Impact of Covid Offseason

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skiumah1

skiumah1

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I might be starting to persuade myself that spring practices and game + more time together as a unit throughout the summer may have been highly beneficial to get a look at this defense and let Sanford have more time with his offense all together as a unit, as opposed to zoom calls and meetings. This might be part of the simplicity on offense as well as the disconnect on D.

Is it fair to say that has played an impact here? Probably. Just hard to say how big of an impact.
 

I think a little bit, but I just don't think a normal offseason would be able to help the defense with being slow, undersized, out of position, can't tackle, etc. Unless the whole defense had no weights/exercise equipment, due to COVID, then that might have a little impact.

I just question how much an offseason would help this defense from being the worst in all of college football. Especially when looking at all the other Big Ten teams not having the troubles we are having.
 



amk8930 said:
I think a little bit, but I just don't think a normal offseason would be able to help the defense with being slow, undersized, out of position, can't tackle, etc. Unless the whole defense had no weights/exercise equipment, due to COVID, then that might have a little impact.

I just question how much an offseason would help this defense from being the worst in all of college football. Especially when looking at all the other Big Ten teams not having the troubles we are having.
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It's hard for me to comprehend how bad our defense is. We weren't great last year, but no doubt respectable. To fall that hard is amazing.
 


skiumah1 said:
It's hard for me to comprehend how bad our defense is. We weren't great last year, but no doubt respectable. To fall that hard is amazing.
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Gophs were #37 in scoring defense and #10 in total defense last season. I would say very good.
 



skiumah1 said:
Well then it's even harder to understand how you fall all the way to the bottom of D1 football.
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Easy:

-4 players on defense get drafted
-No one behind them is very good (hence they were starters for a reason)
-No one behind the other guys who graduated/left are any good either
-The starters this year coasted last year since they weren't starting
-They now are getting exposed with more playing time/starting
-The fact is that PJ hasn't recruited good defensive players. Not to mention special teams players aren't good either and same could be be said for some offensive players too.
 



I think the most interesting stat to look at to me would be tackling (ie the percentage of the time the ball carrier is brought down) as well as yards prior to contact (seems like guys are not even being touched until they're 4 yards down the field minimum on running plays). Felt like our previous teams were very solid tackling teams when they got to the ball carrier, and that could very well be lack of tackling drills in practice.
 

skiumah1 said:
Down the stretch seemed like a lack of faith in Morgan and the passing game for whatever reason.
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When we signal in plays late we look at keys. Sometimes whatever triggers are calls hamstrings us as much as it helps us


Teams could figure out keys and key is into being really conservative at times
 

upnorthkid said:
I think the most interesting stat to look at to me would be tackling (ie the percentage of the time the ball carrier is brought down) as well as yards prior to contact (seems like guys are not even being touched until they're 4 yards down the field minimum on running plays). Felt like our previous teams were very solid tackling teams when they got to the ball carrier, and that could very well be lack of tackling drills in practice.
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Yeah they just seem to be completely unprepared at all levels to an extreme. It looks like what your first scrimmage would be when you get all your guys together for the first time.

A lot of that has got to go on Rossi. I know PJ is the head coach so he'll take the brunt, but Rossi is really being tested for the first time without all of those guys from last year.
 

I want to think the Covid offseason has hurt. But it certainly doesn't appear to be hurting Northwestern. Maryland's offense sure looked fine Friday. Michigan's offense looked fine last week (against us). Plenty of other teams that are breaking in new players aren't struggling.

I think the reason we are struggling - and it sucks to have this be the case because it isn't a quick fix solution like fire a coach or replace one guy - is because the players stepping into new roles either aren't very good, or aren't very good yet.
 



Well, it certainly hurts for sure. But it had to hurt teams with new HC’s way more. MSU managed to go into the big house with a new HC and beat MI, so I’m not sure we get to use that excuse.
 

Maybe we should just admit that this season is a lost cause, our coaches all look lost, and our players are terrible (and will be for seasons to come). That's basically how I'm reading this.
 

If you look at the recruits that are in the game now, these kids recruiting ratings aren't that low compared to other Big 10 teams in the middle of the pack. There's no reason the DL shouldn't be able to hold their own. No reason the corners shouldn't be more than holding their own. Howden played big minutes at safety last year and I get Nubin will take his lumps I'm ok with that. The LBs are awful, slow. Losing Oliver hurts, no doubt he'd be in there, but he's not making up that much.

Giving up 10 yards per play is unheard of. Michigan and Maryland are probably middle of the road offenses in the Big 10 if that.

Overall though we've got a lot more talent coming in the next couple years. And if you look at the redshirt freshmen, those kids do need reps and are more talented as well. I'm just not sure if Rossi is the guy we want leading the defense as those kids come in and develop.
 
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amk8930 said:
I think a little bit, but I just don't think a normal offseason would be able to help the defense with being slow, undersized, out of position, can't tackle, etc. Unless the whole defense had no weights/exercise equipment, due to COVID, then that might have a little impact.

I just question how much an offseason would help this defense from being the worst in all of college football. Especially when looking at all the other Big Ten teams not having the troubles we are having.
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Is the defense undersized and slow? I don’t think they are undersized. And I don’t think the individual players are particularly slow physically, but they are playing slow.
 

btowngopher said:
Is the defense undersized and slow? I don’t think they are undersized. And I don’t think the individual players are particularly slow physically, but they are playing slow.
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this. and it is excessively obvious watching our LBer play. they are taking so long to try read where the play is going that they cannot make it to the hole in time.
 

From what my untrained football eye saw, the problems do not appear to be personnel and looked highly correctable. Position and gap discipline, angle and tackling fundamentals. It's tougher when your veteran field generals all leave at the same time. But yeeeouch, I did not think they would be this green. At a point like this is where you just keep things simple and grow confidence. Stay in your lane, good tackling. That should at least force a few more punts.
 
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Lest we forget there was a lot of anger 2 years ago with the D. Eventually we heard the schemes were too difficult for the players to manage. A new D coordinator that "simplified" things turned that around.

I prefer kisarazu's diagnosis because that's treatable. Hopefully Dr. Rossi contrives the right poltice and the patient responds.
 

amk8930 said:
Easy:

-The fact is that PJ hasn't recruited good defensive players. Not to mention special teams players aren't good either and same could be be said for some offensive players too.
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I agree with most of what you said, but this one is unlikely to be true. Go to the following link, click on Nubin, Schad, Cheney, Gordon, Willis, etc., and click on "View Recruiting Profile": https://247sports.com/college/minnesota/Season/2019-Football/Commits/. You'll see offers to these guys from Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Florida, Florida St., and many other helmet schools. It's POSSIBLE that PJ and his staff simply missed on every one of these guys, but I think it's more likely they recruited very good players, but a) haven't coached them well or b) have coached them fine, but it's just very hard to start in the B1G after one season with very few reps and then a highly truncated offseason.

This defense SUCKS right now. There is no debate about that. The real question will be whether/how much they improve in the next 7 weeks. That will tell us how much hope there is for the future.
 

Sorry - but the covid situation is not unique to MN. every other team in the conference is playing under the same situation.

I suppose you could argue that a young team would benefit more from Spring football and a longer fall practice period.

But, at some point, "we're young" ceases to be a viable explanation. This is Fleck's 4th season. He has going through several recruiting cycles.

I know Fleck talks about a developmental program, but if there are a couple of decent JUCO LB's out there, I would be going after them as my #1 priority.
 

Yes, it matters if you have a bunch of new guys starting who don't know what the hell they're doing.

Spring ball, a true fall camp, warm-up games. Critically important.


We could've EASILY been 0-3 to start the year, last season. That would've changed things quite a bit.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Sorry - but the covid situation is not unique to MN. every other team in the conference is playing under the same situation.

I suppose you could argue that a young team would benefit more from Spring football and a longer fall practice period.

But, at some point, "we're young" ceases to be a viable explanation. This is Fleck's 4th season. He has going through several recruiting cycles.

I know Fleck talks about a developmental program, but if there are a couple of decent JUCO LB's out there, I would be going after them as my #1 priority.
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Agreed they are in dire need of LB help
 

short ornery norwegian said:
Sorry - but the covid situation is not unique to MN. every other team in the conference is playing under the same situation.

I suppose you could argue that a young team would benefit more from Spring football and a longer fall practice period.

But, at some point, "we're young" ceases to be a viable explanation. This is Fleck's 4th season. He has going through several recruiting cycles.

I know Fleck talks about a developmental program, but if there are a couple of decent JUCO LB's out there, I would be going after them as my #1 priority.
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I think it has affected teams out there, some more than others and has led to some defenses being exponentially worse than their usual, despite track records of being reasonably good defensive teams.

Take LSU for example. They returned 5 guys from a star studded defense and had 6 players drafted. They've come out and gotten it hung on this defense all year and Orgeron is a regarded defensive coach.
Miss St put up 44 on them and have since scored 14, 2, 14, and 0 points.
Held Vandy to 7 (and Vandy sucks 12, 7, 7, and 21 points scored)
Gave up 45 to Mizzou (only game they scored more than 21 points)
Gave up 24 to S Carolina
Gave up 48 to Auburn
I wouldn't say they're lacking talent unless they too are missing on a ton of players. When you lose your leaders (especially if they're the defensive play callers who organize where guys are set up, which is what the guys we lost were), you can get into horribly bad situations and if you don't have the opportunity to run that live against some lower-level teams, you can get exposed. Just some food for thought. If they don't improve, that means that Fleck/Rossi are not doing their job.
 

upnorthkid said:
I think it has affected teams out there, some more than others and has led to some defenses being exponentially worse than their usual, despite track records of being reasonably good defensive teams.

Take LSU for example. They returned 5 guys from a star studded defense and had 6 players drafted. They've come out and gotten it hung on this defense all year and Orgeron is a regarded defensive coach.
Miss St put up 44 on them and have since scored 14, 2, 14, and 0 points.
Held Vandy to 7 (and Vandy sucks 12, 7, 7, and 21 points scored)
Gave up 45 to Mizzou (only game they scored more than 21 points)
Gave up 24 to S Carolina
Gave up 48 to Auburn
I wouldn't say they're lacking talent unless they too are missing on a ton of players. When you lose your leaders (especially if they're the defensive play callers who organize where guys are set up, which is what the guys we lost were), you can get into horribly bad situations and if you don't have the opportunity to run that live against some lower-level teams, you can get exposed. Just some food for thought. If they don't improve, that means that Fleck/Rossi are not doing their job.
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Solid example. I think you could make the case both teams are coming off huge seasons too with maybe a little hangover. Gophers going 11-2 last year was probably equivalent to an LSU national championship in Gopher land. It was damn close at least for me.
 

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