THE SUNDAY AFTER: Texas Tech

[tazclone]

Why not? It happened last year.

Not as much as people claim. With the exception of West Virginia, we faced the worst rushing defenses in the league at the end of the season. Throw in the change to Montgomery....Let's just say it isn't coincidence that Montgmery's carries increased and iSu's run game improved.

A couple factors that led to imrpovemtn last year that we don't get this year...

1. Everyone last year was in a new system and learning- So it should have been expectyed they would see improvement as the year goes on just from learning and understanding. This year- Everyone but Knipfel has been in the syst for two years.
2. The staff didn't know what they had in the first few games last year and made changes. This year...it has been the same 5 with the exception of Meeker/Foster.

With that said...I thought the OL looked an eensy weensy bit better Saturday in the run game.

 

[tazclone]

On the flip side, how lethal would DM and our offense be with a very good OL? I honestly think DM would be averaging over 150 yards a game and we’re approaching a top-10 team. Certainly undefeated. It’s a credit to this staff that that’s the missing piece (and a failure of the previous imo).

Can this OL group get appreciably better in the last 5? I’m not optimistic. It usually takes years to get an offensive lineman developed, and we have numerous guys in the beginning of that process. But even just getting to consistent stalemates against good teams will do.

Unfortunate bounces happen, but the distribution should be in your favor with good coaching. Every coach and player will make mistakes, but we have very good coaching that have developed good players. Getting consistent discipline and preparation (aka development) by the majority of the 18-22 year olds isn’t easy. Effort alone isn’t enough, nor is being a good recruiter in terms of rankings. It’s the most important thing we’ve needed from a staff, and have been missing for decades.

Agree. I thought the OL looked a little bit better Saturday. They show glimpses but still need to be more consistent.

I am with you in doubting how much better the OL gets this season. These guys have all bee in the system for two years(with the exception of Knipfel) so the growth ceiling is a little lower this year. But they should get more used to playing with each other every game

TCU will be a huge test. That defense will be very tough. They are allowing 2.42 YPC running and only 48% completion rate.

 

[FinalFourCy]

Not as much as people claim. With the exception of West Virginia, we faced the worst rushing defenses in the league at the end of the season. Throw in the change to Montgomery....Let's just say it isn't coincidence that Montgmery's carries increased and iSu's run game improved.

A couple factors that led to imrpovemtn last year that we don't get this year...

1. Everyone last year was in a new system and learning- So it should have been expectyed they would see improvement as the year goes on just from learning and understanding. This year- Everyone but Knipfel has been in the syst for two years.
2. The staff didn't know what they had in the first few games last year and made changes. This year...it has been the same 5 with the exception of Meeker/Foster.

With that said...I thought the OL looked an eensy weensy bit better Saturday in the run game


I am with you in doubting how much better the OL gets this season. These guys have all bee in the system for two years(with the exception of Knipfel) so the growth ceiling is a little lower this year. But they should get more used to playing with each other every game

.

Very good points. Imo there was some global improvement last year, but a lot of factors that led to the relative improvement are not there this season. Imo this partially why the staff used Park in the manner we saw.

It’s not easy creating a mauling line that gets to the second level in under two years. We’re backfilling the pipeline with Dlinemen, inexperienced young guys, or walkons. Just keep improving the fundamentals and hitting the assignments, knowing that some snaps they’ll struggle physically.