Returning BSC All-Conf

CelticCat · Post by **CelticCat** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:33 pm

Did I mention Lulay finished second in the nation in total offense?

El_Gato · Post by **El_Gato** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:36 pm

I've said it before & I'll say 'er again:

The greatest quarterback in Bobcat history. Thank you Lord, for letting us watch him for 18* more games...

* I added 3 spring games only because I know some griz arsehole like jag or bearbac would do the same. You can figure out the other 15... heheh

catatac · Post by **catatac** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 2:50 pm

CelticCat wrote:Did I mention Lulay finished second in the nation in total offense?

Awesome!!! Didn't know that but it doesn't surprise me. There was a thread over on www.anygivensaturday.com about teams bieng missed in the playoffs and some Eastern Washington fan stated that MSU was the team he most missed because he though the rest of the nation needed to see how good Travis Lulay was\is. It was cool.

P.S. Agree with everything you said about the D. It was a very solid D until the Sac. meltdown. And that was considering a majorly depleted secondary from the get-go. I have a feeling we'll have a very tough D next year.

grizhatr · Post by **grizhatr** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:24 pm

Keep in mind also, that I think our boys in the football jersey's need to take notes on the Griz in their most recent accomplishments. As everyone remembers, their D stunk at the beginning of the year, with several close games. I remember reading specific threads about the linebackers learning how to tackle, etc. My whole point in mentioning this is our defense is better than the Griz in my eyes. Its just the person doing the pushing (Linder's) really didn't get the point across when it came down to the last three games. We all know the talent was there, and yet, how could we have fell so hard, so fast? I hope they really consider what our rivals to west are doing, and learn how to put the "fight" back into the undaunted defense that we are so used to seeing in Bozeman. I would bet that Kramer is on his mission, and will not let anything go untouched in search for the perfect fit for the Cats!

El_Gato · Post by **El_Gato** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 4:45 pm

I STILL believe the biggest reason for the D's collapse late was the injuries at corner.

Think about it, if you "leave them on an island", they simply weren't able to man-up against the best receivers on the other team. I hope Cory Austin turns out to be an All-Conference performer by the end of his career but this season, I think he got beat for about 8 TD's in the final 3 games. That's tough to overcome.

If you give him help with your safeties, you're just daring the other team to ram it down your throat with the run and both Sac & the Griz did that.

IMO, the only possible way to save our D once we lost our top corners was to generate a GREAT pass-rush. Unfortunately, for a lot of different reasons, we never really got a good push on the QB the final 3 games.

Give a QB time with Ioane & Thomas in the backfield & you STILL are going to give up some yards; but give him time with the youth we had starting late this season and... well, we all know how THAT turned out.

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Mon Dec 06, 2004 7:52 pm

No doubt....the corners were a big problem. The erratic kicking was a problem all year. The O-Line took a while to gel. Receivers dropping passes was a problem early.

There is a lot of room for improvement between this year and next. However, it seems like it will be easier to fix this off-season than in off-season's past.

There are something like 12 All-Big Sky players on this team. 13 if you count Lulay twice for his punting. That's 13 out of 26 positions, including special teams and the new adds they had this year....something like spcl. teams stud.

That's a good base, better than any I can recall. If Kramer can do this year in the off-season, what he did last year, then MSU should have a much better team.

Of course, you can't account for injuries right now. Who knows what will happen. Without injuries to Hunter, Smith, Hirst and Dorowski MSU might very well be waiting on Sam Houston this Saturday. Then again, injuries to those same four will have MSU home for the holidays.

What can be accounted for is game attendance. Fans CAN buy tickets and make an effort to attend games. The stadium should be sold out for every home game. UM has an incredible fan base and it is the one constant in that program's successful run of the last two decades.

UM has gone through Read, Dennehy, Glenn and now Hauck and with each different personality and system, UM has been highly successful. So you have to give credit to them.

BobcatBlood · Post by **BobcatBlood** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 1:18 pm

Finally had a chance to watch The Line (at least the first 10 episodes) this weekend, and after 3 days the burning desire to personally eviscerate Coach OB has not waned one bit. I hold him personally responsible for the decline of the defense this year - not because he was the best coach on the planet and personally responsible for making this team a family and teaching these kids to find something deep inside that pushes you to do something you didn't think you could... but because he let down each and every one of the returners on this team in the most devastating possible way. He was none of what he sold, he was and is a complete fraud. I credit Montoya and Ioane and Cordeiro and ALL the other players tremendously for getting through last year; but think about being 20 years old, after an emotional roller coaster season like last year was, and then facing an off season where you find out that up until the facts simply couldn't be over shadowed by the lies, OB was pulling the wool over your eyes. "I'm innocent, you need to believe in me. I was framed. Oh, wait, I wasn't - I've been selling dope to your friends and taking it too." Thats a hell of a lot to absorb. Then practice starts again and they're supposed to poor themselves into someone else's philosophy???? I don't care who took over the job. These kids were betrayed. Pure and simple. Trusting anyone that way again has to be tough.
This past season the D gave everything they had to each other, to the staff, to us fans - but that's not easy after having your heart ripped out. I hope OB spends his days thinking about how much he hurt this program. Because nothing he did to help build it up comes close to matching how he tore it apart - and not just "it", but these players.

Helcat72 · Post by **Helcat72** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 1:54 pm

I believe it all started with the corners. They weren't as good as Joey and Jay. They could not sustain cover as long down field. When that happened the emphasis went to the D-line who were engaged with their O-linemen too long to put any pressure on the QB (perhaps Linder's technique).

To get pressure we needed to blitz so linebackers were not supporting run. Our defense historically tried to funnel everything to the safeties, but as the year went on they had to help the CB's and when you need to blitz to put pressure on the QB, and the safeties are providing cover over the top there is a gaping hole in the middle or wherever the LB's came from. The result is what Ryan Mole did to us. The safeties were kept in to support the run more in the friz game and the CB's (at least Austin) was toast!

In NAU we stopped Roger Robinson because Murietta did not have the patience to hit the open man. I believe he was overrated last year with all American receivers. We could let the CB's go one on one and got away with it. After that I believe teams started scheming us to force the safeties to help.

BozoneCat · Post by **BozoneCat** » Tue Dec 07, 2004 4:08 pm

BobcatBlood wrote:Finally had a chance to watch The Line (at least the first 10 episodes) this weekend, and after 3 days the burning desire to personally eviscerate Coach OB has not waned one bit. I hold him personally responsible for the decline of the defense this year - not because he was the best coach on the planet and personally responsible for making this team a family and teaching these kids to find something deep inside that pushes you to do something you didn't think you could... but because he let down each and every one of the returners on this team in the most devastating possible way. He was none of what he sold, he was and is a complete fraud. I credit Montoya and Ioane and Cordeiro and ALL the other players tremendously for getting through last year; but think about being 20 years old, after an emotional roller coaster season like last year was, and then facing an off season where you find out that up until the facts simply couldn't be over shadowed by the lies, OB was pulling the wool over your eyes. "I'm innocent, you need to believe in me. I was framed. Oh, wait, I wasn't - I've been selling dope to your friends and taking it too." Thats a hell of a lot to absorb. Then practice starts again and they're supposed to poor themselves into someone else's philosophy???? I don't care who took over the job. These kids were betrayed. Pure and simple. Trusting anyone that way again has to be tough.
This past season the D gave everything they had to each other, to the staff, to us fans - but that's not easy after having your heart ripped out. I hope OB spends his days thinking about how much he hurt this program. Because nothing he did to help build it up comes close to matching how he tore it apart - and not just "it", but these players.

Great post, and very well said. I hope his boyfriend in jail is hung like an elephant.