Penguin Game Day: Samford

[Wick250]

"Nice business trip" is the perfect way to sum this up.  Much to like about today:

No turnovers.
We could operate with two backs and the qb under the center (I feared those were lost arts.)
Long drive, all on the ground, to remove all doubt in the fourth quarter.
Mays looked like a competent game manager.  But would you bet anything of value about his health?
Craycraft made a good first impression.

OK, Samford has an awful defense and we have much work to do on special team coverage.  But consider how you feel right now and remember the agony in the aftermath of the 2018 opener.

[penguinpower]

I was so happy to see I-formation power football with play action. It was so refreshing to see us get back to our roots

[IAA Fan]

Only IAA would bring up Monty 2 years in the past coaching somewhere nobody’s heard of on a day like today lol.


Good 1st game. D is very solid at all 3 levels. O-Line played better than I thought. Still concerned about QB and WR play but we’ll see as the season goes along.

Why not? We ran almost Monty's exact offense in the first half ... "exact". Something YSU did not do last year. We absolutely did not play the precious offesne that Bo pushed on us. You just refuse to admit Montgomery was the best coach YSU has had in years, if not my lifetime and we let him walk. Besides. Montgomery's team is  is #1-ranked and going to beat WVa & they know it. In addition they sold over 2,500 tickets to Frisco in the last 2-days.

We had just as much wrong in the second half today as we had right in the first. Not the least of which is a typical Pelini-coached defense that was "torched" by a rookie with an arm that can throw the ball. Don't get me wrong, lot's of questions answered today, but we are far from a balance group of football players. Run by committee? No dominance up front on O & we never even substituted up front. Take away the scores off of TO's and we barely win the game.

Despite the lack of sacks, they had more TFL's than we did.

Here is your OL participation for the game (2 of these played only a handful of downs):

68    Jordan Velez
71    Devon Robinson
74    Jacob Zinni
75    Myles Douglas
76    Mike McAllister
77    Dan Becker

 We cannot play the MVFC with this, as we are going to continue to struggle in the late 2nd Quarter and most of the second halves.

Some positives. Mays played up to his potential. McFadden & DeSalvo were excellent, although I would have liked to see more punts to the sidelines, but his leg-strength is there. Over 40" time-of-possesion. St. Surin, Chapman,  Jones, Mitchell,
Reed,

Richmond is a completely rebuilt player ...wow. Jones, Harper Madison, Ford, Craig and Smalls all played well.

[HappyPenguin]

2 weeks to improve and get ready for a home game.

I don't think anyone predicted a game this lopsided, yet some of us sound like we were on the losing end of things.

Enjoy it, lets see what kinds of improvements we see on the 7th. Things like special teams overages are very fixable. If we don't see improvements, then its time for concern.

Outside of O line, a lot of guys saw some time. That's a huge plus. Let's see how the coaches take advantage of this extra week of practice.

[YSUGO]

I haven’t watched the game yet   But this is a way better start than last year.  I feel that when we have both Pelini’s together we have 2 of the best coaches in FCS.  Let’s build on the positives on this game it was a road win and  all we need to do is go 6-4 to make the playoffs.  Cheers to being 1-0!

[ytownchief22]

That looked like nothing like Monty's offense. Also, Carl does not call the plays. He just oversees and helps with the offense but Crist calls the plays.

[Double ET]

IMO, we need to improve on couple of areas if we were to make a run in the league. We need to have the capability on vertical passing with deeper routes and our linebacker must do a better job iin tracking down a mobile QB. Their new QB was effective when he was able to buy extra time by rolling out.  Our DBs and safeties just couldn't stay with the receivers that long when playing the man-man coverage.
I still think we were running Mays too much. He will not last long in the league play if he got hit too many times. We should also let Craycraft have more opportunities to see what he could do with his passing game.

[YSU1]

On another positive note Bo did not go Pelini on anyone. 

[Wick250]

And let's give the training staff and the coaches credit.  We withstood the heat very well.  Very few cramps, at least those noticeable on tv.  And the coaches had excellent game plans on both sides of the ball. 

Disregarding the missed tackles on Samford's first td, were you impressed by the quality of the hitting?  At times, it reminded me of the 90s.

[OleYSUfan]

It was  a good effort by all the team and the coaches on our 1st game in the season. Yes, we made several mistakes, but when you go 4 and 0 on turnovers; that's a very good day! That killed Samford's momentum.

It was great to Joe Craycraft get his chance to play and he looked good on the roll out pass to the right for 16 yds. Our next game is against Howard. So keep on rolling YSU!!

[The YO Show]

Only IAA would bring up Monty 2 years in the past coaching somewhere nobody’s heard of on a day like today lol.


Good 1st game. D is very solid at all 3 levels. O-Line played better than I thought. Still concerned about QB and WR play but we’ll see as the season goes along.

Why not? We ran almost Monty's exact offense in the first half ... "exact". Something YSU did not do last year. We absolutely did not play the precious offesne that Bo pushed on us. You just refuse to admit Montgomery was the best coach YSU has had in years, if not my lifetime and we let him walk. Besides. Montgomery's team is  is #1-ranked and going to beat WVa & they know it. In addition they sold over 2,500 tickets to Frisco in the last 2-days.

We had just as much wrong in the second half today as we had right in the first. Not the least of which is a typical Pelini-coached defense that was "torched" by a rookie with an arm that can throw the ball. Don't get me wrong, lot's of questions answered today, but we are far from a balance group of football players. Run by committee? No dominance up front on O & we never even substituted up front. Take away the scores off of TO's and we barely win the game.

Despite the lack of sacks, they had more TFL's than we did.

Here is your OL participation for the game (2 of these played only a handful of downs):

68    Jordan Velez
71    Devon Robinson
74    Jacob Zinni
75    Myles Douglas
76    Mike McAllister
77    Dan Becker

 We cannot play the MVFC with this, as we are going to continue to struggle in the late 2nd Quarter and most of the second halves.

Some positives. Mays played up to his potential. McFadden & DeSalvo were excellent, although I would have liked to see more punts to the sidelines, but his leg-strength is there. Over 40" time-of-possesion. St. Surin, Chapman,  Jones, Mitchell,
Reed,

Richmond is a completely rebuilt player ...wow. Jones, Harper Madison, Ford, Craig and Smalls all played well.

Until your post, I did not know that Monty wasn't at Charlotte anymore, let alone that he is back in the FCS (and at JMU). Good for him, but whatever, we are fine without him. Also, prediction right here, anyone expecting JMU to make it to the national championship this year is gonna be disappointed. Also, don't think they beat WVU this year.

[penguinpower]

How many national championships did we win with Montgomery?  Zero. He f-info sucks and I am glad he is gone. 10’s hire 10’s and 7’s hire 5’s. Montgomery was a 5 hired by a 7. Just f-ing stop already. You need to be put into a mental institution if you believe he was great. Get over your bias. There is zero proof he was the best. Don’t be a psycho over this he has you seized like Manson

[IAA Fan]

What bias Power? He is gone & we had a horrid offense last year & it is clear that we are placing some of those things that coach M ran back in our offense. This can be nothing but a positive. If you wish to bring in a new OC that can add his own identity to the offense, then we need to do so. If not, Crist trained under Montgomery and I felt that he made some nice "twists" on what was basically a Montgomery game plan. The reason we had no championships is because had no defense; we seldom, if ever scored too few points to win a game. Just look at any stats for any year.

Chief, the only thing that was different this past game, than an offensive game plan by Monty, was that we tried more often to go up the lanes (as mentioned, not very effectively most of the time). That is what Monty did most of his career here, it was only the last couple of years that we went outside more, as we had less power & especially technique (McCaster) in our backs. I know that Crist calls plays, which why we looked like the offense under the man that trained him; but Carl made the decision to convert. Same middle attempts on the ground, then put the ball out in open space, even to the point of using a TB, crossing passes, sweeps and occasionally downfield ... it is all there. The nice changes were middle passes downfield & less tossing down the sidelines, catching open space on the strong side in addition to the weak. I think we improved on coach M's offensive game plan.

My point in saying that JMU is going to beat WVU is because their fan base is confident, which is why they sold so many championship pre-sales tickets. YSU fans would rather wait until we unexpectedl make the post-season and then blame the university for the community's lack of income and enthusiasm to travel. YSU fans have no confidence, only hope. That right there is Pelini's biggest challenge as a coach. YSU has what I call ugly-duckling fans ...excepted we tell everyone there is a beautiful swan under there, when what we really want is a nice-looking duck. With that in mind, Thankfully, It looks like Bo/Carl also realize that YSU fans are like PenguinPower (and myself) and like a power (duck) identity to their game.

[penguinpower]

What bias Power? He is gone & we had a horrid offense last year & it is clear that we are placing some of those things that coach M ran back in our offense. This can be nothing but a positive. If you wish to bring in a new OC that can add his own identity to the offense, then we need to do so. If not, Crist trained under Montgomery and I felt that he made some nice "twists" on what was basically a Montgomery game plan. The reason we had no championships is because had no defense; we seldom, if ever scored too few points to win a game. Just look at any stats for any year.

Chief, the only thing that was different this past game, than an offensive game plan by Monty, was that we tried more often to go up the lanes (as mentioned, not very effectively most of the time). That is what Monty did most of his career here, it was only the last couple of years that we went outside more, as we had less power & especially technique (McCaster) in our backs. I know that Crist calls plays, which why we looked like the offense under the man that trained him; but Carl made the decision to convert. Same middle attempts on the ground, then put the ball out in open space, even to the point of using a TB, crossing passes, sweeps and occasionally downfield ... it is all there. The nice changes were middle passes downfield & less tossing down the sidelines, catching open space on the strong side in addition to the weak. I think we improved on coach M's offensive game plan.

My point in saying that JMU is going to beat WVU is because their fan base is confident, which is why they sold so many championship pre-sales tickets. YSU fans would rather wait until we unexpectedl make the post-season and then blame the university for the community's lack of income and enthusiasm to travel. YSU fans have no confidence, only hope. That right there is Pelini's biggest challenge as a coach. YSU has what I call ugly-duckling fans ...excepted we tell everyone there is a beautiful swan under there, when what we really want is a nice-looking duck. With that in mind, Thankfully, It looks like Bo/Carl also realize that YSU fans are like PenguinPower (and myself) and like a power (duck) identity to their game.

I didn't see anything that really resembled Montgomery's offense.  I saw power I formations as well as A and B gap power plays. Yes some of the read option stuff looked similar but everyone does that these days. 

And we had a good defenses a few years but we could never keep the ball against great teams with Montgomery. We would leave the defense on the field the entire game against NDSU. Look at the points we out up against elite teams while he was OC. I agree that we had some very bad years on defense under Wolford but we had issues under Heacock when we had good defenses.

[IAA Fan]

What bias Power? He is gone & we had a horrid offense last year & it is clear that we are placing some of those things that coach M ran back in our offense. This can be nothing but a positive. If you wish to bring in a new OC that can add his own identity to the offense, then we need to do so. If not, Crist trained under Montgomery and I felt that he made some nice "twists" on what was basically a Montgomery game plan. The reason we had no championships is because had no defense; we seldom, if ever scored too few points to win a game. Just look at any stats for any year.

Chief, the only thing that was different this past game, than an offensive game plan by Monty, was that we tried more often to go up the lanes (as mentioned, not very effectively most of the time). That is what Monty did most of his career here, it was only the last couple of years that we went outside more, as we had less power & especially technique (McCaster) in our backs. I know that Crist calls plays, which why we looked like the offense under the man that trained him; but Carl made the decision to convert. Same middle attempts on the ground, then put the ball out in open space, even to the point of using a TB, crossing passes, sweeps and occasionally downfield ... it is all there. The nice changes were middle passes downfield & less tossing down the sidelines, catching open space on the strong side in addition to the weak. I think we improved on coach M's offensive game plan.

My point in saying that JMU is going to beat WVU is because their fan base is confident, which is why they sold so many championship pre-sales tickets. YSU fans would rather wait until we unexpectedl make the post-season and then blame the university for the community's lack of income and enthusiasm to travel. YSU fans have no confidence, only hope. That right there is Pelini's biggest challenge as a coach. YSU has what I call ugly-duckling fans ...excepted we tell everyone there is a beautiful swan under there, when what we really want is a nice-looking duck. With that in mind, Thankfully, It looks like Bo/Carl also realize that YSU fans are like PenguinPower (and myself) and like a power (duck) identity to their game.

I didn't see anything that really resembled Montgomery's offense.  I saw power I formations as well as A and B gap power plays. Yes some of the read option stuff looked similar but everyone does that these days. 

And we had a good defenses a few years but we could never keep the ball against great teams with Montgomery. We would leave the defense on the field the entire game against NDSU. Look at the points we out up against elite teams while he was OC. I agree that we had some very bad years on defense under Wolford but we had issues under Heacock when we had good defenses.

No reason to start the Monty posts, because he is gone and I have already provided proof on multiple occasions & a few people always look for a single game or series that does not fit his normal pattern. If you want it again I can, just okk on YSU's stats site, or any sports service's stats site. I (and anyone that watched the game without a negative coach M vibe) CLEARLY saw more than "Shades" of Montgomery's offense out there this past Saturday. The proof is in how easily we dropped Craycraft into the game. The designed plays to increase open space. The passes to TB's and WR end-around rotation between hand-off anf toss into space. The unique use of TE's (although that is really one of the areas we used less than I would have liked in the second half). I mean you cannot reinvent the wheel, so clearly coach M did not invent any of these things, but the skill in being an OC is the planning & the plan was clearly the same as evidenced by each play being designed to score. The play mix was the same.

BTW way we have never had truly good defenses since Heacock, That was the 80's & some of the 90's. These days the teams we play are from all over and styles of ball vary to a lesser extent. Coach P's defensive style is far too difficult for our level of ball. We have 3 people deep and hope to get to the QB; this is why he goes after BCS transfers hoping to quickly fill a gap. I just do not care for it, it is an all or nothing style designed for the NFL. If we face a QB with decent arms and legs, we are dead in the water. Which is why Oladokun went 7 of 10 for 125 yards in no time against us.

At the end of the day, I am happier today than I was on Saturday morning. The players on D were much further along than last year at this time. The offense is going in the direction I want it to go. We are playing better than the #7 team in the conference, which is our pre-season rank. .