31 Comments
User's avatar
Rugbear's avatar

Remember, we have an incredibly gifted QB, but he is a freshman. He will only get better. We have solid receivers but not great speed, and only two are tall enough to go up for the 50/50 ball. The next part is scheme, and that means Harsin needs to figure out how to get guys open for short passes when defenses stack the box and press cover. Otherwise it's going to be a long season.

Expand full comment
Justbear's avatar

We have the worst receiver group ever

Expand full comment
Justbear's avatar

Comparable to 2008 when we started the season with Sean Young and Lareylle Cunningham as starters

Expand full comment
Stanfurdstinks's avatar

I disagree. Rugbear has it spot on. The receivers are not bad ... they just are not particularly fast...and we don't have proven depth.

Expand full comment
GoldenSD81's avatar

I saw plenty of drops by the WRs these first 5 games. Especially against SDSU

Expand full comment
mrjpark's avatar

They also can't consistently hold on to balls that hit them in the chest and hands...

Expand full comment
justbearly's avatar

And teach the receivers to catch those short passes.

Expand full comment
Stanfurdstinks's avatar

It's the RBs that have been dropping balls lately.

Expand full comment
justbearly's avatar

That is especially true during the Duke game.

Expand full comment
GoldenSD81's avatar

Our WRs room is probably the least talented group that we have had in 25 years. They don’t scare anyone. They have no speed and drop a lot of balls. It’s a G5 group of WRs

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Wilcox gonna Wilcox.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

I hoped Anae would be more effective.

Expand full comment
Rugbear's avatar

I think Anae has done a good job. You have to realize that everything is interconnected. If receivers don't get open when the QB is trying to deliver a quick pass then he holds the ball longer. If the defense has an all out pressure coming, even with a four man rush, then it's hard as an o-linemen to stop all of them. It's a combo of a lot of things. I will say the quality of our O-Line has gone up from both a size and athleticism standpoint, however they are far from being the most athletic O-Line in football. Duke has an outstanding O-Line. Just remember, its all connected and a weakness in one place creates a ripple effect in others.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Duke was able to generate pressure with a 3-men front though. That is far from ideal.

Expand full comment
Toohandy's avatar

You are right on. When your opponent is bringing more than 4 rushers and doing stunts with those coming, then you have to have an audible system to change plays to short patterns so your QB can get the ball off in less than 3 seconds.

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

They generated pressure with a 2-man front though.

Expand full comment
PCWT's avatar

Yeah i didn’t have a place to put my original post after he got fired so this was the closest article to the timing of his firing… he succeeded at Vandy and Bill O’Brien wasn’t very good at PSU before he got there so I think he’d be a good fit for us…

Expand full comment
PCWT's avatar

Can we hire James Franklin?!

Expand full comment
WilderThanGene's avatar

For a good offense? No thanks

Expand full comment
mrjpark's avatar

His consistency would at least get us to a place where we could try to recruit an offense. Turning down 9-10 wins per season at Cal because of his struggles to win the B10 is asinine.

Expand full comment
WilderThanGene's avatar

Mixed up my responses with you and PCWT.. but same sentiment, re offense. I'm not sure how much his recruiting was PSU vs himself, since their program has long been able to get talent before him, but his offenses have largely sucked either way despite getting top HS QBs.. at this point though I'm not sure what it even takes to win here. We haven't been able to recruit high school since Tedford . It's not unimaginable that we would completely fail here though.

Expand full comment
WilderThanGene's avatar

I'm more responding re: this being a post about the Offense. Also question what he could do here, though I'm sure it would be better than Wilcox.

Expand full comment
PCWT's avatar

how about for 8 - 10 wins a season? better than what we got now

Expand full comment
WilderThanGene's avatar

I'd take that for sure.. if he could do it at Cal

Expand full comment
VermontBear's avatar

All of JKS's sacks and interceptions came after he injured his left leg. On the interceptions, it seemed he couldn't fully weight his left leg. On the sacks, I think he didn't have enough mobility to deal with the OL break downs.

Expand full comment
GoldenHairs's avatar

Can u explain why we get sacked by a 3 man rush regularly

Expand full comment
VermontBear's avatar

Between the OL communicating and holding blocks, against Duke it seemed like, not holding blocks long enough was the main culprit.

Expand full comment
doncal's avatar

Thanks for the work on this. Although a weakness in our passing game this year has been the number of interceptions thrown, now stands at 7. Mendoza had just 6 for the entire season. for the Realize we have a young talented QB. Just now his QB rating is 15th in the ACC. I assume most of that is a result of the picks. He will certainly learn for those mistakes.

https://www.espn.com/college-football/qbr/_/group/1

Expand full comment
Jimmy Chitwood's avatar

Thanks, EWS.

Good stuff.

Expand full comment
diasfordays's avatar

Great charts! Only nitpick is that it would be great to have number of catches/yards on the y axes, as otherwise the magnitude of the data is lost and we only see the relative distributions.

Expand full comment