What caused the serious decline at end of season?

[PlayerRep]

What were the causes of the big decline and really collapse at the end of the 2016 season?

Was the team just not very good, was it coaching, was it just bad luck, and was it something related to this (see below post from last winter)? Was the locker room more divided, as Stitt indicated last summer, in 2015 or in 2016?

"Yes, having transfers for spring ball helps a bit, but transfers are often part of the overall problem. Also, there will likely be more transfers this summer, is my guess. Transfers sometimes don't mix well, because some either come with some issues or they can't get comfortable playing down at the FCS level if they were FBS. They don't come as a group and know each other. They are just a bunch of individuals. UM have had some seemingly talented transfers come and go fairly quickly. Back a number of years ago, there was a scuffle literally in the locker room, and the big stud transfer left and never came back.

My concern is greater this year because there are so many transfers, so many new recruits, so many guys who have departed, so many departed seniors, and not a huge number of returning seniors and juniors who have been in the program all along. Note a recent prior post, discussing the subject. There were some good points made in that post.

I think cohesiveness generally comes with the transfers and younger guys fitting in with and being led by the upper classmen. Are there going to be enough strong returning leaders, or where will the leadership come from?"

 

[coyote]

I think it was simply they figured us out and we didn't adapt and change.

 

[grizcountry420]

I think lack of leadership on the team is a big reason why the wheels fell off at the end of the season.

 

[reinell30]

I think lack of leadership on the team is a big reason why the wheels fell off at the end of the season.

Didn't our wheels fall off around the time you changed your avatar?

 

[zengriz]

...discipline...
...the lack of it...

... ...

 

[grizcountry420]

I think lack of leadership on the team is a big reason why the wheels fell off at the end of the season.

Didn't our wheels fall off around the time you changed your avatar?

Never thought about that..

 

[Ringneck]

What were the causes of the big decline and really collapse at the end of the 2016 season?

I've got two theories:

1) We played teams that were better than us at football
-- OR --
2) The team received insufficient criticism from the fan base

 

[UMGriz75]

2) The team received insufficient criticism from the fan base

AZGrizFan » Sat Nov 12, 2016 10:24 pm
Once again today (a game I was actually AT) I saw several plays where the defense wasn't ready, was looking to the sideline when the ball was snapped, were running around trying to change positions when the ball was snapped, or trying to swap out players with guys running on and off the field when the ball was snapped....

WTF? Is our defense THAT complex that it can't be called by the time the offense snaps the ball? I mean, UNC basically sat in a 3-man front, dropping 7-8 guys ALL. DAY. LONG. They didn't make a lot of adjustments, but they got to Chalich repeatedly with 3-4 rushers. How is it that ours is so complex that that we can't even be ready to play when the ball is snapped?

How would you have phrased that observation so as to be sufficiently uncritical, flattering, and unhurtful to high-paid feelings?

And how would you have answered the question posed?

Do you think that was part of the "serious decline" or not?

How do you think that showed that other teams were better than we were? What did the other teams have to do with our line coordinations? Telepathy?

What else? Or would that be too critical?

 

[brewskis]

From what I saw, in no particular order:

Teams got very good at exploiting our weaknesses in the secondary.

Our scheme defensively refused to adapt to stop downhill running.

We lacked aggressiveness on offense. Too much dink and dunk. Looked like we were playing scared.

Trenches offensively were average at best. Probably contributed to my other point, but wasn't the sole contributor.

If we are looking for a scapegoat on the coaching staff, I'd say it's gotta be Semore.

Just one guys opinion.


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[mcg]

All I know both offensively and defensively there were serious problems in terms of completing assignments. I still can't understand how in the tenth game one guy is playing man defense and the other six are playing zone. It would seem that this sort of thing would be accountable to the coaches.

 

[Ringneck]

2) The team received insufficient criticism from the fan base

How would you have phrased that observation so as to be sufficiently uncritical, flattering, and unhurtful to high-paid feelings?

And how would you have answered the question posed?

Do you think that was part of the "serious decline" or not?

How do you think that showed that other teams were better than we were? What did the other teams have to do with our line coordinations? Telepathy?

What else? Or would that be too critical?

Dude, for real: STOP. Shame on me for taking your nasty bait, but stop being such a self-important blowhard for one frickin' minute.

Why don't you tell us how your steaming pile of hypercritical, unflattering, self-righteous, verbal vitriol has had any positive effect on anyone but yourself, you pompous windbag. Your entire scheme here is to belittle others, pick fights, and feed your own malnourished ego by preying on those who don't have 10 hours a day to write theses on every thread topic that comes up for discussion. So you can win an argument with strangers on the internet by using bigger words than them and being so obstinate that they just give up. Well la-ti-freakin'-da. What a pathetic, juvenile existence.

Perhaps instead of being such an antagonist you could try posing questions that aren't thinly veiled traps designed to get others to enter into can't-win battles with you; ridiculous battles that are fought on your terms, using your rules, steeped in your unfalsifiable dogmas, always seeming to hinge on one of your self-aggrandizing name drops or irrefutable tidbits of insider information.

Maybe you could take a break from dragging everyone down with you, you miserable Scrooge.

I'm not sure what point you were trying to make with your response to my post, but I was being sarcastic. Sarcasm, as you know, is the use of irony to mock or communicate contempt. It's clear I hit exactly where I was aiming.

 

[UMGriz75]

2) The team received insufficient criticism from the fan base

How would you have phrased that observation so as to be sufficiently uncritical, flattering, and unhurtful to high-paid feelings?

And how would you have answered the question posed?

Do you think that was part of the "serious decline" or not?

How do you think that showed that other teams were better than we were? What did the other teams have to do with our line coordinations? Telepathy?

What else? Or would that be too critical?

Dude, for real: STOP. Shame on me for taking your nasty bait, but stop being such a self-important blowhard for one frickin' minute.

Why don't you tell us how your steaming pile of hypercritical, unflattering, self-righteous, verbal vitriol has had any positive effect on anyone but yourself, you pompous windbag. Your entire scheme here is to belittle others, pick fights, and feed your own malnourished ego by preying on those who don't have 10 hours a day to write theses on every thread topic that comes up for discussion. So you can win an argument with strangers on the internet by using bigger words than them and being so obstinate that they just give up. Well la-ti-freakin'-da. What a pathetic, juvenile existence.

:lol: :lol: :lol: I have a goat for sale!

The short version is, you can't answer the questions posed by the thread topic and answer five direct questions directly on point with anything but an explosion of self-righteous vitriol.

Why not take the high road and simply answer the critique that AZGrizFan posed, for the purposes that PR proposed: identifying specifically "what went wrong"?

Or was your original snarky remark supposed to short-circuit the thread topic in the first place and it back-fired on you? Well, sorry. Perhaps if you had respected the thread topic and AZ's remarks and taken them seriously, it could have been more productive for you instead of the obviously deeply frustrating experience it became.

It's redundant at this point, but:

1) The offense as even game play announcers were remarking on, was the same formation,
2) Offense did not adapt. Again, even conference game play announcers were puzzled, for instance, when Chalich was not substituted for Brady in a bad game,
3) No innovation on offense. Nothing. Stitt said after summer camp his "playbook" was "fully installed." It's a pamphlet then. This coach seems afraid to try anything new or different.
4) When we are losing, there is no adjustment at halftime. When we are winning, there is adjustment (ISU last year, "you have to pass sometime") and then we almost lose or should have lost.

5) Defense. Others have made the same observations. I think its a great lack of D1 experience. While others think he'll get better, unfortunately so will the other D1 DC's who already proved they were better in the first place.

I don't change my views from last season. I don't think, based on the particular DII record, that these DII coaches can step up to DI football. Yes, they'll get better, but so is everyone getting better. Other DII coaches got better at that level in that division winning more conference championships and so the existing record doesn't support the kind of improvement necessary at the DI level.

"Getting better" is obviously the key, BUT that's the problem here this past season, isn't it? They didn't.

 

[Ringneck]

The short version is, you can't answer the questions posed by the thread topic and answer five direct questions directly on point with anything but an explosion of self-righteous vitriol.

Okay, well, let me see if I can answer these up to your level of expectations for me.

How would you have phrased that observation so as to be sufficiently uncritical, flattering, and unhurtful to high-paid feelings? Me sorry, UMGriz75. You are right.

And how would you have answered the question posed? Me big dumb dumb. You really smart fella.

Do you think that was part of the "serious decline" or not? Slow down. You're too smart for me.

How do you think that showed that other teams were better than we were? What did the other teams have to do with our line coordinations? Telepathy? Haha, good one. You made a funny, at my expense, which I deserve, because you are right, and I am not.

What else? Or would that be too critical? Me sorry for bothering you. Me learned my lesson.

Wow, I feel so much better now that I'm back in my place among the peons.

 

[Griz#64]

The Offensive Coaches and the Defensive Coaches grew more conservative, and thus lost Their Mojo.

 

[HelenaHandBasket]

Looked like we were playing scared.

You nailed this one.

 

[HelenaHandBasket]

:lol: :lol: :lol: I have a goat for sale!

No one wants sloppy seconds from that critter.

 

[UMGriz75]

If I was a Head Coach with what I had after this past season, I would try and

1) hire an OC with DI experience,
2) hire a DC with DI experience and give Semore a few more years.

Awkward. Embarrassing. But necessary to win, probably.

 

[brewskis]

If I was a Head Coach with what I had after this past season, I would try and

1) hire an OC with DI experience,
2) hire a DC with DI experience and give Semore a few more years.

Awkward. Embarrassing. But necessary to win, probably.

This is far too short and to the point to be one of your posts.

In fact, if you hadn't mentioned getting embarrassed....I wouldn't have even guessed it was you.


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[UMGriz75]

Wow, I feel so much better now that I'm back in my place among the peons.

Jayzuz, for somebody who started this out with fully-loaded snark, you are one butt-hurt individual.

 

[Ringneck]

Wow, I feel so much better now that I'm back in my place among the peons.

Jayzuz, for somebody who started out with snark, you are one butt-hurt individual.

Well geez, 75, I can't help it. I just feel so vulnerable groveling around in the shattered remains of everyone's poorly constructed arguments against you. There's only shards of opinions and personal attacks down here in the dust; no facts to be found anywhere! And I feel so dull in the righteous glow of your monumental brilliance, ya know?