Here's Mike Fitz's piece on the questions facing Northwestern's offense this spring.
Spring Football: Five questions for NU's offense
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I did not realize Thompson had the dreaded Franz Liszt injury. Bummer. Tired of seeing our young linemen getting hurt.
Glad Picozzi is on board. I think we will need him at G, and move Schmidt to center.
Money quote: "Watching Northwestern's 2021 offense was like watching a car crash: it looked awful and you felt terrible for everyone involved."
Glad Picozzi is on board. I think we will need him at G, and move Schmidt to center.
Money quote: "Watching Northwestern's 2021 offense was like watching a car crash: it looked awful and you felt terrible for everyone involved."
Good questions, and nice article by Fitz. It's funny how the offense didn't get as much grief as the defense last year. In fact, it was pretty much as bad as 2019, more or less. "Never again" happened...again.
I like all the talent we have at RB, but, short of running out of the Wildcat/single-wing all year, we have to have some balance. Hilinski has to be effective enough to keep 8 out of the box. If he does, the offense will be ok. It won't be great.
I feel bad for whoever has to write the article about the defense.
I like all the talent we have at RB, but, short of running out of the Wildcat/single-wing all year, we have to have some balance. Hilinski has to be effective enough to keep 8 out of the box. If he does, the offense will be ok. It won't be great.
I feel bad for whoever has to write the article about the defense.
Three sentences are enough to get me in the Sullivan train! Choo-choo — let the kid play!
I looked back at 2019, and it really was way worse. 50% passing. 6 (!) total passing touchdowns, two receptions each for Lees, Jefferson, and Jace James (?).
But man, last year was bad.
Five questions:
Got a Qb?
Got any WR?
Got any TE?
Got any OL other than Skoronski?
For any yes responses, really?
I looked back at 2019, and it really was way worse. 50% passing. 6 (!) total passing touchdowns, two receptions each for Lees, Jefferson, and Jace James (?).
But man, last year was bad.
Five questions:
Got a Qb?
Got any WR?
Got any TE?
Got any OL other than Skoronski?
For any yes responses, really?
Take a closer look at the offense 2019 to 2021. Scored almost the exact same # of points. only 30yds more per game total offense in 2021. About the same # of turnovers. Ineffective shuffling of QBs and injuries. 2019 had that putrid 3 game stretch where they got outscored 106-6, but played better later in the year and beat ILL. One could say that 2019 was worse than it looked because of the UMass game skewing stats upward, I'll counter with the 2021 Ohio game.
One factor that I cannot measure is that the 2021 defense was worse, so perhaps the 2021 offense had fewer opportunities. That makes sense at face value, except when you consider the # of gigantic plays that the 2021 defense gave up, so the offense got the ball back right away anyway. Instead of the defense producing 3 and outs, it produced 3 (or less) and score.
2020 showed us how important a QB is. One of these guys must step up, or we will struggle, mightily.
Here’s the things with the offense: all those things could work out and the odds are our offense still won’t be very good, because it hasn’t been very good on many years, even when more of those things are working out.
I see, perhaps hopefully, the Ol, left to right, as Skowronski, Priebe, Schmidt, Franks, and Tiernan. Weidekuhr was not good last year (as kind as I can be) and I do not see him improving this year. Tiernan is our LT once Skowronski moves to the pros. He has to play this year. Franks likely would have started but for the pre-season injury last summer. We have supposedly recruited well at OL the past few years and should be able to put some of these guys on the field now.
So your advocating starting a redshirt frosh who's never taken a snap in a college game over a returning 6th year player who's been a starter for us in multiple seasons?
YES!!! (not to be an a**hole, but try you're) Seriously, if you watched the RT last year, you saw the obvious need for an upgrade. After 5 years, there likely is not much improvement to be gained in year #6. Tiernan is a stud - young, but with lots of promise. Let's give him the experience in what is almost certainly another down year.
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Excited to hear about Sullivan. The guy is an athlete who is a proven winner. If coach Jake has been able to refine his QB fundamentals, we may have something on our hands at QB. We need it.
People who know more about football than you disagree that Wiederkehr was the first, second, or third problem on the line last year.
Franks or Tiernan developining into good starters and seizing playing time would still be a fine problem to have.
So Mann got some real time play on passing downs in 2019,,,,not much last year , could this be an injury situation? This is where NU really bugs me....A player no longer on the roster and we get ghosted...makes ya kind of feel like you are not at the cool kid table at high school ,,,,,
Loyola, we will never be the cool kids. And I'm starting to believe the narrative that these two coaches with long-term contracts can do whatever they want, with impunity, due to a) tiny/indifferent fan base, b) no local media coverage, c) no national expectations, d) new AD / President. Get outside our tiny bubble and people would say that Collins has us on a positive trajectory, for instance, and that Fitz just needs more time to get us back to the B1G CCG. If I hear "even year Northwestern" one more time, I am going to stab myself in the eye with a pencil.
The buzz around here has been that we've done a good job recruiting OL the past couple of classes. If that is true, then it wouldn't surprise me at all to have a redshirt frosh beat out largely ineffective upperclassmen. That's kind of what you want to happen with a struggling unit.
And we've seen it ourselves, here at NU. I know skill positions are easier to step into than OL/DL due to the physical requirements needed, but we've had a number of multi-year starters that, presumably, replaced/beat out upperclassmen. Or, on the opposite take, is there anyone here that didn't want to see more of Mueller last year.
In the days of the portal, talented underclassmen will either play or leave.