Orange Bowl Snowflakes: The Offense

Even if Speight managed to get us in FG position I think we would have all recognized that he is not the man for the job. He was significantly worse than the OSU game, which was his worst game of the season (I think? I'm not 100% sure it was worse than Iowa, but I'm going with it). Even if you want to say that he had nagging injury issues, the injury had to have been less bad today than it was against OSU. He did not have the mental toughness to go out and win a big game with a hostile crowd. I pray that Peters can step up in camp and show that he is worthy of starting next year, even if it means that we are resigning ourselves to an 8 win season in favor of greatness the following year.

on that play.  All that would have bought was one more attempt to get a first down on 4th and 11 or so.  And we still needed a bunch of yards to even get in modest FG range.  So, with so little time left on the clock, it's doubtful that made any difference in the outcome of the game.  It did add salt to the wound though in a very disappointing finish to the game.  

It's crazy to think all three of those guys were rated pretty high. I thought two years of Drevno we'd see big improvement. I think last year they improved in pass protection but not so much in the run game. This year they kind of stayed the same. I can't really say there was improvement anywere. The offensive lineman star ranking is kind of a crap shoot. UM kind of got a raw deal that none of those three 4* guys really panned out beyond marginal. 

seemed to set the tone for the night.  Granted UM had already had a shaky offensive possession before that but that FG felt like a total oss.  First play is a total man ball play and UM doesn't even block the LB lined up a half yard behind the oline.  Voila...4 yd loss on a handoff to Smith.

We have three consecutive years that start a true freshmen OL. not a good sign at all. We may need to start 1 or 2 next year again. That means OL depth is in deep shit. OL is key in harbaugh 's system. We need 6-7 OL the next 2-3 classes. Need to build a wall. We will get there. but not in two years. Whenever, we don't need to start our true freshmen OL, we won't do good in offense.

We're going to get that answer pretty quickly in the form of Mr. Bredeson and Mr. Onwenu, plus whoever arrives in this year's class. 

Damn backend fetch fail gets you every time. Triple post FTL!

I don't know.  Francois was a whopping 9 for 27 with an awful pick 6.  Had some nice throws on the the first couple drives and then struggled in the passing game.  Made a nice throw on the winning TD but that was also as much about as his receiver making a nice play.

Every decent DL he attempted to block took him to the cleaners.  He either needs to get bigger, stronger, and tougher OR switch back to tackle maybe.  But that likely won't happen next year.  We can't get Cesar Ruiz in there fast enough.  

Speight has been mediocre against real competition this season. For every good throw, like the TD to Hill or the prior pass to Chesson, he has one or two really bad unforced errors, like the missed TD passes to Smith and Darboh. You don't win championships with a guy like that unless he makes up for it with his legs like Barrett. 

The best news we could get this next spring or fall is that Peters has clearly passed Speight. 

That has only been a problem since Mike Hart graduated, so almost a decade.