Patch up the Oline and we are fine

[Swamp Donkey]

I don't want to say we are overreacting because last night was certainly alarming. However, I truly think we have POTENTIAL to be really good.

IMO, with the defense having less talent this year and far less talent next year, probably, it has occurred to me that it is entirely possible that last year will be the highlight of the McElwain Era just like 2012 was as good as it gets for the Mushchimpers.

 

[MertzJay26]

IMO, with the defense having less talent this year and far less talent next year, probably, it has occurred to me that it is entirely possible that last year will be the highlight of the McElwain Era just like 2012 was as good as it gets for the Mushchimpers.

We are still really talented on D, and having Anzalone back is huge (he's better than Morrison when healthy) but the depth is scary. If a DB goes down, we are pretty screwed. Gotta hope Putu and Gardner surprise.

I truly hope last year wasn't the highlight lol. Must admit I lost a little confidence in Mac and co after last night, but don't want to abandon ship just yet haha

 

[Swamp Donkey]

If a DB goes down, we are pretty screwed.

Waay bigger dropoff from 1st string DTs, who are average, to the guys behind them, who are far worse than average. I hope I'm wrong but I'm pretty positive on this one.

 

[MertzJay26]

Waay bigger dropoff from 1st string DTs, who are average, to the guys behind them, who are far worse than average. I hope I'm wrong but I'm pretty positive on this one.

Yea our DT depth is weak as well, no denying that. CeCe is too light and Taven Bryan is not what he was hyped to be. While we are talking DL, anybody know why Sherit gets starter minutes? Anybody?

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Sherit? No effin clue.

 

[MertzJay26]

Btw I just watched saw a video of the locker room and the players/coaches seemed happy and with no sense of anger at that performance. That to me is slightly concerning.

I remember in college when we would slip by a terrible team in our mid week game, it was basically looked at as a loss and our coach would rip us apart.

Maybe I am reading too far into this, and also can't relate football to baseball, but mentality should be the same IMO. Maybe I'm wrong

 

[GatorTAG]

Just need to get the big uglies going and we will be fine IMO.

If by big uglies you mean these guys then you are correct.

 

[MertzJay26]

I by big ugliest you mean this guy then you are correct.

Thanks for FIFM, but let me FIFY

 

[aka]

Agree with TAG, I just kept sitting at the game thinking this was more like a scrimmage. Intentionally so. I didn't think we would lose but it didn't bolster confidence. I could see that in all the fans around me. The penalties just killed us, and were an offensive weapon for UMass. Del Rio understands the O, didn't make mistakes but didn't seem to shake the tentativeness and get his sea legs until well into the second half.

 

[Bernardo de la Paz]

Last year we had the worst o line in the sec. We couldn't even block a 3 man front from FAU. It would take a small miracle to go from that bad to even average.

As bad as it was last night, I thought the o line looked a little improved from last year. At least umass had to blitz.

 

[GatorTAG]

Agree with TAG, I just kept sitting at the game thinking this was more like a scrimmage. Intentionally so. I didn't think we would lose but it didn't bolster confidence. I could see that in all the fans around me. The penalties just killed us, and were an offensive weapon for UMass. Del Rio understands the O, didn't make mistakes but didn't seem to shake the tentativeness and get his sea legs until well into the second half.

 

[ThreatMatrix]

Last night I saw what TAG saw. We were begging for pass rush and they delivered. Good news is we only gave up one sack. And my gawd if you don't think that game was called like an NFL preseason scrimmage then I don't know what to tell you. The question does remain about the quality of the coaching staff. And that is getting a little old to still be questioning that. They did what they could with what they had last year. And we aren't 2-deep with 4* lineman. You get what you pay for. This season will tell us for sure.
I too had confidence that if we stopped screwing around that we would put them away. Had we wanted to I could see Scarlett/Thompson having 100 yard games. The Scarlet/Thompson duo averaged 4.8 ypc and I'll take that every saturady.

 

[AugustaGator]

Back to the thread topic: I've been a bit of a Stanford fan since Horseface was there, so I watch them whenever I can. I like Shaw, I like his offense and I think we're watching a generational talent in Christian McCaffrey. So I watched their opener against K-State Friday night.

So here's a question: given that squad is a bunch of friggin eggheads, that they're on the west coast playing in an inferior conference with a much lower profile than ours - how is it that they've become something of an "OLU"? They recruit better than we do on OL most years, and they accomplish far more on the OL on the field than we do.

I don't have an answer, but I suspect it comes down to attitude and "team DNA". I suspect that Shaw and his entire staff make their OL a priority - and that demonstrates itself on the recruiting trail and on the field. It's just who they are. We need an attitude adjustment like that (and I submit Bammer has the same attitude on both sides of the LOS - just look at their friggin DL). What is our "team DNA"? I could easily answer that for you during SOS's years, and CUM's. And though the answer was bad, there was one for Muschimp. What is ours now? Former DBU??

Point is, if Stanford can recruit and develop offensive linemen, then we surely can and it should be FAR EASIER for us. We need to develop that attitude program-wide.

This takes time to develop that culture. We are always away from it due to the last 3

 

[Yankeetown]

Mac said post game that there was no intensity or hustle from the OL. He said guys have to motor up to the line and get set so the offense can run more plays. Furthermore, they are not nearly good enough at the moment to phone it in.

It seemed the only time the offense was clicking was when we sped up the pace. OTOH, that wasn't until the 4th quarter, so maybe their DL was beginning to tire.

I haven't seen any stats of this, but it seemed like UMass blitzed on every passing play, and often brought 6. Last year that would have been an 8-sack game.

Maybe SOS remembers how to draw up a conventional screen pass and can show the coaches that. Although that's not something that usually is well-executed in game one.

 

[LongTooth]

It seemed the only time the offense was clicking was when we sped up the pace. OTOH, that wasn't until the 4th quarter, so maybe their DL was beginning to tire.

I haven't seen any stats of this, but it seemed like UMass blitzed on every passing play, and often brought 6. Last year that would have been an 8-sack game.

Maybe SOS remembers how to draw up a conventional screen pass and can show the coaches that. Although that's not something that usually is well-executed in game one.

Del Rio does know when to get rid of the ball and live to fight another down.

Let's hope that they were keeping things vanilla on both sides of the ball to have some new wrinkles to put in next week and for UT.

 

[AugustaGator]

It seemed the only time the offense was clicking was when we sped up the pace. OTOH, that wasn't until the 4th quarter, so maybe their DL was beginning to tire.

I haven't seen any stats of this, but it seemed like UMass blitzed on every passing play, and often brought 6. Last year that would have been an 8-sack game.

Maybe SOS remembers how to draw up a conventional screen pass and can show the coaches that. Although that's not something that usually is well-executed in game one.

SOS was painfully honest in his interview on the support personnel

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Point is, if Stanford can recruit and develop offensive linemen, then we surely can and it should be FAR EASIER for us. We need to develop that attitude program-wide.

At least we are DBU!!!! Did you enjoy watching our beautiful safety and cb play, again?

 

[t-gator]

Why is nuss getting the blame? None of you guys were blaming durkin when muschamps d was getting burned.

 

[t-gator]

Since Mac's opener against New Mexico State last year this team has yet to score 40 points in a game.

We averaged 23.2 in the SEC last year. Scored 24 in this year's opener. Isn't Mac supposed to be some kind of offensive guru? I may have to start a thread on the topic. It deserves one.

It's nussmeiers fault

 

[TN G8tr]

Last year we had the worst o line in the sec. We couldn't even block a 3 man front from FAU. It would take a small miracle to go from that bad to even average.

As bad as it was last night, I thought the o line looked a little improved from last year. At least umass had to blitz.

I thought so too. UMass played a lot of 4 down DLmen and blitzed 2 LBs alot last night. Sure we whiffed on a few but I thought it was better. When we have 256 passing and 100+ rushing something was better.