This season showed some progress and yet still leaves us disappointed. How disappointed depends on what you expected. I am disappointed we didn’t upset anyone. I’m happy we didn’t lose to any of the bottom teams this year. Glass half empty.

A bunch of terrible decisions in the first half, some player decisions and some coaches. Start the game dropping the kickoff and start at 11. 3rrd and a yard st our 20 yard line , play is a high order of difficulty floater out of bounds. Why not get the easy first down?? This sets SSU at midfield and when we get the interception we're at the five. Then the interception in our endzone on a unforgivable telegraphed pass. Then not going for it on 4th down so we can punt 29 yards? Then the serial misplaying the kickoffs near the goal line and the inability to long snap for punts leading to a safety! Shoot me now!
Defense played OK in first half except not tackling, Offense except for long drive was horrible.

Sac is not at the same level as SUU in regards to reputation. SUU was a playoff team, SUU is 7-2. The California teams in general are kind of viewed as weak sisters. Also we haven’t scored a touchdown against SUU for a few years. So beating SUU would make more of a statement than beating Sac, fairly or not. We are kind of in a situation with Sac after dominating for decades that beating them is kind of viewed as a dog bites man event. Nationally no one is going to go Wow! Davis beat Sac!. Even if they might be the better team.

The fly sweep is typically run with a flanker, like Moore. The basic play is where the flanker crosses between the shotgun QB and the line and either gets a handoff, a shovel pass or is faked to. The guys running it are fast enough. But as noted it has usually been strung out to the sideline or disrupted by penetration. However to see how this works as a system of plays, here is an interesting study of Montana:
http://insidethepylon.com/film-study/film-study-u/offense-film-study-u/2016/06/06/bob-stitts-offense-montanta-fly-sweep-screen-concepts/
The fly motion shifts the formation strength and the D has to react to it. The fly guy can get a toss, a screen pass, be a blocker or run a pattern. So maybe this is actually working for us even though the sweeps haven't gained big yardage.

I think in theory the runner is supposed to occasionally cut back upfield with the linemen influencing the defender to continue movement in the initial direction, and not just get strung out to the sideline. I wonder whether we’ll give it up or get it to work.
Anyway I think the season is a success already but I’ll be twice as happy if we win one of these next two games. Southern Utah because it announces to the league that were back and can beat top tier teams and Sac would be the California sweep. Both will be challenges so I’m not counting chickens yet.

Not sure why the fly offense didn’t work out. It’s not exactly experimental, Montana’s coach is big proponent and it’s worked at all levels of college football. And our assistant head coach is often credited with inventing it. Any thoughts? Not supposed to require overpowering linemen.

Whatever the reason, the defense rankings movielover started this thread with confirm that the defense is weak. Total defense ranked 104. Rushing defense ranked 104.
We don't have problems at just one position, like say North Dakota had at middle linebacker. Its a distributed problem. I don't think we will see many defensive players get league recognition. Answer is recruiting and player development. Going to take awhile.

Well there you have it. One has missed the last three games, and the other is a amazing football player because he emerged as a player in his freshman year ahead of much more heralded lb recruits, but he’s limited in speed. He and others have made valuable contributions, but no one stands out in the defensive stats as having a big year,

Kind of no name on defense this year, no one with a particularly high impact. At least in terms of defensive stats.Not sure what that means but I don’t think it’s good; we need some guy on D to step up and be the analog of Doss, a guy teams factor into their game plans. We dont have that guy

Our biggest need is to replace graduating offensive linemen, hopefully upgrading the position.
Still wondering if anyone knows how many scholarships we have to offer. I suspect our incoming class will be the normal 10 - 12, not the 30+ we had this year. I hope some of the guys from last year step up.
The only position we have covered are qb, wide receiver and maybe tight end.

Same here, I watched most of the second half off Sac against UNC and the strength of their team seems to be on the lines.
Winning one of these next two is important. So let’s take them one at a time, win this week and then play loose against Sac with a good season already in the bag

My favorite is giving up a first down when the other team is backed up. One of the worst omens for us seems to be downing the ball inside the five. Has been for years.

Punt return defense reminds me of trying to catch water skippers in my pool net. Just too quick for me.
By analogy punt returners have been too quick for our special teams. We need more speed. And not just from guys who are 5’ 6” and 170lbs

Your stats show we are poor against the run. We have also seen we are poor at getting a pass rush from the DL.I think most sacks above come from blitzes. So defensive line is one area of improvement.
Against ISU we can only judge up to point their qb left game. For the first half the defense players creditably, but missed tackles resulted in some big plays. We could use more size/speed generally.

Wow on the long bombs, Maier really takes a deep drop so those are impressive throws. Nice mix of receivers.

Does anyone have a contemporaneous record ? Is the win just hearsay?
Do they think they won in Idaho?

Justin Williams is limited in speed so can't be total answer at RB.
But as a down field. runner he's pretty good. Still need someone to get around the edge. But we just domnt block well. There was a period in the third quartet where IDSU was always in our offensive backfield blowing up runs or ruining passing plays

Justin Williams is a very good between the tackles runner. But he needs blocks. When we can't run the ball, he's probably not the problem.
Good to see Tehran play. But in addition to the fumble, I also saw he missed a block the previous possession. He's s work in progress.

A good qb sure helps his case.

Rushing has been effective in key spots. Thats all we need. Need the offense to continue, but give some pass protection.
What's with the horrible rock music?