BillySee58

Kyle Trask at Florida is a legit Heisman contender and he backed up D’eriq King at Manvel. But I think it’s also important to note that Bean did start his senior year. He started and played a good bit more than Rogers, the QB he was splitting time with, did.

I’m confused by this too. Is the expectation that he’s going to act like Kason Martin on the sidelines, or else that means he’s disengaged? Saw the same things you did.

True freshmen Loronzo Thompson, Isaiah Johnson, and Christian Lee have all moved back to their conventional position on offense. Hopefully this means our depth on that side of the ball should be returning to normal soon. Thompson is now in the 2-deep at receiver so he may get a chance to move into the rotation with Shorter out

Let’s not forget Fine’s first start he was just 11-22 for 108 yards against an FCS school. The next week against Florida he was 6-22 for 66 yards. He threw 6 touchdown passes for the whole season. Sure we can say he showed something, but let’s not make it seem like he was good from the get go. I get there’s a huge difference from a 27-year old redshirt sophomore and a 19-year old true freshman, but Aune is well ahead of where Fine was when he took over the starting job. Of course we shouldn’t expect as big of a leap as Fine made, but he’s going to get better with more reps just as every multi-year starting QB should. Even if he doesn’t have the “it” factor.

Why do we always do this? Whatever the previous coach is, we need the exact opposite of him. After Dodge, we wanted an experienced coach and that was the only direction we’d go. That led us to a retread who had a good season but was left looking like a dinosaur in both on-field product and recruiting. And his archaic offense and inability to develop/sign QBs and score points led us to narrowing our search to young and upcoming offensive coordinator types. Which led us to Littrell, a first-time HC. And if Littrell fails are we really going to keep doing this routine of “the last coach was an X type of coach, so we need the antithesis of an X type of coach.” Littrell won here. The problem hasn’t been his lack of experience. But if we do at some point choose not to renew him or fire him and we’re looking for another HC, if we narrow our search parameters so tightly from the beginning because we don’t want a similar coach as the previous guy, we will deserve any failures of that hire.

We all watched the same game, we all saw the good and the bad moments, of which there were plenty of each. I dug a little deeper into the statistics of this performance to try and get some reference. Aune’s passing stat line: 28/47 for 339 yards, 2 TDs/0 INTs For Mean Green QBs this was the second most passing yards ever in a starting debut, behind Vizza’s 383 against Louisiana Lafayette in 2007. Aune averaged 7.2 yards/attempt in this game. Last season Mason Fine averaged 7.2 yards/attempt against FBS competition for the season. Aune threw the ball 47 times, which Fine only attempted as many or more passes 6 times in his 4-year career. The impressive part of that is zero interceptions among those 47 passes. Fine also was pickless in 3 of those 6 games. Something we forget about Aune is that he was officially a walkon. From 2011-2019 we signed 14 quarterbacks to scholarships in those classes. Aune already has more passing yards than 10 of those 14 signed QBs had/have for their entire Mean Green careers. Across Conference USA he is 2nd to Abraham in pass yards per game, which is based on his average over 3 games of which he really has only played about 2 full games worth of action with the rotating. He is tied for the second best TD/INT ratio in CUSA, and his passing efficiency of 147.6 is 6th in the conference, .5 points behind Abraham and with the 1st place guy at FIU only having 13 pass attempts so far. Mason Fine’s passing efficiency was 143.5 last year. Like I said earlier, we all saw the bad moments in the start. Missed passes, slow start, fumbles, etc. But the purpose of this post was just to show how he has stacked up against the guys we have trotted out there and the guys other CUSA schools have. Also to remind ourselves of the context that this was his first start. If this is his starting point, it seems like a good one as far as him being a solid CUSA QB, even if he never becomes an all-CUSA QB.

https://247sports.com/college/north-texas/LongFormArticle/How-North-Texas-Mean-Green-2021-commits-played-last-week-Oct-1-3-152492278/#152492278_7 A little more info here. West had two pick sixes, one for 100 yards and one for 90 yards

He’s a monster. Fine’s record was 71 TD passes his junior year. And I think Drummond and Hennessy are very aware of that.

Guys, can we wrap this up? One thing to make the comment, another for this to drag out and take up a page in his thread. We want him here and the last thing we want is for him and his family to read this and feel like he/they are being judged

Threw 7 more TD passes. Up to 28 TD passes on the year through 5 games

Yes. Everyone’s eligibility has been frozen for this season

He said it going into the Houston game. But obviously he seems really sold on this idea that not naming a starter gives us some type of advantage.

Littrell said he wanted a starting QB to roll with by conference play, so I think the switching is likely over unless the QB play is what is losing the game. He was obviously hoping for more non-conference reps to work with. And like you said, we need more than that to be competitive. But I think the things you’re harping on Aune for, we saw Bean do last week too. Bean skipped the ball on an open slant route then started having a fit of frustration on the field, he fumbled pulling the ball from the RB last week too, and he showed fear in throwing the ball downfield. There is definitely an argument to be had that he hasn’t had enough opportunity, but I don’t see evidence in the results that indicate Bean is someone capable of materially improved QB play from Aune. But I think if we’re gonna pull our QBs over this level of play, I don’t see Bean being able to hold onto the job very long at all either.

With Bean, obviously he’s a young QB so he will have highs and lows. But the issue to me is his lack of arm strength. Whether he is having an accurate or inaccurate day, that arm strength is what it is for now and it looked like he didn’t even trust it against SMU. Like I’ve said before, he has thrown the ball 45 times against FBS competition and he’s averaging just 4.5 yards per attempt and 4 INTs. People are bitching about Aune’s game last night and he was at 7.2 yards/attempt on 47 attempts yesterday, with no INTs. And with 3 deep balls that you would expect our receivers to come down with 1 of the 3, if not more (Darden, White, and Ogunmakin). I’m not convinced Aune is the answer, but I do feel pretty confidently from what I’ve seen that he’s the best we have, at least out of eligible QBs. A lot of people picked sides before the season as to which QB they wanted, and it has showed throughout the season. I thought Aune was our best QB, I still think he is, but I’m definitely not married to the idea of him needing to be our QB. But, I ask this for you and others who want Bean, if Bean had completed 60% of his passes and thrown for 339 yards and 2 TDs with no INTs in a game like Aune just did, made and missed the exact same throws, would you be as unimpressed with him as you are with Aune? I feel like people who want Bean would be even more sold on him than they are now if he had Aune’s production. As someone who wanted Aune, I can say I’d be feeling very good about Bean if he put up numbers like that, and I wouldn’t be calling for him to be pulled after a performance like that, even if there were missed throws in there.

Running back is one of the position groups we definitely have the least to worry about, but I’m not super impressed outside of Adaway and Siggers when he shows those flashes of last year. Torrey continues to get the yards that are blocked, and not doing a whole lot to get more than that. He was averaging 3.4 yards/carry before the 34-yard TD run where he was basically untouched right through the middle. We have to start busting more runs for chunk-yardage plays. 53 runs against SMU and our longest was only 10 yards. Tonight we ran for just 3.8 yards/carry. Too often we’re putting ourselves in 3rd and long early in the games because we’re getting 2 and 3 yard runs on 1st and 2nd down. Whether it’s the playcalling and timing of the runs, the blocking, or the RBs, we have to start popping more 10+ yard runs, especially early in the game. When would it have benefited us to switch to Bean? After that second fumble? Because from there on out we went: - 80-yard TD Drive - 45-yard Drive in 44 seconds to get a field-goal attempt before halftime - 3 TD Drives out of 4 complete drives in the second half Aune’s performance was far from great, but I think tonight was a good example of why we need to stop with the rotating. He had some bad throws, he had some dropped passes, but even his misses were where only our guy could get it. Threw the ball 47 times with no picks tonight, while Bean has 5 picks in 64 career attempts. If we’re pulling our QB over this caliber play, we’ll just be switching back and forth all season.

I think we can win with Aune and I think he has shown plenty on the field so far, and I expect him to improve as the season goes on. If he doesn’t, the quality of competition between an experienced Aune, Gilmore, and Drummond would give us a far better pool to pick from next year. I absolutely love Drummond’s arm talent and quality of his film. His numbers are absurd so far. Not as excited about Gilmore but I think he’ll be at least noticeably above Bean as a passer. Defense is obviously the bigger concern. I think we have recruited a lot of quality talent in the younger players, but it’s going to take time for them to become plus players at the CUSA level. Until then Bowen and the staff have to put these players in better positions to succeed. We’re asking our defensive linemen to be strong enough to take on double teams all game and be fast enough to rush the passer and make plays on the edge, our linebackers are constantly getting o-linemen in their grill, and our DBs are being asked to come up on run plays and make tackles like they’re linebackers while the RB has a head of steam. It just looks like a constant uphill battle, even for the guys who we expected to be playing.

Ego, maybe? 🤷‍♂️

More of the same frustration tonight. And we had our d-linemen tonight, but we’re asking so much from them.

The most experienced guys from those recruiting classes are true sophomores, so I would put the blame more on the upperclassmen than them.

I hope Littrell sees how much more running room there was there by passing to open up the run. Sometimes that’s how it is, sometimes it’s the other way around. Today the offense has moved much better when passing on early downs

Shorter left the locker room with a big boot and crutches. Definitely out for the game.

Defense keep playing well, keep throwing on early downs, and keep getting Siggers going and I feel like we’re in this.

I don’t care who is QB if Littrell isn’t going to trust his QB to throw until it’s 3rd and long. Aune’s best play was to Simpson on a 1st down.

They might. Just listing the guys we have who Vito did not rule out

After KD Davis, we have Chris Thornton (redshirt junior who has never really played), Murphy twins, RS FR Taylor Jacobs, true freshmen Jacobi Johnson and Jordan Brown, and true freshmen Isaiah Johnson and Christian Lee have temporarily moved from offense to linebacker. With Adaway and Evan Johnson out, as well as Tre Siggers status uncertain, might not be out of the question to see Isaiah Johnson on both sides of the ball tonight.