I'm starting to think that we have very few football players on this team.
The fact that most of them were offered by no other decent schools leads me to believe that I'm right.
Feeling a little duped right now
- Thread starter cytheguy
- Start date
I'm starting to think that we have very few football players on this team.
The fact that most of them were offered by no other decent schools leads me to believe that I'm right.
Funny thing about youth and inexperience...players that look athletic but sloppy turn into steady/smart football players. You don't just step on the field and turn into Jake Knott.
How many wins is this squad worth if we had experience and an older crew? Four? Six? Eight? Nine? Will we have a lot of players on scholarship going forward so our recruiting classes will have to be smaller in the future?
Team is more athletic & fastest Rhoads has had. Thing is, football is played on a 100-yard field covered in grass of field-turf. So we have our best track & field team. Enough of AJ & Knott talk - Jesse Smith wouldn't have been on this track team, but having a player like him would be helpful this year. I'm glad our guys are fast enough to get both of their hands on a ball-carrier before sliding off or whiffing so that we miss at least 4 tackles before they take it to the house.
Who is our 'dawg' out there? Where is the physicality? I thought we'd hit players coming off the bus. Well, after UNI drove their buses down one of the hillsides & spun-out doing doughnuts on the field of JTS, this has been a large element that has been lacking. We've had it for a good part of some games (Texas, T Tech), but then the brain-farts from both the coaches & the players let those good efforts go for naught. Our margin for error is low, and this year with everything in play it has been the lowest in Rhoads' time here as a coach.
The anger should have been evident last year. That team should have won a couple more games. Offensive ineptitude was the largest reason why. Now we've had an injury bug hit us. Can't help but think our OL getting hit hard is due to them being blown up or out of position so much and having to deal with players rolling up on them more because of this. Wimberly is dinged. Well, he became our feature back after producing when no one else was, but he is a 175 pound running back, and the odds he gets dinged up multiply a lot as his carries and touches start to get into the teens. Same can be said of Richardson & the number of carries he has had.
In the end, if we were led to believe these things then we must demand why improvement is not being made. If they have this (ick) potential, then there should be some visible improvement. There has been some, as many are point out. However, when someone shows some (think Tribune is improving & will be a good corner), then we see 2 seniors (George & Washington) miss tackles on the long run by the OSU RB which overshadows the small improvements by the younger players. For crying out loud, the same thing happened in the UNI game - & 2 GD SENIORS ARE STILL PERFORMING THIS WAY AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON! Break down & grab some cloth.
Who is our 'dawg' out there? Where is the physicality? I thought we'd hit players coming off the bus. Well, after UNI drove their buses down one of the hillsides & spun-out doing doughnuts on the field of JTS, this has been a large element that has been lacking. We've had it for a good part of some games (Texas, T Tech), but then the brain-farts from both the coaches & the players let those good efforts go for naught. Our margin for error is low, and this year with everything in play it has been the lowest in Rhoads' time here as a coach.
The anger should have been evident last year. That team should have won a couple more games. Offensive ineptitude was the largest reason why. Now we've had an injury bug hit us. Can't help but think our OL getting hit hard is due to them being blown up or out of position so much and having to deal with players rolling up on them more because of this. Wimberly is dinged. Well, he became our feature back after producing when no one else was, but he is a 175 pound running back, and the odds he gets dinged up multiply a lot as his carries and touches start to get into the teens. Same can be said of Richardson & the number of carries he has had.
In the end, if we were led to believe these things then we must demand why improvement is not being made. If they have this (ick) potential, then there should be some visible improvement. There has been some, as many are point out. However, when someone shows some (think Tribune is improving & will be a good corner), then we see 2 seniors (George & Washington) miss tackles on the long run by the OSU RB which overshadows the small improvements by the younger players. For crying out loud, the same thing happened in the UNI game - & 2 GD SENIORS ARE STILL PERFORMING THIS WAY AT THIS POINT IN THE SEASON! Break down & grab some cloth.
I'm not sure why people didnt see this as a down year. I thought they would get about 3-5 wins, 5 being the absolute best case scenario. They can still get to three wins. It will be hard though especially with no bye week left to try and get healthy.
The UNI game in the fifth year cannot be replayed. We will hear about this for many years. Worse than Chiz inauguration and Kent State. We know we will be in trouble when we come out with CPR coins.
The UNI game really is the difference maker in this whole situation, especially since they are peeing their season down their leg right now. Had we beat UNI and then Tulsa I could understand being 2-5 just because we knew Texas, Tech, Baylor, and OSU were going to be tough games and the CyHawk game is always a crap shoot. That would still leave two or three winnable games left with KU, KSU, WVU, and TCU still ahead. But losing an always must win game against an FCS opponent really took this season to a whole new low. I don't think the team is going to pack it in but it's hard not to think they are demoralized at this point. I know we want to sit there and circle games like I mentioned above but let's be honest, their fans are circling us as a win.
The couchmeisters are having the same fun:
Big 12 Teleconference News and Notes: The State of West Virginia Football | Bleacher Report
Big 12 Teleconference News and Notes: The State of West Virginia Football | Bleacher Report
To my eye, it's the least physical and slowest defense that Rhoads has put on the field. And I didn't even watch the Baylor or Tech games. The long TD runs by Gray in the UT game and Roland on Saturday were just comical, they were so bad.
You had pathetic facilities for eons. I live in CoMO and am familiar with Missouri's program. Missouri had 15 consecutive losing seasons due to pathetic, almost non-existent facilities. The football facility they have is similar to the ISU facility. The formula for success is to redshirt guys and put them in that facility every day. Rarely does anybody play as a true freshman, a small number play as redshirt freshmen, a few play as rs sophomores but most don't start until their 4th or 5th year in the program.
Their current defense has 10 starters who redshirted. Their entire offensive line redshirted. Unless a guy was a high profile recruit and was promised playing time as a freshman they redshirt and hit the gym hard 7 days a week.
In order to do that the school has to get behind the coaching staff through thick and thin so the coaches resist the temptation to burn redshirts in an attempt to save their jobs. And, in case folks don't realize it, recruits read these message boards. One reason Missouri is having a subpar year recruiting is because of talk Pinkel was on the hot seat which began on the internet forums.
I think it's okay to whine a little. Being upset that your team isn't good is not a bad thing. Doing that shows passion, it shows that you still care and that you haven't become apathetic.
I will say that it does seem like every year ISU fans (myself included) say it's a rebuilding season and that we'll be good in a couple years. I'm not great at math, but it would seem to me that if we say that year after year...eventually it should catch up.
I'm a huge CPR fan. I understand we have a tough schedule and that injuries take their toll. I also completely understand how much the loss of A.J. Klein and Jake Knott, along with some others affect a program. Totally get it.
But that doesn't mean that we can't be upset about only having won one game at this point, especially when we've had a couple within our reach and the last two losses have been embarrassing. So the frustration, for me at least, comes into play because it would appear as though we're maybe regressing a little bit. It's like we gave up after the Texas game.
