FB: North Coast Athletic Conference

[02 Warhawk]

UST fans are coming out of the woodwork now.

[DPU3619]

There's a 41% 3rd down conversion rate by SJU opponents that would challenge the idea that they had a really, really good front line defense.  That's a poor number.  168th in the division poor.   There's other factors clearly, but 12 games worth of 3rd down percentage is a really good indicator of what's going on at the LOS.

Agree with this. And from what I watched, the Augsburg front 5 actually did a pretty good job against the UST front. I think their DL can be blocked. They do some things schematically with alignment and twisting to try to get guys free, but there's only so much of that you can do from a 4 man front while staying gap sound. You have to stay gap sound in general, but that's especially true against a zone blocking team. It's tough to get really exotic from an even front without involving the DBs, and those looks are always easy to ID pre-snap.

As I said the other day, I saw mostly even from UST except in obvious pass situations. I would guess they don't like their run fits in the 3-man front. I read a great article the other day, and for the life of me I can't find it now, about how the odd front is going away (and particularly the 3-5-3, or 3-3 stack defense) because the run fits limit you in the DL pass rush. Most teams have their DL read the run game and try to play 2 gaps. That slows you dramatically in the pass rush.

All this has been a really roundabout way of telling you that I think Wabash can handle UST's box defenders if they sit in an even front. There will be some twisting & slanting, but that's nothing that Wabash hasn't seen before.

I do wonder, as I said earlier, how ready UST's OL can be for all of Wabash's exotics from odd with 4 or 5 days of practice. Just don't know how much of that they see in the MIAC. Wabash has a lot of these to get ready for. They're really good at it and they've got the dudes to run it. If UST blocks that stuff well, Wabash will not win.

[USTBench]

If we're speaking specifically about the Carleton game, UST went up 66 to 3 with 6:28 left in the 3rd on a 55 yard run by their 3rd string freshman.  Then, UST drove down again with their 3 string freshman RB and scored on a 6 yard run to put it at 73 to 7 early in the 4th. UST then relied on their 4th string RB who ran it 5 times and Fenske threw a 4 yard TD to their senior wide receiver Teddy Andrews, making his only career catch and TD with 7:38 left in the game.

Not sure what you do there? There's almost 8 minutes left. You're going to score a TD. You've been pumping the breaks quite a bit just feeding the rock to 4th and 5th guys on the depth chart. It was a 4 yard pass. NBD. I played nearly the entire 4th quarter against Carleton when I was a sophomore in 2001. I was PRAYING I would get the ball at least once. I'm glad Teddy got one, 4 years on the scout team is a long time. I would know.

Anyway, to end the game they got the ball back again and let their 5th, 6th and 7th string RBs have a few carries and they turned it over on downs. They ran it on 4th and 2 with their 7th string RB/FB from the Carleton 20 instead of kicking a FG. My guess is if they got the first down they would have taken a knee.

[wally_wabash]

If we're speaking specifically about the Carleton game, UST went up 66 to 3 with 6:28 left in the 3rd on a 55 yard run by their 3rd string freshman.  Then, UST drove down again with their 3 string freshman RB and scored on a 6 yard run to put it at 73 to 7 early in the 4th. UST then relied on their 4th string RB who ran it 5 times and Fenske threw a 4 yard TD to their senior wide receiver Teddy Andrews, making his only career catch and TD with 7:38 left in the game.

Not sure what you do there? There's almost 8 minutes left. You're going to score a TD. You've been pumping the breaks quite a bit just feeding the rock to 4th and 5th guys on the depth chart. It was a 4 yard pass. NBD. I played nearly the entire 4th quarter against Carleton when I was a sophomore in 2001. I was PRAYING I would get the ball at least once. I'm glad Teddy got one, 4 years on the scout team is a long time. I would know.

Anyway, to end the game they got the ball back again and let their 5th, 6th and 7th string RBs have a few carries and they turned it over on downs. They ran it on 4th and 2 with their 7th string RB/FB from the Carleton 20 instead of kicking a FG. My guess is if they got the first down they would have taken a knee.

This stuff really doesn't bother me as much as it does some people.  Mount Union teams have pretty regularly taken to running out of bounds or self-downing near the goal line in blowouts and kicking FGs on 1st down.  I'm honestly not sure that that's a whole lot better than throwing to score your 80th point.  Is it merciful?  Sure, but like in a really, really condescending way.  At least from my view. 

But I will say this- when you throw in the fourth quarter to hang 80 on a team that is WAY outclassed, you have to know how that's going to be perceived as a coach.  You can choose to care or not care as the coach and do whatever you want, but you have to know how that looks.  Intentionally so or not, it appears very unsporting.

[DadofBashWarrior..]

Gentlemen...I will be at the game. If you would like insurance against a lousy video feed for the game... as it was lousy this past Saturday you are welcome to email me and I will give you my phone for texting throughout.

      WABASH ALWAYS FIGHTS

[USTBench]

Gentlemen...I will be at the game. If you would like insurance against a lousy video feed for the game... as it was lousy this past Saturday you are welcome to email me and I will give you my phone for texting throughout.

      WABASH ALWAYS FIGHTS

If the feed is bad you can also listen online to WCCO 830 AM. Dave Lee does the play-by-play and isn't over-the-top biased.

PS. There's been rumors there's no tailgating. No true. Lot M, south campus. Safety and Security looks the other way with the alcoholic beverages so long as you keep them in a cup.

[AO]

Gentlemen...I will be at the game. If you would like insurance against a lousy video feed for the game... as it was lousy this past Saturday you are welcome to email me and I will give you my phone for texting throughout.

You could try periscoping.

[ExTartanPlayer]

If we're speaking specifically about the Carleton game, UST went up 66 to 3 with 6:28 left in the 3rd on a 55 yard run by their 3rd string freshman.  Then, UST drove down again with their 3 string freshman RB and scored on a 6 yard run to put it at 73 to 7 early in the 4th. UST then relied on their 4th string RB who ran it 5 times and Fenske threw a 4 yard TD to their senior wide receiver Teddy Andrews, making his only career catch and TD with 7:38 left in the game.

Not sure what you do there? There's almost 8 minutes left. You're going to score a TD. You've been pumping the breaks quite a bit just feeding the rock to 4th and 5th guys on the depth chart. It was a 4 yard pass. NBD. I played nearly the entire 4th quarter against Carleton when I was a sophomore in 2001. I was PRAYING I would get the ball at least once. I'm glad Teddy got one, 4 years on the scout team is a long time. I would know.

Anyway, to end the game they got the ball back again and let their 5th, 6th and 7th string RBs have a few carries and they turned it over on downs. They ran it on 4th and 2 with their 7th string RB/FB from the Carleton 20 instead of kicking a FG. My guess is if they got the first down they would have taken a knee.

Yeah, I agree...with this stuff you have to delve into the box score a little bit instead of just looking at the final numbers on the board (as wally said, if the other team starts taking knees and running out of bounds on purpose, maybe the number on the scoreboard is lower but it's certainly no less hurtful to the pride of the other team).  UST had like a dozen different guys carry the ball and/or catch a pass.  I understand the notion that any pass at all with a big lead can be perceived as dickish, but I don't really agree with that.  If the backups are in, and it sounds like the very deep backups were in the game for UST, then whatever.

A couple years ago Widener won a game 90-0 and the sportsmanship Nazis lost their minds.  The last four touchdowns were scored in the fourth quarter, but they were all scored by deep-on-the-bench guys (one was even scored by a freshman defensive player on a fumbled kickoff).  It's not just about the score.

I do think the early 2-pointer was a dickish thing (not just that they want for 2, but a freaking behind the back pass?) but the overall score, fine.

Anyways, back to our coverage of this week's game, in which passing with an 80-point lead is unlikely to be an issue.

[DPU3619]

I do think the early 2-pointer was a dickish thing (not just that they want for 2, but a freaking behind the back pass?) but the overall score, fine.

Two arguments from me on this:

1) It's early. Are they probably going to win by a trillion? Yeah. Is it a certainty? No. Stranger things have happened.

2) You have to do something to keep it fun for the kids. They get burned out running inside zone 75 times every day in practice for 6 months. Tell 'em your putting a trick play in and it's got a behind the back pass in it. It makes it fun for them and it keeps them engaged, which is probably the single most important factor of how good of a team you really are. I'm a firm believer whether your win or lose a game is dependent on this: 15% talent, 10% scheme, 75% mental state of your kids during the game.

You have to keep in mind this generation of kids is different. They aren't like us. I say that being less than 10 years removed from them, but it's true. You can't scream at them the whole practice everyday and expect them to do the job because they're scared of you. I know that's how it was for the majority of us growing up, but it's not like that anymore. You have to find creative ways to keep their attention sometimes. Even the ones that say they love it get burned out. They have too much outside stimuli to not get burned out or distracted.

My team runs the majority of our trick plays early in games against bad teams, too. We ran a double reverse pass against the worst team on our schedule. Ran 2 XP fakes against the 2nd worst team. Why? Because we know they'll work.

I'm not gonna waste all the reps it takes to get good enough at them (which takes away from my time running our base stuff) if I don't think it's going to work. I'm not taking huge risks like that against the good teams, anyway. We have a 15 minute trick play period 2x/week. Even though I may call less than 5 trick plays the whole season. We called exactly 3 in roughly 700 snaps this year. That's the #1 way to make it fun for them every day. We feel like we have to do it for the mentality of our kids.

[wabndy]

Thanks Wes- appreciate your insight as always. If that's what Caruso feels like he needs to do to keep his players jazzed up- then hey- he's the one with it on the line.  Btw- Wes. Have you ever seen the swinging gate actually work?

[Pat Coleman]

Thanks Wes- appreciate your insight as always. If that's what Caruso feels like he needs to do to keep his players jazzed up- then hey- he's the one with it on the line.  Btw- Wes. Have you ever seen the swinging gate actually work?

I saw it work vs. La Verne.

[Tom Thumb]

TommieMedia just released this week's edition of The Locker Room with Glenn Caruso, Ryan Bradley, and Mozus Ikuenobe. Sounds like UST has a lot of respect for Wabash. Should be a good game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5yTLx-3SPs

[DPU3619]

Thanks Wes- appreciate your insight as always. If that's what Caruso feels like he needs to do to keep his players jazzed up- then hey- he's the one with it on the line.  Btw- Wes. Have you ever seen the swinging gate actually work?

Love swinging gate! Now you've opened a can of worms. Haha. Our entire 2 point package is from swinging gate. My HC and I both love it. This is pretty much our formation:



The gate is tighter to the center than the pic. It's about 3 yards. We also add a lineman (our stud NT) by going unbalanced. We set him closest to the center. The kicker is split out by himself like 2 yards off the sideline to the right.

We practice about 20 plays out of it, but we've only called 6 in a game:
1. Center direct snap to the "gate" guy and then wedge block it with the big guys. We're something stupid like 24 of 26 on these in 4 seasons.
2. Center eligible pass, which you can't do in college or the pros. That's how we get to unbalanced. We cover the NT up with the center. Our short snapper is a WR (since you can't hit the center anyway), so he does a really good job with it. It's pretty nasty. We run slant with the kicker & corner towards him with the center. Really, really tough to stop.
3. Speed option away from the gate with the QB and the "RB"
4. Outside zone read towards the gate with the "RB."
5. We motion the "gate" guy into the backfield and run like a QB lead play with the center & two backs blocking.
6. Also run a quick hitch to the kicker, who honestly could probably play TE for us. He's a big boy. We call him Fat McAfee. Kinda turns into a basketball boxout when he's got a corner on him.

It works for us. I think we've hit about 80% of our attempts. We only run 2 guys on/off for XP (the kicker and the NT for our C and TE) so they get lined up in a hurry. I usually call it from the box based on the D's alignment. If I don't see anything we like, or situation dictates it, we'll shift back to normal FG and kick the XP.

[Pat Coleman]

I am loving this week's Breakdown With Wes Anderson.

[DPU3619]

I am loving this week's Breakdown With Wes Anderson.

It's the offseason and I miss football