Ben Bruns KU Game Recap on Iowa Everywhere

[jsb]

Uh, no? What kind of question even is that?

You’ve implied you know more than Ben bruns in regards to the football program. Tell us what to do? If things are as bad as you say, who should we hire next? Fix it.

 

[trevn]

Things are much more pleasant around here when we're winning. Or at least when we're not losing.

 

[Klubber]

Yards per play vs. KU so far this year:

Houston 6.4
Duke 6.5
West Virginia 6.6
ISU 3.8
Tennessee Tech 2.7

If you want a comparison ISU was pretty dominant against Ohio and gave up 3.4 ypp.

It sure looks like everybody else in the league is going to light that KU defense up.

And somehow we went from everybody loving our RB unit to basically saying losing Brock is the excuse for getting outrushed by Tennessee Tech. I like Norton too, but the guy has like 21 yards against an FCS opponent, so it's not like we really know much.

Yeah. We can't use Brock's injury as an excuse. We still should've been able to rush the ball much better than we did. And if we'd done that we'd have won the game.

The O-line is a complete mystery to me. They looked dominant at times vs a really good front seven at Iowa, and then regress to what we saw at KU on Sat. I don't get it.

 

[CoKane]

You’ve implied you know more than Ben bruns in regards to the football program. Tell us what to do? If things are as bad as you say, who should we hire next? Fix it.

I didn't say I think Bruns is dumb. I think he's intentionally avoiding talking about anything that's an actual issue because he's either too big of a homer or is doing the thing a lot of the ISU media is doing right now, avoiding the actual problems because they know Campbell has 1 million other options and will leave over getting rid of or putting pressure on his friend. How else am I supposed to take just blaming the kicker and youth when the same issues happened on a team full of 5th year seniors last year and again in 2019?

If he's this great football mind maybe he could get into why Manning is actually good instead of just saying the point? Or defend the offensive line, which he never blames for anything? Or explain why Dekkers wasn't bad, which he also claimed but didn't bother to back up? If he's a genius then he should enlighten the rest of us or be on the staff himself, because whatever his outlook is isn't shared by anyone other than you, Roch, Stormin, and the rest of the coach apologists on this board.

I'm not telling you how to fix it. I never said I had an answer. I'm telling you the trends and how I see the trends. The trends are that the offense fails to show up in big games, mental mistakes have plagued this program for years, special teams has been trash(but not the only source of blame, as Bruns tried to play it off)

I would say the solution is to not just keep rolling the same crap on offense out there every time and lose because of it though. But what could I possibly know? I'm not a coach, so I'm sure the 3-12 against teams who finished with 8 wins or more since Manning's return in 2019 is just a meaningless number. I'm sure averaging 21.8 PPG in those games is no big deal either. And only breaking 30 points 3 out of those 16 games? Means nothing. I'm not a coach so how could I ever comprehend anything? I know there's even more there to sink my teeth in to and I can keep going if you want. I'm sure the half by half stats are even more interesting. I'm already working on finding what's happening in our close losses too, which I'm sure you'll throw a fit over because it questions the infallible staff we have here

I looked that all up in less than 10 minutes btw. It's not hard. If you actually tried to understand anything you'd be able to just pick up basic trends.

 

[rochclone]

I only think it was our brand of football though because we had no depth. We had to control the ball on offense to keep our defense rested, and off the field. But it seems to me our 2 deep is as strong as anyone else’s now. So I dont think this is as true as in the past. And with media timeouts, does anyone even break a sweat anymore?

The idea is to be a Big 10 brand of football in the Big 12 conference. Control the line of scrimmage and be able to run the ball and defend the run. You hear the term complimentary football from MC and the staff. The compliment to this defense is an offense which controls the LOS doesn’t turn it over. If they throw the ball 55 times a game that will not compliment the defense.

The ball control isn’t about getting tired, although that can be a byproduct, moreover it is about forcing the opposing offense into uncomfortable situation. Being down 7 and knowing that there are only going to be 6-7 drives in this game. It causing offensive coordinators to panic. In order to execute against Heacock you typically will need 9+ play drives and most college teams can’t or won’t be that patient.

 

[cygrads]

I'm not sure any of this makes me feel better. One of the Big 12's worst defenses sat in shell all game but we still couldn't run or break open a short pass play. They were in Cover 4 and we couldn't find a way to run the ball or protect the QB.

That is a very, very bad sign.

Agree, I see other teams doing this at least at the beginning of the game and see if we can handle it and if not their chances of winning goes up immensely. Normally BB makes me feel better but he didn't this time.

 

[cygrads]

I'd argue that we have been uniquely blessed (ISU standards) in the kicking dept over the course of the Campbell era. Netten, Owens and Mevis were all good to great kickers at the collegiate level. Granted, Owens and Mevis were kind of more like 1-year stop gap/rental types. Assalley was decent in the interim, on the level of a lot of Rhoads/Chiz/McCarney era kickers.

I wouldn't mind a recruiting strategy regarding kickers to go to FCS or even lower levels and find kickers with good track records over a couple of years and bring them in for a couple of years. Our freshman kicker was completely out of sorts on the last kick probably due to inexperience.

 

[CascadeClone]

Yeah. We can't use Brock's injury an an excuse. We still should've been able to rush the ball much better than we did. And if we'd done that we'd have won the game.

The O-line is a complete mystery to me. They looked dominant at times vs a really good front seven at Iowa, and then regress to what we saw at KU on Sat. I don't get it.

This.
Baylor has a good DL too, and the OL held their own. I had talked myself into "the OL is finally above average!"

But they looked like the Keystone Cops saturday. WTF happened?

 

[t-noah]

The things I hate is no lining up under center and sneaking the ball in short yardage situations. You know, the play the yields a successful conversion like 99.96% of the time. Do that instead of sending out the kid who had missed two easy kicks and was kicking for his local high school at this time a year ago. This is the Big 12, not pee-wee league.

And just a little innovation, or more misdirection, would be nice.

And as far as innovation, on a QB sneak, how many saw the Sunday night game, Chiefs v Bucs, where the TE, Noah Gray snuckered it in?

(watch on YouTube works)

If Campbell and Manning just had about 10% of that creativity, we would be golden. Golden that is after we get a new OL coach perhaps. Time for that, I believe, is past now.

 

[sdclone]

Yeah, this. I'm guessing KU is the weakest defense we will face the rest of the year. If all they had to do was sit in Cover 4 all game and that held us to 11 points, we are in for a long season. We have to have a plan to counter, because that is all we are going to see until we show we can do something about it.

If history tell you anything, there will be no adjustments to counter anything the opposing defense throws as us.

 

[rochclone]

I didn't say I think Bruns is dumb. I think he's intentionally avoiding talking about anything that's an actual issue because he's either too big of a homer or is doing the thing a lot of the ISU media is doing right now, avoiding the actual problems because they know Campbell has 1 million other options and will leave over getting rid of or putting pressure on his friend. How else am I supposed to take just blaming the kicker and youth when the same issues happened on a team full of 5th year seniors last year and again in 2019?

If he's this great football mind maybe he could get into why Manning is actually good instead of just saying the point? Or defend the offensive line, which he never blames for anything? Or explain why Dekkers wasn't bad, which he also claimed but didn't bother to back up? If he's a genius then he should enlighten the rest of us or be on the staff himself, because whatever his outlook is isn't shared by anyone other than you, Roch, Stormin, and the rest of the coach apologists on this board.

I'm not telling you how to fix it. I never said I had an answer. I'm telling you the trends and how I see the trends. The trends are that the offense fails to show up in big games, mental mistakes have plagued this program for years, special teams has been trash(but not the only source of blame, as Bruns tried to play it off)

I would say the solution is to not just keep rolling the same crap on offense out there every time and lose because of it though. But what could I possibly know? I'm not a coach, so I'm sure the 3-12 against teams who finished with 8 wins or more since Manning's return in 2019 is just a meaningless number. I'm sure averaging 21.8 PPG in those games is no big deal either. And only breaking 30 points 3 out of those 16 games? Means nothing. I'm not a coach so how could I ever comprehend anything? I know there's even more there to sink my teeth in to and I can keep going if you want. I'm sure the half by half stats are even more interesting. I'm already working on finding what's happening in our close losses too, which I'm sure you'll throw a fit over because it questions the infallible staff we have here

I looked that all up in less than 10 minutes btw. It's not hard. If you actually tried to understand anything you'd be able to just pick up basic trends.

I am a number-based guy so I would be happy to dig into those numbers as well. And I’m not a coaching apologist, I think my history on Prohm (well before you) indicates I don’t apologize for coaches that don’t form an identity and turn a program into a dumpster.


From 2019-2021 We averaged the following in conference games:

2019–434 yards and 32 points a game
2020-455 yards and 35 points a game
2021-454 yards and 35 points a game.

That is 9 games in 2019, 10 in 2020 and 9 in 2021.

In those years had over 400 yards of offense in the following games:

2019: 7/9
2020: 8/10
2021: 7/9

In those years we scored 29 points or more in the following games:
2019: 5/9
2020: 7/10
2021: 7/9

Only in a single conference game from 2019-2021 did we fail to score 21 points. (Kansas State in 2019)


We are gaining over 400 yards in 79% of our conference games. We are scoring over 29 points in 68% of our games. We fail to hit 21 points in 3.5% of our games. I understand your frustration in scoring points in the red zone but given the number of plays we have on offense these are damn good offenses.

 

[rochclone]

Because some of you like yards per play versus total offense I have the following for you.

In 2019 conference games all but one game (Kansas State) we had over 5.0 yds per play. The KSU game was 4.37 yds per play. In 6/9 of our games we average over 5.5 yds per play.

In 2020 conference games we averaged over 5.5 yds per play in every game. We only had two games below 6.0 yards per play

In 2021 conference games we averaged over 5.5 yds per play in all but one game (Oklahoma which was 4.68 yds per play). In 7/9 games we averaged over 6.0 yds per play.

 

[CoKane]

I am a number-based guy so I would be happy to dig into those numbers as well. And I’m not a coaching apologist, I think my history on Prohm (well before you) indicates I don’t apologize for coaches that don’t form an identity and turn a program into a dumpster.


From 2019-2021 We averaged the following in conference games:

2019–434 yards and 32 points a game
2020-455 yards and 35 points a game
2021-454 yards and 35 points a game.

That is 9 games in 2019, 10 in 2020 and 9 in 2021.

In those years had over 400 yards of offense in the following games:

2019: 7/9
2020: 8/10
2021: 7/9

In those years we scored 29 points or more in the following games:
2019: 5/9
2020: 7/10
2021: 7/9

Only in a single conference game from 2019-2021 did we fail to score 21 points. (Kansas State in 2019)


We are gaining over 400 yards in 79% of our conference games. We are scoring over 29 points in 68% of our games. We fail to hit 21 points in 3.5% of our games. I understand your frustration in scoring points in the red zone but given the number of plays we have on offense these are damn good offenses.

Yep, ive seen thoses stats. I didn't touch them because we have massive outliers in there. The ULM, multiple KU games, and the Kansas State games for example, don't tell the whole story. I appreciate that we can slaughter bad teams finally, but we dont bring that in big games unless we're playing Oklahomas horrible defense.

Also, i do not understand the pure yardage argument. Moving the ball is good, but we gotta score with it. Does it really matter if we drive 80 yards and throw a pick or miss a FG? We gotta start finishing drive and not stall out roughly on the opponents 40 or so. Thats probably why we have all the stats that match Alabama and Ohio State and co but 4 or 5 less wins a year. That feels like the root of the issue and probably where the disconnect with the discussion

Respect to you though for engaging in the discussion as well. Thats more fun than reading peoples wild rants with no real substance to them. And my bad with the Prohm thing. I think I do remember you dealing wity Cats BS too, so I apologize on that.

 

[BCClone]

It's those types of garbage time come-from-behind stats that pad Manning's numbers and lead to takes of "Manning's offenses generate so many yards!" That and putting up 40+ on FCS or worse schools.

Are you saying we are the only school that plays FCS teams?

 

[rochclone]

I have also noticed a decline in offensive plays ran per year:

Conference games only:

2019: 70.0 plays per game
2020: 67.2 plays per game
2021: 65.55 plays per game.

 

[joefrog]

I am a number-based guy so I would be happy to dig into those numbers as well. And I’m not a coaching apologist, I think my history on Prohm (well before you) indicates I don’t apologize for coaches that don’t form an identity and turn a program into a dumpster.


From 2019-2021 We averaged the following in conference games:

2019–434 yards and 32 points a game
2020-455 yards and 35 points a game
2021-454 yards and 35 points a game.

That is 9 games in 2019, 10 in 2020 and 9 in 2021.

In those years had over 400 yards of offense in the following games:

2019: 7/9
2020: 8/10
2021: 7/9

In those years we scored 29 points or more in the following games:
2019: 5/9
2020: 7/10
2021: 7/9

Only in a single conference game from 2019-2021 did we fail to score 21 points. (Kansas State in 2019)


We are gaining over 400 yards in 79% of our conference games. We are scoring over 29 points in 68% of our games. We fail to hit 21 points in 3.5% of our games. I understand your frustration in scoring points in the red zone but given the number of plays we have on offense these are damn good offenses.

I would be curious to see these stats broken down by halves, for both offense and defense.

 

[rochclone]

Yep, ive seen thoses stats. I didn't touch them because we have massive outliers in there. The ULM, multiple KU games, and the Kansas State games for example, don't tell the whole story. I appreciate that we can slaughter bad teams finally, but we dont bring that in big games unless we're playing Oklahomas horrible defense.

Also, i do not understand the pure yardage argument. Moving the ball is good, but we gotta score with it. Does it really matter if we drive 80 yards and throw a pick or miss a FG? We gotta start finishing drive and not stall out roughly on the opponents 40 or so. Thats probably why we have all the stats that match Alabama and Ohio State and co but 4 or 5 less wins a year. That feels like the root of the issue and probably where the disconnect with the discussion

Respect to you though for engaging in the discussion as well. Thats more fun than reading peoples wild rants with no real substance to them. And my bad with the Prohm thing. I think I do remember you dealing wity Cats BS too, so I apologize on that.

Those stats I ran are conference games only. I removed those outliers by talking about the times we hit each number.

 

[isufbcurt]

It's those types of garbage time come-from-behind stats that pad Manning's numbers and lead to takes of "Manning's offenses generate so many yards!" That and putting up 40+ on FCS or worse schools.

That's no different than KU's offensive stats going into our game.

 

[CoKane]

Those stats I ran are conference games only. I removed those outliers by talking about the times we hit each number.

Ah my bad. Im in a bad spot to read stuff right now. Will pop back in a few hours and reread

 

[joefrog]

A question is whether the conservative offensive ball can get ISU more than 7-8 wins and to the CCG (or beyond) in a "normal" season not screwed up by a pandemic. So far it hasn't, and this year isn't starting out great towards that end. And if it can't, will everyone be ok with that.

This is what I am wondering as well. Is ISU destined to simply be the Big12's Iowa? Where we can have some success, but if it gets into a shootout, we're unable to compete?