Don't get me wrong this could easily be another 9 win team or worse this year with the mistakes I've seen this past week, but I also firmly believe that this team has the potential break the status quo..
The good
1. We have a potential heisman candidate on our team with Ameer. Beck needs to do a better job of getting him the ball in open space. If they are run blitzing beck needs to be more multiple on his run selection (including more option plays). Regardless Ameer is gamer, and can make people silly regardless of the competition being good or bad. I blame his woes on beck mostly and partially the o-line.
2. Bo has proven to us that his D usually improves over the course of the season and personally I believe that this is the best our D has looked, this early in quite a few years. Players like McMullen and Gerry have really stepped up so far this year, and Josh Mitchell has also impressed me early on.
3. The offense appears to be one of the best (if not the best) in the big 10. This along with the fresher/better looking D makes me want to think that we can rely one or the other if one side of the ball lays an egg.
4. The team is very talented. Much more than it has been in recent years. We have play makers on this team that if we are able to get into space we should be able to be a juggernaut on offense and on SPECIAL TEAMS (which makes me very happy to say, as we have sucked it pretty hard there the past few years). Defensively it appears that we have play makers on the D-line and a solid secondary. The team speed is also pretty impressive in my opinion (outside of the line backing unit which I will get to later)..
5. Special teams appears to be good in all aspects (still some questions on kickoff coverage that I saw against FAU). Kalu was a menace on kick coverage this last week which is nice to see. Also our punt game (on both sides looks very solid pinning McNeese State deep multiple times. Lastly, the field goal kicking has been perfect until this point and I don't really expect that to change in the weeks to come.
6. We have depth to overcome injuries. Michael Rose was a huge loss don't get me wrong but outside of that I think we have good enough depth to overcome injuries. Don't want to talk about specific people because I don't want to potentially curse anyone (I am a very superstitious football fan).
7. Tommy Armstrong is a good quarterback. I have never once thought of TA of the reason for offensive struggles. I believe he is just not utilized correctly. Like most OPTION quarterbacks they do not excel in the mid range passing game. Option quarterbacks really in my opinion should not throw more than 15-20 times. Most of his passes should be to AA out of the backfield, mixed in with a few deep passes. The only time he should be throwing those mid ranged passes is on 3rd and long, not 1st and ten... Regardless beck needs to realize his strengths and weaknesses and build an offense off of him. If beck can do this it should mean more space for our heisman caliber running back.
8. We have an easy road to the conference title game. I honestly don't see wisky only losing 1 conference game. So if we are able to beat them and take care of the rest of the teams that we should, we will be in good shape. The only real question is how many eggs are we going to lay??
Now obviously this all based on a small sample size and many of my opinions could change with another poor performance. Anyways it isn't all good (unless we are talking about the '95 team) so let's get to the bad.
The bad
1. Injuries are hurting us and will hurt any team. But like I said we do have depth and we should be getting Kenny Bell and Gregotron back soon.
2. Our Linebackers are still struggling with the same plays that have been hurting us since we lost David to the NFL. On that note I'm not saying that this is all a physical problem. Obviously Banderas had a bad game and should be sharing reps next week. With that said, optimistic me likes to think this is a problem with reading the offense not with a lack of athleticism. Regardless of what the problem is we need our linebackers to step up as a whole (not just Banderas). It is never a good stat to have your safety as a leading tackler. I see really a few solutions to this.. Continue to develop the same players, give other players an opportunity (aka Roach) and lastly maybe if we really don't have enough speed we need to consider re-scheming the D.
3. Same old coaching woes, but with improved talent. In recent years I viewed a lot of the problems to be based on talent. Not Bo's lack of ability to coach. 09 is perfect example of this.. There is a reason why that was the best D in college football that year.. We were extremely talented on every level. Now don't get me wrong I'm not comparing these defenses skill wise, but talent-wise I think they are very close and only time will tell. Offensively, I again believe this a very talented group (still have questions on the line) but Becks approach and play calling seems to be the core issue. We are a talented team that's why we can put up 800 yards against very bad teams, but at the same time we just have a bad offensive game plans against certain teams which make us struggle more than we should against better defenses.
4. We are still making crucial mistakes at the worse possible times. McKneecap state (no hate to McNeese
) wouldn't have even been a game if it weren't for crucial mistakes at at crucial times. TA's pick six right as we are about to take control, and just dumb penalties away from the ball negating big plays or even taking points off the board. If we can clean these up as the season progresses we will be hard to beat in the big 10.
5. Although turnovers haven't been a problem as of yet they still worry me enough to put into this category. We have had to many close calls. Also need to capitalize on the opportunities we have been getting to create turnovers.
This post probably lacks depth and detail over all of my points but regardless hopefully this optimistic look can help lower some of your blood pressure for the time being.
The good
1. We have a potential heisman candidate on our team with Ameer. Beck needs to do a better job of getting him the ball in open space. If they are run blitzing beck needs to be more multiple on his run selection (including more option plays). Regardless Ameer is gamer, and can make people silly regardless of the competition being good or bad. I blame his woes on beck mostly and partially the o-line.
2. Bo has proven to us that his D usually improves over the course of the season and personally I believe that this is the best our D has looked, this early in quite a few years. Players like McMullen and Gerry have really stepped up so far this year, and Josh Mitchell has also impressed me early on.
3. The offense appears to be one of the best (if not the best) in the big 10. This along with the fresher/better looking D makes me want to think that we can rely one or the other if one side of the ball lays an egg.
4. The team is very talented. Much more than it has been in recent years. We have play makers on this team that if we are able to get into space we should be able to be a juggernaut on offense and on SPECIAL TEAMS (which makes me very happy to say, as we have sucked it pretty hard there the past few years). Defensively it appears that we have play makers on the D-line and a solid secondary. The team speed is also pretty impressive in my opinion (outside of the line backing unit which I will get to later)..
5. Special teams appears to be good in all aspects (still some questions on kickoff coverage that I saw against FAU). Kalu was a menace on kick coverage this last week which is nice to see. Also our punt game (on both sides looks very solid pinning McNeese State deep multiple times. Lastly, the field goal kicking has been perfect until this point and I don't really expect that to change in the weeks to come.
6. We have depth to overcome injuries. Michael Rose was a huge loss don't get me wrong but outside of that I think we have good enough depth to overcome injuries. Don't want to talk about specific people because I don't want to potentially curse anyone (I am a very superstitious football fan).
7. Tommy Armstrong is a good quarterback. I have never once thought of TA of the reason for offensive struggles. I believe he is just not utilized correctly. Like most OPTION quarterbacks they do not excel in the mid range passing game. Option quarterbacks really in my opinion should not throw more than 15-20 times. Most of his passes should be to AA out of the backfield, mixed in with a few deep passes. The only time he should be throwing those mid ranged passes is on 3rd and long, not 1st and ten... Regardless beck needs to realize his strengths and weaknesses and build an offense off of him. If beck can do this it should mean more space for our heisman caliber running back.
8. We have an easy road to the conference title game. I honestly don't see wisky only losing 1 conference game. So if we are able to beat them and take care of the rest of the teams that we should, we will be in good shape. The only real question is how many eggs are we going to lay??
Now obviously this all based on a small sample size and many of my opinions could change with another poor performance. Anyways it isn't all good (unless we are talking about the '95 team) so let's get to the bad.
The bad
1. Injuries are hurting us and will hurt any team. But like I said we do have depth and we should be getting Kenny Bell and Gregotron back soon.
2. Our Linebackers are still struggling with the same plays that have been hurting us since we lost David to the NFL. On that note I'm not saying that this is all a physical problem. Obviously Banderas had a bad game and should be sharing reps next week. With that said, optimistic me likes to think this is a problem with reading the offense not with a lack of athleticism. Regardless of what the problem is we need our linebackers to step up as a whole (not just Banderas). It is never a good stat to have your safety as a leading tackler. I see really a few solutions to this.. Continue to develop the same players, give other players an opportunity (aka Roach) and lastly maybe if we really don't have enough speed we need to consider re-scheming the D.
3. Same old coaching woes, but with improved talent. In recent years I viewed a lot of the problems to be based on talent. Not Bo's lack of ability to coach. 09 is perfect example of this.. There is a reason why that was the best D in college football that year.. We were extremely talented on every level. Now don't get me wrong I'm not comparing these defenses skill wise, but talent-wise I think they are very close and only time will tell. Offensively, I again believe this a very talented group (still have questions on the line) but Becks approach and play calling seems to be the core issue. We are a talented team that's why we can put up 800 yards against very bad teams, but at the same time we just have a bad offensive game plans against certain teams which make us struggle more than we should against better defenses.
4. We are still making crucial mistakes at the worse possible times. McKneecap state (no hate to McNeese
5. Although turnovers haven't been a problem as of yet they still worry me enough to put into this category. We have had to many close calls. Also need to capitalize on the opportunities we have been getting to create turnovers.
This post probably lacks depth and detail over all of my points but regardless hopefully this optimistic look can help lower some of your blood pressure for the time being.