What can we learn from last Saturday?

[89rabbit]

The question is what can we learn from last Saturday nights loss. The answer is . . . not much. I see a lot of people posting and making conclusions about our ability to compete based on this game. I see folks evaluating our chances to get into the Big Sky based on this one game. I don't mean to criticize or stifle other people’s opinions, I just want to offer up my opinion.

From what I could hear and read it sounded like the Jackrabbits were not ready to play this game, plan and simple. They played a team that was ready to play and had a killer instinct. They got ahead of us and didn't let up.

Is Cal-Davis 52 points better then us? No way. We played them twice in the late '90s we won one they won one, both games were close. We have played I-AA teams while we were D-II (Montana, and Northern Arizona come to mind) and we didn't get hammered like we did on Saturday. So I go back to my premise that we were not ready to play Saturday night.

What other are posting may be correct who knows, but I will withhold my judgement until we have more evidence to examine. We all know that our move to D-I is a journey and a process. Let us as fans endeavor to practice what we preach and give the Athletic Department a chance to get their feet under them. Let's be patient. Most importantly let's not judge our move to D-I based on this one game. A game that we were not ready to play, for whatever reason, IMHO. Let's put this one behind us and not dwell on it and get ready for the rest of our first season in I-AA.

Go State! ;D

[SDSUFAN]

Re: What can we learn from last Saturday?

I think the most obvious thing that Coach Stig and staff, learned from this game was that special teams needs to have a good week of practice.  Maybe we need to modify the wedge blocking on kickoffs and punt returns so that these downfield defenders do not get at Solomon Johnson or anyother receiver.  I think the fact UCD had a very good person who got down field and with each tackle of our receiver  changed the course of the field position.  Add to that a good UCD punter, who kept the ball out of the end zone, but within the twenty yard line.  Lets face it, if UCD has  good  special teams which made the rest of their game much easier.  At least one poster on Any Given Saturday was concerned about UCD' s running game. So they have their concerns too.

I think our staff learned a great deal from the game tapes to give them a ton of stuff to work on this week. I hope we can come back and have a great game against Winona.  I dont think speed differences will be as great, but I think too, for the past four years we have been recruiting for a competitive D2 program and not for D1AA talent.  So this year really puts us behind the 8 ball in terms of talent.

I think UCD always had good talent at the D2 level, plus they played more D1AA teams as part of their schedule.  I sure Coach Bob Biggs had a very good idea of what he needed to do to be competitive at the D1AA level.  Plus they had year 2003 to try out things, that SDSU has probably yet to try.

I have not given up on SDSU based on this one game, but it seems to be a wake up call for the entire SDSU community.  Going D1AA was not a mistake.  One blow out does not affect our seeking of membership in the Big Sky or any other conference.  We just need to keep our chins up and go on.  The season is very young. ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[OK_Jackrabbit]

Re: What can we learn from last Saturday?

I don't know whether Cal-Davis is 52 points better than us, but they were on Saturday. Clearly, our talent-level isn't up to theirs, and building it up will take time.

I can't agree, however, that the relative success we've had in the past against 1AA teams (Montana in 1993 and Northern Arizona in 1985) has any relevance here. The game has sped up in recent years. It is in the past ten years that team speed has become a primary determinant at all levels of football. It's no surprise to me that a team that recruits from California and has a year of 1AA ahead of us is faster and, thus, 52 points better on Saturday. The number of scholarships may have been equal, but it's apparent (for example when their players are catching ours from behind on kickoffs) that there was a significant speed differential. Ask Kirk Ferentz at Iowa how important boosting his team's speed was to the process of turning that program around. I don't care how ready you are to play, if the other team is a half-step faster at every position, you will likely lose.

That doesn't mean we can't be competitive in the future. On the contrary, I do think we have good coaches who can recruit the right kinds of players to compete in 1AA. Give us a few years and we'll be in these games. It might be tough (Georgia Southern for example) in the short-term, but it's worth it in the long run.

[Rabbit_FB_Alum]

Re: What can we learn from last Saturday?

I think we got beat so badly because they wern't in the game mentally. From listening there were alot of mental mistakes made. Footballwise I think we still would have lost, but I think the game would have been closer is those mental mistakes wern't made. I don't think talent wise 1AA is out of our league, but unless we sharpen up mentally things will not improve.

I think this week we will see a verry different Jacks team when they take the field. This week they will be ready to go.

[SDSUFAN]

Re: What can we learn from last Saturday?

I think we got beat so badly because they wern't in the game mentally.  From listening there were alot of mental mistakes made.  Footballwise I think we still would have lost, but I think the game would have been closer is those mental mistakes wern't made.  I don't think talent wise 1AA is out of our league, but unless we sharpen up mentally things will not improve.

I think this week we will see a verry different Jacks team when they take the field.  This week they will be ready to go.

Rabbit FB Alum:

I appreciate your take on whats going on within the team. I think you are very correct in the mental mistakes observation. Football is an interesting game in that momentum once set seems very hard to change.
Its a sixty minute contest with the clock running but many breaks between plays and plenty of time to think, but opening plays can sometimes set the momentum for the entire game. I think that happen to. Unfortuately I shut off the computer at half time and went to bed. I could not sleep so got up later and was some what relieved to find out that UCD had scored only twice in the second half and that SDSU had gotten to the goal line.

So I think some half time adjustments were made and maybe many more will be made during this weeks practice. I dont think the coaching staff is really certain about each players ability until they play a game or two and thats why I am very hopefull that SDSU will bounce back this week. Winona is not a D2 creampuff by any means. So it will be a game.