My legitimate concern: Miami exposed a huge weakness on our defense

[T-Dog]

The defense is slow to get down because coaches are trying to steal signals from the other sideline.

[bcoach]

We were not prepared mentally last week as I rewatch the game, so many mental breakdowns in coverage and drops. This may sound negative but it is actually encouraging as we can mentally prepare better rather than worry if we have the talent to perform. Let's get back on track this week.

I don't see it as negative it is just a fact. We just looked overwhelmed. I think we suffered from the hype. Like you say we have the talent. We need some tweaks but talent didn't result in such a wide margin in score, nerves did.

[bigdaddyg]

Things that didn't help:

Biggest home game ever
Way too much hype- tons of interviews, ESPN, etc
Way too much talk about the game, even before ODU..Hell even before UT. Humongous circle around this game
All the talk that WE are at the level of a team like the U.
Pep Rally (not against it but it fueled the hype train)
Greatly underestimating what is obviously a good team.

[The Rock]

We intentionally slowed down the tempo for the Tennessee and Miami games to shorten the game. That was really our only chance. Almost worked with the UT game. I think as we get into conference play we will see a more up tempo offense.
Daniel David was a mobile qb, but transferred last season. While Taylor is not a true dual threat qb, he has the ability to run when necessary, like on the final drive of the bowl game last year.
I feel like the dual qb was a bit of a trend, that may not last. It was successful because it was something new, but once there was enough tape to have a game plan, it's not quite as effective as it once was. See RGIII and Colin kapernick.
I think at all times, we are going to recruit the best athletes we can get and design an offense and call plays that is most effective for that current team's skills.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

Things that didn't help:

Biggest home game ever
Way too much hype- tons of interviews, ESPN, etc
Way too much talk about the game, even before ODU..Hell even before UT. Humongous circle around this game
All the talk that WE are at the level of a team like the U.
Pep Rally (not against it but it fueled the hype train)
Greatly underestimating what is obviously a good team.

All very good and true points. Many on this board sincerely thought we had a chance. I wasn't one, and as painful as it was for me to predict us to lose, I considered all of these factors with my prediction. It is damn near impossible for something of this magnitude to not be hyped up. Just like it is hard for the players not to give in to the hype. Hopefully the team carries a chip on their shoulder, and does not let this win hold them down. Akron is not a bad team. Time to leave the past in the past, and move on with the future. Still a chance to go 10-2.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

We intentionally slowed down the tempo for the Tennessee and Miami games to shorten the game. That was really our only chance. Almost worked with the UT game. I think as we get into conference play we will see a more up tempo offense.
Daniel David was a mobile qb, but transferred last season. While Taylor is not a true dual threat qb, he has the ability to run when necessary, like on the final drive of the bowl game last year.
I feel like the dual qb was a bit of a trend, that may not last. It was successful because it was something new, but once there was enough tape to have a game plan, it's not quite as effective as it once was. See RGIII and Colin kapernick.
I think at all times, we are going to recruit the best athletes we can get and design an offense and call plays that is most effective for that current team's skills.

I don't think Dual QBs were a trend.

Lamar Jackson
Jalen Hurts
JT Barrett

[bigdaddyg]

Things that didn't help:

Biggest home game ever
Way too much hype- tons of interviews, ESPN, etc
Way too much talk about the game, even before ODU..Hell even before UT. Humongous circle around this game
All the talk that WE are at the level of a team like the U.
Pep Rally (not against it but it fueled the hype train)
Greatly underestimating what is obviously a good team.

All very good and true points. Many on this board sincerely thought we had a chance. I wasn't one, and as painful as it was for me to predict us to lose, I considered all of these factors with my prediction. It is damn near impossible for something of this magnitude to not be hyped up. Just like it is hard for the players not to give in to the hype. Hopefully the team carries a chip on their shoulder, and does not let this win hold them down. Akron is not a bad team. Time to leave the past in the past, and move on with the future. Still a chance to go 10-2.

Yep agree. Just one more thought. All that being said you have to wonder. Did South Alabama do all of this prior to NC State coming there? Same with ODU? I realize the differences in the programs but still. Same goes for our other peers. To me we know we truly belong and know we truly can compete when we reach the point where hardly any of those points are a factor. It will be interesting to see how we approach the Wake game and then Penn State in a couple of years. The games to circle need to be Stink and whoever else might challenge us for the SB championship.

[hapapp]

Let's face it, the UT performance led to much of this hype. If we had been blown out at UT, I don't think the national media would have focused so much on this game. Secondly, I'm not sure NC State was ranked when they went to USA, so there wasn't going to be the same level of hype. I think the hype was unavoidable and in the end we didn't lose because of the hype. I don't think we did anything we shouldn't have done in the lead up to the game.

[App91]

Let's face it, the UT performance led to much of this hype. If we had been blown out at UT, I don't think the national media would have focused so much on this game. Secondly, I'm not sure NC State was ranked when they went to USA, so there wasn't going to be the same level of hype. I think the hype was unavoidable and in the end we didn't lose because of the hype. I don't think we did anything we shouldn't have done in the lead up to the game.

Yeah we did, Don't talk trash! All those who did now look like asses

[hapapp]

Let's face it, the UT performance led to much of this hype. If we had been blown out at UT, I don't think the national media would have focused so much on this game. Secondly, I'm not sure NC State was ranked when they went to USA, so there wasn't going to be the same level of hype. I think the hype was unavoidable and in the end we didn't lose because of the hype. I don't think we did anything we shouldn't have done in the lead up to the game.

Yeah we did, Don't talk trash! All those who did now look like asses

I'm talking from the standpoint of what the athletic department did to promote the game and atmosphere. No doubt, we had fans who thought we would roll Miami and went to social media and blogs to state such.

[Yosef10]

If any of you guys are members over at AppStateMania I would go check out ASM's comments on App being so-called "out coached" by UM. Just ain't so. For those who aren't a member I'll try to reiterate what he said, and he sees things a lot closer up than 99% on here, and that definitely includes myself. There's a lot of bluff coverages we ran/run, like the 60 yd TD they scored on 3rd & 10. Woody showed them a look with the thought in mind that Kaaya would check to a Go route on the outside. Low and behold that's exactly what happened, Alex Gray simply held the bluff for too long and didn't have time to recover which is why you saw no safety help on that TD. You guys honestly think we couldn't "adjust" to a simple screen pass? Not the case. On defense we try to dictate what the opposing offense does, not take reactive measures which is exactly what offenses what. Allowing screen after screen was simply baiting them into what we wanted them to do. Just simply couldn't execute from there. That's where having the better talent comes into play. Our gameplan and coaching is just fine, execution needs a bit of work.

[WVAPPeer]

Idiots disguised as fans have never cost us a game by what they write on message boards ---

[Longrifle28]

If any of you guys are members over at AppStateMania I would go check out ASM's comments on App being so-called "out coached" by UM. Just ain't so. For those who aren't a member I'll try to reiterate what he said, and he sees things a lot closer up than 99% on here, and that definitely includes myself. There's a lot of bluff coverages we ran/run, like the 60 yd TD they scored on 3rd & 10. Woody showed them a look with the thought in mind that Kaaya would check to a Go route on the outside. Low and behold that's exactly what happened, Alex Gray simply held the bluff for too long and didn't have time to recover which is why you saw no safety help on that TD. You guys honestly think we couldn't "adjust" to a simple screen pass? Not the case. On defense we try to dictate what the opposing offense does, not take reactive measures which is exactly what offenses what. Allowing screen after screen was simply baiting them into what we wanted them to do. Just simply couldn't execute from there. That's where having the better talent comes into play. Our gameplan and coaching is just fine, execution needs a bit of work.

Was our game plan for our defense to be looking at the sideline when they snapped the ball??? If it was then we did a pretty good job;)

I agree that our execution lacked the desired outcome. Miami's execution didn't...

[EastHallApp]

We intentionally slowed down the tempo for the Tennessee and Miami games to shorten the game. That was really our only chance. Almost worked with the UT game. I think as we get into conference play we will see a more up tempo offense.
Daniel David was a mobile qb, but transferred last season. While Taylor is not a true dual threat qb, he has the ability to run when necessary, like on the final drive of the bowl game last year.
I feel like the dual qb was a bit of a trend, that may not last. It was successful because it was something new, but once there was enough tape to have a game plan, it's not quite as effective as it once was. See RGIII and Colin kapernick.
I think at all times, we are going to recruit the best athletes we can get and design an offense and call plays that is most effective for that current team's skills.

I don't think Dual QBs were a trend.

Lamar Jackson
Jalen Hurts
JT Barrett

Yeah that's a strange post. DTs are all over college football. Deshaun Watson's a decent player too. Can't compare the NFL to college, and even if you did, the Panthers have a dual-threat QB who I hear they think is pretty good.

[App91]

Let's face it, the UT performance led to much of this hype. If we had been blown out at UT, I don't think the national media would have focused so much on this game. Secondly, I'm not sure NC State was ranked when they went to USA, so there wasn't going to be the same level of hype. I think the hype was unavoidable and in the end we didn't lose because of the hype. I don't think we did anything we shouldn't have done in the lead up to the game.

Yeah we did, Don't talk trash! All those who did now look like asses

I'm talking from the standpoint of what the athletic department did to promote the game and atmosphere. No doubt, we had fans who thought we would roll Miami and went to social media and blogs to state such.

Agreed, on the Ath. dept and really the town side of things i was, pleasantly, surprised. I was on record prior to thinking it would not go well, but it did

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

Yep our secondary is ou Achilles heel. ODU showed the world.

How did ODU show the world??? They had 169 total yards passing with 0 TDs and they were behind the entire game...

Yeah I'm laughing at those posts. ODU absolutely torched us for what 7 points? Good lord.

7 more than last year...

[WVAPPeer]

Let's face it, the UT performance led to much of this hype. If we had been blown out at UT, I don't think the national media would have focused so much on this game. Secondly, I'm not sure NC State was ranked when they went to USA, so there wasn't going to be the same level of hype. I think the hype was unavoidable and in the end we didn't lose because of the hype. I don't think we did anything we shouldn't have done in the lead up to the game.

Yeah we did, Don't talk trash! All those who did now look like asses

I'm talking from the standpoint of what the athletic department did to promote the game and atmosphere. No doubt, we had fans who thought we would roll Miami and went to social media and blogs to state such.

Agreed, on the Ath. dept and really the town side of things i was, pleasantly, surprised. I was on record prior to thinking it would not go well, but it did

Damn 91 - you are such a ray of sunshine - Did BlackSaturday take over your thought processes?

[ericsaid]

What was exposed was the defensive line. The size difference resulted in the linebackers needing to play close to the line and that the safeties came forward on play action instead of holding the back line. The outside backer has to come in on run support because the defensive ends aren't big enough to set the edge which meant that the screen plays were essentially 2 v 2. When the deep passes were completed, the App defense, inexplicably continued to crash on the routes less than 10 yards which left Duck and Williams in one on one situations which Kaaya exploited.

There aren't any remains QB's on the schedule who can throw as good of a deep ball as Kaaya and there aren't any teams left with the athletes across the board to exploit the secondary in the fashion that Miami did.

The sky isn't falling. As mentioned by the ESPN commentary, App is still playing with FCS recruits on the team. The better athletes are just now coming around to realize what can be done at Appalachian and this game went a long way to proving the POSSIBILITIES for the future. Rome wasn't built in a day and Boise didn't become Boise in the first two years of FBS play.

[ericsaid]

If any of you guys are members over at AppStateMania I would go check out ASM's comments on App being so-called "out coached" by UM. Just ain't so. For those who aren't a member I'll try to reiterate what he said, and he sees things a lot closer up than 99% on here, and that definitely includes myself. There's a lot of bluff coverages we ran/run, like the 60 yd TD they scored on 3rd & 10. Woody showed them a look with the thought in mind that Kaaya would check to a Go route on the outside. Low and behold that's exactly what happened, Alex Gray simply held the bluff for too long and didn't have time to recover which is why you saw no safety help on that TD. You guys honestly think we couldn't "adjust" to a simple screen pass? Not the case. On defense we try to dictate what the opposing offense does, not take reactive measures which is exactly what offenses what. Allowing screen after screen was simply baiting them into what we wanted them to do. Just simply couldn't execute from there. That's where having the better talent comes into play. Our gameplan and coaching is just fine, execution needs a bit of work.

This doesn't take "seeing things a lot closer" to know. If you watch the game, you know that the defense wanted to bait Kaaya in to throwing the deep ball to force him to hold on to the ball longer. What you see isn't coaching or execution, it was the talent difference. You have 250 lb, 285 lb, 240 lb, and 195 lb player's rushing the QB against an average of 6-5 305 lbs and athletics enough to keep up. The issue is player size in Woody's defense doesn't allow him to call the bluffs. He should have played a don't lose situation and allowed the safeties to stay back, force the ball underneath and play to the strength of your defense which is the middle of the field.

He took out the best players of his defense when he forced Kaaya to go deep with ball, as evidenced by Law's read on the goal line and Kaaya's interception to the middle of the field against FAU.

He was outcoached.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

What was exposed was the defensive line. The size difference resulted in the linebackers needing to play close to the line and that the safeties came forward on play action instead of holding the back line. The outside backer has to come in on run support because the defensive ends aren't big enough to set the edge which meant that the screen plays were essentially 2 v 2. When the deep passes were completed, the App defense, inexplicably continued to crash on the routes less than 10 yards which left Duck and Williams in one on one situations which Kaaya exploited.

There aren't any remains QB's on the schedule who can throw as good of a deep ball as Kaaya and there aren't any teams left with the athletes across the board to exploit the secondary in the fashion that Miami did.

The sky isn't falling. As mentioned by the ESPN commentary, App is still playing with FCS recruits on the team. The better athletes are just now coming around to realize what can be done at Appalachian and this game went a long way to proving the POSSIBILITIES for the future. Rome wasn't built in a day and Boise didn't become Boise in the first two years of FBS play.

I don't think you can use that as an excuse. Especially considering John Law and Marcus Cox would be two in the group you're including in FCS recruits.