How about now?
You look like a fool when you post out of frustration.
Don't get too high. Don't get too low.
Relax and breathe! We finally made adjustments and looked really good in the 2nd half on defense. Kudos to the coaching staff.... because it was UGLY in the 1st half.
Valley:
It does not change the fact that we have completely the wrong style of defense in place for our conference. Sorry but it is a coaching issue ...and one of fundamental style. We need much more muscle up front. We need to be able to keep QB's in the pocket & shut down run games. We cannot continue to try and cover the pa$$ and the run ...we only have 11 guys on the field at a time. That is what happened in the second half yesterday and needs to happen on every play of every game. Faulkner was killing us with his legs and his arm ...we put some pressure on him & shut off that run game. This does not seem to be anything that this, or the previous DC have understood ...good old GATEWAY football. They style of ball that NDSU has won the past 2 titles with. Frankly, I do not think we have had the right recruiting, or the right coaches. Even worse, this is the 4th year of a staff that may have just figured that out (and I doubt they have)...which is why you do not hire position coaches to be your HC.
Under coach H, we had the right defense, but needed a different offense. Our conference changed under coach H & he took too long to bring in the spread on O. Our conference's style of ball has not changed at all in coach W's tenure. We simply recruit players, we have yet to a$$emble a team. This is why the have no resilience ...they are not a single unit. Too many people that expect to play & do not put forth the effort to do so. Also, still way too much animosity toward the previous staff's players ...despite the fact that everyone notices they are our best player ...(aka: Carson Sharbaugh, a true D1 talent). Where was Pace yesterday? He has an excellent ability to catch the ball. You cannot bring a guy in for two plays & not expect the opposition to key on him ...thus he was ineffective for us. We are still looking for the home-run play & not trying to control the LOS. Why? Because we do not have a line that can dominate in this conference. That is one that has 9 or 10 starters. Do not misunderstand me, I think coach Shane is the best OC YSU has had in my lifetime. I think he uses speed and motion very effectively, which is why our offense works.However, it would work better if we controlled the trenches.
Yes, the first half was ugly. Now think just how much more ugly it would have been against NDSU, SDSU, or UNI? Could we have come back from a 40+ point deficit? Faulkner made us look silly & he is not the top QB in the conference. Sorry but 30-minutes of quality football, after how many seasons, does not mean much to me. Show me something in November.
