Zero Depth Hurts

[sbsmith]

We better recruit some more CBs this year. With CB Sterling Moore already gone this year, you can see SMU is in deep trouble already. Depth ???...No Depth....Without Sterling Moore we are a 6-5 team this year at best.

We play 12 games.

[JasonB]

Traditionally, you don't want to rely on linemen until their RS Sophomore year/Junior year, and other players you would at least like them to redshirt.

Given that dynamic, here are non-starters whom one might expect to provide depth this season:
Brown - LB
Henderson - LB
Jones - LB
Moczygemba - LB
Parker - LB
Smart - LB
B Smith - LB

Butler - RB
Lunday - RB

J Sorrell - S
Scott - S
Castro - CB
McKinnon - DB - was doing well on special teams before his injury.
Mojica - DB
Robinson - CB
B Thomas - CB

Czerniak - OL/DL
Davis - DT, but should be a LB
Dollens - DL
Free - OL
Grenier - DE - has been solid as a reserve on the line this season.

Flemming - WR
Joubert - WR
Loftin - WR
McDermott - QB

Look at that list. Who are the players you would expect to be good on kick coverage? Brown, Henderson, Jones, Parker, Sorrell, Scott, McKinnon? Which players are ready/good enough to play backup roles on the field? Brown, Henderson, Smart, Sorrell, Scott, Grenier, McDermott? Davis if he were playing MLB instead of DT?

Going into next season, we have quality, "ready" depth at every position except for DT and CB (JUCOs at each, please!). And we have plenty of athletes to run out on special teams. But until then, we either have to play young players who don't know what they are doing or more experienced players who aren't good enough athletes. And we have been burned by both at different times this season. I know we are sick of hearing about how young we are, but, well, we are.

As for things being Jones' fault or not for lack of depth, I think the only players who should be ready to play but haven't shown it yet would be Joubert, Free, Robinson, and Lunday. Not a bad percentage. The academic casualties from the second class and what happened with LeRibreus, Pittman, and Bell have been the biggest impact on depth from what I can tell.

[soccermom]

We were discussing the lack of depth yesterday as well and it does hurt. But, honestly, where was the coaching in this game? Do we not make adjustments or are we so thin that they aren't working? Did our coaches not care that there were big recruits on campus yesterday b/c they sure didn't have our team ready to play. Like I have said before it takes everyone on the field to win or lose a game and everyone on the field yesterday looked horrible. Our high school could have beaten us!! Yesterday's fiasco I am putting on the coaches---everyone of them!

[Charleston Pony]

Houston was coming off a very disappointing loss to Rice and played as if their backs were to the wall; they wanted it more than we did and they probably have more and better athletes than we do. We have to remind ourselves this is still a work in progress. JJ and staff are working on just their 3rd full recruiting class.

Let's see how these guys respond and how they finish this season. At this point, matching last year's 7-5 would be an accomplishment.

[JasonB]

We were discussing the lack of depth yesterday as well and it does hurt. But, honestly, where was the coaching in this game? Do we not make adjustments or are we so thin that they aren't working? Did our coaches not care that there were big recruits on campus yesterday b/c they sure didn't have our team ready to play. Like I have said before it takes everyone on the field to win or lose a game and everyone on the field yesterday looked horrible. Our high school could have beaten us!! Yesterday's fiasco I am putting on the coaches---everyone of them!

I did think the defense came out and played better both after the rain delay and after halftime. So, I would say the coaches made adjustments, but Houston's athletes were just better and they didn't turn the ball over. That equals a win.

[Big Hoss]

I did think the defense came out and played better both after the rain delay and after halftime. So, I would say the coaches made adjustments, but Houston's athletes were just better and they didn't turn the ball over. That equals a win.

I didn't get to the game until the rain delay, so I missed seeing the first 9 minutes of the game. But if what I saw later on was an improvement by our defense, then we must have been God awful to start.

Our secondary is bad. The only one you can really count on is Chris Banjo, and he can't be everywhere on the field.

We need a couple of JUCO corner's that are at least close to 6' tall next season.

[Stallion]

There aren't enough good 6 feet CBs to supply even the Top 20. You can win with smaller CBs especially in CUSA if they have speed and quickness. Few big CBs can turn and run and change direction which is why they routinely turned into Safeties. CUSA is not filled with the 6-2 6-3 WRs who can run though. Its more important in the BCS conferences. I'd agree though that the midget CBs like Thomas are a big problem

[ultimatefan1985]

Loftin and Joubert are both down with ACL tears. Randy also has an ACL tear. Moczy plays Running back, not linebacker. K-Rob is also injured. The reserve core you are talking about isn't there. We really have no depth. Aaron Davis is not controlled enough to play linebacker. He gets us a lot of costly penalties.

Jones knows what he is doing. In order to get the R&S to work you need a heavy handed and violent O-Line. For the most part they are doing their job. They make maybe a half a dozen to a dozen bad reads a game and it rushes the QB or rattles him. They are getting better though. The next major component is Wide Outs that can get open. So far, they have proven that they cannot get any separation from the defense. We also need a running back that can act as a distraction.

We also need a fast and hard hitting defense. We don't have that. Sometimes we do, but overall we are lacking. The lack of depth severely hurts us. If one o-linemen goes down, we have who? Emshoff? No. If a receiver goes down, who do we have? No one. Same on defense. If Crawford goes down, Parks is behind him. Do you remember Washington State? We don't have any depth. It takes probably 4 solid recruiting classes to rebuild the depth a team needs. Relax. We won't be national champions inside of 2010 or even before 2014. We need time and depth.

[EastStang]

Early in the game Padron seemed to have lots of time to throw. Either our wideouts were not getting open or Padron was having trouble with reads. Either way, absent having Jacobi, Grimm, May, Starke and Bostic (aka, the Hogs), you're not going to get forever to throw. Sooner or later someone will get there. The thing that Padron has stopped doing that he did last year was throw out of bounds when players were not open. And he seems horrible at hitting the wide receiver screen or any short passes.

[Nacho]

everyone seems to forget that we did outgain them in total offense.
the ko return for a td and int that should have been a td for us kind of did us in.

[The PonyGrad]

This thread is sickening. 2 losses in a row and the whining starts.

Houston was better than expected and they were very motivated.

Except for turnovers and the big KOR we are in that game and probably win.

As has been mentioned, we decidedly outgained them.

Padron is not matching some of his stats from last season, like efficiency, but he is still leading the CUSA and has more TDs per game. What are you expecting.

Except for NG and CB we have shown that we have depth. Ryan Smith has been good and so has his backup. Crawford has really shown up after the Tech game. Have not really needed to see much depth on the LBs.

Not sure what all the panic is about.

[Stallion]

we outgained them with a bunch of trash yards after Houston established a substantial lead. When the game was truly on the line we got handled pretty good.

[The PonyGrad]

we outgained them with a bunch of trash yards after Houston established a substantial lead. When the game was truly on the line we got handled pretty good.

Not so fast, most of our yards were scored when SMU came within 7 at 24-17. After that, Houston got that KOR for a TD and SMU went 4 plays and a punt and then a quick INT on the next series. There were a couple of decent drives toward the end resulting in a FG and nothing at the end of the game.

I do not think trash yards is accurate.


Edit: Also, if it was trash time, Houston got as many yards, relatively, as SMU did, so the comparison still is valid. We outgained them.

[PoconoPony]

There aren't enough good 6 feet CBs to supply even the Top 20. You can win with smaller CBs especially in CUSA if they have speed and quickness. Few big CBs can turn and run and change direction which is why they routinely turned into Safeties. CUSA is not filled with the 6-2 6-3 WRs who can run though. Its more important in the BCS conferences. I'd agree though that the midget CBs like Thomas are a big problem

Thomas is a disaster. Lucky thing the WSU coaching staff was lousy and failed to pick on him in key situations after eating him up routinely.

[Stallion]

True but when you watch the replay you will see it wasn't just Thomas getting beat. When Houston goes 4 wide the other DBs had coverage responsibilities too. I kept noticing that it wasn't always the CBs. Thomas is a problem-others didn't have a great game either