Off Season Articles Thread

Correct. So this year, we pretty much should win all but Ohio St and we probably should be a coin toss with them on a neutral field. We could run the table as the most complete and experienced team.

But some will always point to Franklin very rarely winning the big game. And they have a point. For example, I was there last year when we somehow managed to give ND the win while running all over them. I don't know how we did that. But there is no way they were the better team.
Drew was a little off all game. Should not have been throwing on last drive with the run working well. Other than that you can't fault Franklin. Had a defender fall down, a running back will his way to the end zone with our D all over him and a bad decision. But ND acts like they were on another level. They stole one.
 
Drew was a little off all game. Should not have been throwing on last drive with the run working well. Other than that you can't fault Franklin. Had a defender fall down, a running back will his way to the end zone with our D all over him and a bad decision. But ND acts like they were on another level. They stole one.
We should have kept pounding and wore them down. They did make a good adjustment at half to limit the runs to a little lesser average, but we could have still pounded them and wore them down. They absolutely stole one. I don't think we would have beaten Ohio St though.
 
Let's talk about the schedule. TFrank brought it up, but even the schedule kind of sets up favorably.

1. Essentially an extended training camp. Neveda, FIU, and Villanova to start. Weak, but these are stat and depth builders.

2. Bye week before Oregon. Game is also at home. The White Out.

3. We do travel to UCLA after the Oregon game, but this game will at least be a late afternoon or evening game. Again, based on the rest of the schedule, there is no better place to spot the yearly west coast trip up.

4. Northwestern at home after the West coast trip before going to Iowa. Also, we have no true back to back road games because...

5. Bye week after Iowa THEN going to OSU. Good reset point.

6. November sees us go H-A-H-A to finish out with varying degrees of difficulty. Indiana after OSU could be our 3rd toughest opponent, but it's way too early.

Thoughts?


Opening conversations I fleshed out.

Talk about LB and other position battles.
 
Let's talk about the schedule. TFrank brought it up, but even the schedule kind of sets up favorably.

1. Essentially an extended training camp. Neveda, FIU, and Villanova to start. Weak, but these are stat and depth builders.

2. Bye week before Oregon. Game is also at home. The White Out.

3. We do travel to UCLA after the Oregon game, but this game will at least be a late afternoon or evening game. Again, based on the rest of the schedule, there is no better place to spot the yearly west coast trip up.

4. Northwestern at home after the West coast trip before going to Iowa. Also, we have no true back to back road games because...

5. Bye week after Iowa THEN going to OSU. Good reset point.

6. November sees us go H-A-H-A to finish out with varying degrees of difficulty. Indiana after OSU could be our 3rd toughest opponent, but it's way too early.

Thoughts?


Opening conversations I fleshed out.

Talk about LB and other position battles.
Good discussion. May warrant a new thread IMO. I do like the way the schedule sets up for the most part.

I will say, I'm not listening to those guys drone on for nearly an hour on that podcast. If someone wants to provide a summary, I'll read it. But I don't get why everyone wants to make hour long podcasts. Do people have an hour that they want to waste on something that could be a 2 page article at most that takes you 5 minutes to read?
 
Agree. And Non-compete clauses are no longer enforceable.

I think he is a big upgrade from Allen. I don't think Allen was bad but he was a step back from Manny.
I agree about Allen. I look at how poorly we started off games the whole season and that Oregon start was pathetic which killed us. We fought back on that game but we were always climbing out of a hole thanks to his D being totally unprepared to start the game.

Then what kind of got lost in that ND game but really hurt us is their backup QB comes in at the end of the first half and just torches us with two or three big first down throws marching them into FG position (and making the FG). This gave them big time momentum which they take and parlay into a TD drive on their first drive of the 2nd half. No excuses for allowing a backup QB to come in cold in that pressure situation and have that kind of success.
 
Good discussion. May warrant a new thread IMO. I do like the way the schedule sets up for the most part.

I will say, I'm not listening to those guys drone on for nearly an hour on that podcast. If someone wants to provide a summary, I'll read it. But I don't get why everyone wants to make hour long podcasts. Do people have an hour that they want to waste on something that could be a 2 page article at most that takes you 5 minutes to read?
They are getting paid for it and have to justify their existence.
 
I agree about Allen. I look at how poorly we started off games the whole season and that Oregon start was pathetic which killed us. We fought back on that game but we were always climbing out of a hole thanks to his D being totally unprepared to start the game.

Then what kind of got lost in that ND game but really hurt us is their backup QB comes in at the end of the first half and just torches us with two or three big first down throws marching them into FG position (and making the FG). This gave them big time momentum which they take and parlay into a TD drive on their first drive of the 2nd half. No excuses for allowing a backup QB to come in cold in that pressure situation and have that kind of success.
Yep. With the talent we had on defense, we gave up 27 to BG, 30 to USC, 25 to MN, 45 to Oregon, and 27 to a pretty weak ND offense.
 
Let's talk about the schedule. TFrank brought it up, but even the schedule kind of sets up favorably.

1. Essentially an extended training camp. Neveda, FIU, and Villanova to start. Weak, but these are stat and depth builders.

2. Bye week before Oregon. Game is also at home. The White Out.

3. We do travel to UCLA after the Oregon game, but this game will at least be a late afternoon or evening game. Again, based on the rest of the schedule, there is no better place to spot the yearly west coast trip up.

4. Northwestern at home after the West coast trip before going to Iowa. Also, we have no true back to back road games because...

5. Bye week after Iowa THEN going to OSU. Good reset point.

6. November sees us go H-A-H-A to finish out with varying degrees of difficulty. Indiana after OSU could be our 3rd toughest opponent, but it's way too early.

Thoughts?


Opening conversations I fleshed out.

Talk about LB and other position battles.
On the schedule, I agree it sets up pretty favorably. I think we beat Oregon. We need to play well but I don't see us losing in an electric White Out environment to a team with many first time starters and a new QB unless we totally lay an egg and hand it to them with turnovers and boneheaded plays.

Beyond Oregon, which again is no gimme but I feel confident, are @UCLA, @ EYEOhWAA, and our friends in Columbus that could give us trouble.

UCLA has the new QB, we have to go all the way there it could prove tougher than we think.

Iowa has the new QB, they always play us tough in Kinnick and I see this as a tough out. I think harder than Oregon.

OSU at Columbus, welp, just look at our record there over the last 30 years.

I am predicting 11-1 with a loss to OSU. We have the bye leading up to OSU but I just can't see us getting it done there. We find ways to lose to them every year.
 
On the schedule, I agree it sets up pretty favorably. I think we beat Oregon. We need to play well but I don't see us losing in an electric White Out environment to a team with many first time starters and a new QB unless we totally lay an egg and hand it to them with turnovers and boneheaded plays.

Beyond Oregon, which again is no gimme but I feel confident, are @UCLA, @ EYEOhWAA, and our friends in Columbus that could give us trouble.

UCLA has the new QB, we have to go all the way there it could prove tougher than we think.

Iowa has the new QB, they always play us tough in Kinnick and I see this as a tough out. I think harder than Oregon.

OSU at Columbus, welp, just look at our record there over the last 30 years.

I am predicting 11-1 with a loss to OSU. We have the bye leading up to OSU but I just can't see us getting it done there. We find ways to lose to them every year.
Ohio St also has a bye heading into our game. It's kind of a push on the schedule set up there.
 
are @UCLA, @ EYEOhWAA, and our friends in Columbus that could give us trouble.

I actually hope UCLA can provide a test and not be a walk over type of game. Nico had hype (seems highly diminished this year), but can he test our secondary?

Iowa is an unknown to me. Sure, they always seem to be some level of ground it out on offense with PA ability and solid defense that gets great with a more senior team. As of right now, they are replacing their QB (bringing in a FCS guy, but coming off shoulder surgery), their RB, and all of their LBs. I'm going to hold off judgement until October (they play their rivals Iowa State and Indiana weeks 2 and 4).

OSU at the Horseshoe is a loss until we win there.
 
I actually hope UCLA can provide a test and not be a walk over type of game. Nico had hype (seems highly diminished this year), but can he test our secondary?

Iowa is an unknown to me. Sure, they always seem to be some level of ground it out on offense with PA ability and solid defense that gets great with a more senior team. As of right now, they are replacing their QB (bringing in a FCS guy, but coming off shoulder surgery), their RB, and all of their LBs. I'm going to hold off judgement until October (they play their rivals Iowa State and Indiana weeks 2 and 4).

OSU at the Horseshoe is a loss until we win there.
Iowa St is supposed to be pretty good this year. They return as many starters as we do, and they finished #15 in the nation last year. I think they'll handle Iowa. I don't know about that Iowa-Indiana game though. That could go either way.
 
I actually hope UCLA can provide a test and not be a walk over type of game. Nico had hype (seems highly diminished this year), but can he test our secondary?

Iowa is an unknown to me. Sure, they always seem to be some level of ground it out on offense with PA ability and solid defense that gets great with a more senior team. As of right now, they are replacing their QB (bringing in a FCS guy, but coming off shoulder surgery), their RB, and all of their LBs. I'm going to hold off judgement until October (they play their rivals Iowa State and Indiana weeks 2 and 4).

OSU at the Horseshoe is a loss until we win there.
Yeah, both Iowa and UCLA are let's see what they look like type opponents. I really know very little about both except they have new QBs and Nico for UCLA is a proven talent. I did not know the new Iowa QB is coming off shoulder surgery nor that they were replacing all their LBs and their starting RB. That makes me feel better about that game or I should say more confident.

We inevitably will not play that well in one of these road games but we have so much talent that even our "C" or "C+" game can beat everyone on our schedule not named OSU. Albeit it could be a very ugly win.

I hope we are tested before OSU so we are used to winning a close or at least pretty close game.

Unfortunately OSU is just what it is. Years and years of futility against them has just completely eroded the fanbase's confidence in our ability to beat them.
 
Iowa St is supposed to be pretty good this year. They return as many starters as we do, and they finished #15 in the nation last year. I think they'll handle Iowa. I don't know about that Iowa-Indiana game though. That could go either way.

Good to know. Based on that info, Iowa probably pulls the upset.

Same on Hoosier game. At least will show us what they both have.
 
I agree about Allen. I look at how poorly we started off games the whole season and that Oregon start was pathetic which killed us. We fought back on that game but we were always climbing out of a hole thanks to his D being totally unprepared to start the game.

Then what kind of got lost in that ND game but really hurt us is their backup QB comes in at the end of the first half and just torches us with two or three big first down throws marching them into FG position (and making the FG). This gave them big time momentum which they take and parlay into a TD drive on their first drive of the 2nd half. No excuses for allowing a backup QB to come in cold in that pressure situation and have that kind of success.
The backup QB did a great job in that game. That's the thing I left out. Allen gets some blame, but give the kid and his coaches credit.
 
I saw this today, Wiscy has a heck of an October schedule. And on a side note, I've been hearing that Lincoln Keinholtz is outplaying Sayin for tOSU's starting QB. tOSU likes Sayin's superior athleticism and isn't happy about it.

Back to Wisconsin, they play Alabama in late September, followed by MD. Then...

@ Michigan Oct 4
Iowa Oct 11
Ohio State Oct 18
@ Oregon Oct 25
 
I saw this today, Wiscy has a heck of an October schedule. And on a side note, I've been hearing that Lincoln Keinholtz is outplaying Sayin for tOSU's starting QB. tOSU likes Sayin's superior athleticism and isn't happy about it.

Back to Wisconsin, they play Alabama in late September, followed by MD. Then...

@ Michigan Oct 4
Iowa Oct 11
Ohio State Oct 18
@ Oregon Oct 25
Wisconsin may be in for a rough year. They are down a bit and the schedule is not forgiving.
 
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