Maine 10/10 HC

[reeder]

Hard to believe that Crook won the starting job. I know that Sussman and Brunson are freshman but Shanley transferred, the other guy transferred to Hobart (forget his name) and Ryan Smith doesn't come back... Was Crook that good in the spring and now he's regressing or did the other players think that he was going to be the starter and they all decided to leave.

 

It's times like these that I wish we had a beat reporter that asked the hard questions - what's up with the defensive line recruiting, what's the thought behind continuing to play Crook, why do we have our biggest offensive line playing guard instead of tackle (not sure this is an issue but I don't know of any other teams that do this so i'm curious) , why do the qb's all seem to have a hard time with the progressions?

 

I can understand why we're not moving the ball on offense. I think any team can figure out that you put 8 men in the box (or stop the run between the tackles - we rarely run outside the tackles) and force Crook to throw the ball. You then play press coverage with your corner backs to take away the bubble screens and Crook can't make the other passes (consistently). We won't get better until we can make the defense defend the pass.

[Eli]

They ran the ball constantly to the outside yesterday on pitches and bounce outs.

[Purple_HaZe7]

Hard to believe that Crook won the starting job. I know that Sussman and Brunson are freshman but Shanley transferred, the other guy transferred to Hobart (forget his name) and Ryan Smith doesn't come back... Was Crook that good in the spring and now he's regressing or did the other players think that he was going to be the starter and they all decided to leave.

 

It's times like these that I wish we had a beat reporter that asked the hard questions - what's up with the defensive line recruiting, what's the thought behind continuing to play Crook, why do we have our biggest offensive line playing guard instead of tackle (not sure this is an issue but I don't know of any other teams that do this so i'm curious) , why do the qb's all seem to have a hard time with the progressions?

 

I can understand why we're not moving the ball on offense. I think any team can figure out that you put 8 men in the box (or stop the run between the tackles - we rarely run outside the tackles) and force Crook to throw the ball. You then play press coverage with your corner backs to take away the bubble screens and Crook can't make the other passes (consistently). We won't get better until we can make the defense defend the pass.

I think you're thinking of Shane Sweeney. He transferred because he wasn't going to get the starting position. I wish he would of stayed.

[Eli]

I bet he wishes too...probably would have gotten a chance at this point.

 

Considering it's the day after, have any of the insiders heard anything from Gattuso on what he plans to do?

I have a feeling, unless something happens in practice, we are going to lose next week 55-7. Thankfully, win or lose, the scrimmage follows the game.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Ilko

[Clickclack]

I bet he wishes too...probably would have gotten a chance at this point.

 

Considering it's the day after, have any of the insiders heard anything from Gattuso on what he plans to do?

 

I have a feeling, unless something happens in practice, we are going to lose next week 55-7. Thankfully, win or lose, the scrimmage follows the game.

If he had somewhere to turn... He would have. The alternative is evidently worse. Next year is gonna be more of this.

[Eli]

I guess I just don't understand how we are going backwards instead of forwards seeing as we are replacing Ford/NEC kids with Gattuso/CAA kids. How many kids are left on the roster that were Fords NEC recruits? I guess half the kids should technically be Fords CAA kids (since we're in year 2 of Gattuso, meaning 2 of the classes are his 1 of which being at least kids that knew they were going to be in the CAA)...but come on! This is embarrassing. I guess Ford (due to being much older maybe?) has a much better eye for talent. Bring him in as a special consultant...or something. WE NEED TO FIX OUR RECRUITING. All the kids that were highly touted (Ngachi) a couple years ago are nowhere to be found. Other than the Buffalo game and JMU game, we haven't even been mentally engaged in the games it seems. It's almost like the team saw that we were picked to finish almost last in the conference and just gave up. We've had virtually the same injuries on defense all year...where is the ball hawking defense that was causing 6 TO's a game? Did we even get one yesterday?

 

I'm still shocked a day later. When the punter fumbled the snap (which I felt coming BTW), I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. At that point, 'if it rained, it poured'.

Edited October 12, 2015 by Ilko

[jimbo]

I just think that recruiting "CAA" kids doesn't guarantee anything. Something like 6 losses last year by CAA teams to NEC teams. This team vs a year ago) is missing it's top three receivers, top three scorers, top rusher, the QB who holds the all-time record…this includes an NFL tight end and a three year QB starter. Takes time to get over that. Then you lose your best defensive player right off the bat. I was looking at the game rosters and it looks like for Maine the team had 9 of 11 offensive starters the same (Gontarek and Senn missing). Defense has 8 of 11 (Nicastro, Cooper, Sakowski are out). I definitely am frustrated at the regression of Crook. The two ints Saturday were awful throws. Look at the TD and he stared at Roberson the whole way. Just got lucky on that one. Maybe GG doesn't want to bench an ex-Penn Stater. Based on what we've seen the last couple of weeks it really makes

one wonder how bad Harding and Sussman must look in practice if they don't get a chance. I doubt Harding would play much anyway as he's a senior and would not help 2016. Sweeney, incidentally, was doing OK at Hobart for a few games, then missed 2 with an injury, and then played this week only to go down with another injury. GG in the TU post game said they only have had "one full year" of CAA recruiting.

 

On another note, my Giants have 3 CAA players on their roster and Will Tye from SB has 3 good catches in the first half.