***Official Spring Game Thread***
- Thread starter WhatchaGonnaDo
- Start date
Here's what scares me the most about this team, and most teams thus far under Rhoads.
Every single year it seems we're starting all over from scratch again. Every spring we are young and inexperienced. Every year we're learning a new system with different coaches and everyone is still learning just the correct calls.
Every year, we aren't consistent enough. Every year we have no idea who the best QB is. Every year we don't have enough depth.
Rhoads has been here long enough that we should be building and building from one year to the next. We should be tweeking what we have, and we should be experienced and deep. There is a fundamental problem with this program IMO, and even if Rhoads isn't the problem, he is responsible.
But there's no excuse to why, this far along in Rhoads tenure here, that we're constantly rebuilding from scratch every single year. I think teams like Iowa and even UNI have basically the same team and program that they had 10 years ago. They just tweek it every year. And they are good at what they do.
Not at ISU though. We have no identity at all really, and going in to every year nobody really knows what the offense or defense will look like? A lot of it has to do with so many coaching changes obviously, but that also falls on Rhoads. He hired Mess to lead this offense, which was a big mistake and cost us several years of development IMO.
I can't really put my finger on it, but it just feels like we're starting over every single year from scratch, and by the first game of the season we still don't even know the system fully yet and still only have 50% of the playbook installed. That drives me insane.
Every single year it seems we're starting all over from scratch again. Every spring we are young and inexperienced. Every year we're learning a new system with different coaches and everyone is still learning just the correct calls.
Every year, we aren't consistent enough. Every year we have no idea who the best QB is. Every year we don't have enough depth.
Rhoads has been here long enough that we should be building and building from one year to the next. We should be tweeking what we have, and we should be experienced and deep. There is a fundamental problem with this program IMO, and even if Rhoads isn't the problem, he is responsible.
But there's no excuse to why, this far along in Rhoads tenure here, that we're constantly rebuilding from scratch every single year. I think teams like Iowa and even UNI have basically the same team and program that they had 10 years ago. They just tweek it every year. And they are good at what they do.
Not at ISU though. We have no identity at all really, and going in to every year nobody really knows what the offense or defense will look like? A lot of it has to do with so many coaching changes obviously, but that also falls on Rhoads. He hired Mess to lead this offense, which was a big mistake and cost us several years of development IMO.
I can't really put my finger on it, but it just feels like we're starting over every single year from scratch, and by the first game of the season we still don't even know the system fully yet and still only have 50% of the playbook installed. That drives me insane.
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I do not think the thought is that SR is the "secret" #1, but that they change the amount of reps each gets with the 1's. There is a chance that this is just where the Spring Game fell in that rotation.
Throwing this out for Discussion only.
Initial gut feel of positions rating after the spring game:
OFFENSE
DEs - better and more push and best part of defense
DL - worse, young. lightweight, and hoping to survive
LB - less experience and less hope
CB - thin but doable but slightly better
Safety - Can get by and little better
Overall Defense - Fragile and not as good and maybe 35 points a game
DEFENSE
QB - same as last year with hope that better play calling is coming and better formations
RB - same with no breakout
TE - lots of potential with better play calling
WR - still getting organized and no wow factor yet
OL - lots of choices and a ray of hope
Overall Offense - slightly better, say 23 points a game last year to 28 this year
In the end, win a couple more games with game breaks: 5 wins.
Discuss.
Initial gut feel of positions rating after the spring game:
OFFENSE
DEs - better and more push and best part of defense
DL - worse, young. lightweight, and hoping to survive
LB - less experience and less hope
CB - thin but doable but slightly better
Safety - Can get by and little better
Overall Defense - Fragile and not as good and maybe 35 points a game
DEFENSE
QB - same as last year with hope that better play calling is coming and better formations
RB - same with no breakout
TE - lots of potential with better play calling
WR - still getting organized and no wow factor yet
OL - lots of choices and a ray of hope
Overall Offense - slightly better, say 23 points a game last year to 28 this year
In the end, win a couple more games with game breaks: 5 wins.
Discuss.
Not a bad analysis, however, I don't see how the safety position will be better? Losing Washington and Broomfield can't be easy to replace.
I was hoping the WRs would look a lot better, but there were a LOT of dropped balls again.
Here's how I see it:
Defensive ends: Better. Morrissey and Meyers will be fine and Pierson will add a consistent pass rush.
Defensive tackles: Probably worse. Cousins is a step up, but there is no depth behind him. This group was actually better yesterday than I anticipated. The return of Aka and Ayeni getting to campus should help some.
Linebackers: Better. We lost George, but Miller and Brackens will both be significantly better. Both Meeks and Harris have a great opportunity to someday be all-conference guys if they put in the work.
D-backs: Better. I'm honestly not sure how, but they looked pretty solid yesterday. Seems like they've done well with the new coach. Tribune a future all-conference guy, and both Richardson and Lynn are very capable. Matt Thomas even showed some solid talent and the safeties are young but athletic. Now they just all need to get consistent.
Wide receivers: Better. Lots of play makers and one more play maker will get here in the summer.
Tight ends: Better. Bibbs is going to play in the NFL and there's some solid depth behind him.
Offensive line: Better. Lot's of depth there and guys need to stay healthy. Plus they like their coach now. Taiese coming in certainly won't hurt.
Quarterbacks: Better. Everybody's a year older and now they have an OC who knows how to get them in rhythm.
Running backs: Same. Really nothing that will make them a ton better, but they'll look better since the rest of the offense will be better.
Defensive ends: Better. Morrissey and Meyers will be fine and Pierson will add a consistent pass rush.
Defensive tackles: Probably worse. Cousins is a step up, but there is no depth behind him. This group was actually better yesterday than I anticipated. The return of Aka and Ayeni getting to campus should help some.
Linebackers: Better. We lost George, but Miller and Brackens will both be significantly better. Both Meeks and Harris have a great opportunity to someday be all-conference guys if they put in the work.
D-backs: Better. I'm honestly not sure how, but they looked pretty solid yesterday. Seems like they've done well with the new coach. Tribune a future all-conference guy, and both Richardson and Lynn are very capable. Matt Thomas even showed some solid talent and the safeties are young but athletic. Now they just all need to get consistent.
Wide receivers: Better. Lots of play makers and one more play maker will get here in the summer.
Tight ends: Better. Bibbs is going to play in the NFL and there's some solid depth behind him.
Offensive line: Better. Lot's of depth there and guys need to stay healthy. Plus they like their coach now. Taiese coming in certainly won't hurt.
Quarterbacks: Better. Everybody's a year older and now they have an OC who knows how to get them in rhythm.
Running backs: Same. Really nothing that will make them a ton better, but they'll look better since the rest of the offense will be better.
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You know what your **** is extremely old. No ******* **** we are starting over this year, we just cleaned house on the offensive side of the ball had a coach die on the defensive side of the ball. Guess what ******* there will be changes this year.
You continue to spout ******** that you know absolutely nothing about. Please go support some other university.
The glimpse of the new system that we saw yesterday appears to favor Grant. He had some really great throws and conducted some good drives. He just seemed to have a better control of the offense from a field general standpoint. But then again he had the interceptions which were bad and entirely on him (or the wind, but I don't like to use that excuse).
Whoever it is will have plenty of options. WRs looked good with some hiccups. Bibbs is freaking huge, and I'm sure Mangino will be looking to get him the ball plenty. Dude has some skills for sure. Jarvis was all over the place - his white jersey was a nasty yellow by the end of the day. He looks ready for a breakout. I wanted to note D'Vario Montgomery as well. He looked impressive with his size from what I could tell, but he pretty much stayed with the twos all game.
We know what we're getting out of Wimberly. Gotta keep him healthy. Nealy seems to have not missed a beat after last year.
It's been well documented that the DEs pretty much rocked it. LBs are hard for me to judge, but Levi Peters is so much fun to watch. Just an insane motor.
Corners did their job for the most part, and the safeties made some nice plays.
All that said, I don't see any reason to be more optimistic about this year than we were at this point last year. I'll give them a 5 win ceiling.
Whoever it is will have plenty of options. WRs looked good with some hiccups. Bibbs is freaking huge, and I'm sure Mangino will be looking to get him the ball plenty. Dude has some skills for sure. Jarvis was all over the place - his white jersey was a nasty yellow by the end of the day. He looks ready for a breakout. I wanted to note D'Vario Montgomery as well. He looked impressive with his size from what I could tell, but he pretty much stayed with the twos all game.
We know what we're getting out of Wimberly. Gotta keep him healthy. Nealy seems to have not missed a beat after last year.
It's been well documented that the DEs pretty much rocked it. LBs are hard for me to judge, but Levi Peters is so much fun to watch. Just an insane motor.
Corners did their job for the most part, and the safeties made some nice plays.
All that said, I don't see any reason to be more optimistic about this year than we were at this point last year. I'll give them a 5 win ceiling.
Wow, did someone get up on the wrong side of the bed today?
I understand that we are starting over once again this year, I'm just saying that seems to be the case every year, and that doesn't build football programs.
Why is it that we're starting over basically every year? Rhoads has made some poor hires IMO, and it's cost him. We started over when Herman was here, then we started over again when Mess came in. Then last year, because Mess was terrible, we messed around with another new system that involved the Pistol from Klenakis past experience.
Now this year, we've basically cleaned house again and everyone is learning all over again. It is getting old, that's all. We're not building anything here. At least the Burnham's have been a fixture here for several years now, but for whatever reasons, they have little talent and experience to work with.
Every single year we hear from all the coaches how young and inexperienced we are, how inconsistent we are, how little depth we have, and how everyone is learning a new system and so it's going to take a lot of time to gel and be on the same page.
In a good football program you shouldn't be hearing this kind of stuff every single year.
I don't know if we've started over every year, but I'd say we're in the second year of having to start over to some extent. On offense it's due to a new OC and some new position coaches, on defense it's due to guys getting kicked off the team or leaving the team.
Saying we start over every year is deceiving though. I didn't really feel like we were starting over in 2010, 2011, or 2012.
Saying we start over every year is deceiving though. I didn't really feel like we were starting over in 2010, 2011, or 2012.
Take a step back clone dude, and realize that you're trying to frame the fire of Mess and hire of Mangino as something negative. Also, stop asking Rhoads to take responsibility for a season that has even happened yet.
The wind and familiarity help, but the defense seemed to be focused yesterday.
With the way Morrisey, Myers, and Cousins looked, we would have had an actual Big 12 DLine with Jensen, Coe, Irving, and Kron added to the group.
With the way Morrisey, Myers, and Cousins looked, we would have had an actual Big 12 DLine with Jensen, Coe, Irving, and Kron added to the group.
It just seems to me like if you go back and look at all the videos of past springs, the coaches are always saying the same things about this team every year. We are young. We are still learning. We have very little depth. We are very inconsistent. Guys are still just learning the calls and where they are even supposed to line up. And sadly, they are usually right, but why is that?
Way too much turnover in this program, both in the coaching staff and in the players. New coaches every year. Too many players quitting or getting kicked off the team. You name it.
I'm tired of hearing how young and inexperienced we are EVERY single year. Why don't we have any depth at this point in Rhoads' tenure? I have no idea. But in trying to put a finger on why this football program is not succeeding, it is fairly evident to all of us I'm sure, that all the turnover in this program is killing it. Both on the coaching staff and on the roster as well.
Do you think we could still have one if we can find a solid defensive tackle?
Programs are going to have some turnover every year though. This is the first season of major turnover with the coaching staff. And in the spring, guys will always be young and inexperienced. I don't think there is a program in the country were the coaching staff is sitting in spring practice and is content with what they are seeing.
Also turnover isn't killing the program. It hasn't helped with some of the guys leaving on defense, but the turnover in the offensive coaching staff may very well be what saves the program.
I'm excited about Mangino, no doubt about it. But, it might take several years for this team to get proficient with his new system. That's just the normal learning curve it seems.
And just about the time we get it figured out, Mangino will probably leave for a new head coaching gig somewhere and then we'll start all over again. I guess that's just how it happens nowadays, but it's kinda hard to get any consistency in building a program that way.
Austin Arnaud had 4 different OC's in his years at Iowa State I think? How in the world can you expect to be good at anything when it changes every year? You can't.
Stability is huge in building a good football program. ISU has none of it right now.
