Fresno St. is going to be a good measuring stick

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Some Day...Maybe

Some Day...Maybe

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They appear to be a tough team with a very good coach. They have experienced quite a bit of success and appear to have a good QB who can escape the rush and make plays with his legs. It’ll also be a very tough environment. The Gophers better be ready and bring their best. They’ll need to play a lot better than week 1. Looking forward to it.


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USC outgunned them 308 yards to 163 but turned it over twice inside the Fresno 15 yard line. Feels like they should be up more.
 

USC is not a great team, even if they have a decent amount of talent, but since it is game one, we really do not know for sure. This is not the Pete C. team of the early 2000s, but underachieving 1990s type USC imposter. USC has again fallen into a Nebraska like slumber as it did for years prior to Pete Carroll arriving.

Fresno looked pretty horrible early in this game, but they got it stabilized. Tedford is a great coach for sure.

If Fresno St. keeps it very close or wins I'll be impressed, regardless of how faded USC may be. If we are better than last year, then next week should not be that scary, as bad as we seemed to look on the O Line and on run defense Thursday. I expect a bug jump this week on both sides of the ball.
 
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USC probably should have hired Tedford rather than Helton during the last firing/hiring cycle regardless of the outcome tonight. Cal should not have fired Tedord in the first place.
 


Fresno QB Reyna not, NOT good at performing the forward pass. Yikes. Runs a whole lot, runs halfway decent, but damn, not really dangerous throwing it.
 






Well I was hoping USC would blow them out but the rip your heart out loss with Reyna throwing a pick right after a huge 4th down conversion is a nice consolation.

A lot of the Fresno players definitely looked disappointed and deflated after the pick.
 
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die hard gopher said:
Well I was hoping USC would blow them out but the rip your heart out loss with Reyna throwing a pick right after a huge 4th down conversion is a nice consolation.

A lot of the Fresno players definitely looked disappointed after the pick.
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I was rooting for Reyna, a nice feel good story. What really struck me is how well Tedford managed his timeouts and thus kept his team in the game despite the interception.
 

noamfromm said:
I was rooting for Reyna, a nice feel good story. What really struck me is how well Tedford managed his timeouts and thus kept his team in the game despite the interception.
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I agree it's a nice story with his whole family there, I just want them deflated going into this week when we play them and they definitely did look that way after the game.
 

Some Day...Maybe said:
They appear to be a tough team with a very good coach. They have experienced quite a bit of success and appear to have a good QB who can escape the rush and make plays with his legs. It’ll also be a very tough environment. The Gophers better be ready and bring their best. They’ll need to play a lot better than week 1. Looking forward to it.


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It will be a challenge - their young QB can move and can throw the ball a mile, with accuracy. They did well against a good Trojan team in L.A. and will be up for a night game at home.
 



die hard gopher said:
I agree it's a nice story with his whole family there, I just want them deflated going into this week when we play them and they definitely did look that way after the game.
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Interesting. I think losing this game will motivate them more for next. A win and it is more likely to have a let down. IMO. Who knows?


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The fresno fans on their board were telling me how their defense is better this year. They were getting carved up pretty good in the first half before USC's QB went down with an injury before half time. Their offense didn't look like it's dropped off much with the new QB and WRs, could be more mistake prone though. The running game with Rivers wasn't a big factor.
 

Their QB is a little inconsistent. He completed less than 50% of his passes last night, and has a tendency to throw it up for grabs at times. He’s fortunate to only have one pass picked off. He is an effective runner/scrambler, and he can make some good throws. They better have the defense more prepared this week, or it could be a long night. I would recommend dialing up a fair amount of blitzes. He didn’t handle pressure very well, and I don’t think their O-line is very good.


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btowngopher said:
The fresno fans on their board were telling me how their defense is better this year. They were getting carved up pretty good in the first half before USC's QB went down with an injury before half time. Their offense didn't look like it's dropped off much with the new QB and WRs, could be more mistake prone though. The running game with Rivers wasn't a big factor.
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I thought Rivers himself looked pretty good, but the OL didn't seem to do him many favors. He's pretty efficient with his cuts and seems to find the holes, when they exist.
 

Pretty good offensive numbers: 242 passing, 206 rushing.
 

I watched the majority of the game and things really changed when the USC QB got hurt. If he had played the whole game I think USC would have won by a pretty comfortable margin but after he went out their offense was not the same.

Fresno is going to be a really tough test on the road and we will have to play a ton better then we did against SDSU to beat them. Their new QB can make some things happen but also seemed very inconsistent at times. Not afraid to chuck it down field so the D will have to be ready. Would feel much more confident about this one if it was at TCF as opposed to at their place.

If we play like the team that finished the season last year this is a very winnable game. If the team that took on SDSU last week shows up again we are in trouble.
 

Fresno St. will be favored 4-6.5 against Gophers. If the Gophers can escape with a win it would be huge. Better get improved interior line play on both sides of the ball or it could be a 20 pt. loss.
 

Spoofin said:
Interesting. I think losing this game will motivate them more for next. A win and it is more likely to have a let down. IMO. Who knows?


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I think it's always better to have the team you play loose the week before.

I mean ask yourself, when the gophers have high expectations, aren't you not as excited for a game the week after a loss? Does the attendance of games increase or decrease the more you lose? If we would have lose to SDSU would you be more excited for this Fresno game or less excited? I think it's human nature to have disappointment and lose excitement coming off of a loss compared to a win. When the gophers keep on wining, the excitement around the fan base gets bigger and bigger, the crowds get rowdier and rowdier and when we lose, it all pops. I don't think players are any different.

Of course if you are in the NFL or NBA and you have a two game lead to make the playoffs and you blow a game then that loss will definitely create some urgency among the players but this is not that for Fresno. It's another game.
 

They use the RPO to open things up down field. Reyna got beat up and I would be surprised if he keeps as much as he did against USC.
 

Fresno is going to be a tough game. If SDSU was able to run on the Gophers, Fresno is going to run and score more points, especially if Coughlin is as dinged up as he looks. Not e same defense without #45 healthy and in the game.

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Gopherlife said:
I thought Rivers himself looked pretty good, but the OL didn't seem to do him many favors. He's pretty efficient with his cuts and seems to find the holes, when they exist.
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They also didn't even log 20 carries between all of their RBs combined.
 

Fresno State put up a good fight but USC is just much, much more talented up and down the roster. That said, IMO this FSU team looked a lot like last year’s FSU team with the exception of losing their big go to WR and look more talented, bigger/stronger/faster than SDSU. The QB likes to go deep hence the low completion percentage. This is unfortunately looking to be a tough, physical game against an active defense and a well coached offense. PJ, Callahan, Panagos, Wenger, Rossi have to be better or this will be a L.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Fresno State put up a good fight but USC is just much, much more talented up and down the roster. That said, IMO this FSU team looked a lot like last year’s FSU team with the exception of losing their big go to WR and look more talented, bigger/stronger/faster than SDSU. The QB likes to go deep hence the low completion percentage. This is unfortunately looking to be a tough, physical game against an active defense and a well coached offense. PJ, Callahan, Panagos, Wenger, Rossi have to be better or this will be a L.
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Any reason you didn't include Ciarrocca?
 

btowngopher said:
Any reason you didn't include Ciarrocca?
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I like Ciarocca. I do think they need to “open the playbook” a bit more early in the season in terms of motion/misdirection etc. It does seem like this staff like the prior try to pound their heads against a wall early in the season to prove a point or keep things simple or maybe both.

I did forget Callahan.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
I like Ciarocca. I do think they need to “open the playbook” a bit more early in the season in terms of motion/misdirection etc. It does seem like this staff like the prior try to pound their heads against a wall early in the season to prove a point or keep things simple or maybe both.

I did forget Callahan.
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It's pretty tough to "open the playbook" when your OLINE isn't able to handle fairly simple stunts. When they figure that out the offense will look quite a bit different.
 

theUSDgopher said:
It's pretty tough to "open the playbook" when your OLINE isn't able to handle fairly simple stunts. When they figure that out the offense will look quite a bit different.
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Step 1? What’s your timeline on coaching them up?
 

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