Is Mike Riley married to Tanner Lee

Our offense in general is too predictable. We throw no wrinkles at the defense.  Every team we've played seems to have a really good idea what we're doing, sometimes based solely on alignment.  We can't seem to self-scout well enough to realize that and it's frustrating.

 
That and some of the wrinkles we do try are poorly executed. I don't remember seeing a lot of jet sweep this past game but it's something we've tried all season with very mixed results. Hell, DPE almost fumbled the first one of the season against ASU.

 
Here's something I don't get.

Let's say everything we heard about Lee before the season was true. He was playing great in practice, yadda yadda.

Then the games start and he's bad.

Why as a coach can you see that someone practices great and plays badly, but not consider that maybe your backup QB practices decent and plays decent? Or maybe even practices decent and plays well?

I feel that there can be a difference for some players when they're in a game atmosphere. Maybe for some it makes them too nervous, for others they get pumped up and play awesome.

When your starting QB throws 2 pick 6s in the first half of the game, why not see how your backup performs in a real game for a couple series? I just don't understand that. What could possibly go wrong? At that point would it even matter much if the backup threw a pick 6?

It could also settle down your starting QB. It's not like it's going to make him play worse.

 
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Not playing our seond and third string players throughout the season has been our problem since about year 3 of Solich.  It is because we are so lacking in ready for prime time player depth that the coaches are literally afraid to play them for fear of losing the game on a handful of snaps.  The result become the endless game of one year and done and never catching up to build your team into something lasting and durable.  

This should NOT be one of those years.  This is year 3 and unfortunately we played our best and hid the rest on the bench in the first two years of Riley, I guess because we remain mired in this win now or fire the coach mentality.  There should have been an annouced policy of red shirtring all the upper classmen and playing the freshman and other young guys in order to build experienced depth for the the future years.  This practice needed to go on for atleast 2 years.  By now, we'd have a lot more experience.  Instead, we have about 30 guys with meaningful playing time.  At least Diaco admits that real game experience is critical to development and improvement in most players.  Saving all these young guys' freshman years by redshirting is all fine and dandy for programs with 100 upper classmen with skill and talent and experience and are extablished and competitive.  We are NOT.  We needed to commit to the future, not the present, two years ago.  Unfortunately, coaches and administration are always focused on the short term 'profit' and putting off the fundamental and painful changes that must be made to build a long term successful program.  We whould have kept Tanner as the back up QB apparently and been playing POB or Gebbia.   Now, we face the scary prospect of putting in a total green frosh in the middle of the season vs Ohio State for his first snaps.  That is just STUPID.  

 
Moiraine said:
Here's something I don't get.

Let's say everything we heard about Lee before the season was true. He was playing great in practice, yadda yadda.

Then the games start and he's bad.

Why as a coach can you see that someone practices great and plays badly, but not consider that maybe your backup QB practices decent and plays decent? Or maybe even practices decent and plays well?

I feel that there can be a difference for some players when they're in a game atmosphere. Maybe for some it makes them too nervous, for others they get pumped up and play awesome.

When your starting QB throws 2 pick 6s in the first half of the game, why not see how your backup performs in a real game for a couple series? I just don't understand that. What could possibly go wrong? At that point would it even matter much if the backup threw a pick 6?

It could also settle down your starting QB. It's not like it's going to make him play worse.
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We wasted the eligibility of Joe Ganz like that. They said he didn't look the part and couldn't even throw a ball over a mountain.

 
Moiraine said:
Here's something I don't get.

Let's say everything we heard about Lee before the season was true. He was playing great in practice, yadda yadda.

Then the games start and he's bad.

Why as a coach can you see that someone practices great and plays badly, but not consider that maybe your backup QB practices decent and plays decent? Or maybe even practices decent and plays well?

I feel that there can be a difference for some players when they're in a game atmosphere. Maybe for some it makes them too nervous, for others they get pumped up and play awesome.

When your starting QB throws 2 pick 6s in the first half of the game, why not see how your backup performs in a real game for a couple series? I just don't understand that. What could possibly go wrong? At that point would it even matter much if the backup threw a pick 6?

It could also settle down your starting QB. It's not like it's going to make him play worse.
Click to expand...
I think the coaches are afraid to sit down Lee (even for a series or two) because they don't want him to lose his confidence and they think of him as a team leader (he is a captain this year).  However, if there are more pick sixes and more turnovers deep in your own territory, the defense is going to start getting pissed at Lee, and that's not going to help things.

 
Hayseed said:
We wasted the eligibility of Joe Ganz like that. They said he didn't look the part and couldn't even throw a ball over a mountain.
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I see guys like Baker Mayfield and Trace McSorley do great things in college, and I wonder if our coaches would even take at guys like that because they are smaller and aren't the NFL prototype.  I understand that Mayfield wasn't recruited much out of high school, as he walked on at Texas Tech out of high school.  However, in the college game, you see so many guys succeed because of their intangibles, rather than how they look throwing a ball in shorts and a t-shirt.

 
Moiraine said:
Here's something I don't get.

Let's say everything we heard about Lee before the season was true. He was playing great in practice, yadda yadda.

Then the games start and he's bad.
Click to expand...


My take is the coaches thought he was all-world because he has been going against our soft pass D in practice.  Last year he ran the scout team against Banker's D.  And in spring/fall camp he got to go against Diaco's D.  Both schemes having super soft coverage.  A reasonable accurate QB can easily hit WRs when the DBs play 8-10 yards off each snap. 

 
Red Five said:
My take is the coaches thought he was all-world because he has been going against our soft pass D in practice.  Last year he ran the scout team against Banker's D.  And in spring/fall camp he got to go against Diaco's D.  Both schemes having super soft coverage.  A reasonable accurate QB can easily hit WRs when the DBs play 8-10 yards off each snap. 
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Great point about Lee going against Banker's D last year while he ran the scout team.  Uncle Rico would look like an All-American going up against that D.

RedDenver said:
I know you're making a joke, but Ganz redshirted in 2004.
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I think Hayseed was commenting about Keller starting for 9 games over Ganz in 2007.  It took a broken collarbone by Keller for Ganz to get the start that year.

 
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