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Post by catualum on Nov 12, 2011 17:35:41 GMT -5
The final game was pretty much indicative of the season. The Indians managed a paltry 130 yards on offense, looking very inept, and got absolutely spanked by Lenoir-Rhyne. Their only score was after a muffed punt by the Bears gave them the ball inside the L-R ten. It was hard to tell which was worse, the play calling or the execution. This was truly a tale of two programs headed in the opposite directions.
So, Catawba limps to an embarrassing 3-8 record with only one home win. With all due respect, wholesale changes are needed to restore this program to its once proud stature. Hester needs to start by firing himself as offensive coordinator and play caller. The staff must recruit a few offensive linemen who can open up some holes, and, for Pete's sake, let's get a QB who can knows how to avoid a sack and can hit a receiver other than his little brother.
At least the band was good, pretty much the most watchable aspect of this home season.
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billv
All-Conference
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Post by billv on Nov 13, 2011 17:08:14 GMT -5
Catualum You are letting your emotions of the moment control your comments about the coaching staff. Hester is the most creative play caller we've had in the past 11 years that l have been watching Catawba football, Our problem has been in on field execution. Young players plus injuries to key veterans this year made a big difference in team performance . We will be better next year with the addition of some of our red shirt players ( needed a year to learn how to play at this level ). GO Catawba !!!! We are pulling for you!!!
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gocat
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Post by gocat on Nov 14, 2011 0:59:47 GMT -5
1. The offense is dysfunctional and that starts with coaching. I don't mean just Hester, who is such a likeable, honorable man that I hate even sharing a criticism..
2. The school does very little to make it easier, convenient, less expensive for student athletes to stay in Salsbury over the summer.
3. The team needs more discipline.
3.
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Post by catualum on Nov 14, 2011 13:09:22 GMT -5
Catualum You are letting your emotions of the moment control your comments Maybe, but here are the facts: - Catawba was beaten by more than 3 TDs to a losing CIAA team.
- We were pummeled by Carson-Newman, which had its first losing season in forever.
- We didn't beat any upper echelon SAC team, in a year when the SAC was the weakest it has been in decades. Wingate lost every game after beating us at Shuford on homecoming.
- It took a goal line stand and a 97 yard drive to come back to barely nip the SAC's last place team.
- We lucked out against Tusculum, playing them the week after they lost their All-American QB and before they had time to adjust. No one would predict a Cat U victory if we were to play them tomorrow.
- We won only one home game and none against conference teams.
Those are facts about which I get emotional. I hope you're right about next year, but when I look at the facts: how badly we were beaten, and how we didn't even look like we were in the same league with L-R, I tend to discount any rosy predictions. Here's to my being mistaken!
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Post by catrunner on Nov 14, 2011 17:06:06 GMT -5
The final game was pretty much indicative of the season. The Indians managed a paltry 130 yards on offense, looking very inept, and got absolutely spanked by Lenoir-Rhyne. Their only score was after a muffed punt by the Bears gave them the ball inside the L-R ten. It was hard to tell which was worse, the play calling or the execution. This was truly a tale of two programs headed in the opposite directions. So, Catawba limps to an embarrassing 3-8 record with only one home win. With all due respect, wholesale changes are needed to restore this program to its once proud stature. Hester needs to start by firing himself as offensive coordinator and play caller. The staff must recruit a few offensive linemen who can open up some holes, and, for Pete's sake, let's get a QB who can knows how to avoid a sack and can hit a receiver other than his little brother. At least the band was good, pretty much the most watchable aspect of this home season. I agree with some of what your saying. But if you look at the conf stats Charest was third in conf in passing yards (actually second in total passing yards) and 3rd in all purpose yards for the year. Here is the link so you can have facts: thesac.com/stats/fb2011/confldrs.htm He was also the second leading rusher on the team. Some one needs to ask why a 6'4" white drop back pro style QB was the 2nd leading rusher on the team. As far as avoiding sacks, well that would be him running for his life on every play. So if he averaged getting sacked 3 times a game when he was getting hit on almost every pass play and they averaged 43 passes a game. I agree that there were times he should have thrown the ball away. But the vast majority of the time he either scrambled or threw the ball away. He got pressure every single pass play. It looked like to me that he threw to his brother a lot because his brother got open a lot! Plus his brother was the only one that could make the first guy miss. Again, look at the stats and you will see the little Charest was 4th in the conf in receiving yards. There wasn't another kid that made the first guy miss. EVER. But in case you haven't looked at the stats, Big Charest completed passes to 18 players this year. Thats right, 18. Here is the link if you are interested in facts. gocatawbaindians.com/stats/2011fb/teamcume.htmThe stats show J Charest completed exactly 200 passes this year. (Second most in the league by the way). N Charest caught 51 passes which is 25.5% of all passes thrown. So J Charest threw to receivers other than his brother 74.5% of the time. I don't think you have a valid assertion about the brother to brother thing. The only decent offensive stats that Catawba had was passing. As I said we were third. But we were dead last in rushing. Why wouldn't you say something like "Let's get a RB that can hit the hole at full speed or let's get an o line coach that can make these young guys get after it". No you have to attack the only decent part of the offense. Here is another question to ask: What happened to the players on offense that were in the spring game? We lost a top end WR and a TE. By the way, Catawba did not have a TE playing Saturday. How does that happen? We did not have a receiving TE all year. How does a QB check down without a freaking TE?Who does quality control to make sure these guys are going to be eligible come football season? Why did we have to start 2 freshman on the line this year? Why did we allow punts to be downed inside the 5 yard line ALL YEAR LONG because the returner would not catch the ball he just let it go over his head? How many times did we tackle a returner on the kickoff team inside the 20? None that I remember and most of the time opposing teams started past their own 30. Why was our field goal percentage at 50%? Really...50%. I'm not down on the kicker but our special teams were terrible all year. Whose fault is that? So obviously our line was young, weak and inexperienced. So why not quick pass people to death. Three step drop hitches, curls, and slants. How many times were DB's 8 or 10 yards off the ball...and we never ran a slant pass all year. How many times did the young WR's ( we played 5 freshman WR's this year) look confused when the play was called. How many times did it take 20 seconds to get a play call in? Why was our defense first in run stop but last in pass defense at one point? Why, on the second play of the game against LR, would you call a quick pass, to the sideline to a kid that has caught 2 passes all year? The ball bounced off his hands and went out of bounds. Football is a game of numbers. You have to call high percentage probability plays. Why on 2nd and 8 on a decent drive, would you call a QB sweep? Really...the slowest guy in the backfield and we call a QB sweep? How many QB draws did we run? Charest seems athletic but I don't think running is his strength. Why was there never any creativity on offense? No trick plays. No reverses. No play action except a couple bootlegs. Did we throw any fades all year? How predictable could an offense get? How easy was this offense to scout against? Pop warner coaches could have scouted against this. Why does the head coach call the plays? How does he manage all the coaches, manage the entire game, make minute to minute decisions, and call plays too? I like coach Hester. He is an honest and kind man. I think he can be a very good football coach. I hope he stays. But their must be some conditions laid down. One must be that we get an offensive coordinator immediately. Not a Catawba grad. How many Catawba grads coach on this team? Dont we need some fresh new ideas? And he needs to put his foot up this football teams butt. Every player could have played better. That is on him. He needs to get some meaness to him. There were 8 Shrine Bowl players on this team. This season never should have been like this. I believe all of these Shrine Bowl players will be back.
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gocat
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Post by gocat on Nov 14, 2011 23:25:24 GMT -5
"And he needs to put his foot up this football teams butt."
Catrunner, on this we agree. But lets not be simplistic in analysis. For instance, It is the easiest thing to blame O-line. Many of the sacks were coverage sacks. Charest had perhaps 5 seconds to throw but no one, not even his brother got open. That is not on the O-line. And the games Cat won were games in which the Indians ran the ball well. O-line was responsible for that. (No, I do not have a kid playing on O-line.) And Hester's commitment to the run was the right way to go.
There are many little things in the game we don't see from the stands. Things like whether the QB runs out a fake after handing the ball off. Or whether the receivers block when the ball is not coming to them. Those are the things the coaches see on video. Those are the little things that make a team a winner. Those are the things to which the players need to commit. Yes, Hester needs to put his foot up this team's butt. That means discipline.
And to say that there wasn't another kid who could make the first guy miss other than Charest is simply not true. There was alot of talent left on the sidelines. And reverses and trick plays are not creativity. They are a sign of desperation.
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gocat
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Post by gocat on Nov 14, 2011 23:54:41 GMT -5
BTW, Trexler was 8/10 inside 40 yards. Six misses were beyond 40 yards. And his kick-offs were pretty good all year.
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Post by catrunner on Nov 15, 2011 9:13:59 GMT -5
"And he needs to put his foot up this football teams butt." Catrunner, on this we agree. But lets not be simplistic in analysis. For instance, It is the easiest thing to blame O-line. Many of the sacks were coverage sacks. Charest had perhaps 5 seconds to throw but no one, not even his brother got open. That is not on the O-line. And the games Cat won were games in which the Indians ran the ball well. O-line was responsible for that. (No, I do not have a kid playing on O-line.) And Hester's commitment to the run was the right way to go. There are many little things in the game we don't see from the stands. Things like whether the QB runs out a fake after handing the ball off. Or whether the receivers block when the ball is not coming to them. Those are the things the coaches see on video. Those are the little things that make a team a winner. Those are the things to which the players need to commit. Yes, Hester needs to put his foot up this team's butt. That means discipline. And to say that there wasn't another kid who could make the first guy miss other than Charest is simply not true. There was alot of talent left on the sidelines. And reverses and trick plays are not creativity. They are a sign of desperation. Gocat, Catawba was dead last in rushing in the conference. Who do you blame for that? If Catawba was dead last in passing, obviously you would blame the QB, right? I am not laying the blame squarly on the O line players. They cant help that there was not much depth and they had to play young kids there. So who do we see about that? Who is accountable for that? Obviously the games we ran the ball well were the games we won. That is football 101. But we won 3 games. And yes, we had good O line play in those three games. I don't recall many plays where our QB had 5 seconds to throw the ball. I agree with you point about TT. He was sent out there with some long field goals and he there were many many times he should have gone out to get the 3 instead of going for it on 4th down. Look, I am not going to blame any one player or person. I did not call out a single player by name like some have done. Coaching a football team is like running a business. When there are problems, you have to solve the problems. Business's have financial statements and production statistics to plan and make changes to correct problems. Football teams have statistics and film to do the same. After a poster called out Charest I went back and looked at the team and conference stats and I pointed out some facts. Simple as that. And the facts did not support that posters criticism of Charest. By the way Nate Charest had 51 catches. Eric Mormon had 48. When I pointed out that we were 50% in field goals, I did not call TT out by name but I pointed out that that is a terrible percentage. I do agree there was some talent on the sideline. Curiously, who do you think was left over there that should have played more? You cannot continue to do the same thing over again and expect different results. Something has to change. We will have to agree to disagree about reverses and trick plays. I don't agree they are desperation plays. I believe they are weapons in your playbook. I want Catawba to win and win big. I don't believe this failure of a season is the fault of one player.
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Post by catualum on Nov 15, 2011 16:12:07 GMT -5
Okay, maybe it was unfair for me to call out the QB. However, the expectations were pretty high for a guy who had started at the D1 level. It appeared that there were many times when he suffered a coverage sack when he perhaps should have been able to throw the ball out of bounds to avoid the lost yardage, something I would expect from one with experience at that position. If I'm off base, then apologies.
The previous post about predictable plays is right on. I can't count the number of times this year when we had a first down, and my friend next to me would say, "Well it's first down, I guess they'll run off right tackle." And sure enough...and mostly for little or no gain. If we're so predictable that the casual fan knew what play we were going to run, do you suppose the opposition was any less wiser?
There's need for improvement all around, starting at the top. My frustration is borne from passion, and I hope all of our fans are equally passionately frustrated and are unwilling to settle for the kind of debacle we saw this year. I hope the staff can right the ship by next season. I may complain, but I'll be there just like I have been for decades through good and bad, even though I won't settle for less than the excellence the programs fans and supporters deserve.
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gocat
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Post by gocat on Nov 15, 2011 21:01:22 GMT -5
One thing I have learned from having a kid play football is that those of us in the stands only think we know what is happening on the field. We see the result of a play and we think we know why it happened but we probably don't. I'll give you an example.
My kid played O-line in high school. I was in the bleachers one game when the ball carrier was tackled for a loss on a play. He went to the outside and it looked like my boy blocked the defender right into him. So I get to listen to the fans in the stands talk about what a lousy job the Olineman did on that play. Later, my boy explained to me that that play was designed to go up the middle, which is where the hole was. And it was the ball carrier going to the outside that messed it up.
That is why I would rather speak in generalities than specific players or even specific positions. But since the subject has come up already I will say this about QB Charest. He is one tough son of a gun. He took some hits like the one at the end of the first half at Coastal Carolina and he just kept getting up and he just kept getting after it. He also made some plays with his legs, some planned some not, that kept drives going. And he showed no hesitation when he would put his shoulder into a defender to move the chains. Sometimes the passing game was connecting sometimes not. What we need for next year is for the offense to spend the off season getting in sync.
That is why I say the biggest thing the powers that be could do for these student athletes would be to make it easier for them (especially the non-scholarship players) to stay in Salisbury during the summer.
Next season starts now.
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Post by catrunner on Nov 16, 2011 8:59:38 GMT -5
Gocat,
What you say about the summer workouts is the most important objective Catawba has to achieve this coming year. That 2 months of getting faster and stronger is number 1.
I always believe you become a football player in the off season. If you go into camp in shape, then you can worry about learning the defense or offense and not about getting in shape.
Great statement.
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billv
All-Conference
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Post by billv on Nov 16, 2011 13:20:41 GMT -5
Fellow Catawba Fans, I will make one last comment on this years team. We all want a winning football program at Catawba . We can all agree that over the last 3 years our record has showed a downward trend. Whatever the reason ( for I am sure there are more than one ), I hope that we can all agree that we are pulling for Coach Hester to turn it around soon !! I am afraid that if he doesn't , that we may lose a good coach . I for one believe, Coach Hester is the right man and will make the right changes needed to turn this around. GO Catawba !!!
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