Leatherneck Nation

This is awesome so many coaches and college football players on the forum. Just wondering how many have thrown a football with about 2 sec. and 300lb men try to kill you or coached college football. Everything is easier from the outside. Yes some of the play calls are crazy,but some of the music the band plays isn't great either. You have recievers and a QB breaking all time school records and no one is happy.

Breaking records does not matter, winning games does and it is early in the season, but I am guessing we are going to be right on the edge of making playoffs again. If you throw for 100 TDs in your career sure you may break the record but then you look at the big picture and someone throws for 100 interceptions as well which very well may break another record (this is hypothetical I do not know what our QB is on pace to do). What happens if a few guys break all these records and we never make it to playoffs? No player should ever be satisfied with good stats and losing, they should want to win every game. It is tough and I agree a few mistakes are going to occur especially when being pressured, but you have to have to be able to make sure your turnover rate is better than 1:1 hopefully better than even 3:1 or 4:1. Norvell has a lot of talent and is likely going to break a lot of records since he will be playing 4 full years, but the mistakes just need to be improved some. I do not think anyone would knock Lenoir as he is most likely the best player on the team. I do not know if anyone on here is a coach, but I do know some have college experience and knowledge of football. We all can agree I think on one thing rain or shine we back our team, as a fan we just always are looking for improvement in the team at the very least.

Numbers for a QB are just that. Depending on the offensive scheme, a QB could have huge numbers but so-so success when it comes to Ws and Ls. I look beyond the numbers for things like "Does he make those around him better players?". For example, does he hit receivers in full stride so that they can put an immediate move on defenders or are they catching throws off balance a lot of the time with little chance for yards after catch.

I think Trent is a good QB and I'm glad we have him. I did and still do have high expectations for him and am looking for him to be a great QB. Maybe that is asking to much, but what I want for him and this program and feel it's needed to get WIU into the playoffs.

Playing QB is the hardest and most complex position on the field at any level and it gets harder each jump/level up. Trent does what not many others can, but he's not at the top of his game and has room for improvement. I watch a lot of college football and a lot of that being FCS and I see some QBs out there that make fewer mistakes. Granted they might have a better line or skill players or coaching, but they're being more consistent and they also have 2 seconds and 300lb people trying to crush them.

I do get what your saying tootall and realize it's a tough job and he's better than a lot, but again has room for improvement and could be great. I bet he'd tell you the same.

I think the biggest thing for me with regards to the offense is that I know that Norvell can do better. He's doing ok now, but he did better last year. He has the potential to be one of the best QBs we've ever had, but he's not quite there yet. He's got good numbers, but he's been starting since he was a Freshman, so that helps. I think it's the difference between what it seems like he's capable of and what he's been doing lately that causes the questioning.

Also, for me anyway, I think the offense has been doing pretty darn well overall, putting up points (other than at Illinois), moving the ball. Sure, there've been some turnovers, but not too bad overall.

For me, the biggest question mark (and no, I'm not a football expert, so I can't really address why this is happening, who's at fault, what needs to be fixed, or if this is the best they can do) is the special teams. All I know is that if you look at the numbers, the trend doesn't look great so far.
Here's where we're at in the "Knuffman Era" (and no, I'm not saying it's his fault, I'm just using it as a starting point for comparison):

2013 - 3 FGs blocked, 2 punts blocked (over 12 games)
2014 - 1 FG blocked, 3 punts blocked (over 12 games
2015 - 1 FG blocked, 4 punts blocked (over 4 games)

I mean, we're averaging 1 blocked punt per game. At the current rate we'll end up with 2-3 blocked FGs and 11 blocked punts by the end of the season. We've also had a blocked XP that was returned for a TD against Eastern. I don't know if we had any blocked XPs for previous years, so I didn't include that. But the end result is....6 blocked kicks so far this season. As it stands right now in the "Blocked Kicks Allowed" rankings for FCS football, there's a bunch tied at 0, a bunch tied at 1, a bunch tied at 2, 6 teams tied at 3 allowed, 4 teams tied at 4 allowed (all 4 of those teams have played 5 games), and then way down at the bottom of the list...Western with 6 blocked kicks allowed through only 4 games. In fact, we currently "lead" all Division I football teams in blocked kicks allowed (by 2 kicks...nobody else even has 5). There are 3 Div. II schools and 2 Div. III schools who also have 6 blocked kicks. I think it's actually a testament to the rest of the team (especially the defense) that there's only one other Div. I team that has 4 or more kicks blocked that doesn't have a losing record (3-2 Liberty).

So, I think the frustration, for me anyway, is less about some of the minor things...missed throws, an occasional INT...it's that I know that if we were able to just reduce a few mistakes in our kicking and return game, we'd have beaten Coastal, probably would be 3-1, and be in a much better position to have a shot at the playoffs. We're still very much in the hunt, but we need to beat a few of those "middle of the conference" teams to get there...and to do that, we need to stop allowing those blocked punts.

Some good analysis of the upcoming game from a South Dakota perspective:

Anyone else notice the Taylor kid lined up and played with his hand in the dirt on passing plays on both right and left side of the ball at times? He did force the QB into a bad throw once. Anyone think we will see more of that this week?

2013 - 3 FGs blocked, 2 punts blocked (over 12 games)
2014 - 1 FG blocked, 3 punts blocked (over 12 games
2015 - 1 FG blocked, 4 punts blocked (over 4 games)

I mean, we're averaging 1 blocked punt per game. At the current rate we'll end up with 2-3 blocked FGs and 11 blocked punts by the end of the season. We've also had a blocked XP that was returned for a TD against Eastern. I don't know if we had any blocked XPs for previous years, so I didn't include that. But the end result is....6 blocked kicks so far this season. As it stands right now in the "Blocked Kicks Allowed" rankings for FCS football, there's a bunch tied at 0, a bunch tied at 1, a bunch tied at 2, 6 teams tied at 3 allowed, 4 teams tied at 4 allowed (all 4 of those teams have played 5 games), and then way down at the bottom of the list...Western with 6 blocked kicks allowed through only 4 games. In fact, we currently "lead" all Division I football teams in blocked kicks allowed (by 2 kicks...nobody else even has 5). There are 3 Div. II schools and 2 Div. III schools who also have 6 blocked kicks. I think it's actually a testament to the rest of the team (especially the defense) that there's only one other Div. I team that has 4 or more kicks blocked that doesn't have a losing record (3-2 Liberty).

In response to your comments again you have hit it right on the head with special team. Coach Nielson seems like a nice guy that was a GREAT D3 and D2 Coach, But he had no D1 experience. The game is faster and more competitive at D1, and you can win games at D3 and D2 with weaker special teams. The Guys he has working with Special Teams have virtually no coaching experience and are just not experienced, look at the bio's. You can see how poorly they are coached, game after game after game. Let's face the facts Coach Henderson was fantastic Special Teams guy, he was the Special Teams coach at an FBS ACC Team. The players we have can do the job, if they put the right players where they should be. We could make some key moves on the Punting and PAT Teams that would make a world of difference. Lets be honest Bill Cubit and Illinois showed you what a D1 Coach is like back in September, and how a D1 Special teams Unit works

+ 1

Lovethenecks, good post.

Well, I went to look at the Bios and noticed we don't have a Special Teams coordinator listed. There is one in the media guide and there was one a year ago and I am pretty sure there was one earlier. So I guess we can read between the lines and say there was a change of some sort made sometime in the recent past. Change is a good thing most of the time. I think I will change my avatar accordingly.

Another change I might recommend is to the By-Laws for our Trustees. Do we really need trusteed stalemates with @StudentPres in the house to break a tie and move us forward?