Fire O’Neil
- Thread starter rwesley264
- Start date
But you're OK with Bajakian? The D spend practically the entire first half on the field because of the O's ineptitude (which included handing a TD to the Gophers).
There's plenty of blame to go around with this sh*tshow.
One could also say they were on the field most of the first half because of their own ineptitude--not being able to get Minnesota off the field. I do not believe O"Neil has any idea of how to scheme to stop an opponent on third down.
And I'm still waiting for Bajakian to scheme a drive down the field that relies on something more than handing off to Hull and hoping he somehow breaks one.
In his defense, there were plenty of passes which could have been completed.
No open gaps…no time to throw…what else is there to call but the screen pass (which even works the first couple of times?)
In this game he didn't give Hull the ball enough. Hilinski threw 3 straight incompletions in his last series, all terrible throws. Hull came to play today, he was hitting the hole hard and breaking tackles.
No one is going to get fired. And none of the hilarious under-performers will get benched, unless you include Hilinski. How long have you guys been watching this team? Ladies and Gentlemen, YOUR NORTHWESTERN WILDCATS.
And with Porter out and down our two best receivers. And Fitz's handling of the QB situation, and the O'Neil hire (as the defense affects the offense). Granted he couldn't control Marty's injury. I do not believe Bajakian is the problem.
Bajakian called a pretty decent game. I thought maybe we abandoned the run a bit early but I’m not in the coaching box knowing what he sees and how the game flow is going.
The problems with this team is clearly an under manned front seven and an average to below average o line.
Somehow Marty had all day to through and make decisions so go figure. When he was in there mommy knew we had to pass but for the most part Marty had some time.
recruiting has to improve. I think we are getting a few good players at the top of each class but if you go with the Gary Barnett philosophy 25% of the class has to be impact starters 25% have the ability to develop into starters 25% special teamers and 25% won’t pan out we are more like 10% impact 25% somewhere between special team and starting ability and about 60% busts. That’s the problem.
The problems with this team is clearly an under manned front seven and an average to below average o line.
Somehow Marty had all day to through and make decisions so go figure. When he was in there mommy knew we had to pass but for the most part Marty had some time.
recruiting has to improve. I think we are getting a few good players at the top of each class but if you go with the Gary Barnett philosophy 25% of the class has to be impact starters 25% have the ability to develop into starters 25% special teamers and 25% won’t pan out we are more like 10% impact 25% somewhere between special team and starting ability and about 60% busts. That’s the problem.
The saving grace for JON is that the OC has been awful. The OL coach terrible.
So since its more than 2, the chances are that Fitz is the main problem.
Fans wanna know
Maybe he means only this game, but the problems with this team are huge.
The hope of firing O'Neil will have to wait at least until the season is over and we all know that. The damage has already been done so there's nothing to gain by firing him now anyway. The replacement NU needs surely has a gig right now and wants to take it as far as he can this season.
Hope Fitz gets some new advisors to help him choose his coordinators.
I have seen persons with unaddressed anxiety issues or undocumented syndromes, and they sorta seem like some of the things Fitz appears to have.
These sorta folks usually dont address problems and try to keep things the way they are.
Thus, imo, Fitz needs some handlers. Some sorta therapy.
These sorta folks usually dont address problems and try to keep things the way they are.
Thus, imo, Fitz needs some handlers. Some sorta therapy.
Yes but - somehow he has struck out in developing a 5* QB who at least saw the field at a NC program, a high 4* QB who was previously a starter for an SEC program, and we haven’t gotten much production out of any of the other QBs on the roster.
I mean the QBs are what they are. Not sure what people were expecting but sometimes 4-5 stars are busts.
We've had our share of those too.
Marty seems to have developed into a pretty decent dual threat with good awareness.
But with the rest of the personnel available we just don't have much.
Um...the team is averaging 14 points scored per game in the B1G. The Cats have scored the fewest points in the league. The defense has been bad, but at least it's third from the bottom. I don't get the complaints about JON that spare Baj. The defense struggled mightily on 3rd down, but so did the offense. The defense obviously got worn out in the 4th quarter. The good news is that the offense didn't have that problem.
It is reciprocal. Offense affects defense and vice versa. Have you paid attention for the past 8 years? Fitz's offenses have been terrible. They are still not great. Who is responsible for that, Fitz or Bajakian? I do not know. For all this time, Hank's defenses saved Fitz's terrible offenses. Now, Fitz has made a defensive call that has destroyed the defense, the only thing that saved the offense. Where does that put us?Um...the team is averaging 14 points scored per game in the B1G. The Cats have scored the fewest points in the league. The defense has been bad, but at least it's third from the bottom. I don't get the complaints about JON that spare Baj. The defense struggled mightily on 3rd down, but so did the offense. The defense obviously got worn out in the 4th quarter. The good news is that the offense didn't have that problem.
A lot of people don't want to hear this, but ultimately this is the truth.
We lack talent right now.
We need to upgrade our WR room significantly; that's been a huge problem for us for pretty much Fitz's whole tenure (need a lot more Robinson-level WRs to be developed in our system and brought in as transfers). Our OL is just a lot worse than it's been in recent years right now. Too many injuries to our RBs the past couple of years.
Our offense is one of the worst in FBS because we just don't have the personnel to play at a higher level than this right now.
Give our offense to any other OC in the conference and I doubt they could score more than 7-14 points a game with it.
As far as the defense goes, Michigan and Minnesota each got the ball for 40 minutes. No defense is built to hold against that. Giving up 30-45 points is pretty much the expectation in that kind of situation with any defense wearing down pretty fast.
This is 2019 all over again.
If we don’t have the personnel to perform at a high level on offense, why do we move the ball every time Marty comes in and why does the offense all of the sudden look competent?
Because Marty has a fair bit of Persa in him; he's that kind of player, a legit dual threat with good pocket awareness. A guy like that makes everyone around him better. The offense does indeed look competent at times when Marty is in there.
And I don't want to detract from Hull, he's done about everything he can possibly do to try to move the ball.
Remove Marty from the equation though... and you have a lot of pieces that don't look so great.
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A truly mobile QB is like a power play in hockey. It is an extra attacker. Defense can't send the house without risk.
Injuries have killed our offense, so Bajakian at least has that excuse.
Also not playing Marty as much as possible (aside from his injury versus Duke).
I can’t fathom why the coaches didn’t see he’s our best option to compete and win games given all the evidence from our three QBs over the past three years.
Also not playing Marty as much as possible (aside from his injury versus Duke).
I can’t fathom why the coaches didn’t see he’s our best option to compete and win games given all the evidence from our three QBs over the past three years.
My only thought is that Hunter was incrementally showing progress enough in practice that there was increased hope it would more frequently transfer to Saturday. He remains the most physically skilled QB we have ever had on campus, so understand it to some degree.
Here is my problem with that thinking. Based on what we all saw in 2019, I think I would have wanted to see him do it multiple times in a live scrimmage when he is not wearing a red Jersey. Lots of guys look good when playing touch football. QB is the hardest position to play in any sport and a big part of that is you have to do things only very physically gifted guys can do within 2-3 seconds of the ball being snapped with 300 lb lineman bearing down on you looking to tear your head off. There was plenty of evidence from 2019 that should have caused people to question if Hunter was capable of doing the "within 2-3 seconds of the ball being snapped with 300lb lineman bearing down on you looking to tear your head off" part. Shame on Fitz for getting fooled again..
That would be the “hope” part.
And while he didn’t look great against MSU or ISU, there was enough to say “ok, if we can just clean that up a little bit with more game experience we really have ourselves something.” Then the wheels absolutely fell off against Duke.
And now Hilinski was 1-of-6 for 5 yards against Minnesota and took the weakest sack I’ve ever seen from a P5 QB. So here we are.
Unfortunately I think the coaches felt they had to invest in our 4* and 5* transfers and were distracted by that. There’s also been the implications or rumors that Marty did not practice hard enough, or did not practice as well, and that could be on him.
But to me, this game especially seeing Tanner Morgan, that could be Marty. They were both Midwestern, mostly MAC-offered QBs and both have decent arm strength and good mobility and don’t make bad decisions. Put Marty in with the OL and WR Minny has and he would look like all Big Ten.
But to me, this game especially seeing Tanner Morgan, that could be Marty. They were both Midwestern, mostly MAC-offered QBs and both have decent arm strength and good mobility and don’t make bad decisions. Put Marty in with the OL and WR Minny has and he would look like all Big Ten.
The transfer portal for QBs is not the panacea others make it out to be. If a QB is any good, it's very rare a program will let him get away and if he is transferring from a smaller school looking for the Big Time QB experience, we won't get him. Ramsey was the exception, not the rule. Put me squarely in the camp of needing to improve our QB recruiting so we get a good developmental prospect every year and then let them compete for the starting job. We did that very well for a long time but for some reason we have landed on some really tough times for QB recruiting since landing Thorson. Meredith is hopefully the start of a new trend.