Postgame Thoughts

[Wild Bill]

O'Malley's Snap count article. He also adds ST's snaps which is very interesting because you can start to see how fatigue might have played a significant role here. At LB especially.

Bertrand played an additional 20 snaps on ST's, Bauer 27, Simon 20, and Kiser 16. This is what happens when you lose guys like Moala (opening kickoff), Liufau, and Botelho misses the game. But it wasn't just LB. Foskey played an additional 15 ST's snaps.

Every Snap Counts: Notre Dame at Florida State (247sports.com)

They need to get this figured out. I don't see how we can be sending our starting players out for that many ST's snaps. I realize in-game it's hard to make those adjustments and they probably didn't plan on playing that many snaps. But, that should be a priority now. When snap counts start getting this high, they need to be able to make the change on the fly.

I agree with you overall but players are more fatigued during the first game than any other, and it was mid to high 80s at kickoff. Weather change and even one or two games will help conditioning moving forward.

 

[Luckylucci]

Marist injury hurt but at that point we were talking about LB as the deepest position on defense. It's still deep, but Marist seems to have been the most dynamic player in that group (by a wide margin). So really the worst injury we could have had there in regards to overall performance at that position.

Yep, and that's what I was worried about. Marist was one player that could do it all. Now we're left trying to find multiple guys to fill one guys role and it's requiring them to play more snaps than anticipated.

And, it's not just Marist. But, Moala and Botelho as well.

With Moala out, that's just our 3rd string Rover, right? Which doesn't seem like a big deal but it's also a someone they trust on ST's. So, if he can't play ST's all year then those 15-20 snaps/game have go to someone else. For FSU they chose to stick with members of the 2 deep. When I see Bertrand at 90 total snaps, I think it's fair to assume that obviously had an impact. Just as an example.

Also, Botelho was a stud ST's player last year. So, maybe he takes 10-15 snaps from LB's, 10-15 from DE's, and 10-15 on ST's. I think that'd be pretty huge.

Good news is we should get Botelho back soon but he needs to stay back. In general I think the next 2 weeks is going to be an all hands on deck for ST's to get some balance on the roster.

 

[Irish#1]

ST is a tough juggling act. Trying to get a good mix of starters and backups isn't easy. If enough youngsters showed they can play, I think they'd be out there before the starters.