what can we do, right now, to win next year

[hoya guest]

My computer oinked on the audio feed and I followed the game through the posts on this site (thank you!!). However, in the true tradition of Monday morning quarterbacking, and regarding the kicking game, my daughter (who knows football and would play if she could) told me at the begining of the season that there are two very good freshman kickers on the team. If Gilman has been off -- why don't we give one of those guys a chance? Heck, what have we got to lose? I suppose if they have been redshirted that might be another issue -- if the season has tanked, why blow a year's eligilbilty on two games...

Also, why don't we look at our younger WR's? It seems that the on-field leadership through play production has to start somewhere -- if the upperclassmen are not getting it done, perhaps we should look to the younger players. Finally, in my mind, the constant QB uncertianty has lent itself to a lack of confidence by the offense in it's ability to produce. A team can work through bad plays, but that effort becomes much harder when the team does not have a consistant leader at the helm. Why not try giving the starting job OB for next year to a QB right after this season ends, and then work the team around that OB starting next month (it can't hurt) ....By the way, from the posts, it appears that the O looked better this past Saturday...

I agree with the frustration expressed by prior posts; I believe GT has good players with talent, the key is putting the right players together at the right time, and then turning them loose. In my opinion, the coaching staff needs to spend a significant amount of time during the off-season finding the answer to this problem. There should be serious and targeted conversations with whomever the leadership determines will be the future of the team. Perhaps bringing in an outside expert or consultant might help target the real problems and help develop positive and workable solutions.

I am sure the coaching staff is as frustrated as anyone in this season's results. These guys have the background and ability to put together a winning combination, and simply pointing fingers will not get the job done for next year. Let's focus on that future and determine what steps have to be taken right now, this week, to learn from our mistakes and have a winning PL season next year.

Any substantive and meaningful suggestions?

[LBPop]

Just a couple of observations. If the pre-second half warm ups are an indication, one of those freshmen kickers was the only place kicker warming up and he came out early. My guess is that if there had been an opportunity in the second half, he would have been in the game. With regard to underclassmen in general, there have been progressively more and more contributions by freshmen and sophomores. Paulus (sophomore) was not starting at LB early, but by about the third game he was a fixture. Ihezie returned that KO TD and was in on some plays from scrimmage. Also, Davis (freshman RB) was a key player on Saturday.

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that this staff has a heavy bias toward experience until it becomes obvious that the underclassman would be an improvement. Also, to their credit, they have never given up on this season while we have had the luxury of thinking ahead after week #4. Because 4 & 7 sounds so much better than 2 & 9, I don't think that these coaches are going to take chances with young players until the game is out of reach, totally under control, or if the starter is simply playing terribly. But (and I'm relying on some intuition here), if one of these scenarios presents itself earlier than normal (i.e. third quarter) I could see some changes being made sooner than later.

I think Coach Benson is simply sick over how things have gone and I would suspect that privately he is already planning some significant moves for the off season. I would like to pass along one observation from Saturday. In the fourth quarter after one of those particularly bad moments, I saw him shaking the hands of several players on the sidelines and I could swear he was saying, "thank you". I don't quite know what to make of it, but as intense as he is, I was impressed.