To be clear, there are 100% issues in coaching that have gotten us to this point. Starting Tuttle when he is already in the portal and not at all a part of the team's future is completely mind-boggling and inexplicable. The consistency with which plays you can't call anything but white flags are called in difficult offensive situations like 3rd and long is atrocious and inexcusable. The continued insistence on putting a walk-on in Delp with no athleticism or explosiveness back to receive punts, despite his many errors in judgement this season, defies any and all explanation. The baffling depth chart decisions that seem to have no regard for performance, particularly at running back, are also completely the coaches' fault.
However, there's also a degree to which players just aren't doing their jobs at anything approaching an acceptable level, and despite having proven themselves capable in the past when it comes to players on the defensive side of the ball.
How many times today did our defensive scheme put players in the right position to make a play, only for them to completely fail to make a tackle, or bounce off a guy like they were made of rubber, or fail to make a play on a 50-50 ball and allow a catch? The most glaring example, to me, being the 45-yard gain Penn State that should have 100% been a two- or three-yard loss. The defensive play calling had a player right there in position to make the play for negative yardage, and instead, they get beat horribly and completely inexcusably in a one-on-one scenario. And I cannot even begin to count the number of times multiple players had a chance at a tackle and failed to do it, just hitting someone instead of wrapping up. The coaches can only put players in position to make the plays; they can't make it for them. Or how about when Monster absolutely levelled that receiver for no reason? Allen and Wilt didn't tell him to do that. That's a senior doing something crippling of his own accord, which has become a trend with him unfortunately.
And this isn't a problem with the defense alone. The offensive line performance, regardless of how poorly Hiller had trained them when he was still here, is completely indefensible. The players we are putting out there were too highly regarded as recruits to be this hopeless. They don't do anything well. They don't open holes, they can't play in space on screen passes, and most importantly, they hang our quarterbacks out to dry over and over and over again. It is no small miracle that Tuttle is the only one to end up on the shelf this season. At some point, you have to at least play with some pride in yourself and your work, and they simply have neither done it nor even shown a desire to do it, in any of the combinations of five we have put out on the field.
However, there's also a degree to which players just aren't doing their jobs at anything approaching an acceptable level, and despite having proven themselves capable in the past when it comes to players on the defensive side of the ball.
How many times today did our defensive scheme put players in the right position to make a play, only for them to completely fail to make a tackle, or bounce off a guy like they were made of rubber, or fail to make a play on a 50-50 ball and allow a catch? The most glaring example, to me, being the 45-yard gain Penn State that should have 100% been a two- or three-yard loss. The defensive play calling had a player right there in position to make the play for negative yardage, and instead, they get beat horribly and completely inexcusably in a one-on-one scenario. And I cannot even begin to count the number of times multiple players had a chance at a tackle and failed to do it, just hitting someone instead of wrapping up. The coaches can only put players in position to make the plays; they can't make it for them. Or how about when Monster absolutely levelled that receiver for no reason? Allen and Wilt didn't tell him to do that. That's a senior doing something crippling of his own accord, which has become a trend with him unfortunately.
And this isn't a problem with the defense alone. The offensive line performance, regardless of how poorly Hiller had trained them when he was still here, is completely indefensible. The players we are putting out there were too highly regarded as recruits to be this hopeless. They don't do anything well. They don't open holes, they can't play in space on screen passes, and most importantly, they hang our quarterbacks out to dry over and over and over again. It is no small miracle that Tuttle is the only one to end up on the shelf this season. At some point, you have to at least play with some pride in yourself and your work, and they simply have neither done it nor even shown a desire to do it, in any of the combinations of five we have put out on the field.
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