Our depth chart with native sons on it is possibly a concern for some. Our WR room is pretty deep. McGuire was a last minute hire and I was somewhat impressed that he got several true freshmen ready to play at a fairly high level. His grace period got extended for me.
Agree with the top line. The post script is not a good example. No comparison to playing RB in a bad offense with an injury riddled backfield to playing QB on a national championship team with the starting QB returning. Those are entirely different worlds.
I feels to me as if something is not quite right with the RB situation. This sentence seems to hit the nail on the head.
Our passing game last year was horrid in almost every respect. Some was on the QB, some on the OL and some on the WR room. The WR room was ripped with injuries last year so that is why I would give him grace. Lloyd might be the superman some on here expect and I truly hope he is. What did Coleman do? What stats back up the success of the true freshman aside from Lloyd's long TD's which I read were basically on the same play call. Not doubting the kid, cheering for him but at the same time, not hanging laurel wreaths on them either.
The passing game wasn’t horrid because of the WRs.
Yeah, yeah, yeah McGuire is a young guy who has a D-1 coach as a father, but I don't know what that has to do with him leading a group of WR's in the Big Ten. The problem is NU is stuck with him for as long as he wants to stay here.
Oh do tell. Were they good at blocking on the edge, all those freshmen? How about reading the coverage and adjusting? People that believe all a WR has to do is run a predetermined route are sadly mistaken.
I know the receivers play a role in the offensive performance, but they do need a QB who can deliver the ball consistently. I know the receivers have a lot on their plate, but I’m not ready to blame our offensive woes on them when I saw what we had at QB last year.
A lot of blame to be passed around, but one thing I'll say on the topic was our offensive line really struggled when they went against NFL draft level talent. So many times our QB got pressured before our WRs were able to even get out of their breaks. There were guys open but it doesn't matter when your QB is on the ground or is seeing ghosts and spinning out of the pocket into pressure, etc. Every facet of the passing game has to get better.
I read a scouting report somewhere that made him sound like Emmitt Johnson. Shifty, tough for his size, good hands, could play multiple positions. Sounds like a good prospect. Not the stud RB recruit that we were accustomed to back in the 80's and 90's though.
The perception of some is that he's an up & comer and that we would be lucky to keep him. Time will tell I guess.
If Bell could stay healthy, he will be in the rotation. Jacory Barney, in my opinion, is a fantastic young prospect. So Coleman, Lloyd, Barney, Bell, and one of the redshirt freshmen would give us five WRs in 2025. Not bad.
Which is precisely why I am still not sold on this offensive line for this year. Yeah, we have a lot of guys back. But those guys had real issues last year and I for one will not get all optimistic about them until they show they can perform against good talent.
Most of our stud RBs back in the day had the benefit of a great O line, unique offense and brilliant play caller. Just sayin there’s lots of variables contributing to the success of your RBs.
Virtually every College O line has struggles against NFL potential defensive talent. You’re not going to win every battle. Even in Tom’s time his offense depended a lot on developing a numbers advantage and making defenders make decisions.
All true but I remain unconvinced. Our line struggled last year even against mediocre talent.
A lot of our issue was the inability of our QBs to hold on to the ball and deliver accurate passes. I’m optimistic about our O line going forward. I saw a lot of improvement over the course of last fall.
This is true, but I am hopeful that the threat of the pass makes the defense have to defend more than just the run. Without the consistent pass threat last year, defenses could sell out against the run. Hopefully not the case this year, creating more space for our RBs.
Very good point. But to me, watching the new I back for the first time in the fall or spring game back then- those guys just looked different. The crowd would react. Corgan, Solich, Osborne- they knew exactly what to look for and they didn't have a lot of busts either.
Same underwhelming bunch will be trotted out there
So true. Teams just did not respect our passing game at all last year and geared up to stop the run.
they will do the same this year until we force them to adjust.
Absolutely, it has to be earned. I pray we have the personnel to carry it out.
The difference is that this year we have a QB on our roster. Last year we didn’t.
I didn't say differently than what you laid out. The fault was laid at the feet of the WR's in dingles post. It isn't an either or proposition. My point is people just make blanket statements like the WR was wide open and the QB didn't get him the ball and so and so WR is killing in when in reality there are a few flash plays that skew the stat lines and those are the plays people remember like the spring game hero everyone raves about because he make a couple of plays. Where is the consistency and production. I see Pennsy said that teams didn't respect our passing game and loaded up to stop the running game. That is fair but then you also have to give that there are better opportunities to throw the ball if the box is loaded, you can't have both be true. We had a very anemic running game last year so one could point to that as well. All this points to the complexity of the game that seems to escape some.
I think you got it backwards… dingle did NOT blame the WRs. Pretty sure he would blame the lack of a QB consistently making defenses pay for stacking the box.
You are correct. I misspoke. He defended the WRs as not the problem and laid it at the QB’s feet. We had three QBs who played last year, lost pretty much the starting WRs to injury. The difference, in my opinion and the point I was trying to make, was the young WRs weren’t able to help any of the QBs. My other point was to dispel the opinion that all WRs have to do is go deep and someone will get them the ball.
I agree, the WRs have a lot more to do than just catch passes. I’m not disputing that at all. It is a total team effort. But even if the WRs do everything they are supposed to, I’m thankful we may have a QB who can deliver the ball to them consistently.
