Can Morris adapt?

[Ross Hodgeson]

Yes it was a horrible start but I feel like the key question is will Morris make changes and adapt to the circumstances he faces with this squad.

[Hunter Green]

20 minutes ago, Ross Hodgeson said:

Yes it was a horrible start but I feel like the key question is will Morris make changes and adapt to the circumstances he faces with this squad.

Overall, teams see the most improvement between week one and two. I guess we'll see.

[GrayEagle]

Nothing is certain until it happens but I believe that Eric Morris will right the ship.  He faced a team that turned out to be better than predicted.

The next four games should be a much lesser challenge.  It's very possible that he could win all four.  He can look at film and analyst's notes and see where coaches need to correct.  Some of the coaches do not have a lot of experience coaching but all have been around football long enough to know where corrections are needed.  They know that they need to learn quickly.  It's not time to panic yet.  

 

[keith]

You know, we'd be pretty good as long as we play teams that are significantly worse than us.

[MeanGreenTexan]

40 minutes ago, GrayEagle said:

Nothing is certain until it happens but I believe that Eric Morris will right the ship.  He faced a team that turned out to be better than predicted.

...

 

How can you say this with any certainty?   What if NT is worse than predicted?

 

2 minutes ago, keith said:

You know, we'd be pretty good as long as we play teams that are significantly worse than us.

Is that you Seth?

[Matt from A700]

I want to see us run the ball more than once a possession.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

47 minutes ago, GrayEagle said:

Nothing is certain until it happens but I believe that Eric Morris will right the ship.  He faced a team that turned out to be better than predicted.

The next four games should be a much lesser challenge.  It's very possible that he could win all four.  He can look at film and analyst's notes and see where coaches need to correct.  Some of the coaches do not have a lot of experience coaching but all have been around football long enough to know where corrections are needed.  They know that they need to learn quickly.  It's not time to panic yet.  

 

I thought we were beyond this as a program. 

We are clearly a basketball school. Not sure how much more evidence needs to be laid at our feet to get it. We better start embracing that very factual notion before we're a nothing school... again. 

[aztecskin]

The good news is that Morris said all the right things and seemingly is working on what failed: basically what you want. It is mighty refreshing to hear him get into details --- "tackling", "we'll be in the three-stack", "there were times they had a high safety and still tackled us in light boxes", and other things. Now, winning a press conference is lower in priority than winning on saturdays so that can only fly so far. 

I'm expecting a win, as we all should be. 

[Cr1028]

Cal is not as bad as some of you give them credit for. I think we will be fine against FIU.

[TreeFiddy]

2 hours ago, Matt from A700 said:

I want to see us run the ball more than once a possession.

Well, the good news is that we actually ran more than we passed on Saturday.  The bad news is that we only ran 53 total plays (26 pass/27 run).  When getting 1.5 yds per rush, it is hard to run more than once unless you are happy with having 3rd and long.

[Tom McKrackin]

2 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

Cal is not as bad as some of you give them credit for. I think we will be fine against FIU.

You won’t know this for sure until after Auburn but I tend to agree with you.

[untphd]

10 hours ago, Ross Hodgeson said:

Yes it was a horrible start but I feel like the key question is will Morris make changes and adapt to the circumstances he faces with this squad.

I think he will, he did shave hip upper lip.

[Cr1028]

2 hours ago, Tom McKrackin said:

You won’t know this for sure until after Auburn but I tend to agree with you.

I think last season their record didn’t tell the whole story. They had close games with really solid teams before a late season collapse against CU.

[GrayEagle]

7 hours ago, keith said:

You know, we'd be pretty good as long as we play teams that are significantly worse than us.

My point was that you can't constantly play a killer schedule when you are new...both coaches and players (at least to each other).  Don't worry, the last six games will be tough enough.

[Matt from A700]

6 hours ago, TreeFiddy said:

Well, the good news is that we actually ran more than we passed on Saturday.  The bad news is that we only ran 53 total plays (26 pass/27 run).  When getting 1.5 yds per rush, it is hard to run more than once unless you are happy with having 3rd and long.

Two of those "run plays" were sacks (I still hate that sacks count as negative rush yards) as Earle totaled at 7 "rushes" for -8 yards. Only 18 runs by the actual runningback core. To me, the RBs weren't given enough chance on first downs. I don't have the numbers to back it up, but it felt like Earle's failed runs/sacks took up quite a few first down opportunities.

Then what sincerely confuses me (someone please enlighten me) but in this match-up where you can't trust your defense to stop the other team once you give the ball back, what is the point of hurrying back to the line to run another play with 25+ seconds still left on the play clock? This happened on the very first drive and a few others. Our first play went -3 yards, and we were punting less than a minute-and-a-half into the game.

[DentonLurker]

Of course he can adjust and I fully expect it to happen soon.

[meangreenbob]

14 hours ago, GrayEagle said:

Nothing is certain until it happens but I believe that Eric Morris will right the ship.  He faced a team that turned out to be better than predicted.

The next four games should be a much lesser challenge.  It's very possible that he could win all four.  He can look at film and analyst's notes and see where coaches need to correct.  Some of the coaches do not have a lot of experience coaching but all have been around football long enough to know where corrections are needed.  They know that they need to learn quickly.  It's not time to panic yet.  

 

Some coaches do not have a lot of experience? They know they need to learn quickly. 
 

Unbelievable! So more on the job training. I thought we were way past this bush league crap. 
 

So, this is a 3-4 year rebuild project. Unbelievable. 
 

 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by meangreenbob

[meangreenbob]

23 hours ago, Ross Hodgeson said:

Yes it was a horrible start but I feel like the key question is will Morris make changes and adapt to the circumstances he faces with this squad.

If Morris needs to adapt after the first game then he was the wrong hire from the get go. It’s as simple as that. 

Edited September 6, 2023 by meangreenbob

[keith]

10 hours ago, GrayEagle said:

My point was that you can't constantly play a killer schedule when you are new...both coaches and players (at least to each other).  Don't worry, the last six games will be tough enough.

Thanks for the response GrayEagle and I understand your point.  My issue was that we have had a tendency over the years of looking to our weaker opponents as a benchmark for ourselves.  We win the games we are supposed to win (most of the time anyway) and we get all giddy about how good we are.  It's a false sense of security.  Then when we play equal or "better" competition, we falter.  It's a decades-old pattern.  With the "easy" (relatively speaking) part of our schedule up next, we are likely to fall into that same trap.

We seemed to have plateaued with the previous staff, so we brought in a new staff to elevate us above and beyond where we were.  It was onward and upward.  Spirits were high.  What we observed last Saturday was not that.  For those of us that have been around a long time, it was the same old North Texas song and dance.  We regressed.  This was not presented to the fanbase as a teardown/rebuild scenario.  I don't think we are interested in taking two steps back in order to take three steps forward.  Hopefully, this staff and team can rally and utilize the soft part of our schedule to fix the mistakes, get some wins and prepare for the back half which will tell us where we really stand. 

[greenminer]

We are a football state.  Gonna be hard to convince everyone to make us a bball school.  People are traditionally, and emotionally, invested in the former.

[MAX KOCH]

Yes! he got rid of the mustache 

[Mike Jackson]

On 9/5/2023 at 8:52 AM, Ross Hodgeson said:

Yes it was a horrible start but I feel like the key question is will Morris make changes and adapt to the circumstances he faces with this squad.

He could but that game plan reeked of an OC caught up in his ego as a pass game  guru instead of head coach looking at the big picture and the strengths of his roster.  Even Seth did that better early on, keeping good TE on his roster and working them into his scheme.  Seth probably still threw the ball too much his first season but not like this with a QB that clearly not ready.

[NorthTexasWeLove]

25 minutes ago, greenminer said:

We are a football state.  Gonna be hard to convince everyone to make us a bball school.  People are traditionally, and emotionally, invested in the former.

I don't think it matters what people think or want, and UNT has made that clear with their actions and inaction over the decades. So, if we can steer the athletic department in the best economic direction it will pay huge dividends. I'm telling you, this is going to start to happen more and more with other programs that will be eaten alive by pay for play college athletics. I truly think that is inevitable considering the landscape. We can get ahead of it with our current success on the court and be a destination place before everyone else catches on and takes action. 

But like any executives in any industry, they will not do it until they think it's their idea. That's the tricky part. 

[meangreenbob]

14 minutes ago, Mike Jackson said:

He could but that game plan reeked of an OC caught up in his ego as a pass game  guru instead of head coach looking at the big picture and the strengths of his roster.  Even Seth did that better early on, keeping good TE on his roster and working them into his scheme.  Seth probably still threw the ball too much his first season but not like this with a QB that clearly not ready.

Morris was familiar with the PAC and familiar with Cal. If he and his staff had done their homework he would have been aware of their size, speed and strength and devised a game plan to try and counter those advantages. He didn’t.

Furthermore, considering our lack of size and as the head coach he should have told his DC to ditch the 3 man front long before Spring practice. 

It seriously makes you wonder why all the last second transfers out of here.

I was a strong advocate for the hiring of Morris. I have serious doubts now. 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by meangreenbob

[NorthTexasWeLove]

1 hour ago, meangreenbob said:

Morris was familiar with the PAC and familiar with Cal. If he and his staff had done their homework he would have been aware of their size, speed and strength and devised a game plan to try and counter those advantages. He didn’t.

Furthermore, considering our lack of size and as the head coach he should have told his DC to ditch the 3 man front long before Spring practice. 

It seriously makes you wonder why all the last second transfers out of here.

I was a strong advocate for the hiring of Morris. I have serious doubts now. 

 

 

Shouldn't have had to wait until Spring. I'm sure the moment he was hired he was watching game film with a roster in hand. He knew the personnel before he even knew the personnel.