Murray State - Week 3

I think your missing the point no one thinks it’s going to help today or even this year. I think most of us have moved on and are talking big picture and future seasons

We just seem to have lost our MOJO after Beth left

His short stature and lack of athleticism plays a huge part in it. 

They underuse Jackson and overuse Steele. We are very easy to defend. 

There were 3 or 4 today where I thought, just be patient and wait a tick and it’s a big play. Wrs aren’t getting time for separation further downfield.  ON the short throws they aren’t even getting a chance to turn upfield. way too many passes that gain one yard. What’s the point?  Steele gets a yard by accident. 

the play calling just gets weird, like x play was working well so let’s go totally away from it. Conversely, x play just doesn’t work at all so let’s keep doing it. (Like the jet sweep, that only Justin Hall was successful with)

without better execution our unimaginative game plans and play calls just aren’t going to be good enough the rest of the way.   Steele off tackle 30 times a game is Paul Schudel football. Doesn’t work so well in todays game. If our Qb is the best passer Neu has had then why doesn’t the offense take advantage of that?  (Paddock is a statue so they HAVE to run what they do because the ball has to go out quick.  He can’t  move around and extend plays. 

it was obvious we could have put cardfan in at Qb and win this game. It was obvious we could have put Peyton manning out there against TN and lost. So you play a different qb the mid way through 3rd and the 4th. The staff gets an idea of what a qb will bring. Had we done that with paddock over a 5 year period the need to have this experiment might not be needed

I think playing the backups, particularly at QB, in a game like this has several advantages.

If the kid does well, maybe it opens the coaches' eyes to what the kid can bring to the table. That doesn't necessarily mean he becomes the starter next week, but maybe they see something that will be useful later in the season. Maybe the kid looks a little different playing against another defense. Maybe they get into position where they're forced to make a play outside the practice norms and they show us some things we haven't seen before.

If the kid fails, it's not going to scar them for life, and there are at least 2 benefits.

One, it gets the fanbase off the coach's ass. I know that we, as a fanbase, probably don't create a bunch of heat on Neu's seat, but there's certainly some discontentment. Part of that discontent has to do with with QB play. Show us the backups suck and we don't gripe quite as much, at least about that.

Two, and maybe most importantly, it gives the young QBs some realistic information to use in making future transfer decisions. Let's say Blazek or Kelly are sitting on the sideline watching Paddock's third tipped pass of the game and the tape that keeps running in their head says, "Man I can do better than that." And that same tape is on repeat in the heads of all their family members and former coaches and friends, all telling that player "you are so much better than that starting QB." Now, if they never get a chance to play, that's all they're ever going to hear, and they're going to bounce. But, if they get a chance to go out there and make some mistakes -- they throw a pick six, they fumble a snap/handoff, they hold the ball too long, they make a bad read, they throw the ball all over the field ... then they've got some solid information on where they stand. And maybe all those voices that were telling them how great they were are now telling them that maybe they need to stick it out and work a little harder. Maybe the tape now says, "You threw a pick 6 and were 1-7 against an FCS team and you think you're going to go some place else and set the world on fire? Maybe you should think again."