Mid-Season Grades

[fc4life]

As we hit the mid-point of the year, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to hand out mid-term grades. These are my thoughts and I look forward to hearing others.

Offense: CAA ranks
11th of 12 in Scoring Offense
10th of 12 in Total Offense
12th of 12 in Rushing Offense
6th of 12 in Passing Offense

We have been horrible on offense this season. We took advantage of a D2 school and special team mishaps for our two wins. We rank 11th in Total first downs and 10th in 3rd down conversions.

Grade: F - In his third year at the helm, there has been zero improvement on this side of the ball. Too many drops and zero big plays. Our longest has been a pass for 42 and a run of 32. Not what you would call explosive. Not to mention we have only 8 total Touchdowns and only two of them in the air through six games.

Defense:
5th in scoring Defense
9th in Total Defense
11th in Run Defense
4th in Passing Defense

Grade C - We knew this season would be a tough one. There were losses on the line that needed to be filled. Not to mention a few injuries. Our pass D has been a bend but don't break zone concept and at times it's done a very nice job keeping plays in front of them. Our run D has been suspect. Teams have been able to have their way with us on an overal basis. With a new DC and so many young faces, this was to be expected. Lots of room to grow as we are in the bottom
part of the league in 3rd down stops and first downs allowed.

Special Teams:

Grade C - The reason? Kickoff return and punt return averages. We rank 11th of 12 in those two categories. We've been very good for the most part in the field goal world. Outside of the huge miss against UNH we are 9-9 in PATs and 9-10 in field goal attempts. We've been very shaky in our punt returns with a number of fumbles.

Coaching: D. We are 2-4. Sure we have a great win on the road vs W&M. However, we've been blown out in three of our four losses and our offense is still anemic. Having only two scholarship QB's has hurt us with very little to turn to to jump-start the offense. In addition, it seems our play-calling continues to be predictable and lacks imagination. Offense changes will need to be made to improve in the second half of the season. In year three, we are lacking in the growth category.

Please -give out your own grades.

[Deleted]

I think you've made a good assessment fc4l. Pretty much agree with everything you said. I might give the special teams a better grade of B. We probably could be a bit better inn kickoff returns but I think we've done a reasonable job with punt returns. Punting and field goal units bring the overall grade up a bit more for me.

If I was the teacher writing notes I would give a special reprimand to the coaches for QB recruiting. Our offense seems to be showing signs of life with regard to the run game and two of our receivers, Bridges and Taylor. The OL also seems to be an improvement over last year. But the QB play is worse. Have we really done the best we can do recruiting wise there? AND if this was the best we could do, then the QB coaching has been poor. It still appears we are severely substandard in this category. So overall coaching a D, but it would be a C to borderline B- except for the overall offensive performance.

[elonpride]

Offense - Think the grade is right on
Defense - same

Special Teams - think that's needs to be upped to a "B-"
The muffed catches kill the grade. Elon leads the conference in net punting, 3rd in FG%, 3rd in kickoff coverage, Copeland Spell among leaders in Kickoff return average, Petroni 4th in punting, Gallagher 1st in FG/G, FG percentage and 5th in PPG by a kicker. Not to mention special teams were absolutely critical in the upset versus W&M.