Gekko's Three-Putt
by Gekko Mojo on Aug 28, 2010 7:19 PM PDT
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The dawn of the new season is upon us, so I thought I'd put up a few issues for discussion. I had three things I was thinking about today, and I'm not a particularly good golfer, so here is my three-putt for the day.
1. O-Line
I'm a little jittery over the right side of the o-line. As much as I love Christine, he and Habben were abused consistently much of the time they were partnered last year. We didn't start getting production there until Christine was replaced . Let's hope some new continuity has emerged and that another year of growth has helped both men. I'll be watching that situation closely.
2. Def End
The DE rotation looks unsteady and really depends on whether or not De'Shon has a senior year break-out. Kalani's injury looks like it is going to linger and I'm not ready to rely heavily on true freshmen to pick up the slack. De'Shon is a critical piece for us this year.
3. Fullback
I'm going to be curious to see what we get out of this position over the season. Homer filled a role, but had limitations when he was asked to make an offensive play. Sylvester appears to have similar limitations, but will we see the FB called on as a change of pace on occasion this season, perhaps with some of our other bodies?
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OL – I’m operating under some faith that another year of working with Ivan has got these guys in even better shape than last year. They made good strides in losing their guts last year, and hopefully this year they’ve continued to build up their strength numbers on top of improving their agility. As well, I’m hoping that another year of coaching by Cozzetto and experience with the zone blocking scheme will improve things.
I think that down the road, guys like Porter and Kohler will prove to be big upgrades over Christine and Habben, but right now, those guys are good enough to start.
DE – It seems clear at this point that Aldrich’s knee issues are indeed chronic, and we probably shouldn’t count on him ever being 100%, and possibly not even close to that. If Thompson isn’t ready to go, I’m rather worried. Hopefully the offseason of building up strength and size for Crichton will result in a lot of improvement for him, and the coaches have said positive things about Matthews. But I agree, this is an area of concern.
FB – I get the feeling we won’t see FB production similar to what Sark got at USC until Zach Fogerson has had a year or two in the system. I’m disappointed we haven’t heard more glowing reports about guys like Boyce and Makula – in theory, they should have a good combo of pass-catching skills and blocking skills. But then again, maybe the fact that Sylvester is still #1 means that he’s going to provide excellent blocking for us.
I’d say a greater concern for me is at LB. Aiyewa is unproven there, and our depth is paper-thin. Dennison’s knee injury is a reminder of that. My impression of the crew of frosh LBs is that they are an athletic group, but they need time to build up strength and size. Unfortunately, with Foster and Aiyewa graduating after this year, they’re not going to get a lot of time to grow-up. Hopefully Wallace and Tucker can step up.
The O line putt
I was at practice on thursday and I was impressed by coach Coz and the O linemen. The only glaring concern I saw was James Atoe. Everybody seemed fundamentally sound during drills. Atoe on the other hand is a monster, but lacks the proper fundamentals. A lot of that can be attributed from the program he came from out of the prep ranks, i.e. relying on his size more then teaching the basic fundamentals. Clearly Porter and Kohler look head over heels above Atoe in this department.
As for Christine, I thought before he broke his leg our offensive line held up pretty good vs. superior talent. When Christine went down, Sark and Coz had to scramble to find his replacement and coach him up. By the time we met up with WSU and Cal, it seemed like we finally had the O line functioning as well, if not better, then before Christine went down.
The D End and LB positions are my two putts. Coz, Ivan, and Sark have put in a tremendous amount of time molding an offensive line capable of protecting No.10 and hopefully opening up more holes for Polk to run thru inside the 20.
All I saw was purple
I"m just saying I liked what I saw in practice. It wasn’t consistent by all means last season, but at times the unit played pretty good. And with most everybody coming back + some great depth with the freshmen coming in, I think we could be twice as good on the O line this season.
I think the world of coach Coz. I had my 5 year old with me while we were watching the O linemen work. Coz was screaming and cussing and it didn’t bother me to have my son hear that. I just whispered in his ear that coaches at this level talk like that. It didn’t seem to phase him and I know he understood. I think Coz and Ivan have developed a plan of getting these kids in great O line shape. This is year 2 and from what I saw we are about to take a huge jump forward.
All I saw was purple
I understand your concern
Yet I think you might be under estimating coach Cozzetto a little. I think he is one of the finer O line coaches on the west coast. He came in with the rest of the coaching staff and had a huge job to do in order to reshape a struggling offensive line. Now our O line didn’t turn many heads last season. However you have to look at last years scoring average per game and put that with the season before that. I realize Locker was hurt that season so the comparison is hard to gage. But you get the point.
Our O line played well at times last season. Yes the right side has much work to do. Their is always room for improvement. What we need to focus on is getting stronger and learning how to run block as an entire unit. Sark mixed up the run and pass well last season and when we ran outside the 20s Polk picked up chunks of yards. Now that doesn’t mean we have a good run blocking line even though Polk ran for over 1,000 yards. It tells me that Sark mixed up run, pass, and play action very efficient. Inside the 20 is where we saw our run production drop off. Opposing defenses were able to stop us running the ball when in running downs. How to fix? Get stronger so you can apply more leverage, fine tune the execusion so that the entire line gets off the ball at the same time. This stuff is correctible with time and repetition. I would not be surprised to see either or both Porter or Kohler in the starting lineup sometime this season. They both looked like savvy veterans in practice.
All I saw was purple
My only concern with the staff
is game day coaching. We could have won a few more last year. I’m not saying it was the talent or the coaches or the play calling….just looking for some improvement in that aspect of our game. A lot of it’s the coaches knowing what they have and the players knowing what, exactly, they’re expected to do. I don’t think it was a big deal but I expect some improvement with the play calling on both sides of the team. Continuity is my major concern in the long term. Sark assembled a good staff and while the UW has the money to pay the, a lot of these guys are strong candidates to advance before too long.
I think it was addressed as well by bringing Marques and the guy whose name I can’t remember or spell into the strength program(Kenichi Udeze?) partially but I hope there’s a plan with this staff and their ascension into the coaching ranks.
I’m excited to watch this season play out. I was also hopeful for the Mariners though so…Thanks again all of you for keeping this distant Husky fan informed!
I hear you
I think this is a good gameday coaching staff, but Sark was a rookie head coach and made a few critical mistakes in key situations last year. Hopefully he’s grown from that experience. It should also be noted that while we can point to some coaching mistakes that cost us in a few losses, we should also point out coaching success such as the USC game where we won a game we probably should have lost.
Hey Kirk
I think this is a good gameday coaching staff, but Sark was a rookie head coach and made a few critical mistakes in key situations last year. Hopefully he’s grown from that experience
You still feel that same way now after the BYU game?
Hey Daisy, git me anudder one!
Addicted to Quack
I’m reserving judgment. I’m not one of the ones that flipped out over him going for it on 4th and 2 early in the 4th quarter. I think the decision was defensible, and had it worked hardly anyone would have said anything about it other than praise him for his boldness. The reality is that going for it on 4th down works often, and most coaches are too conservative when it comes to trying to convert on 4th down.
I’m a little torn on the play-calling and how often we ran the ball. On the one hand, there were obviously a few big run plays that helped our overall run numbers look pretty good, and which suggest that Sark should have given the run game more opportunities, especially considering the TOP issue which was working against our already fatigued defense. On the other hand, when you take out those few big runs, you realize what I felt during the game, which is that we weren’t getting consistent running lanes and that the run game couldn’t be counted on.
So, I guess what I’m saying is I didn’t have a major issue with Sark’s decisions and play-calling in this game. I had more of an issue with some of Holt’s calls, and the special teams breakdowns make me think Sark still doesn’t put enough emphasis on that part in practice. We’ll see over the course of the season if there are any disturbing patterns that show themselves.
It's true what you say about going for it on 4th and succeeding
Same thing was said last year a couple of times…
I guess the thought that comes into my mind is “know thy self.” Having scored no points in the second half and being in FG range, it gives me reason to pause that a coach would go for it at that point in time. If the game was a shoot out and your knew that containing the other team from points (Oregon v Furd 2009) was going to be difficult, that’s a whole different story. It makes me question whether or not Sark understand completely time and relevance.
Do you ever think about the fact that the only real play calling he’s ever had was with a USC team that was dominant and better than everyone else in the Pac 10? If I coached a bunch of 5th grade basketball kids against a bunch of 3rd grade basketball players, and was always beating the pants off them, what type of coach would you expect me to be if I started coaching high school? (I know it’s a terrible analogy, but you get my drift).
Does Sark have what it takes to build a team? From a recruiting stand point, I’d have to say unequivocally, yes. From a coaching standpoint, I thinks that’s questionable. Agree or am I a total lunatic?
Hey Daisy, git me anudder one!
Addicted to Quack
Not a lunatic...
…but I also don’t think it’s accurate either. The problem with the theory that Sark only looked good was because of superior talent is that USC almost always beat the teams that were really good, and when they lost it was actually to “inferior” teams.
On the 4th down call, I could go either way. I’m not going to argue that going for it was clearly the right call; more, I’m just saying it was a defensible call. I think you can take your argument and turn it around – they hadn’t scored in the 2nd half, weren’t moving the ball consistently, and they were down 6; since they were on a drive that was working and had a very manageable 4th down, why not try to keep it going and get the TD they needed to take the lead, since who knows if they’d get another good drive going?
From watching him operate, I think he’s generally a pretty good play-caller; I think he usually has a good feel for how a game is going and what’s working and effectively mixing things up, and he has a good awareness of time left. That’s not to say I have no criticisms of his play-calling, but in general I think he’s pretty good. My main quibbles right now are:
- We just don’t seem to be very effective with the zone-read option play; we either need to practice it more and get Jake to make better decisions and hide the ball better, or abandon it;
- I’m a little worried that for all of Sark’s talk about a balanced attack and strong running game that when push comes to shove, he’s going to favor the pass; sometimes you just have to stick with the run game and wear down a defense, and running it more trains the offensive line more in how to do it successfully
Exactly Kirk.
I wasn’t trying to be harsh at all. I’m just hoping for continued improvement…like everybody else. I appreciate your thoughts both here and on dawgman.
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