I have always enjoyed looking at the 2-deep rosters in the Game Notes, especially when we are about to play against a P-5 team…so here’s my question:
It appears to me that size-wise (height and weight) we match up pretty well against P-5 teams. Maybe we’re a proverbial tenth of a second slower than our opponents. But we “size up” pretty well and, over the CM reign,we seem to have gotten both taller and heavier.
So why are there so many injuries…or at least CM complaining about the number of Miami’s injuries? Aren’t our opponents as likely to be injured as frequently as Miami is when collisions occur?
Iowa traditionally plays a 90% P5 schedule with MAC type level 3 recruits - lots of them in the 80-88 range and very few of any level 4. Ferentz seems to hang with the Big 10 boys fairly well in most years.
Not sure…as said above S&C maybe obvious answer, but said the same thing in NW thread…even UK game…seemed like our lines had no issues going head to head overall.
Martin keeps mentioning LT, and Vaughn is great, but Jados seems to be doing well (6-8 310)…move well…not sure if he’s grading out poorly, but has passed the eye test (we also seem to have 15 OL on roster). Interior DL some drop off in size, but the main guys have played very well.
Our injury list isn’t abnormal, so it’s not S&C. And other teams are getting injured against us. But it’s only physics that the bigger and faster opponents are, the more force behind collisions. Our big guys aren’t as fast and our fast guys aren’t as big. Looking at one variable in the force=mass x acceleration only tells half the story.
What? Iowa outperforms their recruiting ranking normally, but they aren’t recruiting like a MAC team. They are consistently in the middle of the B1G recruiting ranks and are recruiting high 3 stars with some 4 stars. There is a difference between that and the low 3 stars that the MAC typically signs.
Look at the 24/7 analysis of Iowa. They never get more than one or two four stars - almost all mid 80s three stars.we get low to mid-80s three stars and no four stars. They play a Big 10 schedule with those recruits. We play a MAC schedule with an FCS, two buy games and UC. There are a number of P5 teams that don’t get any better talent than the top two or three MAC teams get yet manage to play P5 schedules.
I think our program is built on 3’s and 2’s while power 5 programs are built on 3’s and 4’s. At the very top they get 5’s too. What that means is that we are a developmental program and at any time we have half of our 100 players who are not really ready to compete against UK, UC, and NW. So we don’t have the same number of fully developed quality players that the P5 teams have. Our quality depth does not match up, but our 1’s can be very competitive. So when we get a bunch of guys banged up, we lose competitiveness.
And over that time they’ve brought in 2.5 four stars a year (plus a five star in 2017) compared to the MAC’s 0.
So that does line up with them bringing in consistently mid to high 3 stars. The best team in the MAC for a given year averages a low 3 star and the average MAC team averages a high 2 star.
It’s a little self furfilling since an Iowa commit probably gets a bit of a bump, but imo it’s not the case that Iowa is bringing in MAC level players like you originally had said.
I appreciate your research. I’m having a difficult time understanding why an average of about three points per player when all but two are standardly three star players means we are ripe to be physically abused by those teams, as Chuck implies. First, let me clarify I wasn’t referring to the average MAC recruit in comparison to Iowa. I was referring to Miami, recently at or near the top of MAC recruiting.
I can understand the significant difference between a Miami - which normally gets better than average MAC recruits - and SEC or top tier Big 10 teams with player rankings of 92-94 and rosters loaded with four and five stars. But I don’t understand how we’re set up to be physically abused by teams whose average recruit is 87 compared to our 84 - when both teams are dominated primarily by three star athletes.
I can understand we might lose to them but I don’t understand the concept of being beaten like a rented mule by them. It shouldn’t be like the JV playing the Varsity.
I’ve said this before, stars are issued by journalists not coaches. They are directionally correct at best. MAC schools don’t get 4 Stars unless they were 4 Stars before committing. Lots of 4 Stars are 2 and 3 Stars in the ranking before their commitment.
Iowa is an enigma in their recruiting. They don’t care much about star rankings. One metric that they use is finding player who’s HS film looks like the HS film of players that have panned out well. If you look at their LBs, several were not LB’s in HS. So they may take a 3 Star .827 who played safety in HS with the intent to make them a LB
That’s fair, I don’t agree with Chuck either. I just don’t think it’s correct to say that Iowa recruits at a MAC level. There’s a skill difference between high and low 3 stars but physically I don’t think it’s massive.
Dick…i’m not Jerry but know him very well…actually stepped in for him after a significant injury back in the day
Not my intent to make Chuck look bad…at times he does a fine job of that himself.
Perhaps I read between too many lines…but the underlying intent of his most recent comment was what exactly? He doesn’t feel we should be scheduling two P5 buy games and have to play a dramatically improved UC team for no money? Ok, I’ll respect that feeling…I wont respect the way he shares his feelings publically. And this isn’t the only time he’s, subtly or not, been critical of Miami’s financial position.
And so if everybody wants to think of UC as a P5, and not play the additional buy game a year, then something dramatically different has to occur with the opportunity cost of keeping UC on the schedule. btw, outside of '22, MU has only played 2 buy games in a season 2 times. the financial asteroid is approaching earth and complaining about it in a passive-aggressive way publically doesn’t cut it for any representative of our beloved alma mater.
Am i too critical - maybe… do i have unrealistic expectations - as it relates to how our leading representative comports himself publically on the topic of finances - absolutely not imo
@HawkLBacker Good post. I agree with your assessment of Chuck’s tendency to go rogue in his comments about the team, the university and the conference. It almost appears he has developed a love/hate relationship with the university and the MAC. I do think he truly cares about the student/athletes on his teams.
I wonder if he is already trying to create a rationale for the possibility that we might go up to Buffalo and lay an egg. Citing the physical damage the “big boys” inflicted on us the first month of the season would seem to offer him cover - in his mind - if that happens. He could compare Buffalo’s OOC schedule to ours to illustrate why the Bulls had an advantage.
Back to the game on Saturday. This game opened as a pick’em and yesterday it was UB -1.5. I like to look at the MAC Pick 'em on the MAC Board as I think the guys who make those picks know as much about the MAC as anybody. Our own Love and Honor is one of them. Anyway, this morning it was 16 for Miami, only 7 for Buffalo. Everybody who picked a score had it really close.
This is Homecoming for UB, and they are already 1-0 in the MAC with an awesome offensive performance Saturday at EMU, but they are also 1-3. We need better play from Aveon. He was good in the first 20 minutes at UC and in the last 6 minutes at NW, but poor in all those minutes in between. Hew is capable and has enough experience now to be able to be more consistent
against MAC talent than he was vs Power 5 talent.
UB is much better offensively than defensively, so we should be able to increase our yardage and point totals.
I am wondering about how banged up our running backs are. It is possible we are without Tracey, Bester, and Shelton. That leaves Mozee and Davis of our regular guys. Perhaps Brunson or Snider get some carries. Maybe Chuck was thinking about this position when he railed against the physicality of our schedule.
Win our first two games and we could be on the way to a great season. Lose them both and most of our goals are shot.
