Undone

Not as much of a prediction this Saturday but more of a hope. I hope that Maurice Washington traveled to Madison and has a huge day. And then if this one is even remotely close, we're going to need to make every field goal we kick. So, Barret Pickering?

I'm going to take some advice from Iron Mike Riley for this one and just "shove it all deep down inside, just shove it down..."

I laughed hard. So good. You wrote this three hours ago and you're on Mountain Time. Just making sure you're ok, JJ...

*Standard Wisconsin Disclaimer - I'd trade the past seven years of our program's history for Wisconsin's in a heartbeat, etc. I hope there aren't too many parallels because the "Barry Alvarez Blueprint" never involved hauling in Top 20 recruiting classes to actually scratch through to the top tier that wins national championships.

Most of all of this is bulletin board material. Because we don't really know what's going on behind the scenes. But we do have some data points. The coaches publicly made mention that Bell "Felt sorry for himself" after Devine practiced better and then beat him out for the starting role. We can probably pretty accurately assume that Ozigbo beat him out again and won the starting spot for tomorrow night. So although we don't ever know for sure, if I had a gun to my head and was forced to guess, I'd guess that Bell felt so sorry for himself this week that he just quit. But with that said, I'm definitely of the opinion that Frost and his guys aren't above reproach. It might be a learning experience to maybe keep the specifics out of the pressers. Maybe. I don't know. Or maybe it's intentional to find the guys that really are motivated when they're down to fight harder. I've said this so many times - we know for a fact that Osborne's practices were grouped by units that were competing hard to win spots on the depth chart. A starting role wasn't ever guaranteed.

I'm not sure what "red/white hater blockers" are or what they do. Ozigbo is averaging 5.7 yards per carry, whereas Bell is at 4.9. That might be good to factor in as it pertains to " a glimpse of reality."

I'd love to see him actually going as hard as he can in a scheme where the field is spread out a little bit as opposed to slamming into a big mixing bowl of sweaty bodies between the hashes like Riley schemed up.

I think Buster was inferring the Ozigbo is #1, Washington is #2, so who actually is #3?

He had 170 yards rushing on 17 attempts. That's 10 yards per carry. You said: So, what was the point you were trying to make?

Pose your best theory about what's afoot with Frost's program, please.

The 582 total yards on offense against Purdue say "hello."

...and that he was taking his Vitamin C this week! Seriously though.

So I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Greg didn't like that our coaches told the media that he "Felt sorry for himself after Ozigbo was named the starter for Purdue" and that this basically prompted him to quit after another week of practice showed Ozigbo ahead of him. If that is the case...seriously...these kids need to toughen up their minds and FIGHT. I can see how somebody might say, "Yeah...but maybe the coaches need to keep those details private." Sure, maybe. But everybody is given a chance to play. That's the Osborne template. Work your a** off in practice and try to become the starter. Am I missing something here?

What I'm addressing is people saying "Good riddance." How does that apply in Bell's case? When someone quits who's barely getting snaps and is pretty ineffective in the game when they do get snaps, it doesn't really hurt the team that much. But when somebody who has actually been contributing quits, that hurts the team. Imagine if Ozigbo gets injured tomorrow...

@Mavric posted some good stats that showed that his Yards Per Carry stats were actually really decent against Colorado and Troy. I'm not sure how anybody can say "Good riddance" on this one. We hadn't played nearly enough football yet. This one is really surprising here, and definitely sucks.

I wouldn't describe what we saw last year or these first four games as being a "toughness" problem. It's more in the neighborhood of what @Guy Chamberlin described as "skittish." But I haven't really seen it in our offense that much this season. Our offense's mentality has looked solid. I saw it on defense against Michigan and Purdue, and it feels like more of just a lack of passion for even being out there on the field. Or an apathy. Somewhere in there. Not in all of the guys but in some of them. It's possible that it sets in when we're down in the first quarter. That's why I really thought the Purdue game was going to be completely different when we scored first. But coming out of halftime it was like the defense just didn't have even half the passion they had at any single point in the Colorado game.

I feel like I've noticed that Frost likes to start off the first couple of series on offense very conservatively. Inside zone hand offs until it's 3rd &4 and then we throw, etc., etc. And that makes sense; not knocking that at all - that's what most teams do. You try to establish the run early. But that isn't going to work in this one. Seriously. So why not go to the edges early. Run Spielman on the jet sweep. Play action on a 2nd & 4 and try to find Morgan deep down field, etc. We're not going to win this one any other way as far as I can tell. Come at them with some crazy s*** right out of the gate. There is quite literally nothing to lose here. You lose by playing aggressively, you're 0-5. You lose by playing conservatively...you're still 0-5.

Frost has already moved our offense forward from last year after just four games. In our 42-35 loss to Oregon last year we had 361 yards of offense. In our 46-36 win over Arkansas State, we had 497 yards of total offense. We've cracked over 560 twice this season, both against Power 5 teams. It's fine if that's not enough data for anyone else but for me it shows it's moving in the right direction for sure in terms of scheme and execution. Take out the penalties and turnovers and this offense is pretty damn good. But defense...defense is just absolutely terrible. It hasn't really improved at all from last year, and I think it's even fair to say that it might have gotten worse. That's troubling.

Ha, I know. Then Northwestern plays Michigan and gets off to a 17-0 lead. Winds up losing 20-17, but still. It boggles the mind at how our defense not only doesn't show up for some games but then gives up after roughly a quarter of football.

And there seems to be more to it than just "not wanting to be here." Reading between the lines, Lindsey seemed like a guy who wanted to be here...but he simultaneously expected to put in a 'Mike Riley level of practice effort' into it and still fully expected to get equal reps and light it up. I could be wrong about that, but I think that's what we're seeing. As I said earlier in the thread, not hard to figure out that talent wasn't being fully developed and being reflected in an improved product on the field. These guys were led by a staff that apparently didn't equate practice effort, intensity and repetition with success (or just didn't really care enough about the results on the field to work the guys hard enough).

Agreed.

This is good stuff.

I don't know that it's all that clear cut. I'm not necessarily disagreeing, but Wisconsin's schedule wasn't nearly as tough as Alabama's. *Standard Disclaimer -- I'd trade places any day with where Wisconsin's program has been the past 5-8 years. Their program has been consistently good and we're a dumpster fire. Here was Wisconsin's schedule last year: September 1 8:00 p.m. Utah State* No. 9 Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI ESPN W 59–10 75,324 September 9 11:00 a.m. Florida Atlantic* No. 9 Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI BTN W 31–14 77,542 September 16 2:30 p.m. at BYU* No. 10 LaVell Edwards Stadium • Provo, UT ABC W 40–6 61,143 September 30 11:00 a.m. Northwestern No. 10 Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI ABC W 33–24 80,584 October 7 7:00 p.m. at Nebraska No. 9 Memorial Stadium • Lincoln, NE (Rivalry) BTN W 38–17 89,860 October 14 2:30 p.m. Purdue No. 7 Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI BTN W 17–9 78,580 October 21 11:00 a.m. Maryland No. 5 Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI FOX W 38–13 78,058 October 28 11:00 a.m. at Illinois No. 5 Memorial Stadium • Champaign, IL ESPN W 24–10 42,101 November 4 11:00 a.m. at Indiana No. 4 Memorial Stadium • Bloomington, IN ABC W 45–17 43,027 November 11 2:30 p.m. No. 25 Iowa No. 6 Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI (Rivalry) ABC W 38–14 80,462 November 18 11:00 a.m. No. 19 Michigan No. 5 Camp Randall Stadium • Madison, WI FOX W 24–10 81,216 November 25 2:30 p.m. at Minnesota No. 5 TCF Bank Stadium • Minneapolis, MN (Rivalry) ABC W 31–0 47,327 And here was Alabama's: Date Time Opponent# Rank# Site TV Result Attendance September 2 7:00 p.m. vs. No. 3 Florida State* No. 1 Mercedes-Benz Stadium • Atlanta, GA (Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game) ABC W 24–7 76,330 September 9 2:30 p.m. Fresno State* No. 1 Bryant–Denny Stadium • Tuscaloosa, AL ESPN2 W 41–10 101,127 September 16 6:00 p.m. Colorado State* No. 1 Bryant–Denny Stadium • Tuscaloosa, AL ESPN2 W 41–23 101,821 September 23 2:30 p.m. at Vanderbilt No. 1 Vanderbilt Stadium • Nashville, TN CBS W 59–0 40,350 September 30 8:00 p.m. Ole Miss No. 1 Bryant–Denny Stadium • Tuscaloosa, AL (rivalry) ESPN W 66–3 101,821 October 7 6:15 p.m. at Texas A&M No. 1 Kyle Field • College Station, TX ESPN W 27–19 101,058 October 14 6:15 p.m. Arkansas No. 1 Bryant–Denny Stadium • Tuscaloosa, AL ESPN W 41–9 101,821 October 21 2:30 p.m. Tennessee No. 1 Bryant–Denny Stadium • Tuscaloosa, AL (Third Saturday in October) CBS W 45–7 101,821 November 4 7:00 p.m. No. 18 LSU No. 1 Bryant–Denny Stadium • Tuscaloosa, AL (rivalry) CBS W 24–10 101,821 November 11 6:00 p.m. at No. 19 Mississippi State No. 1 Davis Wade Stadium • Starkville, MS (rivalry) ESPN W 31–24 61,344 November 18 11:00 a.m. Mercer* No. 1 Bryant–Denny Stadium • Tuscaloosa, AL SECN W 56–0 101,821 November 25 2:30 p.m. at No. 6 Auburn No. 1 Jordan–Hare Stadium • Auburn, AL (Iron Bowl) CBS L 14–26 87,451 Alabama loses a game to a legitimate Top 10 team while Wisconsin goes undefeated, but Wisconsin only played one decent team (Michigan...barely...they didn't even finish the season in the AP Top 25). Iowa shouldn't have been ranked when they played Wisconsin, and didn't finish the season in the AP Top 25. Wisconsin gets a chance to prove that they can actually beat one of the Top 5-10 teams in the country in the B1G title game and can't do it. Basically, once Urban Meyer and James Franklin came on the scene it's been evident that Wisconsin just can't break through to that elite level.

I realize you were more or less making a pointed joke but I do think they've struggled to have that over the top threat without their star wideout.

Right. Much better to say "Anyone not recruited by Frost, I'd love to see them fully commit to a higher standard of work ethic and practice intensity to become better football players." I'm kind of losing interest in talking about Riley and his "methods" at this point but this to me seems like another piece of evidence for what a lot people were saying at the tail end of last year - Riley's practices just weren't that focused & intense. The icing on that cake was when Charlie McBride went on that podcast after Riley's firing and basically went on a stream-of-consciousness information dump confirming this from all of the different sources that had told him the same thing. Is it hard to see why the product on the field went downhill so fast?