catdaddyp

Not sure about his injury status, but he was not in on any offensive snaps. If he played on ST, I didn’t notice.

OFFENSE 473 yards of total offense and 34 points should be enough to win most games, but unfortunately that was not the case yesterday. The only plays calls I was critical of were the reverses that we tried several times for little to negative success. The staff must’ve seen something on film they liked with the reverses, but it did not translate to the game. QUARTERBACK: Irons was excellent outside of the meaningless interception on the last drive. Some of the throws he made across field, from the opposite hash, were really impressive. Not all D1 QBs can make those throws successfully. Irons was patient, moved around well in the pocket, and made solid decisions with the ball. His running ability continues to give the offense an extra dimension that has to be accounted for by the defense. RUNNING BACK: The more I watch Price, the more I like him. He does so many little things well. Watching him squeeze to his blockers and hit the next gear at the right time was great to see. Price did a solid job in pass pro as well. When Price isn’t getting hit in the backfield, he almost always collects positive yardage. It was good to see Norrils get a few carries and hopefully that will continue. WIDE RECEIVER: What an impressive display by these guys. They created separation all game long and made some difficult catches. George’s catch across the middle of the field in between several defenders - wow. TIGHT END: Both Banks and Brank were heavily involved in the pass and run game. They totaled 8 catches between them. We had some success running the ball on the double TE sets and I hope we see more of that. OFFENSIVE LINE: Starters were Daniels, Banes, Georges, Whigan, Williams. Landers was inserted at LT early and was impressive. It’s only a matter of time before he’s the starter there. Robarge subbed at both guard positions and was solid. Kilbane saw some snaps at C. DEFENSE I don’t even know where to start. Ohio hit us on a few calls which happens no matter who the opponent is, but overall I thought the DC put the defense in a position to be successful on most plays. I’m not totally sure what the heart of the issue is outside of talent level, but I’ll touch on a few points below. DEFENSIVE LINE: Jones, Harper, Thomas, Morton started. Holt saw more playing time than Harper, despite not being a starter and did some good things. Thomas was double teamed a heavy amount. There are either some trust issues or a lack of understanding going on. To give an example, there was one play where Morton demolished the tight end’s block and had the QB stuck in the mud on a designed run, but instead of keeping outside leverage, Morton dove inside where he already had LB and S help. The QB was then able to get to the edge and gain the first down. Other issues that are common are overrunning the play when pursing into the backfield and allowing the play to come right back underneath. The linebacker/safety/nickel (depending on alignment) should be there but they are getting taken out the play in some fashion…usually by their own doing. LINEBACKER: Bubba is Bubba and continues to get the most out of his ability. He understands football and almost always smells out the play. Boateng started beside Bubba and was rough to watch. Boateng has plenty of physical ability but seems to lack intuition or know where the play is going the majority of the time. I lost count of the times when he should have been filling in to stop the run and was MIA. Terry did some good things and should be starting with Bubba. It’s exciting to see the potential of Fish and McCoy, but they are still learning and can get their eyes in the wrong place at times, which leads to busted plays. SECONDARY: Thompson had a strong game. I was critical of him earlier in the year, but he is one player in the secondary that has taken it up a notch. Martin missed way too many tackles and is not physical enough at times. JKP seems to be regressing. Our cornerback play is flat out disappointing. Hooks’, who has plenty of physical ability, was beaten a number of times. I watched one play where he was lined up several yards off the LOS, the WR ran a hitch route and somehow Hooks ended up 8-9 yards off the receiver on that move. To add insult to injury, he then missed the tackle. Durant was picked on again. We saw Hence get physically outmatched on a TD throw as well. Hence was with the receiver step for step until the receiver simply shoved him off at the top of the route and created separation in a legal way. Lewis helped in the run game, but also missed a sack opportunity. He was not as strong in the passing game. We need to improve in all areas defensively. Not every team will have a QB on the same level as Rourke, but the defense cannot play that poorly again. When we blitz and do not reach the quarterback it ends up being a big play almost every time. I still think we will win some games this year, but the defense must improve. While we may not have a top level MAC defense, I do not believe they are as bad as what we saw yesterday. If they can give this offense a chance, good things will happen.

Thanks @94zipgrad and @Let'sGoZips94 JUCO OT Darell Johnson has been added.

Edge Roosevelt Andrew to Miami of Ohio.

We are not going to land many more players on this list, but JUCO OT Darrell Johnson was just added. Looks like he picked up a Zips offer this morning.

I was a little taken aback by his response. We know 15 players are committed, so either Joe misspoke about the numbers or 3 of the players’ offers are not being honored. The second part I’m confused about is I thought for 2023 and 2024 FBS schools could sign as many players as they wanted as long as they were at the 85 scholarship limit for the start of the reason. Maybe that does not kick in until 2024? Joe said we could take up to 32, which was the case for the 2022 class, so IDK at this point. Great info about how the classes will be structured. As I figured, the thread about outstanding offers is pretty much useless at this point, haha. But who knows, maybe we get 1 or 2 more of those guys? I can’t wait to see the caliber of players the staff brings in from the portal in year 2. Home runs this year with Harper, Jones, SJL, Adams, George, and Whigan. Thomas and Thompson have been steadily improving. And we’ve seen some good things out of Golden-Nelson, Terry, Banes, Wiley, Banks, Price, Fish. That’s a pretty high batting average and leads me to believe the 2023 transfer class will be as good or better.

It’s usually available immediately after the game. If using the app, go to the ESPN+ section and search in that search bar.

It’d be great to have him back as it seems the staff has found a solid combination in the middle with Harper and Thomas, but it doesn’t seem likely.

I don’t believe so. He redshirted in 2017 and should be a grad transfer, so this would be his final year.

I don’t know if the SEC media hated him. From the sounds of it, he did not have full control over who was on his staff. That will never work out.

That’s one way to look at it. If you put any stock into preseason awards, BG had 8 players on some type of preseason watchlist/team while Akron had none (to my knowledge). That’s supposedly a talent gap. Keep in mind I don’t buy into that and think we are just as good as BG, but pointing it out as another perspective. Also, yardage was nearly equal at 422 to 408. The main difference was turnovers - 3 to 1. Someone had to win and someone had to lose. Overcoming 2 turnovers with a team we are currently evenly matched with was too much this past Saturday. That was probably BG’s best squad in Loeffler’s tenure and I’m certain this will be Moorhead’s worst during his tenure. A lot to look forward to and the staff is getting more out of many of these players than a slew of people expected.

100% agree. Those two look to have progressed the most. Credit the staff for recognizing their potential and getting in early. Owens looks perfect for boundary safety (where Thompson is currently playing). Miller will probably stick at WR, but he could be productive on both sides of the ball as he’s just a playmaker. Ill be interested to see if Bowen is bulked up and slotted at DE or if he stays at LB. Moore reminds me of Thomas in the way they are built and move. Although Thomas is obviously more advanced and fires off as quick, if not quicker, than any other DL we currently have. Im not crazy about Norton playing QB, but I understand the thought process about having the ball in your best player’s hands every snap. And whoever #6 is he’s pretty good too.

Snowballs chance to beat a team that only has close wins over FAU and Fordham? I could be wrong, but that doesn’t scream powerhouse program to me.

My favorite quote “We’re out of the redshirting business.” Looking at the highlights it’s impressive how far along this team has come from last year. We’re close. Maybe this week will be the week?

We may want to keep both those games on the schedule. I suspect Indiana’s win over Illinois was a fluke and they won’t win many more conference games. If that turns out to be the case, it will probably lead to a new HC in 2023.

DT Marcus Moore mid-season highlights. LB Joshua Bowen mid-season highlights. WR Lester Miller mid-season highlights. WR Adrian Norton mid-season highlights. S Darius Owens mid-season highlights.

When is the next “Zips Live Behind the Mic”?

Disagreeing with your opinion isn’t missing your point. If you think 3-3-5 is a great defense that’s fine. I 100% disagree and I’ve already given several reasons why. Using West Virginia’s defense as an example doesn’t help further your point. I’ll toss one back to you. Check out Texas Tech’s defense last year (3-3-5) against Texas. Texas was not a good team but ran all over Tech and they weren’t running anything out of the ordinary. In fact, it was mostly just zone runs. I don’t feel the need to rehash what I’ve already said as it seems to have gotten glossed over. If we are putting our experiences out there as a reason, I coached in two football dominate states in South Carolina and Louisiana. I have over a decade of head coaching experience while also being an AD. I’ve spent countless hours with college coaches and high school coaches going over drills, schemes, best practices - you name it. I’ve seen just about everything. That’s why very little you say will change my mind on this. But again, it’s ok to disagree.

We’ll have to disagree about the 3-3-5. There are more reasons why I dislike it than I listed above but the main ones are the issues of stopping the run and also needing a special kind of player to fit that “Spur” position (as Carolina used to call it) to make it effective. I haven’t seen anyone run a 3-5-3 base at the college level unless you’re referring to a goalline/short yardage package?

I thought he did really well with what he was given. His one cut and get downhill style seems to be what this offense needs at this time. Honestly, I’ve been pleased with the majority of the transfer class. We weren’t going to hit on all of them, but the majority are contributing and seem to be progressing each week.

If you’re banking on a TJ Watt (or multiple players of that stature) to make your defense go, probably isn’t the best defense to run.

Is it just me or are there times where Joe is so flabbergasted with George’s questions he’s unsure how to respond? George must not be watching the games if he doesn’t know which OL are entrenched. It’s clearly Whigan and Williams….despite what PFF thinks.

I remember Charlie Strong running it at South Carolina under Lou Holtz and that was the first time I saw it used extensively. It was all the rage at the HS coaching clinics, but I never saw a HS actually run it effectively. I believe Joe Lee Dunn was credited with developing the 3-3-5. He ironically also coached at South Carolina - in the late 80’s. They called it “the fire ant defense” at the time because he blitzed like a madman.

OL play in general has dropped off some due to the younger levels across the nation dropping tackle football and going to flag. As far as not being good run blockers I’d have to disagree if we are talking in terms of run vs pass blocking. 99% of HS OL are more advanced in run blocking than pass blocking. Every defense has weaknesses, it’s part of the game. But if we want to specifically talk the 3-3-5 defense, it requires a hybrid defensive back that can play the pass and run equally effective. The issue at LB is they are based stacked. You have to shift one way or the other to not give up the edge. When that’s the case you’re asking those LBs or the Hybrid DB to essentially play like a DE. So in my opinion might as well just go to a 3-4 or 4-2-5. 3-3-5 has always felt gimmicky to me and just didn’t make sense. I even went to a coaching clinic on it and came out feeling the same way.

I’m not a fan of the 3-3-5 either, unless it’s a spin off on passing downs from a base 3-4. I’ve seen too many teams get ripped apart in the ground game from a 3-3-5 based defense.