Offense: F
I guess I am in the Rettig apologist camp. Despite his stagnant progress, I still think he shows glimpses of something better. But I sort of understand why they tried Bordner, but I thought Rettig was making decent decisions and decent throws prior to that. After they started the rotation I felt Rettig lost some of his momentum. Bordner showed me a lot with his running. Who knew he would be that strong? His first throw was nice. His second throw was terrible and a terrible decision. If we continue to use both QBs, I think it has to be defined in the first half and whoever has the hot hand in the second.
Finch's fumble was a killer. Last week's was acceptable. This week wasn't. He had a few decent runs outside of it. I am glad he bounced back. We didn't really use a FB this week.
Larmond did alright. I know he is trying to make something out of nothing but he's got get first downs and know where the marker is. Swigert had some nice catches but also had a drop he should have pulled in. The TEs were used mostly as blockers.
The offensive line played one of their worst games of the Spaz era. False starts, holding penalties, bad snaps, it was all there. I guess Ian White had the best game. Clearly was pretty good but as I said, had the penalties. Wetzel really struggled. Vardaro was not as good as he's been lately. Spinney wasn't great. Gallik had the problem with the snap but was otherwise okay.
I thought the play calling was terrible. We ran way too much, especially as the game started getting away from us. I liked the idea of Bordner as a change of pace, but hated the in and out with the QBs. Overall Brock has now been calling our plays for seven games and I don't feel confident in our approach or our ability to adapt.
Defense: C+
This was not Holloway's best game. He missed some tackles and lost contain a few times Edebali wason the field but not a big factor. Ricci played and so did Appiah. They both have looked like good freshmen but didn't make a difference Thursday. Mihalik didn't play as much. I was really disappointed in Quinn and O'Neal. They were non factors.
Kuechly had his best game in weeks. He was covering tons of ground. He was shedding blockers with ease and he made some big plays. Duggan was good too. My problem with him is that e still loses contain. Clancy didn't get major snaps, but made some nice tackles. Divitto made some nice, hard hitting tackles. He is still not great is coverage. Keyes didn't play as much.
Asprilla allowed the early touchdown in part because he didn't get help from Rositano. Sylvia was good in support but didn't make any big plays in passing. Fletcher was also removed from the action. ALJ and/or Kuechly screwed on O's big pass reception. Hughes missed some tackles.
I was impressed by the aggressiveness of the initial gameplan. The corner blitz and the blitz from Divitto were effective. We didn't use much of the 3-4. But then we went more base. I don't know why. If anything FSU were getting their biggest plays when we weren't taking risks. The gameplan had the feel of us throwing some wrinkles and then Spaz saying to McGovern: "alright, that's enough."
Special Teams: C
Quigley -- who I really like -- had some clunky punts. Our kick returns weren't as strong as they've been.
Overall: F
Sometimes when I get to this section with Spaz, I question if I should even bother writing anything. So much of what he does and what's he's done frustrates me. These are all the nitpicky things that start to bother me when we are getting blown out:
-- the mumbling swears to himself that that camera catches
-- overreacting with anger after BC has good plays
-- underreacting when we have bad plays
-- taking off the headset when we are on offense
-- looking beyond defeated in halftime interviews
-- punting with three minutes left in a blowout
Throw in the strategic issues listed previously and you have a recipe for a two win season.
I've seen bad seasons at BC before. When we lost with Henning there were certainly questions of management and strategy, but you never got the sense Dan expected to lose. When TOB lost in his early years, you at least saw progression and player improvement. Now we are absolutely rudderless. We may rally against NC State or Notre Dame. Bordner or a healthy Andre Williams might provide some sort of spark that lifts the whole team. I don't know. But what I do know is that any temporary spark is not enough.
Posts
18 comments:
You know the season has gone to hell when the most surprising thing about the turd we put up was how poorly Quigley was kicking. He's always been our rock and helped our defense have more room to bend without breaking.
I agree with your Rettig comment. Actually, think we are seeing growth. Rettig's passing was much more accurate, he is releasing ball much quicker. and he is throwing hard passes that only the receiver can get. His touchdown pass was a thing of beauty.
I do not think Bordner was inserted to replace Rettig, but to shake things up. Boy Bordner really beefed up. Per Rivals, he was 185 lb when recruited. Now he is 225, maybe 235! He also had a nice touch on one ball. I recall seeing that he works out in off season with same QB coach as Rettig.
Also worth noting that Spaz is still a defensive genius. His prevent offense In the 4th Q (11 or so running plays) was a very effective way of burning clock, padding stats and minimizing that chance of 40+ point blow out.
Just kidding. What a defeated coach. What an embarrassing way to end the game. The punt was actually shocking. My hope is that the punt was not just a message to Jimbo Fishet - no mas, no mas - but a plea to GDF - please fire me.
Hey Spaz, if your signals of defeatism are not being heard, I am sure Brian Kelly, TOB and Al Golden can help u get to retirement sooner.
My worst Spaz moments are the way he reacts when his team gets a movement penalty. He lowers his head, removes his hat, and turns his head side to side in despair. He basically acts like someone he doesn't like is coach of the team.
The real problem is BC has lost its pride in itself. It has become a loser school. It took comfort in going to toilet bowls at the end of the year and bragging about its bowl streak. It has drifted back to the days of the fifties and sixties when it had Holy Cross on its schedule. I suppose if we played in the Colonial League we'd not be complaining ab out Spaz.
Evertosmell - wrong, wrong, & wrong. The only losers on campus are the football coaches - soon to be removed.
And is that really your worst Spaz moment - peculiar choice.
Yup, I agree Jimmy, this is on the coaches and also the athletic administration. The kids are still playing hard and these losses have to be tough on them. I'll never root against the team, but hope that our disappointing season produces something good (i.e. a new coach).
Finch's fumble is irrelevant based on the score alone. The initial fumble was caused by the safety who came from behind and was unblocked. If BC had established the pass first, then the box wouldn't have been filled with linebackers and whoever else FSU could fit into it. The second fumble, he never got the ball from the QB. The game strategy lost this game and probably every game that was lost this season except the Duke game.
Turnovers, even for the winning team, are part of football and are often overrated. QBs throw interceptions all the time and unlike fumbles a turnover is assured. Of course, limiting them is the preferred outcome, but my point is sometimes they impact the game and other times, in the end, they hold little or no bearing on the game's outcome.
If Retig and Finch played flawlessly, BC would have still lost badly.
Bordner was effective only because he ran an offense FSU was totally unprepared to see. It tells you how easy BC is to gameplan against. There is little to no threat of being surprised or being "off balance" against our offense. Border was OK, but on most of his runs he wasn't touched until he was past the LOS.
Perhaps Brock can figure out a way to work both guys into the system effectively to keep defenses guessing. Heck perhaps it would require opposing D Coordinators to spend more than 15 minutes game planning against us the week leading up to the game!
atl, im curious as to why you think spaz would be back after this season. youve made that statement a couple of times and i cannot fathom he would be allowed to return after this noncompetitive mess hes put together.
we stink.
At least we don't have the issues Penn st have. I would rather have an pay scandal compared to that. The whole university hierarchy there including paternity need to leave today. It is the biggest scandal in the history of college football. The grand jury testimony is just horrendous.
I meant osu scandal
Paterno, damn auto spell.
See what is going on at Ole Miss?
http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/7202990/houston-nutt-mississippi-rebels-resign-end-season
Ole Miss didn't bat an eyelash at paying an $8 million buyout for Nutt and his entire staff, as both Nutt and the AD are gone.
A fan group called "Forward Mississippi" took out full page ads calling for Nutt to go.
Anyone for "Forward BC"?
Spaz must go. Of course Super Mario Mustache would never do the right and honorable thing by resigning. He would rather destroy our program and keep making money off of the fans' demise.
I will never forgive Spaz for losing to Notre Dame twice, losing to TOB and ending our impressive bowl streak.
Eagleboston- that last comment hit hard. At BC, we don't contend for national titles, we don't win conference championships, we just beat Notre Dame and go to crappy bowls. That's our thing. It's not much, but it's ours. Now it's gone. Spaz has taken away everything we had......
Spaz is currently #3 on the Coaching Hot Seat Sweet.
that coaches hot seat blog has all the salaries of the coaches. what great information to compare the price of spaz's ineptitude to other coaches.
we pay spaz $1.1 mil. he is signed through 2015 (4 more seasons). so with no raises, he's due $4.4 mil. i can't find information on a buyout anywhere, but presumably there is one in the contract and BC can pay him like $2 mil to leave.
(for comparison sake, jags was paid $1.5 mil per year, and reportedly BC negotiated a $1.5 mil buyout.)
i fear we are in for one more year of spaz. gene will harp "program continuity" and maybe clean house on the offensive side of the ball with coaches.
a pathetic game, thanks for the recap ATL. love the F grades, spaz deserves nothing higher. he gets an F grade for the season by punting while down by 31 points. a true embarassment.
Post a Comment