After the loss to Humboldt, the coaching staff met for almost an hour after the game. Personally, I'm looking really hard in the mirror trying to figure out what it is that I'm doing wrong. I always look at myself first before moving onto the situation at hand. It was a very frustrating and emotional meeting. I won't disclose too much about some of the things that occurred in the meeting, but I am glad that things got resolved and worked themselves out.
Looking onto Azusa, we changed our whole game strategy and planned this game differently. Personal changes were made and took a step back from running a high tempo offense. We just didn't have the correct personal in to execute what we wanted and after losing our starting right guard and running back, we needed to make some changes. The first change we made was at the quarterback position. We went with Ben Longshore. He gave us the passing game that we struggled to put together in the past 3 games. Although Ben didn't give us the versatility in the run game, he brought a different dynamic in the pass. He was the most accurate of the quarterbacks and gave us exactly what we needed in the pass game. By going with Ben we had to slow things down. We huddled up instead of running no huddle giving us a chance to break down the defensive front and allowing our young offensive line to adjust to the game. We also had new two new guards in so trying to find a rhythm and unity among the front five was going to be the task at hand. This would also help slow down the game and give our defense the rest they needed.
We had a strong game plan and it showed in our first drive. We went down the field and scored on our first drive. Going against one of the top offenses in the nation because of their run game, we knew we needed to match them drive for drive. If they scored on drive, we had to answer and score as well. We kept up the pace and tempo through the first half matching them drive for drive and scoring on all three of our drives. The score was 21 to 20 going into half time. We missed a crucial extra point on the third touchdown but the momentum was ours. We did everything we could as a couching staff to keep the guys energy levels high and try and sustain what we built in the first half. But things took a dive for worst.
It was our ball at half time and we knew we needed to score coming out to keep the momentum going. But the thing that kept us from winning so far this year came out to bite us again and halt us from scoring on our first drive, ourselves. Turnovers, missed opportunities and key penalties halted our momentum and kept us scoreless after a field goal in the third quarter. We lost a game again that we should have won. The final score of the game would be 42 to 23. Back to the drawing board.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Hunboldt State
Tough loss again. 50 to 3 speaks for itself. Losing our starting right guard and center added to the pain a grief of the beat down Humboldt put on us. I know I was suppose to update the blog after the game, but having to reflect on why we lost I believe is the better way to go. If I was to update right after the game I think there would be a lot of anger and frustration that would be said and words that I could not take back.
The game plan for the week was good. A lot of time and energy was put into it. Humboldt had just come off the biggest win of their season, knocking off Azusa Pacific who just beat Grand Valley, the number two team in the country. If we needed a win it needed to be against these guys to get our season rolling. That wasn't the case.
The struggles with the offensive line have been a lack of consistency, and I'll take a majority of that blame. Although I am not the head offensive line coach, I know I needed to do a better job at putting them into a better position than I have. I won't rant on to much about that issue but I believe that that issue will work itself out.
When you lose, there isn't much to say about the loss except, things need to cleaned up on both sides of the ball. On the offensive side, the run game needs to be established. Not having a solid run game makes you one dimensional and being a one dimensional offense gets you no where. This was best front seven that we have seen so far and would be for the rest of the season. So it was a task I believed our guys could have accomplished, but I don't know if they fully believed in themselves and their play that night showed it. My faith alone in the guys wasn't going to be good enough to get the job done. They needed to believe that they could over come the obstacles ahead and pull out a victory. Coming out at half time would be a different story and the game just got away from us.
I had some unkind words with offensive line that night and they came out at a bad time. The crowd was quiet and I was right in front of families and the administration and they one professor did not like my choice of words that night. I had to write a letter of apology for my conduct and had to pay a visit to administration and apologize for my actions. I get it though, I am in Southern Utah and while the same kind of profane language that is used outside of this state in on the football field is normal, it is not the norm here.
The game plan for the week was good. A lot of time and energy was put into it. Humboldt had just come off the biggest win of their season, knocking off Azusa Pacific who just beat Grand Valley, the number two team in the country. If we needed a win it needed to be against these guys to get our season rolling. That wasn't the case.
The struggles with the offensive line have been a lack of consistency, and I'll take a majority of that blame. Although I am not the head offensive line coach, I know I needed to do a better job at putting them into a better position than I have. I won't rant on to much about that issue but I believe that that issue will work itself out.
When you lose, there isn't much to say about the loss except, things need to cleaned up on both sides of the ball. On the offensive side, the run game needs to be established. Not having a solid run game makes you one dimensional and being a one dimensional offense gets you no where. This was best front seven that we have seen so far and would be for the rest of the season. So it was a task I believed our guys could have accomplished, but I don't know if they fully believed in themselves and their play that night showed it. My faith alone in the guys wasn't going to be good enough to get the job done. They needed to believe that they could over come the obstacles ahead and pull out a victory. Coming out at half time would be a different story and the game just got away from us.
I had some unkind words with offensive line that night and they came out at a bad time. The crowd was quiet and I was right in front of families and the administration and they one professor did not like my choice of words that night. I had to write a letter of apology for my conduct and had to pay a visit to administration and apologize for my actions. I get it though, I am in Southern Utah and while the same kind of profane language that is used outside of this state in on the football field is normal, it is not the norm here.
Monday, October 20, 2014
Central Washington
Going into the second week of the season, the loss to Colorado Mesa was heart breaking loss. Knowing that we lined up physically on both sides of the ball and beat them physically is what hurt the most about the loss.
On Sunday afternoon we met as a staff to break down the film and give the guys their grades and then move on. After a tough loss, you can't dwell on it or it will affect your preparation and mind set for the next game. Being a new to coaching, I didn't take the loss to well and it definitely hinder my preparations for Central Washington and might have affected the way the offensive line played. I felt that the offensive line had a great week of practice and we did everything we could as a coaching staff to prepare them for Central. That wasn't the case in the first quarter of the game.
We started out flat and dead. Both sides of the ball were sluggish and unresponsive to the pounding that Central was giving us. Now it could have been the 16 hour bus ride up there, but we could not do anything on the offensive side of the ball. The offensive line looked like a deer in head lights from the start of the game to the end. My anger level was on the high the whole game because we were not performing at the level I knew we could perform at. Maybe I set the level of expectation high for my guys, but that's how I've always been coached and I don't know any other way. We couldn't establish a running game and that killed the momentum of the drives fast. It was also putting our defense into a predicament because they were constantly on the field because of the three and outs.
We went into half time only down 28 to seven which was still a game we could have come back from. Being a young team and only having one returning senior on the offensive line, it was hard to get the guys to rally and come back. Adversity had set in my yelling and cussing at the guys probably didn't help bring their spirits up.
We lost the game 14 to 48. It was a long a bus ride back to St. George. Long enough time that I started to question myself. After losing two straight I had to look at myself first before looking at my guys. Questions set in and trying to figure out a different approach to see if there was something I could do to boost the morale of the guys.
On Sunday afternoon we met as a staff to break down the film and give the guys their grades and then move on. After a tough loss, you can't dwell on it or it will affect your preparation and mind set for the next game. Being a new to coaching, I didn't take the loss to well and it definitely hinder my preparations for Central Washington and might have affected the way the offensive line played. I felt that the offensive line had a great week of practice and we did everything we could as a coaching staff to prepare them for Central. That wasn't the case in the first quarter of the game.
We started out flat and dead. Both sides of the ball were sluggish and unresponsive to the pounding that Central was giving us. Now it could have been the 16 hour bus ride up there, but we could not do anything on the offensive side of the ball. The offensive line looked like a deer in head lights from the start of the game to the end. My anger level was on the high the whole game because we were not performing at the level I knew we could perform at. Maybe I set the level of expectation high for my guys, but that's how I've always been coached and I don't know any other way. We couldn't establish a running game and that killed the momentum of the drives fast. It was also putting our defense into a predicament because they were constantly on the field because of the three and outs.
We went into half time only down 28 to seven which was still a game we could have come back from. Being a young team and only having one returning senior on the offensive line, it was hard to get the guys to rally and come back. Adversity had set in my yelling and cussing at the guys probably didn't help bring their spirits up.
We lost the game 14 to 48. It was a long a bus ride back to St. George. Long enough time that I started to question myself. After losing two straight I had to look at myself first before looking at my guys. Questions set in and trying to figure out a different approach to see if there was something I could do to boost the morale of the guys.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Colorado Mesa
I am a few weeks behind and haven't had the chance to post about the last four games we played, but it has definitely been a rough four weeks. Losing all four games has felt like a roller coaster. Week one was a tough loss because of the way we played. We beat Colorado Mesa in every aspect of the game except for were it really counted, turnovers. Losing the turn over battle never ends well for team in the negative, and we were in the negative. You cannot win a game when with five turnovers.
There was a lot of positives from the game that we were able to build off of. Our offense had over 600 total yards. The offensive line and running backs rushed for over 200 yards and our quarter back helped the rushing game with 100 yards as well. Our over all performance was good, but not good enough because we came up short and lost a game that we should have won.
There was a lot of positives from the game that we were able to build off of. Our offense had over 600 total yards. The offensive line and running backs rushed for over 200 yards and our quarter back helped the rushing game with 100 yards as well. Our over all performance was good, but not good enough because we came up short and lost a game that we should have won.
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