(12-20-2022 08:34 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote: 2021 - 8-5 Bowl Loss - Best Win: Navy - Finished season flat as an unused bicycle innertube
2022 - 9-4 Bowl Win - Best Win - #8 Notre Dame @ ND - Finished season winning 5 in a row and 6 of the last 7. That says more to me than anything. And to hear the players comments who had been there in 2020 specifically mention that they "Played for one another" and that there were "no cliques". Huff has changed the culture.
We just need a QB.
Well sure, I'd take the 22 season over the 21 season. But at the same time it was another year when we weren't playing meaningful football in November. We were 4-4 at that time and out of any conference title talk. I'm sick of that happening. Way too often the past 2 decades the games in November haven't really mattered from the standard we should be striving towards, that being Playing for Championships. This year really bothered me too as I felt like we were on the verge of getting some national attention that we used to get back in the late 90s and early 2000s, and haven't sniffed again other than a very brief time in 2014. We took what could have been magical when we were sitting at 2-0 and pissed it down the drain at BGSU and Troy and then took a further dump at it against Louisiana and Coastal. At that point we were out of any discussion of national recognition and any discussion of playing for the conference title. Therefore this season was a failure to me. 5 straight wins, while certainly better than limping in the end of the season like last year, does not void the disappointment or the crap show in our losses. I'm not saying we have to win the conference for it to be successful season. But I AM saying that if we are out of the running when November starts, then no amount of winning from that point on will make things better for me. Yeah, I know we can argue that 9-4 is 9-4, and when the losses take place shouldn't matter. But to me it does.
In addition, I did not see the growth this year that I think we will need to win going forward. While we won the games, we looked really poor at times while doing so. 12 points against ODU is not acceptable. Only beating GAST by 5. Looking inept often against UCONN. While we won, I hardly saw anything that really makes me think our team improved and put itself on firm footing to be better in 2023. Yes, we were only 33 points away from being undefeated, but we were also 17 points away from being 5-7.
Most don't realize that we were 125th!!! out of 131 teams in red zone scoring offense, only getting points on 70.27% of our red zone attempts. While our offense occasionally put up some yards, we were terrible at getting points. Our offensive playcalling was often questionable, and that goes beyond just having a poor QB.
We need to replace some of our coaches, including Legg and Tricket in my opinion. Memphis, where our prior OC went, was 29th in red zone scoring offense, and 22nd in points per game, averaging 35.1 points versus us at 24.5 points per game, good for 92nd. I was happy to see him go to Memphis, but perhaps he wasn't the issue really, it may be Huff, just like it was likely Doc before him.
Point being, our rolling off 5 wins in a row is a bit of a paper tiger, and is maybe making us feel a bit too rosy about just where we stand as a program. I am NOT a debbie downer, and am usually VERY optimistic about my Herd. But I'm just not sold on Huff at all.