The Morning After

[Stonewall]

We are "alive" , but not "well".

[Howard Street Hooligan]

I'm' not sure how to do it but if we can fix the turnover situation we can fix the season...I believe the 4 turnovers led to 4 touchdowns last night, if I recall correctly. That's the 28 point differential and that's also what wore down our defense. This week has got to be about ball security...and hopefully we'll get Cam back...

We need the guy that's led all of FBS in turnovers for a year and a half now to stop turning the ball over. That seems tough. I'm more concerned about how bad our defense looked tbh.

[WVAPPeer]

One turnover was his fault - the pass behind Hennigan - Malik had the ball go thru his hands so I don't put that on Chase (it could be a small fault of both but no blame either way) and the lateral to Nate was from one yard away, not necessarily a smart play but certainly should have been caught - and if you look at the film you will see that if Nate had been able to handle the ball the right side of the field was wide open because all of the defenders were chasing Chase to our left --- When we get a turnover our defensive guys are praised and when we turn it over our players are blamed --- ???

[BambooRdApp]

If you review the chase toss to Noel, Noel starts to look ahead before ball in his hands. It is natural to do when in chaos. OL right by him...he had no idea if some defensive player was bearing down on him.
I thought it was actually a heady play by Chase (with risk of course). Unfortunately, it did not work out.

[bcoach]

Question 1 - No - he has looked good to me - remember he is the one guy who our opponents know they have to stop and most times he will be double-teamed - his job as much as anything is to jam up their Olinemen so our LBs can make plays
Question 2 - I have no idea but I will say this about our offense (a system we know works) and that is we can't pound and pound and grind and thusly wear our opponent's defense down by the 4th quarter with one 5'9" 175 lb back - as tough as Nate is, he is not going to be effective - WE NEED CAM IF WE PLAN TO CONTINUE WITH OUR OFFENSE PHILOSOPHY!!! - Geez, we have a QB who can throw the ball and 4 super-senior WRs

And LA beat us at our own game last night - they rotated their backs and they kept pounding and by the 4th Q our guys were beat down -

"Geez, we have a QB who can throw the ball and 4 super-senior WRs"
Yes we do but they didn't perform last night. Poor execution too many times. I agree, I don't understand running Nate all night.

[appstate77]

I remember A Freshman named Thomas Hennigan making a Sportscenter top ten catch against Wake. I was there when ADG blocked a FG to preserve a win at Carolina. I was in attendence at The Rock for two SBC championship wins against LaLa. A lot of the young men on those squads played last night. They had an off night. Fine. Ive had bad days at work. I understand. The team needs us now more than have in sometime. I'll be at The Rock next Wednesday as loud as my 67 year old voice will let me. As motel rooms in Boone are $300 a night plus, Ill be camping at Price Lake campground. A chilly night or two is worth it to say "Thank you" to the Super Seniors who still have stuff to play for.

[spacemonkey]

Louisiana looked good...remember they were preseason or second week top 25. We got beat. Our defense was done at the end and the last two touchdowns were because the defensive players had checked out because the game was over. I think we will beat Coastal and could get another shot at Louisiana but it would be at Louisiana again. I don't see any west team touching Louisiana. I will make a prediction and I hope I get a chance to see if I am right. If we win out including a bowl game...We will be top 25 by the end of the year...Sunbelt champions...Bowl Champions and maybe the highest rated team in NC. Lots still to play for.

[njcarr]

I usually just read the blogs, but I would like to comment this time. I am glad to see this thread having discussions and opinions made in an insightful and "classy" manner, unlike some of the other negative threads.
In a previous post, the comment stated that the 4 turnovers resulted in 28 points. I believe the App interception stopped a ULL drive that started with an interception so maybe 21 points were a result.
Many of the concerns listed on all of the threads make me think of the year Coach Satterfield endured when we switched to the FBS world, especially after the Liberty loss at home. With a few plays and field goals that would have been a winning year.
What caused the change to our FBS success since becoming a Sun Belt Conference member? The answer was mentioned (not emphasized) in a previous post: EXECUTION on all levels.
I believe if the team, coaches, and fans EXECUTE on all levels for the remainder of the season; we will again be Sun Belt Conference Champions.
Start with Coastal - they will be cocky and ripe for plucking!!!
Go APP!!!

[Rick83]

Hopefully some of the player leaders are pulling their groups together and having some serious talks amongst themselves. I think we can beat Coastal and I think we need a ball control offense to hold the ball as long as possible (without turnovers) to keep the ball out the hands of their offense. It'll also wear down their defense which I don't think is as strong.
We desperately need a loud and energetic crowd (like the Marshall game) to show that we have our players' backs. Also, has Coastal played in a hostile, loud environment since Covid hit? Fans were limited last year and I don't think they've played a real program yet this year. Could be something that could make a difference... a few false starts or communication issues here and there could be the difference in the game.

[kearlnc1]

I fully support our coaches and staff, but don’t know why they didn’t try to run Castle or Smith some to see if we could get something going. Were they hurt?

[Yosef84]

Hopefully some of the player leaders are pulling their groups together and having some serious talks amongst themselves. I think we can beat Coastal and I think we need a ball control offense to hold the ball as long as possible (without turnovers) to keep the ball out the hands of their offense. It'll also wear down their defense which I don't think is as strong.
We desperately need a loud and energetic crowd (like the Marshall game) to show that we have our players' backs. Also, has Coastal played in a hostile, loud environment since Covid hit? Fans were limited last year and I don't think they've played a real program yet this year. Could be something that could make a difference... a few false starts or communication issues here and there could be the difference in the game.

I agree with the above about a ball control offense. I'm not opposed to throwing down field and we need some of that in order to keep the D honest, but seems like we got a bit carried away with it Tuesday. We showed on the first drive that we could move the ball downfield, but we were using shorter passes. I don't know why we got away from that and started running up the gut when it clearly wasn't working. Keep the chains moving and give the D a rest. The last scored by Louisiana were a direct result of the D getting gassed from being on the field.

Our chances go up tremendously if People's is back also..and Harrington as well.

[kearlnc1]

I fully support our coaches and staff, but don’t know why they didn’t try to run Castle or Smith some to see if we could get something going. Were they hurt?

[Black Saturday]

I fully support our coaches and staff, but don’t know why they didn’t try to run Castle or Smith some to see if we could get something going. Were they hurt?

We had Harrington available who not long ago was our #1.

[AppNC]

Towards the end of the game we did not play starters on defense. I don't think it was necessarily because our defense was gassed but maybe to just get some others guys what everyone fusses about....reps. The temperature was in the upper to mid 80s at start of game with humidity. Also, I think most will agree our team feeds off of fan energy. There were fewer than 50 App fans at the game I would say. UL fans were there and very vocal throughout. Their student section was right behind our players and let's just say the Marshall lady would not have been happy....not making an excuse for our team because I agree we definitely did not play App brand football but just some things that may have attributed to complete meltdown.

[AZAppGrad]

My apologies if this is not the correct thread to ask this question, but I have been wondering about the quarterback position. As an observer it seems that more and more teams are going with athletic, mobile qb’s as opposed to those that are primary pocket passers. This seems to be true in college as well as the NFL. I would be interested in hearing input or opinions from those of you that know way more about football than I about the subject. I personally like a mobile qb but am not sure how important that is to our style of offense.

[t4pizza]

Chase is the first non mobile qb that we have had at App in over 15 years. That isn't saying that all of our qbs were 4.5 40 guys but they all could at least run well enough to keep defenses honest and pick up big chunks when it was given to them. ZT was extremely good at that part of the game. It is a give and take because our system is designed for a mobile qb, someone that has a threat to run and clearly Chase does not fit that bill. What he does give us is a true pocket passer with a live arm and the ability to progress through the reads that the defense gives us and find an open guy even if that may be his 3rd or 4th option. We have not had this type of qb at App in many many years. So while Chase doesn't really fit our "ideal" qb for our system, I think he makes up for it with his passing ability. Others clearly disagree and would prefer a more mobile guy like ZT for the offense we run.

[appstate5]

Look, I'm pulling for Chase, hope the guy goes off wednesday night. But I still want to know why he wasnt pulled down 27-6 early in the 3rd qtr? We needed something different, a spark. We have a super senior on the sidelines who would have been a good choice in my opinion. Any reason not to try something different? Don't say we didnt want to hurt his feelings or his ego.

[Yosef84]

My apologies if this is not the correct thread to ask this question, but I have been wondering about the quarterback position. As an observer it seems that more and more teams are going with athletic, mobile qb’s as opposed to those that are primary pocket passers. This seems to be true in college as well as the NFL. I would be interested in hearing input or opinions from those of you that know way more about football than I about the subject. I personally like a mobile qb but am not sure how important that is to our style of offense.

App has been on board with the mobile / athletic QBs since 2004 when we first implemented the spread offense. Chase is the first true "pro style" drop back passer that we have had since then. Taylor Lamb was actually considered to be a pro-style QB before getting the position, but he proved to be more than adequate with his legs. My personal opinion is that, with all the weapons in our arsenal, we have sufficient RBs / WRs that we shouldn't have to rely so much on the QB being a huge contributor in the running game. Chase has shown the ability and willingness to pick up a first down with his legs if needed. I think he showed a lot of guts Tuesday on some of his runs, including the touchdown where he went through a defender to score. I know that Chase didn't have his best game Tuesday, but I personally do not believe he is a weakness in this team. He is a solid QB and is fully capable of running our offense.

[Cajun Mac]

I hope y'all don't mind an outsiders view of your upcoming game with the Covid Chickens. As a UL fan here is how I see things in two brief parts. Part One: McCall is the real deal, I believe that. He is, hands down, the best QB in the league and maybe one of the best in the country. Coastal's defense is good as well. They are, no doubt, a good team.

Part Two: Having said that, CC has not been challenged in, what, ten months? They have not been punched in the mouth to start a game. They have not been bloodied this year; they have not had to fight to win a game. They have not had to come from behind. They have not had to make adjustments to win. Their opponents combined recored this year is 9-24. They have not played this year a team with more than two wins. On top of this, I believe they will run into a proud, frustrated, and angry program next week that is out to prove that last Tuesday was an anomaly.

The boys in Myrtle Beach may not see it this way, but Tuesday night was the worst possible outcome for Coastal.

[Rick83]

Look, I'm pulling for Chase, hope the guy goes off wednesday night. But I still want to know why he wasnt pulled down 27-6 early in the 3rd qtr? We needed something different, a spark. We have a super senior on the sidelines who would have been a good choice in my opinion. Any reason not to try something different? Don't say we didnt want to hurt his feelings or his ego.

I wondered that as well, and I too am pulling for Chase. He was clearly rattled and Huesman could have come in and provided a spark. I am also pulling for Clark and think some of the criticism thrown his way is unwarranted but I also didn't understand why we stayed with Noel so much. Seems like fresh legs in the 2nd half would have been a good idea. I know Daetrich and Smith were put in for a run or two each (why not more) and why no Castle or even Montgomery? Sometimes someone can come in fresh and make a big play and get things turned around.
I'm not throwing shade on Noel, he's a good back, but they clearly had his number.
I still trust the coaches and I hope this game is a major learning event for all involved.