I mostly agree, but it's hard to get past zero yards rushing and they seemed to have an answer for anything we were doing on defense. I get it that the world largely doesn't care who won, but we should represent our school and our program or we shouldn't be on the field.
Williams & Blum Pod: Red alert on bowl season, Liberty Bowl thoughts & hoops wrap-up
- Thread starter ChrisMWilliams
- Start date
Is it possible that Jeff Myers knew exactly what to look for as far as when a run play is called? I didn't see a single play called in the game that fooled their defense.
Here is an abbreviated version of the game that shows that we did indeed have some good plays on offense. Just not enough of them. Let's not forget that our passing game was really good.
ISU has many wealthy and accomplished alumni. The problem is that, until very recently, they didn't feel connected to athletics because there was little for them to connect with.
The fan who saw ISU's first bowl win as a freshman in 1999 is probably only 42 years old now, and for most, not at the point of a career where those strong ties can produce a lot of fruit. But they will start trickling in over the next ten years or so. ISU's job is to keep them engaged so that when the time comes they want to make those kinds of gifts.
One thing I've been thinking about is our red zone trips in the first half that ended in FGs. I believe, at least on one we got into the red zone and then got conservative and ran the ball twice and went nowhere. Can't remember if it happened both times or not but the play calling got super conservative in the red zone. A TD on either of those trips could've really changed the game
Do you have data to back that up?
I'm not saying we don't have wealthy and accomplished alumni, I'm just saying the count of wealthy alumni and the magnitude of their wealth is likely well below average.
It would be nice to be wrong about that.
It feels like we're talking about subtly different things. CW is catching flack in this thread because he spent a month hyping the bowl game. He then spent 30 minutes throwing every excuse on the board and dismissing ISU fans as too invested in bowl games. He can't have it both ways.
Unless you're insinuating that CW hyped the game due to his business interests and wasn't giving his honest opinion about the game? Because I don't believe that.
We had almost all of our roster. Every indication was that our staff and players were excited to build on a relatively good season. We then performed in a way that looked very similar to disappointing results from this staff in the past. That's what got people riled up. If we want to act like the staff didn't care if they won and weren't preparing the team to win, that's fine. I'm not buying it.
I mean, Iowa State has received tens of millions in gifts for academics in the past couple years and the Forever True campaign has brought in $1.5 billion since it started. That's only possible with large gifts, although many small ones do add up.
Just saying I think a large athletics donor is usually a different kind of cat.
Totally agree. The first FG came after a 50+ yard catch for Higgins to get to the 11. Then 3 straight runs, the only really positive one being Sama turning **** into sugar when the play was blown up and he had to bounce way outside. A TD there makes it a 5 point game with momentum for the good guys. A big "What if?" in my mind.
Last edited:
Memphis didn’t need Jeff Myers to tell anyone what to look for. The offensive schemes and formations make it obvious when ISU is running the ball. I can see that from my couch. Now imagine a coaching staff getting paid to break down their opponent and coaching their players to also see it.
Brent would know more about this, but I would also say our wealthy donors may look different from some of the other schools. A farmer sitting on millions in land value isn’t the same as one making millions in oil. That’s probably why they are talking about creative ways to make donations (donating grain and cattle). Obviously not all our wealthy alum are farmers by the way…but I imagine that’s playing into things.
True, but the Meyers thing was definatly a factor. Our run game looks so basic and archaic, just like pre-Ohio. We didn't see miss direction or anything that we started to do to keep defenses off balance a little. Watching the playoffs, on top of having great talent, teams like Washington and Michigan also had some creative run plays/schemes. It's subtle and nuanced, but works. Wish our coaches could add those wrinkles to our run game.
It was more important to get to a bowl game then to win it.
Next year. If ISU is vying for a B12 championship in late Nov then no one is going to care about Liberty Bowl.
This is what I saw too. We didn't fool anyone all game. The Beni Ngoyi play might count as misdirection, but it was a simple go route.
I was yelling all game for some kind of pitch play for Sama. Get him into space and let him work. But again, you can't call plays you haven't practiced and I have a strong feeling that there was no effort in scheme for this game.
Like Blum said in the podcast maybe effort was spent more on retaining players. And I too would chose that over the bowl game win.
Just finished listening and am still trying to reconcile the discussion I heard:
1. Bowl games have significant viewership on TV.
2. Lots of people betting on bowl games.
3. Bowl games are fun to watch even with opt outs.
to
Red alert - bowl games are dying and are meaningless.
Did I summarize that correctly because I swear that's what I heard.
1. Bowl games have significant viewership on TV.
2. Lots of people betting on bowl games.
3. Bowl games are fun to watch even with opt outs.
to
Red alert - bowl games are dying and are meaningless.
Did I summarize that correctly because I swear that's what I heard.
I want to point to the Myers thing as the biggest factor but I go back and forth. You'd like to think that a P5 offense could exert their will over a G5 defense even if the defense knew what was coming. But that may just be a fan level of hoping how things would work.
Then looking at ISU's rushing their last 5 games doesn't give great clarity:
-vs KU: moderate rushing success against a rush defense that was said to be below avg
-@BYU: great rushing success against a terrible defense
-vs TU: no rushing success against a great rush defense
-@KSU: great rushing success but I don't remember how good KSU's defense was and can't say how much the snow affected things in our favor. So this game doesn't really tell me anything
-@MU: no rushing success against a a rush defense that was said to be below avg & may have had some insider knowledge of ISU offense
This is the main reason bowls won’t die off. 10x more people watched ISU-Memphis than the Grizzlies/Clippers and almost 20x more than the #1 Purdue CBB team.
