reeder

Not sure what he was doing but clearly a liability- at least for the few minutes he played in this game.

I rewatched the 2 point conversion play and it just looks the tight ends and WR that were split out to block just didn’t get going at the snap. #10, #85 and #87 seemed to be looking around and never got going on the blocking for Sibley. #85 got pushed back almost into Sibley. That said, the issue isn’t this one play. IMO, it’s our inability to stop anyone on defense. To state the obvious, Joe Bernard struggled as an OC and he’s now struggling as the DC. A lot of the defensive issues seem to be a continued lack of size up the middle but we don’t play pass defense well either…

Most of these rankings are based on graduation rates, reputation and faculty resources. We have a 58% 4 year graduation rate (we also have lower test scores for admitted students than Buffalo, Binghamton and Stony Brook). My kids are adults now but I remember the college search process with them. A lot of the schools came to the conclusion that they need to attract higher performing students to improve their profile / ranking. These are some of the examples that I remember. University of Georgia has a foundation fellowship. They select 40 top students for each class and they get free tuition, room and board, laptop, administrative assistance, summer opportunities…. These are the kids that do significant research, get national honors and raise the overall university profile. They take the next 40 students and give them similar support. (Not quite the same level). So, they get 80 top students every year that they raise the university profile. University of Alabama and many other schools provide free tuition, room and board, special housing and other perks for national merit scholars. These kids get a lot of benefits - under the Capstone umbrella. As a result, they get top kids from around the country and their academic profile is increased. Northeastern and Vanderbilt significantly increased their focus on SAT scores and became much more selective over the last 10 years. As a result, their profiles have increased as well as their rankings. Fordham has struggled in the rankings so they’ve offered Merit scholarships up to full tuition for the top 10% of their students. Other schools also offered full tuition scholarships to national merit students - I specifically remember Baylor and UAB. Washington University in St. Louis gives full merit scholarships based on test scores. They do this not only for undergrad but their law school and medical school as well. I’d like us to be ranked higher but I don’t see any data that warrants a higher ranking. That said, there are many examples of schools that said rankings are important and made a commitment to raise their rankings. I don’t know if these schools are doing it the right way or if they’re gaming the system but they wanted to raise their profiles and it’s worked.

The AAC reference is Florida Atlantic. I think they move in 2023.

Good point. I remember all the press before the Montana State game - there were interviews with his mentor from HS and a lot of discussions around his growth as a college QB. I think he was also the second rated FCS freshman - forget what the award is called but the top rated freshman was from North Dakota State and ended up being drafted.

I thought he was an equipment manager. I don’t know anything about him possibly becoming a coach but I’d be shocked. But, Coach Gattuso did hire Coach Bernard as OC (his only OC experience was 1 year at the high school level).

New Haven is a good D2 program. It’s not FCS but he’ll get a chance to play at a competitive level and probably has a scholarship so good for him. I’m happy for him. At this level, very few kids are going to the pros so if you have a chance to be a starter, contribute and play on a competitive level, I say go for it.

Yes, the team is really struggling - especially on offense but the coach just started in March. Sure, I’d like to see them shoot better and win some games but he’ll need some time. Not sure what you mean by the grand experiment continues. We haven’t been above .500 in conference play since the 2017-18 season so it’s not like the cupboard was full when he got here.

Another disappointing loss. I had to run out at halftime and missed most of the second half but in the first half, Parker dropped an easy touchdown pass, Oedekoven just missed a touchdown pass (it was a little overthrown but it appeared to be catchable). The punter dropped a snap - it was raining but it was waist high. Disappointing because he had similar issues in the spring. We’re not good enough for drops and fumbles. Also, on the last couple of drives when Undercuffler kept throwing the fade or corner routes reminded me how consistently Juwan Green made those catches in 2019 (Parker did make the one catch late in the game). A lot of them are jump balls but we’re not making many of those catches. Anyway, I’m going out on a limb and predicting a win next week against Maine.

The good news was the defense played well. A lot of new faces getting involved on both the defensive line and the secondary. The not so good news: Undercuffler had happy feet a lot. Most of the time there was pressure but a few times it looked like he was just anticipating the pressure before it actually got to him. In my opinion, the offensive line continues to struggle - no holes for Mofor and no time for Undercuffler. I did notice Parris Heath was out of uniform so he’s probably injured, I also don’t see that Kevin Singer played so he might be injured as well - they were both talked about as starters coming into the season. Special Teams struggled again. Two bad field goal attempts - couldn’t tell if the issues were bad snaps or issues with the hold but we’re not good enough to have mistakes like that. We also can’t give up punt returns for touchdowns. Lastly, we have no return threat - our strategy is to just fair catch the ball. The punter, Ralls, struggled in the spring but he’s had a very good first few games - so that’s the one special teams bright spot. So, on to Syracuse.

Well, I’m not surprised at the outcome - NDSU is a much better team. We need better offensive line play. Most of Undercufflers passes were short / quick routes - it’s hard to throw it deep or have longer developing routes when he has no time. A previous post mentioned making reads - you can’t make reads when you have no time. Also hard for Mofor to run when we can’t create holes. Our defense also continues to struggle against the power running game. I’m not sure why NDSU didn’t just line up and run right at us. The good news is we might have found a playmaker in Roy Alexander. Hope to get a win against URI - they looked really good against Bryant. Also, apparently Coach Gattuso made a comment about NDSU being classless for throwing a pass late in the game. He said something similar a few years ago about Villanova. I’m sure he’s trying to protect the players but these comments aren’t helpful.

I did get the email at 1:30 but it went to junk mail. I just found it (at 3:45) and tried to log on but it looks like it’s over.

He did a great job and he hope he ends up on his feet. Coach Gattuso had a comment saying he understands his decision around education so maybe this is more than a football decision - I don’t think he has the size to play FCS. The good news is we have depth at linebacker.

I watched most of the Rhode Island / Villanova game and the URI win wasn’t a fluke - I think they were the better team. They have a QB transfer from Maryland / Tennessee and a running back transfer from UMass. The QB is big and mobile - probably a better runner than passer but he threw well on the run, especially short passes. Their offensive and defensive lines are big. Secondary is really athletic with some transfers as well. The biggest difference compared to last year is that last year (last several years), the URI offense was a lot of throwing 50/50 balls downfield. This year, they have a new OC and they’re offense is very similar to Villanova’s and ours (more run options). Summary is that they’re better than last year and this will be a tough game. We can’t afford the penalties and we need some big plays - not sure where those will come from but here’s hoping that we find a few.

It’s also difficult to pass against this press coverage. Similar to last year - he’s dependent on his receivers creating space and they’ve not done that yet. It’s harder to throw the underneath pass like he did against New Hampshire because the defenders play so tight and it’s also harder to throw the longer pass because their corners are physical and athletic.