Mavric

UCLA ties it at 10 early in the 3rd

Apparently we aren't playing as much like Michigan State's defense as the stories went leading up to the season:

Honestly, I'm not as bothered by the deep throws. As a few have pointed out, the coverage hasn't been THAT bad, just the throws have been right on the money. Unfortunately after three games and four different quarterbacks, it's more of a trend than a fluke. But we're bound to get some stops - and we did break up a couple as the game went on today. My bigger problem is we give up way to many "easy" throws. Plays where they can run down the field and run some sort of a curl/out at about 10 yards and get a completion that does not require nearly as good of a throw from the QB. Those are the play that will still be easy to complete even if the QBs/WRs we're playing aren't as good. But when the DB has to cover the receiver anywhere on the field, he can't help but try to play off and try not to get beat deep but that opens up the sort stuff. To me, you have to give more help so that the DBs don't have to cover every route. If you have a safety over the top on the wide side of the field, those DBs know they can play more aggressive on the shorter routes. And play a LB in the flat on the short side. The LB can take away the shorter throws with the corner handling the deep stuff. That seems quite do-able without a large change in scheme. But despite what people though they saw in the second half against BYU or what the coaches have been saying, so far we don't seem willing to make changes. What I saw today - which is just a first impression - is that the only reason we were able to come back today was that Miami went completely away from their offense after going up 27-3 early in the second half. Instead of attacking down the field with a fast paced offense, they slowed everything down and ran more "safe" plays. They still threw the ball, but didn't stretch the field very much.

That was nuts. One of those "What the h@!!! are you doin....... GREAT PLAY!!!!!" plays.

That's true. And for those loving this new system where we stop the run and take our chances with the pass: 2014: 23 carries for 76 yards, 3.3 ypc (with a RB who is now starting in the NFL) 2015: 33 carries for 132 yards, 4.0 ypc (after their starting RB got hurt and is out for the season)

It's mostly scheme. It was perfectly illustrated by Kaaya today. Miami motioned from two receivers on each side to trips to the wide side of the field, Kaaya's right-hand side and thus the easier side to read and throw to. From the motion, he could tell that he had man coverage on all three receivers. He audibled to the play he wanted and then all he had to do was find one of those three receivers who beat their coverage. That particular play ended up being an incomplete pass iirc, but it's extremely unlikely that all three guys having to play man coverage with 2/3 of the field to cover are all going have good enough coverage to prevent a throw. They have to defend deep and short, inside and outside. That's simply asking too much.

This is nice to try to say but the guy had on catch for 11 yards against Gardner-Webb. He's go two catches for 52 yards against San Diego State with 44 seconds to play. At this point I think it's fair to say we just made him look REALLY good.

High School stars are a specious argument. I sure hope Riley leaves the next guy some good recruits after he's gone. Because frankly.. this years recruiting class could use some DL and DB in it. Yep, not enough talent now. Riley's staff hasn't had enough time to REALLY start getting the recruits they want. But that 2017 class ... watch out. So somewhere around 2019 we should start to see things turn around.

Just for comparison, last year Ameer averaged 6.5 yards per carry against Miami. Today Newby averaged 5.9. That's not a huge difference. But Ameer got 21 more carries last year than Newby got this year. Speaking to HuskerfaninOkieland's point, It's also quite possible that if you give a guy more carries, the bigger plays are more likely to show up. This year we ran it 41% of the time against Miami. Last year it was 80%. Some of that had to do with how the game unfolded no doubt. But that's quite the disparity.

At least they can blame the REST of their losses on being in the SEC. I mean ... I'm assuming they'll beat Tennessee-Martin but.....

Is this the same deal as when people were saying Heard and Green should have been getting more carries instead of Burkhead and Abdullah?

... which is what was said after BYU. And we said ..... something about it after USA.

Agree with Enhance89. And if that's the case you have two options: 1 - Find a way to get more pressure 2 - Don't play all single coverage So far we've done neither. Though the caveat is it's not the the opposing QBs have been standing back there for 7-8 seconds looking for someone. For the most part, the ball has come out fairly quickly so it's tough to get much pressure no matter what you do.

On stats? No. Not even close. Today: 21-45, 309 yards, 4 TDs, 3 INTs; 11 carries for 49 yards, 0 TDs Holiday Bowl vs. USC: 32-51, 381 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT; 12 carries for 41 yards, 1 TD But I give him credit that it definitely FELT like he was playing a good game today (right up to the last pass). He had some drops but even after those his percentage wasn't as good as I thought. And a couple of the drops weren't the greatest passes either. But he made some good plays when we needed them. And he scrambled well, picked up a couple good gains where there wasn't much there. Should have scrambled one more time.....

Are we still going with the "we're holding things back" theory?

The refs seemed to be quite particular about formations. I don't think I've ever seen so many called in a game before and on both sides too. That's what people said after the BYU game as well but they were all legit penalties - against both teams. I know on of our illegal formation penalties was completely legit. We had trips to the bottom of the screen and they were confused about how to line up. I saw it before the snap. One other time they called Gates for not being on the line. That can maybe be argued to be somewhat nit-picky as tackles are often pushing the limits but it's fairly common to have that called once or twice per game.

This assumes that you played as well as could reasonably be expected to get to both those points. No, the sky is not falling. But to point out that both games were close at the end falls well short of telling the story.

We sometimes play Cover 1 but there is way more Cover 0 that I would have ever guessed. I would challenge anyone to find another college team that plays half as much Cover 0 as we are playing right now.

.... on defense. There was not much for offensive talent on the 08 team. Joe Ganz Roy Helu Marlon Lucky Quentin Castille Meno Holt Nate Swift Todd Peterson Mike McNeill RB is the only spot that has noticeably more talent. Ganz may have a slight edge over TA in terms of talent but not by a lot. I love the Swift-Peterson-McNeill trio but there is no way they are more talented than Westerkamp-DPE-Carter. The offenses are nearly identical. A little bit here, a little bit there, the only difference. Basically a tossup. Should we compare defenses? Because that's where the HUGE difference is, and it's not even close. Hence the odd votes for 2015, because that 2008 team would demolish this team. It's hard to tell how much talent there is on defense when they are constantly put it terrible positions.

What evidence is there that the team isn't accepting the coaching?

True. But the mindset? Like we did last year?

.... on defense. There was not much for offensive talent on the 08 team. Joe Ganz Roy Helu Marlon Lucky Quentin Castille Meno Holt Nate Swift Todd Peterson Mike McNeill RB is the only spot that has noticeably more talent. Ganz may have a slight edge over TA in terms of talent but not by a lot. I love the Swift-Peterson-McNeill trio but there is no way they are more talented than Westerkamp-DPE-Carter.

.... on defense. There was not much for offensive talent on the 08 team.

That would have to be pretty darned unmotivated against a team that turned it over 5 times and barely completed 50% of their passes.