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Obli's Observations, Kent - WTF?

If you watch a replay of that long TD throw (you can watch it on YouTube) you’ll see that Allar did not even put 100% into the throw and it still went 60 yards in the air. There is a lot of power in that arm.
I agree....and in that case, the WR was so open that underthrowing it enough to make sure you don't overthrow it was the right move. But we've seen the underthrow consistently so he is just late or misjudging. Or, like Trace, it was done on purpose because the WR has the advantage over the defender if he is single covered. A guy like Fleming, big and strong, should be able to beat the guy to the ball.
 
One game was enough. Two was too many.
These games are scheduled so far in the past it is hard to say what a team is going to be 4-5 years from the day it is scheduled. It is quite possible this game was scheduled when Sean Lewis was putting in work for the Golden Flashes before he scooted to Colorado with Prime Time. In fact even if the game was scheduled in 2019, Kent State was a much better team than Bowling Green.
 
Bottom line Kent state on scholarship is paying 85 kids- 85 kids that will graduate with little to no debt.

These "move up" games against the big boys pay for volleyball, baseball golf etc.

Do not feel bad-

These Kent state kids can say I played against Tennessee and PSU.

Not I played against

Monmouth and Colgate
 
So one comment on this:

This wasn't an FCS school. Kent State plays in the MAC. MAC schools play big time games every year. NIU beat ND this year. Bowling Green played right with both PSU and TAMU. Furthermore, Kent State played in the MAC championship game in 2021 and won 7 games (and a bowl game) in 2019. The point being that this is not a perpetually horrible program and has been pointed out these series are scheduled far enough in advance that there is no way to know whether an OOC opponent will be good or bad when you actually play them.

Other have already stated that this is how lower level programs fund themselves.
You're right. And there's no telling if the in conference team will be any good ! But there are teams with history, so I'm not guessing UMass will be tough when we play them.
 
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I agree....and in that case, the WR was so open that underthrowing it enough to make sure you don't overthrow it was the right move. But we've seen the underthrow consistently so he is just late or misjudging. Or, like Trace, it was done on purpose because the WR has the advantage over the defender if he is single covered. A guy like Fleming, big and strong, should be able to beat the guy to the ball.
Nothing worse than a WR wide open and the QB overthrows him by a yard or 2.
 
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Way under thrown. Receiver came to a full stop and had to shed a tackle to score. Two yards further and it’s an easy TD.

Against WVU same play but the receiver was tackled. That one should have also been a TD,

The adage is to under throw short passes but over throw long ones to prevent interceptions. I certainly understand throwing it a tad short if the receiver is wide open to be sure to get the completion bug not five yards short.

Keep doing that against top talent and those big completions turn into interceptions.

It wasn't "way under thrown" ... the receiver never stopped ... he didn't have to "shed a tackle."


You're throwing that far over 2 defenders to a guy who is wide open ... the thing you're worried about there is "do NOT overthrow this guy" ...

Evans slowed down a bit for 5 yards, but was still jogging as he caught it.

Deep balls are ACTUALLY underthrown all the time ... often times purposefully because they see the defender is struggling to keep up and recover, so they know it's a sure catch or PI if the receiver stops/comes back for it ... but this was not one of those times. The receiver didn't have to come back to the ball, or fight for a jump ball, or stop.

He threw a ball with a ton of air under it to make sure his WR could get there and adjust. It was a good throw. It's actually harder to catch those deep balls over your shoulder when you're running full speed, tracking that long ball the whole time. Allar made it easy on him.
 
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I agree....and in that case, the WR was so open that underthrowing it enough to make sure you don't overthrow it was the right move. But we've seen the underthrow consistently so he is just late or misjudging. Or, like Trace, it was done on purpose because the WR has the advantage over the defender if he is single covered. A guy like Fleming, big and strong, should be able to beat the guy to the ball.
Todd Blackledge once said on one of his broadcasts that he was coached to hit wide open receiver on the numbers and to NOT get fancy with a beautiful lead pass. This was apparently a Paterno dictum
 
Todd Blackledge once said on one of his broadcasts that he was coached to hit wide open receiver on the numbers and to NOT get fancy with a beautiful lead pass. This was apparently a Paterno dictum
ha! I think times have changed. But to your point, this particular throw was what you wanted. The WR was wide open and there was no need to hit him in stride. So his pass was perfectly affective because it resulted in a TD. In previous games, with long throws, not so much.
 
ha! I think times have changed. But to your point, this particular throw was what you wanted. The WR was wide open and there was no need to hit him in stride. So his pass was perfectly affective because it resulted in a TD. In previous games, with long throws, not so much.
It was a TD because it was against a slow, lower division d-back. Try that against Ohio State or Washington and it is an interception.
 
It was a TD because it was against a slow, lower division d-back. Try that against Ohio State or Washington and it is an interception.
Agreed. But he wasn't throwing against them. It is situational. So he made the correct throw at that time. But to your point, and the reason why I posted, that appears to be a weakness because almost all of his long tosses have been short.
 
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Agreed. But he wasn't throwing against them. It is situational. So he made the correct throw at that time. But to your point, and the reason why I posted, that appears to be a weakness because almost all of his long tosses have been short.
These games are about building skills and habits. Seriously under throwing a wide open receiver isn’t a good one.
 
But against top talent with better closing speed they won’t be completions but interceptions.
That's my concern as well. If he is coached up to under throw what happens when say Evans only has a half step on the defender and not 4-5 yards? At some point against our best competition (USC and OSU) Allar is going to have to drop it right in there from 60 yards. In fact he probably needs to do the opposite and lead Omari a bit so he could potentially accelerate past the defender another half step while the ball is in flight. Can he do that? Does he even practice that? I would hope/think he does. We have to take shots like this and versus the top teams on our schedule there won't be a lot of separation.

I'm no coach but I guess the other technique is to throw it up there as a 50 50 ball even if the guy barely has any separation and hope we can win it. Thinking we don't want an overthrow. This seems to me to be a high risk low gain approach.
 
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These games are about building skills and habits. Seriously under throwing a wide open receiver isn’t a good one.
I don't know. I am not going to criticize a QB for throwing for a 59-yard TD pass. The situation called for what he did. Illinois, et all, will be a different matter.
 
Maybe Cory Giger can ask JF in his next press conference if he coaches QBs to under throw on long bombs.
 
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It was a TD because it was against a slow, lower division d-back. Try that against Ohio State or Washington and it is an interception.

False.

Also, if there was better coverage, a different ball would have been thrown.

It was, and always will be, a good throw.
 
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Hard to have any real takeaways. But I have one major takeaway. This game was a travesty. Kent was totally overmatched. I felt horrible for Kent's starting QB for getting hurt in play, what, three? The second team QB got hurt as well but it seemed that could have happened anytime against any team. So Kent is down two QBs and is completely overwhelmed. It is hard for me to accept that Kent let themselves get to this level and PSU (Tenn) played them. I feel bad for those kids. To their credit, they fought to the end but I felt myself feeling really sad for them. it was hard to watch, honestly.

Also, sad that Cam got hurt in this meaningless game. It was more a practice than a game. I hope he's OK as that didn't look good at all. Anyone have an update?

  • A friend told me he didn't think Allar improved much from last year. I feel like I must be watching a different Allar. Allar is very consistent and very efficient. He's really shown great in pocket awareness and has extended plays while still looking downfield. Plus, he seems to run when it makes sense and he can get a good gain or the first down or staying back and hoping a WR will uncover.
  • He also put the ball into some very small holes over defenders.
  • He seems to throw his long balls short. we got a TD but the WR was way underthrown. That seems to be the only consistent complaint I have.
  • I am more concerned with why the WRs aren't getting open against Kent. I think the plan was to get more people involved and perhaps that is it. But his stat line is pretty darn good 17 of 29 for 309 yards and zero INTs while rushing for 26. 3 Tuddies.
  • WTF on Beaus INT? I noted he got benched until it was mop-up time. we then moved to a wildcat with Warren, which worked great.
  • Better to reserve/surprise the Warren Wildcat or make teams prepare for it? IDK, but it sure looked good.
  • Hard to complain about anything when the team puts up 718 total yards and gives up only 67. 40 first downs.
  • seven penalties for 67 yards. That is way too many.
  • WR watched: Evans, Clifford, Flemming, Wallace, Ivey, Denmark
  • Warren looked great as did Reynolds and Dinkins. Reynolds is going to be great. We are in good shape at TE especially when Rapp gets back. Reynolds looks like a special athlete: big, strong, fast, great verticle. And he's still very young.
  • I am still seeing very few bubble screens except to Warren. Why?
  • Defense looked fine but it is hard to judge them against a Kent and their third-team QB. Again, Kent kids played hard.
718 yards of offense sounds impressive until you look at the NCAA stats that show Kent State is giving up an average of 608 yds per game.

Pitt 567 yds
St Francis 408 yds
Tennessee 740 yds
PSU 718 yds

My question is how did we only score 56 points?


I have no idea if Allar, the OL, and WRs are improved. PSU hasn't played a top 100 defense and there are only 133 teams.

West Virginia 102nd, 406 yds per game
Bowling Green 110th, 416 yds per game
Kent State 133rd, 608 yds per game

So how can we say the offense has improved? IMO it's way too early.


P.S. Both Warren & Reynolds made spectacular catches regardless of who the opponent was. Also, even though it's only 3 games it seems clear that Evans is our #2 WR and seems to have the ability to stretch the field. We'll see if better opponents will be more physical with him at the LOS.
 
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I have never seen a more overdrmatic take on a long TD throw. Worst case scenario it gets picked off at the 5 yard line.

He's gone full Lando, where he takes an extreme, illogical position ... and then can't admit he's wrong. He'll argue this ad infinitum and, rather than reconsider his position, if anything, he'll get even more extreme just to dig his heels in and attempt to show that you're not the boss of him.
 
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718 yards of offense sounds impressive until you look at the NCAA stats that show Kent State is giving up an average of 608 yds per game.

Pitt 567 yds
St Francis 408 yds
Tennessee 740 yds
PSU 718 yds

My question is how did we only score 56 points?


I have no idea if Allar, the OL, and WRs are improved. PSU hasn't played a top 100 defense and there are only 133 teams.

West Virginia 102nd, 406 yds per game
Bowling Green 110th, 416 yds per game
Kent State 133rd, 608 yds per game

So how can we say the offense has improved? IMO it's way too early.


P.S. Both Warren & Reynolds made spectacular catches regardless of who the opponent was. Also, even though it's only 3 games it seems clear that Evans is our #2 WR and seems to have the ability to stretch the field. We'll see if better opponents will be more physical with him at the LOS.
Spot on. I….we…..have no idea how good we are. WVU was the only decent competition.

We will learn a lot more this weekend.
 
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This pass was at minimum five yards short, probably 7-8. It would not have been a completion against any single Big Ten opponent. Not one.
This is a silly argument. Your throw should be good enough to get there but no harder for your WR to catch than necessary. When you WR has multiple steps on a DB you can hang it up there for them to run under. No reason to try to time it perfectly on a rope where they might have to lay out to catch it.

Same idea of not firing a fastball at a TE who is standing by himself in the endzone. Just get it there in an easy to catch fashion.
 
Bottom line Kent state on scholarship is paying 85 kids- 85 kids that will graduate with little to no debt.

These "move up" games against the big boys pay for volleyball, baseball golf etc.

Do not feel bad-

These Kent state kids can say I played against Tennessee and PSU.

Not I played against

Monmouth and Colgate
One correction. I suspect Kent needs their games vs teams like Tenn & PSU to pay for football much less other sports.

A USA today report says Kent state has $28 million of revenues and $29 million of expenses. Of that $28 million in revenues. They have $16 million "allocated" from the universities general fund or from student fees.


I read somewhere that 1nly 12% of college athletic programs are profitable.
 
My question is how did we only score 56 points?
Three reasons:
1) No defensive scores (zero turnovers)
2) No ST scores
3) Had horrible field position most of the day

718 yards is really good against anyone and is significantly better than their other opponents.
 
This is a silly argument. Your throw should be good enough to get there but no harder for your WR to catch than necessary. When you WR has multiple steps on a DB you can hang it up there for them to run under. No reason to try to time it perfectly on a rope where they might have to lay out to catch it.

Same idea of not firing a fastball at a TE who is standing by himself in the endzone. Just get it there in an easy to catch fashion.
I never said it had to be perfect. In fact, I stated if it was two yards short that was fine. But it was 7-8 yds short.

But this was a TD for only two reasons….it was a slow, subpar d-back that couldn’t catch up. And the d-back made a horrible tackle attempt.
 
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718 yards of offense sounds impressive until you look at the NCAA stats that show Kent State is giving up an average of 60 the lack of comparative information, you can't bitch about an all time record. We've played a lot of stinkers over the years and this was still the best we ever did.

I'd also add that Beau's early interception really set back the offense in the first quarter. That caused us to only score 7 points in the first quarter (as opposed to 21 in the second quarter). The PSU drives went like this:
  • after 51 yards gained, Beau's INT 4:08 time of drive
  • TD 4:41
  • Punt after starting on our own 4 yard line after Kent drove to our 41, 2:49
  • TD 2:36
  • TD 1:32
  • TD 0:44
  • Half
What you see is both Kent and PSU draining the clock, for the most part. I stated in my pre-game posts that Kent was going to come in to drain the clock and minimize the massacre. So we only had six drives, scored for TDs, had a bad INT and had to start on our own 3 yard line (=punt)
 
I agree that this spreads the talent around. I think more kids will get opportunities in this area versus the previous era of cfb. We are seeing some very interesting results this year. Notre Dame and North Carolina both lost to G5 teams. Oregon had trouble two weeks in a row. We had our own issues with Bowling Green.
I know next year there will be a reduction of roster size to I believe 105. Will there be any change to the # of scholarships allowed? That might have an impact.
 
I have never seen a more overdrmatic take on a long TD throw. Worst case scenario it gets picked off at the 5 yard line.
An under thrown pass like that also often results in a pass interference penalty.
 
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718 yards of offense sounds impressive until you look at the NCAA stats that show Kent State is giving up an average of 608 yds per game.

Pitt 567 yds
St Francis 408 yds
Tennessee 740 yds
PSU 718 yds

My question is how did we only score 56 points?


I have no idea if Allar, the OL, and WRs are improved. PSU hasn't played a top 100 defense and there are only 133 teams.

West Virginia 102nd, 406 yds per game
Bowling Green 110th, 416 yds per game
Kent State 133rd, 608 yds per game

So how can we say the offense has improved? IMO it's way too early.


P.S. Both Warren & Reynolds made spectacular catches regardless of who the opponent was. Also, even though it's only 3 games it seems clear that Evans is our #2 WR and seems to have the ability to stretch the field. We'll see if better opponents will be more physical with him at the LOS.
yep and I put that in my original post. There is just no measure because Kent was so bad. Having said that, given the lack of comparative information, you can't bitch about an all time record. We've played a lot of stinkers over the years and this was still the best we ever did.

I'd also add that Beau's early interception really set back the offense in the first quarter. That caused us to only score 7 points in the first quarter (as opposed to 21 in the second quarter). The PSU drives went like this:
  • after 51 yards gained, Beau's INT 4:08 time of drive
  • TD 4:41
  • Punt after starting on our own 4 yard line after Kent drove to our 41, 2:49
  • TD 2:36
  • TD 1:32
  • TD 0:44
  • Half
What you see is both Kent and PSU draining the clock, for the most part. I stated in my pre-game posts that Kent would try to drain the clock to minimize PSU's offensive opportunities.
 
Agreed. But he wasn't throwing against them. It is situational. So he made the correct throw at that time. But to your point, and the reason why I posted, that appears to be a weakness because almost all of his long tosses have been short.
CJF in this week's presser alluded that he wants those very long passes underthrown. As you said, not a good idea against teams with much better secondary players who can close faster.
 
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CJF in this week's presser alluded that he wants those very long passes underthrown. As you said, not a good idea against teams with much better secondary players who can close faster.
Funny that the poster child of this was Trace McSorely. He ALWAYS underthrew his long passes. But he also had several NFL personalities and defenses that were obsessed with trying to stop #26. But God forbid anyone trash Trace!
 
It’s a fine line. Without those games Kent doesn’t have a program. That’s where they get the money. Back to back wasn’t smart.
Kent St. opened the season vs. Pitt so that makes three travel games to teams from the top 4 conferences.
(Notice how avoided calling Pitt a top team)
 
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I had never heard this, but Franklin said in his presser that he specifically asks his QBs to underthrow deep balls. Not sure I agree, but the logic is justifiable. Franklin says if you throw them short the WR can still make a play on them or you can draw the PI.

CJF in this week's presser alluded that he wants those very long passes underthrown. As you said, not a good idea against teams with much better secondary players who can close faster.
Great coaching no wonder PSU cannot beat UM an OSU. Let's get more 2 Qb formations as well that will get PSU past OSU and UM.
 
Kent St. opened the season vs. Pitt so that makes three travel games to teams from the top 4 conferences.
(Notice how avoided calling Pitt a top team)
Funny, Kent has probably the most diffiult strength of schedules right now. They've played Pitt, PSU and Tenn. PSU and Tenn are top ten ranked and undefeated. Pitt is also undefeated. Worse, against us, they lost their starting QB on the third play and their second-team QB in the second quarter. Dang!
 
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