YSU vs Illinois

[ysufan0505]

I waited a few days and watched the game again just to try to get a better understanding of what I saw.  Here is what I took away from this game:

Wolford has improved as a coach by taking the field goals.  Not sure he does this comparing his decision making from a few years ago.  He still needs to work on his liberal use of time outs especially in the second half.  They had a good game plan and he remained patient with the run having an inexperienced QB.   This kid may have better skills than Hess, but there is a reason he didn't start and it may have to do with his ability to read the defense.   The kid throws a pretty good ball.

The defensive line performance shocked me.  Where did that come from?   I have not seen a YSU DL get into the backfield of an opponent since 2006.  Where has that been?  The LB'S played  the run well and showed some improvement but struggled at times to read the intermediate pass or better yet be in position to make a play when intermediate passes were thrown.

The secondary play has improved at the corner position.  There were times that our corners were all over their receivers and in position to make a play.  However I still do not understand how the safety we have is still starting.  He clearly does not belong at this level and that is not a knock on him personally.  I liked the fact that the defense was trying to strip the ball out on every play, but it affected tackling at times.  Their stripping efforts made Illinois put the ball on the ground 3 times. Unfortunately we only got one to go our way.

There were a couple of things that may have changed the game.  We had a dropped pick six early in the game.  Then it appeared we forced a fumble on a reception but they called an incomplete pass. I reviewed it at home and it could have gone either way (not to contradict myself but our safety was involved in this play). Then we had the TD called back for illegal man down field which was unfortunate because the player was not a factor in the outcome of the broken play that we were able to score on.  Finally the butt punt.  Well I liked the idea of it but I think when you want to run a fake it shouldn't be an option.   You are either in or out not an option to fake.

The kicker is much slower than Liste and it may hurt us later in the year.  He needs to speed up the time it takes him to get the punt off. Way way too long.  Other teams will come after us here.

With such a young OL I was not expecting us to push them around like we did.  Make that on both sides of the ball.  As we all know the game is won and lost in the trenches and it appears we are capable.   We started running out of steam in the 4th qtr and that is why we could not hold them offf. Their scholarships started to show up about halfway through the 4th.  This is a huge improvement over years past.  It happen a full quarter earlier 5 years ago.

I was not expecting a close game with a new QB and a retooled OL considering the history of our defensive woes under Wolford,  however, they gave Illinois all they could handle and they should have won the game. 

Message to Wolford:   it wasn't that you made the wrong call not to go for it on 4th and 1 at midfield,  you made the wrong play call.  The field goals kept you in the game and got you more than half of your point total.  Don't go back to high stakes gambling I thought you managed the game well and I also noticed a marked improvement with your sideline behavior with the refs and the kids.

Overall we are not as good on offense as we were last year, but we have potential to develop.  We could be pretty good by end of year.  We appear to be much better on defense.  And we are not as good on special teams.  Looks like we are very well rounded at this point.  No glaring deficiencies just nothing that stands out. But we beat a the he'll out of them statistically for 3.5 quarters.....them being a B1G team. We also forced them to eat our game plan.  They couldn't get us off the field at times.

Could be an interesting season since we don't have to play all 3 powers in the Missouri Valley.

I watched NDSU.  Wow.  They are impressive.  They looked better than last year.   They are clearly the team to beat.  They look how we looked back in the 1990's.  Men against boys.  They should be ranked in the top 25 in the BCS. They could be top 10?  They were faster and bigger than Iowa State.  Iowa State looked like the FCS team.  NDSU smashed them and it wasn't even competitive.

Fantastic review! Awesome points

[IAA Fan]

I-AA, I agree with all your points except for 3! Garry is so far buried on the depth chart, he will never see the field this year. 3 solid QB's ahead of him. I think Moore should be the #2 back behind Ruiz, like you said he's big and powerful and can get those short yardage gains. Ruiz is the starter and will remain that way for however long he's here at YSU. The last point I disagree with, the butt punt most certainly cost us the game. That play changed momentum whole way around. Illini got swagger after the block, if you can even call it that. Went right down and scored and then Uncle Mo was fully on Illinois side, especially offensively. Cannot make those mistakes.

If they were all sophs or above, I could see what you are saying, but on QB Gary makes most sense. There would be absolutely no reason to blow a red-shirt for Wells ...so we have 3 ...and Garry makes more sense at this point. Until we find out more about Davis dropping down on the roster.  Garry gives us one extra year of back-up on a DI program ...experience we cannot be without right now.

The change really started before that butt-punt. That transfer from Ok State realized he could go down-field on us the previous drive. Agreed, the first-down gives us more points ... I think we had just scored a TD.

Other things to consider:

• We were only 5 of 19 on 3rd-down. That is just terrible; especially when you consider that Illinois was barely over 50% as well.
• We only averaged 33-yards-per-punt. This is huge drop-off from last year. Joey is a diamond-in-the-rough for us ...but he is a kicker.
• We held the ball for over 40-minutes, but only managed to come up with 17-points. Does not sound that bad until you note ...
• We had 12-drives and only 19 1st-downs
• We gave up 87-yards in 2 kick returns

[penguinpower]

Dan,

Please consider the timing of the questions situation.   You want to a guy that has the most potential to play the most don't you?

[IAA Fan]

I do not think Davis has carried a clipboard yet has he? Not mocking, I do not remember. Last year I am pretty sure it was Nania and Garry. I only saw 1 headset Saturday and it was Tanner. Good conversation though ..will be interesting to see. I have gained respect for Nania ...so I think he will have to be unseated to lose the job.

[mayor]

No, Ricky has not carried a board and it was Garry and Wells with the headsets Saturday signaling in the plays. Ricky did have WR gloves on throughout the game.

[jbags]

nothing against Nania, he did make some plays with his legs but none with his arm. We need a college passer not a high school runner. Maybe he can grow into one but if we miss the playoffs Id rather do it with either Wells or Clark. Illinois was horrible and after hearing some comments in the mens room at half, their fans know it. Poor attendance reflected that too. We lose games we should win in the same fashion since Wolf has been here....cant cover a soul when it really matters. We shouldve won that game walking away because we pushed them around until the heat got us. NDSU wouldve beaten them by 5 tds. And that is our measuring stick whether we like it or not