I wouldn't go counting those chickens just yet. Let's see now, winless WKU and winless SDSU both had running backs go over 100 yards on us. Daniel Thomas is surely a better back than either of them ...I cant disagree with what he said. Though with a little under 2 weeks to prepare for Thomas and KState, bo will have his guys ready. If UCF can shut down Thomas, we are certainly able to it.
Im not counting chickens at all, im counting eggs.I wouldn't go counting those chickens just yet. Let's see now, winless WKU and winless SDSU both had running backs go over 100 yards on us. Daniel Thomas is surely a better back than either of them ...I cant disagree with what he said. Though with a little under 2 weeks to prepare for Thomas and KState, bo will have his guys ready. If UCF can shut down Thomas, we are certainly able to it.
For sure he has. But Bo's not the one out there making (or not making) tackles. I'll sure they'll scheme for Thomas and we'll have a solid gameplan ... but we've displayed some vulnerabilities, and Old Man Snyder will certainly have some tricks of his own up his sleeve.Im not counting chickens at all, im counting eggs.I wouldn't go counting those chickens just yet. Let's see now, winless WKU and winless SDSU both had running backs go over 100 yards on us. Daniel Thomas is surely a better back than either of them ...I cant disagree with what he said. Though with a little under 2 weeks to prepare for Thomas and KState, bo will have his guys ready. If UCF can shut down Thomas, we are certainly able to it.
Bo has proven countless times that he knows how prepare to bigger games.
Agreedi am not impressed with Crick and Steiny just yet, they have looked neutralized and i would bet even Pelini has been a bit unhappy with their play so far, assuming he thought they would be rock solid up front....we got pushed around way too much last night!
Crick has been more impressive than Stein through four games, IMO. However, last night it was almost as if our D-line wasn't there. They were getting shoved around by an 'overmatched' opponent and didn't bring the attitude we like to see out of them. Our whole D-line got manhandled: Meredith, Allen, Crick, and Stein got dominated all night long. I'm not worried about this going into K-State, just because I think this is a mental issue-they weren't ready to play last night, hell, nobody was ready to play last night. I don't think our D was exposed at all last night, it was just an off night, which every team has. Fortunately, we won our off game. 4-0 baby!Agreedi am not impressed with Crick and Steiny just yet, they have looked neutralized and i would bet even Pelini has been a bit unhappy with their play so far, assuming he thought they would be rock solid up front....we got pushed around way too much last night!
That sums up my thoughts. The B12 is a little down this season, which gives us a very good chance to take the title without a dominate team. I'd also add that we're seeing what playing a frosh at QB can cost us. TM is a dynamic player, but he's unreliable and undisciplined at times - inconsistent. The rest of the offense, especially the seniors, need to provide that even-keel to keep TM focused and help balance him out. IMO our team will go as our offensive line goes. I'm not worried about our defense.In the Tampa 2/Peso, we're going to give up a lot of those 4-5 yard runs. If we're having the DT's 2-gapping and DE's outside containing, there will be some room for any back worth his salt, especially if our LB's don't play disciplined or get caught up in the trench. The difference last year was Suh, because he would either beat the double teams, or create a huge pile at the LOS and slow everything down. Without Suh in '03, it was a similar story for the Blackshirts - a little mushy between the 20's, but LOCK DOWN in the red zone.
On the flip side, the Pelini Bros' philosophy is that there aren't many teams out there with the patience to try to take 3-4 yard cracks all the way down the field anymore, and we saw that from SoDak St. The message the Pelinis are sending is: "Go ahead and try to gash us, but as soon as we push you back or you get penalized, you're going to have to throw the ball. And when you do, we have some absolute ballhawks back there to snag anything and everything." Dennard's INT was a thing of beauty - none of our receivers have made a catch like that all year.
Their QB did have a little more time than most of us are comfortable with, but aside from the absolute blatant call on the guard holding Stein (he did a good job breaking through), the guys in stripes refused to call SEVERAL holds on ALL their O-Line. I was about as disgusted with the lack of holding calls as I was with our offensive effort. If the refs aren't going to call holding, I think our guys should start employing some of those shirt/pad/helmet-grabbing techniques. There was also an uncalled horse-collar on Martinez. We get called for that all the time. The 'Taunting' call was absolutely bogus. I hate officials.
Aside from a sporadic gain on a slow-developing zone play, our offense will be predicated on play action - no doubt about it. That, and Martinez scrambling on passing plays when his first 2 reads are covered. Something tells me we're going to look a lot like our '03 team before it's all said and done - Lavonte David as a serviceable Demorrio Williams, hopefully.