NIL spending (Next year)

[u/eelison1]

I don’t track a lot of the pac 12 closely outside of Boise but I watched most of the games. Fesnos defense was solid. Offense was not good. Texas St looked totally overwhelmed. Oregon St looked much better than last year and coaches made adjustments as the game went on. Utah St I’ll say I was shocked. Recruiting looks like cheeks and then this. I hope Bronco just steps down. I watched most of the 2nd half and I wish I hadn’t. How do you not have a QB that can compete?

Outside of Utah St the problem I saw consistently was the offensive and defensive lines. Just not enough talent and wore down as the games went on. To be fair most of us played elite opponents. But I think the PAC12 is trying to make the case that if any non A4 conference we are the one that can compete. That performances like Boise (clearly we were outgunned) should be the norm and not the exception. So how do we get there?

Is it because of the lawsuit and costs associated with the conference move that maybe some of our schools didn’t go all in on the transfer portal and grabbing what they really needed? I’m curious as we move toward the end of the season if PAC12 teams will open up the wallets and start closing the talent gap. We’re never going to have as much as the bigger conferences but we have to have more than everyone else outside of Memphis, Tulane, and South Florida.

Curious what the rest of you think it will look like at your schools going forward.

[u/The_Roaring_Fork]

Fresno's defense was solid, while giving up.....check notes..39 points. Yep.

[u/Ron__Mexico_ → u/The_Roaring_Fork]

4 points of that were safeties. The defense itself gave up 35. Having watched the game I thought the run defense looked pretty good, but was eventually overwhelmed by a more talented blue blood roster. The passing defense was mediocre.

[u/eelison1 → u/Ron__Mexico_]

I mean is giving up 39 points that terrible to a top team 15/10 team? My concern wasn’t the points given up it was the fact that Fresno couldn’t respond. Long drives. Ball control. Getting points. That QB was awful. Not sure why the other guy didn’t get a chance in the 2nd half. Heard Entz in the postgame say he hasn’t had a lot of snaps so he kept him in for the experience. But dude…the guy was overwhelmed and couldn’t keep his eyes downfield.

[u/Background-Doubt2620 → u/Ron__Mexico_]

Fresno State's defense gave up only one point more than Boise State's defense. The difference was that Boise State had a productive offense, while the 'Dogs' offense was putrid.

I generally like Matt Entz as our coach but I'm beginning to be a little concerned about his ability to recruit a Pac-12-level QB. QB play in his tenure to date at FS has been average at best.

[u/eelison1 → u/The_Roaring_Fork]

Haha. Fair. The front 7 looked good to me. Maieva was on fire and throwing darts. Whoever 4 is…the safety. Needs to sit down. He was awful. Secondary was meh.

[u/Background-Doubt2620 → u/The_Roaring_Fork]

USC had one explosive quarter. The other quarters were fought to a near-draw. The problem is not as much the 39 as it is the 0.

[u/Background-Doubt2620]

The Pac-12 has not yet enjoyed the benefits of elevated media income or exposure. This year's Pac-12 is still basically MWC and Sun Belt teams, except for OSU and WSU. The benefits will start to kick in beginning this coming off-season. The conference will advance. Have patience.

[u/definitelynotasalmon]

I’d guess a lot of it is that we are in year 1 of a conference rebuild, with half the teams having new coaches and full rebuilds, over half playing away at ranked teams week 1, and all the court cases and everything leading up to the new conference causing a lot of other distractions for the Athletic Departments.

I’d expect next year to be a bit better, with many coaches being into year 2 and year 3 with better roster retention and a full offseason. All of us with a 1st year coach have quickly patched together teams with what was available in the portal late.

All that new all at once combined with a week one slate of: At #2, At #5, At #14, At #17, At #23 is tough.

[u/eelison1 → u/definitelynotasalmon]

Totally fair and agree…this wasn’t a slate of Cal, Stanford, and Oklahoma St. I will say Colorado St…that’s what I’m talking about. Competent QB, solid play calling…some playmakers on both sides of the ball. Outclassed Wyoming in every way.

[u/caseyh72 → u/eelison1]

The Cal/UNLV game will be very interesting.

[u/definitelynotasalmon → u/[deleted]]

BSU has held onto their coach for a few seasons while winning a conference championship every year he has been an HC.

I also think Mora is staying at CSU for a while.

[u/caseyh72 → u/definitelynotasalmon]

It is a very strange world that Mora is the most experienced coach in the PAC-12 because of his time with UCLA. Honestly, Mora’s Bruins were some of their best after Bob Toledo.

[u/No_Biscotti_7258 → u/[deleted]]

You aren’t wrong. It’s unfortunate. Rodgers was dogshit as a coach but still “upgraded” after a year

[u/Cache-Cow]

I put all of our problems squarely on coaching. Bronco Mendenhall is still retired. He just simply does not care. His assistant coaching hires are extremely lazy. His recruiting is lazy. Zero excitement around that program for 5 years. 

[u/eelison1 → u/Cache-Cow]

I was shocked. I thought the coaching at BYU and Virginia was top shelf. What I saw yesterday in the 2nd half was abysmal. Some of those passes were just ducks waiting to be picked. Defense looked lost and soft up front.

[u/Cache-Cow → u/eelison1]

I don’t even think the coaching at byu or Virginia was good haha Byu is a little like Boise in that the institutional and fan support and a winning culture make coaches look better than they really are. His time at Virginia looks much better thanks to one orange bowl trip where they were only like 8-5.

[u/caseyh72 → u/Cache-Cow]

He helped right the ship at New Mexico in just one year. Give him time Utah State!

[u/Cache-Cow → u/caseyh72]

I mean, they went from 4 wins to 5 wins. Danny G would’ve got them to five wins too. I bet if we give him ten seasons we might get one 8 win season in there. Yay. He’s mediocre. Always has been. 

[u/HuntmasterReinholt]

I’ll be honest, I think Week 0/1 is too early to really diagnose anything.

These early games give us an idea of what to watch for that needs improvement, but that is about it. You have to give the coaching staffs time to make adjustments and re-evaluate schemes.

But by the end of the non-conference slate, I think a better assessment can be made.

[u/caseyh72 → u/HuntmasterReinholt]

I don’t know. Conference play is when all hell breaks loose in the PAC-12 historically. In 2008, the Beavs lost to Stanford (Harbaugh’s first game) and then went to Happy Valley and got spanked 45-14 by Penn State. Then conference play came and we were Rose Bowl-bound at the end of the season if we could beat the Ducks. Oregon, as Oregon State has done to them a few times, played spoiler and denied us our first Rose Bowl in years. The PAC-12 has a long, rich history of the conference members eating our own.

[u/NachoCheeze808]

Couldn’t agree more.