Here is our offensive output in the last 2 years against the Big 12 and other P5 schools:
13
28
41
24
0
25
14
30
13
12
0
18 ppg
Not going to win many games scoring 18 ppg in 2024 college football. Realistically we are 2-3 years from trying to compete towards the top of the Big 12 and that is if Fritz makes good decisions. Critical decision number 1 is coming in the next couple weeks - if Smith doesn’t have a DRASTIC turnaround you have to bench him and give your backups extended PT to see what they have to best set you up for next year.
For me, this is the ONLY question that currently matters about Fritz and this team right now - Does the staff have the ability to turn Smith around midseason and if not can they stomach benching him to allow the other QBs PT and admitting they need to just cut their losses and try to build towards next year?
My final comment is that until we have a high level QB we will have trouble winning games - history has proven this time and time again for us - until we have one we need to be on the search aggressively.
We lost multiple starting offensive linemen to the portal this off-season. Lost 2 really good receivers to the portal as well. Our quarterback is simply playing awful. He’s been underwhelming ever since he played against us a couple years ago when he threw 3 picks against us and one of which we ran back for a touchdown. He has no clue where to go with the ball Derek Parish sacked him 5 or 6 times in that single game all by himself and the issues that plagued him during his time at Tech are still everywhere two years later quarterbacking Houston.
Our offensive coordinator ran one of the worst Mississippi state offenses that they had seen in years. So It’s no surprise that this offense is terrible. All we can do is hope that Fritz is able to continue to recruit well and that we can retain the majority of our best players in the off-season. I trust Fritz to make the changes that need to be made. Just a tough situation Fritz came into with a returning senior quarterback who couldn’t even throw until basically fall camp.
I’ll repeat myself. Mississippi State with Barbay as OC was averaging 30 points a game until their starting QB was injured halfway through the season, and they didn’t have a competent backup. His offenses at Central Michigan averaged 32 points per game, and at Appalachian State his offense averaged 35 ppg. I don’t think Barbay is the problem; I think our QB is. Not that we don’t have problems with the offensive line.
Sure, but my go to example is the Texans a few years back, with Matt Schaub. Two straight playoff teams, then suddenly 2-14 in Case’s rookie year. What was the difference? Schaub got a huge contract because he was on top of his game. The problem was they took the cap room from the O-line and let a bunch of them walk, with bargain replacements.
A good line can make any qb look good, but a less good line makes any qb look bad, with very little margin for error. Maybe Smith really has trouble at this level, but maybe nobody has put an adequate line in front of him; whether it’s size, talent, coaching, or scheme.
Schaub threw for 4000 yards in 2012 with a higher completion percentage than he had in 2011, and Foster rushed for 200 more yards. Three members of the 2012 offensive line made the Pro Bowl. They had a better record. (Granted, they weren’t trotting out Weejay Yates for almost half of the season.) I’m really not sure how the argument can be made that the offensive line heavily regressed, unless you’re pinning it on the fact that Schaub took a little less than 0.1 more sacks per game in 2012 than 2011.
They had issues in short yardage running the ball in 2012 and in 2011 they were really almost automatic getting first downs in that situation. They got really exposed the last month of the season and playing 2 overtime games after thanksgiving really took the life out of them and they never recovered. The two guys they lost from 2011 were the RG and RT and there was a dropoff in play. The 3 pro bowlers on the line were the LT,LG and C.