AK and Minny D last year

[PSAL_Hoops]

Just an observation aimed at the comments that our D wasn’t that big reason why we won 7 games last year. Our opponents never scored more than 24 in any of our wins.

Meanwhile, the D did AK no favors at all… assume OSU, Michigan, even Wisconsin if you like are losses for Minny anyway. But Minny D also gave up 49 to Purdue, 37 to NW, 31 to UNC, 27 to Illinois…. Ouch.

Anyone care to guess what Minny’s record was in games where the opponent scored 24 points or less?

 

[jtung230]

Just an observation aimed at the comments that our D wasn’t that big reason why we won 7 games last year. Our opponents never scored more than 24 in any of our wins.

Meanwhile, the D did AK no favors at all… assume OSU, Michigan, even Wisconsin if you like are losses for Minny anyway. But Minny D also gave up 49 to Purdue, 37 to NW, 31 to UNC, 27 to Illinois…. Ouch.

Anyone care to guess what Minny’s record was in games where the opponent scored 24 points or less?

Not sure if anyone is saying the D wasn’t a big reason why we won games last year. The improvement on D and the run game played an equal part. Good complementary football.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

Not sure if anyone is saying the D wasn’t a big reason why we won games last year. The improvement on D and the run game played an equal part. Good complementary football.

It was directly in the other thread. Someone said - which games was the D responsible for winning besides Temple and NW.

I’m pointing out that its more about the D putting us in positions where effective QB game management (by anyone) would be good enough to secure a win. Or at least - the sky isn’t falling because we allowed a QB who “led us to 7 wins” to escape to UK. It’s not like there’s reason to believe the QB we parted with would’ve dropped 50 on Purdue to get that win - or even 37+ on NW.

 

[jtung230]

It was directly in the other thread. Someone said - which games was the D responsible for winning besides Temple and NW.

I’m pointing out that its more about the D putting us in positions where effective QB game management (by anyone) would be good enough to secure a win. Or at least - the sky isn’t falling because we allowed a QB who “led us to 7 wins” to escape to UK. It’s not like there’s reason to believe the QB we parted with would’ve dropped 50 on Purdue to get that win - or even 37+ on NW.

I think that was me responding to someone that said D won us the game. That’s very different than saying D was a big part of why we won games. NW game was the perfect example. RU had the ball for 37:56 to NW 22:04. We converted 3 4th downs to keep the ball. It’s complementary football.

 

[ashokan]

RU defense was top 20 - pass defense was top ten - pass rush was weak (bottom quarter).
Flip was a playmaker and Aaron Lewis was practically anonymous

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

RU defense was top 20 - pass defense was top ten - pass rush was weak (bottom quarter).
Flip was a playmaker and Aaron Lewis was practically anonymous

Nuances about the strengths and weaknesses of the D aren’t relevant. The point here is the D put the offense in the position where it didn’t have to put many points on the board to win.

The D only allowed over 30 points once all season - Maryland. The offense gave up pick 6 points vs. Michigan, OSU and Wisconsin. Iowa may as well have been a pick 6 - we handed them the ball at our 9 yard line.

 

[ashokan]

Nuances about the strengths and weaknesses of the D aren’t relevant. The point here is the D put the offense in the position where it didn’t have to put many points on the board to win.

The D only allowed over 30 points once all season - Maryland. The offense gave up pick 6 points vs. Michigan, OSU and Wisconsin. Iowa may as well have been a pick 6 - we handed them the ball at our 9 yard line.

"Nuance" comes here to die lol.
A good reason for RUs success despite mediocre scoring is the run game and time of possession.

In 2022 RU was 78th for possession and 23rd in 2023 (near Army and teams known for strong TOP)
That stat correlates with increase in running yards per game
2022 = 126 yds/gm and 2023 = 169gm.

Now people paying attention in 23 knew that RU could run over people in the 4th quarter.
That came from being big/strong/fast and wearing down the defense.

I'm not a person to say people have to have played football to understand it, but it does help to understand what a tough run game does. Wrestling with some of the RU behemoths on OL, and catching a helmet in the chest from a RB with a running start is no fun after after awhile. In some RU games (like Michigan St) you could just see teams running out of gas in the 4th.

People can underestimate a good run game. A run might have had only few yards but it still "tenderized" the defense and that can show in later periods. RU was fun to watch in the 4th

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

"Nuance" comes here to die lol.
A good reason for RUs success despite mediocre scoring is the run game and time of possession.

In 2022 RU was 78th for possession and 23rd in 2023 (near Army and teams known for strong TOP)
That stat correlates with increase in running yards per game
2022 = 126 yds/gm and 2023 = 169gm.

Now people paying attention in 23 knew that RU could run over people in the 4th quarter.
That came from being big/strong/fast and wearing down the defense.

I'm not a person to say people have to have played football to understand it, but it does help to understand what a tough run game does. Wrestling with some of the RU behemoths on OL, and catching a helmet in the chest from a RB with a running start is no fun after after awhile. In some RU games (like Michigan St) you could just see teams running out of gas in the 4th.

People can underestimate a good run game. A run might have had only few yards but it still "tenderized" the defense and that can show in later periods. RU was fun to watch in the 4th

Short passes that are completed keep the clock running too…

Minnesota also would’ve had more success running the football if they hadn’t lost Darius Turner for most of the season. How do you think our season would’ve gone without Kyle?

 

[Yeah Baby]

Not sure if anyone is saying the D wasn’t a big reason why we won games last year. The improvement on D and the run game played an equal part. Good complementary football.

I'm not one to question the staff and I understand full well why we played like we did last year but early in the season I wondered if we could have thrown the ball a little more late in games to develop some of the young WR's and QB's.

Again, I get why we did what we did. Great Defense. The year before we got worn out at the end on Defense. Try to stay healthy. Etc etc. I get it. But I do wonder what if?

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

I'm not one to question the staff and I understand full well why we played like we did last year but early in the season I wondered if we could have thrown the ball a little more late in games to develop some of the young WR's and QB's.

Again, I get why we did what we did. Great Defense. The year before we got worn out at the end on Defense. Try to stay healthy. Etc etc. I get it. But I do wonder what if?

Let’s start with a compliment. If you look back on the season, you’ll see that Gavin did very well consistently on first drives of games and other situations that called for execution of a pre-rehearsed, scripted design play that hadn’t yet been featured on the film for the opponent. Gavin is good at executing designed plays when they go as planned. I’d even go as far as to say that his accuracy is probably above average relative to the level of difficulty of each of those throws. Starting with his very first throw ever as a super frosh in tight space.

The flip side of that though is that his already below average overall completion rate of 47% is probably a good deal worse that that in later game situations where the D already knows our schemes. I’m sure we save a few “ace in the hole” plays here and there to sprinkle in but there’s only so many different schemes you can prepare which are tailored to the Strengths of your players. Now if your saying you think we should’ve given Gavin free reign to make reads and start firing away, I don’t know what to tell you. To this point he’s simply had a very difficult time with that.

 

[Yeah Baby]

Let’s start with a compliment. If you look back on the season, you’ll see that Gavin did very well consistently on first drives of games and other situations that called for execution of a pre-rehearsed, scripted design play that hadn’t yet been featured on the film for the opponent. Gavin is good at executing designed plays when they go as planned. I’d even go as far as to say that his accuracy is probably above average relative to the level of difficulty of each of those throws. Starting with his very first throw ever as a super frosh in tight space.

The flip side of that though is that his already below average overall completion rate of 47% is probably a good deal worse that that in later game situations where the D already knows our schemes. I’m sure we save a few “ace in the hole” plays here and there to sprinkle in but there’s only so many different schemes you can prepare which are tailored to the Strengths of your players. Now if you're saying you think we should’ve given Gavin free rein to make reads and start firing away, I don’t know what to tell you. To this point he’s simply had a very difficult time with that.

That's not even an 8 iron away from what I was saying.

We're up 24-0 on NW and we eat the clock. We did that almost every game we had a nice lead and I said i fully understand why. But sometimes I wonder if it may have helped in later season games if we threw the ball with leads. Not just one player who is gone would have benefited. We had a lot of young guys on the bench and one WR on the field who needed live reps.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

That's not even an 8 iron away from what I was saying.

We're up 24-0 on NW and we eat the clock. We did that almost every game we had a nice lead and I said i fully understand why. But sometimes I wonder if it may have helped in later season games if we threw the ball with leads. Not just one player who is gone would have benefited. We had a lot of young guys on the bench and one WR on the field who needed live reps.

I’m sorry - I’m not following how what I wrote isn’t related to what you are saying. When you have (and are planning to stick with) a QB who struggles with accuracy, your not going to put that guy in a position to fail badly - especially when there is still time for a comeback. For example, mid Q3 vs NW. but later on after the interception, Greg incorporated a few pass plays. Pre-designed ones of course. Gavin never seemed to have the green light to make in game reads and so we have to trust that the coaches knew what they were doing and believed it was too risky.

The thing is, even if we still hold on, our staff didn’t want Gavin throwing picks or building up an even worse accuracy profile. There were good reasons to want to give him every opportunity to succeed at RU. It wouldn’t have been a good look for the program to have to replace him last season. Nobody could question our program culture with how the situation was handled.

 

[Yeah Baby]

I’m sorry - I’m not following how what I wrote isn’t related to what you are saying. When you have (and are planning to stick with) a QB who struggles with accuracy, your not going to put that guy in a position to fail badly - especially when there is still time for a comeback. For example, mid Q3 vs NW. but later on after the interception, Greg incorporated a few pass plays. Pre-designed ones of course. Gavin never seemed to have the green light to make in game reads and so we have to trust that the coaches knew what they were doing and believed it was too risky.

The thing is, even if we still hold on, our staff didn’t want Gavin throwing picks or building up an even worse accuracy profile. There were good reasons to want to give him every opportunity to succeed at RU. It wouldn’t have been a good look for the program to have to replace him last season. Nobody could question our program culture with how the situation was handled.

You're getting both closer to and further away from what I was talking about.

Everyone knows Gavin is a runner and not an accurate passer. We don't need you to say that in your last 500 posts to know that. I insinuated it but feel no need to say it. But go ahead and keep saying it. Remind me of Local Shill and his 10k posts in a row about the schedule snafu a while back. He made an obvious point and 10k posts later I wanted to poke my own eyes out.

 

[PSAL_Hoops]

You're getting both closer to and further away from what I was talking about.

Everyone knows Gavin is a runner and not an accurate passer. We don't need you to say that in your last 500 posts to know that. I insinuated it but feel no need to say it. But go ahead and keep saying it. Remind me of Local Shill and his 10k posts in a row about the schedule snafu a while back. He made an obvious point and 10k posts later I wanted to poke my own eyes out.

I mean - you asked the question - why didn’t we pass more late in games? You may not like that the answer is because the passer we had was unreliable but that was obviously the reason. Your trying to skirt around it and make like you were talking about late game garbage time situations - but we didn’t really face many of those. Q3 of a 24 point game is still way too early to risk turning the ball over.

The only real opportunity was Wagner, and in hindsight it makes sense that they didn’t go there. We weren’t looking to make a change at QB. Shelby is wrong about almost everything but he wasn’t wrong about that. I don’t know that Evan would’ve made a difference, but Greg clearly wanted to give Gavin the whole year to prove himself. GW threw a pick in the Wagner game the year before. The last thing he wanted was another one of those and for questions amongst the team to start popping it. Shades of GG for Pike except Greg’s situation was even more delicate. We couldn’t kick this kid who we convinced to skip his senior year of HS to the curb without giving him every shot. Greg deserves credit for managing the situation in the best way he could IMO.