A purely football perspective on the Gopher deficiencies

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The 12th Man

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We can argue about who was outcoached, etc., but those are value judgments that cannot be proved. What we saw from a football perspective was clear:

1. Dropped/whiffed balls at tough times
2. No line push
3. An opposing WR corp that got great separation from the Gopher DBs
4. Missed tackles (the one where the NMSU receiver broke an arm tackle for a crucial, long 1st down stands out)
5. No pass rush

The tough part now is to objectively ask why these things happen. "We got outcoached" or "our kids suck" are blanket statements. Here is what the coaches will emphasize going forward to fix these problems:

1. Dropped balls are a 2-way street. Familiarity with the scheme will frequently help WRs anticipate when the ball will arrive, so they have to continue to rep the routes with both QBs. Different QBs deliver the ball at different times, so it is not surprising to see drops occur when a new QB comes in. The goal for a QB coach is to really hammer home when the ball should be delivered on each play so that change is not as drastic. From a WR standpoint, the emphasis will be getting out of their breaks quicker and turning to see the QB. The QB has to trust that the WR will have his head turned and will be ready. Otherwise, the QB ends up waiting for a WR to be open rather than anticipating. This requires trust and scheme familiarity.

2. The OL is typically bigger than the DL and knows the snap count, so the biggest cause for a lack of OL push is being tentative. DL don't just stand in front of the OL and run straight ahead, so the OL has to be able to anticipate movement and adjust to where the play is going. I expect them to get better over the course of the season for this reason. I don't think it is a simple matter of them being bad. They just need reps. When they know what is going to happen, they come off the ball harder and faster and don't think as much. That is the biggest reason, in my opinion, why Wisconsin did not see a dropoff when Bielema took over. The scheme stayed the same, and they played fast.

3. Speed, speed, speed. DB play is all about anticipation and reaction. Both require speed (even anticipation requires mental speed). Once they had a better idea of what was happening, they played better in the 2nd half and were able to jump some of the routes. This is something I will put on the coaches, because the DBs just did not look prepared. The second part, though, is that they need more speed in the secondary. Kill has mentioned this frequently.

4. Missed tackles typically happen because tacklers don't go through the man, they just go to the man. Part of that is a mentality, which Kill is trying to cultivate. A big part of that is speed. They have to meet the ballcarrier rather than the ballcarrier meeting them. A third part of that is anticipation. We talk a lot about how scheme changes affect the offense, but the defense is affected as well. The ballcarrier meets them at a different angle and the new scheme changes what they have to look for. They need reps. Again, I expect this to get better over the course of the season because the players will get experience working at full speed.

5. Pass rushers certainly require technique, which is up to the coaches to provide, but more than anything they need speed, especially explosive speed off the ball. 40 time doesn't tell the whole story for a pass rusher. The first 10 yards and ability to change direction quickly are the most important things. Brewster recruited for a different defensive scheme, so it is not surprising that the players are not up to speed yet. Klein is working on it as well. It will be interesting to see if they are able to improve, though I don't see it being something that gets markedly better over the course of the season. Unlike the other aspects, this is one that requires long-term cultivation of players.

If you believe what I say (and I write this based on a lot of years coaching), then the paragraphs above provide a good explanation of why Kill's teams have, at every stop, improved greatly over time. They have a set scheme so the players can, in time, anticipate what is coming. This allows them to play faster. The strength and conditioning coach prepares players for this specific scheme as well, thus (hopefully) fixing the pass rush problem. Finally, players are recruited for what they do so it can be more about playing within the scheme and less about changing habits (old dog/new tricks).

I trust Kill, I believe in his track record and approach, and I hope I am right!
 

I agree with your points above.
 

I agreewith your points as well. Very well articulated.
 

Takes a lot to change a football culture, especially the bad one Brewster left behind

You can take the Brewster out of the program, you cannot take Brewster's bad habits, years of neglect in recruiting D-line or O-line talent, impatient coaching changes, attitude: showing up and instantly thinking your better than the other team because of your uniform, showing up flat to start just about every game,
lack of focus in games and on the sidelines and no discipline off the field out of the program in one year. That said Limegrover went shotgun on fourth and less than one
with a 6-5 QB who is best athlete but not player on team. That and the tailback was one of the least experienced(lack of knowing when to lean or get low) in the game with a second string center. Gray should have recognized the gap was bare, there technique was geared to the called play, quick counted and just buried himself into the endzone off the draw.
The call of the 3rd timeout was a bad coaching decision. Kill has said constantly that we lack speed and he is right, this is why Northern Illinois whipped us so bad last year, NSMU actually had some fast players that out hustled and outworked the Gophers.
Don't understand why the team was so flat, stadium was mostly full, and people were in it to start the game, Grays overthrows, some just terrible passes and the defense giving up the easy score really hurt the momentum. Gray's biggest problem is that he "Holds the ball to damn long with out making a decision". He is not decisive enough in his head and try's to do everything himself. Hard to win at QB being that way when you are relying in yourself so much.

You have to let the other guy's make plays. He panics and tucks and runs to much. I dislike how much he panics. Locking on one receiver is going to burn him, he has the talent and ability to play QB but is really inexperienced as a QB. Brewster did no favors to Gray by not getting him any legitimate repetitions. There was a lot of confusion on defense the drops, stunts all of it, the FS always seems lost and not decisive.
 

Yesterday was a reality check.
 



I would not blame the coaches for the loss, I just think the team does not have a ton of talent. And most of the talent it does have is very young.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
I would not blame the coaches for the loss, I just think the team does not have a ton of talent. And most of the talent it does have is very young.
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True, but I thought 'adjustments' would always overcome that.
 

agree with all of it, but I would put "No Line Push" at #1. There is no reason that the o-line can't impose their will and establish some sort of running game against an inferior opponent. Even if the other team is putting 8 in the box, they don't have all 8 on the line of scrimmage. We can't even gain a few yards. The short yardage play at the goal line is inexcusable. The line got stuffed and the back just ran into the pile.

It's so bad, they don't even attempt to run. Of Gray's 17 carries, maybe 5-7 were called runs. Add the RB carries and we have less than 25 attempts. We attempted 40 passes. If you asked me 2 weeks ago if we could win by throwing the ball > 60% of the time, I would say we don't have a chance and it will be a long season.
 



It's like somebody copy and pastes these exact issues every single year. I've seen this movie before.

Different coach - same issues.
 

The points are well stated. I also felt the offensive line not getting push was the biggest disappointment. NMSU was loading the box ALL game and daring us to throw but that does not explain consistently being unable to pick up short yardage situations. I really expected more from the oline:(. I am not an expert but it appeared to me that Gray was able to identify single coverage at the line, however there were several situations where we had receivers wide open but he never saw them because he locked in on receivers with single coverage. Not sure how he is coached or what elite quarterbacks would do, throwing to a guy with single coverage and a step (usually Mcknight) isn't a bad option, he just missed some wide open big plays. One big advantage of being in the second deck at the game is it easier to see all this:)
 

Not excuses. Rather than just be an over-the-top fan, I have chosen to actually look at the reasons why things happen. Brewster's biggest mistake was changing directions so often. That, in and of itself, made him a bad coach, and I bet he now regrets that decision. It effectively turned practices into glorified football camps, since coaches were not applying fundamentals to a constant scheme. The small tweaks often make the difference at the D-1 level.

This is year one of another new scheme. Am I surprised that those same types of mistakes are being made? Of course not. Why? I understand how football works. If those same mistakes are made in year three of the scheme (and, to a degree, the end of year one), it is an issue.
 

The Gophers put up a lot of yards, but just couldn't convert. Too many dropped passes, and an inability to the first down in short yardage situations. There were a lot of lost opportunities.
 



Gophers must have lost to a bad team. Art is back.
 

"Reality check" is right on. We just don't have a lot of talent, especially on defense. Coach K will figure it out - he's doing his best with what he's got and his hard work down to earth attitude will pay off. We're going to win some this year. I agree with the prediction that Gray will move to wide receiver or wingback. Why not? He just does not look to me to have great basic quarterback skills (not bad, just not great). His size and athleticism would force opposing defenses to play a lot softer coverages in these other positions. He's best at running the football so let him run with it. I could picture him as a pro wide out, but not a pro QB.
 

At one of the Gopher golf outings this summer, during the social aspect of the evening before dinner, two of the coaches said that they were shocked at the level of talent on the team. They said that they felt only about half of the players had the talent to be on a Big Ten team. They didn't say this to make excuses. It is what is is. They also said that they would not try to run anyone off of the team. That it was not the fault of these kids and that these kids were working hard and if they continues to work hard they deserved the opportunity to finish their careers with the team. Certainly a different attitude that a lot of coaches when they come into a situation like this. Give them a chance to acquire the talent they need and then people can judge them on their coaching abilities. As we all know, sometimes talent dictates what we can and cannot do.
 

TrapperDoo said:
"Reality check" is right on. We just don't have a lot of talent, especially on defense. Coach K will figure it out - he's doing his best with what he's got and his hard work down to earth attitude will pay off. We're going to win some this year. I agree with the prediction that Gray will move to wide receiver or wingback. Why not? He just does not look to me to have great basic quarterback skills (not bad, just not great). His size and athleticism would force opposing defenses to play a lot softer coverages in these other positions. He's best at running the football so let him run with it. I could picture him as a pro wide out, but not a pro QB.
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I think your take is definitely valid. Another thought is that yesterday's game is more of a reason to keep Gray at QB. His development is right in line with the rest of the team, and I do think he showed improvement from game 1 to game 2. If the coaches think he is developing the way he needs to, they will keep him at QB because he has such a high ceiling. The message they send is very clear: they think his issues are correctable and they think that he will continue to grow with the rest of the offense. For example, think about how much better he would have looked if the line had opened the right hole for him on the designed runs. It is possible that he and his performance will grow with the rest of the team.
 

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