I said about a month ago I was going to wait to be excited about the football team until after the first game. There were several reasons. NDSU had won 24 strait. They have been running the same system for several years with consistent coaching. ISU has had three offensive coordinators in the past 4 years and 3 OL coaches in the past 3 years. Because there has been a lot of changes at ISU offensively, the players are thinking, not reacting, which slows them down. ISU's defense was built to stop the spread offenses of the Big 12 and has struggled against teams with power running games. ISU's front 7 is relatively small. Power running teams can hold the ball for long periods of time on long drives, which will eventually tire ISU's defense. Coach Mangino is a very good offensive coach, but he is not a miracle worker. At Kansas it took him a few years for him to develop a powerful offense. I did not expect to see a great offense in his first game. The offense many people were hoping to see the first game may not show up till the end of the season. There was improvement over last year. ISU scored on its first drive, something it did not do in 12 games last year. Another reason I was not excited was because of the number of redshirt freshmen in the two deeps. Most of the kids ISU recruits are 2 and 3 star rated. This level of players should not play as redshirt freshmen. They should provide depth as sophmores and should be in the first or second string as juniors and seniors. When they show up in the two deeps as redshirt freshmen, it indicates to me that we are weak at that position and that previous mistakes have been made in the recruitment and development of players at those positions. It is still hard for me to get excited about the next two weeks with KSU and Iowa on the schedule. These are two well coached power running football games. ISU will see a lot of tightends and fullbacks the next two weeks. The defense will struggle to get off the field. I think that the changes that were made in the coaching staff after last season will improve the team, but that it will take time for it to show up on the won/loss column.
Still not excited.
- Thread starter cyborg
- Start date
You'll surely seem some Wildcat formations from K-State with Waters split to the outside and Jones running the ball.
That's as concise of an explanation as I've read as to why we struggled, and will continue to experience growing pains throughout the season. It certainly beats all the finger pointing and half baked ideas as to why we got our ***** kicked.
Last edited by a moderator:
I'm not coming down on you, but why do you think it's for any other reason than talent?
Last edited by a moderator:
Last year we had the talent to beat Kansas by a lot, beat West Virginia in a close game, and be competitive with TCU and Texas.
So either our talent dropped off a lot, or North Dakota State, a FCS school has more talent than half the Big 12.
Not to mention they have a few less stars then us. Rankings and offers don't always mean a ton, but they carry at least a little bit of weight.
https://rivals.yahoo.com/iowastate/football/recruiting/commitments/2011/northdakotast-309
Still thinking NDSU is no better than a middling team and not as good as Iowa or KSU on game day. Nothing fancy about them. A stout defense would have stopped them.
I do not think we lost to NDSU due to talent. I think ISU had better talent, but NDSU had coached one system over several years. The players understood the system and what their roles were. NDSU players were reacting when they played, ISU players had to think before they reacted. I think ISU has had a lot of players who have left or did not develop and must now use redshirt freshmen. NDSU can also fill holes in their program by adding transfers from major conferences, who do not have to sit out a year. Overall the NDSU players were better coached and developed over the last several years relative to the ISU players.
Exactly, from a talent standpoint they are only special when they play FCS teams. They simply do more with less.
NDSU over powered ISU on both lines. This has been the ISU story for a number of years. When ISU has been half way decent, they've always had a decent O-Line. I know it's more exciting to talk about 4 star WR and RB's but in the end, it's the line where you win/lose.
On a side note, how does the NDSU running back out-run our DB's?
On a side note, how does the NDSU running back out-run our DB's?
Last edited:
I talked to two guys who were at the game. They both said NDSU had better talent than Isu.
You don't give up 34 unanswered points and not score in a half with better talent than the other team who is embarrassing the heck out of you.
Which makes it all the more impressive what can be done as a team. Individually, they are nothing special. But they all take their assignments and execute them close to as well as they can. I hate that they beat our ***** but it sucks how much ISU fans are downplaying what they accomplished. We have a lot to learn from that team.
I think it has more to do with lack of development than lack of talent and lack of a consistent system that these kids can rely on from year to year.
That may be true, but you can only develop a player so much. If the raw talent ain't there, it ain't there.
