I know that this has been talked about & posted ad nauseum, but I wanted to put my thoughts to it. I only watched the 1st half, because I knew how the rest of the game was going to go, so I'm just going to post about that. I'm a fan of Klieman, but this what bothered me about his hiring, was who was he going to be able to bring with him to KSU? He was coming from the FCS level, so how many contacts would he have at the FBS level? How many coaches would he be able to bring to KSU that has FBS experience? Obviously not many. Not only that, but if he to replace a coach, who would he be able to replace him with?
I'm as frustrated with the coaching (Klein, Ray, Messingham) as anyone, but to be honest, what do they really have to work with? Is Howard a D-I QB? Look at the WR's that play: Weber, Warner, Brooks, etc. KSU could have the best WR coach in the country and if Knowles isn't going to try at all, then it won't matter.
QB - I actually thought Howard threw the ball well the first possession & ran the ball well. He threw two passes that if the WR's gave a damn, they would've caught it & would've been a TD instead of settling for a FG. I didn't see the Howard fumble because we had left the bar at that point. But it sounds like he played pretty much the same way he did against SIU. The INT that Lewis threw wasn't as bad as it looked. It was absolutely criminal what Weber did on that route. He completely quit & it was his fault the ball was intercepted. It sounded like Lewis played well though in the 2nd half.
WR - I said it a couple of years ago & I'll say it again, this is the worst WR corps since the 2001 year when Brandon Clark was the leading receiver. This group very well could be worse than that year. Knowles is terrible. He doesn't try at all, can't get open & if by some miracle he does, he'll drop the ball anyway. Weber & Warner are possession receivers at best 7 probably aren't even that good. The fact that they're getting as much P.T. as they are is ridiculous.
OL - I just think that they had a bad game. They are better than how they played the first half on Saturday. But the first half, they were bad. They missed blocks on blitzes, couldn't hold blocks & were just bad...Like everyone else.
RB - I mean they didn't get much room to run, so what else can you say?
DL - They should be Embarrassed by their performance. It was in the 1st quarter & I don't remember who it was. But the KSU D-lineman was literally pushed off his feet by the O-lineman.
LB - Green has got to quit lowering his head. This was his 2nd targeting penalty in 3.5 games & he's hurting the team. I'm not going to fight about whether or not it was a penalty, because everyone has an opinion, but he was called for it again.
DB - I now know why they were getting such positive attention before the season started, becasue they were covering the KSU receivers. The OSU receivers were running around wide open all first half.
Coaching - I don't know what needs to be said/done about this. But I hope that we find out that Klieman isn't too terribly loyal to his coaches in the off season. In my opinion, Klein & Ray need to go at a minimum. I'm not sure about Messingham as he has called some really good games, but then he will call some games that are real head scratchers. My concern is does Klieman have enough contacts to replace them with better coaches? People talk about the NDSU QB coach? But I thought Klieman offered him the job 3 years ago & he turned it down?
I thought that this team could win 8 or 9 regular season games, but now I think it'll be a 6 - 7 win team (TCU, TTech & KU).
I'm as frustrated with the coaching (Klein, Ray, Messingham) as anyone, but to be honest, what do they really have to work with? Is Howard a D-I QB? Look at the WR's that play: Weber, Warner, Brooks, etc. KSU could have the best WR coach in the country and if Knowles isn't going to try at all, then it won't matter.
QB - I actually thought Howard threw the ball well the first possession & ran the ball well. He threw two passes that if the WR's gave a damn, they would've caught it & would've been a TD instead of settling for a FG. I didn't see the Howard fumble because we had left the bar at that point. But it sounds like he played pretty much the same way he did against SIU. The INT that Lewis threw wasn't as bad as it looked. It was absolutely criminal what Weber did on that route. He completely quit & it was his fault the ball was intercepted. It sounded like Lewis played well though in the 2nd half.
WR - I said it a couple of years ago & I'll say it again, this is the worst WR corps since the 2001 year when Brandon Clark was the leading receiver. This group very well could be worse than that year. Knowles is terrible. He doesn't try at all, can't get open & if by some miracle he does, he'll drop the ball anyway. Weber & Warner are possession receivers at best 7 probably aren't even that good. The fact that they're getting as much P.T. as they are is ridiculous.
OL - I just think that they had a bad game. They are better than how they played the first half on Saturday. But the first half, they were bad. They missed blocks on blitzes, couldn't hold blocks & were just bad...Like everyone else.
RB - I mean they didn't get much room to run, so what else can you say?
DL - They should be Embarrassed by their performance. It was in the 1st quarter & I don't remember who it was. But the KSU D-lineman was literally pushed off his feet by the O-lineman.
LB - Green has got to quit lowering his head. This was his 2nd targeting penalty in 3.5 games & he's hurting the team. I'm not going to fight about whether or not it was a penalty, because everyone has an opinion, but he was called for it again.
DB - I now know why they were getting such positive attention before the season started, becasue they were covering the KSU receivers. The OSU receivers were running around wide open all first half.
Coaching - I don't know what needs to be said/done about this. But I hope that we find out that Klieman isn't too terribly loyal to his coaches in the off season. In my opinion, Klein & Ray need to go at a minimum. I'm not sure about Messingham as he has called some really good games, but then he will call some games that are real head scratchers. My concern is does Klieman have enough contacts to replace them with better coaches? People talk about the NDSU QB coach? But I thought Klieman offered him the job 3 years ago & he turned it down?
I thought that this team could win 8 or 9 regular season games, but now I think it'll be a 6 - 7 win team (TCU, TTech & KU).
