(Caveat: I have no doubt Cig will address these to the best of his ability. This isn't a post or thread about questioning the best coach in college football.)
Besides just healing up in general, things I think need to get worked out:
1. Who is our QB--I'd let Hoover rest his shoulder for the rest of the season, let Wilson get the reps for two weeks, start the remaining regular season games. Pretty sure Hoover has a partial tear of the rotator cuff. If he can get right and looks amazing in practice, maybe he comes back in the CFP, if we make it.
2. Fix punt returns: it looks like we might need to block better or find a guy who can both catch a punt and return a punt.
3. Get the kicking game in shape: WTF is going on with Radicic? It's not just one game. Need this fixed (if it can be--can you even coach up kickers?).
4. Run game: be great if we could get this back to being a force. I suspect a lot of that rests on the passing game loosening up the opposing defenses. But maybe tape review will show that opposing DCs are doing something different to defend our blocking schemes that we need to adjust to and haven't had the chance to implement without a bye. Maybe Wilson's running ability also can change this.
This last one, though, brings up a question that maybe Sammy @thehoosierhuddle can answer: is Cig a guy who will put in new wrinkles, schematic adjustments mid-season, or is he more a guy who wants to do simple better and make sure players are executing his original designs more flawlessly? (Obviously, it could be both, but if you devote practice time to new stuff, you can't drill the old stuff as much).
Good list.
For me the biggest thing to address is health. They need to be honest with themselves about what Hoover's injury is and make a decision off of that. I am a big fan of Grant Wilson. He's very capable and getting him more reps with the first team offense could be very beneficial. I personally would go with Wilson, but have no indication how bad Hoover's injury is, but clearly it is affecting him.
For punt returns, again it may be a health issue. Lebron Bond would be my choice to put back there. He returned punts in high school and should at least know what he's doing. Becker, while a valiant effort, is lost back there. Bond has been banged up, but maybe he can get back during the off week.
This may be a snapper issue. The whole operation is a mess and kicking is such a rhythm thing. Maybe Radicic's rib cage injury is impacting things as well. However, there were some very poor snaps against Minnesota. From my experience as a kicker and holder in HS, it's time on task and may just rep it again and again in practice.
I think having a QB who can force defenses to defend the pass will loosen things up. Wilson's legs can be a weapon (get ready for the "sneaky athlete" comments). Also, the offensive line needs to get fresh. I believe there were three holding penalties yesterday. One on Smith, Lynch and Brunner. Getting Khobie back will help.
I am currently rewatching the game before my wrap and reaction.
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My gut is at this point, we mostly are who we are. The bye is a much needed break, and getting guys healthy will help, but big fixes on offense probably won't happen.
The thing that could change things is Grant. He could open up our offense / loosen up defenses.
That said, at best (if Grant works out or Hoover gets healthy), I think we're an elite defense with an offense that can only score up to the mid-20's on a good day. The could take us pretty far. Probably not as far as we want... but that's life.
I don’t think Hoovers injury is the reason he is playing poorly! It’s all in his head and his mechanics imho. Throwing off his back foot many times, and misreading the wr routes are the big reasons. I don’t think a torn rotator cuff would cause him to overthrow the ball as much as he has!
A MAC QB with a torn ACL ran this offense 1000000X better than an experienced Big 12 QB.
Good list. I also agree with Sammy’s comments.
I would go with Wilson. I would have started him yesterday as I said in the other thread bout it earlier in the week. Hoover must be really good in practice but for some reason he has not been able to take it to the field. I know the feeling, I’m great at hitting golf balls on the practice range but it is tough to take it to the course.
For whatever reason Tyler Morris has got that drop in his head. He returned punts at Michigan without trouble but at this point he cannot be trusted. He needs to get it back together over the bye week.
I also feel the troubles with the run game relate to safeties not having to be as concerned about throws over the middle. Last year Coop was devasting over the middle. This year we don’t seem to have that guy. Is this again a Tyler Morris issue?
I have no idea what happened to a rock solid kicking game other than I agree yesterday was a snap issue for field goals. Even on Paddy’s kick the snap was shakey and the holder did a great job of getting it down. I also snapped in HS so I like to watch that. Our snapper has been shakey all year with the snaps too far to the inside which are hard to get down in time.
First and foremost, get healthy. We need to get our guys bandaged up and rested. Hoover and Harris both need time.
Special teams is needs to get right. With our defense, don't screw up on special teams and we're gonna have a chance to win every game we play. We can't leave 9 points on the board mixed with two punts that go a total ot about 30 yards.
When it comes to Hoover, either you let him get healthy and trot him back out there or you go with Wilson the rest of the way. We can't keep going back and forth, need a guy to get in a rhythm. Both guys need to be ready, but we need to choose one and stick with him.
Outside of that, we need to stop beating ourselves with stupid penalties.
The bye is coming at a really good time.
@hoosieralum07 I don't think it's mental. He was chucking it side arm on his last bunch of throws. He's clearly hurt and it is clearly impacting his throws. Whether it's a wrist, shoulder or rib injury, he's hurt and it clearly has affected how he throws the ball.
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Gowers.
Any news on Turbo?
Worried about Hardy. He's been playing great at LB. But a back tweak in warmup where they described it as a 'pop'? Damn, if he can't get to 100% soon we are out of depth, with Savage playing all the snaps. Savage is good, but more good is better. Hopefully Hardy will be OK soon.
Harris made a big difference when finally able to play. But even if without him, it just took longer for our secondary to gel this year, so I don't think we'll regress much. But hope Harris is good to go for USC.
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If Martin gets back to full strength he can make a difference with our run game.
I agree they need Hardy badly.
The best news about the QB situation is they have barely been over 50% for several games, so it isn't like Wison has to make the whole offense go. He just needs to find open receivers and read the defense (which isn't easy, but he may be capabale).
I think the run game has a chance to make the offense really tic. There's more to squeeze from that rock.
@hoosieralum07 I don't think it's mental. He was chucking it side arm on his last bunch of throws. He's clearly hurt and it is clearly impacting his throws. Whether it's a wrist, shoulder or rib injury, he's hurt and it clearly has affected how he throws the ball.
Shoulder