We've seen 7 games now, so I think at this point I have a pretty good idea of what we have. I may be wrong in some cases but I am a football coach on the HS level and think I have a somewhat better perspective than the average fan. Just some observations on my part
1) Offensively, we are good enough to win most games we play, but we aren't nearly as good as last year. I don't think Shannon Dawson is a huge problem or anything, but he's no Todd Monken. Mullens has been a little off. A lot of it has to do with missing Thomas and Martin. We have some big fast guys at receiver, but they dont have the ball skills or route running ability that those 2 had. Isiah Jones has struggled with drops and being in the right place. Staggers has shown some flashes but IMO should just be a solid #2 option. The problem is we don't have a #1 option. Thompson just isn't that guy, which I tried to tell everyone in the offseason. He's tall but is slow and struggles hanging onto contested catches. The Oline has been decent but not great, good enough to win most games though. At running back, Ito is special, but Payne is not a D-1 back. The only thing he has is size but he doesn't use it, runs east and west way to much, no vision. Play calling has been fine except for 2 or 3 strange calls at pivotal points. But honestly, most OCs have those moments.
2) Defensively, we don't have much talent. We are small up front and the linebackers are just terrible. They are okay against spread teams but against pro style teams they are lost. What little talent we do have is mostly in the secondary. But for whatever reason our safeties have regressed badly. It looks like they may be out of position on a lot of these big runs. We can't tackle, but that's mostly due to lack of athletic ability. Our corners play the pass pretty well but are very soft trying to tackle. I'm more worried about the coaching on the defensive side than the offensive side.
Overall, we just aren't that good. I'm somewhat worried about the coaching side of things but it's his first year. This pretty much always happens. Next year will be breaking in a new QB so a losing record is very possible if not probable. We've had 3 QBs leave in the last 18 months. As much as I wanted Hop to just pick right up where Monken left off, that was a pipe dream. We lost 4 guys to the NFL. We don't have nearly as much talent as a lot of you thought. So I'll let Hop slide a little bit for a while. He'll be doing good to win the division this year. Next year he'll be doing good to win 7 games. However, if its year 3, after he's recruited a lot of his own guys and put his stamp on the program, and we are still a mediocre C-USA team, then he needs to go.
(10-16-2016 07:22 PM)Eagle9 Wrote: If its year 3 and we are still a mediocre C-USA team he needs to go.
Two more years of mediocre SUNWACUSA athletics and no one will be around to see him leave besides Lucky Charm, who made this hire. No one should be shocked about last night, but losses to Juarez and BeltBama won't exactly fill the ticket-o-meter.
(10-16-2016 07:22 PM)Eagle9 Wrote: If its year 3 and we are still a mediocre C-USA team he needs to go.
Two more years of mediocre SUNWACUSA athletics and no one will be around to see him leave besides Lucky Charm, who made this hire. No one should be shocked about last night, but losses to Juarez and BeltBama won't exactly fill the ticket-o-meter.
..He's Bower's boy, bower pulled the strings for his "Hope" son....look at the stupid buyout clause and weak salary...no other sane coach on the "planet" would take that insane crap of a contract...(except one of us!)..He's here for a long time...Hope even stated "they'll have to fire me, I'm home. I plan on being here for a very long time. I love you Jeff".....ewww, puke on my balls.
(This post was last modified: 10-16-2016 08:04 PM by Nugget's Ghost.)
A new QB is a new QB and is gonna take some lumps, but isn't Howard supposed to be the kind of QB (running ability) that Hopson & Dawson prefer for the offense they really want to run next year and beyond?
(10-16-2016 08:12 PM)HarborPointe Wrote: A new QB is a new QB and is gonna take some lumps, but isn't Howard supposed to be the kind of QB (running ability) that Hopson & Dawson prefer for the offense they really want to run next year and beyond?
we'll find out next year....unless they fess up how back nick's thumb is REALLY dinged up....
not that you're implying this, but I don't see the risk/reward at this point pulling the redshirt.....it's nola bound or bust this year....
(10-16-2016 08:12 PM)HarborPointe Wrote: A new QB is a new QB and is gonna take some lumps, but isn't Howard supposed to be the kind of QB (running ability) that Hopson & Dawson prefer for the offense they really want to run next year and beyond?
we'll find out next year....unless they fess up how back nick's thumb is REALLY dinged up....
not that you're implying this, but I don't see the risk/reward at this point pulling the redshirt.....it's nola bound or bust this year....
About Nick's thumb...they said on the TV broadcast last night that it was so badly dislocated that the bone came through the skin and had to be stitched upon the sidelines before he went back in.
I agree with most of the OP. considering how bad CUSA is, i think our offense is just good enough to stumble their way to having some success in the CUSA games (despite some bad play calling). a bigger concern is defense. things have gotten worse on D throughout the year. that's not a good sign and gives me zero confidence in the coaching staff.
the thought that really started concerning me after this game, is how we will have a brand new QB next year and Hop will have a built in excuse for having a bad year. when/if he sucks the third year, he should be fired. however, i don't see that happening unless the AD is fired first (and he should be if Sadler and Hop suck the next 2 years). the problem is, i cant imagine anyone firing the AD and the HC in the same year and i don't see the President firing his AD-buddy after next year. obviously, the Pres ain't going nowhere. therefore, we will prob be stuck with Hop for another 3-4 years.
Hop prob wont fire much of his staff after this year. that, coupled with the new QB and no real talent coming in to help on offense or defense (his recruiting is sucking so far), virtually ensures a bad 2017 season. again, with no talent coming in and bad coaching, how could we expect anything diff in 2018 ? At that point, the AD (and HC) has to go and perhaps a handful of the biggest boosters can convince the Pres to fire the AD. however, by then the program will be decimated and potentially stuck in suckness for years. the head coaching job certainly wont be as appealing to candidates.
in short, if Hop wont make the necessary changes to his staff and/or can't figure things out on defense himself and can't increase the talent coming into the program, USM is screwed in football for years to come.
perhaps I'm just overreacting to this s*** show ive seen so far this year. lets hope so.
(This post was last modified: 10-16-2016 09:43 PM by Reggie Favre.)
(10-16-2016 08:12 PM)HarborPointe Wrote: A new QB is a new QB and is gonna take some lumps, but isn't Howard supposed to be the kind of QB (running ability) that Hopson & Dawson prefer for the offense they really want to run next year and beyond?
we'll find out next year....unless they fess up how back nick's thumb is REALLY dinged up....
not that you're implying this, but I don't see the risk/reward at this point pulling the redshirt.....it's nola bound or bust this year....
About Nick's thumb...they said on the TV broadcast last night that it was so badly dislocated that the bone came through the skin and had to be stitched upon the sidelines before he went back in.
it's pretty damn obvious it won't heal for some time....he can't grip it....if you can't grip it, it's pretty damn near impossible to run any vertical schema....
as fans, we just suck that fact up and look at the bigger picture now.....optimism has yielded to reality....
this is where coaching comes into play.....
I'll take 3 out of the next five....however, deep down I think it's only gonna be 2 wins now...
it's a shame....this season should have played out better with this cast.....
Always enjoy your contributions, 9. Thanks for the insight.
Concerned about coaching. I was not a fan of the Hop hire but after the UK win I thought maybe he would be OK. Not impressed thus far. Also worried about his complete lack of energy or emotion.
(This post was last modified: 10-16-2016 10:04 PM by BeagleUSM.)
(10-16-2016 10:01 PM)BeagleUSM Wrote: Also worried about his complete lack of energy or emotion.
on that note; I can attest that he showed lots of energy and emotion on a call (or no call) against LSU. there was a play where one of our DBs was picked I think. I swear I saw a flag thrown. it must have been picked up. whatever the case may have been, Hop went bananas on every ref near him. he ran at least 10 yards out on the field. he let them have it all through the commercial break too, up and down the sideline. I was happy to finally see some serious fire myself. he was asked about it in postgame and he got fired up again talking about it.
its just my opinion but I think he kind of blames that "no call" against UTSA for a TD on the third play of the game, as the cause of the situation we are in now. I have a tendency to agree to a certain extent. no telling how the UTSA game would have went if that penalty was called and they punted instead of getting the initial TD. USM snake-bit luck.
I'm pretty sure there was a sideline warning too, where Hop went crazy. Flag was thrown on the play but was just a warning I believe.
lets observe this play. sure, there was some fine blocking where one of their guys blocked three of ours. but what is the real problem here? bc its happening far too often. looks like the LB in between the hashes was just kind of lost and hesitated and then just roamed through the gap. was that some sort of delayed blitz? was he supposed to have shot the gap like that? had he stayed put, he would have been in position to at least make an attempt at a tackle. parker simply got blocked and thats fine. d'nerius antoine came rushing in from the safety spot and over ran the play. it didnt even make sense the way he played that. i mean s***. shouldn't he wait to see who has the damned ball before he runs to the line of scrimmage, aimed at no one? if thats a safety blitz that keeps getting us in trouble....then lets stop doing it.
(10-16-2016 08:12 PM)HarborPointe Wrote: A new QB is a new QB and is gonna take some lumps, but isn't Howard supposed to be the kind of QB (running ability) that Hopson & Dawson prefer for the offense they really want to run next year and beyond?
we'll find out next year....unless they fess up how back nick's thumb is REALLY dinged up....
not that you're implying this, but I don't see the risk/reward at this point pulling the redshirt.....it's nola bound or bust this year....
You are correct in that was not what I was implying. Just wondering out loud if being able to add those extra pages to the playbook takes away some of the pain of having a new guy under center. They're not going to be replacing Mullens & just hoping the new kid can do the same things Mullens does with the same level of success.
(10-16-2016 11:54 PM)Reggie Favre Wrote: lets observe this play. sure, there was some fine blocking where one of their guys blocked three of ours. but what is the real problem here? bc its happening far too often. looks like the LB in between the hashes was just kind of lost and hesitated and then just roamed through the gap. was that some sort of delayed blitz? was he supposed to have shot the gap like that? had he stayed put, he would have been in position to at least make an attempt at a tackle. parker simply got blocked and thats fine. d'nerius antoine came rushing in from the safety spot and over ran the play. it didnt even make sense the way he played that. i mean s***. shouldn't he wait to see who has the damned ball before he runs to the line of scrimmage, aimed at no one? if thats a safety blitz that keeps getting us in trouble....then lets stop doing it.
absolutely pathetic....he wet his pants on that one....there is no play he could possibly make with that decision....he might as well have just run off the field....would've ended with the same result....
stuff like that is inexcusable at this level.....
it's shite like that where the coaching concerns come into play.....the lack of discipline is F- quality...
(10-16-2016 09:41 PM)stinkfist Wrote: As fans, we just suck that fact up and look at the bigger picture now.....optimism has yielded to reality.
Short term reality was and still is 8 wins. Anything further is / was optimism and still in play.
The bigger picture of being in SUNWACUSA for life with no tangible plan for escape is the altruistic reality fans are going to have to come to grips with .. For the few who haven't already.
(10-16-2016 09:41 PM)stinkfist Wrote: As fans, we just suck that fact up and look at the bigger picture now.....optimism has yielded to reality.
Short term reality was and still is 8 wins. Anything further is / was optimism and still in play.
The bigger picture of being in SUNWACUSA for life with no tangible plan for escape is the altruistic reality fans are going to have to come to grips with .. For the few who haven't already.
I mostly agree....however, i am still in the camp of making inroads when the final phase plays out....IF we renovate the yurt and field quality in both sports within the next decade....
I know that is wishful thinking....
(This post was last modified: 10-17-2016 08:01 PM by stinkfist.)
...yes bdr, eventually for the few remaining toppers the realization of the uselessness of continuing to support SM
in this insignificant conference is inevitable....A moment of clarity will hit them like a Triple T.
/
Observations so far this year
![[Image: Bill_McGillis_photo_cred_USM_athletics_w...fa67d9af9d]](http://jacksonfreepress.media.clients.ellingtoncms.com/img/photos/2016/01/26/Bill_McGillis_photo_cred_USM_athletics_web_t670.jpg?b3f6a5d7692ccc373d56e40cf708e3fa67d9af9d)