What exactly is different

Forgot to mention DEPTH. In the past, if we would have lost our starting DE, LB, S, and WRs, we would have been in grave trouble. This year, we are playing at a higher level despite these losses.

 
carlfense said:
Same thing I said before the season: conference title or bust. If not now, when?
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Agreed. This is what gets inside my head, too. Because of Abdullah's insane run-up to this senior year and not really seeing anyone behind him doing what he's done (for the next couple of seasons), it makes the 'if not now, when?' question all the more challenging.

...but then I look at D'Antonio. A relative 'nobody' in the bigger college football world until recently when in my opinion he quietly slipped into the coaching elite and brought a program really far. I think Bo can do what D'Antonio has done.

But this season is surely his best chance yet to get the conference title.

 
Agree about the depth. And definitely agree about Dantonio. He had the benefit of taking over a program not drowned in a winning tradition, stress wasnt nearly as high level I would assume.

 
I just still can't really gauge how good we are at all. We've had two real games.

We played very well against an athletic Miami team, and I think I'd be thrilled with that win, no matter what the season.

We played horrid, uninspired / scared football against Mich St for 3/4 of the game. Yet for one quarter, we got a glimpse of what we all continue to THINK this team play like.

I still don't know who we are.
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Our schedule is so bad that we still won't really know for a few more weeks.

If we can beat Wisconsin on the road, I'll probably start believing that we just might get another shot at the conference title. But we really don't have a lot to gain this weekend, yet again.

I must say, since this is a purely subjective thread, I don't get the sense that we'd be a 1-loss team, given the schedule of Notre Dame, Ole Miss, or Miss St. But that's just me.

 
Count come on man you can't be serious.

Our offense is better and more efficient

Our defense is better and more efficient

Our special teams are better and more efficient (with the exception of Drew Brown)

Our turnovers have been significantly reduced

We're 7-1 and ranked #16. How do you not see any of this?

 
I don't know, you tell me:

Count 'Bility said:
There is definitely a new influx of attitude and tenacity on this team that weve been missing.
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Count 'Bility said:
Dont forget the obvious upgrade in talent.
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Count 'Bility said:
How much better do you really think the offensive line is this year than years past? I think it may be a little better, but it's not leaps and bounds.
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Count 'Bility said:
It's my opinion but to Tommy is already better than Taylor ever was when it comes to doing what a qb should do, and that's lead the offense. There's much more to it than nitpicking stats and picks and completion percentage. It's how the team responds to the leadership and what the qb brings to the table from a threat standpoint.
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The Dude said:
Prone to the same Pelini blunders, but more talented.

I was surprised people are still surprised by the sloppy play. Still, I'll take big wins over 4th quarter comebacks against these bad Big Ten teams any day.
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QMany said:
Special teams play. Turnovers (outside of this weird snapping issue the last few games). Sense of player leadership. Talent level on both sides of the ball.

What exactly is the same? Not some vague "issues that have plagued the program" catch-all.
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Both spot on. +1

 
True2tRA said:
The Dude said:
Prone to the same Pelini blunders, but more talented.

I was surprised people are still surprised by the sloppy play. Still, I'll take big wins over 4th quarter comebacks against these bad Big Ten teams any day.
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QMany said:
Special teams play. Turnovers (outside of this weird snapping issue the last few games). Sense of player leadership. Talent level on both sides of the ball.

What exactly is the same? Not some vague "issues that have plagued the program" catch-all.
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Both spot on. +1
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I believe the weird snapping issues started one Pelini was replaced with reeves and then given another chance to play. Pelini then started to worry more about blocking his guy then getting the snap out right. A couple times the ball looked like Pelini snapped a rocket into armstrongs hand. I think he knows he is loosing/lost his starting role to Reeves.

 
Good stuff guys. Seriously.

Yeah, I dont what my deal is. Even though I had been predicting another 4 loss season somehow or another (it was just that "until I see different" type of deal) I had high hopes for a real breakthrough season. But at this point I just feel down. And while lot's of you are posting the great improvements we've made in a mane aspects of the game, my whole deal is I guess I still see this mental block.

I think it was Q who said very early in the thread about "vague issues....". See to me in discussing it, it is rather vague. Because over the years, it seems like when one thing gets fixed, we have something else go to crap. Right now it's snaps. All a sudden we cant catch snaps consistently. But also, vaguely, I just getting more and more impatient for this killer instinct. Why cant we come out and crush Northwestern for 60 minutes like we did in the second half? Why cant we sustain the good early performance against Rutgers and hang 60 on em instead of letting them have a garbage TD and looking mostly uninterested for the final quarter and half? Why did we come out with such a chickensh#t attitude against Michigan St with everything to prove instead of being ready for a street fight? We wound up digging to big a hole that night.

Also, my other issue is that having started to coach youth football like I have this year, I'm spending much more time studying specifics within a game. I catch myself nitpicking and calling out certain little things that while at that particular time, were bad, didnt have much bearing in the long run on the overall performance. For instance, I now know my angst against Beck on Saturday was so misplaced, it's embarrasing. Ive rewatched it and analyzed it 3 times. I've posted a detailed list of playcalls in another thread here somewhere. And I think what happened was on one simple possession, when we went away from our good stuff and Ameer only got the ball once in a 5 play stretch and we didnt score with only half the field to go, I just lost it for the day, which was pretty stupid. I also let a bunch of boneheaded penalties, dropped snaps, etc. cloud my judgement on the playcalling, since such possessions wound up being a fail.

All in all, I didnt make this thread to argue with anyone and try to rain on anyone's parade. I did it to get response as to what some folks really see or dont see as different.

I see a lot of good still with this team. The talent is there. Our Dline is awesome. I think our Oline, while extremely erratic and inconsistent, is REALLY good when it's on. Tommy is developing the parts of his game that we all knew needed work. My big concern is that the one real good team we played, we looked pretty bad against. Like, really bad, on the offensive side of the ball. The defense that night was pretty solid. But we had some of those boneheaded busts that were just ugly, that we know will just happen from time to time.

 
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My biggest concern is Tommys decision to throw that pick against Rutgers. The fumble sucked but that happens. The pick though, mind boggling. I got ridiculed for being critical of him throwing the game losing pick to Sparty, I was told that was the receivers fault for not running his route. Ok, then pray tell why did Tommy throw this last one. That concerns me alot.

But Im not going to let it spoil my optimism. I truly think were on our way to winning out. Not an easy task but definitely doable.

 
1995 Redux said:
My biggest concern is Tommys decision to throw that pick against Rutgers. The fumble sucked but that happens. The pick though, mind boggling. I got ridiculed for being critical of him throwing the game losing pick to Sparty, I was told that was the receivers fault for not running his route. Ok, then pray tell why did Tommy throw this last one. That concerns me alot.

But Im not going to let it spoil my optimism. I truly think were on our way to winning out. Not an easy task but definitely doable.
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I agree. That was pretty bad. Clearly obvious in that instance he had pre-determined based on a pre-snap read where he was going with the ball and not using his eyes which wouldve told him to obviously not throw it there.

 
I think those that say our offense is fighting the same demons with more talent are spot on.

The defensive line is the strongest unit on the team, IMO. I don't see any team in the nation capable of pushing them around.

Punting game is definitely better and it can make a hell of a difference in a team's overall performance.

So I think this team is better. Special? Not ready to go there.

 
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