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Post by fc4life on Nov 23, 2014 10:12:31 GMT -5
Here are my final grades for the season. I'm trying to compare the first year performance of our last three coaches when judging things. I was able to see the team play a number of times in person this year as well as watching the others on-line.
Offense: Grade F
We simply did not play well in any area this year. We completed 54% of our passes and had 17 interceptions with only 12 touchdowns. On the ground, we had only five TD's while averaging a miserable 2.8 yds per carry. Our ground game was hampered by injuries. Having only three recruited scholarship running backs on the roster is a joke. Even at the FCS level.
The silver lining to this? We can only get better. The offensive line was inexperienced and it really showed. Hopefully, the game experience this season helped. Our WR corps have to learn how to catch the ball. We had a ridiculous amount of drops. Many of them drive killers. At the QB position, we did not show any improvement over the course of the season. It will be interesting to see if we go the JuCo or transfer route to fix some of our holes. I am not a fan of this practice. However, we need lots of help. We have to get explosive.
Defense: C Overall, we made strides over the past year. The defense kept us in many games. The kids played hard and they were simply over-matched at times up front. We have some talent on this side of the ball. Our biggest weakness was covering in space. Like offense, we return a ton of players who played meaningful minutes this season.
Special Teams: C This grade would be lower if not for our knack for blocking kicks. We missed far too many easy FG chances and our punting regressed.
Coaching: C For the most part the kids seemed to play hard. However, there were moments that we nailed it in and had effort issues. A culture change is being implemented and there are bound to be bumps in the road. My biggest issue was with some of our play calling. An example of this was a couple of times we had 4th and short throughout the year and we went out of the gun and failed. We also never stretched the defense by going wide very often. Our play calling was very predictable. On defense, we may not have the bodies to play man-to-man. However, we gave far too much space to the opposition's receivers.
The other note on coaching, we did not come out ready to play in the first half of most of our games. We were behind from the start.
Overall; D- We had effort for the most part. That being said, we just went 1-11. We have a long way to go. I am just shocked at how far we have fallen since Lembo left.
Thoughts?
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Post by trianglephan on Nov 23, 2014 11:12:41 GMT -5
I think your grades look about right although I would give coaching a D+. Defense seems improved from last year as does overall culture. Offense seems much worse. Way too predictable and overall lacked execution. I had high hopes for offense given Skrosky's success as OC. Didn't really try to innovate or mix it up - just seemed to accept fate of losing and plodded along with conservative game plans.
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homer
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Post by homer on Nov 23, 2014 12:58:12 GMT -5
I think your grades look about right although I would give coaching a D+. Defense seems improved from last year as does overall culture. Offense seems much worse. Way too predictable and overall lacked execution. I had high hopes for offense given Skrosky's success as OC. Didn't really try to innovate or mix it up - just seemed to accept fate of losing and plodded along with conservative game plans. Imagine how poorly the offense would have performed had Skrosky implemented innovation... That said, the grades seem on target.
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fc97
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Post by fc97 on Nov 23, 2014 19:37:17 GMT -5
I think a D- is being a bit too nice. Skrosky comes from the Lembo staff. The Lembo staff showed a marked turnaround from Hamilton's last year to Lembo's first year. This year, we had a tougher schedule and came out with out worst winning percentage since our last 0-x season. Sadly, had the UNCC game had an extra second or two or the refs had given a 50/50 call the other way, we would be 0-12. That's why I don't even look at the one win as a positive point.
The offense was terrible. Embarrassingly terrible. Hard to watch, nothing exciting, nothing motivating. Skrosky was supposed to be the offensive genius under Lembo. If that's the case, we all need to worry.
The defense had some good plays, but, they gave up 30 points a game and consistently over 400 yards of offense. If that's what we're calling good, we're in trouble.
Special teams. Punting regressed. We missed half out field goals. Just bad.
My gut tells me that Skrosky isn't the guys for the job. Team attitude may be better. But, that doesn't translate to success. From what I've seen, Skrosky isn't going to make this team successful. We should have gone after a head coach, not an assistant.
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homer
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Post by homer on Nov 23, 2014 20:08:31 GMT -5
...My gut tells me that Skrosky isn't the guys for the job. Team attitude may be better. But, that doesn't translate to success. From what I've seen, Skrosky isn't going to make this team successful. We should have gone after a head coach, not an assistant. Way, way, way too early to cast that judgment.
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Post by whoanellie on Nov 23, 2014 22:10:34 GMT -5
Rock-Bottom Please try to name me 5 worse FCS scholarship programs than ours? We do not play hard enough to warrant penalities..... major work this off season I see major personnel shifts and wish We could garner some mid year transfers like a Vad Lee He hung 70 last year as the Ga. Tech QB and now at JMU he is hoping He sees us every game no doubt. When one is sick and tired of being sick and tired of this mess It just hates me to try and support this.
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fc97
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Post by fc97 on Nov 24, 2014 7:32:49 GMT -5
5 scholarship programs worse than ours? How about 6, none of which had a DI win. Savannah State Houston Baptist Nicholls State Mississippi Valley Robert Morris Austin Peay But that's how bad we are that these are the teams we are comparing ourselves to. Massey has us at #98 in FCS. We are above 8 MEAC and SWAC schools who don't give the full scholarships. Above 2 NEC teams that give 25 scholarships. Above 9 Pioneer and Ivy teams with no scholarships. Above 2 D-II moveups that are not giving full scholarships yet. And above Rhode Island, VMI, Austin Peay and Nicholls State who give full scholarships. You know what's funny, Presbyterian is above us. Gardner-Webb is above us almost all the time. All right, they're from the same original conference as us. In the 1990s, we dominated these two schools (except for the 1 Gardner-Webb run to the championship in, 1991?) And now, these schools are not dominating, but they have stability in the middle. I mean, geez, wouldn't it be nice to have that spot? Look, I know judgment on Skorsky is early. But, call it what it is. We all knew what this year could bring. But, it brought a 1-11 season. Overall, we should have beaten A&T, we should have beaten UNCC worse, we should have beaten Towson. What I am saying is, we should have seen improvement in performance. I'm sorry, but 1 Touchdown on average per game is not success. .3 rushing touchdowns per game. Averaging 296 yards of offense per game, a handful of game with below 200 yards of offense. Heck, the Maine game saw both teams not combine for 300 years of total offense. Not just that, but a handful of games in the 350-450 range of offense and still only score 1 TD. I expected more than an attitude improvement, and I don't see it. And that's why attendance sucks at 8070, but is artificially high because of the family day. The product is NOT fun to watch. And that's why I am down on the staff. Put it to you this way, whether play calling was suspect or not for offense, we have 2 offensive minds on this team. The play calling where it was with two offensive coordinators is just bad. That reflects poorly on both of this. And to top that off, Quinn is done. We have no QB for next year that has really played in a D-I game.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2014 15:59:08 GMT -5
Here's an interesting post to look at: Aug 26, 2014 at 8:17am Quote Edit like Post Options Post by fightinchristian on Aug 26, 2014 at 8:17am I'm not really sure what questions I'd ask Skrosky. I'd ask the team orthopedist when he thinks we'll get some of our injured players back. We're going to have a tough enough conference schedule, it would be good to be full force when we face A&T and Charlotte to at least solidify a 2-10 result. I know a lot of these injuries are freak/bad luck, but I'd like to ask Horton if there is anything we can do in the future from a conditioning standpoint to reduce these injuries. The only questions that come to mind are regarding a depth chart. But really those are just pure curiosity. I am looking forward to this season in a big way, but in a way I'm looking forward more to the 2015 and 2016 seasons. I'm afraid the boo birds will be flying high long about mid season and by the end of the season many will be calling for Skrosky's job. So, maybe I'd ask him how he views this season from a career standpoint. Is it a building year, or a throw away to get to off season recruiting for next year. With the exception of last year, it has been a long time since we've been without a super star player. We had Pope Lembo's first year, who could've been a big star IMO if he'd started with Ruggiero as a freshman. We had Riddle and Hudgins and then Mellette. Now we seem to be without a "special" player to "ralley the troops". I might also ask him who among the players he sees as future team leaders. Sowell and Spain are both reasonably good leaders, but they'll be gone after this season. Also, when Lembo first came, he was open and honest at the beginning of his first season that they would be trying some trick plays, and that there would be a lot of quick passes of 4-5 yards because our OL was so young. Will there be any of that to look forward to? It would also be interesting to know what he's telling the team about the upcoming Duke game. As someone said on this board a day or two ago, "this isn't the Duke that Richmond beat a couple of years ago". So what are his expectations, and what is he asking of the team going in to the game? Read more: elonphans.proboards.com/thread/3204/skrosky#ixzz3K1PB3c6FInteresting No?
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homer
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Post by homer on Nov 24, 2014 17:42:31 GMT -5
Clearly, prophecy is your spiritual gift. How about you recommend some lottery numbers?
In all seriousness, in August everyone here was saying this was going to be a very difficult season. Turned out that way.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2014 17:45:40 GMT -5
No YOU'RE PROPHETIC! (You wont understand this unless you watch Psych). No not prophetic, just old & have seen it a few times.
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