realistic spot for improvement via experiment

[r_desihawk]

imo we are pretty much what we’ve shown to be on O and D in b1g play. This is it. basically B+ grinders

so might as well try and continue to find the right guy at punt returner…We have a potential all world elusive, quick, and fast guy with great hands who hardly ever gets the ball in his hands due to accuracy limitations at QB. I really would like to see Diaz at PR.
My guess is they don’t want to risk him there but Diaz could turn every game around for us. After charlie jones, dejean, and wetjen it’s demoralizing to see us trot out the guys we have

Any other experiment to try?

 

[Ripcord]

I am solidly in favor of that. If I had a say as to the timeline, I would say turn back the clock and do it before the Minnesota debacle.

 

[UIAlumFireFighter]

imo we are pretty much what we’ve shown to be on O and D in b1g play. This is it. basically B+ grinders

so might as well try and continue to find the right guy at punt returner…We have a potential all world elusive, quick, and fast guy with great hands who hardly ever gets the ball in his hands due to accuracy limitations at QB. I really would like to see Diaz at PR.
My guess is they don’t want to risk him there but Diaz could turn every game around for us. After charlie jones, dejean, and wetjen it’s demoralizing to see us trot out the guys we have

Any other experiment to try?

1) Just can’t risk losing our WR that gets two or three catches a game - What in heavens would we do without all that offensive production?!

100% agree. Put him at PR.

2) Try putting our support behind one of the other quarterbacks.

 

[Rambler Hawk]

imo we are pretty much what we’ve shown to be on O and D in b1g play. This is it. basically B+ grinders

so might as well try and continue to find the right guy at punt returner…We have a potential all world elusive, quick, and fast guy with great hands who hardly ever gets the ball in his hands due to accuracy limitations at QB. I really would like to see Diaz at PR.
My guess is they don’t want to risk him there but Diaz could turn every game around for us. After charlie jones, dejean, and wetjen it’s demoralizing to see us trot out the guys we have

Any other experiment to try?

At this point, it can't hurt. It sucks that James can't hang onto the Rock, because we are #2 in the league in PRs (per CoPilot). Since Braeden is doing great on KR, maybe through him back there...

 

[Lionhawk85]

My son pointed out to me that if James wouldn’t have fumbled on the punt return, we would have won the Minnesota game bc we were already then in FG position. We all felt relieved bc of the fortunate illegal formation penalty made them punt again and we still got the ball, but it almost literally took (the game winning ) points off the board.

all that to say, yes, I’m all for finding a new PR (Diaz or otherwise) and also would love to see the young QBs get a chance to throw and develop for next year.

 

[uihawk82]

imo we are pretty much what we’ve shown to be on O and D in b1g play. This is it. basically B+ grinders

so might as well try and continue to find the right guy at punt returner…We have a potential all world elusive, quick, and fast guy with great hands who hardly ever gets the ball in his hands due to accuracy limitations at QB. I really would like to see Diaz at PR.
My guess is they don’t want to risk him there but Diaz could turn every game around for us. After charlie jones, dejean, and wetjen it’s demoralizing to see us trot out the guys we have

Any other experiment to try?

I think James is doing a good job overall, I was for RVZ early because he caught the ball and then got his 5-15 yard returns whereas James had some issues holding on to it and even fielding it. But until that fumble late in the Minny game James had been doing pretty well, not many returns against OSU but a lot of returns against Wash and he had 25+ one.

I agree that Diaz could do it but has he ever done it, he could get smashed.

 

[uihawk82]

imo we are pretty much what we’ve shown to be on O and D in b1g play. This is it. basically B+ grinders

so might as well try and continue to find the right guy at punt returner…We have a potential all world elusive, quick, and fast guy with great hands who hardly ever gets the ball in his hands due to accuracy limitations at QB. I really would like to see Diaz at PR.
My guess is they don’t want to risk him there but Diaz could turn every game around for us. After charlie jones, dejean, and wetjen it’s demoralizing to see us trot out the guys we have

Any other experiment to try?

I think an area for self improvement is to run wide a lot, go against our tendencies, with a TEnd in motion to be in a position to block down on the DEnd or outside buys, pitch it wide and run it wide and let the running back pick his hole or holes and even just ride the way to the sideline for a nice gain. You can also fake it to the running back up the middle where we run a lot but have a slotback or WR in motion to catch a pass wide behind the LOS where every player can be blocking downfield without a PI penalty being called.

Need to outflank these teams to spead them out.

This also makes the defense big boys have to run a lot, get them tired, pound on them and make the game in our favor in the 2nd half.