My combined takeaway from BC and Florida and what it means for Rice

outoftown · September 18, 2016

1) The Defense is better than I thought. I think we all agree that the defense played well against both BC and Florida, particularly I was surprised how well they held against the rush, where I was afraaid they could justrun us over. That actually has to do with the secondary doing fine and LBs being able to trust their Dbs to clean up. I am starting to think the Defense will keep us in some games. That said, Floridas offense is actually not that great. There might be teams on this schedule that have better offenses than Florida. Luckily, Rice ain't one of them.

2) I am a lot less certain whether the offense can take advantage. Versus BC we profited from a lot of gifts. We have a freshmen QB who is doing quite ok considering what he is given, but he really isn't given much. Thre O-line looked inconsistent vs BC and SMU (meaning at times there was time, but too often there was none), and downright awful vs an admittedly great Florida D-line. Combine that with WRs who keep droping passes that actually arrive, and we are left with having to rely more on the running game than we'd like to. I watched the Rice game on Friday, and that D looked actually not like a pushover particularly against the rush. We will have to get our O-line to find some time and that makes me nervous. It's not impossible. The Rice D-line might be the worst we've seen this season maybe worse than the one of BC- but our O-line has yet to show any consistent capacity of giveing our Freshman QB time. What is more, BC helped us a lot with stupid penalties etc. I don't think Rice will.

I am nervous about that Rice game. It is really important to fan (and maybe team) morale. We could win it, but our offensive performance has me thinking this really is a game between evenly matched teams, where both teams are better on defense than offense. I kind of expect a low score, with the winner being the one who gives up less turnovers.

Edited September 18, 2016 by outoftown

UNT 90 Grad · September 18, 2016

The Rice game, more than any game so far, will prove out this team's ability to learn and adjust. BCU didn't really prove too much, nor did Florida.

KingDL1 · September 18, 2016

Florida's Defense could possibly be the best in the Nation this year. No one left on our schedule will have that kind of size, depth and domination as we saw with Florida, not even close

We clearly need more help on the O-Line.

Wag Tag · September 18, 2016

2 hours ago, outoftown said:

1) The Defense is better than I thought. I think we all agree that the defense played well against both BC and Florida, particularly I was surprised how well they held against the rush, where I was afraaid they could justrun us over. That actually has to do with the secondary doing fine and LBs being able to trust their Dbs to clean up. I am starting to think the Defense will keep us in some games. That said, Floridas offense is actually not that great. There might be teams on this schedule that have better offenses than Florida. Luckily, Rice ain't one of them.

2) I am a lot less certain whether the offense can take advantage. Versus BC we profited from a lot of gifts. We have a freshmen QB who is doing quite ok considering what he is given, but he really isn't given much. Thre O-line looked inconsistent vs BC and SMU (meaning at times there was time, but too often there was none), and downright awful vs an admittedly great Florida D-line. Combine that with WRs who keep droping passes that actually arrive, and we are left with having to rely more on the running game than we'd like to. I watched the Rice game on Friday, and that D looked actually not like a pushover particularly against the rush. We will have to get our O-line to find some time and that makes me nervous. It's not impossible. The Rice D-line might be the worst we've seen this season maybe worse than the one of BC- but our O-line has yet to show any consistent capacity of giveing our Freshman QB time. What is more, BC helped us a lot with stupid penalties etc. I don't think Rice will.

I am nervous about that Rice game. It is really important to fan (and maybe team) morale. We could win it, but our offensive performance has me thinking this really is a game between evenly matched teams, where both teams are better on defense than offense. I kind of expect a low score, with the winner being the one who gives up less turnovers.

Qb play for Rice is very suspect! I expect our D to dominate with blitzes! This is a game Fine can shine in, because he should have time, and I could see breaking off some nice runs! The biggest challenge is it being a road game! GMG

southsideguy · September 18, 2016

rice is a lot slower than florida on both sides or the ball.

PlummMeanGreen · September 18, 2016

If we can get any offensive line blocking, Mason Fine will have a breakout game. I hope for all of us it happens this Saturday at Rice Stadium.

GMG!

Mean Green 93-98 · September 19, 2016

8 hours ago, KingDL1 said:

We clearly need more help on the O-Line.

Yes we do, and that's the most difficult place to get quick help. I expect that young Mr. Fine will be taking a lot of hits the next couple of years.

GMG24 · September 19, 2016

24 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

Yes we do, and that's the most difficult place to get quick help. I expect that young Mr. Fine will be taking a lot of hits the next couple of years.

We have two commits this class.

Brandon Weatherspoon Hust LD Bell HS had ULM offer and interest from plenty of big schools, his offer sheet will grow to 5-8 if I had to guess

http://www.hudl.com/athlete/3917007/brendon-weatherspoon

Josh Donovan

http://247sports.com/Player/Josh-Donovan-88671

This kid will be pretty special I think.

One thing that has me confused is Chris Miles the OT we signed two years ago from Flower Mound he had a big offer list and hasn't touched the field for us. Makes me scratch my head a bit.

Mean Green 93-98 · September 19, 2016

18 minutes ago, GMG24 said:

We have two commits this class.

My point is that you can't typically expect O-linemen to come right in and contribute at a high level. They might be all-conference in 2 or 3 years, but there is a decent chance one or both of these redshirt.

25 minutes ago, GMG24 said:

One thing that has me confused is Chris Miles the OT we signed two years ago from Flower Mound he had a big offer list and hasn't touched the field for us. Makes me scratch my head a bit.

Do you mean this year specifically? Because he was a starter for us last year.

GMG24 · September 19, 2016

20 minutes ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

My point is that you can't typically expect O-linemen to come right in and contribute at a high level. They might be all-conference in 2 or 3 years, but there is a decent chance one or both of these redshirt.

Do you mean this year specifically? Because he was a starter for us last year.

Yes this season, sorry I'm doing more than one thing while on the board lol. I think one of these two will come in and start early. I agree the OL will take some help, but our staff knows it needs help there too. They'll address it.