dream of, but we haven’t proven we can win on the road so some question there. And Syracuse is a decent football team and it will be on turf at the Dome, so that will be a challenge. But the bottom line is there is no reason we shouldn’t win out on the homestand, get to 7-2, and then how well we can play on the road will define how good the season is. And I will make one more point — this is a very experienced, senior heavy team on both sides of the ball. As fans, this shouldn’t be looked at primarily as a building block for the future — WIN GAMES NOW because, while NIL and the portal means you can rebuild year to year, there is never a guaranty that your rebuild will be successful. We have the ability and the schedule to have a season that changes this 13 year death spiral we’ve been on. It would be a shame to let it go.
Have a good week all. See you next week for what hopefully will be another boring, dominating, easy home victory.
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