The importance of this road game cant be overstated. Not only for josh, that is well documented... but our hopes of NY6 bowl pivot on the outcome of this game. Oregon not as much as it is a home game.
a couple of thoughts. Wingard is devastating at run support between the hash marks. I hope that Hazelton pulls back the rains a little and keeps our safeties primarily back. We need to prevent breakaway plays and make them drive the long field. But that is only if our defensive front is up to the task; which I feel pretty confident that it will be improved.
I get what you are saying about iowa's oline. For some reason... which has slipped by most of the national media... our oline is nothing to sneeze at. our running back package will be without any game tape. This also weighs in Wyoming's favor as the guys that will be playing have experience and talent, and shouldn't suffer from miscues and missed assignments. The jitters will be present as they take the national stage though.
I believe our linebacking core will show some lateral technique and block-defeat skills that we have been lacking. Scotty should shore up some fundamental flaws after being on gus bradleys staff.
what I'm extremely excited about is our offensive roster is more suited for a "true" power scheme, something that college... nay, all levels of football, have forgotten. We are deep enough at the running back and tightend position that we could see a 12 play power I drive to close out a game or half.
think of this, 5 linemen, a tightend, Conway split to either side in motion, allen, van maanen, overstreet, and hall
the sheer amount of dive, trap, counter, pitch, jet, bootleg, flood play action... all with depth to keep players fresh.
if we want to go 22 package this year... we can and will. its all situational, but the availability is there
I have no doubts in our ability to move the ball. it all comes down to our defense's ability to get off the field.
what's scary, is that our roster isn't "just" built for power. its also vertical with great qb play. as a guy the once built a play book, its damn hard to properly package a defensive scheme against such balance. You can't blitz all the time, you can't stay in nickel and try to out speed a power team, you can't play too aggressive or to soft with your corners, you can try and cheat your safety help... but not against Josh Allen. it has to be a perfectly called game of cat and mouse, and you have to mask your zone or man coverage to get an extra guy in the box, and you don't want to give up the big play to Wyoming, because we are built to maintain a lead.
lets get this out there now. losing our wide receivers this offseason on paper looks BAD... but you have to realize that the greater majority of our verticle game came about because of our balance. I would say that over half of our deep balls were plays that our qb escaped pressure and our receivers improvised, moving out of double coverage towards the sideline. we probably wont complete as many of those this year, because our seniors were very surehanded. that's the beauty of lining up under center. you aren't showing your cards. defenses were so off balance it was easy to capitalize... and I don't see that changing. again, we are one of the hardest teams to scheme against.
the coach at iowa is the longest tenured coach in the country... 19 years.
its going to be a VERY important game for both squads. I bet your ass other coaches from the Big whatever are glad the don't have Wyoming first out.
we just have to play our game offensively. and we need to find a defensive identity at the line of scrimmage... and no bone head J-Allen mistakes. that's a big one. is he ready to play within himself and take what is given.
This should be the year where Vigen gets to really uncork his offense, and he has the qb (at least this year) to do it.
