Fair enough... Let's line up and play a football game on the 29th. See who is the better Big 12 team.
FWIW, the TT offense may be the "surprise" of 2012 Big 12 play; but, perhaps an equal "surprise" of 2012 Big 12 play may be Iowa State's defense.
Hey Cyclone fans, Raider here (sorry for the long post)
- Thread starter ttraiderbacker
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Fair enough... Let's line up and play a football game on the 29th. See who is the better Big 12 team.
FWIW, the TT offense may be the "surprise" of 2012 Big 12 play; but, perhaps an equal "surprise" of 2012 Big 12 play may be Iowa State's defense.
But you didn't just stop at being better than last year. You are talking about a bunch of receivers who haven't done squat against any real teams. Tulsa and Iowa were both real teams we played. Sure, our offense hasn't been nearly as prolific, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we have been pretty vanilla (or at least I hope so).
I don't think your interior line can hold up on either side of the ball. I think Jake McDonough will cause a lot of problems. There was an All Big Ten center that really struggled with him. I also don't know if you guys can control the line on the other side of the ball. When the game rolls around, I foresee Johnson, Nealy and White all getting close to equal carries. I think Nealy is much closer to significant time than we think. It has just been somewhat hard to find time for a freshman when two of your games have been relatively close. I think we can limit your passing game from what we've seen so far. We won't shut it down. Let's be honest, if you have a Top 30 Defense in the Big 12, you have pretty damn good defense. I think we have enough playmakers and I think we have some different looks we haven't used yet. I hope so anyway. I have not been impressed with a lot of our playcalling so some of this is just hopeful thinking that we have more to show.
They are still trying to feel him out. They were trying to limit him in the first couple of games because they didn't want him to do too much. He feels fine and wishes they would let him take off the knee brace because he thinks it slows him down. But they are trying to be cautious with him. Tech lost two RBs to knee injuries last season and they don't want to do that again. It's part of the reason they have split up the carries so far this season. So far its been really a Co-Starter thing with Stephens and Williams. They had got the 3rd string RB a JUCO transfer nearly as many carries though.
The other RB that went down last season was a Tr Fr who gained 84 yards in the win over OU before injuring his knee on Missouri horrible turf. They are trying to RS him this season.
Like I said, I don't really care if you believe me or not, all I can do is give you the facts and let you form your opinion. Yahoo sports seems to think they're a top 10 WR corp in the nation, a bunch of different scouting professionals have rated the majority of them 4*, our own coaching staff is stating that this is the best WR group they've ever seen. I'm sure you're more well informed than all those professionals about our WR group, like I said you're welcome to your opinion.
Honest question, have you even seen Tech's WR group on video this year? Caught a game, or seen a highlight clip?
BTW: For those of us wishing to compare our two teams. You are our benchmark game and we might be yours. Throw in that these are 20 year old kids. Anything can happen. Tech is an unknown for everyone including us. All I can say is that they seem to know what to do and where to be, unlike 2011. They are swarming the ball on D and Doege is hitting over 70% with receivers making difficult sideline and end zone catches. The team seems to line up and blow these teams out by the half unlike last year where we started very slowly and lacked "sharpness". Sometimes you can read a team just by the way they carry themselves and the team "body language is very good". That said they have not played a team as good as ISU so much is still unknown.
I think it is wise for your WRs to try to knock our DBs out of position. However, can they really do it? Have they done it in previous games? It is one thing for a coach to say he wants them to do it, but quite another to do it. For instance, we ran a million bubble screens in our first game and the blocking was rather inadequate. Clearly, the coaches wanted us to block well, but we didn't deliver. So, do you think your WRs can block well? If so, what makes you think so?
As for the TE read, I thought this sort of ability was something stressed by Mike Leach. Is it the OC, QB, or WR coach that really deserves the coaching credit for all the Graham Harrell to Michael Crabtree type of success?
Yes, actually, I have. They played against inferior athletes. There's a chance they will be running into a team with two All Conference players in it's backfield and two linebackers who's accolades speak for themselves. That's not to mention a much improved defensive line (especially in the middle). You haven't seen a defense like this. In fact, you haven't seen anything close. The level of athlete is going to jump dramatically compared to what they have seen. They will see different physicality. Everything just jumps up a level when you start Big 12 play. The vast majority of our defense has seen this. You guys have not and with freshmen, that could be significant or it may not be. Time will tell but we have faced talent at the WR level many a time. We may not have a guy that will shut someone down but this secondary flies around much differently than they have in the past.
CPR's teams are averaging about fifty points a game vs Tech. I can't help but feel good about this game.
You act like we're going to be starting 22 true freshman. Tech has the most returning starters in the conference, we'll only play 5-6 freshman, every other player has seen defenses at minimum equal to Iowa State. No offense, but UT and OU have excellent talent and play very physical, 90%+ of our starters have played them, and even won in Norman.
I'll admit you're better than you were last year. I just don't think your fans that are posting on CycloneFanatic understand how hard it is to win in the B12, especially on the road.
You all got really lucky with Coach Leach and don't understand it yet.
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Other than guys like Torres, Zouzalik, Ward, and Moore none of the receivers haven't done much against anyone of note. That said I like the potential.
Who is starting in the interior for ISU on the OL? Why are you so certain about the battle in the trenches? I don't doubt ISU DL will cause some problems. But I'm not so sure that the TTU DL will be no problem at all. One of the areas that has been beefed up under Tubs is interior DL. We used to run out 260lb DTs out there. Thank goodness Tubs stopped that foolishness.
It sounds like they were all healthy for OU and then all injured for ISU. That's about all I can gather from this thread.
Ask us how many freshmen we are playing. (Answer: two redshirt freshmen are in the rotation of 9 WRs we use. We have one RS Freshman in our 12 man defensive line rotation. Those are the only freshmen we are playing. No true freshmen. (We also have one RS Freshman RB who didn't get any PT in the first two games, but he will probably see 5 or so snaps vs you guys) I would guess we are returning more on defense than you. And he was talking about this year. You new brand new and improved, new look defense that is so different has not played anyone of our caliber yet this year. Or it is the same defense. Whichever you want to roll with.
Nah.... We'll be a pushover easy win.... I mean we are little ole Iowa state. We were a part of the big 12 north. I'd quit worrying about us and start focusing on the longhorns and sooners.
