Week 3 (Colgate) Thoughts

[catdaddyp]

QB - Finley displayed how effective he can be when given time. Even though Finley did miss a few throws and was quick to scramble on a few others (I don’t blame him) he finally had the opportunity to exhibit how this offense can operate. Finley finished with a 65% completion rate, 358 yards, and 4 touchdowns vs 1 interception. For comparison, those are similar numbers that DJI had during his All-MAC year in 2022.

 

RB - The offense was lopsided in this area. The backs averaged nearly 4 yards per attempt, but only carried the ball 20 times. We threw the ball 44 times and Finley scrambled (sacked twice) 11 other times. One of the sacks given up was a direct result of one of the RBs (I think Simmons) getting beat again. Simmons and Kellom are effective options with the ball in their hands, but pass protection continues to be an issue.

 

WR - Norton is a star in the making. His play from last week carried over, which was good to see. Golden also continues to make plays when the ball comes his way. Kellom was a reliable receiving option out of the backfield and created a touchdown.

 

TE - Newell collected nearly every snap at tight end and had his best performance of the season.

 

OL - While the OL was definitely better against Colgate than the first two matchups, I hoped for more. Seymore was excellent at LG and looked the part of a former P5 lineman playing against lesser competition. Williams was solid at center. That’s about where it stopped as far as what an FBS OL should consistently look like. Blanchard and Shor at LT, James and Thomas at RT, Davis and Burrell at RG, all had their moments but the consistency must improve. There were too many times when 4 of the linemen would do their part and 1 lineman got beat. I’ve mentioned Delvin Morris in the past and he’s a guy to monitor. He split time at C and LG and did well. I expect he will continue to receive more snaps.

 

DL - The DL overwhelmed Colgate for much of the contest, holding the Raiders to only 84 rushing and 159 passing yards. Nunnally was a menace the entire game and finally got his first sack of the season. Lavea and Moore were effective despite seeing double teams for much of the game. Kapongo had his best game to date. The concern I have is outside of Nunnally, Lavea, and Moore, we struggled to create pressure, even on blitzes.

 

LB - McCoy and Fish played almost every significant snap with Cooper out. The duo was strong as usual, although Fish did miss a few tackles he normally makes. I was surprised Spriggs and Benenge did not receive more snaps.

 

CB - A number of different cornerbacks got work and not just in “garbage time.” Jarmon and DeWalt saw significant action. Kentucky transfer Elijah Reed got his first work of the season and looks like he could eventually be a difference maker judging by his length and the way he moves. White got the start, but didn’t have his best showing. Golden-Nelson and Hunter performed well.

 

S - P. Lewis was excellent. The former Cornell transfer was all over the field and bringing it on tackles. D. Lewis started at the opposite safety spot in David’s absence and played well. When Roach came on the field, D. Lewis slid back to Nickel. I was surprised Anderson did not see more time at safety after his performance last week.

 

ST - Definitely not their best showing this week. The poor decision on a punt return and shanked punt gave Colgate scoring opportunities.

 

 

Credit Colgate for taking advantage of the early mistakes that were made. Those mistakes against good teams will result in losses. 

 

I wanted to see the OL be dominant. It was by far their best showing this season, yet still was not overly impressive. We have a solid duo on the interior with Seymore and Williams. Blanchard is usually solid at LT as well. We need someone to step up at the right guard and right tackle spots soon.

 

Next week, this team will be overmatched (again) and go against one of the better pass rushing units in the SEC. I’m not expecting much. Just get out of the game healthy, wipe the final score from memory, and focus on conference play. Playing this out-of-conference schedule did us no favors from a competitive and health standpoint. We’ll be right at 1-3, where almost every one thought we would be. In my opinion, the true measure of this year’s team starts against Ohio.

 

 

QB:

Finley

Bullock

 

RB:

Simmons

Kellom

 

WR:

Norton

Davis

 

WR:

Golden

Rush

 

WR:

Polk

Granger

 

TE:

Newell

Cravaack

 

LT:

Blanchard

Shor

 

LG:

Seymore

Morris

George

 

C

Williams

Morris

 

RG:

Davis

Burrell

 

RT:

James

Thomas

 

 

DE:

Nunnally

Cheatom

 

DT:

Lavea

Murphy

 

DT:

Kapongo

Moore

 

DE:

Adler

Ball

Richards

 

LB:

Fish

Benenge

 

LB:

McCoy

Spriggs

 

NB:

Greenwood

D. Lewis

 

CB:

Golden-Nelson

DeWalt

Reed

 

CB:

White

Hunter

Jarmon

 

S:

P.Lewis

Anderson

 

S:

D. Lewis

Roach 

 

 

Top Offensive Players (25 or more snaps)

WR - Golden (was Seymore)

RB - Kellom (was Golden)

LG - Seymore (was Newell)

WR - Norton

RB - Simmons (was James)

 

Top Defensive Players (25 or more snaps)

DE - Nunnally

S - P. Lewis

S - D. Lewis

CB - Golden-Nelson

DT - Lavea (was Kapongo)

 

Top Special Teams (10 snaps or more)

CB - DeWalt

RB - Castleberry

S - R. Hunter

S - Conroy

S - T. Thomas

 

Edited September 16 by catdaddyp

[Lee Adams]

Have a little different take on that game.

 

Haven't seen a QB make throws like Finley maybe since the Frye/Getsy era. The 56 yarder he threw to Golden, (I believe) was beautiful.  He was getting beat up again because the O line still isn't much good at pass protection. Finley sometimes scrambles a little too quickly. But sometimes its self preservation.

 

Moorehead's' lets kindly say strange play calling(I have a different word in mind) is contributing to Finley getting beat up. Moorehead better realize that if Finley goes down for any length of time his offense is toast. He has two quality RB's but won't use them consistently. Even Joe Dunn was wondering out loud why Akron wasn't running the ball more especially in the 2nd half.

 

Wide receivers looked good for the most part. They have a QB who can get the ball to them.

 

Defense was adequate against lesser competition. Still getting gouged on the ground too much. Colgate O line 'looked' bigger than Akron's defense. Db's looked good. Again, against lesser competition.

 

Finally have a punter and kicker who can contribute.

 

The lack of discipline on the field reared its ugly head again. Dumb, preventable penalties. I guess Moorehead isn't going to deal with it.

 

New scoreboard was nice. Free T shirts nice. Granddaughter had a great time.

 

I fear for Finley's health against S.Carolina. He is already hurting. If I'm the head coach as soon as it starts to get out of hand I sit Finley and some other starters and point to OU in Athens.

[MDZip]

If you listen to Moorehead's post game, he did address two of those things. Number one. He said he didn't run as much because Colgate was stacking the box and he said it doesn't make a lot of sense to run at a defense where you have less blockers than they have defenders on the run. As far as the lack of discipline on the penalties, he was upset about it too and said he has not done as good a job as he should coaching to make sure that those kinds of things do not occur. 

[catdaddyp]

2 hours ago, Lee Adams said:

Have a little different take on that game.

 

Haven't seen a QB make throws like Finley maybe since the Frye/Getsy era. The 56 yarder he threw to Golden, (I believe) was beautiful.  He was getting beat up again because the O line still isn't much good at pass protection. Finley sometimes scrambles a little too quickly. But sometimes its self preservation.

 

Moorehead's' lets kindly say strange play calling(I have a different word in mind) is contributing to Finley getting beat up. Moorehead better realize that if Finley goes down for any length of time his offense is toast. He has two quality RB's but won't use them consistently. Even Joe Dunn was wondering out loud why Akron wasn't running the ball more especially in the 2nd half.

 

Wide receivers looked good for the most part. They have a QB who can get the ball to them.

 

Defense was adequate against lesser competition. Still getting gouged on the ground too much. Colgate O line 'looked' bigger than Akron's defense. Db's looked good. Again, against lesser competition.

 

Finally have a punter and kicker who can contribute.

 

The lack of discipline on the field reared its ugly head again. Dumb, preventable penalties. I guess Moorehead isn't going to deal with it.

 

New scoreboard was nice. Free T shirts nice. Granddaughter had a great time.

 

I fear for Finley's health against S.Carolina. He is already hurting. If I'm the head coach as soon as it starts to get out of hand I sit Finley and some other starters and point to OU in Athens.

I would like to see a little more stubbornness in running the football. We wasted Lingard for portions of last year.

 

The defense gave up the 25 yarder to the QB, but outside of that stuffed Colgate. The next longest run was 5 yards and we held them under 85 yards rushing total. That’s pretty good. The three P4 teams we play this year are built to run the football.

 

Im also concerned for Finley…and the rest of our offense against South Carolina. Some of those guys come downhill looking to de-cleat players. 
 

Good to hear about the experience and your granddaughter having a great time. I’m looking forward to attending a game in a few weeks.

 

 

 

[a-zip]

Curious, when was the last time we covered the spread as a favorite? 

[GP1]

1 hour ago, a-zip said:

Curious, when was the last time we covered the spread as a favorite? 

Has anything become more tedious than discussing gambling stats? I'm so over it. 

[Zipmeister]

I'll wager (and give you 5 to 3 odds up to a million - even money on anything over that) that most people find the discussion of some other topic more tedious than gambling stats. For double or nothing, the over/under on the exact percentage is 60%. 

[a-zip]

1 hour ago, GP1 said:

Has anything become more tedious than discussing gambling stats? I'm so over it. 

Tedious?  It’s a simple question pal. 

[catdaddyp]

3 hours ago, a-zip said:

Curious, when was the last time we covered the spread as a favorite? 

No idea. I’m guessing we’ve only been favored 4 times in the Moorhead era. The 3 FCS opponents and versus Kent last year.

[a-zip]

7 minutes ago, catdaddyp said:

No idea. I’m guessing we’ve only been favored 4 times in the Moorhead era. The 3 FCS opponents and versus Kent last year.

That’s what I was thinking.  And I don’t think we covered any of those (we didn’t yesterday).  It has got to be a looooong time.  Sorry for the tedious question 

[Reslife4Life]

Spreads are hardly a "gambling stat" it is just a way to create a balanced scoring outcome. Obviously we should be winning games against FCS teams by a sizeable margin, and we should be losing to teams like OSU by a lot. It can be used as a gauge

[MangoZip]

My take on this game: first off, it’s great to get a win, no matter how ugly. Now, playing like that I just don’t think they could win another game on their schedule except maybe Kent. It seems like we’ve been talking about muffed punts and unsportsmanlike penalties for 3 years now - it’s maddening! It just keeps happening. Are the coaches just not addressing it aggressively enough or are the kids just too stupid? They STILL need to find a way to establish the run game. Passing too often with this offensive line is a recipe for disaster. 

[1981 grad]

I hated the last 2 minutes of the game.  For a team that has managed to lose games that it should have won, why tempt fate.  Moorehead could have run the clock down to the 2 minute warning without running a play.  Instead, he throws a pass that stops the clock at 2:01.  He then throws an interception.  Being a Zips fan, I could see the pass being run back for a pick 6 and the a recovered onside kick.  

 

I thought we should be able to run it down their throats but our zone read looked so slow it just never got going.  Finley still runs out of the pocket instead of looking downfield and taking a hit when he throws it.  This is not a recipe for success against division one team.  I would like to see Tahj play next week and give Finley the week off so he does not get injured.  We are going to get killed no matter who is the quarterback.  Also, why bring in Tahj, he did absolutely nothing when he lined up as quarterback and then shifted out of it.  I also believe we will win against Kent and that may be it.  

[72 Roo]

2 hours ago, MangoZip said:

My take on this game: first off, it’s great to get a win, no matter how ugly. Now, playing like that I just don’t think they could win another game on their schedule except maybe Kent. It seems like we’ve been talking about muffed punts and unsportsmanlike penalties for 3 years now - it’s maddening! It just keeps happening. Are the coaches just not addressing it aggressively enough or are the kids just too stupid? They STILL need to find a way to establish the run game. Passing too often with this offensive line is a recipe for disaster. 

Same old troubles: discipline, player control fouls, poor decision making, mouthing, poor performing OL. The staff is either tolerating it or coaching it because they are not fixing it. A great coach once told me his best assistant was the bench. If you are playing contrary to how you are coached you will be on the bench. He said it is surprising how fast the players corrected their mistakes. Discipline comes from the coaches, not the players. The coaches must demand it, then young men will give it. We will not win games because Joe is an offensive genius. We will win games because the players are well prepared down to the smallest detail. I still think we can go 4-8

[UA1996MAENG]

I was there in the cheap seats and I enjoyed the game after the first quarter.  I just don't know what to think. Does this team have the talent to win a few games in the MAC? Yes. Will it?  Hmmmm. I'm trying to be postive in that maybe this type of game allowed the team to work out timing (and work out the bugs) in real time, something that was not really possible against OSU and Rutgers. I think the Zips will start to gel over the next few games.  We might even see some progress against South Carolina.

[clarkwgriswold]

Sorry, but a reasonable FBS football team should be able to run the ball down the throat of a winless FCS team, even if they are stacking the box.

[Gate63]

Hi, do you guys still do physical game programs, and if so, does anyone have one from the Colgate game? Please reach out to me at colgatefootball@gmail.com if you do and are willing to part with it. 
 

thanks,

Ryan 

www.colgatefootballcollection.com