Did anyone listen to Coach's Corner this morning?

[everyyard]

Someone go drive by bergstrom...the coaches office lights should be on.

Like him or hate him, Bill Snyder did what he did by tireless hours studying his own team and opponents and burning the midnight oil. AND fundamentals.

and jucos.



and lower admission standards than his competitors.


and he probably cheated (I am not holding any of it against him, you do what it takes)

 

[MarkCorrigan]

So he should publicly say what isn't working so opposing teams can just zero in on it? Expect more detailed explanation post season.

Lord almighty, we better start playing our games in empty stadiums and making the opposing teams swear to silence when we face them, lest any of our future opponents catch on to our top-secret game plan!

Seriously, we are not talking about state secrets here. Opposing teams will be able to tell what is not working by looking at 20 minutes of game tape regardless of what coach says.

 

[everyyard]

Lord almighty, we better start playing our games in empty stadiums and making the opposing teams swear to silence when we face them, lest any of our future opponents catch on to our top-secret game plan!

Seriously, we are not talking about state secrets here. Opposing teams will be able to tell what is not working by looking at 20 minutes of game tape regardless of what coach says.

yep, that would be everything.

 

[isucy86]

So What Are the Solutions?

I don't know what people expect Rhoads to do. It's not like he can fire coaches mid-season and hire new coaches. It's not like he can go get new players. It's not like he can give a magic pill to about a dozen starters and they will be healthy. It's not like he can criticize his staff or players to the media and NOT lose his team.

The only way to make things better during a season is for the team to stick together as a family, work hard everyday and the staff focus on fundamentals.

 

[cyatheart]

I think another issue is developing, sam's arm just isn't strong enough to stretch the defense the way it needs to. The protection has been bad, so it's hard to tell, but I am beginning to think his arm just isn't where it needs to be. I could be wrong, just an observation.

 

[mustangcy]

The message board is becoming a joke. CPR over his head? The man has coached football at some of the highest levels for over a decade. The man comes from a hall of fame coaching family...but yes, some dip **** behind a computer can clearly see he's over his head. CPR obviously has no clue as to even the fundamentals of football, right? I mean, it's all so easy isn't it?

You people need to get over yourselves...CPR has forgot more about the game of football than any wanna be football expert on a message board (me included) could ever garner in a lifetime. You people sound like absolute fools.

 

[sdcyfan]

Great post mustangcy.

 

[twistedredbird]

I guess I didn't have high expectations this season with us loosing so many starters from last year. I thought we would probably win a few more than we have though.

I will also say that we have been very unlucky this year with certain calls and situations as well.

Rhoads has done so much for this program, he is allowed to make a few mistakes. The biggest one was promoting Messingham, and that needs to be rectified the day after our last game this season.

 

[Rogue52]

Rhoads has lost some of the fan base this season. That is bound to happen to any coach when you experience what we are experiencing in Year 5.

And for those people, nothing said will be enough. Only wins on the field will change their feelings.

The best that can happen to this team and fan base now is to win our final two home games against beatable competition and maybe steal one road win. Go into the off-season with some kind of momentum and correct the glaring issues on the offensive side of the football.

 

[IAStubborn]

If so, I am curious what your thoughts were. I got this sinking, hopelessly pessimistic feeling when Rhoads was addressing what needed to be fixed, and I wanted to explain why.

When asked what needed to be improved on offense, Rhoads singled out very few specifics, and instead mentioned almost every aspect of it (need better screen passes and quick slant routes, but also need to throw the ball downfield more...need to run more to free up the passing, but also need to mix up the calling so that we are not running every time, etc.). Basically, that amounts to him saying we need to do everything better, which troubled me because such unfocused, generalist responses are often given by people who are in over their head and have no idea how to fix the mess they are in.

For an analogy, imagine if the chairman and CEO of a company addressed their board by simply saying that the business needed to become more profitable. Imagine if the only details they provided were that sales needs to do a better job, marketing also needs to do a better job, and efficiencies needed to be identified. If I were on that board, my confidence would sink and I would start questioning whether we had the right leadership in place.

Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of parallels here. Rhoads has been sounding a lot more like a man who has no answers for the problems this team is facing, and his seeming failure to take any actions to address them only gives me further doubt. I am sure many head coaches endure seasons like this where they are at a complete loss for solutions, but is especially hard to see it happening to a coach who previously spoke with such conviction and confidence in his and his team's abilities.

I am crossing my fingers and hoping for the best, despite my growing doubts.

Or....a true leader understands that all aspects of team play are related. If you want to improve the run, you need to improve the passing game. If you want to improve the passing game you need to improve line play. Fact is that they need improvement in all aspect of the game to be a successful unit. Better offense helps the defense (and vise versa with field position, more shots etc.). This is a young team with a lot of mistakes, a lack of cohesiveness etc.

For those of you that think that experience doesnt matter you have never played football clearly. Experience with a system and play in big 12 means you are not thinking but reacting. Some players pick this up faster than others and some are just such exceptional athletes they can compensate for the half second they lose thinking but this is the exception not the norm. My freshman year in college it was off and on, week to week. You are trying to learn from your mistakes and that means you are thinking even more and often that means you get beat even more. It is frustrating for a young player. But the lightbulb does click and the moment happens when you start reacting and not thinking. Luke Knott is an example of someone with a high football IQ. He has gotten there faster, but isn't there physically yet. Others like Nigel Tribune and Charlie Rogers are more their physically but are clearly thinking too much. The line is ridden with both problems. It will come and one breakdown effect all.

Also, getting beat like they have the last two weeks plants seeds of doubt in their heads (as it has all of you). So while the biggest solution and the biggest problem area is clearly our line do you think it would help this battered unit to throw them under the bus publicly? This is why I think Messingham must go, he seems to break our quarterbacks confidence instead if building them up. He is not the kind of guy you want to build faith and leadership in your qb (Rhoads seems to be this way with qbs too). Ferentz is right in this regard (though maybe to the opposite extreme).

Hence, while you want him to publicly call out specific aspect of our deficiencies, that runs counter to trying to build up their confidence and he needs to do so.

Take a deep breath as you are not helping in this regard. If things don't get better by all means get your pitchforks ready, but in the mean time let Rhoads do his job and right this ship and quit further fueling the seeds of doubt in our young players and recruits.

 

[Spam]

Pretty sure Rhoads knows that a new OC is needed. And that too a OC that knows his s**t

 

[MarkCorrigan]

Or....a true leader understands that all aspects of team play are related. If you want to improve the run, you need to improve the passing game. If you want to improve the passing game you need to improve line play. Fact is that they need improvement in all aspect of the game to be a successful unit. Better offense helps the defense (and vise versa with field position, more shots etc.). This is a young team with a lot of mistakes, a lack of cohesiveness etc.

For those of you that think that experiience doesnt matter you have never played football clearly. Experience with a system and play in big 12 means you are not thinking but reacting. Some players pick this up faster than others and some are just such exceptional athletes they can compensate for the half second they lose thinking but this is the exception not the norm. My freshman year in college it was off and on, week to week. You are trying to learn from your mistakes and that means you are thinking even more and often that means you get beat even more. It is frustrating for a young player. But the lightbulb does click and the moment happens when you start reacting and not thinking. Luke Knott is an example of someone with a high football IQ. He has gotten there faster, but isn't there physically yet. Others like Nigel Tribune and Charlie Rogers are more their physically but are clearly thinking too much. The line is ridden with both problems. It will come and one breakdown effect all.

Also, getting beat like they have the last two weeks plants seeds of doubt in their heads (as it has all of you). So while the biggest solution and the biggest problem area is clearly our line do you think it would help this battered unit to throw them under the bus publically? This is why I think Messingham must go he seems to break quarterbacks confidence instead if buildung them up. He is not the kind of guy you want to build up faith and leadership in your qb (Rhoads seems to be this way with qbs too). Ferentz is right in this regard (though maybe to the opposite extreme).

Hence, while you want him to publically call out specific aspect of our deficiencies, that runs counter to trying to build up their confidence and he needs to do so.

Take a deep breath as you are not helping in this regard. If things don't get better by all means get your pitchforks ready but in the mean time let Rhoads do his job and right this ship and quit further fueling the seeds of doubt Iin our young players and recruits.

This is a great post, thank you. I want to clarify that I am not wanting or expecting Rhoads to throw people on the bus or simply blame others. I agree that it does not serve anyone well, even though I doubt that players are actually reading this thread and developing doubt because of it.

 

[clonedude]

Rhoads is a defensive coach. That is what he knows. The offense he basically leaves up to Mess. And that's the problem. Mess is in way over his head IMO. He has really nothing on his resume to indicate he was ready to take over and run a Big 12 offense. None.

But Rhoads is somewhat responsible too. Some on here have suggested that Mess would like to throw deep more often, but Rhoads doesn't want him to. If that is the case, then Rhoads is just as much at fault in this. I have this feeling that Rhoads is WAY too conservative of a coach. He's not offensive minded enough.

He really needs to hire a good OC and let them run the show on offense and just stay out of it.

I look at a team like TT and it scares me. Kliff Kingsbury is a young stud of a head coach. And he's VERY offensive minded. TT is going to be REAL good for a long time if he stays there IMO. He's a "step on your throat and score 50pts" type of head coach. Rhoads seems like a "we'll beat you by a score of 20-17" type of head coach.

 

[Cyhart]

Regarding the crazy amount of injuries we are sustaining......could that be a strength and conditioning thing? Or just coincidence? Seems like we are way more banged up than you would normally expect.

 

[Wesley]

Someone go drive by bergstrom...the coaches office lights should be on.

Like him or hate him, Bill Snyder did what he did by tireless hours studying his own team and opponents and burning the midnight oil. AND fundamentals.

Tackling, blocking, interceptions, and penalties are the fundamental areas he needs to work on.

 

[clonedude]

Regarding the crazy amount of injuries we are sustaining......could that be a strength and conditioning thing? Or just coincidence? Seems like we are way more banged up than you would normally expect.

Yes. Strength and conditioning play a factor. I'm not sold on Yancy either. We are getting physically manhandled on both sides of the line of scrimmage. When you get over powered play after play, you get injured more often.

With that being said, QB is probably the most valuable position on the team. Those that were fortunate to have witnessed Seneca Wallace know that.

So, it is critical to keep your QB as healthy as can be throughout a season. Running him half the time isn't going to accomplish that. SR was by far our leading rusher in game one against UNI, and he took a total beating doing it. By the end of that game, he was damaged goods for the rest of the season with a bad ankle among other injuries.

But yet, our offensive system demanded of Sam that he continue to take a pounding game after game after game ever since UNI. It's just stupid IMO.

Look at Jake Rudock over in IC. He's barely been touched all year. He's healthy as a horse. His confidence grows each and every game, while ours goes in the tank because they are running half of our running plays and nearly getting their head taken off. Look at Baylor and TT. Highly prolific offenses, but their QB's aren't asked to run like ours is. Give the ball to guys that know how to run the ball and can take the hits.

I'm sorry, this zone read option crap is BS IMO. Some teams seem to be able to pull it off because they basically have RB's playing QB. Ohio State comes to mind with Braxton Miller. Sam Richardson and Grant Rohach are no Braxton Miller. If we want to run the zone read option, then just put Lanning and Hodge in there. Heck, we don't throw down the field anyway, so why not?

 

[jaretac]

Lord almighty, we better start playing our games in empty stadiums and making the opposing teams swear to silence when we face them, lest any of our future opponents catch on to our top-secret game plan!

Seriously, we are not talking about state secrets here. Opposing teams will be able to tell what is not working by looking at 20 minutes of game tape regardless of what coach says.

Then why does Rhoads need to say anything if it is so obvious to everyone. Your expecting a detailed answer to a generalized question. If you want specifics then specific questions should be asked.

 

[Tornado man]

Yes. Strength and conditioning play a factor. I'm not sold on Yancy either. We are getting physically manhandled on both sides of the line of scrimmage. When you get over powered play after play, you get injured more often.

I sang Yancy's praises when he was hired, based on his rep at Rice. But yeah, you would think 5 years into his strength program the team would be more physical than it is. We get run over.

 

[jaretac]

I would be interested to see how we compare to previous years in actual number of injuries. Sometimes when depth is thin I think injuries seem like a bigger factor. We do have a young team but Rhoads needs to spend more time improving his lines and the depth at those positions. I personal believe that to be this teams biggest problem.

 

[F5cy]

We're not Texas or some school that can make major coaching changes mid-season. I wouldn't expect that to happen.

I did notice at one point during the KU/Baylor game last night a little graphic popping up showing some changes that fat charlie had made to his offensive coaching staff but without sound I wasn't sure if it was during the season or prior to the start of this season.