Professor Aaron Semm's analysis post-Southern Miss...

I'll do another play-by-play once the podcast comes out. I don't type fast enough for live. I'm not a stenographer.

Should be interesting given his optimism in the last analysis. I want to hear him diagnose the defense.

 
ok, tried to paraphrase:

Red Zone Offense:

One of the hot topics was our redzone performance on offense. Confluence of factors you wont see again. first drive, swing screen to newby.... 3rd down westy at the stix he blew it.... lots of dancing instead of maximizing... bad play calling.... sack is on Tommy... When we stayed in the huddle so long to milk the clock, then guys didn't have time to get set up.... I think we can get things cleaned up.

Secondary issues Scheme or talent?

a little of both. Sipple's Article makes a valid point about talent. recruited to play in different defense.... playing on an island not what they are used to.... but instead of sticking with man-free mix it up more....2 or 3 deep balls. it wasn't like our corners were just abused all day... gives several examples....we know the secondary wasn't great, but most of it was 4-5 big plays.

Linebackers/Injuries?

#3 is a pretty good player. why hasnt he seen the field.... Weber is good.... run d is outstanding.... Southern Miss did a good job making us pick our poison... underneath/over with wheel route.... structurally staff needs to reexamine... look at maybe a dime coverage?... Injuries are factors

Run Game?

1994 Pipeline, 95, did they block every play perfectly? no. need to just put a foot in the ground and make a play......hate to put the running woes on RB but they need to stop dancing and get north-south..... I liked the trap game..... I think we need to get better at tailback position...... I think right now Wilbon needs to get the mental obstacles figured out so he can get on the field....Newby is a great receiver, but less impressed with his running.

Type of run plays or runner?

both. they are bound and determined to make off-tackle power work. that's who they are. but you have to be damn good up front to make that work.......in a hand-off run game, you cant outnumber people. You have to be big and powerfull...... Need to Use Tommy's legs in the red Zone.

Final fun fact:
1992 Illinois tried to get Benning, but missed. Benning was not impressed with the facilities.
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I missed the detailed analysis of individual plays, but that is the big picture points
 
^ What Duke said!

Being known for giving up big plays can be haunting. Gotta get their heads back in the game, they'll be tested often.

 
I agree with a good portion of the running game woes being on the RBs. Can't expect every play to offer massive holes, need to have the RB hit some cutbacks, break a tackle, make a player miss etc.

Newby and Cross are limited in this regard. Need to get Wilbon and Ozigbo up to speed up on pass pro so they can get on the field.

 
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Some better detail on Red zone offense comments:

I think it was a confluence of factors, ... I don't think we'll see that perfect storm happen again.

The first drive that stalled out, we throw a swing screen to Mr. Newby that has to net more yards than it did, and then on 3rd down you go to Westercamp right at the sticks, and he blew that too, instead of getting north and south. I thought I was watching Soul Train with all the dancing that was going on instead of maximizing what's there for ya.

Then we come back to the next tight field goal was the result of the desire to "get cute" and try to throw the reverse throwback pass to the Quarterback. Didn't like that call.

Next go-around on 3rd down we're running some crossers underneath and it looked like Stanley Morgan was going to get wide open, but for some reason instead of pushing up in the pocket Tommy kind of bailed out and didn't help his Tackles out, so that sack is probably on him.

Then at the end of the game when we were trying to close things out, (people were lamenting our clock management, and why did we snap the ball so early, etc.), so we finally stay in the huddle till there was 5 seconds to go, so then the guys hurry to get set, and Westercamp started in motion.

so there is one poor call in there, but otherwise I think those are things that shouldn't always happen..... I think those are things that can get cleaned up.

 
I too hope Wilbon or one of the other guys can figure out what they need to do to get on the field. I brought up in a couple other threads in the last few days one particular play of Newby's that is a microcosm of the running game's problems. He had pretty good blocking on one outside zone play and ran up behind either a tackle or tight end engaged in a block. Instead of cutting up field, where there was a hole, or going outside, where there was open room to run, he stutter stepped and ended up getting tackled for no gain.

The strange thing about Newby is he puts together good runs of 6-7 yards. His averages are something to be happy about. But, he really seems to struggle to find that next gear where he'll turn a 5 yard run into a gain of 10-15 or more. Or, there will be runs where he could've earned 4-7 yards but doesn't commit and gets hit for a minimal gain.

 
Defensive Secondary comments:

Scheme or lack of talent?

A little of both..... I think Sipple wrote an article cautioning people to look at the talent, and blaming the previous regime, and I think he makes a valid point there, and don't construe this (Semm's comments) as somebody pointing the finger at people that are not here anymore, but those guys on the back end were recruited to play in a completely different style of defense, so asking them to play "on an island" out there is quite a bit different, so your'e seeing some issues there.... In pure passing situations, instead of sticking with man-free or quarters, maybe mix it up a little bit, and give those corners some help over the top.

I wanted to speak to that. People have been gnashing their teeth about the 447 yards through the air. If you go back and look at that game, what did they hit, 2 or 3 deep balls? That's 2 or 3 too many, but by the same token, it wasn't like they just threw the ball vertical and abused our corners all day. I'm gonna give you some facts to back that up:

On the first long pass play of the game that was a slant route that Chris Jones just got a little too far over the top of. He was trying to defend the pass, and get over the top of it, but then he overran the tackle, resulting in yards after contact.

Then late in the game Southern Miss ran that little throwback crack screen for the second time in the game. And he got Nate out there trying to make a play on a guy in space. He whiffed. That results in something that looks like backyard football. 40-yards after contact there. And then he gave up 40 yards at the end of the game.

So on those two seam throws right there, that's 130 of their 447. So I just want to caution people. Again, it is a pattern. We all know that the secondary hasn't been great, but those four plays right there account for 130 yards. Maybe if they end the game with 340 maybe people aren't as panicked.
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IA State Husker said:
I wanted to speak to that. People have been gnashing their teeth about the 447 yards through the air. If you go back and look at that game, what did they hit, 2 or 3 deep balls? That's 2 or 3 too many, but by the same token, it wasn't like they just threw the ball vertical and abused our corners all day. I'm gonna give you some facts to back that up:
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I think they hit more than two or three. But that is misleading because they barely ATTEMPTED to throw deep until the fourth quarter. I counted three "deep" balls through the first three quarters. And I was using 10+ yards downfield as "deep" so it didn't even have to really stretch the field. The went completion, incompletion, defensive pass interference on those three. Then they threw down the field a lot more in the fourth quarter and they were torching us.

 
I didn't count and I don't have time to rewatch, but how many yards after contact are these passing totals attributed to? That would be interesting and I don't know where to find a stat like that. Southern Miss stuck out to me particularly as a very poor effort tackling.

 
Linebacker comments:

First of all, the guy wearing #3. He's a pretty good player, isn't he? Why that guy couldn't get on the field, .... I mean he's the guy we saw on film as a High School player. He looked pretty good.

Weber did some good things. Probably the one glaring mistake he made resulted in their touchdown run. When he kind of mis fit his gap, and they got vertical on us. Other than that, I thought the run D was outstanding.

Dedrick (bless his heart for being a true freshman) he's playing what seems like almost every snap of the game, and he got exposed a little bit there on some wheel routes and some circle routes. Southern Miss did a good job, ... they would get his responsibility almost into a stack behind the outside receiver, and he was kind of damned if he did, damned if he didn't. If he'd play over the top they'd run the circle or arrow route underneath. If he tried to play it underneath, they'd run the wheel route up the sideline. So that's probably a good example of structurally something the staff does need to look at mixing it up, in certain situations getting him off the field, going dime, those sorts of things.

That linebacker corps, that was thin to begin with, has been snakebitten by injuries. It'll sure be nice when we can get some of those guys back on the field.
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Mavric said:
IA State Husker said:
I wanted to speak to that. People have been gnashing their teeth about the 447 yards through the air. If you go back and look at that game, what did they hit, 2 or 3 deep balls? That's 2 or 3 too many, but by the same token, it wasn't like they just threw the ball vertical and abused our corners all day. I'm gonna give you some facts to back that up:
Click to expand...
I think they hit more than two or three. But that is misleading because they barely ATTEMPTED to throw deep until the fourth quarter. I counted three "deep" balls through the first three quarters. And I was using 10+ yards downfield as "deep" so it didn't even have to really stretch the field. The went completion, incompletion, defensive pass interference on those three. Then they threw down the field a lot more in the fourth quarter and they were torching us.
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I agree that he seems to be fudging the numbers a little. Later he says its 130 yards on 4 plays. I am surprised how optimistic he still is about the secondary. At least he gives a few suggestions about how to fix the scheme, like mixing up coverages, giving some help over the top, running some dime coverage due to linebacker depth. etc.

 
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