I wanted to take a little time before posting after some immediate posts last night. Tried looking at the full picture today and here is where I landed.
From a pure talent perspective, I don't think we are that far off from past NU teams that had a lot of success. However, outside of Skoronski, we don't appear to have any stars or future NFL players anywhere. In the conference as a whole, I'd put our talent level somewhere in the 8th - 11th range. That said, there are a couple positions where we really seem to have talent issues.
The most glaring position where we are weak is wide receiver. Of course, they had a terrible game last night with two fumbles (should have been three if it wasn't for a gift call that went our way), but there is just not enough talent there. Guys like Kirtz and Washington are fine. They would be good #3 or #4 wide receivers on a team with a good WR group. We have no one at that position who you can count on to get open or stretch the field. It's a problem, and it's not a new one.
The other position where we seem to have a big issue is the middle of our d-line. We have some talent at the DE position, especially in the pipeline, but the middle of our line is a big problem. Outside of Holmes, we have no one of size inside that we can count on. Even when we recruit guys who you feel will finally fill that need (Edwards, Butler, etc.), they can't get on the field, transfer out, etc.
Outside of those two groups, I don't think we have major talent deficiencies. Sure, I wish our LB's were playing better and we had a little more athleticism there, but I don't think the skill there is THAT far off. And there are certain groups where I feel like we actually have some good talent (o-line, RB, and secondary). And while Hilinski has been frustrating with some inconsistent play, he also has shown he can make all the throws and is certainly not a big part of the problem.
So what is it? Shouldn't surprise anyone that all signs to me point towards the coaching staff. Even last night, where if you take out the last two drives of the game, you say "wow, we only gave up 140 yards", there were issues. First, we were playing a backup QB who was pretty much no threat to throw the ball. But even beyond that, there were still plays where guys were left wide open. Whether it's guys being overly aggressive (Mitchell last night got away with being duped on a pump fake) or miscommunications that leave guys wide open down field, it seems to be a reoccurring problem since the beginning of last year. I know JON wants to play a more aggressive style of defense, but there are way too many times where guys blow assignments or lose contain. It's extremely frustrating. The team has continually shown they aren't fully on the same page so SIMPLIFY THE DEFENSE. Not saying you can't blitz here or there or show some different looks, but keep it pretty vanilla. If you are continually saying game after game that guys are missing assignments, then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
On the offensive side, I am a little bit more understanding of Bajakian just because he is working with pretty much nothing in our WR group and we have had an insane amount of bad turnovers that are on the players. But he certainly shouldn't be safe either and I'd like to try and see him do more to open things up. We have shown time and time again we aren't disciplined enough from a penalty or turnover standpoint to sustain long drives consistently. So let's try and take more shots and I'd also like to see us use formations with both RB's involved and more of our TE's. If you don't have a good WR group, put more guys in from groups that have shown they can play...And speaking of coaches on this side of the ball, how is Dennis Springer still employed? Seems like a great guy, but his groups have consistently been a weakness pretty much his entire time at NU.
With a good coaching staff, I think this is a middling Big Ten team. In no way am I saying this is a super talented team. As I've pointed out, there are some really weak groups, but I think there is enough there to work with that there is no reason for what we are seeing.
I do think Fitz is the right guy for the job, but Gragg needs to put pressure on him to make changes. To go through what we have gone through three of the last four years and pretty much have no coaching changes (besides Hank retiring) is unacceptable and wouldn't be tolerated at pretty much any other P5 university (I truly can't think of another place where this would fly).
From a pure talent perspective, I don't think we are that far off from past NU teams that had a lot of success. However, outside of Skoronski, we don't appear to have any stars or future NFL players anywhere. In the conference as a whole, I'd put our talent level somewhere in the 8th - 11th range. That said, there are a couple positions where we really seem to have talent issues.
The most glaring position where we are weak is wide receiver. Of course, they had a terrible game last night with two fumbles (should have been three if it wasn't for a gift call that went our way), but there is just not enough talent there. Guys like Kirtz and Washington are fine. They would be good #3 or #4 wide receivers on a team with a good WR group. We have no one at that position who you can count on to get open or stretch the field. It's a problem, and it's not a new one.
The other position where we seem to have a big issue is the middle of our d-line. We have some talent at the DE position, especially in the pipeline, but the middle of our line is a big problem. Outside of Holmes, we have no one of size inside that we can count on. Even when we recruit guys who you feel will finally fill that need (Edwards, Butler, etc.), they can't get on the field, transfer out, etc.
Outside of those two groups, I don't think we have major talent deficiencies. Sure, I wish our LB's were playing better and we had a little more athleticism there, but I don't think the skill there is THAT far off. And there are certain groups where I feel like we actually have some good talent (o-line, RB, and secondary). And while Hilinski has been frustrating with some inconsistent play, he also has shown he can make all the throws and is certainly not a big part of the problem.
So what is it? Shouldn't surprise anyone that all signs to me point towards the coaching staff. Even last night, where if you take out the last two drives of the game, you say "wow, we only gave up 140 yards", there were issues. First, we were playing a backup QB who was pretty much no threat to throw the ball. But even beyond that, there were still plays where guys were left wide open. Whether it's guys being overly aggressive (Mitchell last night got away with being duped on a pump fake) or miscommunications that leave guys wide open down field, it seems to be a reoccurring problem since the beginning of last year. I know JON wants to play a more aggressive style of defense, but there are way too many times where guys blow assignments or lose contain. It's extremely frustrating. The team has continually shown they aren't fully on the same page so SIMPLIFY THE DEFENSE. Not saying you can't blitz here or there or show some different looks, but keep it pretty vanilla. If you are continually saying game after game that guys are missing assignments, then DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
On the offensive side, I am a little bit more understanding of Bajakian just because he is working with pretty much nothing in our WR group and we have had an insane amount of bad turnovers that are on the players. But he certainly shouldn't be safe either and I'd like to try and see him do more to open things up. We have shown time and time again we aren't disciplined enough from a penalty or turnover standpoint to sustain long drives consistently. So let's try and take more shots and I'd also like to see us use formations with both RB's involved and more of our TE's. If you don't have a good WR group, put more guys in from groups that have shown they can play...And speaking of coaches on this side of the ball, how is Dennis Springer still employed? Seems like a great guy, but his groups have consistently been a weakness pretty much his entire time at NU.
With a good coaching staff, I think this is a middling Big Ten team. In no way am I saying this is a super talented team. As I've pointed out, there are some really weak groups, but I think there is enough there to work with that there is no reason for what we are seeing.
I do think Fitz is the right guy for the job, but Gragg needs to put pressure on him to make changes. To go through what we have gone through three of the last four years and pretty much have no coaching changes (besides Hank retiring) is unacceptable and wouldn't be tolerated at pretty much any other P5 university (I truly can't think of another place where this would fly).
