USU Observations

[HateTheWhorns]

1) Gary Andersen is an excellent coach. It is no fluke that USU is developing a solid defense after he led Utah to becoming one of the top ranked defenses in the country during his last 2-3 years there.

2) USU's overall talent level is much better than most expected. With all of the JUCO talent they have recruited along with good coaching, it is no surprise to me that they competed well.

3) USU finished 13th in the nation last year in total offense. With most everyone back (including QB), it is not a shock to me that they exposed a defense with 7 new starters (Washington, Wilson, Wort, Jefferson, Fleming, Hurst, McFarland).

4) USU got about every break they can expect in a game (except for the illegal lineman down field on the fake FG). They caught just about every challenged pass, benefited from timely OU penalties, and escaped numerous sack attempts.

5) OU's game plan was pretty vanilla. Landy still has trouble making the easy throws and makes incredible throws on his deep routes and roll-outs. This area still concerns me.

6) OU started three new DBs. Jefferson was a pleasant surprise; Hurst was sporadic; and Fleming was generally in the right place, but did not make plays. Except for Fleming, I feel good about our Secondary and its ability to make significant strides.

I think we will look back at season's end and realize that we played a pretty good team on Saturday. No, the score shouldn't have been as close as it was, but it should not have been a 35 pt blow-out either.

Don't panic as we will get better throughout the season. Let's just hope it occurs sooner than later.

Your Thoughts?

Cheers,

HTW

[KantoSooner]

One comment that I haven't seen is anything about the return of arm-tackling by our defense.
If I watch one more running back blow through 3-8 would-be tacklers next weekend, I'll sceam.

[ouleaf]

1) Gary Andersen is an excellent coach. It is no fluke that USU is developing a solid defense after he led Utah to becoming one of the top ranked defenses in the country during his last 2-3 years there.

Definitely agree. After we burst out to a nice lead, he kept them composed and they kept on coming at us the whole game. They certainly didn't give up and made a lot of plays.


2) USU's overall talent level is much better than most expected. With all of the JUCO talent they have recruited along with good coaching, it is no surprise to me that they competed well.

QB was great at extending plays and definitely frustrated our pash rush attempts all night. Their 2 LBs played a really good game. Aside from DeMarco breaking off the few big runs, they did a really good job of shutting him down. Especially on those handoffs out of the Pistol formation


3) USU finished 13th in the nation last year in total offense. With most everyone back (including QB), it is not a shock to me that they exposed a defense with 7 new starters (Washington, Wilson, Wort, Jefferson, Fleming, Hurst, McFarland).

QB did a good job of escaping pressure and buying extra time for his WR to get open. WRs did a good job of going up and getting the jump balls.


5) OU's game plan was pretty vanilla. Landy still has trouble making the easy throws and makes incredible throws on his deep routes and roll-outs. This area still concerns me.

Landry was very hesitant in the pocket. He just never really got in any sort of a rhythm all game, and his accuracy on throws was a bit concerning.


6) OU started three new DBs. Jefferson was a pleasant surprise; Hurst was sporadic; and Fleming was generally in the right place, but did not make plays. Except for Fleming, I feel good about our Secondary and its ability to make significant strides.

I was very pleased with the play of Jefferson. I think he has the ability to be really special after a year of seasoning. DBs just need to work on locating the ball earlier on those jump balls. They were generally in position to make a play or at least swat the ball down


I think we will look back at season's end and realize that we played a pretty good team on Saturday. No, the score shouldn't have been as close as it was, but it should not have been a 35 pt blow-out either.

Agree.

[fwsooner22]

The problem for me is THIS is NOT an isolated incident. We simply haven't been that good a football team for quite awhile. That bothers me.

[BoulderSooner79]

The problem for me is THIS is NOT an isolated incident. We simply haven't been that good a football team for quite awhile. That bothers me.

If by quite a while, you mean 1 season + 1 game, I agree with you. 2008 was a very good squad (as was '07).

And it bothers most of us on SF.com if OU is not a good team for more than 1 play in a row.

[Soonerfan88]

To me, it was obvious that Kenny Stills didn't have much practice time before the game. Yes, Landry could have been a little crisper but they were definitely on a different page on those routes. I was glad to see Stills finally get a couple of catches in the 4th. Hopefully, he will be more in sync with his QB and have gotten rid of those first game jitters.


USU QB, Borel?, did a great job of keeping focus down field while he was scrambling and his WRs were very good at using that extra time to shake off the DBs.

[GKeeper316]

The problem for me is THIS is NOT an isolated incident. We simply haven't been that good a football team for quite awhile. That bothers me.

are you insane????

we played for a national title 2 years ago and had the highest scoring offense in ncaa history ffs!

lasy year was an anomoly brought on by injuries that no team could have overcome.

[Crucifax Autumn]

No accounting for stupid.