Colorado North Dakota State Recap - Did Colorado Improve From Last Year?

cam Miller was shockingly good in that game uh and and we had seen cam Miller improve we saw him improve two years ago we saw him improve last year and this year it looked like a whole different quarterback his confidence uh in the pocket was felt I saw the way that he was running the offense it was he looked he looked confident running the offense he didn't look scared of Colorado he didn't look like he was intimidated by any of the pressures everything that was getting thrown at him it looked like he had an answer for which was great to see the the what North Co throwing in freaking pton stone or whatever every Cole pton for two two plays at a time they that was one of the bigger coing bungling that I've seen if you want that big Adonis to run for uh two yards I don't know if classify him as an Adonis that little see his biceps yeah I I I take it another I think he's just I think he's just a big O I think that that's what he is I I think Adonis is very if you want the Big O to come in and fall forward two yards uh on on a third and short go ahead and do that this isn't an Adon you kidding me look at go scroll up look at his pipes he's got big arms yeah he's got big arms she's 63235 of course he's got big pipes but look at him focusing it on the facial features an Adonis that's what that's important for for defining an Adonis what are you talking about give me a break he's shredded and a shredded quarterback is good for running for a first down I don't have much confidence in shredded quarterbacks going and throwing two yard outs which he didn't do that good at uh so the the the game plan for NY theu felt disjointed at times where where he Cole pton didn't need to be in the game for more than five snaps he didn't need to and it felt like he was uh North Dakota State showed me a lot on defense uh their their defensive discipline was strong some of the tackling was tough but Colorado does have some of the the most slippery outside receivers uh in the nation where they can break tackles Travis Hunter was a menace I'm not going to chalk up a bunch of L's on North Dakota state for seeing Travis Hunter do what he did he's a spectacular ER talent that is not a condemnation on them but rather just a Peak Performance from that great athlete North Dakota State I think buys a lot of Goodwill with this game for the rest of the FCS season uh this is a a legit opponent it is with with legit outside threat talent and a very good quarterback and the very good quarterback shador Sanders did use the scheme well they they passed it over the middle I don't think North Dakota state is going to face a lot of teams this year that do exactly that or have the ability to clear it out deep and then also have a threat on on a on a deep Corner deep post wherever you want to put the ball like uh Sanders and Company did this is unlike anything that either team is going to see for the rest of the year I think Colorado getting the face North Cota State early was good for them one of the things I said leading up to this week no matter the outcome as long as they win it is a good barometer for figuring out what your issues are it is a good opportunity to build a little bit of conf confidence which I don't know how much confidence you get out of a game like that but to go up against opponent that's going to punch you in the mouth for four quarters which they did and to come out and survive it against a team that is a Powerhouse at their level or at one point was a Powerhouse maybe not the same level as before is a strong test of just your team's just character and ability to fight through adversity despite that though Colorado did not look clean in a number of things shador Sanders played his ass off 445 passing yards I don't count the interception but the four passing touchdowns that he had was freaking phenomenal the connections that he was able to have with his receivers I don't know how much Travis Hunter was in but it felt like every time that they did call on him and we knew that he was getting the football they knew he was getting the football he was coming down with that football especially that ridiculous late touchdown catch that he had their defense made stops when they needed I thought their defensive line looked better than it's been for what they were dealing with with an offensive line that their mentality and has had a higher success rate than Colorado of putting offensive lineman into the NFL with the mentality of we're just going to put our heads down and run through you the fact that they were able to get penetration and get stops against the Run game I feel much better about that that defense where I still have serious concern for Colorado serious concern is their offensive line man they try to get the Run game going and I kept bringing this up saying that I appreciate that they're trying to run the football and at a certain point they did seemingly not abandon it but move away from it D Hayden had nine for 20 yards nine carries for 20 yards 2.2 yards per carry shador as a runner didn't really have any design runs he only rushes for 17 yards it doesn't really count towards what we're talking about uh Charlie or orfidal had five for 15 for three yards per carry they had a ridiculously brutal time trying to pick up yards on the ground I put a lot of that on Pat shurmer who I talked about a ton during the live watch party I don't care if you're going to smirk at that cuz I I don't like Pat Shermer as a GI laugh man I'm not I'm not SM there was we watched a team in North Dakota State have so much creativity with how they were running the football with the counters with the end rounds sometimes getting a little too cute but they were able to put a team on their heels sometimes because their opponent didn't know where the ball was going to be going and all Pat Shermer did was run like the same concept over and over again to complete failure and then the last part the amount of times when they were throwing the ball and there were four fiveman rushes coming through and guys were blasting through that offensive line as easily as they did to get pressures on shador Sanders this could be another really long season I will give them the benefit of the doubt because it's a new group together it might take them some time but God that offensive line looked like [ __ ] yeah the tackle play was decent for Colorado I didn't see a lot of pressure coming down on shadur from from the edges it was the interior inter interior 3 was very rough and the shurmer inside Zone inside run philosophy is eventually it's going to break if we keep on hitting the hammer on the nail it's eventually going to go through the that that stupid that's stupid it's so stupid because okay if we keep spreading them out eventually an inside R uh run will will go for 40 no that's not how it works there has to be if you want inside run to work inside Zone to work you have to set up outside Zone you have to set up pitches you have to set up running the ball to the outside to get the linebacker eyes off the a gaps immediately because if you if it's if you're a linebacker for North Dakota State last night and you're watching a possible run situation you're you're not looking to the B C or D gaps you just wouldn't because they kept on running it up uh through the a gaps there was no differentiation there there was no mix for the offensive line to run and get outside wide and let a fast running back try to get a corner it was we're going to throw to the outside we're going to throw it deep we're going to run it up the middle that that that's not a diverse offensive scheme and that's going to hurt them oh we're trying to hold maybe they're trying to hold on to the mid Zone and the outside zone for for next week and the weeks after not in a game that's as tight as that you need to pull out the stops if you have plays in The Playbook that you're withholding in a close tight game against the FCS Powerhouse use them you need to this whole it felt stubborn the offense last last night for for Colorado well that's that's it felt stubborn that is the epitome of Pat shurmer because and that's literally why Pat Shermer got fired as the Giants head coach and why he was done as quickly as he was as the offensive coordinator for the Broncos is because he is the most stubborn boneheaded play caller ever it's frustrating it's so it's so vanilla what he calls and yeah there's going to be plays that break open the way that they did the talent gap between Colorado's receivers and North Dakota State's defensive backs was enormous it was big so that they were able to get the massive Splash plays that they were able to produce in that game but he calls such a vanilla stupid offense because he thinks that eventually those plays will work at some point if he keeps calling similar Concepts and it doesn't work like that Pat for the love of God you should have stayed an offensive analyst it pains me so much that they couldn't have been creative going and hiring somebody else instead that you just bring in the biggest doofus of a play caller who has never been good at it even when he was the play caller with the Minnesota Vikings when he got hired away to be the Giants head coach they were good but they weren't like in some upper echelon Elite category and how much do that we give that credit to Kirk Cousins he's such a dumbass I'm so sick of Pat shurmer and if they fail to reach their goals this year and they fail to be as good as we were hoping it's going to be because of Pat shermer's lazy actually it's not even lame lazy just lame inept play calling I can't call it lazy because he thinks that he's clearly right and he is not I'm not going to hit the panic button though um after that Spiel I'm not going to hit the panic button though because I do think a game like this when you go up against an elite top three FCS program and you're challenged like this it's going to pay dividends later on in the year when they play their first Big 12 team and these same deficiencies show up and they lose if that happens then the conversation we're going to be having on the show is going to be very different but I I'm not going to freak out after one week um you know what I actually kind of did feel like huh felt like how Florida state did when we were watching them where you could see all the pieces but they just weren't playing together cohesively because there's so many transfer portal guys yeah I um I do inherently respect the Florida State and I respect Colorado and these teams in week one or week zero that give themselves a legit matchup uh maybe we didn't think Georgia Tech was legit as they were going to be they're more than we thought they're more legit than than thought previously I respect Colorado for not scheduling uh you know Portland State week one or any of these other FCS programs that might might not put up as much as of a fight they knew North Dakota state was going to be a challenge they were a challenge and I I do I I I will never admonish a team that is is trying to put together a respectable schedule it is something that I will appreciate teams that open up the season with a hard test and it's not the warm-up game like I appreciate Texas A&M and uh and Notre Dame no matter how that game shakes out for for deciding week one we're kicking it off with a Humdinger same thing Clemson Georgia I like that I respect it it's not just going to be a week of of walkthrough games against uh rough uh FCS teams and Alabama's the king of that I know they got Western Kentucky and they're not a true pushover but it's there's a difference there is so Colorado did earn my respect by by scheduling a tough opponent and they did look tough and it was a hardfought game uh but goodness they do have some some holes on that team that need to be addressed quickly I don't want to spend a ton of time on this though because games are going to be played tomorrow um but I so I tweeted this out and and it went it was UN it was very misunderstood by those that aren't FCS fans and all the FCS fans that I have that follow me understood exactly what I was getting at so I tweeted that if last night's game was any indicator of how South Dakota State versus Oklahoma State's going to go it's going to be a dog fight a lot of normal FBS fans I'm like what are you talking about Oklahoma State's nothing like Colorado that's not what I was comparing yeah I was comparing the fact that South Dakota state is this reigning National Champion who is in my opinion you don't share the same sentiment in a SE separate category of all the other FCS teams Elite of the elite going up against a better Big 12 team that is the game that we watched last night on a grander scale because both teams are better that's what I was trying to say that was completely misunderstood by a ton of people on Twitter when I tweeted that out both of these teams have high stakes South Dakota State wants to prove hey you shouldn't have scheduled us we're the best team in the country we're going to continue our undefeated streak and Oklahoma State wants to be able to say you know we're not afraid to schedule a tough FCS matchup we're not afraid to show up and fight a lot of people one thing that I saw people saying was like North Dakota State proves that the top FCS programs have way more Talent Than People realize that was also pretty clear indicator and that goes in line with what I was getting at is that if North Dakota State looked that good and that close against Colorado imagine what South Dakota State's going to look like playing against Oklahoma State I love the questions that we've gotten before what you know what would happen the top teams went into the Mac what would happen if the Mac was absorbed by the top teams of the FCS the FCS teams would hold their own just fine they would do just fine you see that week in I would go I would go a step further than just fine I really think that like the top five FCS teams would easily win uh the Mac the Sun Belt um trying to think C USA yeah C USA probably not the American or the Mountain West because those conferences are pretty tough but tough but I think that they could win those those conferences I would agree uh the the premier programs they get fired up when they're put on a big stage and they don't shy away and that comes with winning South Dakota State learning how to win uh especially deep in the season I think has transformed their program from a very good competitive team to a team that can take down anybody that that is a when you win a couple national championships and you go on a long win streak there's something that changes within you where you're not hoping to win you're knowing you're going to win and if you're losing in the game it's immediately why are we doing this let's find the fix the the winning program versus losing program in college football it gets healed with three years of winning I I truly believe that and it changes the culture it just takes a little bit and South Dakota State truly changed their culture and they have become an elite program and I think Oklahoma State oh yeah yeah we did our reading now I I I guess they're they're well aware of what South Dakota state is you think you are just wait it it'll be a fun it'll be a fun Saturday I still have people commenting and asking where did you see people saying that that Oklahoma State fans and and pundants are overlooking South Dakota State I haven't seen that anywhere it was the locked on Oklahoma State show and then there was a second one that I'm it's out it's on Twitter it's being re-shared a ton on Twitter Chad's the one who keeps posting it uh Ron brings up an interesting point we've seen it with teams that have moved up from the FCS there's a lot of Truth to that because the recruiting actually goes backwards when you move up it doesn't make a lot of sense but you're not changing the amount of resources going into a program and recruits want to go and play for teams that could win a title theoretically you know they want to play and go to a playoff so would you rather sign up to go to JMU or App State right now and go to the the the Armed Forces Bowl or would you rather play in a semifinal and play for a national championship and say that you won a national championship if you're not going to the college football playoff why wouldn't you set yourself up for an opportunity to win something that's more exciting than just a stupid b well now the big G5 fishing lure for recruits has to be well look the G5 has a spot in the playoff if we if you come here we can have a shot and and be the the 12th seed you know that that's the big lure that's sitting right now but uh I understand why NDSU and sou South theota state gets so many good recruits because guys want Rings it's an important ring and the more you learn about the the subdivision you realize how valued it is as well