Unless he planned to get 4 Skoronskis - i.e., immediate, productive starters, then his supposed miscalculation was gigantic. I can't believe he would be careless enough to think he'd get 4 more freshman starters and not need any transfers. Color me incredulous
Stop blaming the players… it’s the coaches
- Thread starter CatManTrue
- Start date
OSU reminds me of Star Wars Episode 6, where the death star is nearly rebuilt. I don't see any Luke Skywalkers on their schedule. They are clobbering people on both sides of the ball with good O, D, ST, and good coaching. I'm glad we don't play them this year. they might have a d1k trip game, but they never seem to happen against us.
Failure to hold the LOS on defense and offense has also been a serious problem resulting in giving up 15-play, 80-yard drives all day. Our DLinemen are pretty good-sized, too. Not enough board drills?
Not even close. Look at the two deep and it is loaded with upper class man. Next year you maybe able to claim this. This years team is not young.
You have a bunch of grad students on this squad. Only a few sophomores, but a ton of upper class men. You will have a lot of turnover in 2022. This is definitely not a rebuilding season, next season will be though.
Only a few sophomores? I think there are 9 sophomore starters and that doesn’t include Porter. With at least 16 total that get significant playing time.
Wow! No punches pulled from @GOUNUII !
I’m in pretty much total agreement with what you said, although we don’t have any DBs from Florida currently.
The LB recruiting is probably the most disappointing part. We’ve struggled with OL depth for 20+ Years. But how do the combination of Fitz and McGarigle not have three stud LBs ready to go each year?
And just what is the “Fitz fit test”?
Here's a football recruiting story. (Source: an FCS head coach whom I met recently. The school he describes is not his own, but I'd prefer not to identify the coach or the program he privately described. It seemed stunning but I've no reason to disbelieve him.)
A coaching staff (also FCS) inherited MAJOR rebuilding challenges, and improvement indeed had to come quickly. One recruiting source they turned to was (gasp!) the state's prison population. The staff got several new players with apparent parole board approval. Maybe the board's members felt the inmates would be in "a better place." The school's admissions office had to be pretty forgiving as well, don't you think? I was told that the school's football fortunes did improve quickly and dramatically (a recent conference championship), and the penal players were mostly contributors.
One imagines a new slant on recruiting "home visits." Did coaching staff members have to walk down up and cell blocks to identify prospects? Surely they got quick verbal commitments to offers extended.
Fitz and Co. obviously work and recruit in a different world.
No, we have one: Jaheem Joseph. And I don’t recall him playing much or showboating at all.
At least you’re admitting you were wrong when you said we have no dbs on the roster from Florida. And just FYI, I think GOU is referring to someone who isn’t technically from Florida but he moved there and was playing HS football in Florida when he committed to the Cats. I believe his Dad is/was a coach at FSU.
I meant no DBs that saw the field.
And if it’s an IMG kid, why doesn’t their bio say it like Newsome’s did? Fans wanna know.
You linked the football roster to prove your point but then you insinuate he’s an IMG kid when the roster says exactly where he went.
What? You said there’s a different DB from Florida. I presumed it’s another IMG recruit. So why isn’t that school listed on the roster?
Here’s a suggestion. Open the roster. Sort on “position”, look at all the dbs and identify another one who’s listed HS is in Florida.
Pretty sure he’s referring to AJ Hampton, hometown in Arkansas but played high school ball in Florida.
Thanks! How hard was that @wildcatpn ?
Let’s be honest. Our back 7 coaching has fallen off a cliff. It pains me to write that as Mac and McG are two of my favorites. But I think it’s the awful system that JON tried to implement in his only offseason.
If it makes you feel better, I’m pretty sure they basically reverted back to Hank’s system over the bye week.
I don’t think it was the back 7 position coaching. So many posters were berating Jerry Brown’s DB coaching until Colby was replaced with Hank. It was amazing how having the right DC and scheme made the secondary one of the best in the league.
A 7 point loss to Duke?
A 17 point loss to MSU?
A 26 point loss to Michigan?
A 49 point loss to Nebraska?
No, I’m not happy. At all. Those are some shameful losses by large margins that never should have been the case.
Don't feel right about disclosing the penal-recruiting school nor the coach who told the story but no, it wasn't. The head coach who recounted the tale did say, however, that prison recruitment was done only for the first year or two, then stopped.
What amazed me about the story was the complicity of both parole board and admissions office. (And no, dear EvanstonCat, it was not the Buckeyes either.
)
Yes, pretty obvious he is talking about Hampton. For the record, I completely disagree with My pal GONU on this one point. I love my DB’s preening and talking trash. Always. You are going to get beat one on one. Happens. However, lose that swag or confidence as a DB and you might as well never put the pads on again. This is from an old school guy for the most part. Newsome changed the whole mind set. We don’t need to go back to our comfort zone of being nice respectful guys out there. This is football not ball room dancing. IMO, the DB’s are not the problem. For the most part they have been pretty good since the entire D debacle the first month
Don't feel right about disclosing the penal-recruiting school nor the coach who told the story but no, it wasn't. The head coach who recounted the tale did say, however, that prison recruitment was done only for the first year or two, then stopped.
What amazed me about the story was the complicity of both parole board and admissions office. (And no, dear EvanstonCat, it was not the Buckeyes either.
I was kind of joking. I meant it reminded me of the Longest Yard. I guess Texas State was from a different football movie.
I’m a big believer in second chances. Maybe the team aspect and positive aspects of football helped those former prisoners turn things around. Cool story!
That can happen even with players without records. Wasn’t a basketball player kicked off NU’s team in the 2000s for stealing laptops from a dorm?
We only gave up 300 yards of rushing last week, so obviously JON fixed everything. 300 > 500.
With that improvement, we should be able to keep it under 3 scores against minny.
We have had some significant injuries in that area this year that have likely made a big impact.
Who was that? I remember Cam Newton doing that at Florida, but I don't remember it happening at NU. I do remember E-Cat's favorite hoops player being dismissed from the team in 2001 after an altercation on the porch of an Evanston home.
Brandon Lee.
Lee will no longer play for the NU basketball team, NU announced after his arrest, not specifying a reason. He was suspended from the team twice this year, once in January and once in February,for unspecified violations of team rules. The 5-foot-11 guard averaged 1.6 points and 7.9 minutes per game
Name ONE team in CFB whose OL room doesn't have numerous players who get injured and stay injured... and never work out. That is the deal with OL. For every team. Its simple - you have to bring in 4 or 5 kids almost every single year (NOT 3), or you flat out will not have enough healthy bodies to be able to line up and execute your offense.
To me this is as obvious and simple as it gets in CFB roster/recruiting basics. I am continually amazed that for at least the last decade we keep underrecruiting the OL room. This does not happen at Wisconsin (certainly not during the Alvarez era).
We certainly need 4 or 5 new OL transfers this winter... as several people on the board have been saying.
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While I don't dispute the need, why on earth do people think OLs will be knocking down the door to transfer to NU?