Looking Ahead

[Roeder]

I am not sugar coating this loss, but Mountain West schools also beat Arizona, Missouri, Florida State, and played USC and Wake Forest close on the road this week. At Nevada should have been a win, but this is not opening up against a cupcake like Howard or Ball State. It will be interesting to see how Minny does at Fresno State next week in a similar situation as Purdue.

It sucks Purdue gave away a game, again, early in the season. But what are they going to take away from this that makes them better at home against Vandy, TCU, and Minny? The season is not over and the offense showed some juice that I'm excited about. Get the Freshman RBs and WRs going, let the o-line continue to gel, get Neal back on Dline, adjust D scheme and rotations, cut down the stupid turnovers, and this team will continue to get better.

 

[Summy1]

Your right, the main thing is that they learn from this game. A lot of young players on this team. Still lots of games to be played.

 

[C'ville Boiler]

Agree. Getting Neal back along with Barnes and Karlaftis on the edges should be fun. Against Nevada we were getting some pressure on QB just not getting sacks. There had to be about at least 10 “almost sacks” where they got to him or had in grasp but he got rid of ball just in time. Like I said before the game, I fully expect the defense to be better than last year in every aspect. They were just gassed. Combination of high altitude and offense inability to stay on field hurt.

 

[Boiler Tough]

I may still be drinking the kool aid, but I honestly believe we will be 3-1 after week 4. I have a good feeling about the Vandy game as we will make big improvements week 1 to week 2. The night game environment against TCU should be electric, and Minny has payback coming for the debacle up there last year.

 

[Inspector100]

My wish for this team is they were better conditioned.

 

[SIBoiler2]

My wish for this team is they were better conditioned.

I don't think it was conditioning. I think it was altitude. You had a team that lives at altitude vs a flatland team that was in town for a couple of days. Not enough time to adjust for athletic competition early in the season. There is a reason most of our Olympians train in Colorado Springs.

 

[Inspector100]

I don't think it was conditioning. I think it was altitude. You had a team that lives at altitude vs a flatland team that was in town for a couple of days. Not enough time to adjust for athletic competition early in the season. There is a reason most of our Olympians train in Colorado Springs.

Yes, you tackle altitude with conditioning. I learned to snow ski at age 48. I noticed the altitude but have always been in way better than average shape, so I was able to cope with it. I will give you this. The sidelines should have had oxygen ready for the players to take a couple sniffs. I have seen that work in the past.

Now I will go one step further. We have lost a ton of games where we had sizable leads and fell apart in the last few minutes. This has been going on since before Hope was coach. I don't think our team is in shape to play a big game against the top tier due to conditioning. Watch those night games in Georgia, Alabama, etc. They not only play in the raw heat with humidity, but they don't die at the end of the game. Our team can't do that.

 

[SIBoiler2]

Yes, you tackle altitude with conditioning. I learned to snow ski at age 48. I noticed the altitude but have always been in way better than average shape, so I was able to cope with it. I will give you this. The sidelines should have had oxygen ready for the players to take a couple sniffs. I have seen that work in the past.

Now I will go one step further. We have lost a ton of games where we had sizable leads and fell apart in the last few minutes. This has been going on since before Hope was coach. I don't think our team is in shape to play a big game against the top tier due to conditioning. Watch those night games in Georgia, Alabama, etc. They not only play in the raw heat with humidity, but they don't die at the end of the game. Our team can't do that.

I agree oxygen should have been on the sideline. As for AL and GA they're deep with 4 and 5 star recruits over several years. We're not there yet so it's play our starters til they drop or plug in less experienced and likely less talented subs and hope for the best. 3 or 4 years of recruiting like last year and this will likely address that talent depth issue.

 

[clbndgm]

My wish for this team is they were better conditioned.

Obviously conditioning is an issue that in this game was exacerbated by altitude.
Add to that the punt foulups requiring the defense to come right back onto the field to basically play two consecutive series when they were already starting to tire in the second half.
Then pushing up an additional level was the fact that starters played like the whole game on the lines due to an apparent lack of confidence in the backups. So the poor defenders never caught a break in the second half.
This was a perfect storm for the team to be "gassed" in the 4th quarter. God willing, and the devil permitting, we will not see such a confluence of factors again this season. With any luck at all we won't see it again in my life time. After that, you guys are on your own!