SALUKIS

[Penquin68]

Great win today and we really needed it going into recruiting and the off season for our returning players. Many things that SIU could have done but did not. Our man coverage was good all year by the back end. Our trouble has been no D line pressure and line backers that were average at best. Hope it can improve signifacantly by fall.

Also all the negative posts on this board are disappoining. In a way I think they chase away many who might post on this board. Too bad that they are so negative. And many of the so called facts they use are questionable at best.  Hope all this improves.

One thing for sure is that DP held the team together after some bad loses. Under the circustances the team could have folded many times this season. He sure prepared the team for the game today and had their attitude up. Just think where we would be with 2 or 3 more wins we should have had in games we were up signifaicantly.  Maybe DP and his staff aren't as bad as many on this board think.  Reminds me of when JT came to town and had some loossing in the early years.

[Wick250]

To expand on the points that Penguin68 made, coaching inexperience or poor judgment cost us wins against Western Illinois and North Dakota. I firmly believe that we would have outscored Indiana State had Crenshaw not been forced out of the game. We could have actually won six games.

The offensive line could not pass block against anybody, but they opened enough holes for McLaughlin and Crenshaw in the five conference games in which they were not hopelessly overmatched.

Phillips stated many times that he intends to build the team from the bottom up by recruiting freshmen. I generally support that approach, but six transfers could do wonders for the morale of both the players and the fans.  Two on the oline, two on the dline, and two linebackers, please. With our less demanding schedule next season, such additions could perhaps make us competitive.

[penguinpower]

To expand on the points that Penguin68 made, coaching inexperience or poor judgment cost us wins against Western Illinois and North Dakota. I firmly believe that we would have outscored Indiana State had Crenshaw not been forced out of the game. We could have actually won six games.

The offensive line could not pa$$ block against anybody, but they opened enough holes for McLaughlin and Crenshaw in the five conference games in which they were not hopelessly overmatched.

Phillips stated many times that he intends to build the team from the bottom up by recruiting freshmen. I generally support that approach, but six transfers could do wonders for the morale of both the players and the fans.  Two on the oline, two on the dline, and two linebackers, please. With our less demanding schedule next season, such additions could perhaps make us competitive.

Good points.  As I have stated all year. 

#1.  Phillips was handcuffed a bit going in.  I would ask anyone, who would have done better?  The one thing that Phillips has over Pellini (and was evident early) was the kids never quit any game all year even if they were hopelessly overmatched.

#2.  As I've been saying all year, don't go at this with high expectations and be patient.  This isn't an easy fix because it involves the lines and it takes time to develop them.  Without transfers it will take 5 full years to get the required depth with our scholarship level.  As my Italian friend Bobby says "Thanks Pelini,  You filled the roster full of 5'7" Degos from Mooney and now we suck."  Isn't that insightful?  He hardly watches anymore.

#3 Phillips has a philosophy that is similar to Tressel and it starts on the defensive side of the ball with a defense oriented team..  Our secondary would have been one of the best in the FCS if we had a DL and a few more LB's to help them out. When you have to cover for 8 seconds, which I observed multiple times against the Salukis, it's almost impossible to be efficient in stopping the pa$$.  Secondly, the kids he did bring in are pretty good, and  they will be exceptional with more development and time.  What I know about his offensive philosophy is that we will run the ball first.  I agree with what he wants to do here.  However, I did see them try to work with what they've got in the pa$$ing game.  Notice how may pa$$es Crenshaw was releasing the ball as soon as he got it.....like throwing to a spot to reduce protection time.  They did a lot there as coaches, especially Crenshaw's footwork improvement.  That was done to help the OL deficiencies.  Another year in the weight room for both sides of the ball will do a lot of good.  What I will say in comparison to Tressel is that both appear to try to fit an offense that fits their people. We had option teams with Tidwell and pocket pa$$ers with Ryan etc.  I see similarities in a lot of areas. 

We were blown out a lost games for 3 reasons this year.  #1. We didn't match up well with the best teams athletically on the LOS (will be fixed through weight training and recruiting as he has said multiple times).  #2  we didn't have the depth when we were in some of those games and faded out in the second half several times.  #3 Phillips wasn't going to change his coaching philosophy or his game plan because they weren't working in a specific game.  He wasn't hasty and always allowed them time to work out (or not work out) in a game.  He simply identified what they thought our strengths were and tried to game plan to them.  We're we out coached in a few games with our inexperienced staff?  Yes, but Phillips is just not going to throw out his entire philosophy and in the middle of a game he's losing.  He's just not built that way.

We should have won 6 games.  If you watch any significant amount of football, you would see that against the Dakota teams we look like a high school team playing a college team on the LOS.  Just to be in the other Valley games shows you the grit of the kids playing.  I would rather see that than watch a Pelini team give up in the second quarter because they got down by 2 scores and folded like a house of cards.  That never happened, even if we were overmatched.  Could they have done better?  Sure. But.....

#4. Remember you have a young team that is inconsistent.  And some of that also goes on an inexperienced coaching staff.  They've got a lot to work on in the off season, but everything is easily identifiable.  I think they did a good job this year all things considered because I kept my expectations low.

[YSU FAN#34]

To expand on the points that Penguin68 made, coaching inexperience or poor judgment cost us wins against Western Illinois and North Dakota. I firmly believe that we would have outscored Indiana State had Crenshaw not been forced out of the game. We could have actually won six games.

The offensive line could not pa$$ block against anybody, but they opened enough holes for McLaughlin and Crenshaw in the five conference games in which they were not hopelessly overmatched.

Phillips stated many times that he intends to build the team from the bottom up by recruiting freshmen. I generally support that approach, but six transfers could do wonders for the morale of both the players and the fans.  Two on the oline, two on the dline, and two linebackers, please. With our less demanding schedule next season, such additions could perhaps make us competitive.

Good points.  As I have stated all year. 

#1.  Phillips was handcuffed a bit going in.  I would ask anyone, who would have done better?  The one thing that Phillips has over Pellini (and was evident early) was the kids never quit any game all year even if they were hopelessly overmatched.

#2.  As I've been saying all year, don't go at this with high expectations and be patient.  This isn't an easy fix because it involves the lines and it takes time to develop them.  Without transfers it will take 5 full years to get the required depth with our scholarship level.  As my Italian friend Bobby says "Thanks Pelini,  You filled the roster full of 5'7" Degos from Mooney and now we suck."  Isn't that insightful?  He hardly watches anymore.

#3 Phillips has a philosophy that is similar to Tressel and it starts on the defensive side of the ball with a defense oriented team..  Our secondary would have been one of the best in the FCS if we had a DL and a few more LB's to help them out. When you have to cover for 8 seconds, which I observed multiple times against the Salukis, it's almost impossible to be efficient in stopping the pa$$.  Secondly, the kids he did bring in are pretty good, and  they will be exceptional with more development and time.  What I know about his offensive philosophy is that we will run the ball first.  I agree with what he wants to do here.  However, I did see them try to work with what they've got in the pa$$ing game.  Notice how may pa$$es Crenshaw was releasing the ball as soon as he got it.....like throwing to a spot to reduce protection time.  They did a lot there as coaches, especially Crenshaw's footwork improvement.  That was done to help the OL deficiencies.  Another year in the weight room for both sides of the ball will do a lot of good.  What I will say in comparison to Tressel is that both appear to try to fit an offense that fits their people. We had option teams with Tidwell and pocket pa$$ers with Ryan etc.  I see similarities in a lot of areas. 

We were blown out a lost games for 3 reasons this year.  #1. We didn't match up well with the best teams athletically on the LOS (will be fixed through weight training and recruiting as he has said multiple times).  #2  we didn't have the depth when we were in some of those games and faded out in the second half several times.  #3 Phillips wasn't going to change his coaching philosophy or his game plan because they weren't working in a specific game.  He wasn't hasty and always allowed them time to work out (or not work out) in a game.  He simply identified what they thought our strengths were and tried to game plan to them.  We're we out coached in a few games with our inexperienced staff?  Yes, but Phillips is just not going to throw out his entire philosophy and in the middle of a game he's losing.  He's just not built that way.

We should have won 6 games.  If you watch any significant amount of football, you would see that against the Dakota teams we look like a high school team playing a college team on the LOS.  Just to be in the other Valley games shows you the grit of the kids playing.  I would rather see that than watch a Pelini team give up in the second quarter because they got down by 2 scores and folded like a house of cards.  That never happened, even if we were overmatched.  Could they have done better?  Sure. But.....

#4. Remember you have a young team that is inconsistent.  And some of that also goes on an inexperienced coaching staff.  They've got a lot to work on in the off season, but everything is easily identifiable.  I think they did a good job this year all things considered because I kept my expectations low.

^^^this.  Spot on and very well said.  Couldn’t agree more.

[IAA Fan]

Some good points in this thread.

- I think the new kids on defense won this game. They all stayed home, as new guys do. which gave us the pressure that we had in the spring season, but not this year. They were looking to make an impression on the staff and had great motivation.

- For all we blamed coaches for all season, we won this game because we out-smarted them. Good coaching.

- We need a bigger stronger, faster back on offense. Someone to counter McLaughlin. We cannot keep going out there and running 3 times and hope #8 breaks one for at least 1st-down yardage. We need to plan on some 3-5 yard runs. Then pa$$ better to get opposing defenses off the line.

-Lines and line-depth of course

- I see 28 full scholarships (guessing on a couple that will not come back. On average we lose about the same amount of undercla$$men as we graduate and we lose about 14 seniors this year. If we can get some solid locals, that could be 30+ players. Coach and Tressel said 17, maybe 18 commits during the season. Tressel said he would be comfortable enough to announce them, knows he cannot. I do not know how to take that. Did we grab a bunch of leftovers or D-II prospects that can go nowhere else, or are we getting what we want? I do believe the staff knows what they need. If we go heavy on portal and national prep players, then these are all full-ride guys, so we should expect 28-30 new faces.

[YSUGO]

Wins a win. The Salukis must have already knew they made the playoffs. If Crenshaws the guy get his throwing mechanics fixed.  Fix the lines and find players that can get you chunks of yardage.  Hopefully we will find another #8.

[goodnews]

Congrats to the Penguin football team and coaches for a much needed win. 

[Penquin68]

It seems to me that we can at least be competitive with much of the MVFC who do not have the really big O and D lines.  Those we are in trouble with are NDSU, SDSU, and NIU.  The rest of the teams we seem to be in the ball park size wise on the lines etc. Not sure how the rest of the league competes with the bigger teams. Like the game last week, SIU. They didn't really impress me, yet the beat SDSU.

One big improvement I see in our team is the defensive backs and their ability to cover recievers one on one. Their coach is Ashton Yoboti who played at OSU with JT and a few years in the pros. I have heard some of the D backs talk about the drills he has them doing for foot work and how they come to practice early to work on their technique. With coaching I think most know the proper technique etc., but getting the players to buy in and get the message is the difficult part. I taught for much of my career and it is so important to get student buy in. Most teachers know the material, but can't get it across and get student buy in. In teaching the best teachers have the students trying to not let the teacher down by not getting the material. Today one can get material on most topics on line with ease. Teachers are needed for the personal connection to the student and being able to get them over the rough spots.  I think Ashton must have that gift.