BJC said:
Game one year two for the coach who beat us as well.
Who inherited a squad that in game one of year two has veteran O/D lines. A strength in its LB corp that have all played multiple seasons.
What do we have in game one of year two? A EXTREMELY YOUNG secondary. Who are most seasoned veteran is a Soph. In Preister.
A completely depleted LB Corp consisting of one seasoned LB- Wacha (who did all he could himself in that game. His numbers show it.) and the rest consisting of a previous RB- May and a previous TE- Nzeocha. All pieced together in the spring.
Our DL is our only strength right now.
Our OL consists of young players also and also a DL that made the switch in the fall.
Our WR consist of two top guys that were only "average" last year. The rest are unproven and young. I noticed FR- Parker was getting significant playing time in that game. And I'm sure we may see our other top FR recruits before seasons end. TE- young Hollister and Mayfield
RB- Veteran in Wick and he is backed up by a SO- Hill and it sounds like a FR or two may be playing behind them some this year.
A QB- Coffman who looked nervous in his first start in almost two years. And still showed poise. And a FR Allen backing him up.
This team needs to get some game time to better gel together. And that's all there is to it.
Individual talent and overall team talent are two vastly different categories. We had a few players on both sides of the ball that played well. Coffman overall had some good numbers. Gentry literally left it all on the field. And that was about it. 2 of about 18 O players that played significant will get you what we had last Saturday.
Yarbrough had some good rushing, tackles, a sack and a pass breakup. From what I saw in the highlights he was being double and even triple teamed, if they brought a blocking back to him and he still made some noise. But if that is happening to him then the rest of the line really needed to step up and they didn't.
Wacha had like 9 unassisted tackles! And Pownell, even though out of position several times, made up for it and got the tackle, and saved us from several more potentially disastrous big plays. 3 D players out of however many played gave a good effort. But this game shows that team effort trumps individual effort every time.
You can't compare them to us. They are actually a veteran team. We are a team that is scrapped together in almost every area right now. And our band aides (Bohls only two recruiting classes) are small strips of individual talent that need to learn, grow and gel together.
On a side note. I am really impressed with the Big Sky so far this year. Mont took down Nat Champs NDSU only to lose to Cal Poly. Portland St. took down PAC12 Wazzu. Weber, who was obliterated by everyone last year actually tested Oregon St. before losing. EWU went toe to toe with Oregon in a shootout! SUU almost had Utah States number. UC Davis fought hard against Nevada and of course ND took us out. This Big Sky group, although FCS is proving that they can play with the big boys. Power5 conf or otherwise. Not an excuse, but fact.