The blame game
by Jeff Nusser on Sep 13, 2009 8:48 PM PDT
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PrintI try pretty hard not to play the blame game around here, but a game like yesterday leaves you searching for answers.
Since I'm not some kind of film guru when it comes to football -- I'm much more comfortable breaking down what teams are trying to do in basketball -- I'm going to just pass along some interesting quotes I ran across and leave you to post your own theories in the comments as to how yesterday came about:
- Hawaii WR Greg Salas: "We hit ’em deep last year with a couple of those (pass plays), and we got ’em again with the same stuff."
- Salas again: "Man-to-man. Playing off. Great feeling. Some teams get out of it, they stayed in it. It was great."
- WSU DB Chima Nwachukwu: "It seemed like they were well-rehearsed for what we were doing. We have to do a better job of disguising our coverage."
- WSU defensive coordinator Chris Ball: "The toughest thing we have to do as a staff is convince the kids that they can win football games. You can’t expect coaches to come out and get them fired up. Players are responsible for getting themselves ready to play mentally."
- Nwachukwu: "It seems like we need something to spark us at the beginning of the game. That put us in a bad position, because (Hawaii) came out ready to go."
- WSU center Kenny Alfred: "We’re a team that has to learn how to start. Starting and finishing are both crucial."
- Hawaii LB Blaze Soares: "We're Warriors, and we want to be known as the hardest-hitting defense in the country. Game by game, we want to prove that. It's a bold statement, but I think we have talent to do it.
- Soares: "We wanted to go out there and play for the people of Hawai'i. We know our economy is very bad. We play 60 minutes of football, and that's when our fans' problems go away. They're focused on UH football. We have to go out there and make our fans happy for 60 minutes, and not let them think about real-life problems. We want them to go out and have fun watching us play."
- Hawaii DE Paipai Falemalu: "It was fun. Our seniors hyped us up. Rocky (Savaiigaea), Blaze and R.J. told us to go out there with an attitude and hit hard."
- Hawaii safety Spencer Smith: "Blaze was right. He wanted us to hit hard and play hard for Hawai'i. That's why 'Hawai'i' is on the front of our jerseys. When we win, the Islands are happy. When we lose, the Islands are sad. I think everyone is happy now."
- Hawaii coach Greg McMackin: "I wanted our guys to know we weren't coming over to try and eke out a win, like we did last year (in a victory over Washington State at Aloha Stadium). We were going to attack their tail and go after them. I know we're a team that can attack on all three sides of the ball. That's our personality."
- Salas: "We came out, and we came out fast. We were hungry."
- McMackin: "There are so many teams that run a no-huddle, it doesn't bother us any more. If they bring in other people, we have enough time to bring in other people."
- Hawaii LB R.J. Kiesel-Kauhane: "They would call a play, and then we would call a play, and then they would call an audible and then we would have to call an audible."
- Hawaii center John Estes: "Frankly, Central Arkansas is a much better team (than Washington State). All this stuff about struggling against a I-AA team ... a football team's a football team. We knew we were going to beat Wazzu. We should've put up 70, but we made a lot of mistakes."
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Hey! Good news everyone!
56 Days to Cougar Basketball!
1354 Hours to Cougar Basketball!
4877230 seconds to Cougar Basketball!
As for the Football side of it… I think that last comment said it best, when a completely impartial party says that we were outplayed by a 1-AA team, i’d say we hit the bottom I’d say that we were in trouble. I lay the blame on the coaching staff. I haven’t heard anything about them taking any blame for this disaster of a team. You quote Ball as blaming it entirely on the team not believing. A team doesn’t do this horrible by not believing in themselves, they do that by being outplayed and outcoached. This staff needs to take a good hard look at what they’re doing and take a complete 180 turn.
Two quotes stood out to me.
Ball’s statement that the coaches can’t get the players ready to play football. I see where he’s coming from to some extent, but a coach can go a long way to getting the boys pumped and going. If not, the buy in we’ve been hearing about is all B.S. Which it just. might. be.
The other was that last quote about us Central Arkansas being better than us. Wow. Is it too late to put these f**kers back on the schedule? If that quote doesn’t fire the team up, send them all packing.
My two responses
1. Yes, it is the coaches’ jobs to get the players mentally prepared to play.
2. Why do we need Hawaii saying those things to fire us up? Look at the difference between Washington and us right now. That’s a team that has lost a crapload of football games that is playing with emotion and executing.
I’ve said it before already, but I’ll say it again: While I understand the talent disparity between the two programs, talent doesn’t necessarily cause you to throw the ball to the other team, put the ball on the turf, fail to have the correct personnel on the field at the right times, or fail to put together an effective game play against a team who you are playing for the second time in three games.
or go for 3 on the 3 down 35
Agree agree agree
by TiltingRight on Sep 13, 2009 10:11 PM PDT up reply actions
Talent has nothing to do with coming out of a TV timeout after a kickoff
and having to call timeout to get the play/personel right.
What those quotes tell me
Is that maybe it’s time to trash the gimmicky no-huddle offense. How does it benefit us again? Did anyone notice any difference in suckitude/lack thereof when we switched last year? I sure didn’t, and the huddle at least gets everyone on the same page.
That no huddle is just plain stupid
I mentioned it in passing on a podcast and had intended to do a post on it before the season, but I didn’t see the point before, and I certainly don’t see it now. There’s time to shuffle personnel for both sides, and the ball is being snapped with under 10 seconds left. How, exactly, is that different from huddling?
I don’t know that it is acting as a detriment, but I think it’s fairly obvious that it’s not providing an advantage. Maybe FCS defenses are dumber than in FBS defenses.
by Jeff Nusser on Sep 13, 2009 10:02 PM PDT up reply actions
The only time it becomes a real advantage is
1- when the QB knows his stuff and can do a quick count to catch the defense off guard or
2- when the coaches have the plays scripted and line up personnel to change quicker and get the snap off to get the defense off guard
that said, being lined up rather than in a huddle allows for adjustments from the sideline with more time (in theory) for formation shifts, audibles, etc.
as per the quote though, D’s are catching up to it, so you’ve still got to make the RIGHT adjustments, and EXECUTE.
by TiltingRight on Sep 13, 2009 10:15 PM PDT up reply actions
Deception < Execution
trash the no-huddle and give these kids a chance to get it right.
Damn, my eyeball tastes good.
I have seen one advantage to the no huddle.
The only time I believe the no huddle has given us an advantage is when the playcall had been a QB sneak. The no huddle gives the offense the opportunity to actually snap the ball quickly before the defense is completely set for a QB sneak and it doesn’t give away the game plan by the fact that we are approaching the line without having huddled. It has worked for the most part in this situation, but this appears to be the only situation where the no huddle has given us an advantage.
No huddle
If the no huddle is indeed worthless (and not even working), then we have made an enormous mistake in hiring Paul Wulff. Wulff’s entire coaching style and philosophy is tied to that gimmick no huddle offense. If it doesn’t work, he won’t work.
But more importantly, even if Wulff gets the no huddle offense going, will it really ever be better than a Gesser, Brink, or even Kegel led offense? We should have stuck with Levenseller at OC, who has always ran a proven and prolific Pac-10 offensive scheme.
Coaching
Last Year against Portland State > the Portalnd State defensive ends just rushed from the outside – unblocked all day- paul w stayed w/this no back offense – until our QB’s went down. PW never adusted – to putting a wsu back in the backfield to help w/ blocking these d-ends.
The defesive game plan against hawaii was a joke. the clock is running on Paul W – do somehting – fire a coach – but if we wait 4 years – contiue to lose …. you can kissoff staying in the pac-10.
A team should really improve from the 1st to the 2nd game ? Jim Sterk had better put
put some "fear"on the coaching staff-
As a Cal fan...
… please fire Wulff. I mean it’s awesome to have an assured win but it is embarrassing to the rest of the conference. Wulff is in way over his head. I bet even a Tom Holmoe coached team could beat down Wulff.
In other words, Go Bears!
Would you like to donate a million or so dollars to the athletic department to make him go away?
Because that’s probably what it’s going to take, unfortunately. There’s no way to get rid of him and balance the books right now.
by Jeff Nusser on Sep 14, 2009 10:04 AM PDT up reply actions
True true
It would’ve helped if you guys didn’t quit on Hawaii in the future and have to pay some half a million to them!
In other words, Go Bears!
Way, way too much is being made out of the Cougs canceling that game
They will play a bigger money road game that results in a net gain for the program. Bank on it.
by Jeff Nusser on Sep 14, 2009 11:17 AM PDT up reply actions
So you think they'll play some powerhouse BCS team like Wisconsin or Auburn on the road?
I would be pleasantly surprised if that happens. But my bet is that it ends up being a home game against Idaho.
By the way, I'm not saying Wulff should be fired
Obviously, we need to ride out the season and see what happens. Besides, I’m truly on the fence as to whether firing him would be productive, anyway. In some sense, once you make a hire, you have to be confident enough in your decision to give it a few years to take hold. AND, it’s not like we run the risk of getting worse, as we did by hanging onto Doba one year too long …
by Jeff Nusser on Sep 14, 2009 11:16 AM PDT up reply actions
Do you think anyone went home and donated money on Saturday?
It’s a classic catch-22; if it costs a million dollars now to get a decent coach and put the team back on the right track then that’s what we need to do. This would increase alumni donations in the future and would develop a lasting competitive team.
This game was especially bad because it was in front of several thousand fans who live near Seattle and don’t get many chances to see WSU athletics in person. We need to wow the crap out of those alums whenever we get a chance.
Obviously the AD can’t do this on its own right now but I wouldn’t be surprised and hope to see some big name donors put together a “Save Our Football” campaign or something.
It would potentially cost a million dollars to REMOVE our current coach.
That doesn’t even include the amount of money it would take to hire a new coach. And the key argument is this: Why would a halfway decent coach even want to come to WSU at this point? Removing our current coach just does not look like the answer at this moment. Who the heck would replace him?
As much as I hate to draw a comparison...
the 0-12 Huskies found what looks to be a better coach who pushes for execution above all else. As pointed out above, and I agree with, is a good first step in righting the ship of an under-talented team.
I know that we don’t have the same resources to attract a new coach like UW did but we are still a PAC-10 team and that alone should attract, as you say, a halfway decent coach.
I agree with you that we shouldn’t oust Wulff right now, but it couldn’t hurt to start looking now with the goal of making a switch in the offseason.
All of this being said, I hope Wulff can prove me wrong…
I have doubts that we could find a quality coach that would come here midseason. It would have to be at the end of the season.
That being the case. We’d have what?… one of Wulff’s assistants take over if he is removed? I don’t think that would be an improvement.
And as far as looking now?... I dunno about that...
It’s pretty sketchy to be looking around for a new coach when you haven’t fired the old one yet. It’s just as sketchy as the coaches who look around for the next big job without consulting their administration first. Just look at that Boston College coach who just got fired recently for looking at a Pro job without the administration’s knowledge…
And subsequently canned...
From his O-coordinator job in Tampa. How much do you think he regrets playing chicken with the BC Athletic Director now?!?
by '03CouveCoug on Sep 15, 2009 8:08 AM PDT up reply actions
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