re: What are your legit worries now that we are 2 weeks in?

OL play is my only concern. It affects the run game and pass game, if you can't establish the run when they are dropping 6-7 then that makes for an impossible task. Nussmier will have to do something on his feet to keep the defense honest. I am not saying I want him to run into traffic, but if he can pick up 5-8 without being touched then he has to start doing that.

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He can run. He just won't.

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Or, for whatever reason, from whoever, he's being instructed not to. I don't know. Maybe they're really afraid about making the knee injury worse.

But we're not asking him to be Jayden or even Joe with his running. Just run when it's there.

The continued inability to develop depth along the offensive line 4 years into this. At some point you have to be able to coach.

If someone goes down on the OL, we are screwed. Not where I thought we’d be in year 4.

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This is so overblown. Nuss extended plays and escaped pressure very well against Clemson. He ran for 3 first downs and then he comes back and has 1 bad game and this narrative is out again. Good grief.

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Not really. Yes he had a bad game vs LT, but I can count several times where he could have run for the easy 1st down without even being touched, but instead chunked for an incompletion which led to eventual punt. That's the concern.

Him running for 4 or 6 yards keeps the defense on its toes, which should open up the passing game for our stud WRs. Tech's defense was giving him the run and covering everyone, and he couldn't make it happen.

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Not really. Yes he had a bad game vs LT, but I can count several times where he could have run for the easy 1st down without even being touched, but instead chunked for an incompletion which led to eventual punt. That's the concern.

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Again, the game against LA Tech was not going to be a game where he was going to take off and run. Just wasn't going to happen. Bookmark this convo if you want because if those situations present themselves against Florida he will take off. There were 3 plays the only one I think he should have was the ill advised forced throw to Hilton in the back of the endzone. The other 2 were more questionable but also due to the game I am not sure that he didn't take off since it was Tech. If its Florida he would have.

They were dropping 8 majority of time and they had 2 people waiting if he did take off. Now he might have gotten a few yds but he would have slid to avoid the hit which would have only gotten him 2-3 yds. Drop 8 cover 3 or Cover 4 is not a take off and run. The few times where he had time to run was man coverage. I was more bothered by him missing his reads and not seeing open receivers then not running against LA Tech. If he passes on those opportunities against Florida then we can talk but that was not the issue against Tech.

Sloan.

I said over the summer that although the total yardage numbers looked good, his offensive was far too often predictable, risk averse and failed to play to the strengths of his personnel, ultimately resulting in a lot of yards gained that didn't correspond with the amount of points scored. Top 20 nationally in total offense; top 5 in 3rd down conversions, yet barely in the top 50 in ppg. My hope was that in year 2 with an even more experienced QB and better group of WRs the approach would evolve to be more dynamic. Two games in it hasn't. He gives you all the "feels" with a few reverses and handoffs to WRs, but it often leads to just empty yards because LSU isn't scoring at a high rate.

This defense looks championship caliber. Outside of only one drive it suffocated Clemson. Yet, we had to sweat out a 4th down inside the LSU 20 to preserve the win because LSU's offense sputtered. The thought was "It was the first game; Clemson's good, Sloan was concerned about the new OL, etc"...then the offense comes out with none of those factors in play and performs worse vs. La. Tech.

I think this team has enough playmakers on offense to make it one of the best not only in the SEC, but the nation. I'm just not a believer (yet) in the guy orchestrating it. We saw in 2018 that great players with a weak "conductor" can fail to reach their potential. Then we saw the following year was a strong conductor can do with that same personnel.

BK was pissed at the coaching staff following the game. Given the defense turned in a second suffocating performance, I can't imagine they were the focus of the anger. That means BK sees the same thing. The offense coaching is not good enough right now

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That Brian Kelly will find a way to frick up a good season

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Sometimes It’s not the coach, it’s the players. Stop looking for scapegoats.

The success of this team boils down to one issue...that is the success or non success of the offensive line. We cannot afford to lose Moore, and we must improve at LG and RT to be more specific.
Nuss will shine if we can get a successful running game and enough pass protection to allow our receivers to maximize their speed on deeper routes. Nuss needs to break and run more for first downs when the field opens up.

Trying not to let stats carry too much weight at this point with only two games played ..........but not crazy about these ....


Turnover Ratio -2

Points Per Game 20 vs 30.9 last year

Both passing and rushing yards per attempt down from last year