Did I Miss The Coaching Staff Budget Cuts?

foutsrouts · September 2, 2007

Just kidding of course, but I just can't help but bitch about our play on the defensive side of the ball. I've been following NT since the 70's, and this is BY FAR the worst defensive performance that I've ever seen. We have always been at least competitive on that side of the ball, and tonight we tackled like a bunch of wimps. I was definitely conccerned about us not hiring a COLLEGE experienced DC, and my worst fears look like they may be coming to fruition. I don't mean to leave out our offensive ineptutude, but I guess I'm willing to give them a little more time since most are rookies. Sure I'm pissed, but maybe the Sooners are the best team in history and we come back and kill the Ponies next week. We shall see.

UNTLifer · September 2, 2007

Poor angles taken by the DB's due to OU's speed and not being ready for OU's speed were the two main factors. Holman was nowhere to be found, the DE's weren't staying at home, etc... It's our first game in a new system with new coaches. A little patience is in order.

ShopMeanGreen · September 2, 2007

I thought the defensive line looked OK but the outsides killed us. You can not compair these two programs. I didn't see any Freshmen but Vissa and for the first College game he looked good. He threw some nice passes even though some red shirts got in the way. In three years this will be a blur and we will see a whole new program. I feels good to see how bad things are cause there is only 1 direction to go. The offense looked much better than last year already. We don't belong at this level yet but we may get there if we keep going.

UNT Mean Green · September 2, 2007

OU= too much speed!

I don't think we were out-schemed or anything like that...we were simply out-athleted. When you can run a bubble route 3 plays in a row on the first drive and score, you know its bad. Not to mention, Defense was on the field way too much, and without fresh legs it was a track meet.

GMoney · September 2, 2007

Poor angles taken by the DB's due to OU's speed and not being ready for OU's speed were the two main factors. Holman was nowhere to be found, the DE's weren't staying at home, etc... It's our first game in a new system with new coaches. A little patience is in order.

Very good assessment. We are not a fast offensive team. As a matter of fact, we're a slow offensive team. Consequently, this defense has not practiced against any speed at all. The ability to tackle, take correct angles, and or even put yourself in position to make plays is difficult. The one thing I did not like seeing is cornerbacks giving up outside containment by trying to come underneath WR blocks. This is a big no - that's worse than junior high football. If you're the outside man you NEVER EVER come underneath a block. Stay outside, force the play and let the pursuit come and help. Also, when you're in space as a corner, keep your feet, breakdown, let the WR dance all he wants and just hold him up until help gets there.

With all that being said, remember it's early. This is a major makeover and it's going to take time. DD did not recruit well the past few years. Add to that the change in scheme and the young players = tonight's a@# whoopin! Keep the faith things will get better but don't look for miracles this year.

September 2, 2007

As the old saying goes, Oklahoma is probably not that good and we are probably not that bad. But, that was the worst whipping that I've ever witnessed. I dare say none of our coaches and players have ever been in a game that lopsided.

I do share the opinion that the defensive coordinator is going to have to bring much more to the table than shown tonight. This was a sharp regression from even last year. Of our three all-conference players, Chapman was invisible, I saw Holman about one play, and only Weathers made his presence felt. Admittedly, we won't see a faster team this season and their speed overwhelmed us.

Meager actually had a decent game tonight but he's still prone to do what he did under Dickey....play not to lose instead of play to win and hold on to the ball too long. The offensive line actually did a little better than expected as well. I thought that the receivers did well under the circumstances. Except for a couple of scrambles by Meager and a 12 yard run by Mosley, we had no running attack.

We should continue to believe in Todd Dodge; he will right the ship. However, it may take another two or three years for TD to get his players in place. Stealth recruiting had, for the most part, drained a lot of the talent pool. The road back may be a little longer, but that will make it even sweeter.

Green Crazy · September 2, 2007

The only question I had about the hires this past off season was the Def. Cord. hire. Dodges offense I thought was on par for the college level, but I saw nothing that said Mendoza was college material.

Edited September 2, 2007 by Green Crazy

SouthBendGreen · September 2, 2007

Maybe it was his hair, but I was watching Roman a lot tonight or should I say NOTHING! Granted Malcolm Kelly is one of the best in the country, but man did he get tourched a ton!

STE · September 2, 2007

I'm worried about our defense also. I don't know if we are just that slow or is OU is just that fast or both - time will tell.

I just think we got a dose of reality tonight. DD left us bare and we're going to need more time to get some more players in here.

the real grad88 · September 2, 2007

Maybe it was his hair, but I was watching Roman a lot tonight or should I say NOTHING! Granted Malcolm Kelly is one of the best in the country, but man did he get tourched a ton!

Hey, Roman was taken to school all night long, not just in coverage but in tackling. My gosh did they exploit him. They saw our weakness there from the get-go and took advantage all night. I know the kid must feel really bad and I hope he doesn't read this, but dang...they took him to school. I hope he gets over it and sucks it up and plays some ball! The kid has got to learn some basic technique. I think he got overwelmed at the speed and forgot everything coaches taught him.

Got5onIt · September 2, 2007

Absolutely agree with you here and I was bitching about this all night long. I saw hardly any blitzing & man coverage on many obvious passing downs (weren't many to begin with ). This was a PATHETIC defensive performance. I can't help but wonder that these guys are so used to having so much talent that they usually run a base conservative defense 90% of the time. Well, I hope after tonight's ASS STOMPING they realize you have to get FREAKIN' CREATIVE to make up for the lack in talent. Unacceptable, period.

NCMeanGreen · September 2, 2007

As the old saying goes, Oklahoma is probably not that good and we are probably not that bad. But, that was the worst whipping that I've ever witnessed. I dare say none of our coaches and players have ever been in a game that lopsided.
I do share the opinion that the defensive coordinator is going to have to bring much more to the table than shown tonight. This was a sharp regression from even last year. Of our three all-conference players, Chapman was invisible, I saw Holman about one play, and only Weathers made his presence felt. Admittedly, we won't see a faster team this season and their speed overwhelmed us.
Meager actually had a decent game tonight but he's still prone to do what he did under Dickey....play not to lose instead of play to win and hold on to the ball too long. The offensive line actually did a little better than expected as well. I thought that the receivers did well under the circumstances. Except for a couple of scrambles by Meager and a 12 yard run by Mosley, we had no running attack.
We should continue to believe in Todd Dodge; he will right the ship. However, it may take another two or three years for TD to get his players in place. Stealth recruiting had, for the most part, drained a lot of the talent pool. The road back may be a little longer, but that will make it even sweeter.

The point is, we want a team that CAN compete with teams like OU...not just the SB teams. We shouldn't think "OK...got that out of the way, now let's focus on games we CAN win!"...that is the wrong attitude...

island eagle · September 2, 2007

The point is, we want a team that CAN compete with teams like OU...not just the SB teams. We shouldn't think "OK...got that out of the way, now let's focus on games we CAN win!"...that is the wrong attitude...

I don't think anybody on this board disagrees with you. If there is any hope after last night's debacle, it is: 1. TD has said the same thing (not content with just Sun Belt glory); 2. he has a tremendous amount of pride and football savvy. Last night will only motivate him to work harder and to lead the team to a much higher level of performance; and 3. TD DID say it would take 2-3 years to get even close to where he wants to be. I know we didn't want to believe that, but that is the reality.

ScreamingEaglesFan · September 2, 2007

Live by the sword, die by the sword. With the no huddle it definitely confused OU a bit, and given time I think we'll be pleasantly surprised. If the o-line can protect and give Meager/Vizza more time it will pay nice dividends. It is abundantly clear with the speed of our offense (play calling) if we are playing a team like OU and our defense doesn't have a chance to stay off the field then it's going to be a track meet and could be very ugly.

Having a chance to meet and get to know Coach Mendoza I can tell you he will be much more critical of himself and yersterday's game than anyone on here. Defense aside I saw a much more disciplined offense in the fact the shifting and play clock mgmt we would have NEVER pulled that off without many more penalties in the past. Also remember they were ranked #8 and this is an entire new system so I think next week will be much easier to handle!

rcade · September 2, 2007

As the old saying goes, Oklahoma is probably not that good and we are probably not that bad.

Are you sure Oklahoma is not that good? That frosh quarterback and his receiving core looked like they could beat anybody.

risinggreen · September 2, 2007

I agree. I also had some serious concerns about our not hiring a polished D1 defensive coordinator, but I guess I'm not quite ready to crucify the guy after just one game. At times it looked like our back seven was more like a back two. I kept wondering where our LB's and DB's were hiding. I sure hope that Mendoza is a quick learner because that was about as bad as I've seen. Our offense creates some unique issues for our defense to deal with and we clearly were not up to the task. On a slightly positive note, our lines on both sides of the ball (particularly our DL) didn't appear to play too badly. Plenty of mistakes by the OL, but overall not too bad for a bunch of young guys. Our receivers also showed some potential so I guess we at least have something to build upon. On the other hand, it's unfortunate that our best player continues to be our punter.

MeanGreenBuzz · September 2, 2007

Fire them all even Dickey wasn't this back bring back Darrell and Ramon!

Only kidding I'm glad that hack is in Utah. Overall I thought our run defense did really well until they started getting tired from being on the field too long but they picked on Roman all night with different receivers. Latif did a great job on his side and Weathers got beat in coverage once but overall the biggest spot we got hammered on was Roman's side. If you look at the guys Dodge brought in they out played a lot of DDs players. Vizza should have started hands down Meager looked timid out there and afraid to take chances. Granted Vizza threw 2 INTs he took the shots and took his lumps and will be a better QB for it. The kid is a through and through QB and makes me very excited about the future. Fitzgerald and Jackson are great receivers but need to work on their hands I think each dropped atleast 1 pass and I didn't seen Johnson get involved at all.

To be honest it is probably better we got beat this bad. It is good motivation for the team. If our O-Line can gel a bit more (and Venegas will get off of it) this could be a very good offensive team. I don't think we will beat ASU or Troy this year but any other Sun Belt game is winable and with Navy in our house late in the season we have a very real shot at beating them. I didn't think I would say this... ever... but I think we are going to be in for a long day in Dallas next week. Please TD prove me wrong.

untStein · September 2, 2007

Are you sure Oklahoma is not that good? That frosh quarterback and his receiving core looked like they could beat anybody.

My thoughts exactly. Those recievers like Kelly and Iglesias just had gears that our DB's did not have. I'm glad it is still very early in the Dodge era because right now the gap in talent (which I do expect to shrink) can not be made up for with schemes and discipline when it comes to an opponent like OU.