What grade would you give Gophers staff in their first game at the U?

What grade would you give Gophers staff in their first game at the U?

  • A

    Votes: 8 7.0%

  • B

    Votes: 26 22.8%

  • C

    Votes: 52 45.6%

  • D

    Votes: 23 20.2%

  • F

    Votes: 5 4.4%
  • Total voters
    114
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What grade would you give Gophers staff in their first game at the U?
 

I'll give Claeys and Sawvel an A for building a great defense.
Whoever decided Cashman didn't need to be on the field on passing downs gets an F.
Whoever decided that a spread offense was a good idea when your best offensive players are power running backs gets an F.
 

C+, for not being worse than the previous regime, but not being better either.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
 

Hard to grade a new staff one one game. The team obviously lacks depth and experience, but all in all I think they look pretty solid. The defense made plays when they need to and the WR made big plays after the catch. As a whole I give the team a C after this game. Did just enough to get the win, but a lot of work to be done. Run blocking is a big concern and the secondary got torched early
 

We have inexperienced QBs and WRs who were more wide open than any were during the Kills/Claeys era, so if the QBs can hit the target, our passing game will be better. I'm worried about the O-line and the CBs. Winfield was all-world tonight and Celestin is really solid.
 


Happy with the adjustments on D in the second half.

Offense? Not good in the first half. Not much better in the second half. Gained some yards in the second half, but our offensive staff was thoroughly out-coached tonight. If the Buffalo defense can shut us out for nearly 3 quarters, that is not a good sign. Not impressed with the O-line play. They looked like the scheme was to not get hurt.
 

Gave them a C. They won, and there was promise, but I expected to at least cover the spread, which we didn't.
 


caliGopher said:
Happy with the adjustments on D in the second half.

Offense? Not good in the first half. Not much better in the second half. Gained some yards in the second half, but our offensive staff was thoroughly out-coached tonight. If the Buffalo defense can shut us out for nearly 3 quarters, that is not a good sign. Not impressed with the O-line play. They looked like the scheme was to not get hurt.
Click to expand...
Anyone hear that swish of air as our ballon popped?
Offensive line play reminded of the days with Limey. Felt kind of sorry for our center - wow did he get his clock cleaned. 75% of our running plays were left. Why? Not sure any of our offensive linemen would grade out above a C. Offensive staff - either tried to stay vanilla or we are in for a long year. Unfortunately we don't have enough depth in offensive line to substitute. We play what we got.
What happened to Devers? I didn't see him dressed. What happened to our defensive tackles? Didn't hear or see any big plays. As was expected our linebackers are the heart of our team.
 



Mostly the same problems we've seen for the last several years. The same head coach beat Buffalo 38-0 last year. It's almost like it's a talent issue. Weird.
 


Two things -
Devers couldn't play the 1st half becuz
of the targeting call in the 2nd half of the bowl game.
My conclusion about the ho-hum game. The film of the game will give no help to future coaches. We won and that's all.

Was our future starting QB determined from this game???
 

Rog said:
Two things -
Devers couldn't play the 1st half becuz
of the targeting call in the 2nd half of the bowl game.
My conclusion about the ho-hum game. The film of the game will give no help to future coaches. We won and that's all.

Was our future starting QB determined from this game???
Click to expand...

Duke McGee sat out the first half because to targeting in the bowl game. Devers is suspended for something.
 



GopherWeatherGuy said:
Mostly the same problems we've seen for the last several years. The same head coach beat Buffalo 38-0 last year. It's almost like it's a talent issue. Weird.
Click to expand...

+1
That being said... there continues to be a fair amount of young talent to be excited about as it continues to develop (Winfield, T.Johnson, Douglas etc.)


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Special teams not special

Offense 5-6 good plays. But the same old Minnesota run off tackle left, run off tackle right. No fun plays, no reverses, no trick plays. No hook and ladder. No end around and pass (Tyler).

Punting from inside the 50 was a HORRIBLE decision. Again, we get stuck with the old conservative coach (Denny take a knee, Murray punt on 2nd down, Mason run run run, Brew play not to lose
 

I gave it a B.

I don't like switching to the spread when our offensive game was more power running, but if you are getting paid millions to coach, I would guess you have to start coaching your way year one, not year three.
I think that's going to reflect how difficult this year will be.

It's a coaching staff implementing a system on players who weren't picked to play it and now they have to adjust.

I thought the running game suffered early, and that hurt us. I wasn't expecting that.


There are things I wouldn't be doing, or Claeys wouldn't be doing which might have hurt them tonight, next week, and the rest of this year, but when are you going to start doing things your way? Third year of your contract?
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Mostly the same problems we've seen for the last several years. The same head coach beat Buffalo 38-0 last year. It's almost like it's a talent issue. Weird.
Click to expand...

It wasn't a talent issue, but it was a first game in a new system with new coaches issue.

We have enough talent to beat Buffalo and beat them soundly. My guess is in 3 weeks this game would have turned out differently with us being much happier, but that's pure speculation.


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GopherWeatherGuy said:
Mostly the same problems we've seen for the last several years. The same head coach beat Buffalo 38-0 last year. It's almost like it's a talent issue. Weird.
Click to expand...

How many times didn't they run b/t the guards, ever? Seemed like more RUTM than the last five years. Extremely vanilla. That said, it felt more like a 27-7 game.
 

PMWinSTP said:
How many times didn't they run b/t the guards, ever? Seemed like more RUTM than the last five years. Extremely vanilla. That said, it felt more like a 27-7 game.
Click to expand...

One thing for sure, when Rhoda was QB, there was no threat of him running, and the defense played it that way.

When Croft was doing read options, he does a good job of waiting to hand off to get his read, but sometimes it looks like he's taking too long and the running back is not given a chance to get yardage because he has to wait for the handoff.


Glad we won. Felt like it could have been more, but then we played to win (conservatively) where if we get that Rhoda TD before half, second half is probably a lot different.
 

I didn't expect greatness out of the o-line, but was definitely expecting to see more holes than that...whoosh.

We are really green on the line. Connelly and Olson were starting for the 1st time ever. Weyler was playing center for the 1st time in his life. And we have 2 JUCOs who have been here for about a year. Not exactly the stuff great o-lines are made of.

Quinn Carroll and Bryce Benhart, please please please stay home...
 

Face The Facts said:
One thing for sure, when Rhoda was QB, there was no threat of him running, and the defense played it that way.

When Croft was doing read options, he does a good job of waiting to hand off to get his read, but sometimes it looks like he's taking too long and the running back is not given a chance to get yardage because he has to wait for the handoff.


Glad we won. Felt like it could have been more, but then we played to win (conservatively) where if we get that Rhoda TD before half, second half is probably a lot different.
Click to expand...

Rhoda moved the offense down field better.
 

I give em an A because they won, when they lose they get a F and there is no in between. This was the most vanilla game plan I have ever seen. They have so much more in their arsenal and chose not to use any of it. 9-3
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
I give em an A because they won, when they lose they get a F and there is no in between. This was the most vanilla game plan I have ever seen. They have so much more in their arsenal and chose not to use any of it. 9-3
Click to expand...

Vanilla is delicious. This was the most tofu game plan I have ever seen.
 

Halsey Hall said:
Special teams not special

Offense 5-6 good plays. But the same old Minnesota run off tackle left, run off tackle right. No fun plays, no reverses, no trick plays. No hook and ladder. No end around and pass (Tyler).

Punting from inside the 50 was a HORRIBLE decision. Again, we get stuck with the old conservative coach (Denny take a knee, Murray punt on 2nd down, Mason run run run, Brew play not to lose
Click to expand...

I get your point, but why would a coach want to give away those useful plays this early in the season against an overmatched team, in a game that we had under control? Really no reason to open up the playbook tonight.

Way too early to freak out. This is the first game of the season with a new coaching staff, a new QB, new oline, new receivers out there. There's going to be some hiccups and kinks to work out. I thought the passing game looked pretty good, much better than I expected. Felt a little more comfortable with Rhoda out there, he seemed to have a better command of what's going on but with Croft you can definitely see the potential for big plays. Would like to see us run the ball a bit better earlier on, but that will improve I think.

Defense looked a little out of sorts at times but overall they only allowed 7 points. Got some pressure on the QB, and some flash plays from Winfield and co as well.

Nothing more than a C, but a win is a win.
 

Let's remember, Brewster lost to a MAC team in his first game and that was a sign of what was to come. I knew it then, I still know it today. We didn't play well in any phase of the game and still won last night. I'll take it.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
I'll give Claeys and Sawvel an A for building a great defense.
Whoever decided Cashman didn't need to be on the field on passing downs gets an F.
Whoever decided that a spread offense was a good idea when your best offensive players are power running backs gets an F.
Click to expand...

In real life coaches don't wait to put their system in place, that just slows down the process.
 

I would give it C, we won and looked composed and disciplined. The OL couldn't open up any holes, but did a much better job of pass protection. I hate the DB's giving 10 yd cushions at the line of scrimmage. DL didn't get as much pressure as they should have. Play calling was tofu, but let's hope that was so they could ease into the system and not give away their Kick Arse Offense. They seemed to lose intensity and focus later in the game, kind of a reflection of PJ's response.


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Grading on a curve, I gave them a C.

We've seen Gopher defenses capable of giving up 35 points to Tyree Jackson. Last night, we saw players (Winfield, Celestin to name two) make plays even if the defense was confused. They didn't point and yell, they closed the gap.

The offense seemed dedicated to finding mediocre plays and keep running them. It was, I suppose, a variation of Kill's keep the clock running offense. Still, 408 yards is 408 yards.
 

I gave them a C.
They won, which is first and foremost the most important things. Score wasn't what I had hoped for, but it was a WIN. No * needed. :)

Offensively we looked a little stagnant as far as variety of plays. Didn't see many stretch plays with Smith or Brooks. Looked like we ran Off tackle read plays about 75% of the time. Guessing that is because coaches felt we could beat them with a simplified offense, giving OSU a little less to be able to prepare for next week. Liked what our passing game did though.
Defense looked good. Showed some different looks, but again I believe they played it pretty basic to give OSU less to prep for next week. DB's are taught to find the ball which helped on a few pass break ups, but the TD pass was completed because the DB couldn't locate the ball and had he just reacted to the WR he more than likely would have broken the play up. Our LB's are exceptional.

The blocked field goal by Winfield was great, but Winston fell on the ball like it was a fumble, and that is unacceptable in that situation. He should have scooped and tried to advance it as far as he could. If Winston didn't know to try to advance then that is a major coaching error.

In third quarter we were 3rd and 7 and ran a play action pass. All that did was allow the Bulls to generate a better pass rush and gave Croft less time to actually see the field.

Maybe PJ can petition the NCAA to be on the field during FG's to squirt water on Carpenter, as he probably makes both those kicks if that is happening.
 

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