***** What Did We Learn: Southern Miss Edition *****

[lo country]

Having a special teams coach is worth it?

No

[BIG ERN]

Banker is clueless.
Defense is either running with or behind evey receiver, every play. No help over the top or anywhere.
We can't establish a run game. Wilbon needs to play.

Tommy isn't Dan Marino. Way too many throws, but I do like Langsdorf.

[lo country]

Offense is good.

Special teams are bad

Defense is terrible. Found a way to stop the run. Be so bad a pass defense teams don't run. Genius!

Almost identical to Bo's. Why pass when you can run at will.

With Banker, why run when you can pass at will.....

[lo country]

Banker is clueless.

Defense is either running with or behind evey receiver, every play. No help over the top or anywhere.

We can't establish a run game. Wilbon needs to play.

 

 

Listen to Banker and Stewart after game 2 and see the same issues in game 3 and 4. GUYS HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO FIX THIS.

[Husker NoNo]

The team looked good in the first half, and looked completely disinterested after half time. Almost a complete reversal of the Miami game. I know they have it in them, but I am still looking for the "complete" game.

 

Perhaps we are looking ahead to Illinois?.....

 

Ugh

[BigWillie]

Quite a few coaches with questions to answer this coming week ..

 

Brian Stewart - He just needs to start over. It started with Davie, and now is bleeding to the rest of the secondary. Out of position, and when the DBs are in position, they do not play the ball. It's not that his position group has been bad, it's that they have been horrendously awful.

 

Reggie Davis - His reliance on Newby and Cross needs to be examined. Great, Mikale struggles in pass pro. We have heard it. But it needs to be stated that Mikale is the most gifted runner we have on this roster. Is what we give up in pass pro worth what we give up as a team in our ability to run the ball? Newby and Cross just aren't doing it. Give Wilbon a chance. Give Ozigbo a chance. And please quit trying to make Imani into something he is not. Imani does not fit this offense. He's a short yardage and goal line back. Use him properly or not at all.

 

Bruce Read - I'm still amazed that $500,000 of University money is being spent on this man. His special teams are special, but not in the right way. And the man rarely recruits. What exactly is he providing us, especially at a salary that usually only goes to your best assistant coaches?

 

I mentioned this last week, but I'll say it again - every scholarship on this team needs to be examined and determined whether kids deserve them or not. This is a big time football school, not a candy factory where scholarships should be handed out. You go to any of the big boy schools, and they give you opportunities. You sink or swim. If you are not working out, you find yourself going on a medical hardship or going elsewhere if you still want to play football. It should be no different here.

 

I say this because our depth is still just atrocious. We need the opportunities presented by having extra scholarships to dip into the JUCO ranks and elsewhere to build depth immediately for next season. If we want to be nice guys again, and honor scholarships until guys 4 years are up, I'm betting next year will be no different in how erratic we will be.

[KTaylor]

It's a must to run a trick play in every red zone visit

[Hujan]

The Bad

 

1) T. Newby is the worst running back in the history of football

 

2) We have no playmakers on defense with the exception of Freedom

 

3) Our secondary is the worst secondary in college football

 

4) Drew Brown can't make clutch FGs

 

5) Our coaching staff and QB have no idea how to manage the clock

 

6) We commit way too many penalties

 

 

The Good

 

1) Westerkamp is clutch

 

2) Armstrong is a gamer

 

3) Janovich is a beast

 

4) Freedom is good

 

5) The fly run to Moore is a nice play

[zoogs]

We're very far from where we need to be right now. Here's to a better next week!

[lo country]

Quite a few coaches with questions to answer this coming week ..

 

Brian Stewart - He just needs to start over. It started with Davie, and now is bleeding to the rest of the secondary. Out of position, and when the DBs are in position, they do not play the ball. It's not that his position group has been bad, it's that they have been horrendously awful.

 

Reggie Davis - His reliance on Newby and Cross needs to be examined. Great, Mikale struggles in pass pro. We have heard it. But it needs to be stated that Mikale is the most gifted runner we have on this roster. Is what we give up in pass pro worth what we give up as a team in our ability to run the ball? Newby and Cross just aren't doing it. Give Wilbon a chance. Give Ozigbo a chance. And please quit trying to make Imani into something he is not. Imani does not fit this offense. He's a short yardage and goal line back. Use him properly or not at all.

 

Bruce Read - I'm still amazed that $500,000 of University money is being spent on this man. His special teams are special, but not in the right way. And the man rarely recruits. What exactly is he providing us, especially at a salary that usually only goes to your best assistant coaches?

 

I mentioned this last week, but I'll say it again - every scholarship on this team needs to be examined and determined whether kids deserve them or not. This is a big time football school, not a candy factory where scholarships should be handed out. You go to any of the big boy schools, and they give you opportunities. You sink or swim. If you are not working out, you find yourself going on a medical hardship or going elsewhere if you still want to play football. It should be no different here.

 

I say this because our depth is still just atrocious. We need the opportunities presented by having extra scholarships to dip into the JUCO ranks and elsewhere to build depth immediately for next season. If we want to be nice guys again, and honor scholarships until guys 4 years are up, I'm betting next year will be no different in how erratic we will be.

IMO, Newby isn't going to get it done in conference play against the DL's of the B1G. He looks for the outside lane, has happy feet, slow to accelerate after a cut and runs high.....

 

I do not think the coach has faith enough in any back to lean on the running back. It seems we only run 2 plays in a row at the most.

[Hujan]

Quite a few coaches with questions to answer this coming week ..

 

Brian Stewart - He just needs to start over. It started with Davie, and now is bleeding to the rest of the secondary. Out of position, and when the DBs are in position, they do not play the ball. It's not that his position group has been bad, it's that they have been horrendously awful.

 

Reggie Davis - His reliance on Newby and Cross needs to be examined. Great, Mikale struggles in pass pro. We have heard it. But it needs to be stated that Mikale is the most gifted runner we have on this roster. Is what we give up in pass pro worth what we give up as a team in our ability to run the ball? Newby and Cross just aren't doing it. Give Wilbon a chance. Give Ozigbo a chance. And please quit trying to make Imani into something he is not. Imani does not fit this offense. He's a short yardage and goal line back. Use him properly or not at all.

 

Bruce Read - I'm still amazed that $500,000 of University money is being spent on this man. His special teams are special, but not in the right way. And the man rarely recruits. What exactly is he providing us, especially at a salary that usually only goes to your best assistant coaches?

 

I mentioned this last week, but I'll say it again - every scholarship on this team needs to be examined and determined whether kids deserve them or not. This is a big time football school, not a candy factory where scholarships should be handed out. You go to any of the big boy schools, and they give you opportunities. You sink or swim. If you are not working out, you find yourself going on a medical hardship or going elsewhere if you still want to play football. It should be no different here.

 

I say this because our depth is still just atrocious. We need the opportunities presented by having extra scholarships to dip into the JUCO ranks and elsewhere to build depth immediately for next season. If we want to be nice guys again, and honor scholarships until guys 4 years are up, I'm betting next year will be no different in how erratic we will be.

 

Perfect post.

[URSS]

Red zone offense is piss poor

If you've got a mediocre QB, Mark Banker will make him look like a 1st round draft pick

Can't expect to win when RZ trips only yield FG's

The O line needs help

 

Won't argue with your points but you missed the biggest. Our pass defense and especially the secondary is not good enough to win the Big 10 West. Unless Banker has superstars sitting on the bench, he needs to do a lot of full speed full contact pass defense drills to improve their coverage and playing the ball. If not, our season will be a bad one to try to forget.

[Count 'Bility]

I blame the offense much more than tge defense today. We know what he have in our defense. Abd in big ten play, most trams we play will be forced out of their comfort zone to exploit our wekness. Thats football. Its an offensive game. And at the end of the day they were held to 28 points. Regardless how. In football nowadays holding a team under thirty givs you a chance.

 

Because of the offenses inability to finish drives, the score was 22-0 at half in stead of 27-34 to nothing. And it was the offense and a turnover thatgot theminto it. An onside kick. FIELD POSITION resulted in two tds. So as bad as it looked, 1, they had zero ability to run the ball sorry but thats a big comfort going to big ten play. The underneath coverage isnt all that bad. Its the shots downfield. Theyre bein given up on still too consistent a basis

 

Lastly. This team is still mentally weak. Blame who you will. I dont care about that. It is what is. Alexlewis was good for his usual 2-3 drive starting penalties. This lack of consistent mentality may not be eradicated this year.

[huskerfan92]

Good:

• Tommy Armstrong: He just looks so much more comfortable this year. I am very impressed with how he's looked passing the ball, wish he would throw the ball away more, but eh can't have it all.
• Andy Janovich: I've thought highly of this kid since I saw his blocking as a freshmen. The kid just keeps his legs moving, they need to keep going to him on offense.
• Freedom: I knew he was going to be something special, ever since I saw a picture of his freakishly long neck when we recruited him. He's also got the crazy name which has worked out for us recently (Amukamara and Ndamukong)
• Drew Brown's 50 yard field goal was nice to see.

Bad

• Penalties: 4 games in, this looks like something the coaching staff can't correct.
• Pass Defense: we get beat inside way too often. Force the receivers to the sideline and give them less space to make a play.
• Bad half: BYU, Miami, and now Southern Miss. All three games we had one good half, and one awful half. I don't think it's conditioning because our guys don't look tired at all, it just seems to be mental.

 

Overall, if we punch in just 2 of those 5 field goals in the first half for a touchdown this is a blowout. Nothing on the defense really surprised me, we expected Southern Miss to be able to throw the ball, and knew they would score in the 20's. Was very surprised that Southern Miss didn't start the first half going air raid. We have to be better in the red zone, that is something that we can fix. The pass defense and penalties at this point seem to be who we are as a team.

[Sargon]

1. Team's not very good

 

2. Talent all around is less than excellent

 

3. Coaching of some areas also appears to be less than excellent

 

4. Better to win close games playing poorly than to lose close games playing poorly

 

5. Need to make some scheme/play call changes re pass defense

 

6. Wilbon needs a shot at top back. Jano should get some touches every game.

 

7. Tommy needs to run more up the middle rather than his low productivity late roll out scrambles.

 

8. Team psychologist better get on the stick pronto