Confidence you have 1 (low) to 10 high...
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Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0
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Our offense issues are more an execution problem than a coaching or scheme problem. Get better QB play and we will have a top tier offense. I have little to no problem with Limegrover's coaching.
Thank you. The game plan was bad for Iowa but Limegrover admitted it and made adjustments after that. Fans wouldn't be calling for Limegrover's head if Nelson doesn't airmail his throw to Wolitarsky who was wide open down the middle of the field and probably would've scored. How about the call that sprung Mike Henry wide open towards the end zone on a wheel route only to see Leidner throw a bad pass? Or Leidner short-hopping multiple throws to open WR's? Or Nelson airmailing a throw to an open Jones on 3rd and long? I could go on and on with examples from the Syracuse game where WR's were open and bad throws were made, or a good run was negated by a penalty, or the QB should've thrown the ball away instead of taking a sack. Execution was the main problem on offense the past 3 games. Limegrover wasn't perfect but no play-caller is.
The strategy for this team has been defensive on both sides of the ball. Run as much time off the field as possible on offense and play good on defense. It has kept the Gophers in most games. (The Gophers got blown out only in one game this year -- Michigan). The strategy leads to an offense that looks pretty vanilla. It also leads to the opposition playing pretty conservative as well. Even Indiana played somewhat conservative until they fell behind.
If they are able to put together a team on offense next year that is able to put up bigger numbers on the scoreboard, the defense will see the opposition open things up as well. They may not look as good because of it. If they are able to continue to keep the opposition out of the end zone, well then we win 10-11 games next year.
So, I am not willing to be so hard on Limegrover.
If they are able to put together a team on offense next year that is able to put up bigger numbers on the scoreboard, the defense will see the opposition open things up as well. They may not look as good because of it. If they are able to continue to keep the opposition out of the end zone, well then we win 10-11 games next year.
So, I am not willing to be so hard on Limegrover.
bleedsmaroonandgold
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There is room for improvement on all three.
Claeys: I've generally been pretty pleased, especially this year at the defense's ability to keep us in games. Sometimes, I think he gets too conservative with long yardage situations, and this always scares me. Then, on the last play against Syracuse, I thought the 8-man blitz was too aggressive. I think he should focus on rushing more than 3 but less than 8 in those situations. 4, 5, 6, or 7 would all be good with me, and provide him enough options to keep defenses on their toes.
Limegrover: Sometimes I think his playcalling is too vanilla and he leans too heavily on Claeys keeping him in the game with a chance to pull one out late. Sometimes it works when our defense plays as well as it did this season, but I am worried about what happens if our defense has a down year and we need the offense to go out their and win one against a team that is not as sieve-like on defense as Indiana. All that said, his playcalling seemed to be good enough this year that, if not for bad drops by receivers and quarterbacks missing some throws that high school quarterbacks could make, we could have won some really big games. My biggest objection is his inability to run a 2-minute offense. I still can't believe that we ran out of time on a drive to end a half where we started with four and a half minutes left and 2 timeouts.
Kill: Before his move to the box, I felt like he sometimes let emotion control some big decisions. For example, it seemed like he was more likely to run a fake or go for it on fourth down in situations where he felt like we "should" have had a first down (either following a non-call on the defense for pass interference or a bad drop). Can't argue with results though. 8 wins>6 wins>3 wins.
Claeys: I've generally been pretty pleased, especially this year at the defense's ability to keep us in games. Sometimes, I think he gets too conservative with long yardage situations, and this always scares me. Then, on the last play against Syracuse, I thought the 8-man blitz was too aggressive. I think he should focus on rushing more than 3 but less than 8 in those situations. 4, 5, 6, or 7 would all be good with me, and provide him enough options to keep defenses on their toes.
Limegrover: Sometimes I think his playcalling is too vanilla and he leans too heavily on Claeys keeping him in the game with a chance to pull one out late. Sometimes it works when our defense plays as well as it did this season, but I am worried about what happens if our defense has a down year and we need the offense to go out their and win one against a team that is not as sieve-like on defense as Indiana. All that said, his playcalling seemed to be good enough this year that, if not for bad drops by receivers and quarterbacks missing some throws that high school quarterbacks could make, we could have won some really big games. My biggest objection is his inability to run a 2-minute offense. I still can't believe that we ran out of time on a drive to end a half where we started with four and a half minutes left and 2 timeouts.
Kill: Before his move to the box, I felt like he sometimes let emotion control some big decisions. For example, it seemed like he was more likely to run a fake or go for it on fourth down in situations where he felt like we "should" have had a first down (either following a non-call on the defense for pass interference or a bad drop). Can't argue with results though. 8 wins>6 wins>3 wins.
Ski U Mah Gopher
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The only complaint about the play calling in the bowl game was the abandonment of the jet sweep after Fruechte's fumble.
Ogee Ogilthorpe
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Barring a massive slew of injuries, the offense will be very, very good next year. They averaged 25.7 this year, next year they'll average well over 28
You adjust your playcalling to your personnel. Playing without Bak, Christenson and Engel severely hampered the offensive execution and playcalling down the stretch. I'm not worried about the offense in the least.
You adjust your playcalling to your personnel. Playing without Bak, Christenson and Engel severely hampered the offensive execution and playcalling down the stretch. I'm not worried about the offense in the least.
fryguy22
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Completely agree. This kills me every single time. Other than this flaw (and obviously, Jerry shares some blame there too) I don't have a MAJOR problem with our offensive playcalling. At times, I wish we would do things differently - for example, call a screen once in awhile against a blitz - but I like our game plan overall
Lakeville Goldy
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While I'm not the biggest fan of the style of offense (I like a little more aggressiveness personally), I would almost argue that Limegrover didn't really get outcoached much.
Yes it's a conservative offense. But when I watched WI, MI St and Syracuse, it really looked to me that the issue was our players' execution more than their defenses or Limegrover's play calls. In all those games there were key plays where receivers were open and either they dropped balls or were missed by the QB. And several of the fumbles were players not protecting the ball in traffic (not that the defenses weren't aggressive, but a couple that I remember were people holding the ball far from their body).
In other words, Limegrover is going to run the same vanilla offense and if the players execute it the team can move the ball nearly regardless of defense. That tells me he's not generally being out coached.
The two main instances I thought he made bad mistakes were not preparing or making any adjustments to the O-Line for the type of D-Line Iowa ran. They had no answer for that. And the pace of the offense in the 4th against Michigan. Down by two scores they were seemingly milking every last second from the clock in such a manner that if they had scored they likely would have had to kick an onside kick because they burned so much time. Even just snapping with 15 seconds vs. 5 seconds would have added up. It honestly looked like he was trying to beat the spread.
I'm not 100% sold that the current staff will be the answer (maybe I'm reluctant to commit after falling for Brew), but I like the concept of how they're trying to build the program and I definitely like the growth we've seen this year and hope to see similar growth next year. But as everyone's "good friend" keeps reminding us (and reminding us...), it's all about B1G wins and in a few years the number they get every year will dictate whether or not they are still here...
Yes it's a conservative offense. But when I watched WI, MI St and Syracuse, it really looked to me that the issue was our players' execution more than their defenses or Limegrover's play calls. In all those games there were key plays where receivers were open and either they dropped balls or were missed by the QB. And several of the fumbles were players not protecting the ball in traffic (not that the defenses weren't aggressive, but a couple that I remember were people holding the ball far from their body).
In other words, Limegrover is going to run the same vanilla offense and if the players execute it the team can move the ball nearly regardless of defense. That tells me he's not generally being out coached.
The two main instances I thought he made bad mistakes were not preparing or making any adjustments to the O-Line for the type of D-Line Iowa ran. They had no answer for that. And the pace of the offense in the 4th against Michigan. Down by two scores they were seemingly milking every last second from the clock in such a manner that if they had scored they likely would have had to kick an onside kick because they burned so much time. Even just snapping with 15 seconds vs. 5 seconds would have added up. It honestly looked like he was trying to beat the spread.
I'm not 100% sold that the current staff will be the answer (maybe I'm reluctant to commit after falling for Brew), but I like the concept of how they're trying to build the program and I definitely like the growth we've seen this year and hope to see similar growth next year. But as everyone's "good friend" keeps reminding us (and reminding us...), it's all about B1G wins and in a few years the number they get every year will dictate whether or not they are still here...
Pompous Elitist
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I don't think passive aggressive means what you think. He's openly aggressive.
I rate kill and limegrover a 4 each because of the complete lack of ability to run a two minute drill. Unforgivable. Maybe it's because of the personnel etc limiting our downfield passing but the huddling and tick, ticking of the clock is incredibly frustrating to watch. Playing for long, low percentage field goals etc. This did not improve over the course of the year.
Other than that I feel the coaches did a pretty good job overall. This is a legit team missing a legit passing game. We won't delve into why b/c there are varying opinions here....
GophersInIowa
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Just one huh?
- Texas Tech last year
- Indiana this year
- Nebraska this year
- first half of Penn St. this year
And that took me about 10 seconds to come up with.
DoubleB
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All coaching areas need to improve just like the execution does. As their players get older they should be better prepared for all aspects of games.
time management has been suspect late in games and at end of halves. Adjustments have lacked on one side of the ball more than the other (Bowl game is an exception).
As for the offense i worry a little tha most teams are trying to get more plays played during a game while we try to slow the whole thing down to a crawl and have less plays but more TOP. this causes everyone to think we are vanilla but IMO it is more of an execution and when you dont execute you have 3 and outs or drives that end in punts.
Defensively i like the subbing but to sub just to sub goes a little far. in the Bowl game we subbed on almost every 3rd down. I got the feeling that the players could not get into a flow and were more worried looking to the sideline to see if they are getting subbed.
Jerry needs to get back on the sideline and stay calm and take care of the refs and the other coaches. but also needs to game plan better as a whole so that adjustments are not needed. I would hope that in NC games next year he takes the run first mentality and disgards it in hopes of improving the passing game. hopefully the guys up front can dominate the line better so that we can do what we want when we want etc...
time management has been suspect late in games and at end of halves. Adjustments have lacked on one side of the ball more than the other (Bowl game is an exception).
As for the offense i worry a little tha most teams are trying to get more plays played during a game while we try to slow the whole thing down to a crawl and have less plays but more TOP. this causes everyone to think we are vanilla but IMO it is more of an execution and when you dont execute you have 3 and outs or drives that end in punts.
Defensively i like the subbing but to sub just to sub goes a little far. in the Bowl game we subbed on almost every 3rd down. I got the feeling that the players could not get into a flow and were more worried looking to the sideline to see if they are getting subbed.
Jerry needs to get back on the sideline and stay calm and take care of the refs and the other coaches. but also needs to game plan better as a whole so that adjustments are not needed. I would hope that in NC games next year he takes the run first mentality and disgards it in hopes of improving the passing game. hopefully the guys up front can dominate the line better so that we can do what we want when we want etc...
Great Plains Gopher
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They are a good bunch. As many here have noted, Limegrover opened up after the godawful Iowa game - Nebraska was a masterpiece. If our QBs were hitting at 65% or so, we'd have won even more games. Although even the best QBs have trouble (Alabama an example) when there's a good rush on them.
PhillyGopher
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8-8-8
MNGoldenGophers1
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Kill 8
Claeys 9
Limey 7
I split the difference between Claeys and Limey to get Kills' score. Claeys is exceptional at getting the most out of his players and making game day adjustments. Case in point, Nebraska marches down the field and on their first drive and scores a TD. I think a lot of people thought "oh boy, it's going to be a long day." Of course, this was not the case. The defense was stout all year with the possible exception of the second half against a high powered Hoosier offense but nevertheless the D stepped up to ice the victory. Never mind the excellent job Claeys did as acting HC. I may be scoring Limey a bit high but will give him the benefit of the doubt. He has been working with very young kids many without the benefit of a redshirt year. This coming year will give us a much better indication of his coaching abilities.
Go Gophers!
Claeys 9
Limey 7
I split the difference between Claeys and Limey to get Kills' score. Claeys is exceptional at getting the most out of his players and making game day adjustments. Case in point, Nebraska marches down the field and on their first drive and scores a TD. I think a lot of people thought "oh boy, it's going to be a long day." Of course, this was not the case. The defense was stout all year with the possible exception of the second half against a high powered Hoosier offense but nevertheless the D stepped up to ice the victory. Never mind the excellent job Claeys did as acting HC. I may be scoring Limey a bit high but will give him the benefit of the doubt. He has been working with very young kids many without the benefit of a redshirt year. This coming year will give us a much better indication of his coaching abilities.
Go Gophers!
Texas Tech is the only one, Nebraska was bad on defense as well as Indiana, most teams scored more then we did against them. When you start out strong (Penn State) then go 14 quarters without scoring...that solid coaching?? He is not a terrible coach he just never wows me with his game management, play calls or his imagination outside of one play and a play here or there. Its not a bad thing to hold someone accountable, the fact we never do is why we continue to sit in the middle of the pack. Watching the way Claeys works and changes with the game is what coaching is real all about, next year will be a big turning point I believe if we look outside of the same 10 plays and stay one step ahead of the defense.
GophersInIowa
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UCLA, Michigan St., and Iowa are the only teams who scored more against Nebraska than the Gophers.
Missouri, Michigan, and Wisconsin scored more than the Gophers against Indiana. The Gophers scored just as many against them as Michigan St. and Ohio St. did.
Most people agree he needs to get better at his play calling. Not too many people are saying he was great all season or anything.
Newsflash: We are never going to be a wide open offense. However, we did run flea flickers, reverses, jet sweeps, etc. from time to time. Even though you may not agree, some games Limegrover really did open up the playbook. Most everyone agrees he needs to do this more often though.
Not this again. So you think that if we all said Limegrover sucks and scream he needs to change on this message board, things will really change? This line of thinking continues to amaze me. If coaches are listening to us about x's and o's, then I don't want them coaching my team.
More consistency with the creativity on offense would be nice, you're absolutely right. For whatever reason, he opened up the playbook some games and was extremely conservative in others.
Bob_Loblaw
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You should have just shoehorned this into the other Limegrover bashing threads. We get it, you're only concerned with other people's opinions of Limegrover.
So lets discuss your points. . .
#1: Most teams scored more against Indiana and Nebraska than we did.
Are you sure?
- We scored 34 points against Nebraska, only 3 of their 13 opponents scored more than 34 points.
-We scored as many or more points (42) than 7 of Indiana's 12 opponents.
So we can dismiss this attempt at a point, right?
#2: So you are saying that the Penn State game wasn't solid coaching because we didn't score much against Syracuse and Wisconsin? Really? Does that make sense to you? Maybe you should look at the Penn State game for that game. It seems bizarre to think of it terms of another game 2 months later.
As far as imagination, don't you think some of that is based upon the players? Don't you think it might have been a little easier to be creative when you have an All-American caliber DT? Maybe you can do MORE things when you have guys like Vereen, Wells, and Murray in the secondary? Our D was a lot better than our offense, but that should have been expected, it was A LOT more talented.
All 3 deserve a 9 - There is always room for improvement and they work as a cohesive unit. I'm not going to take pot shots at Limegrover by suggesting his offense lacked imagination or wasnt aggressive enough. Thats too easy to do. It kept us in all but 1 game this year and was aggressive when it had to be. Players have to make plays - especially the QB position in our case. Better QB play happens, and all that talk about Limegrover goes away. Not one of those QB;s stepped up and "took" the position. You will see a different offense when that happens.
MinneStoa
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