It's still early, but is this Leach's best offense at WSU?
- Thread starter YakiCoug
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I’m somewhat concerned about depth at RB.
Eastern’s DBs has absolutely zero ball skills. None. It reminded me of the Wulff era DBs.
We seem to keep making excuses for our victories.
I think this is probably one of the quicker offenses he's had at WSU and that's why it is having the success it is.
We've talked about it a lot on here, but Minshew brings a quick decision/release style that we haven't seen since Halliday, but Minshew has a better understanding of what he's doing than Halldiay.
I love Falk but he was sloooooooooooow on everything he did. Sloooow to pick the perfect receiver, slooow to get lined up, slooow slooow sloow.
Incredibly accurate player, Calm and collected 24/7, a great person and leader, but sloow. That made him vulnerable to sacks constantly and a lot of missed opportunities.
Minshew on the other hand is all speed. Everything he does is fast. The decisions he makes, the throws, the reads, if a play is not working he will just throw the ball away. Minshew is about just playing ball and executing, and that's really when this offense really is at its best.
I think also just the weapons that are available on offense are better than in years past.
There have been some great people Marks, Cracraft, Mayle, Williams etc. over the first few years, but nothing depth wise to what we see now. Tay Martin, Patmon, Calvin, Sweet, Patmon, Lewis, Bell, Harris etc. etc.
Just so many weapons all over the place, and while Minshew doesn't have a lot of reps with all of them the good thing is he isn't attached to any in particular. He just throws it to whoever is open while Falk would sort of cling to his safety blanket players like Cracraft and Marks.
So you have a few things working right now that weren't exactly optimal before. You have a QB who is making quick decisions understands exactly what to do and goes out executing, and you have a wide depth of weapons to attack the field with and probably the deepest receiver corp we have.
Add in the addition of Borghi and Williams and well it's just a better looking offense. It's crisper, it's faster, it's more talented than in the past.
The only real thing holding it back is an offensive line that isn't in the same caliber as what is around it. It's decent, it's serviceable, but it isn't dominant. If it was the team would just destroy people. If the team had a Cole Madison, Joe Dahl, O'Connell, Dillard, Sorenson as upper classmen and a fully gelled offensive team with maybe the bonus of Jamal Morrow / Cracraft/ Marks I honestly don't think it would lose a single game in the Pac. I think it would be hard to win the playoff, but I think it would win out in the Pac 12, especially with the defense we have and improved special teams.
What we are seeing is the continued growth of the program, and all of that is positive. We're not far away from taking that major step toward top tier yet but we are getting close, we just need it all to line up at the right time, but we are getting more and more pieces into place. They just aren't all there all at the same time yet.
We've talked about it a lot on here, but Minshew brings a quick decision/release style that we haven't seen since Halliday, but Minshew has a better understanding of what he's doing than Halldiay.
I love Falk but he was sloooooooooooow on everything he did. Sloooow to pick the perfect receiver, slooow to get lined up, slooow slooow sloow.
Incredibly accurate player, Calm and collected 24/7, a great person and leader, but sloow. That made him vulnerable to sacks constantly and a lot of missed opportunities.
Minshew on the other hand is all speed. Everything he does is fast. The decisions he makes, the throws, the reads, if a play is not working he will just throw the ball away. Minshew is about just playing ball and executing, and that's really when this offense really is at its best.
I think also just the weapons that are available on offense are better than in years past.
There have been some great people Marks, Cracraft, Mayle, Williams etc. over the first few years, but nothing depth wise to what we see now. Tay Martin, Patmon, Calvin, Sweet, Patmon, Lewis, Bell, Harris etc. etc.
Just so many weapons all over the place, and while Minshew doesn't have a lot of reps with all of them the good thing is he isn't attached to any in particular. He just throws it to whoever is open while Falk would sort of cling to his safety blanket players like Cracraft and Marks.
So you have a few things working right now that weren't exactly optimal before. You have a QB who is making quick decisions understands exactly what to do and goes out executing, and you have a wide depth of weapons to attack the field with and probably the deepest receiver corp we have.
Add in the addition of Borghi and Williams and well it's just a better looking offense. It's crisper, it's faster, it's more talented than in the past.
The only real thing holding it back is an offensive line that isn't in the same caliber as what is around it. It's decent, it's serviceable, but it isn't dominant. If it was the team would just destroy people. If the team had a Cole Madison, Joe Dahl, O'Connell, Dillard, Sorenson as upper classmen and a fully gelled offensive team with maybe the bonus of Jamal Morrow / Cracraft/ Marks I honestly don't think it would lose a single game in the Pac. I think it would be hard to win the playoff, but I think it would win out in the Pac 12, especially with the defense we have and improved special teams.
What we are seeing is the continued growth of the program, and all of that is positive. We're not far away from taking that major step toward top tier yet but we are getting close, we just need it all to line up at the right time, but we are getting more and more pieces into place. They just aren't all there all at the same time yet.
Excellent comments and all of course valid ... I’m just so thankful that for the first time in Coach Leach’s system our beloved Cougs have a QB with lateral mobility & can run —even if it’s only 5-6 yards when needed to —so those dropping LB’s have to hesitate for a moment
I said as much last week. Defenses will have to account for this wrinkle, something they never had to do before Minshew's arrival.
Great post. Yes, this is clearly the best Leach team we've ever had, and it's very disappointing Gardner won't be back next year.
Even though we've played only non-con, we're not showing up on national radar... yet. If we beat SC, then here we go again. Pre-season picked us near the bottom of the Pac, and frankly, our offense is looking way better than Washington. Actually, this team has even surprised us. It has far exceeded our expectations. Such amazing chemistry, skill and leadership. We're going to get some notice soon.
We'll see what happens after Friday night.
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It's still early and we haven't really played anyone yet but I don't know that it should surprise us too much any longer. There will end up enough teams that don't live up to their expectations for us to pick off and hopefully get at least 5 more as long as we don't beat ourselves.
I thought a 4-1 start was possible coming into the season. Still, it's no easy task on a short week to win in the Coliseum no matter how bad SC might be looking and Utah has a bye week to prepare for us.
It was a comment on the game.
We seem to keep having the most sensitive fans around too.
Swear... Not to be negative Nancy, but you all realize who we have played so far right?
Or more importantly... Who we haven't played
Or more importantly... Who we haven't played
Yes and the best QB of the Leach era at WSU.This offense looks like Leach s teams at TT. Perhaps the fugue like state Leach was in during his earlier years at WSU has dissipated?The PAC teams will prove if this is true
We played one of the best defenses in the Mountain West coaches by a former Nebraska DC and Multiple National Title winning head coach in Wyoming.
A totally crap Mountain West team in San Jose State that Oregon just allowed to score 22 points while we shut them out completely.
And the #1 ranked FCS team averaging 600 yards of offense per game which we thrashed and abused causing multiple interceptions and a 100 yard return for a Touchdown.
Now having said that.
If let’s say Stanford, UW, USC etc were playing those teams what do you think the scores would be.
Here let’s play a game.
Stanford 41 - Wyoming 19
UW - 31 - San Jose State 0
USC - 59 - Eastern W. 24
Those all look like real scores yes. If you were skimming the scores from yesterday and you saw those scores they don’t look out of place do they? Would you think less of those teams?
Now ask yourself why you do do that to us.
And the truth is your perception of us is making excuses for the success. Well we aren’t good, those are just bad teams yes?
But if you look at it with other teams doing it what do you think? Those are good teams doing what good teams do against lesser opponents right?
So why in your brain do you not see us as a good team doing what good teams do to lesser opponents?
Because you have been taught over years of conditioning to not believe that we were one of those good teams that just takes care of business. Well surprise surprise.. we are.
One concern, unless it won't effect him, is that Gardner has never played in The Los Angeles Coliseum. Let's not kid ourselves. The place is what it is, and can be too intimidating when all the sudden you're on the big stage, against the Trojans, their band, their horse, on national TV.
It will be interesting to see how he does, (what he's really made of), under this incredilby unprecedented pressure.
It will be interesting to see how he does, (what he's really made of), under this incredilby unprecedented pressure.
Their horse won't be lining up against us though...nor their band...etc. Having said that, I understand your point. Our receivers must play physical and run excellent routes.
One gets the feeling you spent much of your childhood and teen years crying and shivering in a corner when asked to do something in front of others. If WSU loses, it doesn't validate your insecurity.
Totally legit points...
I did not mean the post to be anything anti, but rather a true Testament of what we are will come from our showing on Friday.
Lets not forget that 70% of voting USC fans want their coach fired. Also, after their losses, many USC fans with tickets are going to think about Friday traffic in LA and end up doing something else. The loudest fan base in the stands may well be the Cougs.
I think the 2016 offense was better because it was more diverse, but the core pitch and catch element is definitely the best it's been. Minshew is Halliday with a smaller arm but much better decison making, which is almost the ideal for this offense. I've loved his reads so far and could count the number of bad reads I've seen through 3 games on one hand. He's less accurate sometimes but that doesn't matter when he's moving through progressions so quick
Man, I don't know--Halliday was averaging 430 yards per game in 2014 and was putting up ridiculous numbers against some teams, and had cut his interceptions down considerably. Of course there was wide variance in terms of points scored and yards when we played decent defenses, but that can be said about most of Leach's teams while coaching here. I'd say if Uncle Rico can average 350/game without the large variance of Halliday and we can generate consistent yards on the ground, I'll anoint this year's offense the best.
Minshew is also a better leader than Halliday ever was, and seems more resilient than Falk, who one draft writeup I read said suffered from 'quicksand' (things going wrong leading to more things going wrong). If there's one thing about this team that I really love and consider its defining trait so far, it's that resilience. I credit Minshew for a lot of that
Yeah, I can’t argue with that—Halliday was a petulant brat when things weren’t going his way, but when he had his stuff he could sling that ball around and put points up fast.
His performance in that Cal loss remains the most ridiculous single game I've ever seen from a qb
I planned to come on here and refute this by saying "well yeah, but he played at [Florida]" or something like that, but it looks like the most significant road venue he's had to play in thus far has been West Virginia:
https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/gardner-minshew-1/gamelog/
Not exactly Death Valley or the Colosseum. Still, while little more than a feeling, I don't think he's going to be intimidated by a setting like that. If anything, I think he might be a little too hyped up by it, at least at first.
Being 3-0 against cupcakes has created a lot of overconfidence.
We’ve played 2 teams with no offense, but people think it’s our great defense. EWU made us look silly on a couple of their drives, probably averaged 10 yards per play. On 2 of their TDs we didn’t have a defender within 15 yards.
Sure we put up yards...with a solid & deep receiving corps against bad DBs. But we had receivers getting chased down by linebackers, and our OL couldn’t open a running lane.
And we put up points, but we were well into the 4th before putting away either Wyoming or EWU.
I like being 3-0, but we haven’t proved we’re that good yet. Running into PAC-12 teams might be a rude awakening. The one thing that makes it look better is that it doesn’t seem like most of the conference is that good either.
We’ve played 2 teams with no offense, but people think it’s our great defense. EWU made us look silly on a couple of their drives, probably averaged 10 yards per play. On 2 of their TDs we didn’t have a defender within 15 yards.
Sure we put up yards...with a solid & deep receiving corps against bad DBs. But we had receivers getting chased down by linebackers, and our OL couldn’t open a running lane.
And we put up points, but we were well into the 4th before putting away either Wyoming or EWU.
I like being 3-0, but we haven’t proved we’re that good yet. Running into PAC-12 teams might be a rude awakening. The one thing that makes it look better is that it doesn’t seem like most of the conference is that good either.
WSU has played two lousy teams and a good Big Sky team. If they’re a great offense, you’ll find out this week.
Why do you come here? I realize that the Rivals uw site is basically non-existent, but really.
I used to enjoy your occasional visits, mutt, but your never-ending BS in a recent thread soured me. Please go away and don't come back.
Somehow I don't think Minshew is the type of dude to be intimidated by anything. If anything, the adversity at USC will be a positive. He will probably feed off of this. Great leaders rise in adversity.
As for our offense, there is this "special" feeling about them. I can try to quantify all the elements (like Minshews leadership, depth/talent at WR etc) but ultimately what I really see is a lot of "chemistry". And that is also important.
Is it......The huskies seem to be reviving one of my old Van Halen favorites
I’m the cupcake man....stop me when I’m passing by......
Auburn and BYU this year.
Fresno State and a road game at Rutgers last year.
Both are tougher than your OOC schedule this year.
Time for bed sir........you used to be fun to banter with, but now your just a pathetic, sour old man.
Too bad
