Official ISU vs Texas AM Post Game Thread

I thought this was the best playcalling we had in weeks. They did try to open it up, they used the tight ends much more, they used the middle of the field more than we normally do, and we showed the defense some new things with the direct snap. Hopefully we see some variation with that in the future.

And I thought it was apparent that Arnaud's arm was feeling better than last week.
I would agree, I was 90% happy with the offensive playcalling this week.
 
If he was better, he'd be out there. Thesee safeties are atrocious. I look for Sandvig to transfer this off season. Maybe Coe. Central?

Really? He might not be Big 12 caliber, but he would be an All-American at Coe. I watch every game, I'm just saying it how it is.
 
I know Bolt is well liked among the players, but his defense is just embarrassing. I still like McFarland, and I understand his reasons for being so conservative for the past few weeks. The defense is just horrible. Has been since the beginning of the year.

The defense is bad, but that is a personnel issue. We struggle with our linebackers getting depth on coverage, one of the cornerstones of this defense. The other keys, having defensive linemen that can get pressure on the QB and also drop back in coverage for a zone blitz. We don't have that kind of talent yet...

The safeties played Sallie Soft today. They could not change direction. They looked weak. They looked lackadasical. How come?

I couldn't beleive how bad the safety play was, they bit on every fake and couldn't recover. I almost wonder if they are sleeping through film study.

These aren't "Bolt's schemes," these are Chizik's schemes. And they are horrendous.

Nothing wrong with the schemes, its the players on the field. Can't cover the middle when your MLB bites on the run fake every play.
 
Offense was much better. Just can't continue to drop balls and missed blocks. FINALLY, we're hitting our tight ends. I know the running game opens this up more, but we could have done that all day against Nebraska. And throwing to guys over the middle of the field? "Brilliant"!

Defensively, our secondary is far from great. However, it's time the people bashing the secondary open their eyes and realize, this starts with a very horrid pass rush. I mean, we really have none - at all. QBs have all the time in the world to just sit back there and throw. Our D-line makes our secondary look very, very bad.
 
From a win standpoint this is starting to look similar to a Dan rebuild.


Well U-Know...Gene said "he was not going with a quick fix"...Its clear to me that this football coach and staff are willing to lose 10 games in a row for LONG TERM GAIN!!


I'm not saying its either good or bad, I'm just saying that is the path that Gene Chizik has decided to take with rebuilding the football program...

Patience guys next year will be better!!:yes:
 
I just hope we don't lost a lot of those fans who Jamie got to "jump on the bandwagon." I know most of us on here are with this team and program through thick and thin but we are still only a small percentage of the fanbase.
 
Lots of talk on the defensive scheme vs. players. If we don't have the players necessary to be running the defensive scheme, should we be running it? Why not run a scheme that we have the players to run (if one exists)?
 
Lots of talk on the defensive scheme vs. players. If we don't have the players necessary to be running the defensive scheme, should we be running it? Why not run a scheme that we have the players to run (if one exists)?
I think this argument is always an interesting one. My best guess is that teams run what they're going to run because they do have guys (ok, maybe one LJ) that can run it and they hope to bring in more talented kids so it's best to get the young guys used to the system so they can be leaders in it in years to come.

My biggest concern is that Chizik's system didn't actually work wonders at Texas until Vince Young put 50 points a game on the board. I'm not sure we'll ever get near Texas talent.
 
I don't know if there really is a scheme out there that can cover up for players being slow. Zone would be the logical step but if your guys can't even fill their zone properly then you've got problems.

I'm not sure we'll ever get near Texas talent.
What are you talking about??? We were so close to Texas talent last year!!!!.....when they beat us by 53 points...but hey, they were physically right next to us.
 
The reason our defense is poor has little to do with schemes in my opinion. WE DON'T HAVE THE ATHLETES TO COMPETE IN THE BIG 12! WE ARE TOTALLY OUTMANNED. OUR KIDS TRY HARD BUT THEY ARE OVERMATCHED. I'm not a kool aid drinker I'm a football coach. I don't see how anyone can watch us play and not notice that the other teams players are bigger, faster, and stronger than ours. Can this staff turn our program around? Only time will tell. Talk of firing them now is pure lunacy imho. We have a long ways to go and it won't be easy.

That might be true. But we don't have the athletes to compete with UNLV either? Kent state? South Dakato State?
 
I was pleased with the offense. AA's injury seemed to hold up pretty well. I was a bit worried that he would still be sore from last Weds practice, but seemed to do fine.

Just goes to show you that our offense when AA has not been hurt averages over 33 points per game.

Our coaches have proven that they can recruit. They have put together an offense that has made nice improvements from years past.
 
I thought the same thing when I watched us against Nebraska. They had us outmanned at almost every position. IMO, the only ISU players that might start at Nebraska are Reggie Stephens, RJ Sumrall, Kurtis Taylor, Jesse Smith and Leonard Johnson.

Still we have the talent on defense to do a heck of a lot better than they have been doing. You can't shut down KU for an entire half without having some talent.


You forgot Brandtner.
 
When was the last time a team did not punt the ball all game, gained 575 total yards, and lost by 2 TDs? That says it all about our defense.
 
I will only say this about the defense:

Just because our offense doesn't throw the ball in the middle of the field does not mean that other teams don't throw in the middle of the field also.

The first two TD's for A$M were deep balls right down the middle of the field. Our defense plays against our offense in practice. How many times have we gone deep down the middle of the field? I can't recall a single instance thus far this year.

We threw two crossing routes all night, I believe, both made nice gains. I just don't understand our aversion to throwing in the middle of the field. And on the other side of the coin, I don't understand our defense's inability to cover the middle of the field.


AA was hurt and could not throw the ball more than 20 yards the last two weeks in practice. Looked to me like AA to Sumrall down the field was pretty effective in the second half. I blame the playcalling for being too conservative for two years since the first Kent State game. If we do not have the talent, why play low and never attempt to open up and win?
 
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When was the last time a team did not punt the ball all game, gained 575 total yards, and lost by 2 TDs? That says it all about our defense.


This D is not that horrible against the run.

Jesse Smith was a walk on for a reason. He is great at stuffing the run at times, but is the worst pass covering LB I have seen.

We also do not have a safety on our team that is remotely average, and haven't since Nick Moser and Steve Paris.

Why do people think that our corners play soft sometimes?? Is it because our coaches like giving up 5 yard plays? Is it because they do not know how to stop it?

OR MAYBE it is because our safeties are garbage and provide no over the top help.

I'm personally not frustrated. We saw nothing new from the rest of the year. Bad safety/LB play, an offense that can be good yet stalls out at times. Hard to make such huge improvements without getting new players.
 
Maybe we should move JJ Bass to safety. At least we know he can intercept a ball similar to the big one dropped last night.
 
As far as the pass rush, we did knock their QB down a few times. The problem was that on every pass play, every receiver seemed like they were open. The QB was probably thinking, which open receiver do I throw it to? I agree we could have a better pass rush, but it seemed we had no pass breakups either. With our coverage we need a sack or QB hurry on every pass play or else it will be a completion.

Offense really opened things up, which made the game fun for the fans and we moved the ball. Did Mike Knapp start the game and get hurt? I feel bad because we ran the ball well until he went down. I think Ben Lamaak got hurt as well.

Otherwise, great showing by the fans. With the way our team is playing and to have the size of crowd last night really shows we have great fans.
 
I know we are outmanned. There were a couple of runs yesterday where the A&M ball carrier got tackled behind the offensive linemen and still got 4 or 5 yards. Their lines were man handling us all game. That is why we lost.
 

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