Geter/Kicking/Fundraising

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 1:48 am

Rollo83 wrote:I get the balance offense thing, but watching Omar and the passing game was owesome. That offense leveled the playing field for us against the better teams.

It allowed us to go into Oklahoma and be competitive with one of the better teams in the country. It allowed us to go into Wisconsin and smack them in the mouth for 40-plus points. It allowed us to hang 56 points on Memphis State. Remember that first half against Toledo where we dominated? I know, I know the second half was a different story, but that offense gave us a swagger. Nobody wanted to play against that offense.

Yes, that offense scored so quick it put your defense on the field a lot. But with any defense at all and we would have won the MAC championship with those offensive teams.

But the '03 offense had us actually beat Purdue, as opposed to putting up pretty points then getting clobbered in the 2nd half.

I would prefer to build a team. I want a team that nobody wants to play, not just an offense. In '03 we had that. In '04 I'm not so sure. Since then it's been a whole lotta s**t.

BGFootball · Post by **BGFootball** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 12:31 pm

Jacobs4Heisman wrote:
BGFootball wrote:I understand what you are saying and I know he has made some questionable comments, but I still see nothing wrong with saying what he said. Whether you want to believe it or not, its true, they wouldnt of been able to do that last year.

I don't mean to pick nits.....okay, so I do mean to pick nits, but according to Sean's father, they DID do this last year...on multiple occasions.....more succesfully than this year.

And how do you know special teams are better? We haven't played a game yet. We heard this same glowing stuff last year about how awesome the new freshman kickers were, and then we were the worst team in the country on special teams. They can boom punts and nail figgys (on the second try) all they want in practice. The point remains that the kicker and punter are a tiny part of the special teams problem. Until Brandon and his staff can iron out the larger issue with scheme, protection, and coverage, Vinateiri and Ray Guy would suck back there for us.

You're right, I will wait till the season before saying that the special teams is much improved.

FalconTurf · Post by **FalconTurf** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 12:54 pm

The biggest problem I see with this whole situation is that the kickers are taking too much heat for the poor special teams performance. They are Special TEAMS - meaning 11 guys all must do their jobs. One guy must snap, one guy must hold and 9 guys must block before the kicker has a chance.

That said, I expect we will be better this year regardless of who is kicking.*

*OPTIMISM - the tendency to take the most hopeful or cheerful view of matters or to expect the best outcome; practice of looking at the bright side of things.

Flipper · Post by **Flipper** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 1:16 pm

hammb wrote:I'm not advocating 3 yards & a cloud of dust, I just like balance. My personal preference is to attempt to recreate that 2003 offense versus the 2004 model. I think over the course of a season those 6 extra carries make a bigger difference than you realize. Especially when you're trying to keep a defense rested.

In the end I think the whole thing is mostly irrelevant. You can win games with either '03 or '04 offense. The real problem is the '06 offense, and how far away from that we can get. In my usual pessimistic view I'll figure we'll be a lot closer to '06 than either '03 or '04 this year, but we'll see. If the STs don't drastically improve it really won't matter anyways.

I agree that the 06 offense was not something anyone wants to see again...I think we had too much uncertainty at QB...Turner played sometimes, Barnes played sometimes, Sheehan played sometimes and none of them have the same skill set so it was hard to settle on an offensive philosophy. When that kind of uncertaintky exists...dull and predictable is the likely outcome.

I'm hoping that Coach Brandon will declare a winner in the QB derby and give him as mmuch of the preseason as needed to show the job is his...or not. The last hting I want to see is Minnesota get a score or two up on us and then the QB starts looking to the sidelines expecting to get pulled. I donb't care if Minnesota and MSU drill us by a combined 100-0, I want to see the same guy play all 120 minutes of football and I want to see him run the "real" offense..

hammb · Post by **hammb** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 3:19 pm

Flipper wrote:
I'm hoping that Coach Brandon will declare a winner in the QB derby and give him as mmuch of the preseason as needed to show the job is his...or not. The last hting I want to see is Minnesota get a score or two up on us and then the QB starts looking to the sidelines expecting to get pulled. I donb't care if Minnesota and MSU drill us by a combined 100-0, I want to see the same guy play all 120 minutes of football and I want to see him run the "real" offense..

Agreed that's the worst thing that can happen. The QB, whoever it is, must have the confidence that he can go out there, play his game, and not get yanked immediately. If they're afraid to make mistakes they'll never make any plays.

Falconboy · Post by **Falconboy** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 3:59 pm

hammb wrote:
Flipper wrote:
I'm hoping that Coach Brandon will declare a winner in the QB derby and give him as mmuch of the preseason as needed to show the job is his...or not. The last hting I want to see is Minnesota get a score or two up on us and then the QB starts looking to the sidelines expecting to get pulled. I donb't care if Minnesota and MSU drill us by a combined 100-0, I want to see the same guy play all 120 minutes of football and I want to see him run the "real" offense..
Agreed that's the worst thing that can happen. The QB, whoever it is, must have the confidence that he can go out there, play his game, and not get yanked immediately. If they're afraid to make mistakes they'll never make any plays.

Hmm.....sounds like a Dakich philosophy that GB needs to stop following.

mmisbg · Post by **mmisbg** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:17 pm

Okay, I understand we are Americans; and as such we have a tendancy to view things in black and white. Problem is, it just isn't that simple. We've seen that from the Omar offense to last years offense.

Omar's offense was potent. No doubt. Hats off to the man, and I hope he gets some NFL team to finally give him a chance. But, it is true that his offense scored so quickly that our defense spent too much time on the field. A weak defense is worsened by lack of depth, and that did not help us at all. Not to mention that we occasionally squared off with against a defense who made some adjustments at the half to throw even Omar's offense off balance (i.e. Wisconsin). More time on the field wears down the defensive players, adds to injury, and makes a bad situation worse.

On the other side of the spectrum, we've seen an offense with such a weak passing attack that defenses stacked the line for lack of respect of our passing game...and who can blame them.

I'm sure that the people who say 80 passes don't really mean 80 passes. But, there is something to be said for a lack of passing game being detrimental to your running game...and vice-versa.

Look at Miami of Ohio. They almost never have a noteworthy running back, but their back almost always nears or breaks 1000 yards. Why, because they almost always have a downfield attack that forces defenses to drop into coverage. Having said that...they suck, and I hate them.

I don't think we have a fantastic recieving corps, but I think it can get the job done if we have a QB who can get them the ball. Furthermore, I think that Sheehan is our best chance for that at this time.

I don't think he has rocks for feet either. I saw him carry the ball a few times. He isn't Josh Harris or Freddie Barnes, but he decent downfield speed if there is an opening. He just isn't going to make his own openings like we've become accostomed to.

I just hope that is how the gavel drops, and I hope it is the right decision.

Go Falcons!

Falconfreak90 · Post by **Falconfreak90** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:26 pm

Just to let you all know...I heard from a couple sources yesterday that the punt formation will be tight this year...no more spreading out!! That would be great news.

Falconboy · Post by **Falconboy** » Sun Aug 26, 2007 8:04 pm

Falconfreak90 wrote:Just to let you all know...I heard from a couple sources yesterday that the punt formation will be tight this year...no more spreading out!! That would be great news.

Wow, if that is true than mine , Hammb's and many other AZZ'ers prayers have been answered.

Falconfreak90 · Post by **Falconfreak90** » Mon Aug 27, 2007 10:05 am

Coach Bird seems like a stickler for ST's. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to rap with him Sat as I would have loved to pick his brain. The way I see it...ST's can't possibly be any worse than last year. Vrvillo has a very strong leg and JUCO experience. Iovinelli has collegiate experience as well. Hopefully our blocking on kick attempts will be much improved as well.

GO BG!