Cosgrove and Fisch Grades?

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nemosgold

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What's your early grades?

Cosgrove: A. He has the best D-Line and Linebackers to work with in my 22 years of having tickets which makes his scheme stronger. Right now I like the composer he show on the sideline. John Butler better get his act straight, he looks like a bubbling idiot on the sidelines and Cosgrove let him have I believe to cool down once late in the game. The 1st defensive time-out was because our LB's were not aligned correctly.

Fisch: D. I realize our O-line is not very good but, you have to coach the talent you have. If we need to throw the ball to Decker and short to win, we better do it. Our creativity is less than Dunbar's. I think they don't move Decker around as much as Dunbar did. He's lined up outside about 90% of the time. His signal system is a joke, he tells the play to one QB (not Alipate and Gray) He shoul;d have all the QB's wear head sets and call the play into the set for the back-ups to hear. Right now this reminds me of the Baltimore Ravens offense.
 

nemosgold said:
What's your early grades?

Cosgrove: A. He has the best D-Line and Linebackers to work with in my 22 years of having tickets which makes his scheme stronger. Right now I like the composer he show on the sideline. John Butler better get his act straight, he looks like a bubbling idiot on the sidelines and Cosgrove let him have I believe to cool down once late in the game. The 1st defensive time-out was because our LB's were not aligned correctly.

Fisch: D. I realize our O-line is not very good but, you have to coach the talent you have. If we need to throw the ball to Decker and short to win, we better do it. Our creativity is less than Dunbar's. I think they don't move Decker around as much as Dunbar did. He's lined up outside about 90% of the time. His signal system is a joke, he tells the play to one QB (not Alipate and Gray) He shoul;d have all the QB's wear head sets and call the play into the set for the back-ups to hear. Right now this reminds me of the Baltimore Ravens offense.
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Agree with both grades. Its too bad about the offense, its tough to watch, couple things with the offense:

1) Weber needs more plays that give him the option to run

2) Line him up out of the shotgun half the time (did it more last night)

3) O-Line still horse shit, too many guys getting beat. First drive of the game when we were getting serious Mo, we needed 1 yd on that 3rd down and Wills just let some undersized guy go right through him.

4) Weber is terrible at throwing the ball. Which brings me back to point 1, we need to play to the strengths of our personnel.
 

Wrong About Weber...

4) Weber is terrible at throwing the ball. Which brings me back to point 1, we need to play to the strengths of our personnel.[/QUOTE]

Weber has certainly been inconsistent, but you can't blame him for all of the drops yesterday and he still was 20 for 29 with no INTs. He's making good decisions overall, and is making the passes when they count most -- in the 4th quarter under pressure.

He definitely needs to be more consistent early, and reduce the number of passes that are off target -- but someone with a nearly 69% completion rate can NOT be described as a terrible thrower. Inconsistent with his timing and placement, perhaps, but no terrible.

The thing is, he's getting used to both a new scheme, and an adjusted throwing motion. Perhaps we could give the kid a break, and be glad that he's been able to do what he has while making some big adjustments. Even with a terrible first 3 quarters at Syracuse, he's still at an almost 55% completions percentage over the first two games. I expect that to go up significantly over the course of the year, as he and WRs get more comfortable with the system and the new timings required.
 

Grades

Cosgrove - I would definetly give him an A. The Cal game will show us how much improved the defense will be this year. We might say it's a lot like last year or a lot better.

Fisch - I would give him a D. He would get an F but the offense coming alive in the fourth quarter has prevented him from getting a failling grade. The offense has to get better. There is too much talent on offense to struggle like they have. He's got to firgure out a way to get this offense going at the start of the game and not just in the fourth quarter.
 

Cosgrove -- A
He's just a couple of pieces away from a very nice defense, and we may have those pieces. i though Jacobs looked beast like at times yesterday. It's fun to watch a decent defense again.


Fisch -- D+
I'll give him a little extra credit for week to week improvement. They say he's a smart guy, and there was progress so maybe we just keep getting better. I hope.
 


Everybody always mentions Cosgrove when talking about the D. How much say/input does Ronnie Lee have in what goes on with personnel/schemes?
 

PlayHosea said:
Everybody always mentions Cosgrove when talking about the D. How much say/input does Ronnie Lee have in what goes on with personnel/schemes?
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Just based on Brewster quotes (he always mentions him) and watching on the sidelines I'd say a fair amount.

Also, interesting that Edwards and Kirksey played the series that started the 4th with the score tied and then stayed in the entire quarter. Both looked very good to me.
 

Would Fisch receive a higher grade if Weber was hitting the wide open receivers last night? Troy S was open by 15-20 yards twice and Weber threw into double coverage to Decker. Brandon Green was also open quite a few times if you watch the replay of the game. Everyone sitting near us was looking forward to seeing Gray play for an entire drive but the fumble ended his night. I like the offensive schemes because the field is being stretched for the play-makers and all the QB has to do is execute. The O-line has given Weber much more time to pass for the most part than the past 2 years.

Weber has played well in the 4th qtr of both games and this offense should continue to get better as they get deeper into the schedule. Hopefully the timing gets better abd Weber gets more accurate when he is under center. He does a much better job and seems to be more under control when he is in the shotgun.

Cosgrove/Lee are doing a great job keeping everyone fresh and in position. The depth on the line is what has been noticeable the past 2 weeks. The Gophers can rotate 8-10 players in and out and that will play dividends when they get into the meat of their schedule. The linebackers have been great and really fill the gaps. I wish Triplett would have been been playing more as a sophomore and junior but better late than never. The Gophers have great talent/depth also at linebacker which will make this a position of strength for years to come. The backfield will improve as the players get used to playing with each other. They have improved their tackling and also have a lot of talent and youth that should make this a strength in the near future.

Brewster has done a great job filling the roster with great kids and the depth he is building with the talent has already begun to show at all positions when you go through the depth charts. Cosgrove-Lee have done a great job and Fisch should continue to move the offense forward as the QB play gets more consistant IMHO.
 

Triplett didn't play last year so we could enjoy Manion. Now we have to endure Moen and to heck with playing Wilhite. And we have to wait for Weber to graduate before we see Gray.
 



Cosgrove: Overall B/B+. He gets an A for the first 2 games but a C+/B- for the Cal game. I don't understand how some people think the defensive effort vs. Cal was so great? Yeah, they made some adjustments, but who was repsonsible for the 14-0 hole 8 minutes into the game? They gave up 35 points and 400+ yards. How is that great? I guess when you're used to having terrible defenses those numbers seem great by default, but still. I've seen some pretty creative spin doctoring. The defense last year was "great" early on but their true colors shined through when they started playing teams with a pulse. Cosgrove's challenge is not to repeat that.

Fisch: D/D+. The former glorified team manager is not an O-cordinator at the D-I level, at least not yet. The Decker TD pass was a nice wrinkle but somebody needs to tell him he doesn't have any RB's. Weber should just throw the ball 40 times a game and incorporate bubble screens and other short routes that are like running plays.
 


Wow, I do not get the anger directed at Fisch at all.

1. I find it funny that people are giving a Fisch a D as a grade saying "The offense has to get better" and crediting Dunbar as "more creative", when it's Fisch's offense that just scored 3 TDs against Cal, who has one of the better defenses in the nation. Last year our offense scored 2 TDs against Indiana, Northwestern, Michigan, and Iowa COMBINED in our four Big Ten home games. And people think what we've done this year is bad?!

2.
you have to coach the talent you have. If we need to throw the ball to Decker and short to win, we better do it.
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Think about this. We have a terrible offensive line at the moment. Teams know we can't run the ball. Teams know we're going to throw to Decker. We've played legitimate non-conference opponents. And here Eric Decker is going for 100+ in all three games, and sitting at #3 in the nation in receiving yards. Yet Fisch is doing a bad job because he's not getting Decker the ball enough? On the contrary, the fact that Decker is still being as productive as he is given the circumstances is a huge credit to Fisch (and Weber.)

3. We have no running game, everyone knows that. Do people really think it's Fisch's fault? We were terrible running the ball last year and we're still terrible now because we have little talent at those positions. You know what though? Last winter Brewster released Dunbar from the last year of his contract and the U had to eat his salary. Brewster hired Tim Davis. He named Tim Davis "Running game coordinator". He put signs up around Bierman that say "Pound the Rock". Do people think Brewster did all that so Jedd Fisch could call a game where we throw 80% of the time? I don't think so. Brewster is committed to running the football, and he has probably given Fisch direct orders that we're going to we're going to keep trying to run, no matter how fruitless it is. Brewster has too much riding on his decisions to abandon the commitment he made just 9 months ago. So here is Fisch, trying to scheme a game plan for a running game even he knows isn't going to work. The guy has an arm tied behind his back.
 

We scored more points in regulation against Cal than we did against Air Force or Syracuse. (ok +1 point)... but we did score more. I guess to me that's improvement considering Cal's Defense has more than a few more future NFL players than the Falcons or the Orange. So, Jedd gets a B-... Cosgrove gets a B+.. clearly he is good at making adjustments. But we still did give up 35 points and were helped by Jeff Tedford's questionable play calling in the 3rd quarter.
 



I feel like the grades for Fisch are too low. If you grade him purely on the results so far, those D's are probably fair. However, how many drives have been ruined before they have even been started due to Oline penalties? I mean the first play of the game on Saturday, we had a lineman false start. How does that happen? Especially at home.

I like some of what Fisch has done, but I really question changing Weber's delivery. Maybe that is the best long term decision for Adam, but short term it hasn't helped the Gophers.

Davis is the "running game coordinator" and our running game is horrible. I am feel confident in putting a large share of the blame on the Oline, but we also lack a running back who either breaks a lot of tackles or can take it the distance if he gets in the open field. I have to give Studwell credit for pointing this out in week 1. I thought we would find a good RB between Bennett, Eskridge, and Whaley. I still hold out faint hope that Bennett will improve as he gets further removed from his knee surgery.
 

Only defensive stat that matters is POINTS.

We gave up 35 against Cal. That's not an "A" job in anybody's book.

Still, I like that we are tough up the middle!!
 

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