The Lions' Pride

So much energy on offense. It's been so stale this year. And yes, miss the hell out of daryll clark.

Nice to see the pressure from a DE (Josh Gaines) and a QB that made a lot of plays with his feet. Geez, we had a really good team that year. I'm sure Joe is still pissed that Royster coughed it up on the one yard line.

And to think just a couple of week later that Oregon State team would beat #1 USC.

So do I.

Is it me or was Royster a much better back in his first year starting? He was great in that game. Had the same patience, but his burst out of his cuts was much better.

And yes, its amazing how you take such a great player like Clark for granted. This team would be really special if he was the QB. I feel like by seasons end, this years team would have had the better defense as I think they have a chance to be elite.

I agree the oline is better but I'm saying the burst from royster out of his cuts was different than what we saw recently.

Wow... I just watching the first minute alone, and I have two major observations...
The first clip is of Joe on the sideline, before the game even starts, looking great and giving the refs an ear full... good reminder, regardless of your opinion of the current situation, of how much we are missing simply with him in the booth...
The second is a graphic that said PSU was #1 in the Big Ten in Red Zone offense in 2007 (53-59)... which is amazing in and of itself with the struggles the past two years in the RZ. Not too mention when I think of the 2007 season, the first thing that comes to mind is the game in Ann Arbor in September, talk about setting offense football back 30 years.. that performance in AA may have been worse than last week v Temple... UM coming off loses to D2 App St and Oregon, were poised to get throttled at home, again... and they tried to hand it to us, starting a true freshman QB, Ryan Mallett. Henne and Hart both injured and saw limited if any action... again, if the Temple playbook had 8 plays on Saturday... that UM game in 07 had about 3 and I believe Morrelli tried to play that game with cement blocks for shoes. Uggh... what a horrible memory.

Remember when we played like this?

An embarrassment of NFL talent on offense. What a joy they were to watch every Saturday. This group is still the greatest offense that I've ever seen at the college level. If the starters had played past the 3rd quarter more than three or four times the entire season, they would have averaged 60 points per game.

Me too, but I firmly believe that we have a guy on our roster that can be as good as DC was (not gonna mention any names but his uniform # resembles the capital letter "I", and just one "I" NOT TWO OF THEM!!!!). If the staff would just give him the damn ball, and open up the offense a little. But that's just one man's opinion.

I never understood his hype / how he was going to be our all time leading rusher cuz ive only really watched his last 2 season.... He looked like a Heisman RB in that game

I agree. But that was 15 years ago. The Oregon State game was just 3 years ago. We are so philosophically different now the only thing remotely the same is our uniform. I know players come and go, and we have to make adjustments for those things, but to be this radically different is somewhat confusing. Where did "Spread HD" go? I don't believe that we DON'T have the players for that offense, the coaches for some reason have aborted that playbook. We have no identity right now on offense, and if there is in fact an identity for a PSU offense, in the last decade it's been the spread, or "Spread HD" as that other "coach" called it. That is our identity offensively, our most successful seasons have been in the spread, so:
1. Where is the Spread offense playbook hiding?
2. IF (big if) we don't have the players (which I don't believe at all), then why don't we have the players? That is a HUGE recruitment flaw if that's true.

It's not like the 2008 offense was loaded with NFL all world talent, in fact, there's barely one in an NFL uniform right now. Clarke wasn't an NFL talent, he was an extremely efficient PSU QB, but the most important thing back then was, HE WAS PUT IN A SITUATION IN WHICH HE COULD SUCCEED!! Which leads to question 3:

3: Why do our coaches not put these kids in situations/ game plans/ offenses in which they can be successful?

Bolden can run if we let him. We don't need him to make 30 yarders, but to be just a little mobile, all it takes is one run for 12 or 15 yards to make the defense pay attention. All I'm saying is I wish they'd just let the kids play, because right now it looks as if they're being held back, and losing confidence with every snap they take!!