Mass Confusion - A 1st hand account of the game

[slider]

Ugh. Panic on the sidelines. So much for the lessons learned last year.

Yep. Last year I noticed that the staff seemed clueless on how to work the headsets

 

[tante]

Yep. Last year I noticed that the staff seemed clueless on how to work the headsets

which is strange because they are probably the same headsets that they used where they were here a decade ago. We picked them up at the Oklahoma football garage sale.

 

[CUFan]

This is a really encouraging thread. I'm excited for the rest of the season.

 

[Jaximus]

Sad thing is, our offense would probably run smoother on 10 or 15 flashcards. The coaches have to see that these players just ain't gettin it.

 

[jpbuff]

Get rid of the ridiculous flash cards and go back to a huddle up offense. This has been a disaster from the start.

The substitutions drive me crazy also. A play ends and the first thing the players do is look to the sidelines to see if they are to come out of the game. Gerald Thomas makes a nice catch last week. Gets tackled, looks up and yep he comes out of the game and Ebner comes in in his place. I just don't get it. It has to tip the defense off, when certain players are in, this is the play they are going to run.

I want a player to come out because they are gassed, not because the next play is designed for a certain player. And why our deep threat is Tyler McC, explain that one to me also.

 

[Leon Sandcastle]

I just lifted the following from the Rivals board where NB was credited without link as the originator. If you can laugh while reading it, you've progressed to a better place than I.

Mass Confusion

That's the only fitting description for what I witnessed sat night. I was sitting 50 yard line, 3 rows back, heard and saw everything.

-it's the coaches. if you don't believe it, you're in denial. these kids are massively confused in all facets of the game. mcghee, kennedy, brown, embree, all of them scream their heads off at the team on the sidelines, and the players look like they speak an entirely different language. after the screaming, it's exasperation. as in, "I give up, you don't get it". embree is the biggest offender of this tactic. he'll trudge off and sulk away throughout the game.

-brown looks totally lost. almost as if he started coaching these guys 5 min before kickoff.

-they don't know how to coach college! it's obvious. all that nfl knowledge doesn't translate to coaching college players. the idea of simplifying isn't sinking in to this staff. on offense, the line and the qb have no clue what play to run almost every play. they stare at the sidelines and rarely got a play off with less than 5 sec on the clock. there's boards, hand signals, no huddle, plays at the line of scrimmage, looking back at the sidelines, everyone is panicked and yelling, no one is one the same page. no one is prepared! its mass confusion on the sidelines.

-stop with the "who would win with our team" crap. there are a ton of athletes on both sides of the ball. certainly as many as fresno. but we play like we're dyslexic and have no strategy or football instincts. too much thinking going on. too much "technique", not enough common sense football.

offense

-webb is bad, no other way to say it. consistently doesn't see open guys downfield and tends to run into traffic. when he forces it, it's 6pts for the defense. on the sidelines, he's not a "light a fire under the team" guy. more of a whisper into one guys ear type. couldn't wait for him to be benched. flat out don't like his game or persona. odd note, he spits quite a bit on the sidelines.

-wood is better, in that he can read downfield, but made bad decisions that got picked. neither qb exuded confidence, but wood was excited for the opportunity. it has to be hard to run this offense, unless you're stafford or brady. wood got some seriously bad play calls from the coaches. why run a bootleg right with one reciever on the right, who happens to be quadruple teamed blanketed, with the 3 other wrs on the other side of the field wondering why they weren't thrown the ball? wtf! that's bad play calling.

-hirshman looked the best, which says a lot since he only threw it three times. he is animated on the sidelines, more than the other two. his deep ball to ebner was real nice. a cannon for an arm. I'd start him next game for sure, even though I'm not sure what he really brings other than passion. odd note, he usually is the one to pick up the phone from bienemy, which was ringing off the hook all game.

-the idea of calling an qb audible is so far from our capabilities you can forget it this year or ever with this staff. we will go into a play knowing its a disaster, but won't call audibles. wood tried to alert the ol numerous times of impending disaster, but they're not on the same page either.

-nembot is a beast! seriously, our best ol. munyer is atrocious. easily the worst. saw him immediately double team help and let a guy blow right by him to the qb. lewis gets too much pt. seems to be a hot head without the production. no one else on ol stood out. we're very predictable so i cant put it all on the ol. cotner has huge arms, so does richter. mustoe and irwin look the part. we need 10 nembots. these ol are so poorly coached they're out of the snap and look like theyre possessed by some hindu ritual dance technique, where they pop up and start defending people that aren't there, but they're staying true to the play call. ugh! what is that? what team does that?

-our wrs are managed terribly. why are we 30 yards downfield every play? coaching! if Webb/wood/hirshman have 5 sec before their swarmed, why not have them run shorter routes? wtf. other teams kill us with short slant routes, and we have to run 10 sec routes, I don't get it.

-wrs all seemed ok, but McCullough is hit or miss with his hands. not enough thomas. should be out there every play. was on the sidelines way too much, same with Thornton. no quick slants to canty or Thomas = failure.

-kasa is not a te. I don't know what he is, but he's not a te. te in general is a non factor on offense. Hobbs looks legit, slavin has good hands.

-powell is good. no one else looks legit. ford looked the fastest actually. everyone else seemed to run right into traffic, no football smarts.

defense

-smith and orms. they were targeted all game. all game! throw it over the middle and it's a td. I like bell. mosley shows the most emotion on the sidelines. Vigo makes too many errors. crawley and wright get hit with too many flags but the effort and skill are apparent. but we can't play orms and smith and expect to win. and they're out there all the time. bad coaching decisions. have to try someone else. anyone! you don't give up that much yardage and say "let's look at the tape". you can play backup wrs and get better production from our safeties.

-blacken has to be ashamed and should resign. we got manhandled by less athletic guys. absolutely pushed around on all fronts. please quit.

-our lbs can't tackle. we dance on defense. we can see the guy with the ball, get close enough to tackle him, then dance around him till he gets an extra 5-10 yards. major is not a good tackler, but he makes a decent play here and there. he's over-hyped. Webb is solid.

-washington is not an lb with those tackling skills. maybe he's a safety, not sure.

-this is all to say, they have NO football instincts. they're thinking too much. that's coaching. again, you need a certain type if coach to train college players. this staff is terrible at it. I bet the beamers, bowdens, sabens of the world know how to coach and teach non-professional athletes. can embree figure it out? sure, but it will be years from now, but not anytime soon. you give embree the alabama team, and they lose every game. they are that bad at preparing a team.

This guy lost me with these comments....just flat out wrong. Nembot looked lost out there. And none of the QB's looked good. WHich leads me to believe that he is either full of ****, or doesn't know what he is seeing.

As to all of the comments regarding screaming....well, let's all look back. EVERYONE was sick of Hawk for not caring and not having passion, these guys get into the heat of the battle and start yelling, because they care? Oh, for shame!!! 90% of the fans on this board would be 10X worse if they were put into a situation and staring at these kids and not getting any sort of passionate response after they got repeatedly kicked in the balls by the other squad. The one tone manager comment is a valid concern, but I would be willing to bet that these guys are not screaming all of the time....only in the heat of the battle and when players are not responding to the challenge at hand. Meeting rooms & practice carry a variety of tones. Re: Embree sulking...I saw it more as him not wanting to ride the kids anymore....which leads me to the next response.

My point is this, the coaches obviously shoulder blame for things not going well, and they haven't skirted it for a second. But when to the players take responsibility? Seriously, there is NO leadership with these players, and they act like lost kittens because of it. Them not responding to the coaches when they get heated only reflects another problem IMO...they don't respond to their adversary when they punch them in the mouth either. There is NO fight in this team, they are fake tough as Nik said previously....and frankly, I can sympathize with the coaches and their reaction to this issue. Who here would want to coddle this team if they wanted to win, and fight the other team 100x more than the guys that really need to feel that way? No one, they would be pissed as hell just like everyone is right now.

 

[Tatanka™]

Get rid of the ridiculous flash cards and go back to a huddle up offense. This has been a disaster from the start.

The substitutions drive me crazy also. A play ends and the first thing the players do is look to the sidelines to see if they are to come out of the game. Gerald Thomas makes a nice catch last week. Gets tackled, looks up and yep he comes out of the game and Ebner comes in in his place. I just don't get it. It has to tip the defense off, when certain players are in, this is the play they are going to run.

I want a player to come out because they are gassed, not because the next play is designed for a certain player. And why our deep threat is Tyler McC, explain that one to me also.

It's as bad as the dreaded player groupings. I'm way past pissed. Now I can only laugh and hope my grandchildren see a winning Buffs team. :why:

 

[BuffaloChuck]

...yell at kids who are 1) overmatched...

I want to argue this point, 30, because CSU should not have any player that overmatches his CU counterpart.

Sac State certainly doesn't have a single player that overmatched his CU counterpart.

And Fresno State had wholesale substitutions in the 2nd Quarter. I just can't believe their First Stringers overmatched CU players. But SECOND STRINGERS TOO?!! And for the whole 2nd Half, the 1st and 2nd teamers that played were playing other positions for 2-3 play breathers, according to their coach, and some were playing two-platoon positions.

So Fresno had not only 1st, 2nd and 3rd Stringers (they only had 65 players) that overmatched CU, but also overmatched them in non-primary positions, too?

That's how my argument sounds when I hear "overmatched". I find it way beyond "doubtful to be true", in other words.

And lordy, if it is?!! Uh - why can't our coaching staff match Sac State's then and coach 'em up? Or CSU's first year coaching staff?

Well, that's part of your "out coached" point, and these two points certainly do create a downward spiral.

 

[30Something]

I want to argue this point, 30, because CSU should not have any player that overmatches his CU counterpart.

Sac State certainly doesn't have a single player that overmatched his CU counterpart.

And Fresno State had wholesale substitutions in the 2nd Quarter. I just can't believe their First Stringers overmatched CU players. But SECOND STRINGERS TOO?!! And for the whole 2nd Half, the 1st and 2nd teamers that played were playing other positions for 2-3 play breathers, according to their coach, and some were playing two-platoon positions.

So Fresno had not only 1st, 2nd and 3rd Stringers (they only had 65 players) that overmatched CU, but also overmatched them in non-primary positions, too?

That's how my argument sounds when I hear "overmatched". I find it way beyond "doubtful to be true", in other words.

And lordy, if it is?!! Uh - why can't our coaching staff match Sac State's then and coach 'em up? Or CSU's first year coaching staff?

Well, that's part of your "out coached" point, and these two points certainly do create a downward spiral.

I wasn't arguing that we were outmatched. My point was that yelling at kids who are, will result in the coaching staff losing them. We might not have been overmatched overall, but there were kids out there on both games (CSU and Sac. St.) who were losing individual battles because they weren't as good as the kid on the other side of the ball.

 

[BuffaloChuck]

30, I should have typed SHOULD in my comments. We SHOULD never be outmatched/outmanned... because you saw things correctly, and I saw that we WERE outmannd, overmatched, and for most of the games. We start off hot against CSU then when we get 'called on it' and the other guys push back, Embree's got our players to collapse. Where did THAT psyche come from? Why's he allowing THAT to exist inside HIS players. And tney are his. Two years and he's got QUIT as one of their options?!!

Wed's Denver Post has an article that he denies they quit, by the way - he's "satisfied with the effort".

No comments on his own sulking on the sidelines, though. Kinda says a lot, all the way around.