FUATT wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2024 10:54 am
The Jackal wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2024 8:29 am
I think it's sort of an "all of the above" problem right now.
First, Injuries happen. Guys missing games happen. It happens to everyone. The next men up, however, still have to play and execute. That doesn't mean, though, that it's easy to play in a tough conference without a lot of guys you were counting on.
Hendrix said they went harder in the preseason in terms of contact and tackling than they did last year. He commented that this group needed those physical reps last year's group didn't. Maybe that was a mistake. Maybe they've sustained some practice-related injuries they could have otherwise avoided. Maybe they change their thinking on that next season.
On the field, the execution is just bad. It does, however, appear that we are trying to make adjustments.
For instance, we saw a lot more Gavin Hall Saturday. We also saw Hedden carry the ball on a few more keepers. We appeared to be using Myion Hicks as more of a north/south power scheme runner than an east/west zone runner. That all seemed positive.
At the same time, we just look confused out there at times. We're forcing the ball in bad spots. We're throwing to guys that don't have the right play. Hedden threw an interception Saturday on a play to Hester, who was blocking. I'd chalk that up to youth and inexperience between two true freshman except that the exact same thing happened last week, only the Citadel didn't pick off the pass.
It could be that our coaches are just asking too much of our young players. At times Saturday we had a freshman center, freshman QB, freshman WR, freshman TE, and freshman RB. We probably just have to dial down the playbook and do the basic stuff well before attempting more complicated stuff we are just not executing.
There is obviously talent. You can see that in the game. What isn't there is execution. Some of that is on the players. Some of that is on the coaches.
On a positive note, we'll return virtually everyone next year. This team will continue to get better with more repetition. We've got depth at every position. We just gotta get these guys comfortable executing out there.
This is the posts here are all sober and smart. Good observation on the Hester plays and the preseason injuries, for instance. This is what happens when you have two guys who were not the 1's for a lot of Summer and did not consistently get starter level reps getting thrown into conference play. I'm sure the coaches would be the first to say they have to coach them better too. Maybe they have and its experience. We just don't know.
I think the Western game will tell us where we are headed rest of the season.
I think we went in the season knowing that we were going to have a redshirt Freshman center. Luna seemed like the heir apparent at that position since last season.
A freshman center really isn't a concern. Just off memory, Cole Neely, Evan Jumper, and Matt Schmidt all started at that position as freshmen, so Chris Luna taking over there wasn't really surprising.
I think we went into the season thinking we
might have a freshman QB playing significant snaps. Hedden was here in the spring and it looked all preseason that there was a battle for the position. Carson Jones was still the guy that got the starting nod to begin the season.
I suspect the ineffectiveness of the run game, especially with two fourth year players as the key returning backs, was surprising. The guy that arguably should be the bell-cow running back, Jaquan Smith, likely is not going to play this year, so that hurts depth.
I think we all suspected that Gavin Hall would play this year, but I think we mostly anticipated it would be as a change-of-pace reserve role. My guess is we are going to keep seeing more of him.
At wide receiver, I think we probably anticipated some freshman rotating in. Not having Harris is a big void. I think Harris alone had more starting/playing experience than the rest of the offense combined. Him being out means you have to start relying more on true freshman, who are now in the game on critical third down plays when they might have otherwise just been rotating in.
Losing Alex Maier hurt the defense. It appeared to me on the game that Dylan Chideo was in a black jersey Saturday, which means that Tanner Schuck, another freshman, was the primary backup at Bandit. Clark is having to play more snaps this year than he did last year to make up for Maier's absence.
At TE, we expected it to be Burrell and Chappell at the position. Burrell was injured early on, and now we're relying on freshmen like Tormey and Pryor to pair with Chappell. Again, I suspect we expected those guys to play, we just did not necessarily expect them to play as much as they are having to.
Freshmen are going to make freshmen mistakes. Grainger did. Blazejowski did. Sisson did. They all do. The big gap for many young quarterbacks is ball security - they just are having to learn they can't make every play like they did in high school when they were the best athlete on the field. At this stage, let them take their lumps and learn and hopefully in a year or two we start to see the fruits of those experiences.
