Is Hicks out of shape? As soon as he has a big gain he's out of the game. Their backs run fifty yards and they stay in and run twenty more on the next play. Enough with the four back rotation. Hicks is clearly the best back we have. He should be the starter and get the majority of carries. Martin is our next best back. James has been good for us but he's clearly not as talented as the other two kids. And while I'm at it, get the TE from Teaneck into the game. The TE's we're playing are pretty mediocre for this level. Just some other observations - Where were the things that worked so well against WSU - sweeps with Grant, pitches to Hicks? I would think they would have worked even better against a team with two freshmen LB's in the game. Why didn't we widen the field, and why keep running into their strength. As far as not throwing the ball down field - I don't think Laviano was getting enough time to make down field throws. Was he great? No, but he was the least of our problems. Tackling was awful and our defense often looked confused. Defensive line, which was supposed to be a strength, clearly is not, and their lack of pressure on the QB is the main reason we lost our last two games. Unless Hamilton comes back we've got big problems. As far as Laviano is concerned, given our offensive game plan and the amount of pressure he was under, I don't think Rettig's big arm would have made much of a difference. Plus I think Rettig would have been sacked three or four times more than Laviano was tonight. Laviano did show some escapability and I thought some pretty good toughness. Didn't the great Gary Nova only put up 13 points and throw five interceptions against them last year at our place, and he had three plus years experience going into that game. I think that with some time Laviano will be fine. I think either one of them will be OK given time. I'm not so sure about the rest of the team.
