Besides building up through recruiting to compete in the trenches, SDSU and Stieg finally got over the hump by bringing in youth. Roger’s made their defense a stout juggernaut and Lujan was creative in the playcalling on offense. He was the youngest OC in the country at that point and has now moved on to bigger and better things. I believe that youth is why they hit so well in recruiting what we saw last year and it’s clearly continued this year.
Even NDSU continued its run after Bohl and gave the reigns to a driven Klieman. Young hungry guys want to recruit and obsess about the game like Bobby did in his first stint.
Our coaching staff is resting on its laurels and history of what worked for them 20 years ago. The landscape has changed, and until we acknowledge that we will underachieve. Last year was the first time the staff as a whole hit every right button to correct the issues we were seeing early in the season. It gave me hope that they could switch gears and go against the grain. It seems to be an anomaly. This year we saw some adjustment on special teams and defense, but still glaring weaknesses and the offense only regressed throughout the season even with a whole group of talent. 2024 looks similar to 2022.
I want to see what Pawlak can do with his recruits now that he had say on what looks to be a good group coming in. I want to see the depth we have coming up in the linebacker room and secondary. I worry that we still haven’t emphasized the d line and miss the days of 4 man fronts when our ends and tackles were nasty and worthy of wearing the 37.
Now starts a new year and I’m hoping 2025 can look like 2023. Adapt and overcome.
