This play kind of says it all.

[tboyer]

App State has a 3rd and 2 at their own 46, lined up 3 wides. TE in motion right to left, but otherwise it's a totally basic play -- handoff to the TB up the middle.

PSU has Shelton and Mustipher lined up at DT and they are both basically moved out of the center by the AppSt guards. Mustipher in particular is just manhandled.

PSU is playing with extra DB and the 2 linebackers are completely absent. Brown followed the TE motion but doesn't see the handoff so he's out of the play. Parsons is lined up left to rush the passer and gets caught up in traffic. So the tailback has a nice hole and somehow, with all these DBs there is no one in the center of the field to meet him. Wade takes a bad angle, the TB cuts right and the play goes for 12 yards.

Not the end of the world, it was only 12 yards, but it was typical of the day. The defensive breakdowns just cascaded on each other.

I'm not saying it's panic time. This probably will improve quite a bit just from week 1 to week 2. But it's a lot of young plyers and some older players who are playing like young players. They're tentative, in some cases they're getting beaten physically, but mostly it's just a lack of experience so they're not recognizing anything and not getting to the right spots.

 

[FrontFlipper1]

I focused on Parsons that play and watched as he stepped right up and took himself out of the play. If he stays in position he is right there to fill the hole. I’m not sure what his assignment was on that play but his aggressiveness looked to me like he took himself out of position. A young Arrington type of mistake.

 

[Custerdome]

I focused on Parsons that play and watched as he stepped right up and took himself out of the play. If he stays in position he is right there to fill the hole. I’m not sure what his assignment was on that play but his aggressiveness looked to me like he took himself out of position. A young Arrington type of mistake.

He also made two incredible plays where he stopped big plays, which you have chosen NOT to high light. Parsons needs to be on the field for every snap that he can, one mistake or two mistakes or whatever.

 

[mcgunns]

He also made two incredible plays where he stopped big plays, which you have chosen NOT to high light. Parsons needs to be on the field for every snap that he can, one mistake or two mistakes or whatever.

No need to get so defensive, the topic is specifically about this play. And it's a perfect example to highlight the problems we saw all day. I don't think you'll find anyone who was disappointed in Micah's debut as a whole. Though we don't know his actual responsibilities on the play, many mistakes should be expected from a true freshmen playing in his first game.

 

[tboyer]

Yeah, I'm not being critical of the players at all. Parsons had outstanding plays and really did well for his first college game. There's just no question he will be great, maybe even this year. Wade's a great football player having to do some things he wasn't asked to do last year. He'll be fine too. Brown... it's a little more disappointing given how much experience he's had, but his is a super hard position and sometimes it really takes a lot of time to sink in.

The point of my post was just to give an example of what happens when you have that many new/young players. They'll learn rapidly, but the early season and maybe the early B1G season is not going to be prettty.

DT is the only thing that may not be fixable because there is just not enough experienced depth, especially with Givens suspended. I'm tremendously excited that Mustipher and Hansard are playing and getting experience but we probably can't expect to much from them at this point in their careers. The coaching staff is going to have to work around the issues at DT all year.

No need to get so defensive, the topic is specifically about this play. And it's a perfect example to highlight the problems we saw all day. I don't think you'll find anyone who was disappointed in Micah's debut as a whole. Though we don't know his actual responsibilities on the play, many mistakes should be expected from a true freshmen playing in his first game.

 

[Custerdome]

No need to get so defensive, the topic is specifically about this play. And it's a perfect example to highlight the problems we saw all day. I don't think you'll find anyone who was disappointed in Micah's debut as a whole. Though we don't know his actual responsibilities on the play, many mistakes should be expected from a true freshmen playing in his first game.

THE point is, if he's on the sideline, we are not at our best defensively. This is the exact same problem we had when Joe was sitting Lavar to play Mac Morrison. Heck, I'll even go as far as to say go ahead and play 36 all game long if it means 11 also plays the whole game at one of the outside positions. To do this, either 7 or 6 has to sit. Pick one, I don't give a damn. I've seen enough: 11 needs to be on the damn football field and it doesn't matter one iota that he doesn't "know the defense" or he "makes rookie mistakes". He's better than any linebacker on this roster, right now.

 

[Custerdome]

Yeah, I'm not being critical of the players at all. Parsons had outstanding plays and really did well for his first college game. There's just no question he will be great, maybe even this year. Wade's a great football player having to do some things he wasn't asked to do last year. He'll be fine too. Brown... it's a little more disappointing given how much experience he's had, but his is a super hard position and sometimes it really takes a lot of time to sink in.

The point of my post was just to give an example of what happens when you have that many new/young players. They'll learn rapidly, but the early season and maybe the early B1G season is not going to be prettty.

DT is the only thing that may not be fixable because there is just not enough experienced depth, especially with Givens suspended. I'm tremendously excited that Mustipher and Hansard are playing and getting experience but we probably can't expect to much from them at this point in their careers. The coaching staff is going to have to work around the issues at DT all year.

Givens will be back this Saturday.

 

[bdgan]

Givens will be back this Saturday.

You know this?