SDSU Scouting

WYCAT · Post by **WYCAT** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:43 pm

I read their media guide from the beginning of the season but was wondering if anyone knew anything about them? From what I read, on offense they rely heavily on their quarterback who is pretty big, strong, and likes to run (sound familiar). They lost quite a bit from last years O line too. I didn't get as much out of the guide about their defense other than they returned a solid LB and D Line but lost 4 secondary personnel (also sounds familiar). They also have a decent punter but were looking for a place kicker to start the season (again familiar). From this seasons games they seem to be a little jeckle and hyde like - giving up 52 to UC Davis but playing Cal Poly to a tight 14-7 loss on the road. Any other insight?

CARDIAC_CATS · Post by **CARDIAC_CATS** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:46 pm

WYCAT wrote:I read their media guide from the beginning of the season but was wondering if anyone knew anything about them? From what I read, on offense they rely heavily on their quarterback who is pretty big, strong, and likes to run (sound familiar). They lost quite a bit from last years O line too. I didn't get as much out of the guide about their defense other than they returned a solid LB and D Line but lost 4 secondary personnel (also sounds familiar). They also have a decent punter but were looking for a place kicker to start the season (again familiar). From this seasons games they seem to be a little jeckle and hyde like - giving up 52 to UC Davis but playing Cal Poly to a tight 14-7 loss on the road. Any other insight?

That might make sense then as far as losing their secondary and playing Cal Poly tough. Cal Poly doesn't throw the ball very much/well so I bet they have a decent run defense and a poreous secondary. This game sounds right up our alley if we can keep our spread passing game going. We are now starting to take stabs into the middle of the field with gatewood/wolf/domineck which is making our offense much more balanced. I'm not saying this game is gonna be easy, but I bet we get them with our passing game this weekend.

CelticCat · Post by **CelticCat** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 1:49 pm

Not if Bailey refuses to acknowledge that the running game isn't working. =\

bisonguy · Post by **bisonguy** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:06 pm

My observations from the NDSU/SDSU game:

The SDSU O line weighs close to 300 pounds across the board, and are fairly athletic. They have a backup QB that's more of a running threat than Nelson, but he can also scramble.

They have a good RB, who isn't real fast, but is strong and can make some good moves.

Their punter is pretty good. Against NDSU, they punted four times for an average of 46.5 yards. The kicker is very good, as well. He appeared to be nearly automatic within about 50 yards. Kickoffs were impossible to judge. They pooched every kick to about the 20, with at least one going out of bounds. NDSU was coming off back-to-back games with kickoffs returned for TD's, so they obviously didn't want to take any chances.

Defense- they play a fairly basic 4-3, but probably see a decent amount of passing in practice, with the fairly balanced pass/run offense.

SDSU is solid on fundamentals, but their Achilles' heel has been road games historically. In the past, they're a completely different team at home, but also a good opponent on the road.

catatac · Post by **catatac** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:07 pm

CelticCat wrote:Not if Bailey refuses to acknowledge that the running game isn't working. =\

C'mon Celtic - I admit it doesn't seem necessary to me to do so many of the up-the-gut plays but obviously Bailey knows loads more than any of us armchair guys in terms of setting up the play-action, etc. Obviously the overall scheme worked - 479 yards against the best D in the Big Sky??? That's with an anemic 1st half and some crappy execution also. I'll take it. I'm still thinking some of those up-the-gutters are stalling due to poor execution from the line. My 1.5 cents.

WYCAT · Post by **WYCAT** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:10 pm

Thanks Bisonguy. That is what I was looking for. Hopefully a Cal Poly fan will chime in too. Thanks again.

CelticCat · Post by **CelticCat** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:21 pm

It doesn't matter if the defense is stuffing it, or simply our OL isn't blocking correctly. If it isn't working, it isn't working. There are plenty of ways to get it working again, but one of them is not running the same play twice in a row.

Jacks99 · Post by **Jacks99** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:28 pm

The Cats will have their "paws" full all game with the Jacks. There are no major weaknesses to exploit and they will force MSU to play their top game.

No upset this week, Jacks win 31- 21

Cat-theotherwhitemeat · Post by **Cat-theotherwhitemeat** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:36 pm

Jacks99 wrote:The Cats will have their "paws" full all game with the Jacks. There are no major weaknesses to exploit and they will force MSU to play their top game.

No upset this week, Jacks win 31- 21

The Cats beating the Jacks would be an upset???

BelgradeBobcat · Post by **BelgradeBobcat** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:37 pm

I have never seen SDSU-and have just gleened a little here and there off the internet.

My perception is based on following their old D-2 league, the NCC.

I think the old NCC could be labeled the Big 10 of D-2. The NCC teams always seem to have huge offensive lines, and bigger d-lines than the Big Sky as well. When I say huge-every o-lineman will be 290-300+ pounds. On the other hand, they probably won't possess quite the speed we see in the Big Sky.

I'm guessing they'll be fundamentally sound, won't turn the ball over, and play for field postion.

I would expect them to be a little like Northern Colorado last year, who came out of that same league (except of course they don't have Vincent Jackson!). Remember UNC came to Bozeman and beat us (another one our stellar early season offensive disasters). I might also compare them to Weber State except they won't make as many mistakes, or a Portland State, though maybe not quite as athletic. They play on grass in South Dakota-our California laden roster may be effected more by our weather than the Jackrabbits will be.

I'm very worried about this one. They're coming off a bye week, we're going to be a little bruised after that PSU game, they've got a lot to prove to their fans, media, boosters that they belong in 1-AA, they want to prove they belong in the Big Sky, they're not playoff eligible so they'll hang their hat on games like this. MSU on the other hand may be set for a let down beings this is a non-conference game against an opponent they probably don't know too much about.

Jacks99 · Post by **Jacks99** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:41 pm

Depends on the poll. Both are ranked very close.

CelticCat · Post by **CelticCat** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:42 pm

Nobody but CSU has scored more than 30 against us. We held the #3 passing team in the country to 13 points. PSU came close with 24, but only because they had massive protection for their QB. We are allowing 20 points a game this year. And our offense is starting to finally find some rhythm. We put up 471 total yards against the Big Sky's top rated defense last week. No, I don't think you will be able to pull an upset this weekend, especially with how you suffer on the road.

Cats 24 Jacks 14

velochat · Post by **velochat** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 3:53 pm

http://www.brookingsregister.com/main.p ... 40&page=25

The Cats should win, but only if they're down by two scores going into the 4th quarter.

wbtfg · Post by **wbtfg** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:04 pm

How do you all think that we are going to gameplan this one?

Are we going to sit out some starters that are a little banged up that would normally play a conference game?

Do we open it up a little with a lot of trick plays...similar to what we did against sac last year?

Do we approach it the same way we would approach NAU or EWU?

It will be interesting to see what we do since this isn't a conference game.

That said, I would not like to see a loss this weekend, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.....I am more concerned with staying healthy.

CARDIAC_CATS · Post by **CARDIAC_CATS** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:24 pm

wbtfg wrote:How do you all think that we are going to gameplan this one?

Are we going to sit out some starters that are a little banged up that would normally play a conference game?

Do we open it up a little with a lot of trick plays...similar to what we did against sac last year?

Do we approach it the same way we would approach NAU or EWU?

It will be interesting to see what we do since this isn't a conference game.

That said, I would not like to see a loss this weekend, but it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.....I am more concerned with staying healthy.

I think we are going to use our speed to our advanate both on offense and defense. Our OL/DL is undersized but very quick. I think we will go the Man to Man again on the outside and keep the safety up to stop their running game. WE WILL MAKE SDSU one dimensional this week and then pin our ears back for the pass. I think the PSU game was a good game to play as their DL was HUGE and I dont' think SDSU's will be any more stout than that front 4 PSU had.

Our offense will come out and use the full field for once, look for short underneath stuff that makes SDSU come up and make the tacklet. I think SDSU misses some of those tackles this week and we get a couple big plays off of it. Domineck will have another 6-8 receptions on short screens up the side and middle. I also bet we see a few reverses/fake reverses to get our guys up to speed and throttling downfield.

Once again, though .. if SDSU is big on the line, this game will be 1) close early on or 2) Cats down again and they use their strength/conditioning to win another close one down to the end. I really think we start out slow because our OL/DL are a bit undersized and when both teams are fresh, we dont' block/rush the passer as well until the big line wears down some.

BelgradeBobcat · Post by **BelgradeBobcat** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:32 pm

Once again, I'm comparing them to Northern Colorado last year-don't know if that is accurate or not. UNC was the surest tackling team I had ever seen. There were no yards after contact and it was very frustrating. I predict that the Jackrabbits will have good technique and not be out of position.

Our drives will have to be methodical. Our offense will have to be patient, and we MUST score when we get in the red zone.

I agree, we might separate from them after their big guys start to wear down.

bisonguy · Post by **bisonguy** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:50 pm

A couple of things I forgot in my previous post-

Nelson, SDSU's QB, is very sound. He makes great reads and goes through his progressions very well. When passing, the ball pretty much always goes to the most open receiver (I know- that's who he should get the ball to, but very few QB's do it with Nelson's consistency). He's getting looks from NFL scouts (more than likely not drafted, but probably a FA contract).

SDSU's secondary may or may not be suspect to the deep ball. NDSU tried to dink and dunk, but didn't throw deep very often (as in not really at all).

If the MSU players think that SDSU will be slow, they'll be in for a long day. I remember another team last year(well, at least their fans) from Montana that said a Dakota school had a big, fat, slow O line. They ended up getting shoved around the field in the second half and losing.

Honestly, this should be a very good game. From what I know, both teams have been a little Jeckyll and Hydish, so it will come down to which identity of each team shows up.

suckitgriz · Post by **suckitgriz** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:52 pm

I think that we need to open up the flood gates and play everyone. We need to try some new things and really try to take advantage of a nonconference game during the middle of the season. We definately want to win this game if we want any chance of hosting a 1st round playoff game.

jack100 · Post by **jack100** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 4:52 pm

Jacks99 wrote:Depends on the poll. Both are ranked very close.

SDSU is definately the underdog for this game - especially at Bozeman. I like SDSU's chances because they are not supposed to win and MSU will be overconfident playing a first year provisional 1-AA team. SDSU wins the game as they catch MSU looking past the Jacks.

Post by **kmax** » Mon Oct 18, 2004 5:02 pm

jack100- first off welcome aboard. This should be a great game and I look forward to seeing what SDSU offers. However I really think any thoughts of the Cats going down due to being overconfident should just be put down now. We got hit with that last year against UNC, between that reminder likely being driven home by the coaches this week and the fact that the Cats haven't exactly been blowing anyone out should keep them from getting even a little overconfident. It will likely be a close game, but I don't think the Cats are overlooking SDSU in the slightest.

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