I'm sure I was one of the guys who snarled "Bench Coan" when he was struggling. And yeah, I thought that Pyne probably should have played earlier in the Cinci game. But Coan's improvement means that the O line is figuring things out to some degree and that the coaching staff has pulled its head out of its ass to put Coan in a better position to succeed with a more uptempo style. It probably won't matter in the long run. Assuming ND beats Virginia and Stanford (the two more problematic games on the schedule) I don't see them beating a quality team post season. True to form, Kelly has lost to the only really good team we've faced this year.
But I'm happy that Jack Coan is playing better. He's a good guy.
in situations that did not suit his skill set. Fortunately, they’ve woken up and recognized that Coan is a timing & rhythm guy and have tailored the game plan accordingly, with the increase in tempo helping him feel noticeably more comfortable. Better late than never. The OL is also performing better — not great, but better — and with more time, Coan is proving capable of getting the ball down the field with some effectiveness. They can win with this guy, but not if Kelly goes away from what’s working, which of course is always a possibility.
Is a poorly coached Offensive line.
I don't think we can pretend that Pyne wasn't more effective than Coan was vs Wisconsin and Cincinnati. From my armchair I would have had Pyne start vs Virginia Tech, and I think that decision by Kelly nearly cost them the game.
Whether it's due to improvement from the OL, Kelly adjusting the offense to better suit his skills, or a case of the light suddenly turning on for Coan (I suspect it's a combination of all 3), I'm just glad that Coan and the offense are finally getting results.
which is my interpretation of your love Jones for Cone.
Ass clowns are offended by Dixie. They now whistle Kum ba yah.
preceded by an impressive game winning drive after being benched. Says a lot about the kid.
And if it were any other head coach I'd be gobsmacked that it took his staff seven games to figure out a game plan that maximized their starting quarterback's strengths and minimized their offensive line's weaknesses (i.e. running an offense with tempo).
More importantly, Coan's been a good leader as evidenced by how he reacts to the other QBs' successes on the field.
This team really wants Coan to succeed, and that speaks volumes about a guy who is only here for one season.
few weeks he has had time to throw. ND has played weaker defenses and they probably changed their protections to help him. Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Toledo and Purdue have highly ranked defenses. Whatever it is, it has worked pretty well.
I thought Pyne should play, solely because Coan wasn’t getting protection he needed to be successful. They fixed that and Coan is showing he is a pretty good QB with time to throw.
They have used Buchner well the last 2 weeks. They are not asking hime to throw on third and long. He runs well and throws ok on play action passes on running downs.
With the recruited talent that ND has, it shouldn't matter how well Toledo's defense played against their non-P5 opponents. Our 2nd string should have put up 40 against them.
You're angry, he's not.
He's having fun, you're not.
Consider the phrase "Whistling Dixie." You didn't grin?
The NDN graveyard is filled with one note posters who challenged Andy and believed they were clever. Care to join them?
However, Kelly and Rees changed their approach during the week off. They stopped calling run-pass options for him. Almost all pass plays are immediate throws after catching the snap because the OL still pass blocks like shit and Coan shouldn't be asked to escape a rush on a regular basis.
In other words, they're calling plays that fit Coan's skill set, and he's executing them beautifully. I don't believe Coan would have duplicated the last two weeks' success executing the same old BS offense.
I wish Kelly would stay with this offense for good, but I don't think that will happen. They immediately go back to the old plays when Buchner plays.
That argument is void when the offense is changed to a different one. This is the first time under Kelly he's changed his offense to match the QB. Hence it was very reasonable for most to want Pyne to play if we were going to keep the old offense.
Credit to Coan for a great TD run, but he's not in the top 50 in passing yards/attempt, adjusted yards/attempt, or passing efficiency. Perhaps it would be even higher if it weren't for the drops. Bizarrely, Buchner has a higher passing efficiency even though he has the number of INTs as TDs (3).
The game plan has been changed to fit his skill set and the capabilities of this year's OL. Let's hope they keep it up.
An ISD article last week said Coan looked good because Tommy called more RPOs.
Now they hand it off or throw. Not as many slow developing read plays.
They're running more run-pass option with Coan, though, where he either hands it off or throws a bubble screen (like the pass to Styles) or other quick hitting pass.
than any of the others we've played so far, including Toledo, FSU, etc.
Not including yesterday's games, these are the F+ ratings by unit of our opponents so far:
Florida St
Offense: 28
Defense: 46
Toledo
Offense: 108
Defense: 22
Purdue
Offense: 68
Defense: 20
Wisconsin
Offense: 72
Defense: 2
Cincinnati
Offense: 29
Defense: 7
Virginia Tech
Offense: 62
Defense: 42
USC
Offense: 27
Defense: 92
UNC
Offense: 12
Defense: 66
Notice the trend. Minus Florida State (which people were feeling... not great about Freeman there either), everyone of our opponents until the past two games had a significantly better defense than offense.
Now that we've faced some better offenses and worse defenses, the script has flipped. The easy answer has been the up-tempo / OL play. Maybe that's helped. But maybe we would've moved the ball regardless of pace. Maybe our OL has only marginally improved - or not improved at all - but the weak (UNC) / terrible (USC) defensive units we've played the past two weeks haven't exploited it.
The fact is, both our offensive and defensive units probably are just not very good when facing a strong unit on the other side. Defense looked disastrous yesterday, offense looked mostly disastrous against Wisconsin and Cincinnati.
Looking ahead, Navy won't tell much because they're pretty terrible all the way around, but I could see us beating UVA in a similar manner as VT, but a final score in the 40s for each team. People will see it as a sign of continued offensive improvement and weak defensive performance / regression, but UVA's rankings (BEFORE their 66-49 loss last night):
Offense: 6
Defense: 84
People on Twitter will cite Quinn doing a great job of turning it around and Kelly/Rees genius up-tempo, while complaining about Freeman. Perhaps the latter will be justified, the former will likely not be.