What grade would you give the coaches in the loss at Cal?

What grade would you give the coaches in the loss at Cal?

  • A

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • B

    Votes: 3 2.8%

  • C

    Votes: 22 20.4%

  • D

    Votes: 45 41.7%

  • F

    Votes: 38 35.2%
  • Total voters
    108
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I gave a D.


They showed up so it’s not a F. Didn’t understand not pressuring the QB when he’s slicing you up and feel like the O got way too conservative the closer they got to the red zone. Players didn’t execute but it wasn’t a very fun plan to execute. Bottom line is these are kids and its on the coaches to get them ready, keep them motivated and make adjustments.

D.
 


Games like these are the reason why I can never fully get behind Fleck. It seems every year there’s one game where we get horribly out-coached and it usually costs us any potential ranking and a higher tier bowl game destination.
 

Gave it a C.

Still a chance to win the game until the two-way player made one of the dumbest plays ever.

The trick play call in the 1st half was a horrendous call.
 
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F. There was no obvious gameplan advantage anywhere on the field exploited, continued to go with what wasn’t working and multiple head scratchers that directly cost us points plus penalties and clearly not keeping guys locked in. Cal gets a B- to C+ and looked head and shoulders better coached
 




Special teams coach needs to better mentally prepare Koi for punts inside our 10 yard line. Even with our conservative, somewhat gutless offensive play calling, we would have had a good chance but for ST’s screw ups. 🤷🏼‍♂️
 


Outcoached, piss poor play calling, that trick play, smh. Took all of momentum out of the game. It was an unsolved mystery why we spend the whole game with a three man rush against an QB who was making our secondary into a burn unit. Our secondary is slow and Cal exploited it.
 




I thought the game plan was good. Very easy for spectators to question a couple bad calls.

132 total plays last night. Maybe 10 bad calls. That’s 92%. If the trick play works everyone on here is praising the “new creativity”.

I thought the entire game even before the first fair catch inside the 5, Koi’s not locked in tonight. He’s a true sophomore. Use it as fuel and on to next week. Was I frustrated about the prevent going into half, the trick play, and the run…yes. Was I confident prior to the muffed punt, also yes. The most disappointing thing about the muff was it took away an opportunity for Drake to have a legacy building drive, and I was looking forward to watching it.

To the “D” and “F” folks, get real.
 

gopherlaney said:
I thought the game plan was good. Very easy for spectators to question a couple bad calls.

132 total plays last night. Maybe 10 bad calls. That’s 92%. If the trick play works everyone on here is praising the “new creativity”.

I thought the entire game even before the first fair catch inside the 5, Koi’s not locked in tonight. He’s a true sophomore. Use it as fuel and on to next week. Was I frustrated about the prevent going into half, the trick play, and the run…yes. Was I confident prior to the muffed punt, also yes. The most disappointing thing about the muff was it took away an opportunity for Drake to have a legacy building drive, and I was looking forward to watching it.

To the “D” and “F” folks, get real.
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What would it take for you to have higher expectations for this program? They are recruiting better, putting far more players in the NFL. Students being charged money to pay the players driving around campus in Corvette’s, Raptor’s and TRX’s. Players almost exclusively in online classes. When can we start expecting more wins?
 

GopherMenace said:
Games like these are the reason why I can never fully get behind Fleck. It seems every year there’s one game where we get horribly out-coached and it usually costs us any potential ranking and a higher tier bowl game destination.
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I know there are guys that have been fans way longer than me - I didn't follow the Gophers until I went here for undergrad. But this is what I have learned in my 30 years of fandom: I think the key to happiness is accepting the fact that PJ is not God's gift to coaching BUT things could be way worse. To be honest, I knew this was going to turn out horribly from the middle of the 1st quarter as the team seemed totally uninspired.

PJ does this often and the reality is that we have never been a 2nd half team under PJ because he makes ZERO in-game adjustments and WILL NEVER call an aggressive game plan. Yes, he will allow a completely unnecessary and ill timed trick play - but he has not had an aggressive game plan whistle to whistle since Penn State in 2019.

I do have to wonder though for the trick play - we were finally establishing the run and playing ball control. Why would you not want to continue that trend and grind out a 14 play drive and break the spirit of the other team? Why a trick play then?
 

Graded up with a D.

Biggest thing I saw is that obviously there is practically no film on the kid QB for Cal. He is very good. We are lucky they did not score more with how he was slicing and dicing in the first half.

Our usually very strong D was only adequate for this one. On the other hand, we needed more that 0 to get open and catch a ball. Geers did show up for a couple of plays but other than that crickets.

Said in another post that last week did not help us. We are not good enough yet to waste a game with that poor a level of competition. This is not the AD's fault as Bolling Green backed out. It did bite us last night though.
 

LeftofThaDial said:
What would it take for you to have higher expectations for this program? They are recruiting better, putting far more players in the NFL. Students being charged money to pay the players driving around campus in Corvette’s, Raptor’s and TRX’s. Players almost exclusively in online classes. When can we start expecting more wins?
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Where did I say we shouldn’t expect more wins? This thread was to grade the coaches. I have them as a C+.

You think they haven’t coached Koi not to fair catch below the 5 or not field a rolling punt? He’s been taught that since first time he put pads on. Those two were worth 14 points.

If you go back and watch the running play everyone is mad about (including me), the line got good engagement with the exception of Greg Johnson (our best lineman) who whiffed his assignment. Keep in mind up to that point we had been grinding them down. Prior to that carry they had handed off the ball 15 times in the 2nd half with an average of 4ypc, and not a single carry was a negative play. Reasonable call in retrospect.
 

I think the trick play reflected a mentality that we cannot win without doing this. And I think this theme is too present. While we were driving it seemed to me we were a bit on our heels overall. Basic football was working but to me that play conveyed panic.

The constant messaging about how they had made special efforts to have the team ready for a night game on the West coast reflects that same mentality. PJ packages it like he is making every effort then he runs that message into the ground. Just get them ready to play football.

As for Perich, I think he is getting overused. But Fleck tends to over extend some guys. He is young. Let him focus. The team could win without him doing everything. Let them know you believe that.
 

Cal has got a really good experienced coaching staff, they coached circles around PJ and his staff this game. I’m hoping Harbaugh and Collins grow from this game.
 

F

Drake can sling the ball. He's way more accurate than he should be at this point in his career. The fact that the Gophers only managed to put up 14 points is a failure by this coaching staff. Bad, ultra conservative playcalling (outside of the ill timed trick play to the short side of the field) hurts us at the beginning of the year, nearly every year.
 

The third and short just before the missed field goal to tie it at 17, pretty sure the offense is so predictable that Cal ran a defense to stop that play, the loss of yardage pretty much moved them out of field goal range, I have to think that is on the coaching and play calling and not the players.
 

LeftofThaDial said:
What would it take for you to have higher expectations for this program? They are recruiting better, putting far more players in the NFL. Students being charged money to pay the players driving around campus in Corvette’s, Raptor’s and TRX’s. Players almost exclusively in online classes. When can we start expecting more wins?
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When I went back to see who had posted this I was surprised it was not NO! We are in trouble when sane people sound like him/her.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
Big F. Head scratching dumb decisions (trick play, RUTM in bad situations, three man rush too often and directly led to the FG going into the half)
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I can’t figure out for the life of me why Fleck continues to unnecessarily hit the self-destruct button by running trick plays in the red zone after his O line moves the ball almost the entire length of the field. He does it in every close game. Last night running the trick with Perich losing 18 or whatever yards… That kills drives but, far worse, it’s demoralizing for the O line. And the team. We were bigger, stronger, and faster that that Cal team and we helped them beat us. It’s infuriating. Fleck can’t do anything without being cute-n-clever about it. On or off the field.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Special teams coach needs to better mentally prepare Koi for punts inside our 10 yard line. Even with our conservative, somewhat gutless offensive play calling, we would have had a good chance but for ST’s screw ups. 🤷🏼‍♂️
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Son, please don't fair catch inside the 10 yard line. Are you mentally prepared to do that?
 

I went with D, back to conservative ways, rushing 3-4 guys on D while QB is picking us apart. Obviously special teams was hot garbage. Every year we have a game like this, last year it was at Rutgers
 

D+

Too many 3 man rushes after they were clearly not working. The difference when rushing 4-5 guys was obvious to even a very casual football observer.

Should be passing more often overall, especially when down to the 3rd string RB. The run game has been inferior to the pass at Minnesota for about 16 games now.

I'm sure they coached Perich to not do the things he did in the return game but you can't make everything happen the way you coached it.
 

Mateo’sTruth said:
I can’t figure out for the life of me why Fleck continues to unnecessarily hit the self-destruct button by running trick plays in the red zone after his O line moves the ball almost the entire length of the field. He does it in every close game. Last night running the trick with Perich losing 18 or whatever yards… That kills drives but, far worse, it’s demoralizing for the O line. And the team. We were bigger, stronger, and faster that that Cal team and we helped them beat us. It’s infuriating. Fleck can’t do anything without being cute-n-clever about it. On or off the field.
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It’s not Fleck, it’s his OC, but Fleck hires the OC. You are spot on. This guy does this way too often. One time should be enough, but he’s done it time and time again. That’s 100% on Fleck. It’s Mickey Mouse, grade school football.
 


Some Day...Maybe said:
It’s not Fleck, it’s his OC, but Fleck hires the OC. You are spot on. This guy does this way too often. One time should be enough, but he’s done it time and time again. That’s 100% on Fleck. It’s Mickey Mouse, grade school football.
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Only certain guys can tolerate working under PJ, so yes, it is Fleck.
 

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