Grasping at Straws

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dpodoll68 said:
What the hell are you talking about?
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I agree with cncmin. It would suck to have Kellen Moore throwing to Austin Pettis and Titus Young. We wouldn't want those guys in Maroon and Gold at all.
 

SonOfTheVarsity said:
I would have at least liked to try something downfield on third down. If we throw a pick, is it really that much different than a punt? At that point, with that amount of time on the clock, I think the Gophs were the only team with a somewhat reasonable chance to put points on the board before the half.
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Incompletion is bad too. Clock stops and they save a timeout.
 

josh087 said:
Couldn't agree more. While IMO they should have run maybe a little more to the outside to keep the D honest, or mixed in a couple (small number) of passes on first down, the gameplan kept us in it longer than we deserved.

However, this game clearly defined why Brewster should be gone. He was brought in to upgrade the talent through recruiting. Even if you think he is a bad coach, since we have not seen an upgrade in the talent, (other than Gray) Brew's time has run out. This game proved how far we are away talent-wise from a USC squad that is a shell athletically from their teams that won the Pac-10.
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I also agree that the gameplan was working. We took the lead in the 3rd quarter. Yes, we were playing conservative, mostly because we knew that one of their offensive players could bust off a huge play at any given time - so you keep the ball out of the hands. In addition, running the ball on 1st and 2nd down keeps the 3rd downs somewhat more manageable than 3rd and 10 or 3rd and 15. I do agree they probably could have tried a play action on first/second down once in a while, but clearly they were trying to keep the clock moving - especially when we were still in the game and only down 6 points.

Your second statement on why Brewster should be gone is pretty weak, in my opinion. Are you saying that because in his 4th year, Brewster hasn't brought in the same athletes that USC has on their roster, that he should be fired? How is USC a "shell athletically" compared to what they used to be? How many 5-star All-Americans do they have at their skill positions? Are they a shell because Reggie Bush isn't there? They are still ranked in the top 15 in the country, and just because they can't play in a bowl game, doesn't mean that they still aren't one of the top teams in the country. They probably have more "athletes" on their roster than anyone in the Big Ten (maybe Ohio St. is close).

I am not saying that he shouldn't be gone, but comparing our roster to USC's and saying that he hasn't brought in the same quality athletes isn't comparable.
 

MJGopher said:
I also agree that the gameplan was working. We took the lead in the 3rd quarter. Yes, we were playing conservative, mostly because we knew that one of their offensive players could bust off a huge play at any given time - so you keep the ball out of the hands. In addition, running the ball on 1st and 2nd down keeps the 3rd downs somewhat more manageable than 3rd and 10 or 3rd and 15. I do agree they probably could have tried a play action on first/second down once in a while, but clearly they were trying to keep the clock moving - especially when we were still in the game and only down 6 points.

Your second statement on why Brewster should be gone is pretty weak, in my opinion. Are you saying that because in his 4th year, Brewster hasn't brought in the same athletes that USC has on their roster, that he should be fired? How is USC a "shell athletically" compared to what they used to be? How many 5-star All-Americans do they have at their skill positions? Are they a shell because Reggie Bush isn't there? They are still ranked in the top 15 in the country, and just because they can't play in a bowl game, doesn't mean that they still aren't one of the top teams in the country. They probably have more "athletes" on their roster than anyone in the Big Ten (maybe Ohio St. is close).

I am not saying that he shouldn't be gone, but comparing our roster to USC's and saying that he hasn't brought in the same quality athletes isn't comparable.
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I'm not comparing them side-by-side saying we need to be at their level. Just using them as an example to support my argument. Never said we need to bring in the top talent in the country at all - that is unrealistic here.

My point is the reason he was hired was that he was supposed to significantly upgrade the talent, and by-and-large that has not happened. It is also clear that USC is not the team they were five years ago in terms of athletes. I was really disappointed to see that we were outgunned by such a degree at pretty much every position. If USC has gotten worse talent-wise, and we were supposed to be better talent-wise under Brew, it should have been a lot closer than what I saw Saturday.
 


josh087 said:
I'm not comparing them side-by-side saying we need to be at their level. Just using them as an example to support my argument. Never said we need to bring in the top talent in the country at all - that is unrealistic here.

My point is the reason he was hired was that he was supposed to significantly upgrade the talent, and by-and-large that has not happened. It is also clear that USC is not the team they were five years ago in terms of athletes. I was really disappointed to see that we were outgunned by such a degree at pretty much every position. If USC has gotten worse talent-wise, and we were supposed to be better talent-wise under Brew, it should have been a lot closer than what I saw Saturday.
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Fair enough. I initially thought that you were trying to state that because we were out-manned by USC, he should be fired, because in that case, there aren't many coaches who should still have jobs. We should maybe try comparing talent w/ Iowa, WI, Illinois, NW, etc. Answer is probably the same, but at least it doesn't look quite so prepostorous.

I don't know if USC has fallen off talent-wise as much as we think. I think the fall off has occurred primarily at the coaching level. Losing the O-Coordinator to WA was a pretty big loss, and now having to replace Carroll w/ Kiffin is an even bigger loss and downgrade.
 

gold04 said:
People like to use this as an excuse in why we lose.

Coach Fitz is 3-0 when Northwestern is playing in Iowa. Purdue's coach beat OSU in his first year. Somewhere along the line you have to stop using that excuse. Good coaches find a way to get it done and Brewster has not.
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Ummm, the big difference I would say there is, both Fitz and the Purdue coach were hired from within, and had to deal with virtually no turnover in coaching staff and off/def schemes.


As far as USC being a shadow of their former self, that's not going to be that evident this year. USC won't start to feel the effects of their troubles until next year and the year after.

THIS year, USC is probably not as deep as they normally are, that's all. They still have better talent than most anybody in the country in their starting lineup. Any troubles USC experiences this year are due to the change in coaching staff and the changes that go along with it, nothing more, nothing less.
 

The play calling would also have looked better if Weber is better than 10/21 (before the reserves came in). Whether it was WR's running wrong routes/drops or the inaccuracy, either way the failure to even have a decent conservative passing game with the running hurts a lot.
 

ruralgopher said:
Incompletion is bad too. Clock stops and they save a timeout.
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Not really. They got the ball back after the punt with four seconds. That's enough for one play. I don't think that extra timeout in their pocket would have changed anything at that point. As far as an interception is concerned--yes, the punt team is better equipped to stop a return. But, as bad as many think Weber may be (I'm a lot higher on him than most), what's more likely: Weber completing a pass or throwing an incompletion, or him throwing a pick and USC returning that pick for a touchdown? Obviously all scenarios are in play, as is a possible sack/fumble or something like that. But given the situation, I think if we went downfield on third down, it would have more likely helped us than helped USC. I think it was at least worth a shot.
 



GophersInIowa said:
If we throw the ball some there and Weber throws a pick or we go three and out and USC gets the ball back, I guarantee you would have been on here saying how stupid of a move it was.
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No, I wouldn't have...

Anything else?
 


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