good right up

[bigrobdsp]

Too much swagger plays tricks on NT

By Rian Johnson

Opinion

December 01, 2005

The problem with NT this season was that it thought it was the Mean Green. After stealing a victory in Murfreesboro, Tenn., NT returned to Denton with a swagger that a team with little experience is not allowed to have. It bought into the preseason hype that the Sun Belt would probably be decided in the first conference game of the season, and after pulling out the victory it started to believe it had a cakewalk.

No one can blame the season on the lack of experience at any position or injuries. The Mean Green was in every game this season and had a chance late in every game to come away from it with a win. That shows that NT had the talent to compete in the conference, especially considering no conference game was decided by a two-possession victory. Therefore, the blame rests in one area; the Mean Green coaching staff. NT simply did not get the most from its team this year, and it starts at the quarterback position. Countless times, Mean Green receivers had to slow up or make adjustments for balls that were poorly thrown from Daniel Meager. While he may have known the offense better than Matt Phillips at the beginning of the season, Meager was not moving the offense at all.

The fact that Meager would underthrow anything downfield allowed defenses to cram eight men in the box and eliminate the only consistent part of the Mean Green offense, its running game. The coaching staff was too stubborn to give Phillips a shot at the offense, and when they finally did, it was too late.

Another major mistake the Mean Green coaching staff made was trying to please Jamario Thomas and Patrick Cobbs. Rotating running backs does not work, especially when you have no passing game. Sure, they need to be spelled a time or two a game, but swapping them in and out never lets them get into the flow of the game.

Need proof of this, just see what Thomas and Cobbs did this season when they knew the other would not be playing. The runner does not have to worry about making mistakes or getting yanked out of the game. It is his show. No, it is not Nick Bazaldua’s fault he did not get kicks off or couldn’t trust his protection. It was not Meager or Phillips’ inexperience at quarterback. It was not injuries on the offensive line, defensive line or secondary. It was not T.J. Covington or Ja’Mel Branch’s fault for all of the personal fouls they were awarded after getting beat. It was the coaches’ fault for not having players that can obviously compete at the conference level prepared game in and game out, and competing at a level they are capable of.

[untgirl04]

Too much swagger plays tricks on NT

By Rian Johnson

Opinion

December 01, 2005

The problem with NT this season was that it thought it was the Mean Green. After stealing a victory in Murfreesboro, Tenn., NT returned to Denton with a swagger that a team with little experience is not allowed to have. It bought into the preseason hype that the Sun Belt would probably be decided in the first conference game of the season, and after pulling out the victory it started to believe it had a cakewalk.

No one can blame the season on the lack of experience at any position or injuries. The Mean Green was in every game this season and had a chance late in every game to come away from it with a win. That shows that NT had the talent to compete in the conference, especially considering no conference game was decided by a two-possession victory. Therefore, the blame rests in one area; the Mean Green coaching staff. NT simply did not get the most from its team this year, and it starts at the quarterback position. Countless times, Mean Green receivers had to slow up or make adjustments for balls that were poorly thrown from Daniel Meager. While he may have known the offense better than Matt Phillips at the beginning of the season, Meager was not moving the offense at all.

The fact that Meager would underthrow anything downfield allowed defenses to cram eight men in the box and eliminate the only consistent part of the Mean Green offense, its running game. The coaching staff was too stubborn to give Phillips a shot at the offense, and when they finally did, it was too late.

Another major mistake the Mean Green coaching staff made was trying to please Jamario Thomas and Patrick Cobbs. Rotating running backs does not work, especially when you have no passing game. Sure, they need to be spelled a time or two a game, but swapping them in and out never lets them get into the flow of the game.

Need proof of this, just see what Thomas and Cobbs did this season when they knew the other would not be playing. The runner does not have to worry about making mistakes or getting yanked out of the game. It is his show. No, it is not Nick Bazaldua’s fault he did not get kicks off or couldn’t trust his protection. It was not Meager or Phillips’ inexperience at quarterback. It was not injuries on the offensive line, defensive line or secondary. It was not T.J. Covington or Ja’Mel Branch’s fault for all of the personal fouls they were awarded after getting beat. It was the coaches’ fault for not having players that can obviously compete at the conference level prepared game in and game out, and competing at a level they are capable of.

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Wow! Now that guy has balls.

[pollock]

Awesome HSO.

[eulesseagle]

Rian Johnson, aka, Plummeangreen.

Sign him up for the "Dark Side."

To me, he has a very good perspective of what went on last year.

[untbowler]

Nice to see someone tell it like it is and not hide the facts.

[edcollopy]

EXCELLENT....I don't think the coaching staff, in hindsight, would disagree w/ this assesment. Hopefully this year we can throw to the tight end more and stop all the ridiculous jump balls up the sideline. Excellent observation that the receivers always had to slow up for the jump balls as well.

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---Really liked the first part of the article. Arrogance by us toward the Belt caused a lot of the problems. Most on the board and also probably players and coaches also think we are much better than the rest of league and just need to show up to win. It doesn't work that way. We need to get our head on straight, respect our opponents and prepare well for them. Maybe they (we) figured that out after losing nine (9) games including five to our "inferior" Sun-Belt opponents.

---He also points out the obvious..... we need "to be able" to throw before the running game is effective. We don't have to throw a lot but be capable enough to keep the opponent backed off the line of scrimmage so the running game has a prayer of success.

--- Good teams don't constantly draw stupid penalities. An lesser player is better to have on the field than a better one if he does't commit all the drive killing penalities or in the case of defense give the opponent a first down and keep their drive going or letting them get close enough to get field goals. Show some discipline and intelligence.

--- I liked the article... Discipline starts on the sideline and in practice and let the players know they are going to be sitting if they can't show "some restraint of their conduct and play" and not get penalized.

_________________

PS: The correct term is Write-up not Right -up. I think the UNT English dept. would agree and cringe at the sight of that.

Edited March 14, 2006 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[untgirl04]

_________________

PS: The correct term is Write-up not Right -up.  I think the UNT English dept. would agree and cringe at the sight of that.

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Thank you for addressing that. For anyone interested, UNTFan23 has a nice list of commonly misused words on his signature.

[bigrobdsp]

---

_________________

PS: The correct term is Write-up not Right -up.  I think the UNT English dept. would agree and cringe at the sight of that.

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no... because I ment to say it that way... Like "Go right up and get you tropy for WRITING a good article". didnt see that comming did you?

[Quoner]

no... because I ment to say it that way... Like "Go right up and get you tropy for WRITING a good article". didnt see that comming did you?

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If that was just written tongue-in-cheek you sir, are a genius.

If not, well, you could still write for the Daily.