So everyone knows.......I am not trying to trash the coaching staff. I am simply stating that coaching WAS an issue in this game. ISU is a good team, but we have shown that we can play very, very well. As coach Wolford states "The expectation here is Championships". I do not care if we are beaten because of talent, and I'm not saying that we are at the level of winning NC's with the current experience level, and talent level, but the fundamentals were not there. I would be proud if they would have played well and not won. We played well for 1 half of football. We didn't get off the bus for 2 qtrs. The good thing is that at least we didn't have a rash of penalties.
Keep in mind that Indiana State's game plan probably changed when they got up by 3 td's. Mine would have anyway. I would have run risky blitzing schemes. Why not? What do you have to lose...........a TD? Big deal, we'll just score again. Up by 3td's on offense..I would get a little more conservative with the O and I think they did. Why risk a T/O? The problem is that they didn't run risky plays. They scored on toss sweep run plays. It doesn't get any better than that if you are Indiana State.
This whole thing irritates the hell out of me. I guess the reason is that IF (and that is a very qualified IF) we were somehow able to develop the D and keep playing good O and special teams we could possibly (but unlikely) play for the conference championship with the talent level on the team. However, it is not going to happen when you give up big plays like we did and it is particularly frustrating to watch a team run the same play over and over and not be able to stop it.
Does anyone remember when we ran the read option against Illinois State in 2006? That was the first time we used it. Mason was our RB. They had no answer. We ran it every play and blew them out at home (I was there they were ranked 3rd at the time) and then we ran it in the playoffs against them and they still had no answer. The same thing happened to us this week and last week as well.
I know that we have a young team but please spare me the excuses. They were not that good IMOP.