I am not getting too excited against Valpo. ON the other hand we won, that is all I will say. We won as we should have ...nothing more. Offense improved? Yes. Why? Passes to #20 (a tailback) and behind the LOS. Right out of coach Shane's playbook Chief and not used the first two weeks. You act like myself and others dislike VG. I have recognized his improvements every week. However, I find myself out there grading him like a frosh, when he is a senior. You are not mentioning the best thing about VG's performance yesterday ...he tossed longer passes over-the-middle; for accuracy; that was the main thing that made me prefer Mays. Those corner tosses are just safe hopes at a penalty or blown coverage; which we should expect against Valpo. I mean Valpo's top coverage guy is a transfer from SDSU, that was not a starter for the Jackrabbits. Also new to the offense this week, they again dove into Monty's (former coach) book and returned some backfield motion, ran one sweep and brought in a fullback. However, we cannot continue to play with no real plan again the league. I don't know what cereal McCaster ate yesterday, but he was much more explosive ...something he has never shown before and it was nice to see. I hope he can do it against real competition. Need more strength up front still & that is unfortunately not there & I am not sure that we can make the MVFC gauntlet without it.
Defense is still really weak and lacks fundamental skills ...like tackling. Did you see a single hands-on tackle (against a running ball carrier) below the waist yesterday (or in any of the first 3-games)? You do not think that league teams are going to run around that (just as WVa did)? Shoulder bumping is just prep-school play, only useful in the NFL and for knocking the guy out of bounds. We still have coverage that is scared-stiff to let something get behind them and playing 5-yards off their man every time. Dline & LB's okay after 1.5 quarters, but again, level of competition has me suspicious. I am not going to forget that Butler pushed them around and the MVFC is not Valpo or Butler. Also did anyone else get a kick out of a DB wearing the headset, instead of a QB? Nobody questions coaching?
Other miscellaneous. I am still behind Kennedy's leg and punting has been spectacular so far this year. I really like the way our special teams coverage splits-up and comes in 2-waves. #10 could be something really special for our return game.
Just remember 6-2 in the MVFC or we have no post-season. Also Hess, Davis and Wells were great QB's recruited by coach Shane. Nania, Wargo and Garry were more than respectable back-ups. Just as Mays is a good QB right now. So just because you prefer a different style of offense, there is nothing that you can say that does not make Shane the second-best OC that we have had in my lifetime (no Tressel is not #1, nor is he an OC)
