TIgreen01

So...has anyone other than Coach (who started a great thread on the VIP board) actually sat down to break-down the plays that went for big yardage in the LaLa game? I definitely fall under the 'armchair qb' category, but I've watched the game as far as the 2nd big TD run (put them up 21-12) and on both plays the Dline gets completely blown out of the play...so much so that the oline was allowed to get to all THREE LBers. On the first TD run, Monroe seemed to overcommit to the outside and then got caught up in the oline. This seems to happen (not just Monroe) on all of the big runs that go against us. My question is, is that on the LBer/the call by the DC/or just the DLinemen getting killed...or all 3? Also, where are the safeties on these plays? Most of the time they appear to be out of position and are non-factors once the play has gone past 5 yards. I remember watching DeLoach's defense and used to always think about how little chasing our players had to do....like he ALWAYS knew where the offense was going with the ball and our guys just had to get to the spot first. This defense bites on fakes too often and seems to be running themselves out trying to chase the ball. Is that usually caused by bad playcalling or just flat out having to make up for mistakes around you?? I'm firmly in the "Free first year pass" camp (heck, maybe the first 2 years) while we rebuild our lines, but am definitely discouraged at how easy it seems to overload our defensive front to take half the field out of play.

Nice post. The best part is you didn't even mention the D....just assumed they'd step up. I hope you're right. ...oh, and I agree about the QBs...

Agree 1000%...and I nominate this for 'Best Post of ALL-TIME'.

Which is exactly why you won't see Vizza start until the conference title is lost. He'll be out there with a ton less pressure and the fans will be far less critical since wins/losses won't matter as much. Dodge's time at UT(where he got boo'ed pretty mercilessly at times) seems to have made a huge impact on how he handles QBs. I can't say that I disagree with this approach....it's just difficult to be a patient fan sometimes.

Great post. Start Vizza. Just get on with it, Coach Dodge.

Well said. Vizza has "IT"....Meager does not. No offense to Meager, b/c he's got skills. But the "IT" is all over Vizza. We win when we finally make the switch---full-time. This situation reminds me of Bridges/Hall or Bledsoe/Romo. It's only a matter of time at this point. How many more games do we have to lose before Dodge makes the change??

No. I was at the game. FfRick is right....just inexcuseable chickensh!t for the refs to be as involved as they were in a game that we came into looking over-matched. Make no mistake, several of the calls in this game were huge confidence killers for our players....which directly affects how quickly the score can get out of hand. You'd like to be able to say that your team is playing with enough confidence to shrug that kind of stuff off, but unfortunately we are NOT a confident team right now. I thought our offense did a much better job of keeping their heads up and trying to fight through it. Our defense looked lost---LBers freezing up instead of attacking...just look like they are thinking too much out there at times. I still don't understand why we don't put in Mahan/L. Brown/etc on the weakside LBer spot....we are INCREDIBLY slow to the edges. For the life of me I don't know why our starting LBers are Holman/Mendoza/Monroe. I'd keep Holman out there, but would find a way to get Mahan and L. Brown(and his clone---can't remember his name right now) out there on the weakside and rotate Monroe/Robertson at strong. We have to get some speed out on the field.

Dang you for beating me to the punch. I agree....and so does NCAA 08 for the record.

I don't understand how you can feel that you had over-inflated expectations about our offense. We gained 466 total yards last night. Read that again....and again. We moved the ball at will in the first half and had 2 great possessions in the second half (the very first where we got a field goal and the very last). In between those two second half drives we struggled, but good gosh!....in comparison to DD-ball, we are an offensive juggernaut! Mistakes killed us last night. We played like a young team--when we had them on the ropes, we failed to finish the knockout. The 2 end zone picks came after good, sustained offensive drives. The second led to a huge momentum shift and took the wind out of everyone, players and fans alike. I came away from this game even more encouraged for the future than before. It is apparent that we have a bona-fide offensive genius roaming our sideline. The defense was better (mainly when Gilmore was in) and will continue to get better. We need help on both lines and Dodge's recruiting is helping to solve that. Add Riley Dodge to this mix and we'll have a stud QB who really runs this offense. The future is bright....

I pretty much agree with this--esp on the "idiots and jackasses" commentary! Seriously, though...only chrisfisher has commented on DM'ers pocket presense--which is probably his biggest flaw. Instead of just stepping up in the pocket (which is often available) his first instinct is to flee the pocket entirely and run outside. He could have helped out our RT who struggled with the speed rush by the FAU DE by just stepping up....instead he sells out the whole oline by immediately running for his life. Now you've got the line subject to holding penalties and the like---not to mention that DM on the run is a scary sight at best. I don't know much about Vizza, but he did show much better pocket presense when he played against OU. Riley Dodge--I've seen once in person--also looked to have a natural feel for it. My personal feeling about the QB position is that you'll see Vizza once a conference championship is clearly no longer an option. That could be as soon as our next home game.

I was at the game (co-worker's son was one of the starting MLBs for Rockwall--3-4 scheme) and I'd have to say they are doing pretty well in the athlete department. Maybe not quite as good as an Allen/Plano, but still had the best athletes on the field tonight. Both lines have monsters on the ends (DEs and OTs) and their skill players have unbelievable agility. That said, SLC stands out as being obviously very well coached. Amongst a littany of "little things" that they do right, the whole team gets their pads squared up better than any HS team I've ever seen....on both sides of the ball...so they are almost always running downhill. This was the first time I've seen them in person and was very impressed.

Last Year's FAU Box Score We dominated this team last year and lost b/c we turned it over 4 times to their 0. If we just don't LOSE the turnover battle this year, we win. Their D is very opportunistic, though....so we need a very good effort from everyone on offense to protect the ball.

Who's going to be calling the plays?...same guy who wanted cover 1? I would think his tendency would still be to resort to cover 1 in critical situations if that's what he trusts. Still, I expected us to show some wrinkles once we got to conference play. First 2 games--find out who our playermakers are. Week 3 (conference tilt), gameplan. DD, for all his simple gameplans, still always managed to throw in some new stuff when we played Sun Belt games.

Good to hear. I say give the guy (Mendoza) time. He ALMOST fixed a glaring weakness from the OU game in one week--our CBs and Safeties overrunning plays and trying to do too much on their islands. We did a much better job of keeping the SMU WRs and RBs in front of us and holding them up so help could arrive....that was in one week. Tackling against SMU was still pretty bad overall, though---I just can't wait for the day when we stop going for the big forearm blow and wrap up instead. Hopefully we'll be there by FAU??

How much did this thing cost?

Best post I've seen on the subject. If anyone else opened the Sunday DMN (like I did), there were 3 full length articles (one a front page article slamming both SMU and us--in a backhanded way) just for smu....and one small article from Vito. That alone says they still have a higher profile than us. Have we gotten more press this offseason than they have? Absolutely. Have we won more games in the last 20 years? Yep. Does perception ignore all that? You bet. For goodness sakes they were a 16-17 point favorite this year and were a 8-9 (if I remember correctly) favorite last year for a game in our house. It's going to take time for us to erase that perception. I do think it has been obvious to anyone who attended the last 2 games between NT and smu that our teams are closely matched. We beat them handily last year when they had a freshman QB...they beat us this year while we break in a new coaching staff. With Dodge's first 2 recruiting classes, we stand a chance to separate ourselves from them a bit. We just need to keep improving and I think we'll put them in the rear-view mirror within 5-10 years....that, or we'll develop a great rivalry with them as we both scratch and claw our way up the ladder. Either way, we need to keep this series going....it's good for both schools.

Heck...even if they gave us 30 pts I'd still have to take dirty schmoo to cover. Our D needs to prove something this week. If we can't stop the quick WR screens (and I'm not convinced we can regardless of all the 'out-athleted' talk after OU), schmu is not going to try to 'stop scoring'....

I agree...and I think if you look at what Dodge has done in recruiting--signing a JUCO DB in June/July should have signaled red flags to us all--he is going after speedy corners and safeties. I think 4 of the 10 2008 commits are in the secondary (though I could be wrong if some of those "athletes" end up elsewhere). Then we graduate a ton off our 2 deep at dline and LB....it's going to take several years to stockpile enough talent to make up for all the holes we're going to have on defense after this offseason.

Nope. Meager will probably get the starts for the next couple of games, but he won't be winning any games with the super-conservative way he runs the offense. Vizza came in and RAN the Dodge spread. He threw the ball down the field and ran with authority when called for. Meager went through all the reads but he never threw it deep. I would be curious to hear what Dodge thought of that as well....I also thought that Vizza seemed to be quicker with his decision making--which helped the Oline out....you're not supposed to sit in the pocket forever in the Dodge spread. Either way, I think Vizza is your starter by October.

I would break out some film of a gang tackling secondary...stop all the dang diving when you're on an island and start holding people up.

My recap is this. Earlier today I predicted a Mean Green loss at OU. Now I'd take Dodge and 10 kindergartners to beat OU by 65. Seriously, this is night and day from past years! You can even hear that Dunham has raised his own excitement level just by the tone of his voice. My one point I'd add to what has already been said (and maybe I'm sensitive to listening for this after past years) is that Dodge managed to talk OUR team up more than OU. To close a quick 3-4 minute segment on breaking down OU he did admit that it would be a "monumental task."...and I am FINE with that admission. He gave OU their props...said their RB tandem was potentially tops in the nation but said that they'd be starting a first timer at QB and that we'd test him. He talked about going into a game like this and being competitors...said that people are talking this game up like it's already 21-0 OU before the whistle ever blows, but that it's just 0-0 and at the end of the game we only have to be up by 1 point to win. But mostly, he talked about every position player on our team and talked them up. Not saying that better PR is going to win us ball-games, but it's a NOTICEABLE change around these parts. Really, I just get the feeling that Dodge is working to instill some confidence in these players....esp. our 2 most critical players---Jamario and Meager.

Agreed!...and I take back my 'over-hyped scrimmage' claim after listening to the Todd Dodge Radio Show and will claim a Dodge vs. OU score of 159 - 0!!

This is an over-hyped scrimmage for both teams. OU has Miami in game 2 and we have SMU. Both games are arguably the biggest games on each schedule. B/c of that, we're not going to show too much defensively to let SMU prep for all the run-blitzing we're going to unleash on them . Our offense will just try to find a ryhthm and get some confidence in the second half after OU has put this one away....but rest assured, Bradford will be playing deep into the 4th quarter, ala Colt McCoy in 2006, in his first ever college football game. Much as I can't wait to get the DD OOC poo taste out of my mouth...this game will not be the game that does the trick... OU - 55 NT - 17

?! WTF?

Wasn't Colt McCoy a rs Freshman last year...with UT's next game being against Ohio St (#1 in the land)??! Maybe you guys don't remember the outcome of that game, but OU starting a rs Freshman with a big game up the next week doesn't exactly comfort me. I seem to remember UT going for it on 4th down 3-4 times last year AFTER they were already up by over 30...ALL to give the RS Freshman QB more time on the field to prepare for OSU..... ....oh, wait....we don't have 'just glad to be on the same field with greatness' Dickey anymore.... Who am I kidding, we're gonna get smoked. But you know what? I don't even care. Just the simple fact that we're going to actually put together a gameplan against a BCS team gives me chills. I can't wait for the season to start.