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*** Official Minnesota Game What Did We Learn Thread ***


knapplc

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On 10/20/2018 at 11:26 PM, huskerfan74 said:

While the defense is a work in progress, our special teams are a disaster and have been for a very long time now. They are not showing any signs of life. I can’t remember the last time we returned a punt for a touchdown, blocked a punt, blocked a field goal, caused a turnover. They are not even trying. Most of the time, all they do is the bare minimum not to lose the ball. EVERY good team that competes for championship has good special teams. We don’t. We need a coach that can do a much better job at getting the special teams play perform at a higher level. I do not see that improving with the current coach as he does not seem to be doing anything. Repeating the same exact thing and expecting different results is the definition of stupidity, which defines our special teams play. If you think that Jovan Dewitt is doing a good job then we are not watching the same games.

 

I think we are actually watching different games if you believe that. I agree the results need to be better, but it's been 7 games and there have been a lot of changes.

 

Dewitt (or whoever decides the ST starters, I know he at least runs the drills) was a little slow with the hook for Tyjon as a returner, but they did demote him before he transferred. Ober was demoted for not covering punts well enough, and Lightbourn was demoted for shanking a ton of kicks and hanging the coverage team out to dry the rest of the time. If we had another kicker I bet we would have given him a shot (although I think Pickering will be fine), and our returns have been close a few times. That block in the back call against Wisconsin was pretty weak.

 

I would also love to see some blocked kicks and return TDs, and I think we will soon. But unless you know a lot more about the specific blocking/return schemes than I do (I can't speak to whether those have been changed at all over the course of the season), the only repetitive thing I've noticed is a lot of fair catch/kneeling on our returns. That's just what happens when football is actively trying to get rid of the kickoff though, and we're not really expecting different results out of it.

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5 minutes ago, Husker in WI said:

 

I think we are actually watching different games if you believe that. I agree the results need to be better, but it's been 7 games and there have been a lot of changes.

 

Dewitt (or whoever decides the ST starters, I know he at least runs the drills) was a little slow with the hook for Tyjon as a returner, but they did demote him before he transferred. Ober was demoted for not covering punts well enough, and Lightbourn was demoted for shanking a ton of kicks and hanging the coverage team out to dry the rest of the time. If we had another kicker I bet we would have given him a shot (although I think Pickering will be fine), and our returns have been close a few times. That block in the back call against Wisconsin was pretty weak.

 

I would also love to see some blocked kicks and return TDs, and I think we will soon. But unless you know a lot more about the specific blocking/return schemes than I do (I can't speak to whether those have been changed at all over the course of the season), the only repetitive thing I've noticed is a lot of fair catch/kneeling on our returns. That's just what happens when football is actively trying to get rid of the kickoff though, and we're not really expecting different results out of it.

What I saw this game is we have some fast guys who routinely overrun the returner ,followed by some slow guys who are easily juked like when Prince was crossing Charlie Murphy... then the kicker often ends up making the tackle of his life.

We need to improve that.

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34 minutes ago, Hayseed said:

What I saw this game is we have some fast guys who routinely overrun the returner ,followed by some slow guys who are easily juked like when Prince was crossing Charlie Murphy... then the kicker often ends up making the tackle of his life.

We need to improve that.

Players have to make plays. Our punt coverage probably didn’t look good early in the season because Lightbourn wasn’t putting the ball where he was supposed to. Problem addressed. I think it was the UCF game against Memphis last year where a good return late in the game would have been beneficial. They ran it back for a TD. I want that coach for our ST coach, which we have.

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2 hours ago, Hayseed said:

It really IS worth watching the PJ Fleck postgame video to see what it’s like for ordinary NCAA teams.

I think he said he had at least 12 freshmen playing and had to adjust his calls because of the inexperience.

That is why college ball is different and far more unpredictable.

Fleck seems like an intelligent coach and not just a cheerleader motivator type. Minny has a lot of problems and I’m not sure they are that ordinary but they still played well. I’m glad we blew them out. A close game wouldn’t give much optimism considering Minny may only beat Illinois the rest of the season.

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