Wow! What a game to start to start of the convo. I must say I was expecting a good game but not like this. I didnt expect a loss but it happens sometimes. Takeaways:

Greg can move the offense. Things will get better with experience as the season goes on.

Explosive plays. We made some but we gave up a lot as well. Papi, Jordan and Mr Elijah shows us that they can make big plays when needed. Really impressed with the Ball kid at receiver. Glad we have him.

Our secondary is young and will take not just this year but next year as well to get used to the Mich State Cover 4 that turns to man after 15 yds.

Kicker. We seem to just rebuild at this position as he is MAC Player of the Week.

I watched the game online and we seem to not get as many penalties. They held Basham a few times and it wasnt called. I would also ask Basham to get lower and play lower off the edge making it harder to block him. Other than that we have to clean up the penalties.

Missed tackles. This is where I stated a week ago that starters need 20% of live reps before a game to get acclimated to game speed. Too many starters sat out at the end of camp (to preserve injuries) but it hurt us on Saturday.

We have a long season still and can make postseason. I am happy for my old receiver coach Ron Antione who is on Texas States staff. He understands out schemes and gave them a little knowledge on how Ohio plays. Not too surprised with the outcome.

Can someone please post a game guide? I have to see how bad they actually are?

Have a great day!

This team is younger than I thought! We have some big azz young guys!

Definitely agree about Basham's need to get the low-speeeed-leverage defensive end rush. It's effective, it's what the stud pros (Von Miller, etc) wreak havoc and get paid big for.

I don't disagree, however I'm firmly convinced they will improve a lot as the year goes on. I believe in this team, and I'm not going to throw them under the bus for one bad game.

I agree. With the quarterbacks in our league (Woodson, Rush, Knapke, Woodside) we are done if our secondary takes a year. Heck, I would rather be aggressive with our DBs and lose than give up that 10 yard cushion. It seems like every year we consistently have our DBs sit back and give that cushion so opposing QBs can get comfortable with the little 1-yard pass that turns into 6 or 7 yards every dang time. I would almost prefer Poling becoming a 5th DB since Brown and Moore and our DL's cover so much space.

BillyTheCat: Pete Germano was retained by the Solich regime after the last staff left. He was tight end coach and recruiting coordinator. After he left, he went to Fresno State where the Knorr coordinators went to with Deruiter (along with Antione). I'm sure Antione reached out to Germano to get some of our schemes. We still run pistol and we don't run Michigan St Cover 4 every down.

The idea of the Cover 4 is that is does turn into man after 15 yards and it allows for short slants and shorter routes to get passes thrown but the DB's and LB's rally quickly to avoid explosive plays. However, you have to have disruptive front 4. Michigan State has that because of their 4 and 5 star defensive line recruits. I would like to see us mix in that Cover 4 with a Cover 4 then change to Cover 2 at the snap. Fool these check-down QBs and take it to the house.

We are so different than when Pete was in Athens, not to mention NOT one player on this roster was around when Pete was still in Athens.

Players not around but schemes are still the same! You can debate as much as you want to, but you're not winning this one bud. Antione definitely had a heads up on us. I can guarantee it!

Or we can evaluate the young talent to see if they are close to becoming the D backs the scheme needs. Would we still be having this discussion if Wells and Proffitt were still at corner? Perhaps four new CBs were going to be schooled no matter which scheme they were in. News flash "gamebreakers like Papi" break plays against any scheme, hence their label "gamebreakers." The defense made six sacks as it was, I believe "more blitz packages" would have given him even bigger holes to exploit. I know, they should be drawing new defenses up in the dirt throughout the game.

I agree with the first part. However, if you are going to give up short passes, than you need to blitz to rattle the quarterback. Six sacks in multi-overtime game against a lesser opponent is not impressive. Drawing up defenses in the dirt mught have worked. If you trust your corners let them press and give up short passes on 3rd and long after you have made a sack. 56 POINTS is 56 POINTS, Texas State, come on.

TSU gave up 54 points! So you are telling me that without Ron on their staff telling TSU defensive coaches what OHIO like to do, we would have scored 80? And the defensive scheme is totally different than when Pete was here, so to what do you want to contribute that success too? After all we gave up 56 and 400+ passing.

Now if you wanted to say a guy like Michael George had an impact as far as schemes and style of play id say right on. But picking Ron and Pete as the two who knew what we are doing is silly.

In 4Q and 3OT they only gave up 106 rushing yards- WIN
In 4Q and 3OT they gave up 440 passing yards and 5 TD's- LOSS

With those kind of statistics you'd think we were playing Texas Tech, not State.
Kansas throws the ball 70 times a game, so hopefully adjustments are made and they have the corners press like hell every single play giving the front 7 time to pressure the QB all day long. Otherwise, it'll be another long day in Lawerence on Saturday.