Solar

I'm not sold on the B1G defensive lines reason. We all saw how we played Idaho's DL that were smaller than our linebackers. Yeah injuries and cohesiveness we issues, but I don't think Terry handled it well. I'd take a couple botched snaps a game with Poncho over that mess we had with Pickard and everyone shifted suboptimally. Gabriel is a good enough player to handle botched snaps. I still remember the Alamo bowl and thinking we would have won if we put in Alie who was the better athlete who could handle imperfect snaps vs. Lockie who butterfingered the game away.

One has to wonder if he had a major stroke of luck with the talent during his short time at UCF.

I think this is the best O line talent since 2019. I'm honestly still not sold on Terry. He comes from the Cristobal tree, a tree that focuses on ensuring no negative plays and considers any yards gained past the linebackers to be a bonus. Rushing lanes past the front seven were few and far between last year. If we hadn't had Mr Yards after first contact James, we would have been screwed. I hope run blocking is significantly improved this year as the RB room's strength will not be breaking arm tackles.

Akili Smith Jr. Reminds me of a young Jaden Daniels. We're likely set for the next 3 years at QB with who we have on our roster right now, let alone transfer portal options that will exist.

I'm slightly disappointed to not get him, but man, it's such a crapshoot. Like 1 out of all the playoff teams had a QB they signed from HS. It's more disconcerting to be struggling with recruiting this year with USC stepping so much, you do wonder how much USC is really affecting talent available to us. Like the players we used to steal from USC aren't available to take anymore so we are more reliant on stealing from non-west coast locations where we have a lower hit rate. How big of an impact is that? It's non-zero, but we won't really know until signing day.

I thought the same thing when I saw this. He sounded pretty upset about the punting.

Seeing there weren't any follow up threads on the game and the news cycle is going to be on idle, I figured I ought to start a follow-up thread. My thoughts: QB is the most important position to pay attention to, and it seemed there was zero separation from all 5 that played. I mean you could make an argument Brock Thomas played the best, as he seemed the most efficient with the ball which is Lannings #1 measure of QB success and rightly so. It was fun to watch Akili out there. He reminds you that you can't teach height, and he has a very natural feeling for the 11 on 11 game. If he can tighten up his throw and learn some patience he could be special. Novasad processed the game better than most with one glaring exception that he seems blind to second level pressure screaming in from any direction. He feels the DL pressure and sees his wide receivers, but he could have been knocked out of the game on a few plays if it was a real game. Moga is more than serviceable. If Moore or Novasad hits the portal in the Fall I won't be worried about our backup. His biggest issue is simply the height. Lastly Moore has the best arm, and seems motivated to play well. But I think he is not that great at keeping the chains moving. It everything else that you need to do to make the most of every down, and I'm not sure he has it. If you make him scramble he won't get a completion. His pocket presence is still several notches down from DG and not in the same universe as Bo Nix. This is going to have to be a totally different offense. Stein's going to have to earn his money, in selecting the right starter and tailoring the offense to cover their weaknesses, and maximize the efficiency of the offense. Even though it was just a spring game I still felt like I was seeing more effective and intentional route trees, creating space for receivers to work, or overloading an area of the field to get someone uncovered. This was one of my hopes from our new WR coach is helping Stein in this area. We'll see. A follow on to that is Kenyon Sadiq. Rather than trying to get him the ball on trick plays and TE reverses, just send him down field and clear out his area. Seems to work much better. Benson looked like dud which is apparently what he was at his previous stop. Impressive sized guy with athleticism, but not really able to do much with it. Kasper is still dropping key passes, but at least he is catching it sometimes. Gresham had a good game, but not enough in general to judge him or the rest of the WR room to determine separation. If nothing else we could rotate our significant depth so these guys can go at 100% every snap like a timed 40 yard dash. OL will be better this year, could be the best since 2019 unless Alique Terry screws them up. World, Pregnon, Ilipani, Bedford and the next best guy that can play right Tackle should be a special group. Need to bring in a center from the portal though. Ilipani has no backup. I'm still not crazy about our run blocking. Both screen and player decisions seems like it's always a struggle to block beyond the DL. RBs are another level group. Hughes was just okay. Watching his tape at UNC seemed the same. Nothing super standout other than the blocking he was running with. He didn't shine any better than Harris or the other big guy freshman. Hill has some burst, which is nice to see, and I'm starting to be a believer in Limar. Riigs certainly did do anything today that would push him up the depth chart over Limar. Wittington is back but will the OL and the scheme create the creases he needs to work his magic at the second level? Our front seven will be the best group in the country in 2026, and more than formidable this year. Everyone on the DL and LB crew was impressive. Lanning is right, we don't need a LB from the portal. Flowers continues to be the spring game master. I wonder if he's one of those guys that can find that extra gear in the game, but doesn't show out much in practice limiting his playing time. It's a shame if that is happening. My advice to any coach is "whenever a player steps into the game and tells you who they are, good or bad, you need to listen and forget about how they practice. Coverage by the secondary was consistently tight and contesting catches. We should be able to rotate dudes and keep the them fresh. Lastly, too much slipping on the field for Nike U. Almost like the tread is too narrow for sharp cuts players felt they were capable of making. Nike needs to fix that. All in all, tremendous depth, my concern is us being limited to merely a great team, without the extra magic needed to make a deep playoff run.

The Browns actually put themselves in a pretty good spot at QB. They can have a legitimate QB competition with DG as the floor and Shaduer as the ceiling. I will say I'm not super high on DG in the NFL. If big play V.A. wasn't good enough for the NFL even as an UDFA then DG has no business being drafted in the 3rd round. Browns might be think Bo Nix 2.0 due to his experience that should make him day 1 ready, but DG is not Bo Nix. I think Will Howard and Shadeur will be the QB steals of the draft.

This. If you want have the best roster in football, that seems to mean you spend the bye weeks recruiting instead of reviewing scout tape on your next opponent and game planning for it. Any casual fan knew OSU was a different team after the Michigan loss yet the entire elite Ducks Coaching roster didn't get the memo. That's legendary head in the sand stuff. That is the lesson for Dan. Sometimes winning the big game is more important than selling a few more recruits. Does anybody really think the benefit of the extra recruiting effort before OSU out weight the recruiting disadvantage of getting blown out? You're young Dan. Please learn the balance.

I would love to see Dickey put it together and a huge jump, but I would treat that as a pleasant surprise, not something I'm counting on. If he was going to be 5 star good we would have seen more of him by now.

Just get his route running tightened up and have him run routes for traditional passes, some quick flip inside zone runs, and some tunnel screens. Spare me the gadget plays that take a long time to develop with blocking that has to be perfectly executed.

This. Anything they do in the name of the student athlete that prevents them from seeing one penny is a lawsuit. The NCAA's mission statement continues to be the definition of a trust, they just can't get that through their heads what that actually means. This is so simple. If it's about student health and ability to complete their degree they have every right to step in, if it's about dollars and cents, butt out!

I like the idea of a new passing coordinator. Dink and dunk won't work for Moore. Let's get dudes open consistently down the field. To be unstoppable with Moore at QB we need to be able to make 10-20 yard passes without yards after the catch, at will. 3rd and 10? 3rd and 15? no problem.

Although top speed of nuclear carriers is classified, it's estimated at over 70 mph. They are the fastest ships in the NAVY. It takes two to cause an accident on open water, both failed to see the other in time to react and avoid collision. Because they are big it is hard to make quick changes, but then again, because they are big they should be harder to miss. But it was at night and we don't know if it was foggy or not.

It's a little counterintuitive that not blitzing allowed them to pressure Mahomes more, but if your coverage is elite that is how it can work, give the 4 DL time to get home. We haven't had that coverage ability since 2019 unfortunately. Here is to the development of the elite 2025 class secondary..

The Rose Bowl wasn't a case of the defense not getting off the field. 7 possessions for the offense in the first half is a lot, and they did almost nothing with them. Losing Stewart really hurt, but did we really have to wait until half to adjust? Looking forward, how much will Stein adapt our point guard offense now that we don't have "most college games ever played" QB behind center? It's a huge change due to personnel. Dink and dunk with a QB completion percentage of 70% or less won't work. We need to become a seven on seven greatest show in turf type scheme to make the most of our new QB's strength's that can overcome his penchant to make mistakes Bo and DG never did.

I think we need to stop caring about our overall rank, and focus on our average per-player rank. The reason being the portal. The reason greater numbers of played in a class adds value is just probabilities that some of the lower ranked folks will pan out. But with the portal all you need to focus on is getting quality over quantity and let someone else deal with the lower probabilities for lower ranked players, and the ones that actually pan out, grab them in the portal.

If the B1G is too lazy or unskilled to execute and manage those things then I could see them trading away that responsibility along with an equity stake. Obviously a 49% share for private equity would optimal, but I think they'd want 51% to be able to dictate outcomes to their advantage at the expense of everyone else if necessary to maximize their return on equity. Therein lies the problem. You're turning over you organizational decision making to an entity that has only one objective, returns on investment. Unchecked free market capitalism we've become so famous for that grabs every possible advantage to squeeze as much money as possible from as many people as possible as long as it is legal or will be legal after greasing a few palms in the right high places. They would squeeze the taxpayers and students of the public universities, the private university students, all coaches, the players, the fans, the advertisers, the janitors, etc. Everyone becomes mark. Will we get a benevolent PE firm (about as common as unicorns), or a United Healthcare type firm (worst case scenario), or something in between (most likely)? It definitely makes me nervous. We already get a taste of that from Fox and ESPN, stopped clocks to run more plays exchanged for running clocks and 2 minutes warning loaded with commercials. PE just takes that 360 degrees no stone left unturned.

From what I gather they've been getting low grades for effort, which is definitely something they can try to turn around.

Do you really think that rules would stop Washington from claiming they were national champions?

It should be easier to tailor defense for the offenses we will face that can compete with us. The game continues to change on offense. Is the Georgia scheme still the best? Or is the Ravens pro-style defense Michigan runs the best? Or is something else Jim knowles was running at OSU the best? Or what Avalos ran in 2019 the best? I don't know. All I know is any defense that is most vulnerable at the edges and the middle 10-20 yards downfield is going to get eaten alive with modern spread offense schemes as the Ducks have shown over the last 3 years, and it sucks to watch. I don't care about stuffing the middle all day if the other team can just go over us and around us on any down and distance.

Yes, Jordan Burch. In the fake punt he was moving so dynamically I thought it was our WR of the same number. Tez should be special too. He's going to put up some amazing numbers in the jumping, 40 yard and shuttle drills. I'm curious how many reps he gets on bench at 225.

You beat me to it.

The last thing I want to see happen here is Hampton go to OSU and outcoach Tosh. And it definitely says something already that OSU doesn't want Tosh. I know the 2 reasons why, our last 2 games of the season. You can guarantee questions Hampton will get in the interview, what happened and what would you have done differently if you were the DC?

He should have talked about how the jersey,'s have no names. It's already bad enough for image to wear a helmet, if you've got no name on the jersey all you have left is likeness. So when someone buys that number 6 jersey do the license dollars get divided 3 ways between the receiver, the DB and the punter that all wear number 6? I'm only half joking. It's a legit disadvantage for old school blue bloods, that are above the individuality of putting names on jerseys, to overcome.