Substance only please: Changes?

[JHball]

Besides the DTs, the lack of talent on defense is of historic proportions. You MUST have playmakers at linebacker. Banderas should be at DE, where his skill set would fit somewhat. Our QB can't throw a screen, slant, 10 yard hook or 5 yard pass to a RB in the flats. Tommy is a reasonably decent runner, but he is not a game breaker by any stretch of the imagination. He is also not a very good ball handler, nor does he have the ability to run the read plays well at all. Our offensive line is not nearly good enough to just line up and run it through people all day. Our best assets BY FAR on offense are the receivers. Riley's biggest mistake is in thinking that he could turn Tommy into a serviceable enough thrower that he could get the ball to these great receivers. This team needs a serious infusion of talent all over the depth chart. Also, do you not believe that Riley is dealing with a group of players who are forever Bo and who will never give 100% for him? That makes it impossible for a team to play anywhere near their potential. In a normal situation, I would say a good coach needs to be able to win these malcontent players over, but in this instance Bo did serious psychological damage to these kids by pounding into their heads daily that they absolutely cannot trust anyone outside of their locker room. I truly hope that going forward these kids won't suffer in real life from having this drilled into their heads.

I don't think it's the players that have the psychological damage...

 

[Archie Graham]

I'll try my best to reply....

1. I'm sure we do practise all the time, but Tommy's inability to execute this one play is a HUGE issue. As such, I'd pound this same play every single day until he starts to execute it perfectly.

2. I disagree that we mixed it up. Other than trying (and failing) to use the fly sweep as misdirection, I think we were incredibly repetitive. Almost no FB. Tommy hand off to Newby who ran into Reeves' bum. It was awful. What was worse was that there were plays called early that attacked the edges that often got 6-9 yards, that disappeared as the game went on. I try to cut Langsdorf slack, but he makes me pull my hair out.

3. All three of our interior guys have struggled all year. Reeves and Utter has been successfully bullrushed regularly, and guys just step around Kondolo (although he has been better as of late). I would like to see Thurston/Hannon get some snaps at Center and Foster/Farmer get some snaps at Guard. Candidly, even if doesn't help the on-the-field performance this year, I think it's important for team unity and to get guys ready for 2016. I'm not sure if Givens-Price slept with someone he shouldn't have, but how he didn't get in at RT with Sterup's performance is beyond me. Langsdorf = Failure #1, but Cavanaugh has been Disappointment #1. I thought Danny might do what he's doing, but I expected much better from Cavanaugh.

4. I would like to see Jano on the field for >70% of snaps. I don't care what the formations are that make that happen but he needs to be on the field and get his hands on the ball. For IB's, Newby has not earned the right to all these snaps. I think all three of Newby, Cross and Wilbon should be sharing snaps. I should add, I wouldn't limit Cross to a short yardage back. He has run tougher lately and in-traffic, he is looking like he is getting 2-3 more yards after contact than Newby. Given our OL struggles, that has to be part of our calculus.

Re: More substitutions - all of OL, RB, DL have been woefully managed.

That's how I see it anyway....


Cheers Archie, Matthew.

1. I'm sure we will keep pounding away at it, as we should, but I don't think Tommy is going to get better at short touch passes. Maybe with an offseason of QB training.

2. Agree that we need to go more toward tackles. Our guards got beta up trying to managed gaps against quality DTs. That isn't going to change. I guess we go toward Lewis more until Gates is healthy.

3. It will be interesting if we see some rotations. I'd have no problem with it.

4. If Jano can handle it I'm down. I guess I'm fine with more of a RB rotation but I don't see how that helps too much.

DL? Can you elaborate? Who would you put out there or what would you do?

 

[Archie Graham]

I agree, rivals evaluates kids that attend their camps. Rivals actually has a ton of camps. I know 3 out of 4 of the recruits I named camped with rivals at some sort of satellite rivals camp. Notice their profile pics. So I'm confused, are you saying they gave them bad grades based on their performance at rivals camps? Wouldn't that actually point against MRs recruiting ability?

HS stats are nice but I can show you some really great stats of kids committed to Sacramento State. SMH

Thanks for a good thread, even if I disagree.

I don't want to take this thread in another direction so if you want to get into recruiting details please start a thread and I'll contribute.

Suffice it to say that I think you've identified some players that are on the lower end of the class. Fine with me. We have taken a couple chances on some guys we like for a reason or another. I'm willing to see how it works out because Riley has a reputation for talent evaluation and we've very clearly hit on some guys already (e.g., POB). Nobody was in on him when we did our evaluation. Finally, Riley isn't going to let guys sit around on scholarship for five years if they are not contributing. He will help them find a transfer where they can play football. This will be a significant change from our last coaching staff.

2017 looks very exciting. Hopefully USC doesn't make a huge splash and crush our work in CA.

 

[tro80]

The list is long, and I don't know what order to look at. On top to me is attitude and buy in. The seniors have not and at this point it is apparent won't buy in. Maybe when they are gone next year's seniors will. Did you see the picture of all of the players on the bench later in the game? Do they even give a rat's patut? I think the answer is pretty clear. Oh they may care, but they don't CARE- not enough of them anyway and those that do care aren't willing to hold the others accountable.

No. 2, There has to be a serious upgrade in strength and conditioning of our linemen, and holding them accountable for poor play. Penalties on the line is an area of improvement of late. But, we must get more talent, smarts and skill in our line or we will never be successful.

Three, until there is a quarterback change, it isn't going to happen. By all appearances, Tommy is an upstanding young man and a heck of an athlete, but his decision making is too slow and he makes too many dumb mistakes. In three years under Bo (including redshirt year), he was still having trouble going through progressions under the old system. Now, you have him trying to learn a new system, and he is struggling. I think one play said it all Saturday (other than the interception). On a first or second and goal from about the three, we ran a designed quarterback run overthe left side. He had a blocker in front of him engaged with a NW lineman or linebacker (not sure which) at about the three with an opening on either side. Had he put his head down and darted up either side of his blocker, his momentum alone would have gotten him in the endzone even if the NW player engaged with our blocker managed to come off the block and get a hand on him. Instead, TA froze behind the blocker for a couple of seconds apparently unsure which way to go before trying reverse to his right and getting dragged down for no gain or a loss. Even on the two point conversion, why would your coach be so happy that you at least went through your progressions? That should be automatic almost four years into your career. He may have gotten through the progressions, but he was too late coming to his third option. When he got to it, instead of seeing that he no chance of getting that throw in and either trying to run it in or extend the play to see if someone could get himself open, he tried to force it in anyway. The timing of his decisions, and his ultimate decisions are too often the wrong play. If he is the starting QB next year, I don't see any different result.