Idaho State's AD has recently been put on administrative. We're paying them, I
believe, $625K to come to Berkeley. There's very little talk on the IS board about the
CAL game. This is the most informative post concerning their win over Western State:

Brad, My humble opinion is the O line needs some serious help. Don't know if by design or not but lots of new young pups playing in this game and it showed. Too many sacks from a D11 team. God help us against Cal and the rest of the year if this is all we got to go with :shock: ..

Yipes!
Questions:
1. How does the QB rotation should go? I imagine Bowers is brought back in.
2. Does Yancy get a lot of carries? Does Clark get to make up his fumble? I wouldn't mind seeing Ali-Walsh either.
3. Wide Receivers? Do Remigio and Ways get more targets? Who else deserves
shots?
4. TE: I gather Hudson has been a bit disappointing. Has Castles played at all?
5. On D, what happens? Aren't injuries to both teams a worry? Seems like Weaver
might have a big play possibility on every snap?


6. Who recovers the on-side kick with a minute to go?

I would imagine Garbers starts, and after they build a lead, BM get to run the offense the rest of the way.

Overall: I imagine that we'll see again a pretty vanilla offense, not wanting or needing to show more of the playbook than necessary.

I'm sure the hope and plan is that we build a lead and are able to sit people fairly quickly (in terms of being safe from injury). That of course balanced against being early enough in the season to want to get reps to various people.

At QB, I imagine that's one of the places where we emphasize reps for Garbers and McIlwain. Ideally in my mind, that means playing Garbers and McIlwain as we have been, perhaps giving McIlwain longer periods in the 2nd half, and bringing Bowers in for mopup in the 4th?

Guessing on D it'll be lots more deep rotation and 2nds and 3rds in the 2nd half.

Certainly those are all predicated on it being lopsided in our favor, sure hope that is the case.

Oh, and no onside kicks, unless Idaho State goes into one of those surprise mode / desperation mode pushes to take chances at all times...

YamhillBear said:

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Overall: I imagine that we'll see again a pretty vanilla offense, not wanting or needing to show more of the playbook than necessary.

I'm sure the hope and plan is that we build a lead and are able to sit people fairly quickly (in terms of being safe from injury). That of course balanced against being early enough in the season to want to get reps to various people.

At QB, I imagine that's one of the places where we emphasize reps for Garbers and McIlwain. Ideally in my mind, that means playing Garbers and McIlwain as we have been, perhaps giving McIlwain longer periods in the 2nd half, and bringing Bowers in for mopup in the 4th?

Guessing on D it'll be lots more deep rotation and 2nds and 3rds in the 2nd half.

Certainly those are all predicated on it being lopsided in our favor, sure hope that is the case.

Oh, and no onside kicks, unless Idaho State goes into one of those surprise mode / desperation mode pushes to take chances at all times...

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I think the onside kick comment was sarcasm and well played.

If I was an underdog and I was kicking off to start I'd onside for the psychological effect.

wifeisafurd said:

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YamhillBear said:

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Overall: I imagine that we'll see again a pretty vanilla offense, not wanting or needing to show more of the playbook than necessary.

I'm sure the hope and plan is that we build a lead and are able to sit people fairly quickly (in terms of being safe from injury). That of course balanced against being early enough in the season to want to get reps to various people.

At QB, I imagine that's one of the places where we emphasize reps for Garbers and McIlwain. Ideally in my mind, that means playing Garbers and McIlwain as we have been, perhaps giving McIlwain longer periods in the 2nd half, and bringing Bowers in for mopup in the 4th?

Guessing on D it'll be lots more deep rotation and 2nds and 3rds in the 2nd half.

Certainly those are all predicated on it being lopsided in our favor, sure hope that is the case.

Oh, and no onside kicks, unless Idaho State goes into one of those surprise mode / desperation mode pushes to take chances at all times...

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I think the onside kick comment was sarcasm and well played.

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Gotta cover all the bases!

I hope it is not close

The idea that they would put in a 3rd QB when they're about to enter Pac-12 play seems a little silly. The two QBs need as many snaps as they can get since they are already splitting snaps.

TouchedTheAxeIn82 said:

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The idea that they would put in a 3rd QB when they're about to enter Pac-12 play seems a little silly. The two QBs need as many snaps as they can get since they are already splitting snaps.

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And because Bowers got the most snaps in practice, especially with the one's. My guess is they keep the starting TE's WRs and two QBs in for some time to work on timing.

TouchedTheAxeIn82 said:

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The idea that they would put in a 3rd QB when they're about to enter Pac-12 play seems a little silly. The two QBs need as many snaps as they can get since they are already splitting snaps.

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Yes. Bowers doesn't need the reps as much as the other two. He had all last year.

Garbers should play three series (enough to get into the flow).
Then McIlwain play three series.

Keep alternating like that. Pass a lot. Let each QB practice making all the throws. No need to have the QBs run. Hopefully Laird is able to break off some long runs early, just for his stats. Then he sits and we see how the other RBs can do. Pass at least half the time, no matter the score.

The only problem I see is if something gets screwed up and the Bengals somehow make a game of it.

Game plan? No injuries. These so-called "C games" give me the creeps. Does Nate Longshore come to mind? We will no doubt let down at some stage (usually at the start) and can't help but think of games vs East Washington, Sac State, UCD, etc where we gave up massive passing yards. Keep it simple, get lots of reps and play starters as long as it is safe. The Bears get a week off before the Ducks and need a sharp mental edge. Go Bears!

packawana said:

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If I was an underdog and I was kicking off to start I'd onside for the psychological effect.

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Or always going for it on 4th down and never punt.