Monday, October 15, 2012

Second viewing thoughts and grade report: Florida State

Numb. That's how I feel at this point. It makes watching the games back a little easier. Actually I feel bad for some players. Some are playing hard and some who have struggled recently played well. Too bad good efforts were wasted in such a lopsided game.

Offense: F

I will defend Chase Rettig day and night, but this was not a good game. I don't know what went wrong. Where at times this season he has held too long or forced things, this week he wasn't even trying to make difficult throws. He had multiple passes that he just hurled away. Maybe the idea of getting rid of it early was drilled into him. Maybe he's frustrated. I don't know but it wasn't the Chase we've seen this year. When he did settle down, he made some nice throws. The TD to Swigert had nice touch and he put a couple into tight places with Amidon. But overall it was his worst game of the season. His decision making was off, his timing was off, he didn't work his reads like he did earlier. Hopefully he puts it behind him. Bordner got multiple series for the first time this year, but there was nothing definitive about his play.

We really only played two running backs and both were decent. Williams was good in the draws and delays. The WRs pulled many guys away from the line so there was space. I was frustrated with his inability to push it in on the goaline, but I will get to that in the play calling. Dudeck also looked pretty good. He's not a game changer, but he's got good hands and seems to be improving week to week. McCaffery got some carries in garbage time.

It is nice to have Swigert back. He made some tough catches and took some big hits. I think he would have made a difference in the beginning of the year. Amidon wasn't targeted as much but still made some good catches. Evans had one catch and so did Coleman. Neither made much of them. Pantale, Larmond, Parson  and others played but were not involved in the action.

The offensive line as a whole did not play well. But Vardaro -- who I've been rough on -- did. He moved and pulled much better and held his blocks. Cleary got called for holding and had some trouble with their speed. Wetzel was all called for holding. White got blown up a few times. Gallik wasn't good, but when he missed series and we shifted White and brought in Betancourt, things really looked bad.

I didn't like the game Martin called. After the first possession we never got in rhythm. We only had a few counters (like Swigert out of the backfield) and couldn't sustain anything. There were a few things I liked -- Williams motioning out to a WR slot. A lot of draws in space. Trying to move the pocket. I didn't like other things. The toss plays?! The goaline series. How can you leave their best player unblocked. I know it is a read and the goal is to get the pass off, but can't we adjust the play so that you are exploiting one of their weak links instead of an All America DE?

Defense: F

The defensive line is where this team really starts to crumble. I know they were short handed, but they missed tons of tackles and couldn't get even the slightest pressure on Manuel. Borchich was the unblocked guy on a lot of their option stuff, but was a step too slow to make many plays. Murray, Ricci and Quinn (who did play in the second half) got pushed around. Rudolph played hard but missed tackles. Moore made some nice plays but I wish we didn't burn his redshirt midway through the season. Edebali once again plays hard. He never gives up on plays. I just don't know why that same motor cannot create more havoc in the other team's backfield.

Divitto is another guy who had his best game in a while. He didn't miss as many tackles and was pretty good in coverage. Joy played well too when Divitto missed some time. KPL is another guy who played hard and didn't miss many tackles. You could see his frustration. Clancy had a rough game. He missed a lot of tackles and was pushed around a lot.

I don't know what is wrong with Noel and Asprilla. Many of the big plays happened in their areas. All the DBs had coverage breakdowns. I cannot remember the last time I saw so many opponents run free. This is where I think the talent argument is negated. Talent wise I would put Noel and Asprilla in the middle of the pack as far as BC DBs of the last decade. Yet their less talented predecessors never made that many glaring mistakes in one game. At times Noel and Asprilla both showed their talent in this game. But that didn't make up for the glaring issues. Simmons got extensive time at Safety and actually looked good.  Bryce Jones also looked good. Richardson played a little and didn't make an impact. Sylvia was at corner again and played well.

We were down four TDs before we starting mixing things up with zone pressure or dropping eight. Why? Are we that much in fear of Florida State that we were only going to play way off? Do we think that much of Manuel as a QB that we didn't try to confuse him or disguise things early? It was a ultra conservative gameplan and we still got killed. I don't know who has true ownership of our defense, but it is clear that two heads are not better than one.  Somebody's got to do something.

Special Teams: C
Levano -- who has not been good lately -- had a decent game. He got his punts off and while not all were beauties, they were much better and helped change field position.

Spiffy had solid returns all day. Elliot had one bad one where the ball knuckled and stopped in bounds on the  two yard line. Those sort of things seem to happen when the game is falling apart.

Overall: F

Forget about the breakdowns or the talent difference. Forget about Rettig having an off day or all the missed tackles. Our coaching staff gave up. We came out in the second half and didn't try anything new. A little blitzing in the third quarter and a few more draws is not going to change the course of a game. And our pace showed the whole stadium we had no urgency to erase the huge halftime deficit. Of course the odds that a 1-4 team was not going on the road to erase the biggest deficit in BC history against a top 10 team. No one expected that. But you would hope Spaz would do something to even try to alter the course of the game.

Once again we were unprepared and executed like a Pop Warner team. That's on the Head Coach. There is part of me that still believes this team has talent. I no longer believe Spaz can do anything with it.

12 comments:

ObserverCollege said...

This is simple: Coach Spaziani has never been given the chance to design, install and mold HIS program.

First, Jagodzinski burned out this year's seniors and juniors with all the extra scout team practices in 2007 and 2008 (8 weeks TOTAL!!! You can't expect 18-year-olds to go up against NFL players for rep after rep and think they'll be "just fine" when they're 22. Players are like cellphones. If you keep trying to charge the battery over and over early on (the true freshman scout teamer), eventually you just can't keep it fully juiced when you really want it (the 22-year-old senior).

Then Jagodzinski compounded matters by completely failing to recruit the Signing Day 2009 class. That undermined the depth of the roster, again subjecting the remaining players to more reps than they could handle--wearing down their batteries before they could really use them.

Finally, Gene DeFilippo stepped in and interfered with the program from Day One of Coach Spaziani's tenure. True, DeFilippo did some good things, mainly staying out of the way and letting Coach Spaziani bring in Gary Tranquill as OC the first two seasons. When you have a team that lacks young talent (thank you Jags), you need to nurture the older players along. Tranq did that so that he and Spaz brought BC to two straight bowls despite the players and DeFilippo.

But once DeFilippo stepped in and interfered with the offense, after forcing Spaz to keep McGovern as the DC, all was lost. Coach Spaziani knew Rogers and then Martin would be disasters, but DeFilippo forced them on him. Coach Spaziani knew all the adjustments that needed to be made each halftime, but DeFilippo wouldn't let him pull the trigger. Coach Spaziani knew BC had to move to the Buddy Ryan 46 defense, but Coach DeFilippo and his lackey McGovern stuck with a soft cushion defense that Coach Spaziani knew was completely useless for this team. Coach Spaziani knew Coach DeFilippo spent too much time around the team and looked the other way as players ate cookies and cakes and Haagen-Dazs that rightfully belonged to the maintenance crew members--but how do you tell your BOSS to knock it off.

Yes, Coach DeFilippo is gone now, but the stench he left will last through the year. Hopefully Jersey Guys like Blaudschun and me will convince Bates what is really going on. Coach Spaziani needs to be allowed to clear house. He needs to finally be able to choose the assistants HE wants. The Gary Tranquills. The John Buntings. The Rich Kotites (Spaz has cousins in Brooklyn who lived near Kotite).

BC has failed because we haven't let Coach Spaz be Coach Spaz. Listen, Coach Spaziani has another 3 or 4 years until full retirement. Let him stick around and actually get to build his own team. Don't throw him under the bus, blaming him for the mistakes ruined players and Napoleonic supervisors create.

Smitty said...

^^^ This is funny! Jags burned them out? AHAHAHAHHAAHHAHA. Have you ever played football? A 22 yr old Senior should be in the best shape of his life. You are blaming their lack of skill on Jags? That's hilarious. And you are blaming Spaz' inability to coach on Jags' players? My 3rd grade flag football players aren't MY kids, they were assigned to me, but guess what?...we are undefeated....I have them running plays that no one else in the league does b/c I know they can grasp the concepts and execute the plays. Not to compare D1 with flag, but my point is...these guys are scholarship athletes playing for a D1 football program. they want to learn, they want to develop...it takes a real coach to teach and guide them...whether they were recruited by that coach or not. Don't give me the Jags' guys BS, I'm not buying it.

Fire Spaz. That was one of the most disgusting displays of D1 football I have ever seen.

Smitty said...

Oh and to your point of let Spaz be Spaz. The guy is on the hot seat and has been for a long time. You don't think he knows his job is on the line? Do you think anyone in their right mind if they had the ability to do things a different way, and thinks his way would be better (than whoever else you think is pulling the strings), would just go ahead and do those things if he thought they would get him W's and save his job? You think his mindset is: oh well I better keep sucking b/c Gene wants me to do it HIS way and keep sucking. Or do you think he is doing what he thinks is best to save his job?

I think he is doing what he thinks is best to try and save his job. Unfortuantely, what he thinks is best, still ain't working. Bye Spaz.

Unknown said...

methinks there might be a hint of sarcasm that Smitty is not picking up on...

Eagle09 said...

Yes yes yes! I absolutely love Observor's post...the arguments are very close to what Spaz's defenders actually say. When you lay out all the points together, it really drives home how ludicrous it is to defend to Spaz. Yes, Blauds, I'm looking at you.

Fire Spaz.

NEDofSavinHill said...

Observer is always entertaining. TOB must be having a good laugh at the state of BC football. His 10 win seasons were not good enough fot Gdf. Now his replacement produces 4 or fewer wins. Did anyone note three of TOB's qb pupils in the NFL won their games this week.( Hasselback, Ryan and Wilson) Is that an historic first? But TOB was not the best coach in fifteen years as Spaz was.2. Lets hope Bates can get the job done. Remember ND football was terrible for a decade under poor coaches: Willingham, Davie and Weiss. When ND hires a capable coach, Kelly, they end up in the top five. Maybe Bates can replicate what ND did.

Smitty said...

Oh...joke is on me? hahaha. Observer I certainly hope that was sarcasm.

I reit: Fire Spaz.

mod34b said...

Good one Observer! You've got your touch back.

Now for something compeletely different: cold, hard stats

I ran some stats on CFBStats.com for BC against FBS competition. There are 124 teams in the FBS. So, for example, a rank of 123/124 means second worst in the country!

Total D: #123/124 (559 yd/gm)
Rush D: #123/124
Pass D: #96/124
Scoring D: #107/124 (38 pt/gm)
1st downs allowed: #123/124
Yards per play: #110/124 (6.6 per play!)
Opp. 3rd Down Conv.: #122/124
Tackles for Loss: #124/124
Sacks: #107/124
Rushes allowed over 10 yards: #110/124

Now for offense:

Rushing O: #113/124
Passing O: #26/124 (the one bright spot!)
Scoring O: #85/124
Total O: #73/124

So . .. this is bad and the defensive stats should get wore next week when GTech shreds the BC defense.

eagleboston said...

Question: Everyone keeps talking about "burning a redshirt." I am assuming what you all are referring to is a loss of 5 games of playing time. Correct me if I am wrong, but a new coach could come in and redshirt a sophomore to allow them to gain speed and strength and then they would have 3 full seasons remaining. So, essentially, we are talking about the loss of 5 games, which may have happened anyway if they did not see action in their sophomore year after a redshirt.

mod34b said...

I will defend Chase Rettig day and night, but this was not a good game. I don't know what went wrong.

You do not know what went wrong?

Here is what went wrong: FSU is the #9 Pass defense in the FBS based on passer rating in the FBS. The receivers were not getting open. The line was porous. No time. No one to throw to.

By the way, ND is the #3 pass defense in the FBS based on passer rating. Given that passing is our only strength, the ND game is going to be another rough outing.

Llyonnoc of the Woods said...

The one reason everyone keeps citing for keeping Spaziani is that he loves BC. I love BC football but couldn't coach the ball boy. So make me the coach; I'd do my best, promise.

Ry said...

Any idea when we can expect an announced gametime and network for the ND game? Any prognosticators want to take a guess at what we might be looking at?