NDSU vs WOFFORD Lets get it on!!!

[19TERRIER19]

From that article...

[i]These guys didn’t come up short. They squeezed all they possibly could from this season, which began with them stacking up victories despite still trying to figure things out. They were at their best near the end, won a fifth Southern Conference championship, played in the quarterfinals for a second straight year and had back-to-back 10-win seasons for the first time in school history.

Also know this: When it comes to the top handful of teams in FCS, it’s just a different level. These are FBS players at FCS schools.

“What’s amazing,” Wofford quarterback Brandon Goodson said, “is that their twos seem to be as good as their ones. They can substitute the whole game and keep people fresh. That makes it really tough.”

North Dakota State is ranked No. 41 nationally by the Sagarin ratings for all of college football. That’s one spot ahead of South Carolina, two spots ahead of West Virginia and three spots ahead of South Florida. If the Bison were in the FBS, they would be in a nice bowl game.

The deck is stacked against teams like Wofford, one of the smallest schools in Division I with only about 1,700 students. That’s not to say it’s impossible. The Terriers lost in double-overtime last season to Youngstown State, which made the title game. The closest they came was in 2003, losing in the semifinals against a stacked Delaware team that breezed to the championship.[/i]

[19TERRIER19]

To further this point make sure to return to this post after viewing the Sam Houston State / NDSU matchup this weekend. Sam Houston slings it all over the yard, all the time, anyone care to predict the outcome of this one........

Sometimes, you run into a better / bigger / stronger opponent, we did, and they did what they were supposed to. To catch them, you need to play them at a neutral site or host them, not many teams are equipped to operate fully efficiently by not being able to audible or change at the line, and having to run the plays called basically regardless of what you see from the defense. What a crazy home field advantage that is. Pretty amazing really.

I am not saying to not dream big, and to not think national title thoughts, but I would also like to point out that there is a reality, that NDSU and JMU operate on a different competitive plane than the rest of FCS teams. Now throw in recruiting budgets, academic requirements and we are not exactly talking apples to apples comparisons.

I think Wofford is just really solidifying its spot in the SoCon, and national landscape, and with that will come fruits of recruiting and more exposure going forward. People can debate on which method is chosen to skin the proverbial cat, but if you continue to push the envelope, continue to make quarterfinals regularly, guess what will eventually happen......you will win one and advance.

But going to the playoffs every so often, sporadically, isn't the recipe for growth and the subsequent expectation level. Look back at the history before these last 2 seasons of Wofford football, every 3-4 seasons was a team worthy of conference contention and playoff contention. The foundation has been laid to build from. Back to back Quarterfinals with a significant returning group for next season is a helluva start. Let's worry about continuing to win SoCon titles and making playoff runs. And as that becomes the true norm, THEN, we should truly worry about talking winning national titles. There is nothing wrong with being a program that is a top 5-10 program annually. As that becomes the TRUTH and the NORM, we should then worry about why we arent winning national titles. Crawl before you walk.

My humble opinion.

[youngterrier]

Sam Houston will flounder. They always do against the Bison. Sam Houston is like us, they run a gimmicky offense and their defense isn't as good as us.

Also, I think people also overestimate how strong the home field advantage is. Most of NDSU's losses in the last 7 years have come at home (I want to say 6 of 7).

[19TERRIER19]

Also, I think people also overestimate how strong the home field advantage is. Most of NDSU's losses in the last 7 years have come at home (I want to say 6 of 7).

You might want to ask the actual players about that....not hearing the calls at the line are A RIDICULOUS ADVANTAGE....and by playing 90% of your playoff games at home, of course your losses would be at home eventually. 6 home losses in 17 years is IRON CLAD EVIDENCE of a HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE.

[19TERRIER19]

NDSU has won 20 of the past 21 playoff games at home and is 63-6 overall at home since 2000, well, that’s different

[youngterrier]

They've actually lost 18 at home in the last 18 years (Shanesy's story had a mistake), 7 since 2010. Conference opponents likely do better there because they are used to it, but it's not just the noise that does it.

Last time we played there, we played better. I think we're better this year compared to that year, sans Breitenstein. They've only improved more since that time, with the cycle Shanesy describes in his article today.

I think venues like that are an unfair advantage in the playoffs, but things weren't always that way. I'm a fan of making the playoffs played a neutral site like the NCAA tournament in basketball (won't happen, but it's fun to think about). Right now, I think the FCS is in a vicious cycle where NDSU is the indefinite favorite until they move up (which probably won't happen until the politics/economics of building a bigger venue, which looks to be a while).

There have been dynasties at this level before, but nothing compared to what NDSU has put together.

It's not just the noise. They are just that good.

[Ruckus]

Furman ran the power I/veer option in 1988 (and 1985 when they lost a 21 point half time lead to lose to GSU in he Tacomadome) when they won the NC. I am also fairly certain Sam Houston Sltate won one year running a form of the option as well.
While I wonder how you exactly define “the option” (triple, 2 back, one back, option pass routes - there are all kids of options and reads in any given offense), I disagree the option is a “gimmicky” offense. Just because teams choose to run different schemes now at this point in time doesn’t make it gimmicky. There was a time when EVERYONE ran the option or some form of it. There was a time in the 90’s when the run and shoot was the hot offense due to the 49’ers success. Nobody runs it now. Is it gimmicky? Nobody runs the power I now but in the 80’s it was the hot offense. Is it gimmicky?
Could we run the spread or zone read with all the RPOs and bubble screens and one back options? Sure but even that offense has option elements in it. More importantly, could we recruit the athletes to run it and win? Our coaches think that running our offense gives us the best chance to succeed and recruit to it.

[WocoSix]

I don't think its a matter of the style of offense or defense, as long as we are mixing up formations and coverages. I just think our issue Saturday was the lack of imagination and being predictable. NDSU has the same talent athletes we have at Wofford. I would dare to say at some positions we have better. It took NDSU two series to figure out what our gameplan was on Defense. There was one play where they faked a bubble screen, and since we are very aggressive at attacking the blocker, NDSU adjusted and gave the bubble screen action but the WR stalked and release for short corner route between the safety and LB. That's what they call in-game adjustments. We stayed with the 2 high safety and cover 3 look even though they were killing us with wheel routes and flooding zones. There were things we could have done to counter but we did nothing. That's what I meant by us playing checkers and the NDSU staff playing chess. The game of football is a continuous game of attack and counter-attack.

Offensively running 1 man routes was not enough to loosen the defense. Our TE's had 1 target the entire game. Getting a LB or Safety on our TE was a mismatch. I am sure NDSU saw on film that the only time we throw deep is off play action. How about break the norm and throw the pump and go against man coverage with no safety help. How about add the pop pass sweep to get the edge with a speedster? How about add a HB screen pass or a TE delay? Simple things you can do without changing the core offense.

[boulder3m]

Six- Don't you think the same can be said for our defense? It seems like when we are getting picked apart by the pass we make no adjustments either.

[WocoSix]

Yes I think our Defense could have made adjustments. Small things like having LB's running with backs out of the backfield, using the safety to jam slots (still can roll secondary to have 2 deep look), disguising coverages instead of just giving pre-snap reads (NDSU audibled out of plays none to very little), occasionally break the traditional look and go with 4 DL's (Brown, Priester, Horton, Vaughn ) and 3 LB's. Play a multiple defense and make the other team have to read the defense. Do these things and you would see missed blocking assignments, QB throws into coverage, Increase in sacks because QB has to go through progressions. Maybe the staff did these things and I just missed it. We should be a mature defense next season and hopefully the staff throws more complex concepts at the players

[Eyes of Old Main]

First off, make no mistake, NDSU was the best team we faced in 2017. They'd beat South Carolina if they played. No doubt in my mind.

Our defense did a good job against NDSU's run, but wasn't able to simultaneously contain their pass game. Some of that may be their athletes, but I suspect most if a result of what we had to do to defend the run. In game adjustments could have helped, but at some point I imagine that you just have to go with the looks you have and try to keep up. Desire wasn't a problem. Our guys were flying around and hitting hard. The Bison left the Fargodome knowing they'd been in a game. They won big, but they absorbed some punishment in the process. Stick is a nice QB and made some great throws, but a good number of them ended with him taking a shot from a Terrier, too.

On offense, we just didn't have an answer for what NDSU was doing. Being short at HB hurt and so did the turnovers, but neither was the reason we lost. We never established a rhythm and they never let up. Like the defense, the offense was doing whatever they could to succeed, but NDSU was just a bit better. Maybe some different play calling would have helped, but their lateral pursuit was too strong to get much going on the edge and they clogged up the middle so well we couldn't consistently get our three yards per play.

I'm happy with the performance of our players and I think the coaches had a viable plan for the game, but we were hoping for everything to break our way and it didn't. I credit NDSU's coaches for dissecting us on short notice and then having the ability to communicate the plan to their players in a way they could be successful.

What do we need to do to get better? I think our defensive strategy is sound, but I'd like to see us be a touch more aggressive against the pass, or at least have the ability to turn that on if we need it. As it is, it is death by a thousand papercuts or hoping for the opponent to throw some incomplete passes. We have the defensive personnel to compete, we just need to get a little edgier. Having a year of experience now, I expect Coach Wood will having things going better next year. Part of it is the players, but his first year was more cohesive and successful than either of the two previous new DC's after Woody left.

On offense, I think we need to get back to more misdirection. I like some of Furman's new plays with big shifts before the snap and guys running routes to create opportunities for reverses and misdirection. Our passing routes were better this year and played to the strength of our guys. I know we are methodical and like to burn clock, but I think a hurry up component needs to be added. I also think we need to find more ways to get the ball to Blake Morgan (both running and catching). Wofford used to routinely score 40 points per game and rack up a lot more rushing yards. I think we were 7th in the country in rushing this year which is almost something I would say should never happen.

Wofford should have a great opportunity to be successful in the SoCon next year and should be a preseason favorite for a playoff berth. What happens from there is anybody's guess, but I think basically every other conference team will be equal or better next year and with trips to Furman, WCU, Samford and Chattanooga it will be a tougher road.

[Ruckus]

Offensively we need to get better (note I did not say bigger) up front. You want to rush for 350 yards a game and score 40 plus points? Get better OLs. You want to compete with the NDSUs of the world? Get better up front. We can have all of the offensive skill players you want but unless we have an athletic talented skilled gritty tough OL, those skill positions don’t matter. Same for new different sexy schemes. Need those guys up front holding blocks and creating time and space. Part of the reason we competed better in the EB years is because we were better up front. And our best OLs (Demmel, Roo, Duffy Rouse) are ALL graduating. Our OL next year will be revamped. Not a positive sign.
Defensively, I agree we need to disguise coverages, give different looks, and challenge with some man coverage. I am worried about OLBS next year after losing Morris and Vining.

[Buckeyeterrier]

Ruckus, sometimes its better to keep your opinions to yourself. This group of young men (including the O-line) brought Wofford their 1st back to back 10-win season ever. The wheels simply came off in the 2nd quarter of the NDSU game and it took us away from what we do. You're over analyzing it and trashing a fine group of young men who helped give us two of the best seasons in sussession ever seen at Wofford.

[Eric Deutsch]

I don't see Ruckus trashing the current OL or their contributions to the program. They've done great things and have nothing to be ashamed of.

Are they our best ever? Probably not. But I would argue no one on this team was individually the greatest Wofford has seen. They are a great TEAM. A unit who worked so well together they were able to overcome adversity week after week and get the only job that mattered done, winning. And that makes them great.

Individual awards don't mean diddly squat. W's do. They've proven they can put up the W's.

[Ruckus]

Buckeye, you obviously don’t come on this board very much and don’t follow my posts, and have no idea how many times this season I have posted the very thing you assert. Go back and read what I have posted over this season (especially Saturday after the game) then you can decide if you need to delete your post above or make an apology to me. You are WAY off base. Perhaps you need gain some perspective.
Out of respect for you and your son who I considered to be one of, if not our most talented OLs, I’ll defer my response other than to say I have NEVER EVER “trashed” a player on his board or accused our players of being anything other than fine young men. I would be happy to discuss it with you off line by DM or sitting down personally. I apologize if I offended you in anyway. BTW my opinion that I expressed in my last post has nothing to do with Saturday’s game or its outcome. I was making a more comprehensive reference to the team