Clawson Presser--Inverted explosion

So Coach Clawson did his presser today, but if you measured it, you would probably find out that he spent more time talking about Boise than he did about the Falcons. In a certain sense, that is not surprising. After all, this is the highest ranked team to play on our field, and the excitement around the game is palpable.

Before we fall into the same trap, a couple points on Marshall.

First, I had wondered why we didn't even try to run the ball more than we did against Marshall. We had hardly any running attempts. Coach said that two of our TEs were injured (Scheidler and Jenkins) and that our game plan had been to run from the two TE set, and with the TEs out, we had to abandon the straight running game. He did go on to talk about pass plays (like shovel passes and screens) that we consider runs.

Second, Coach mentioned the same three-play sequence that I did, with the missed field goal, 80 yard TD run and fumble all coming on top of each as the place where we lost the game.

Now, on to Boise:

• Boise has won low scoring and high scoring games.
• They are very well coached.
• Defense is their hidden secret
• They have explosive kickoff returns
• Not signing 5-star guys
• They are a complete team--they can pound it and get big plays
• If you have a weakness, they will find it
• Our goal is to be where they are

Now, looking at our team....

He said our players have been jacked up for all 3 games, but with a sellout crowd, they will be fired up.

You worry about who is lining up against you, but the key thing is to make your own game better.

"We're close"

We want to be a consistent program, which means not having up and down seasons and that happens on the practice field

Our Red Zone offense has to get better. We have failed to score in the redzone against Missouri and Marshall and that impacted our game. (My note, this is something that has been a problem for a couple of years and stems from having a team well suited to using the big passing lanes up and down the field but not having recruited the guys you need to move the ball in tight quarters.)

Also, our run defense is not getting better, and d-line play has not been as good since Troy.

He talked about Freddie Barnes quite a bit. He says his success is partly his hard work and partly the system. Our game plans are designed to insure he gets the ball, so if they are inverting and rolling over and whatever the hell that all means, he can get the ball on screen passes or in the wildcat. He's like a FB in that he can dodge backs but also take a tackle and still move forward.

Scheidler did not practice Tuesday. DeMark Jenkins is out for the season.

He said Carlos Tipton has been playing better on the line. Our goal there is to rotate a lot of guys since we do not have the one big star. Also, Keith Morgan played well at safety and our corners have been a pleasant surprise.

Practice yesterday was excellent.

Then someone asked him if he would be "surprised" that there wasn't a sell-out, which is kind of a bizarre question and seemed almost to harken back to the Brandon/Buffalo comments. Still, a sell-out would be a great atmosphere.