Caliborn72

Our ILBs can actually move side to side this year so I feel good about that but they’re going to be tested physically this week and in the coming weeks.

There’s a saying in college football that bad teams can use the excuse that they are young for as many years as they’d like to keep excusing bad football. The irony is that you stop being a young team by playing young guys. Sure there will be mistakes and road bumps, but good players develop and learn from their mistakes by getting game experience. I mean, a true freshman Ty Robinson got thrown to the wolves on the road against Wisconsin. Surely we gave up new rushing records to Wisconsin that game! But instead, he held his own and looked good and gave us a ton to be excited about the potential of his future. It’s how you get multi-year starters capable of all-conference or all-American teams. Some of the most encouraging news to me is that Teddy P is shooting up the depth chart.

- Martinez gets a lot of criticism, some of it deserved. But the overwhelming sentiment I’ve seen from neutral observers is that he is the only player saving us from an even worse record and I have to agree. He makes some mistakes but also makes magic happen even if it hasn’t resulted in enough Ws. - If that undefeated season at UCF was at all flukey, their OLine wasn’t. They completely shifted the LOS against Auburn in that bowl game. Probably the one assistant I truly trusted on the offense to produce results but it hasn’t been good enough unfortunately. - Special teams and bad penalties continue to be absurd. - Moral victories suck but that was a hard fought game and the team was fired up. It honestly felt like we had Riley a little scared and he just tried to get out of there without an upset loss.

Lmao oh cmon

DLine not looking good so far. Been a strength to start the year, we need them to show up.

Sounds like the only missing starter is Oliver Martin.

Can’t even be mad at this point lol.

I’m also a little concerned about next year’s defense. We lose Stille, Domann, Dismuke, and Williams. I’m not sure that CTB and Daniels would have much more to gain from another year in college and I wouldn’t be surprised if they made the jump, even if they don’t receive excellent draft grades. I actually like the next man up on the DLine with Rogers, Riley, and Thomas. While I like the potential in the DB room, that’s where I am most concerned for next year until we see we have legit replacements.

Fisch is doing a surprisingly decent job of recruiting despite being a relative no name at a basketball school.

Darby is a depth piece at WR but Washington is their starting corner.

I like that a lot. He deserves a lot of criticism as a head coach but I’m also interested to see where Helton goes as an OC. That would be a dynamite hire for whoever gets him.

Good size and film. Watching his highlights, I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up at safety. Not exactly a magnificent offer list which means his rating is probably right about in line, but I do like the offers he does have. Would feel great if he was a 2nd CB/S of the class, less so if he’s the only take.

Maybe it’s bias but I think Iowa is a touch overrated so far. But these guys are the real deal:

There have definitely been some missteps by the staff - not to harp on them because it happens everywhere - but some unfortunate ones that have hurt in the long run. That said, even though it didn’t work out how we all hoped, I thought the Luke McCaffrey recruitment was a very unique and awesome idea by the staff. At the time (can’t stress enough that I mean at the time), we had a true freshman, future Heisman candidate at QB. Luke was a 4-star ATH with a 2-star QB offer list but wanted to play QB. Frost basically said, “look it’s going to take you a couple of years of development, you know that, but in a couple years, Adrian will be leaving to the pros. And then you’ll be our guy.” I thought Mario and Frost were going to turn him into a beast QB. Injuries, the pandemic, and some weird stuff has pretty much guaranteed that Adrian will be here for this year and another year and I can’t blame Luke for realizing he wasn’t going to get the chance he thought he was at QB. If he would have accepted a gadget role, we’d no doubt be utilizing him but he didn’t want that. Can’t blame him but it worked out for both parties.

Feel bad for POB going to a promising type of offense under Bobo and then dealing with an awful coaching change, then going to Washington where they hired an absolute dud of an OC.

Greg Bell is one of the best RBs in the MWC and someone we could have used but he was promised a starting job here and got mad when he lost it and left. Avery Roberts is one of the best LBs in the Pac12 and definitely the one that hurts the most in my opinion but for whatever reason he and Ruud didn’t click and it’s possible Roberts would never have put in the work here and needed the change of scenery. I’m actually glad for Wan’Dale that he’s flourishing. I think it was a loss but Toure is amazing.

I really want to believe you here but you’re also the guy who was adamant that Moos and the boosters had an impeccable relationship just weeks before he left, and that was always one of the most laughably incorrect statements posted on the board even without the benefit of hindsight. That relationship was rocky from day 1 here. It’s made me wonder if you’re an Iowa fan in disguise who is having fun at our expense by seeing what you can get us to believe lol.

Yup, very fair point. Chins has gotten some varied success with safety blitzes here but that’s about it and we’ve been burned when it hasn’t worked. Meanwhile, they have:

Very interested in their game against Colorado this week. Line initially opened Minnesota -3 but quickly flipped to Colorado, and now looks like a pick’em. Two good running teams that can’t throw. Colorado’s front 7 is good but Minnesota’s OLine is monstrous. Should be a good matchup there. Would say take the under as I don’t see either team all of a sudden learning how to throw the ball.

100%. Even if things were rolling and we had a legitimate chance of beating Oklahoma, next week is a game you circle as one that has potential to be extra tricky. We are going to get banged up this week, that’s just the nature of playing an elite opponent, especially a “rival.” Must come out as unscathed as possible so we aren’t hurting next week and so we don’t let Oklahoma beat us twice. On the other side of things, I think we are going to beat them up as well and I would say the same thing about them circling West Virginia next week as a tricky opponent coming off a game against us even if they end up covering the spread.

NW and Youngstown State aren’t exactly a daunting duo but I’ve definitely been impressed most with the Michigan State OLine through 2 weeks. Maybe we shock the world in Norman but assuming we lose that game, the Michigan State game becomes one of the most important of the season. With a weak NW after, we’d have a shot to be 4-2 with momentum against a tough Michigan team in Lincoln.

Still not *entirely* sure about what Lubick does here but his connections getting us Toure was an absolute season changer. Hats off to him for that. Still concerned about conference play and we should have been 3-0 at this point but there are still chances at a bowl game.

Illinois did a much better job taking away Martinez, Buffalo looking lost every time he scrambles.

Now end this half up. Too many times our defense holds stout and then gives up a score right after we get one lol.