Monday, September 05, 2022

Loeffler Presser and Depth Chart

So, Coach Loeffler had his Monday presser today.  You can watch on line, here was what I heard that was interesting....

Naturally, most of the interest is in the terrible performance of our offense on Saturday.  Coach said that the offense had regressed to how it had played last year, which is, of course, "majorly disappointing," in his words.  He said all through camp it only felt that way,once and it was at the season ticket holder event, which some of you have reported to me.  He said numerous times that "UCLA didn't stop us, we stopped us."

Anyway, he cast blame up and down the offensive lineup.  He noted the QB--with his usual "good plays and bad plays" line, but calling out the Gazarek pass especially.  He also noted the line and the WRs and TEs, specifically, including with guys running the wrong depth on multiple routes, including a shallow cross where the TE/WR was actually behind the line of scrimmage.

Me here: This is indeed disappointing.  You just don't expect to come out in your first game of the promised year four in the rebuild and make those kinds of basic execution mistakes.  It casts doubt on how much rebuilding has actually happened.  We will find out more soon, because we will need to play much better to beat EKU and if we don't beat EKU, we will have a new coach next season.  And rightly so.

I hope that doesn't happen.  But it needs to happen on the field and that wasn't it.  

Loeffler recognizes that the defense is good enough to compete, if the offense gives them half a chance.  That was not what happened.  He says he "challenged them [the offense], to say the least."

Someone asked him if he was looking at giving another QB a chance.  He indicated no...the problem being that I don't know that he has the depth to give him an option.  This is like the Schilz situation, except we don't have Matt Johnson.

He went into further detail on the Robinson waiver.  He said that there was a transcript error that was not caught by BG or the previous school.  So a class he passed was not counted.  Loeffler was sure the waiver would be approved on Thursday or Friday but it did not (the NCAA does not have a great track record in this regard).  He is hoping it comes through tomorrow.

This is a big loss...and between him and Stewart and Osborne, things have not gotten easier.  That's not going to save him.  Competitive teams overcome.

More on EKU coming up this week.  This is a good team with 13 FBS transfers. It is not an automatic win but it is one we can't afford to lose.

Nothing new on the depth chart.  Usually isn't and it's generally less meaningful than it used to be.  Defensive players roll in and out constantly, as do WRs and RBs.  The only stable ones are OL and QB.  Robinson is still listed at C with Kabir as back up...just like last week, though Zimmerly got the start at C.

7 comments :

Paul said...

Loeffler's excuse-making and glossing over of McDonald's horrific play is past old. To me, it is getting very close to a ticket out of town.

Anonymous said...

If he doesn't get 5 wins by November, bring in either quarterback Gunther or Bainbridge to prepare for next year. MacDonald is so shell shock, he can't stay stable or make good decisions.

Orange said...

My guess is that we are thinking out next QB will be in the portal.

Anonymous said...

I think the best thing Coach Loeffler has done is bringing in Eric Lewis and making him DC. The D tackles as good as I’ve ever seen them since Meyer and there appears to be good adjustments at halftime on D while the O rarely looks better in the second half. Must win game Saturday and then at least four MAC wins.

Anonymous said...

He can't destroy the kid's confidence, but he's clearly not a D1 player. The receivers and play calling (for the most part) do him no favors. Always short of the sticks.

Anonymous said...

I made this comment about DC hire…it did not age well.

EarleJuice said...

It still might be an aberration. We have to see how the full season plays out.