I want to know who is actually doing the QB coaching. Sark or Milwee? My guess is more Milwee since Sark has so many other responsibilities. Because yeah, the mechanics and the seemingly mental struggles of Ewers and Manning are eerily similar. Might be time to hire a better QB coach
All these recruiting/high school related takes ignore the fact that Arch looked very damn good last year. Not perfect but accuracy was not an issue. Something has changed in the past 8 months.
My guess is it's purely mental OR he unwisely tried to change his mechanics.
This is what I don't get. He was nails last year in his 2 starts. Yeah those were weak opponents but so is UTEP.
Either he's hurt (doubtful), he has the mental yips (likely), or his mechanics got fucked up over the offseason (who knows).
Not a rhetorical question - How much time do we think Sark actually spends coaching the QBs? Like, is he in the meeting room with them every day or is Milwee leading all of that? I suspect the latter given all the other head coach responsibilities.
Also - yeah Guilbeau has been the biggest weak spot on defense by far. Teams aren't even throwing at MM and Littleton has been solid. Guilbeau has been overmatched every game. Maybe the other backups suck but sure seems like Guilbeau should move back to slot behind Littleton.
QB, OL, and WR are all very inexperienced right now. Not too surprising that they're all up and down. I was surprised WR and even OL depth weren't addressed more in the portal this offseason.
The upside of that is that they should improve more rapidly than normal.
SIAP but what's going on with Derek Williams? Saw him out there with the backups at the end of the game and otherwise nada. Thought he'd be a major contributor this year
Did any of the journalists ask Arch why his mechanics were so different? I saw one Sark quote about footwork on crossers but that's it. Seemed like the issues went well beyond crossers to me..
This is exactly what I'm talking about in terms of QB sneaks being a skill. Statue Tom Brady would have known not to just plow right at that those dudes in the middle. He would have signaled at the line and taken one step left to wedge himself right behind Stroh/Goosby
This is one of the problems with your OC being HC. It's pretty simple. When the defense/ST is on the field, the HC has to be paying attention to what's happening on the field. With a pure OC, they can spend that entire time watching tape, talking to the QB, and planning the next series. I guess AJ does that stuff but he's not the QB whisperer Sark is supposed to be.
This. QB sneak, especially with a guy like Arch, should be near automatic for half a yard. The execution was the bigger problem imo (which is on the coaches too to be clear)
Pros:
Aussie Jack at punter
Run Defense was exceptional
The inexperienced new OL held up really well in pass pro and run game
Littleton
Run game was better than expected considering the opponent and new OL
Endries looks like a player at TE
Cons:
Obviously Arch
Obviously red zone, as always
Pass rush - big shocker to me. I get OSU didn't have many long dropbacks but it seemed like our guys were stonewalled every time I watched them closely. 1 TFL and 0 sacks.
Baker's penalties and that final missed assignment but like others have said, he gets a pass given the circumstance and youth
Stop returning kicks from 7 yards deep you dumbasses
Neutral:
DBs got outmatched by the OSU WRs overall but that's probably the best WR corps in the country and they still held up ok. OSU didn't open it up a whole lot though either.
Hard to judge the WRs from TV
I thought Niblett was fine. He just played it pretty safe which I'm ok with.
I watched the video and I know he said that, but if you watch his 2024 highlights someone posted, Arch seemed to be perfectly fine with touch throws. I don't agree with #6.
Otherwise a solid breakdown. I'm not confident enough in my eyes or football knowledge to say definitively, but it sure seems like his 2024 highlight throwing motion was very different from yesterday. Hopefully just nerves but we'll see
Tush pushes should be way more effective than ours were when you have a guy like Arch in there. They need to teach that shit better asap. There's a reason Philly and Buffalo get a guaranteed 1-2 yards every time against NFL defenses. It's a good playcall and major weapon IF the players are well-coached on it.
Even Tom Brady had like a 90% success rate on QB sneaks and that dude moved like molasses
Well said. Idk why people feel the need to pick sides and only blame one. Arch played bad. Sark sucked in the redzone again. If either one were better, it might be a W.
My main concern - I'm not an expert but why were Arch's mechanics so much shittier than last year? Maybe he was just in his head and will settle down, but if this is a new throwing motion he's using, that's a problem.
This is what I don't understand. Am I just imagining it or was everything more sidearmed yesterday than in this video? Granted, this video only shows good plays but the motion just looked so much crisper and over the top than what we saw yesterday
Agreed but every athlete has ups and downs and playing OSU at the shoe is a very different head space. Not ready to panic on him yet from one game regardless of how bad it was.
Kinda blows my mind that people can be so negative about the coach who has delivered two top-4 finishes in a row after the previous decade of obsolescence. Yeah the offense has issues but he's doing a great fucking job running the program. You can't ignore the success on defense, recruiting, etc when evaluating him.
I do think he needs an actual OC, at least for the Red Zone, and I worry about the QB coaching. On paper those are supposed to be Sark's specialties but he can't do that full-time as HC and it's showing.
Arch will get better. I still think he'll be a star eventually. The bigger question is how fast. It might not be fast enough for this season but the next 3 weeks of cupcakes helps. We'll see.
I still think anyone who thought he'd be elite in his first road game, against an elite OSU team, is on crack. Yeah this was worse than I expected but people need to remember how long it takes most elite QBs to get there. Think about how many starts it took for guys like VY, Burrow, Nix, to get good...