Haven't seen many comments concerning individual play on here.....so I thought I'd throw in my $.02.....A lot of it will be considered negative by the Board, but here goes anyway...
1. Overall, I thought NT State looked pretty legit. Similar to O.D. last year or a top 3 MAC team. I was surprised we weren't able to dominate in the run game. Obviously, we played it conservatively with limited passing but they never gave up.
2. Hoover was impressive. Cig mentioned in his PC that the sideline throw would probably be a pick in the BT. But....it was a hell of a dart under the circumstances. And the throw to Chandler was very impressive as well. Hoover, Becker & I. Jones all played great, imo. Tyler Morris doesn't shine quite as brightly, but he's going to be tremendously productive. I feel like Chandler will be on the field with Morris some as time goes by....his upside is tremendous. I expect the OL line pass blocking to be better than last year, absent injuries. The offensive potential is enormous. I know it's not his game, but I do hope Hoover will be willing to scramble for a first down or two per game when the games get more competitive.
3. I thought Turbo & Beebe were as advertised. I sure hope we target Turbo a lot out of the backfield.
4. Imo, the O line disappointed overall. I understand that NTS played for the run, but it was just not a dominant performance. Some of the credit has to go to their DL. They were feisty. They were also helped by our scores being so quick and their drives being so time-consuming.
5. I thought the DL also disappointed. The KSU guys are not as explosive as hoped. Barnham (?) was ok. The DL also had problems first game last year, so I expect much improvement.
6. I expected B. Baldwin to have a more prominent role. He didn't play much, and when he did play he didn't do much.
7. Jones was all over the place, but Hardy was not very active.
8. I was disappointed in Zachman's play. Huge dropoff there from Moore. He didn't look quick or physical. #13, Sanks, the kid from Cincinnati, looked interesting.
9. Bell & Gandy...yikes. Harris has to step up when he returns.
10. I know we played very vanilla on D.
11. The kickoff guy will be very valuable.
12. Someone commented on another site that Becker has never dropped a pass at IU....don't know if that's correct, but I don't remember any.
Good observations! Minor nit to pick... North Texas State University (NTSU or NT State) officially changed its name to the University of North Texas (UNT) in 1988.
Good observations. My only differences were that I thought Morris and Baldwin both played pretty well. I didn’t count Baldwin’s play numbers but when he was in I saw him make some plays. Agree on Gundry, of course we are comparing him to Ponds so that is a little unfair.Haven't seen many comments concerning individual play on here.....so I thought I'd throw in my $.02.....A lot of it will be considered negative by the Board, but here goes anyway...
1. Overall, I thought NT State looked pretty legit. Similar to O.D. last year or a top 3 MAC team. I was surprised we weren't able to dominate in the run game. Obviously, we played it conservatively with limited passing but they never gave up.
2. Hoover was impressive. Cig mentioned in his PC that the sideline throw would probably be a pick in the BT. But....it was a hell of a dart under the circumstances. And the throw to Chandler was very impressive as well. Hoover, Becker & I. Jones all played great, imo. Tyler Morris doesn't shine quite as brightly, but he's going to be tremendously productive. I feel like Chandler will be on the field with Morris some as time goes by....his upside is tremendous. I expect the OL line pass blocking to be better than last year, absent injuries. The offensive potential is enormous. I know it's not his game, but I do hope Hoover will be willing to scramble for a first down or two per game when the games get more competitive.
3. I thought Turbo & Beebe were as advertised. I sure hope we target Turbo a lot out of the backfield.
4. Imo, the O line disappointed overall. I understand that NTS played for the run, but it was just not a dominant performance. Some of the credit has to go to their DL. They were feisty. They were also helped by our scores being so quick and their drives being so time-consuming.
5. I thought the DL also disappointed. The KSU guys are not as explosive as hoped. Barnham (?) was ok. The DL also had problems first game last year, so I expect much improvement.
6. I expected B. Baldwin to have a more prominent role. He didn't play much, and when he did play he didn't do much.
7. Jones was all over the place, but Hardy was not very active.
8. I was disappointed in Zachman's play. Huge dropoff there from Moore. He didn't look quick or physical. #13, Sanks, the kid from Cincinnati, looked interesting.
9. Bell & Gandy...yikes. Harris has to step up when he returns.
10. I know we played very vanilla on D.
11. The kickoff guy will be very valuable.
12. Someone commented on another site that Becker has never dropped a pass at IU....don't know if that's correct, but I don't remember any.
I guess Baldwin was in for 34 snaps. Some may have been ST.
I agree with all of this.Haven't seen many comments concerning individual play on here.....so I thought I'd throw in my $.02.....A lot of it will be considered negative by the Board, but here goes anyway...
1. Overall, I thought NT State looked pretty legit. Similar to O.D. last year or a top 3 MAC team. I was surprised we weren't able to dominate in the run game. Obviously, we played it conservatively with limited passing but they never gave up.
2. Hoover was impressive. Cig mentioned in his PC that the sideline throw would probably be a pick in the BT. But....it was a hell of a dart under the circumstances. And the throw to Chandler was very impressive as well. Hoover, Becker & I. Jones all played great, imo. Tyler Morris doesn't shine quite as brightly, but he's going to be tremendously productive. I feel like Chandler will be on the field with Morris some as time goes by....his upside is tremendous. I expect the OL line pass blocking to be better than last year, absent injuries. The offensive potential is enormous. I know it's not his game, but I do hope Hoover will be willing to scramble for a first down or two per game when the games get more competitive.
3. I thought Turbo & Beebe were as advertised. I sure hope we target Turbo a lot out of the backfield.
4. Imo, the O line disappointed overall. I understand that NTS played for the run, but it was just not a dominant performance. Some of the credit has to go to their DL. They were feisty. They were also helped by our scores being so quick and their drives being so time-consuming.
5. I thought the DL also disappointed. The KSU guys are not as explosive as hoped. Barnham (?) was ok. The DL also had problems first game last year, so I expect much improvement.
6. I expected B. Baldwin to have a more prominent role. He didn't play much, and when he did play he didn't do much.
7. Jones was all over the place, but Hardy was not very active.
8. I was disappointed in Zachman's play. Huge dropoff there from Moore. He didn't look quick or physical. #13, Sanks, the kid from Cincinnati, looked interesting.
9. Bell & Gandy...yikes. Harris has to step up when he returns.
10. I know we played very vanilla on D.
11. The kickoff guy will be very valuable.
12. Someone commented on another site that Becker has never dropped a pass at IU....don't know if that's correct, but I don't remember any.
I'll add that that catch by Marsh, while it was his only real highlight, was gorgeous. Gave me goose bumps thinking about what he might do this year. Becker is just a great WR. Hard to believe he was buried on the depth chart last year at this time.
I thought our running backs seemed less powerful than last year. Hemby and Black had an ability to fall forward for an extra yard or two on every run. Saturday's backs got hit and went sideways or down most of the time. Hopefully, that's just a one game anomaly.
IU ground game would have produced more positive results if there had been 60-65 plays run instead of 46. Not because of the yards from that quantity of plays but because the opponent defense and DL in particular and because that quantity of plays wears them down. Offensive efficiency made the low #'s happen. A lot of it Hoover's completion %.
I think the run game looks better with two alternatives:
1. Beebe's run doesn't get called back for a garbage hold call
2. The return game doesn't give IU such great field position which resulted in shorter fields, shorter drives, less plays to wear them down, and allowed them to put more guys in the box since there wasn't a threat to get beat deep.
The defense unable to get off the field was much more concerning. I hope it is just because of the injuries on the outside, a lack of available film on an unknown roster, and a vanilla approach.
@mushroomgod I think it is a negative review just from the standpoint that you seem to be making mid-season conclusions, not game 1. When you reflect on the fact that every game 1 has had disappointing performances under Cig, but then we went on to a CFP appearance and an undefeated season and NC, it does change the consideration, as does the heat and the 140ish yards in the return game, which should be given more credit. A yard on a kickoff or punt return is just as long as the yards on the following plays and if you add return yards on to offensive yards, it does paint IU's offensive performance in a much better light vs UNT. Watching Hoover's TCU highlights, I don't think he'll hesitate to run when there's a first down or TD on the line. Beyond that, I'd rather him move more in the pocket to extend plays and look to do dump offs to the RBs and TEs let let them run the ball since he doesn't have Mendoza's size.
@mushroomgod I think, overall, we looked better in this year's opener, than we did in either of the last 2. Our pass game was dominant. Our special teams was dominant. We didn't give up any enormous gash plays on defense. But, as you pointed out, there are quite a lot of things that need worked on. I trust the staff, and the talent they've assembled, to effectively do that.
One area I'm not sure we'll be able to match the last two teams... we don't have Ponds protecting the boundary side of the field. Harris, Gandy, whoever is playing that role for this team, isn't going to do it as well as Ponds did. Ponds was historically good, probably doesn't get enough credit from all of us even for how dominant he was. But I think not getting off the field on third downs, was our single biggest problem on Saturday. The obvious effect of giving up more yards, and eventually points... but it filtered out in to other areas, and impacted offensive strategies and stats, time of possession, etc... I'm sure Haines and Cig will figure out a way for the defense to get better at getting off the field. But having one guy protect the boundary, and the impact and importance of that, isn't likely going to be a way they can do it this year. We saw the negative impacts of that very clearly on Saturday. Matchups like OSU are gonna be very tricky.
I had some of the same concerns regarding the run game last year after Old Dominion when we couldn't put it over the goal line or 4th and 1. My inclination is that we kept running the ball in both games as a challenge to the OL. I bring that up specifically with the UNT game because any time we needed a pass play to come through, it did. I'm confident that they could've thrown the ball all over the field with UNT committing to the run but chose not to. I also suspect that was somewhat intentional to keep the defense off the field with the heat and get the game over with, because lord knows the defense wasn't keeping themselves off the field.
One thing I noticed (and predicted for this season) is that we'd see more downfield passing than last year. Fernando was really good with the quick outs & our receivers with the bubbles that there was a lot of those passes last year. It wasn't really until Charlie emerged mid/late season that the deep ball became a major part of the offense. You could also look at Omar's stats from '24 - '25 to see how much more he was getting the ball closer to the LOS and making plays vs. getting behind the defense. I expect to see a reversion to '24 where they try to take the top off if the defense keeps giving us 1-on-1 matchups on the WRs.
Again, aside from it being a first game situation, those conditions were miserable Saturday. I actually think it was at least borderline unsafe for the players. So, I'm withholding judgment until at least after Western Kentucky.
@mushroomgod I think, overall, we looked better in this year's opener, than we did in either of the last 2. Our pass game was dominant. Our special teams was dominant. We didn't give up any enormous gash plays on defense. But, as you pointed out, there are quite a lot of things that need worked on. I trust the staff, and the talent they've assembled, to effectively do that.
One area I'm not sure we'll be able to match the last two teams... we don't have Ponds protecting the boundary side of the field. Harris, Gandy, whoever is playing that role for this team, isn't going to do it as well as Ponds did. Ponds was historically good, probably doesn't get enough credit from all of us even for how dominant he was. But I think not getting off the field on third downs, was our single biggest problem on Saturday. The obvious effect of giving up more yards, and eventually points... but it filtered out in to other areas, and impacted offensive strategies and stats, time of possession, etc... I'm sure Haines and Cig will figure out a way for the defense to get better at getting off the field. But having one guy protect the boundary, and the impact and importance of that, isn't likely going to be a way they can do it this year. We saw the negative impacts of that very clearly on Saturday. Matchups like OSU are gonna be very tricky.
I was hoping that our pass rush would be so fierce this year that it would offset Ponds' departure. It didn't work out that way Saturday, but Haines played it very simple.....few stunts or blitzes. Also, no impact yet from our returning DEs, so we have that to look forward to.
I'll be interested in seeing if Cig opens up the offense with Hoover and the combo of Becker & Marsh.....more deep shots. If so, there will be a little more pressure on the D, as we'll have more O possessions.
Except that one quick out or bubble against Ohio State that was intercepted. 🤣Fernando was really good with the quick outs & our receivers with the bubbles ...
@mushroomgod I've always thought they intended to offset the loss of Ponds by increasing pressure on opposing QBs with those defensive ends and still think that will be part of the plan. One game isn't changing my opinion on that.
Haven't seen many comments concerning individual play on here.....so I thought I'd throw in my $.02.....A lot of it will be considered negative by the Board, but here goes anyway...
1. Overall, I thought NT State looked pretty legit. Similar to O.D. last year or a top 3 MAC team. I was surprised we weren't able to dominate in the run game. Obviously, we played it conservatively with limited passing but they never gave up.
2. Hoover was impressive. Cig mentioned in his PC that the sideline throw would probably be a pick in the BT. But....it was a hell of a dart under the circumstances. And the throw to Chandler was very impressive as well. Hoover, Becker & I. Jones all played great, imo. Tyler Morris doesn't shine quite as brightly, but he's going to be tremendously productive. I feel like Chandler will be on the field with Morris some as time goes by....his upside is tremendous. I expect the OL line pass blocking to be better than last year, absent injuries. The offensive potential is enormous. I know it's not his game, but I do hope Hoover will be willing to scramble for a first down or two per game when the games get more competitive.
3. I thought Turbo & Beebe were as advertised. I sure hope we target Turbo a lot out of the backfield.
4. Imo, the O line disappointed overall. I understand that NTS played for the run, but it was just not a dominant performance. Some of the credit has to go to their DL. They were feisty. They were also helped by our scores being so quick and their drives being so time-consuming.
5. I thought the DL also disappointed. The KSU guys are not as explosive as hoped. Barnham (?) was ok. The DL also had problems first game last year, so I expect much improvement.
6. I expected B. Baldwin to have a more prominent role. He didn't play much, and when he did play he didn't do much.
7. Jones was all over the place, but Hardy was not very active.
8. I was disappointed in Zachman's play. Huge dropoff there from Moore. He didn't look quick or physical. #13, Sanks, the kid from Cincinnati, looked interesting.
9. Bell & Gandy...yikes. Harris has to step up when he returns.
10. I know we played very vanilla on D.
11. The kickoff guy will be very valuable.
12. Someone commented on another site that Becker has never dropped a pass at IU....don't know if that's correct, but I don't remember any.
I finally finished the second half last night. Hoover looked good but man the defense was pretty disappointing. I know its early but they gotta get that turned around in the next few weeks.
Haynes defense is not as strong as I would like against dink and dunk offenses.
That Northern Indiana team is all about dink and dunk offense again this season too from what I saw against the Badgers.