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Belated NU and end of season thoughts....

leftybuff

Unreconstructed Luddite
Club Member
When you are down and playing catch up, why continue the play fake to the RB standing still in the shotgun dipsy doodle offense. Does ANYBODY buy that fake? Don't we have any plays in the playbook where the QB just gets back and throws?

Why in the name of Sonny Sixkiller are you running a QB draw, not once, but twice, with a QB not particularly known for his feet....not only that, back to back?

Overall, a good effort by the players and staff, but the brain cramps continue particularly on offense....

I still think Hawk can get it done. I still think you give a guy at least five years to review his ultimate fate. But,I never thought after three years we would still be waiting for a DH team to win more than it lost. Not making a bowl makes this year a failure IMO.

KU, FSU, aTm and NU were all games CU was in, and could have stolen with some solid play, but failed to do so. That's frustrating....

Bright spots:

1. DB's got better through the season. With Burney coming back next year, and Perkins and Mahnke emerging, I don't see much drop off, they may even be better next year with J. and C. Brown and J. Smith.

2. LB's will be more athletic with the return of Katoa, Major and Rippy coming off RS. Beatty, Mohler look good. CU must be more athletic at LB than they were this year.

3. OL will be better for no other reason than more bodies will be available.

4. CU is LOADED at RB.

Areas for improvement:

1. QB play must improve. CH throws a nice short to midrange ball, but it lacks zip. The shotgun dipsy doodle REQUIRES a QB that is a running threat and CH isn't it. TH is, but needs to work on his passing game and I fear he won't get that work because the staff may not commit to a QB change although one is a necessity IMO. CH had too many PBU's because his ball floats if he tries to go downfield. If I see another underneath route where the WR is dragging at the LOS, I'm gonna puke.

2. WR is an area where an upgrade is drastically needed. CU has very little of a deep threat aside from J. Smith but he still needs some work on his routes, but he improved over the course of the season. I'm hoping Simas and Blackmon come on strong.

If I hear the we're young next year as an excuse for not winning, I'm going to be unhappy. This team needs a bare frickin' minimum of 7 W's in the regular season next year or I will be even less impressed with this staff.
 
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When you are down and playing catch up, why continue the play fake to the RB standing still in the shotgun dipsy doodle offense. Does ANYBODY buy that fake? Don't we have any plays in the playbook where the QB just gets back and throws?

Why in the name of Sonny Sixkiller are you running a QB draw, not once, but twice, with a QB not particularly known for his feet....not only that, back to back?

Overall, a good effort by the players and staff, but the brain cramps continue particularly on offense....

I still think Hawk can get it done. I still think you give a guy at least five years to review his ultimate fate. But,I never thought after three years we would still be waiting for a DH team to win more than it lost. Not making a bowl makes this year a failure IMO.

KU, FSU, aTm and NU were all games CU was in, and could have stolen with some solid play, but failed to do so. That's frustrating....

Bright spots:

1. DB's got better through the season. With Burney coming back next year, and Perkins and Mahnke emerging, I don't see much drop off, they may even be better next year with J. and C. Brown and J. Smith.

2. LB's will be more athletic with the return of Katoa, Major and Rippy coming off RS. Beatty, Mohler look good. CU must be more athletic at LB than they were this year.

3. OL will be better for no other reason than more bodies will be available.

4. CU is LOADED at RB.

Areas for improvement:

1. QB play must improve. CH throws a nice short to midrange ball, but it lacks zip. The shotgun dipsy doodle REQUIRES a QB that is a running threat and CH isn't it. TH is, but needs to work on his passing game and I fear he won't get that work because the staff may not commit to a QB change although one is a necessity IMO. CH had too many PBU's because his ball floats if he tries to go downfield. If I see another underneath route where the WR is dragging at the LOS, I'm gonna puke.

2. WR is an area where an upgrade is drastically needed. CU has very little of a deep threat aside from J. Smith but he still needs some work on his routes, but he improved over the course of the season. I'm hoping Simas and Blackmon come on strong.

If I hear the we're young next year as an excuse for not winning, I'm going to be unhappy. This team needs a bare frickin' minimum of 7 W's in the regular season next year or I will be even less impressed with this staff.

Not going to start making excuses already for next year but take a hard look at what the roster might look like beginning next year.

Lets assume that Tyler takes over for Cody = Less experience

O-Line = Lets assume that Nate, Devin and Ryan start. That leaves us looking for a center and a guard. Center will have less experience and if MTM comes back and replaces Berhens he has less game time than Blake has. Now throw in Bryce Givens in the mix if he is as good as advertised he has no game experience.

Running Back = More experience with Speedy, Scott and Sumler with Polk thrown in the mix.

Wide Receiver = Lose P-dub, Cody Crawford and replace them with Simas, Blackmon and new recuits who have no experience.

Tight End = More experience with Geer, Devenny and Deehan.

Defensive Line = Lose Hypolite, Nickolas ank Lucas, replace with Cunningham, Goree, Sheilds, Obi who have less experience.

Linebacker = Lose Jones and replace Smart with Kotoa, Rippy, or Major who have a grand total of 0 game experience.

Secondary = Lose Gardner Mckay, Dykes, Walters and replace with Burney who I believe will have to battle with Jimmy Smith to take his job back. Perkins and Mahnke have locked down the safety position but have much less game experience.

This is why I love college football. New players always coming up and always hoping that they can take the place of the departing superstar. I am looking forward to finally seeing this young talent take the field and make us all proud. We are going to be young but we are also going to be faster and more athletic which might be a better combo than slow and experienced.
 
Not going to start making excuses already for next year but take a hard look at what the roster might look like beginning next year.

Lets assume that Tyler takes over for Cody = Less experience

O-Line = Lets assume that Nate, Devin and Ryan start. That leaves us looking for a center and a guard. Center will have less experience and if MTM comes back and replaces Berhens he has less game time than Blake has. Now throw in Bryce Givens in the mix if he is as good as advertised he has no game experience.

Running Back = More experience with Speedy, Scott and Sumler with Polk thrown in the mix.

Wide Receiver = Lose P-dub, Cody Crawford and replace them with Simas, Blackmon and new recuits who have no experience.

Tight End = More experience with Geer, Devenny and Deehan.

Defensive Line = Lose Hypolite, Nickolas ank Lucas, replace with Cunningham, Goree, Sheilds, Obi who have less experience.

Linebacker = Lose Jones and replace Smart with Kotoa, Rippy, or Major who have a grand total of 0 game experience.

Secondary = Lose Gardner Mckay, Dykes, Walters and replace with Burney who I believe will have to battle with Jimmy Smith to take his job back. Perkins and Mahnke have locked down the safety position but have much less game experience.

This is why I love college football. New players always coming up and always hoping that they can take the place of the departing superstar. I am looking forward to finally seeing this young talent take the field and make us all proud. We are going to be young but we are also going to be faster and more athletic which might be a better combo than slow and experienced.
one thing to note is that the level of players who are coming in and replacing the seniors is much, MUCH higher than the seniors...

A perfect example is walters & Dykes: solid players with a lack of athletic ability. We lost them and two young guys (Mahnke and Perkins) stepped up and we barely lost a step...

So for SOME of those positions, I have little worries. I will worry about WR later and trust Kiesau for now. He has had very little to work with thus far and has brought along Smith quite nicely.

As far as LB's go, I will trust cabral. Frankly, I don't know wtf happened to that unit this year, but it wasn't good. Those types of mistakes can't get worse then they did this year.

Again, only glaring concern for me is DL. I don't trust bandison.

Some may say QB, but I think at the very worst Cody has proven he can be a solid QB or better if the Oline gives him some damn protection. This is the kid who beat OU and is clutch as all hell. If not for one of the luckiest tips of all time, I think he takes us down the field and Money wins us the game :thumbsup:.
 
Not going to start making excuses already for next year but take a hard look at what the roster might look like beginning next year.

Lets assume that Tyler takes over for Cody = Less experience

O-Line = Lets assume that Nate, Devin and Ryan start. That leaves us looking for a center and a guard. Center will have less experience and if MTM comes back and replaces Berhens he has less game time than Blake has. Now throw in Bryce Givens in the mix if he is as good as advertised he has no game experience.

Running Back = More experience with Speedy, Scott and Sumler with Polk thrown in the mix.

Wide Receiver = Lose P-dub, Cody Crawford and replace them with Simas, Blackmon and new recuits who have no experience.

Tight End = More experience with Geer, Devenny and Deehan.

Defensive Line = Lose Hypolite, Nickolas ank Lucas, replace with Cunningham, Goree, Sheilds, Obi who have less experience.

Linebacker = Lose Jones and replace Smart with Kotoa, Rippy, or Major who have a grand total of 0 game experience.

Secondary = Lose Gardner Mckay, Dykes, Walters and replace with Burney who I believe will have to battle with Jimmy Smith to take his job back. Perkins and Mahnke have locked down the safety position but have much less game experience.

This is why I love college football. New players always coming up and always hoping that they can take the place of the departing superstar. I am looking forward to finally seeing this young talent take the field and make us all proud. We are going to be young but we are also going to be faster and more athletic which might be a better combo than slow and experienced.

Sorry, but there should be no excuses for the LBs or secondary next year. There a number of guys who have been in the program long enough and some who have enough game experience to the point where we should expect some good play out of them.
 
Sorry, but there should be no excuses for the LBs or secondary next year. There a number of guys who have been in the program long enough and some who have enough game experience to the point where we should expect some good play out of them.
agree completely. between guys returning to the program from injuries/suspensions and depth established this year, both of those units should be solid and HAVE to be solid for this team to perform like we all hope. Plus I think the coaches at those positions have proven that they can develop talent.
 
agree completely. between guys returning to the program from injuries/suspensions and depth established this year, both of those units should be solid and HAVE to be solid for this team to perform like we all hope. Plus I think the coaches at those positions have proven that they can develop talent.

I have a lot of faith in Brown and Cabral to get it done. I cannot wait to see Mohler and Beatty tearing it up next year at LB; I think our CBs might be the best set of CBs we have had in a while as well, plus I think the safeties will be at least serviceable.
 
From a WR perspective, I hear Andre Simmons could be a producer right away. Combine him with Smith, Simas, and Blackmon, we could be better there next year. Throw in the potential of Bryce McNeal, and I hear he is a day 1 starter with huge potential. RB and OL we are going to be fine once we get into conference play. Our defense will be young, but quick and eager. Defense isn't going to be that big a factor in winning the Big 12 anyways, it's all about keeping up with the O. But having said that, we are always competitive at D and will continue that.

Our biggest issue is QB. Our quirky, often annoyingly complicated offense needs a QB that can make it work, and we haven't had the consistency there yet. It's tough to say but much like the other good teams in the Big 12, our fate is tied to our QB play. That is going to be the biggest attention grabber for me as we move into Spring ball.
 
One more thing....if we don't start running the ball...we will NEVER have the caliber RBs that we have now. No one will come here to share 22, often very predictable carries a game. Was it just me or did it seem like Scott got into the game twice in a TB formation, and was very predictably given the ball twice. Talk about having the odds stacked against you.
 
One more thing....if we don't start running the ball...we will NEVER have the caliber RBs that we have now. No one will come here to share 22, often very predictable carries a game. Was it just me or did it seem like Scott got into the game twice in a TB formation, and was very predictably given the ball twice. Talk about having the odds stacked against you.

He didn't get the ball each time he was in there, but yeah, you have a point.
 
He didn't get the ball each time he was in there, but yeah, you have a point.
he was pulled because he ran hesitantly and looked slow. I had no problem with sumler staying in during the NU game. Scott was not ready either physically or mentally for some reason. Hope he has a good offseason!
 
he was pulled because he ran hesitantly and looked slow. I had no problem with sumler staying in during the NU game. Scott was not ready either physically or mentally for some reason. Hope he has a good offseason!

It was said in the pregame that it was questionable whether Scott would even be able to play against the fuskers. I think they tried it out a few times, but determined pretty quickly his ankle wasn't going to allow him to be as effective as Sumler was...
 
Three things to do:

1. Coaches recruit like hell
2. Players, STUDY!!!
3. AFTER FINALS, players get on the S&C.
 
Defense isn't going to be that big a factor in winning the Big 12 anyways, it's all about keeping up with the O. But having said that, we are always competitive at D and will continue that.

I could not disagree with this statement any more. It's no coincidence that OU, who probably has the best defense in the league, will be playing in the CCG and probably the MNCG. Championships are won with defense, not offense. Strong defenses are built around the play of the linemen. We're looking VERY suspect in that area right now.
 
frankly I don't think we were all that strong on the line this year anyways. We were not all that great even in run defense. Which I could not understand since all 3 of the guys who got most of the snaps (Hypo nicho and Lucas) were supposed to be damn solid against the run...

Sooo perhaps the drop off won't be as big as we thought.

However, wtf?
 
frankly I don't think we were all that strong on the line this year anyways. We were not all that great even in run defense. Which I could not understand since all 3 of the guys who got most of the snaps (Hypo nicho and Lucas) were supposed to be damn solid against the run...

Sooo perhaps the drop off won't be as big as we thought.

However, wtf?

Ya I was wondering the same. Nebraska ran at will against us. Cunningham has been a playmaker for us this year and Goree is supposed to be good. I agree the drop off won't be as steep as some believe
 
frankly I don't think we were all that strong on the line this year anyways. We were not all that great even in run defense. Which I could not understand since all 3 of the guys who got most of the snaps (Hypo nicho and Lucas) were supposed to be damn solid against the run...

Sooo perhaps the drop off won't be as big as we thought.

However, wtf?

We weren't strong against the run at all. We also didn't generate a pass rush with the front four. I thought the D-Line this year was below average. The strength of the defense was our defensive backs, which was something none of us would have predicted. Maybe we're all surprised again next year at the stellar play of our D-Line. I certainly hope so.

I guess the biggest hope is that the new guys coming up will be more talented than the ones who are leaving and that the seniors were kept in there for consistency sake. I don't know. I'm grasping at straws. I do know that with all the attention paid to how awful the offense was, not many people noticed that the defense wasn't all that great, either.
 
We weren't strong against the run at all. We also didn't generate a pass rush with the front four. I thought the D-Line this year was below average. The strength of the defense was our defensive backs, which was something none of us would have predicted. Maybe we're all surprised again next year at the stellar play of our D-Line. I certainly hope so.

I guess the biggest hope is that the new guys coming up will be more talented than the ones who are leaving and that the seniors were kept in there for consistency sake. I don't know. I'm grasping at straws. I do know that with all the attention paid to how awful the offense was, not many people noticed that the defense wasn't all that great, either.

Really hard to grade the defense this year IMO. On one hand, they were able to make big stops in some games (KSU and WVU). Plus they were on the field a bunch this year with the offensive struggles for most of the year and they were put in bad positions a ton with poor special teams as well.

OTOH, we never generated a consistent pass rush and we consistently gave up a lot of rushing yards each game. It seemed like NU was gaining at least five yards on every first down run on Friday. The LBs also disappointed, was hard to tell if they were on the field at times and our tackling was very poor at times.

Overall, a mixed bag. Given the poor offense and special teams, I would give them a grade in the B-/C+ range.
 
Overall, a mixed bag. Given the poor offense and special teams, I would give them a grade in the B-/C+ range.

I wouldn't grade them that high, and here's why: Really good defenses shut down the opposition. It doesn't matter what the offense or special teams are doing because the other team is constantly going three-and-out. At one point in the NU game, NU had converted 5-6 third downs. That's unforgiveable. I'd grade the defense at a c-, which is barely passing. Of course, the offense was worse and the special teams was a flat out failure. The *ebraska game wasn't lost by the offense or the special teams, though. It was lost by the defense not getting off the field when it had the chance to do so. *ebraska ran twice as many plays as CU did. It's no small wonder that the game was as close as it was.
 
I wouldn't grade them that high, and here's why: Really good defenses shut down the opposition. It doesn't matter what the offense or special teams are doing because the other team is constantly going three-and-out. At one point in the NU game, NU had converted 5-6 third downs. That's unforgiveable. I'd grade the defense at a c-, which is barely passing. Of course, the offense was worse and the special teams was a flat out failure. The *ebraska game wasn't lost by the offense or the special teams, though. It was lost by the defense not getting off the field when it had the chance to do so. *ebraska ran twice as many plays as CU did. It's no small wonder that the game was as close as it was.
I agree to a large point. That drive in the 2d that basically took the whole quarter involved them converting about 4 or 5 extremely long 3rd downs... Good defenses DO NOT LET THAT HAPPEN.

However, they did hold strong in the red zone quite a few times this season, which is something of a buff tradition. so i give them props for that. I just wish they played with the same intensity during 3rd and LONG that they show during 3rd and SHORT.
 
I could not disagree with this statement any more. It's no coincidence that OU, who probably has the best defense in the league, will be playing in the CCG and probably the MNCG. Championships are won with defense, not offense. Strong defenses are built around the play of the linemen. We're looking VERY suspect in that area right now.

OU's defense is good at creating turnovers but they have given up a lot of points in a few games this season i.e. their last game. UT has the best defense in the league and the reason OU is going to the CCG is because they scored over 600 points in 12 games.

As for CU's D I would agree with 'Strong defenses are built around the play of the linemen.' Our D-line was crap, and our CB's did play really well this year as others have said, but with no pressure on the QB there are times when the secondary has no chance, just ask missouri.

I think we can be pretty good next year and compete for the big 12 north title, but any excuses are over as of now. If Hawk can't win 7+ games next year I doubt he ever can.
 
One more thing....if we don't start running the ball...we will NEVER have the caliber RBs that we have now. No one will come here to share 22, often very predictable carries a game. Was it just me or did it seem like Scott got into the game twice in a TB formation, and was very predictably given the ball twice. Talk about having the odds stacked against you.

Not sure why you don't think we ran the ball this year. Stewart had over 600 yard before he got hurt early against A&M. Running attempts were not the issue this year.

The only thing that hurt us this year was O-line. We get our O-line fixed and this team wins 3 more games this year. O-line was not playing well before Miller went out, and was even worse after that. I don't care what QB/RB combination we have next year. We MUST block first, the rest will follow once we get those issues fixed.

Everyone has been calling for all kinds of peoples heads this year (not in this particular post, just saying). If there was a move to be made this year on the staff, bringing in a top notch OL coach would not bother me. I think it is a position on the staff that could you might be able to provide an upgrade at. In my opinion we haven't had a great O-line coach since Marshall went to the Texans.
 
I could not disagree with this statement any more. It's no coincidence that OU, who probably has the best defense in the league, will be playing in the CCG and probably the MNCG. Championships are won with defense, not offense. Strong defenses are built around the play of the linemen. We're looking VERY suspect in that area right now.

Dude OU defense SUCKS. I think they are ranking like 65 or something in total defense this year in the NCAA.

I do agree with your premise though that CU needs a strong D to stay competitive.
 
The only thing that hurt us this year was O-line. We get our O-line fixed and this team wins 3 more games this year.

CU had a lot more issues this year than O-line play. Look at the margin of defeat in some of our losses. Then, look at the margin of victory in most of our wins.

CU largely, this year, won close games against mediocre-to-bad teams and lost large to good-to-great teams.

Blaming it all on the OL really isn't a fair or accurate assessment. There were several other issues.

Hopefully they get the issues corrected - which is by no means automatic, unfortunately - and the offense looks like an entirely different unit next year.
 
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