In 2013, in our OOC we beat:
CSU (8-6): 41-27
Central Arkansas I-AA: 38-24
Charleston Southern I-AA: 43-10
In 2017, in our OOC we beat:
CSU: 17-3
Texas St: 37-3
UNC: 41-24
Honestly, this preseason has felt a lot like the 2013 preseason. We are obviously better than we were in 2013, but I'm not sure anymore by how much. It would be an understatement to say how shocked I am about how poorly this team has played, but damn, can't really ignore it anymore. We were up 28-21 on UNC midway through the 3rd quarter and they dropped the easiest of gift touchdowns. I was hoping CSU was an anomaly and Texas State was sleep walking, but even looking ahead to UW should have seen us up by 4 TDs by the 4th quarter.
Truthfully, we haven't played much better than we did in our only other patsy preseason, 2013. I need not remind anybody that we won exactly 1 Pac 12 game in 2013, Cal at home. The good news is the Pac 12 doesn't appear to be as good as it was in 2013 when all but 2 teams we played were above .500 and 4 of them won 10+ games that season. No more than 2 will win 10+ games this year.
OL play. This is the best OL since...? That was the headline up at cubuffs.com and hopefully they have taken that article down and erased it from the anals of the internet. This might be the worst OL since the 2013 season. As for DL, I'm still shocked watching UNC's OL steamroll 5 yards downfield on a simple trap play. Where is our 350# NT? To make matters worse, our other 300# DT is now out for a half against UW. Great! Thankfully Umu is suspended too so our DL rotation will exist of 5 guys, 4 of which struggle mightily and potentially Frazier who was very rusty against UNC. I thought Huckins was an issue on the OL, but we couldn't snap the ball to the QB and still couldn't block the middle worth a darn. It wasn't until late in the game that we finally starting springing Lindsay. As for pass blocking, I couldn't believe how often their DL shoved our OL back into Montez. On one play, Kough was on roller skates on a simple 5 step drop and the DL literally ran Kough over and Montez in the same bull rush. I remember watching those same kind of plays in 2013. I guess I want Huckins back in the lineup now.
I'll give Oliver a pass on the 2 long TDs against the fast receiver. One was an unfortunate slip on wet grass. On the other, he got bumped off his coverage from the safety who misread the play painfully. I imagine he won't give 2 more up in a game the rest of the year, but not a good confidence booster before we see UW's stud WRs. Udoffia was lucky enough to have 2 drops his way, but his overall coverage was still spotty (some good and some very bad). I will say that Fisher looked good in his only playing time. Gives me some hope that we have another defender back there we can count on because we'll need him. The WRs at least were improved. We got up field after the catch finally. Still, not enough 1 on 1 wins against tacklers. YAC should be a lot better for these guys and we just haven't broken that big game changing play offensively since the first 2 TDs against CSU. This offense lacks explosion. Not enough 2nd level blocks and plays take a long time to develop.
The most shocking thing of this preseason for me is that we barely got our backup QBs 2 series. Backups in general played very little. We did little to build depth. We have to have our starters play an entire game against a .500 I-AA team like UNC. UW may get their backups more time in our game than we have for all of our games.
Is this still a team that will win 7 and possibly 8? We are double digit dogs at home to UW. We will be favored against UA, but not double digits I can tell you that. The line against ASU might be even. We will be dogs to UCLA, WSU, USC, and Utah. We will be favored against OSU and potentially Cal (along with previously mentioned UA). I hate to think how many Pac 12 teams struggle with UNC at home. I'm just really glad they didn't play @Florida. We would REALLY look bad if that game was used as a comparison.
CSU (8-6): 41-27
Central Arkansas I-AA: 38-24
Charleston Southern I-AA: 43-10
In 2017, in our OOC we beat:
CSU: 17-3
Texas St: 37-3
UNC: 41-24
Honestly, this preseason has felt a lot like the 2013 preseason. We are obviously better than we were in 2013, but I'm not sure anymore by how much. It would be an understatement to say how shocked I am about how poorly this team has played, but damn, can't really ignore it anymore. We were up 28-21 on UNC midway through the 3rd quarter and they dropped the easiest of gift touchdowns. I was hoping CSU was an anomaly and Texas State was sleep walking, but even looking ahead to UW should have seen us up by 4 TDs by the 4th quarter.
Truthfully, we haven't played much better than we did in our only other patsy preseason, 2013. I need not remind anybody that we won exactly 1 Pac 12 game in 2013, Cal at home. The good news is the Pac 12 doesn't appear to be as good as it was in 2013 when all but 2 teams we played were above .500 and 4 of them won 10+ games that season. No more than 2 will win 10+ games this year.
OL play. This is the best OL since...? That was the headline up at cubuffs.com and hopefully they have taken that article down and erased it from the anals of the internet. This might be the worst OL since the 2013 season. As for DL, I'm still shocked watching UNC's OL steamroll 5 yards downfield on a simple trap play. Where is our 350# NT? To make matters worse, our other 300# DT is now out for a half against UW. Great! Thankfully Umu is suspended too so our DL rotation will exist of 5 guys, 4 of which struggle mightily and potentially Frazier who was very rusty against UNC. I thought Huckins was an issue on the OL, but we couldn't snap the ball to the QB and still couldn't block the middle worth a darn. It wasn't until late in the game that we finally starting springing Lindsay. As for pass blocking, I couldn't believe how often their DL shoved our OL back into Montez. On one play, Kough was on roller skates on a simple 5 step drop and the DL literally ran Kough over and Montez in the same bull rush. I remember watching those same kind of plays in 2013. I guess I want Huckins back in the lineup now.
I'll give Oliver a pass on the 2 long TDs against the fast receiver. One was an unfortunate slip on wet grass. On the other, he got bumped off his coverage from the safety who misread the play painfully. I imagine he won't give 2 more up in a game the rest of the year, but not a good confidence booster before we see UW's stud WRs. Udoffia was lucky enough to have 2 drops his way, but his overall coverage was still spotty (some good and some very bad). I will say that Fisher looked good in his only playing time. Gives me some hope that we have another defender back there we can count on because we'll need him. The WRs at least were improved. We got up field after the catch finally. Still, not enough 1 on 1 wins against tacklers. YAC should be a lot better for these guys and we just haven't broken that big game changing play offensively since the first 2 TDs against CSU. This offense lacks explosion. Not enough 2nd level blocks and plays take a long time to develop.
The most shocking thing of this preseason for me is that we barely got our backup QBs 2 series. Backups in general played very little. We did little to build depth. We have to have our starters play an entire game against a .500 I-AA team like UNC. UW may get their backups more time in our game than we have for all of our games.
Is this still a team that will win 7 and possibly 8? We are double digit dogs at home to UW. We will be favored against UA, but not double digits I can tell you that. The line against ASU might be even. We will be dogs to UCLA, WSU, USC, and Utah. We will be favored against OSU and potentially Cal (along with previously mentioned UA). I hate to think how many Pac 12 teams struggle with UNC at home. I'm just really glad they didn't play @Florida. We would REALLY look bad if that game was used as a comparison.
