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If the team responds,

Yeah, I'm a little bit hesitant, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt. When Trev handed him the game ball last week and the team erupted, that spoke volumes to me.
I am still in the same camp as you, for the most part. In the coming weeks, I hope we see even more detailed, simple assignment football, played with sound fundamentals. THAT'S what makes you a successful team (obviously, you need talent to go along with that).

I was actually accepting of SOME of the penalties. Don't get me wrong, you want to see them play a clean game, but in an overhaul irt to mentality as a coach, I am sure the focus was on blocking, tackling, making the right read, etc in practice. Certainly those are the things that were glaringly bad before last Saturday. As a player, if you do not trust what you are being sold or your fundamentals, you won't trust what your eyes are telling you on game day.

I didn't care as much about the "W" on Saturday. To me, that takes care of itself... if you are fundamentally better than your opponent. If you are fundamentally sound, you are more confident as a player and more apt to trust your reads and even the overall scheme you are playing in. Those are the details that Mickey seems to be focused on.

This team has a lot of improvements yet to make. We all know that. That is what I want to see most....(did the players make the right read on defense? Were they fundamentally sound in their assignment? Are they keeping gap integrity?...Offensively, are they finishing through the man on blocks? Is their footwork good? Etc...).

Now, if double digit penalties continue from here on out, that screems that they are undisciplined as a team. That then goes back to coaching. That certainly needs to be cleaned up. Irt holding penalties, I always said that is more because of your feet than your hands. Especially when PB.

Sorry...long response....but MJ is off to a pretty good start, imo. No one should be anointing him as the savior yet though, obviously.
 
I'm kind of curious about his vision for the team long-term. Does he like the offense he has or is he making the best of the situation to salvage the season.

It seems all of these coaches should understand about the need to be physical and tough, have great line play, special teams and limit/minimize mistakes like penalties and turnovers. But how do great coaches actually accomplish what they say they are about? Scott Frost was obviously a huge fraud and failed on multiple fronts.

Mickey is going to make a huge emphasis on recruiting. He can recruit and so can Busch. We need more, and we need a proven plan for development and retention of talent
Once the knowledge is there, then it is all about work ethic. FHCSF evidently did not have that. gbr
 
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I am still in the same camp as you, for the most part. In the coming weeks, I hope we see even more detailed, simple assignment football, played with sound fundamentals. THAT'S what makes you a successful team (obviously, you need talent to go along with that).

I was actually accepting of SOME of the penalties. Don't get me wrong, you want to see them play a clean game, but in an overhaul irt to mentality as a coach, I am sure the focus was on blocking, tackling, making the right read, etc in practice. Certainly those are the things that were glaringly bad before last Saturday. As a player, if you do not trust what you are being sold or your fundamentals, you won't trust what your eyes are telling you on game day.

I didn't care as much about the "W" on Saturday. To me, that takes care of itself... if you are fundamentally better than your opponent. If you are fundamentally sound, you are more confident as a player and more apt to trust your reads and even the overall scheme you are playing in. Those are the details that Mickey seems to be focused on.

This team has a lot of improvements yet to make. We all know that. That is what I want to see most....(did the players make the right read on defense? Were they fundamentally sound in their assignment? Are they keeping gap integrity?...Offensively, are they finishing through the man on blocks? Is their footwork good? Etc...).

Now, if double digit penalties continue from here on out, that screems that they are undisciplined as a team. That then goes back to coaching. That certainly needs to be cleaned up. Irt holding penalties, I always said that is more because of your feet than your hands. Especially when PB.

Sorry...long response....but MJ is off to a pretty good start, imo. No one should be anointing him as the savior yet though, obviously.
You said, "I am still in the same camp as you, for the most part. In the coming weeks, I hope we see even more detailed, simple assignment football, played with sound fundamentals. THAT'S what makes you a successful team (obviously, you need talent to go along with that)."

It made me chuckle a little bit. I remember when Osborne was the coach and the media would interview opposing coaches. Many times I heard them say, "We know what they are going to do, we just can't stop them". One coach said, "We have their play book, we know it, they just execute it so well they are impossible to stop". I think at one time Tom said I don't have a lot of plays, just a lot of formations that can execute those plays.

For me, it is execute with high precession what you know, then add a little more. You don't need 300 plays to win games. I will take about 20 plays that are executed perfectly and play with those.
 
For me, it is execute with high precession what you know, then add a little more. You don't need 300 plays to win games. I will take about 20 plays that are executed perfectly and play with those.
Definitely. Well said.
 
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You said, "I am still in the same camp as you, for the most part. In the coming weeks, I hope we see even more detailed, simple assignment football, played with sound fundamentals. THAT'S what makes you a successful team (obviously, you need talent to go along with that)."

It made me chuckle a little bit. I remember when Osborne was the coach and the media would interview opposing coaches. Many times I heard them say, "We know what they are going to do, we just can't stop them". One coach said, "We have their play book, we know it, they just execute it so well they are impossible to stop". I think at one time Tom said I don't have a lot of plays, just a lot of formations that can execute those plays.

For me, it is execute with high precession what you know, then add a little more. You don't need 300 plays to win games. I will take about 20 plays that are executed perfectly and play with those.
So true about using around 20 plays and if every player does his job 100% you will win. Too many college coaches try and run pro style offenses with a hundred different variables, it works for the pros but way too confusing for kids just out of high school going into college.

I use to get a little concerned when I would hear Frost and some of the offensive coaches say they were throwing a lot (Playbook) at players on the offense and I would wonder why? Simplicity is the best way to correct many faults it makes the players play more freely and with aggression. jmo
 
MJ had identified what he thinks is the root cause of our issues. He said the first rule is players have to be tough, not just how many stars you have. So he is working on that. Lets see how it looks in a few weeks.
 
On the playbook thing, TO had the luxury of a long serving staff. They were able to tinker with plays over seasons. NU hasn’t come close to that type of stability since Solich. Maybe the Watson/Beck years. I bet Whipple hasn’t done all of the things in the part of the playbook installed thus far. There is an argument to keeping this staff should the play of the team show competence for the rest of the season, rather than again hitting the reset button.
 
The results will tell the tale, but I do like Mickey bc of his commitment to recruiting/knowing how important it is. May be the one thing that gives him a leg up on some the other candidates.

Some other candidates on the list may be good coaches, but unless you can bring in top talent, we're going to hit that 8-9 win ceiling.
 
I love Mickey but we need to see more. It's hard to flip a culture and fix all the mistakes we've had.

We shouldn't anoint him after every win and crucify him after every loss.

If by the end of the season he gets us to a bowl game, AND we don't find a proven replacement, I think he could get a shot. No way he could be worse than Frost, he's serious about recruiting and is a better leader in 2 games than Frost was in 4 years.
 
I love Mickey but we need to see more. It's hard to flip a culture and fix all the mistakes we've had.

We shouldn't anoint him after every win and crucify him after every loss.

If by the end of the season he gets us to a bowl game, AND we don't find a proven replacement, I think he could get a shot. No way he could be worse than Frost, he's serious about recruiting and is a better leader in 2 games than Frost was in 4 years.
The Oklahoma game didn't prove whether Mickey was a better leader. The Indiana game, yes, I would agree because likely with Frost we would have lost another close one.
 
What worries me tomorrow is the durability of Anthony Grant. Kids coming off a major work load in which he shined. I’d be feeling a lot better if we had Ajay also. Ervin just doesn’t seem to have their burst. Good vision. Sees the hole but just a tad slow to hit it.

Rutgers probably also going to try to do all they can on Palmer. Be interesting to see how he reacts to more attention. I’m guessing just fine. But would like to see others getting open too just in case
 
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I use to get a little concerned when I would hear Frost and some of the offensive coaches say they were throwing a lot (Playbook) at players on the offense and I would wonder why? Simplicity is the best way to correct many faults it makes the players play more freely and with aggression. jmo

You can have a very simple offensive scheme and still throw a lot at the players. It isn't necessarily the complexity but can also be the volume. A large volume of simple things is still a lot. I'm not saying they didn't throw too much complexity, just that your comment made it sound like complexity is the only reason it would be considered a big load on the players.
 
What worries me tomorrow is the durability of Anthony Grant. Kids coming off a major work load in which he shined. I’d be feeling a lot better if we had Ajay also. Ervin just doesn’t seem to have their burst. Good vision. Sees the hole but just a tad slow to hit it.

Rutgers probably also going to try to do all they can on Palmer. Be interesting to see how he reacts to more attention. I’m guessing just fine. But would like to see others getting open too just in case
We used to have a stable of RB that ran for 100+ ypg and never had issues with durability.
 
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We used to have a stable of RB that ran for 100+ ypg and never had issues with durability.
Yeah, but it’s been a while. My issue with Ervin is he’s never really does gain yards. He always has one “decent” run that skews his numbers. Last week he had 21 yard on 6 carriers. Not awful but nothing great. Take out his longest run for 8 yards and he’s got 14 on 5 carriers. That’s pretty awful. Really hoping it doesn’t come down to him tonight. No disrespect to the young man.

the best thing about his game right now is the rag he wears on his head reminds me of Derek Brown. LOL
 
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