I was a sophomore student manager in 1993 when we got upset by Boston College the week after beating Florida State. Today is the worst I've felt after a loss since then. After last week I thought this was a team that was more likely than not to go 12-0.
I haven't read anything else on this board yet, so if I repeat themes I'm sorry, but here are my unfiltered thoughts:
Offense - Riley Leonard was awful when not running, and that's pretty self-evident so I won't belabor that point. What compounded the frustration is that Mike Denbrock seems to still be running LSU's offense with ND's personnel. Our wide receivers aren't fast enough nor good enough blockers to make those quick, wide screens work. Just stop calling them. QB runs were working but they quit calling them. Also, enough with the long passes. Not a strong suit of the QB nor the receivers. A deep route on 2nd and 1 when all you need are a couple first downs to ice the game is Brian Kelly-level stupid. Finally, both the run and pass offense are much, much better when Mitchell Evans is in the game. Have to get him back to playing 70+% of offensive snaps.
Defense - The trademark of Al Golden's defense is aggressiveness. This defense is built for that. They're at their best when they rush five, pressure the QB and play man coverage. It's hard to keep track from in the stands, but it seemed that there were very few times when the defense did this. It almost seemed like they felt like they didn't need to use optimal strategy. The first TD allowed was a fluke, but even taking out that play the defense allowed 5.8 yards/pass and 4.2 yards/rush, which is unacceptable unless NIU turns out to have the best offense in the history of the MAC. They ran that wildcat so many times and Golden never figured out how to defend it.
Coaching - Both coordinators had horrible games, yet ultimately that's on the head coach. Upsets like these are inexcusable in year 3. Nobody wants Marcus Freeman to succeed more than me, but he gets no more free passes.
I haven't read anything else on this board yet, so if I repeat themes I'm sorry, but here are my unfiltered thoughts:
Offense - Riley Leonard was awful when not running, and that's pretty self-evident so I won't belabor that point. What compounded the frustration is that Mike Denbrock seems to still be running LSU's offense with ND's personnel. Our wide receivers aren't fast enough nor good enough blockers to make those quick, wide screens work. Just stop calling them. QB runs were working but they quit calling them. Also, enough with the long passes. Not a strong suit of the QB nor the receivers. A deep route on 2nd and 1 when all you need are a couple first downs to ice the game is Brian Kelly-level stupid. Finally, both the run and pass offense are much, much better when Mitchell Evans is in the game. Have to get him back to playing 70+% of offensive snaps.
Defense - The trademark of Al Golden's defense is aggressiveness. This defense is built for that. They're at their best when they rush five, pressure the QB and play man coverage. It's hard to keep track from in the stands, but it seemed that there were very few times when the defense did this. It almost seemed like they felt like they didn't need to use optimal strategy. The first TD allowed was a fluke, but even taking out that play the defense allowed 5.8 yards/pass and 4.2 yards/rush, which is unacceptable unless NIU turns out to have the best offense in the history of the MAC. They ran that wildcat so many times and Golden never figured out how to defend it.
Coaching - Both coordinators had horrible games, yet ultimately that's on the head coach. Upsets like these are inexcusable in year 3. Nobody wants Marcus Freeman to succeed more than me, but he gets no more free passes.
