catdaddyp

- Irons looked fantastic. From his pocket movement, to decisions, to ball placement, he was excellent against a strong P5 defense. - Tennessee showed a different defensive front than MSU and our OL really struggled getting any push in the run game. - Once the run game gets going, this offense will be fun to watch as that’s when JoeMo becomes so good at finding all the mismatches/open receivers. That’s predicated on a successful run game though. - Caden Clark saw playing time, but is clearly behind Banks and Brank. He has the ability to become a really good player once he settles in. - Wiley tried, but was often bullied in pass pro. - Still not sure why Norrils is not receiving more PT. He’s done some good things the past two games. - Bubba had a whale of a game. - Thompson and Martin were second and third in tackles respectively but that is misleading. They missed their fair share of tackles and were often late coming down to help or did not squeeze their run fits well, which led to big runs by the offense. - No one in the secondary was spared this game. Tennessee went after Hooks and Hence first half and was unbiased in the second half. - Robinson saw his most minutes at DT and had a few promising plays. He’s not much of a pass rusher, but can be a force in the run game when lined up correctly and fires off quickly. - Harper was doubled almost all game. - As athletic as Fish is he really struggled with Tennessee’s counter and misdirection plays, often getting caught badly out of position or allowing a block to climb to him. - Thomas was used as a DE first half and was ineffective. He tried speed rushing but that caused a loss of contain and he rarely got close to the QB. - I did not see Terry this game and Boateng started. - I don’t think Golden-Nelson played the first quarter. Not sure what was going on there. Hooks and Durant started at CB, Lewis at Nickel, Thompson and Martin at S.

Tennessee has gone after Hence and Hooks all night. Our safeties still struggle to tackle when helping in the run game. LBs have to set the edge when DE crashes inside. Too often that hasn’t happened tonight. Fish has been terrible at that. Offensively we can’t run the ball. Irons looks fantastic moving around in the pocket and putting his passes on point. Progress is being made. We’ll need to run the ball against MAC competition though.

SECN and ESPN+ require some sort of subscription. SECN has a deal with ESPN, so if you already have ESPN+ you can also watch SECN games. I have the Disney+ package which has the Disney, Hulu, ESPN+ bundle. I downloaded the ESPN app and watch through there. Sometimes you can find a YouTube channel that is steaming it for free.

Edited as I found the tweet. Once these things pick up speed they can move in a hurry.

A few takeaways: - Joe mentions how well Jones has played. - He also spoke about Lewis and how well he’s played at the Nickel spot. Includes that’s the way they want to build with homegrown talent. - Said Boateng had a much better game than in Week 1. - Joe again brought up McCoy and how he thinks he will be a star here. - Said Whigan again graded out as the top OL and that Banes had a solid game. Joe thinks Williams may be the most physical lineman. - Joe said that Tennessee has a bigger OL than MSU. A few things I noticed from the highlights: - Cam Threatt looked good again the second time around against MSU’s backups. - Thomas was firing off the ball quickly against MSU’s backup OL. - Robinson is a big dude, but was often slow firing off the ball. - Regarding Boateng - what I like about him is the way he hits and tackles. Now if he can improve on reading his keys, getting off blocks, and the other minutiae of the LB position, we’ll really have something. Until then, I imagine he will continue to back up Terry.

Not sure what the injury was, but he’s supposedly day-to-day.

On a side note, the SEC reportedly told UGA and Tennessee to cancel their home and home series with Texas and Oklahoma. I take that to mean Texas and Oklahoma will most likely be SEC members by the 2023 season.

I’m with you. I’ll watch, but not to see us win. For me, it goes back to seeing if we can use these games to build depth and find some players on the roster who can help us going forward.

My best guess is 12 out of the 25 total transfers were scholarship players. Or at least somewhere in that range. 12 scholarship players transferring out is almost the norm with the transfer portal these days, so no issue there. I’m not sure what the final total was but I think one coach said it was around 40, while another said around 50 for the roster flip from the end of last season to the start of this season (including graduation and transfers). I’m guessing we will have another high number of transfers at the end of this year. I don’t want to speculate about who because it’s a long season and plenty can change between now and December, but we are already seeing some guys who played a solid amount last year hardly getting any PT this year.

They posted on social media so I’m assuming it’s fine to post here. I updated in the position previews as well. QB - Joey Marousek = Baldwin Wallace WR - Oran Singleton = Hutchinson CC TE - Nick Dottore = Morehead State DT - Janirr Wade = Jones CC LB - Kyle Bischof = Walsh LB - Connor Francz = Walsh LB - Jake Miller = Slippery Rock LB - Brandon Bischof - Slippery Rock

It was great to hear some excitement about the freshman. Joe knows he has something cooking here. I’m incredibly excited about the future of our LBs with Fish, McCoy, and Griffin. I also can’t wait to see the freshmen OL develop. Just need to get through these next two weeks with minimal injuries and hopefully find a few more players that will provide depth come conference play.

They can score some points, that’s for sure. Last year they went up 28-0 before the 1st quarter ended on a South Carolina team that won 7 games and blistered UNC in the bowl game. UT puts a tremendous amount of stress on the linebackers and safeties. Unfortunately for us, our S play has been below average to date.

That’s disappointing. I wonder if he has the grades and/or desire to graduate and enroll early. If so, that could be a nice spring board from this setback.

From what I can tell, out of the 25 players who have transferred out since I started tracking: - 2 are now at JUCO - 1 at FCS level - 4 at D2 level - 1 at D3 level Either I just can’t find where the other 17 went or they are not playing football this year. That’s rough.

Best interview I’ve seen with JoeMo so far.

Edge Micheal Garner is announcing his commitment on 9/17.

Haha, call it like I see it. Our issues were compounded due to the opponent we were playing.

I’m sure nerves played a part of it. I think what I originally posted about Undercuffler when he committed was that his strength was on throws 20 yards and in. The zip on his passes seems to fall off some on anything beyond that. He definitely struggled throwing those out routes from the far hash. Maybe he completes them against lesser competition? But that type of throw isn’t a strength of his. A few times he climbed and moved around in the pocket really well. For instance, there was one play where he gave himself some time, stepped up, and found a wide open Wiley. Unfortunately, he threw it right at Wiley’s feet for an incompletion. He threw a few nice balls at other times at well. So there is some potential there and he is with the right staff to get the best out of him. I hate that we face Tennessee next week as they are likely going to make both our offense and defense look rough.

I really liked the concerted effort to have Irons run yesterday. He looked comfortable and in command of the offense. It’ll be disappointing if he misses a considerable amount of time. Best case scenario Undercuffler gains confidence and becomes a reliable option by the time conference play rolls around as Irons heals up. Hooks just isn’t getting it done. I wasn’t watching that closely in 4th quarter but from what I did see, we don’t have many (or any) better options right now. That doesn’t mean someone else won’t develop as the season goes on, but the notion that our secondary is a strength (according to the media) is false. Yes, there is some talent that could develop, but no depth at the moment ready to help. That being said, I did notice Threatt on a few plays near the end, so maybe he will get a look at some point? It’s become clear why JoeMo was hesitant in answering the question about the roster looking like an FBS roster. We do at certain starting positions, but the productive depth is lacking. I feel good about our front 6 on defense (7 if Lewis is included in that Nickel front) so that is improvement over last year. Plus, one CB spot is locked down. DT depth is ok. We need for either Behm, Boateng, or Fish to take a major leap forward and not have LB play drop substantially when they enter the game. Our two P5 safety transfers have disappointed so far and need to start playing like P5 players. JKP saw more snaps than either of them last game and probably should be starting in one of those spots. I liked Woods activity at S for his limited snaps, so maybe he will help down the line?

So many guys played and this depth chart isn’t perfect. Since the backups filled in multiple positions I just slotted them where they were at some point in the game. DE: 1) Jones = 57 (51.2) 2) Lawson = 4 3) Howze = 9 4) Adler = 5 DT 1) Hawkins = 23 (65.1) 2) Wilson = 32 3) Robinson = 15 4) Thomas = 13 DT 1) Harper = 53 (55.9) 2) Sy = 27 DE 1) Johnson = 49 (56.3) 2) Morton = 35 LB 1) Arslanian = 26 (40.9) 2) Behm = 35 3) Fish = 23 LB 1) Terry = 31 (44.8) 2) Boateng = 42 3) McCoy = 9 3) DiLauro = 6 NB/OLB 1) Lewis = 68 (59.8) 1) Thomas = 15 CB: 1) Golden-Nelson = 56 (64.1) 2) Ogbonna = 12 3) Threat = 9 CB: 1) Hooks = 55 (36.9) 2) Durant 47 S: 1) Martin = 46 (53.9) 2) Woods = 23 S: 1) Thompson = 38 (40.1) 2) JKP = 55

QB: 1) Irons = 24 (57.4) 2) Undercuffler = 39 HB: 1) Wiley = 46 (54.7) 2) Price = 11 3) Norrils = 6 WR: 1) SJL = 44 (51.0) 2) A. Williams = 17 WR: 1) George = 50 (67.5) 2) Anderson = 11 3) Naim = 2 WR: 1) Grimes = 45 (54.4) 2) Golden = 15 3) Gathings = 5 TE: 1) Banks = 40 (57.8) 2) Brank = 23 LT: 1) Daniels = 58 (37.6) 2) Gray = 5 LG: 1) Banes = 58 (52.1) 2) Lyons = 5 C.: 1) Georges = 31 (49.0) 2) Robarge = 32 RG: 1) Whigan = 46 (53.1) 2) Kilbane = 17 RT: 1) Williams = 52 (63.3) 2) Chambers = 11

A few thoughts from yesterday: - The OL (and Irons) looked much better and were moving the ball until the turnover bug reared it’s ugly head. That’s the kind of improvement I expected to see from this staff. Good things are on the horizon…..but it probably won’t be in the next two weeks due to the opponents. - Undercuffler had a rough outing, but I’m not ready to throw him under the bus. He does not have as big an arm as Irons and struggles to make certain throws, but we had an idea that would be the case from his FCS film. I trust the staff will curtail the game plan around Undercuffler in the coming weeks and put him in a position to be as successful as he can be, while limiting the throws/plays he struggles with. He has enough arm strength to move the offense down the field, but the deep balls and cross field throws will have to be minimized. He will get more comfortable with more reps. - We landed some really good to solid players out of the portal in SJL, George, Banks, Whigan, Banes (looked much better), and Wiley on offense. On defense Jones, Harper, Terry, and Golden-Nelson have been the key pickups. I wondered why we did not see some of the other players on the roster in Week 1 and we found out why against MSU. The best players were already seeing the field. While there is certainly some potential waiting in the wings, some players just are not ready to help us yet. Maybe that changes by conference play? - I really like the front 4 combo of Jones, Harper, Wilson, Johnson. Along with Bubba and Terry at LB. Lewis continued his active play at Nickel and Golden-Nelson has done a nice job at CB. MSU picked on Hooks all game long at the other CB spot. Safety play was better at times in the run game, but still struggled against the pass. I do not know what the answer is there outside of hoping our current rotation continues to improve. - I do not feel the final score is indicative of what this team could become. Are we where we need to be? Absolutely not. Irons going down and the turnovers completely doomed us yesterday. But if improvements continue to be made - which they will - this team should be competitive in the MAC. So far, no one in the MAC has seemed head and shoulders above anyone else.

Seeing the same players so far this this week. Difference in a few starting spots though. LT - Daniels over Gray LB - Terry over Boateng DE - Johnson over Morton And we came out in a Nickel set on defense so I guess it could be said Lewis over Thomas, but not exactly the same position.

I hope so. Daniels looked like the better fit during his limited time last week.