Wistrom Disciple

On 11/27/2019 at 12:18 PM, Jarhead In Red said:

If the plan is to potentially play 70-80 snaps because of "synergy" with the Offense, then that would also seem to put a premium on quality depth on Defense. Chins will have to plan to regularly rotate, especially in the DL, so he will need to stock the roster with competitive backups. I'm sure the walk-on program will help supplement in this area, because you can probably get some quality snaps out of some walk-on upperclassmen on Defense, without needing scholarships.....

Bingo, it appears that we're on our way to that but it will take time. Hopefully the fire Chins crowd will be able to consider this before turning up the heat too much.

On 12/2/2019 at 1:10 PM, alexhortdog95 said:

 

Love ya Knapp, but I gotta disagree with ya on this one, IMHO.

Giving up two large chunk TDs changes a person's offensive game plan when they're down two scores, I'd think.

Who a team is playing (a ball control style offense) matters as well, because possessions will be at a premium sooner rather than later.

 

This offensive scheme will (and does) work, but it's play calling and situational awareness.  For example:

 

Was anyone else bothered that on Luke's play where it seemed that it was hurried  - the 15 yarder against Williams, I believe - that there were NO TIMEOUTS TAKEN there?  That play got sniffed out because it was hurried, but I believe at that time, they had all 3 timeouts (or at least two I believe).  That was so frustrating to me, and yes, I was cursing at Frosty at that point.

Two large chunk TDs can affect the gameplan. However, the plan didn't appear to be working regardless as we punted five times in the first half and we still had the same swing passes for little to no gain whether tied or down two scores. 

Defense stiffened up and performed well enough to get the win, offense failed. Three possessions in the final ten minutes of a tied game and we produce a total of 11 yards with no points... that is an offensive failure in my opinion. 

4 minutes ago, Waldo said:

I keep seeing people say this, or it’s always you, but this makes no sense to me. ST’s has sucked the last two years. We couldn’t kick the ball out of the end zone on KO’s, couldn’t kick field goals, gave up a KR TD today and others. There were a few good tacklers on the punt team, but that’s about it. Linebackers were horrid. Worst position group besides maybe the guards. What makes the LB coaches even worse is that they have missed on so many recruits. Why keep them to potentially stink up the place next year? 

I’m not a huge fan of Chin, but I’m all for the coordinators and Frost staying. But position coaches are interchangeable. If you can’t coach, and can’t recruit, what good are you for the program? 

I'm in the consistency crowd here. I think development comes with time, changing too much staff is detrimental at this point. Think about the Davis twins, they had four different line coaches during their four years. Not to give too many excuses but I can easily understand how their development was negatively impacted by having a different coach every season.

51 minutes ago, Caliborn72 said:

I’m not really sure what Walters does to be honest. He’s landed some decent recruits but even with those it seems like Held is either assisting or the primary recruiter on. We’ve had some attrition of his own recruits, we’ve struggled to get other WRs to step up, and Frost calls the plays. That’s not to say he needs to be on the chopping block but it’s concerning to me that I don’t hear a ton about him.

I was asking myself the same thing a lot this year. I'm sure he does a lot more than I realize but his position group was very rough this season and the offense looked bad more often than it looked good this season. 

Just now, Hilltop said:

Find where Frost listed that as a goal.  You won't.  Look at teams averages on the the year vs their schedule and what they did against us.  Our offense wasn't perfect but want the glaring problem.  Teams set season high after season high against us.  

'Frost said "get to a point where we're giving up less than 30 points per game with the way the offense is going" they'll be pretty good'

Frost's entire philosophy is about up-tempo football that gets frequent chunk plays aimed at being a high scoring offense. When the offense fails to put up points (or first downs), the defense is on the field more often and gets more susceptible to giving up yards, points and eventually records. 

27 minutes ago, Hilltop said:

Nobody wants to listen to reality...  Our defense is a problem, no doubt.  Our offense scored enough too be a 9-10 win team this year.  Of course you can second guess play calling.  Every team can.... Just see Ohio State's forums lol. Hopefully we get some talent in to help in the if season.  Until next year, GBR

I will kindly have to disagree with you. Our offense has been the problem for nearly every game this year. Frost's goal is 30+ points each game. We achieved that in half the games this year. Yes, we had plenty of injuries and we are a young group but our offense was pretty awful by most metrics this year. Defense had a few games of being especially tough to watch but considering the totality of the season, our defense performed better than our offense.

Just now, Ziebol said:

What scheme is that? Give up record setting rushing yards per game?

The scheme that requires a complimentary offense to lend itself well to whats supposed to be an aggressive defense. 

6 minutes ago, Decked said:

I still think next year is when we will truly start seeing increased depth & playmakers. 

 

Reasons why:

 

QB: can’t get any worse or Luke takes over

RB: Mills has improved. Adding two more guys + Johnson is the off tackle/screen guy.

WR: If Spielman stays, Wan’Dale & hopefully a third emerges (Omar Manning Plz god come home). Freshman emerge from S&C and provide way more speed.

TE: There is no way these guys get better but no way they get worse. 
OL: Think we see some massive strides. Farniok at G and Benhart at RT. Depth is coming along I swear.

 

this unit improved due to overall better talent & development along the OL. 
 

 

 

D:

DL takes a slight drop. Need more depth here. grad transfer option would be great. 
LB: if these guys get worse I will off myself. Addition by subtraction. JUCO adds do well hopefully. 
DB: Williams back. Bootle at S. Cam Taylor-Britt & Clark. I think this unit gets better despite losing Lamar. 
 

I think additions by LB/DBs make this group slightly better. Way better If Chin is gone. 

Great post until your last line. More staff upheaval will only delay progress with the younger guys. Why not let them continue to learn the scheme from the staff as they get more of their type of players into the system?

4 minutes ago, r06ue1 said:

Iowa's running back is averaging almost 11 yards per carry, they don't even need to throw the ball, just hand it off on every play and get a touchdown after a few handoffs.  Game over.

True but the younger Ferentz is arrogant and believes his offense can do whatever he wants on us. Hopefully this second half we can serve him some humble pie. If his daddy's isn't the HC, he is a nobody at Iowa.

2 minutes ago, BIGREDIOWAN said:

He can play one more game from my understanding.............He's played 3? 

Correct, he has already appeared in today's game. He is at the limit and not beyond it.

Iowa is home to three solid universities with fantastic fans who are hospitable. In addition they each have great mascots with the Bulldogs, Panthers and Cyclones! 
 

8 minutes ago, Jarhead In Red said:

I couldn't help but think of the Bobby Newcome situation when I heard this.... It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Luke played pretty well, IMO, for such short notice of a WR switch. He had a couple nice catches, and we know he has the speed to do some damage....

Very good point. I wonder if the staff will consider putting all three QBs on the field at the same time in the future? Would provide a wide variety of options and considering Vedral has some burners along with Luke, it could make for some interesting trickery like the Saints do with Brees, Bridgewater & Hill. 

Just now, CAHusker said:

This is such an odd situation.  Crazier is that he must still be in school.  You would have thought he would just drop out and move on by now.

No doubt an odd situation. Makes me wonder whether he is planning to transfer or trying to get his personal life in order. That dragging legal case is not helping in any regard either.

Just now, Undone said:

The whole situation with Washington is a pretty big blow to the turnaround process.

Agreed, he would have been very useful the past month. His situation has contributed to the point of the offense being a letdown this season.

3 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I think the inconsistency on the offense you point out is symptom/by product of the overall problems I pointed out.  Young linemen are going to be inherently inconsistent.  Washington being in and out of the lineup with suspensions and injuries.  Kade Warner being injured impacting the outside blocking and taking away a reliable route-runner.  Relying on Wandale to take more of a burden on the offense was needed until he became too injured to play.  New guys like Mills and Noa taking a few games to find a groove with the offense.  Martinez taking on a giant burden of the offense and fans' expectations being a bit high for him.

True, all true which is why I have been more disappointed with the offense. The same problems are plaguing the team that we've had for a few years now on that side of the ball... namely turnovers, sacks and questionable play calls. 

3 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I had high expectations for the offense, but given all of what I stated above, I am not as disappointed with the offense.  I understand why they are struggling out there at times.

 

I am more disappointed with the defense, given the experience which returned.  I thought a veteran group would improve more.  They are basically the same defense against teams NU played last year, so it appears to be both a scheme and talent issue.

Fair point, but defense has had their own share of injuries this year too. I will agree that the experience level returning should have helped more than it has but they have performed as most expected in being middle of the road this year. But we haven't really had a clean game offensively since the NIU game. No doubt we've had some flashes since then and looked to have a good one going with Indiana but too often we've shot ourselves in the foot offensively. Hopefully these are learning lessons for the group and we'll be better for it going forward.

5 minutes ago, Undone said:

 

This is kind of a perplexing statement.

How so? Between the offense or the defense, which side has been more of a letdown this season for you? 

My take -- Too much hype before the season (Heisman talk, scoring explosion, etc.) that all tended to focus on the offense performing well in year two. I don't recall anybody suggesting our defense was expected to be a top 10-20 type. So in that regard, I am more disappointed in our offensive output than our defensive performance overall.

3 minutes ago, TheSker said:

Typing "fire Chinander" every other post doesn't solve a thing.  There's a high chance he's the D coordinator next season.

 

It was being pointed out at the time that our offense was coming up empty too often in the red zone.

Great point. A lot of criticism has been heaped on Chins and the defense this year... some of that has been deserved. However, Frost & staff were known for the offensive prowess, not that they were a powerhouse defensive group. I would argue the offense has been the more disappointing of the two this year.

I do believe it is important to keep the staff together for at least next season. The carousel of defensive coaches has gone on for too long.

19 minutes ago, lo country said:

Just saw Mills only got 5 carries the second half.......

Frustrating but we were down two scores so we got pass happy.

Good points, @BigRedBuster. If we could rely on our kicking game and make the nine points, it's a much different outlook on the game. 

11 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

Nobody was saying the kicking game and having good kickers weren’t important. You just seemed so bent on making comments that good teams don’t go for 4th downs and prefer taking the 3 points. That’s where I disagree with you. 

You're making too many assumptions.

22 minutes ago, JJ Husker said:

If the point is that winning programs should have a kicker they can rely on and should take 3 points when it makes sense, I’m in agreement. But the problem here is obviously we don’t have that kicker and it is unlikely to change this season, so it doesn’t make much sense to complain when Frost chooses to forego a FG attempt that most capable teams could make. We just aren’t proficient in that area. I would hope Frost makes remedying this a priority, along with all aspects of special teams.

Thank you for stating this in a different way, exactly my point. My hope is that Frost will be able to kick when it makes sense in the future and not fall too in love with his own play calling. 

22 minutes ago, knapplc said:

 

When we have a trustworthy kicking game, we'll likely be a winning program.

 

We aren't losing because we don't trust our kickers. We don't trust our kickers because they're either not very good, injured, or guys recruited from the soccer team.

Bingo! I agree with both points. Kicking isn't costing us games (except Colorado) but it is a sign of a good, winning program for both college and the NFL.

Just now, ColoradoHusk said:

Pickering has not been trust worthy this season, and showed it again today. He has also probably  told Frost what his range is, and I don’t think it’s 50+. 

I'm not going to assume what their private conversations are and I would recommend none of us do that.

3 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

Wisconsin is a winning program, but they went for it on 4th and 6 from NU’s 26 yard line. That is going against your argument. Which one is it? Are they a smart and winning program because they were successful on that 4th down attempt? 

Valid point. Statistics would indicate that it was not a wise idea to go for it at that range. But as you justified with Nebraska going towards the South endzone... they were going into the wind. 

Maybe I should simplify the point... winning programs need to trust their kicking game. 

6 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

The first missed FG forced Frost to go for it from 4th and 4 in the 4th quarter. If Pickering makes that first FG, Frost probably attempts a short field goal to bring the score within 7. You seem to be arguing against the 4th down attempts because of the results of the plays. 

No, I thought today's risks were justified. My contention from the thread you're referencing is that we cannot assume failure in the kicking game 100% of the time. 

Thought I was done but I couldn't ignore the notification. I understand the propensity to distrust kickers. I guess I'm just more optimistic about Pickering.

1 minute ago, ColoradoHusk said:

You probably think Wisconsin is a winning program

Yes, as would most of America... and statisticians.