Solar

Manning started instead of Alexander on the other side. There were some other interesting starts, like Tyler Turner, and Boecher. This is something we've seen DL do before, start the season with what are presumably most deserving (hardest practicing) players, then move on to the best players. Sometimes it could be the best players are out of the portal and still getting up to speed.

I thought Gabriel threw the ball really accurately. He just wasn't able to get comfortable. Certainly at one point it felt like we were one bad decision away from losing the game to an inferior opponent, not a fun place to be as a QB.

Yeah #7 for Idaho. (7 on 7!). He was white on rice with Stewart most of the game, who supposedly has elite speed. I keep hearing how Stewart's best ability is on contested catches, although he has been touted for his elite running ability. Well which is it? If you are an elite route runner you won't need to make very many contested catches except at the boundary. My conclusion is that Stewart is likely not an elite route runner capable of consistently getting separation like Tez. And something I saw a lot of this weekend is complete capitulation by referees across the country in not calling "bang-bang" pi, where the DB clearly and completely interferes at the last nano second when the ball is a foot or two away from arriving. It's defacto legal PI cause refs won't call it anymore. As a former WR and DB I think it's a cop out by refs just like them concluding the ground can make you drop a pass even though it can't make you fumble.

I DVR'd the game and only added 15 minutes extra record time cause I was confident there would be no OT. Recording ended with 5 minutes game time left. I'm still not happy with the rules change bait and switch of a running clock in 2023 "to shorten game times for fans" then more commercials and 2 minutes warnings in 2024 for longer game times than before. B1G Network loves the adds.

A great take. It's just a matter of expectations. We have a really good team that should improve a bunch over the next 4 -6 games like in 2022. We just have some fundamental shortcomings that would make us lose to Ohio State and Georgia every time. But we will be a good team that finishes with a winning record and a trip to a decent bowl game. As I like to say: "Gratefulness is the art of lowering your expectations."

Absolutely Idaho was way better than we were thinking. They were physical, athletic, disciplined in their assignments, sound fundamentally, fabulously conditioned, confident and on their toes the entire game. I fully expect there to be many teams that don't play us that good this year- little bro, MSU, Illinois, Purdue, possibly Maryland and UCLA.

Last time an FCS team looked this good at Autzen was 2016. Thinking we will go 4-8 would be an overreaction. Thinking we will go 9-3 is not. The only problem here is the bar was set too high. We are wrong to think our prior chemistry of Stein, Nix, Irving, JPJ, and Franklin can be perfectly replicated. Yes we will see significant improvement as the team gels, but our ceiling is simply not at that level. Back to the subject line of this thread, I'm extremely respectful to the Vandals. And thankful to them for showing us where we are actually at. Saying they vandalized us may be the perfect metaphor for what they really did yesterday.

OL and Gabriel looked the same in the spring game. I'm not optimistic for significant improvement.

I guess this is as good as any place to post my take. Grab a cup of Joe. Let's start high level: - 3 point game against an FCS team in the 4th quarter. No major bad luck required. We were straight up outplayed for stretches of the game. - Does anybody really think we would have done any better than 3-45 against Georgia in Atlanta yesterday? Because that's where this team is at. Let's move to the things that can be fixed: - Not playing inspired football. One would think they will find better intensity against other teams. - Cleaning up procedural penalties - Bedford getting healthy - Transfers getting better with the playbook Let's move to the things that can't or won't be fixed: -Gabriel can't magically fast forward to his second year in the system though -Final season QB immobilization: Mariota, Herbert, Nix, Gabriel. NFL in sight, running the ball is no longer allowed. Thought by the QB spoken into existence by the coaches, schemed out of the playbook by the OC. Not even a hint of an option run game. Every running play will be 10 on 11 and the defense knows it. -Gabriel's pocket presence will be more Mariota than Nix. That isn't something coachable based on what I've ever seen -A team curated for the big 10, to be Rhinos. GPS readings above 20mph across the board with agility no where in sight due to massive weight. As they say factually in car racing, a 3000 lb car with 300 HP is not the same as a 2000 lb car with 200 HP. Simple physics about momentum. Does anyone really think Tez could do his thing at 200lbs? It's not the speed, its not even the acceleration, it's the rate of change in acceleration, the suddenness, the 2nd derivative for those who paid attention in calculus. That's what allows you to evade tacklers and blockers and get and stay in front of opponents you are trying to block. Impossible against FCS size dudes at our weight -Will Stein's playbook. We are in the season. Any drastic changes can't happen. We are stuck with a playbook that relies on agile blocking and defenses that are slow to react.

My Cristobal philosophy is he is a well meaning guy for the most part, and was part of turning us around, so I don't want to get too mad at him, but his Achilles heel is he is stubborn as a mule. The fact he has no inner circle to confide in is by choice and because of that, all he'll ever do is sniff success from time to time. At the end of the day he is home in Miami and irrelevant to us.

Penn State looked really good as did Tennessee. Wisconsin is poorly coached, and just not a great team. And I don't buy that it's just the first game, something is off. Clemson hasn't scored a touchdown against Georgia in 30 tries, and they finally threw in the towel in the second half. The eye test says the gap between the top 10 teams and 11-20 teams is wider than ever thanks to NIL. I thought that expanding the playoffs might help level the playing field in the top 20, but NIL cash is way more important than sticking with a team to have a special season. It is what it is.

65-3 Ducks 2 turnovers 4 sacks 438 passing yards

Google says it so it must be true.. Where's Rodney Dangerfield?

Of course they do. I feel like it's fate we'll be playing against Alabama in the playoffs within the next 2 years. And it's way too late. 2012 is when it should have happened, and now our coach has documented issues with beating Alabama's coach...

It's simple physics. Brain damage is a function of deceleration rate, and that is a function of the distance the deceleration occurs over, ie. The distance from the initial point of contact to full compression of the helmet padding against your head. The guardian caps are one way to increase that distance. I don't understand why they don't just regulate the padding damping rate and thickness between your head and the helmet shell. Drive up the shell size as needed to achieve uniform protection regardless of the size of your head. You hear about lineman getting concussions, it's probably not because of the impact speed, it's because their head is so big there is very little padding thickness under the shell. I'm just an engineer though. What do I know.

When the announcers say "Welcome to the 60th meeting of Idaho and Oregon!", everyone will be like, what the heck?

College football has tremendous turnover and no preseason. Risking the situation of being a portal heavy team playing a top 30 team in week 1 is just stupid.

It's extremely improbable to get past 4, but 5 is still eye opening to use a separate company's analytics.

I read that Idaho is the 5-7th ranked team in the FCS preseason rankings, only kind of a cupcake. I want to see efficiency on offense, and a defense that is not exploited by being out of position or not getting to the ball, especially on 3rd downs. I lastly want to see 2nd and 3rd string operate with little drop off from the starters.

I used to use bleacher report as a news aggregator, but they screwed it up. I'm not aware of any others so I'm thrilled to be able to use the forum for this while being able to comment. Keep it coming.

It was practically a home game with all the FSU fans that made the trip. This is good for them though. They don't have to worry about being disrespected as an undefeated at the end of the season now.

Apparently Big 10 has not yet released their tie breaker rules for selecting '24 conference championship participant when they have equal record. With 18 team and a broad top tier it is high probability tie breaker rules will be needed.

I'm guessing inside I do is he'll be in the 2 deep for field safety, likely the starter after a few games. I don't think he'd be listed as a freshman all American if they didn't have some Intel that they will be getting a lot of playing time. It helps Flowers that we don't have a solid experienced field safety. I'm not trying to be mean but I'm glad Steve Stevens has graduated. Bless his heart for trying, but his lack of speed has cost us many big gains and touchdowns. Almost 1 a game.

If Howard wins the Heisman it's because Chip turned him into an option running fool. No way he gets there with him arm. So inconsistent.

Pocket presence has always been a weak point compounded by poor ball protection, and his accuracy comes and goes. One would think with the current NFL willingness to run the QB that his running traits would increase his value more than in the past, so we'll see with the commanders.