Tag: Report Card

Wisconsin HC Luke Fickell given tough grade in On3’s Year One Report Card

Wisconsin HC Luke Fickell given tough grade in On3’s Year One Report Card

The Wisconsin Badgers closed Luke Fickell’s first season as head coach with a 7-6 record, no Big Ten West title and some big questions entering year two.

College coaches, generally, deserve some leeway with a new program before being abruptly questioned or criticized, though not all get that. In a normal world, Fickell would be given a few years to build ‘his’ program before the critics truly start barking.

But then losses to Washington State, Iowa, Ohio State, Indiana and Northwestern happened. And suddenly 2024 carries much more weight in the eyes of the public.

Maybe a 9-4 or 8-5 season would have carried a different tone into the offseason. But for all of the hype and excitement surrounding Fickell and the new-look program last year at this time, some questions are circling as people look ahead at the gauntlet schedules that await.

Speaking of questions, On3’s Jesse Simonton recently graded the first year of every new head coach last season. Thanks to the combination of expectations, the schedule and the on-field performance, he gave Luke Fickell a C+.

His thought closes with this anecdote, which I think encaptures the thoughts of many Badgers fans:

“Fickell is too good of a coach to be overly concerned about the direction of the program. He’s won too many games elsewhere and he just inked a Top 25 recruiting class. But it’s clear Wisconsin faces a much steeper challenge to truly start competing for championships like the administration hoped.”

Report Card: Grading Auburn’s Music City Bowl loss

It was not a good end to the season for Auburn.

For the third straight season, Auburn will finish with a losing record. The Tigers fell 31-13 to the Maryland Terrapins Saturday in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl.

Auburn struggled out of the gate on both sides of the ball, going three-and-out on back-to-back drives and letting Maryland storm out to a 21-0 first-quarter lead. The defense was able to figure it out, but the offense did not and only enjoyed success once the game was over and Maryland switched to prevent defense.

Here are grades for all of the positional units, as well as the coaching staff after Auburn’s final game of the 2023 season.

Report Card: Grading Penn State’s Peach Bowl loss to Ole Miss

What word would you use to describe Penn State’s performance against Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl? Painful? Torture? Redundant? Whatever word you would choose to describe Penn State’s 38-25 loss in the Peach Bowl, it likely is not a positive one. A …

What word would you use to describe Penn State’s performance against Ole Miss in the Peach Bowl? Painful? Torture? Redundant? Whatever word you would choose to describe Penn State’s 38-25 loss in the Peach Bowl, it likely is not a positive one. A loss like the one Penn State suffered in the bowl game down south is one that leads to more questions and pressure going into the offseason than a program like Penn State wants to deal with this time of the year.

But final assessments must be made, and the final grades from Penn State’s loss in the Peach Bowl tell a bit of the story of the 2023 Penn State football season as a whole. The offense lacked explosiveness, the coaching failed to fix the offense, and the defense couldn’t keep the game from falling out of reach long enough for the offense to catch up in time.

Sure, a 10-win season is something the large majority of college football programs would love to have at the end of the year, even if it did come with a loss in a bowl game at the end, but this was not what Penn State thought they were planning on doing this season.

And yet, once again, here we are.

Here is a look at Penn State’s final postgame report card for the 2023 season following the Peach Bowl.

Week 13 Saints report card: How did each position grade vs. Lions?

Week 13 Saints report card: How did each position grade vs. Lions?

The reviews are in, and they aren’t pretty: we didn’t see the New Orleans Saints’ best work in their Week 13 loss to the Detroit Lions.

But how do you grade this performance? Let’s break it down by position groups to judge whether each unit pulled its weight on Sunday:

Saints report card: How New Orleans graded in Week 12 loss vs. Falcons

Safeties receive the highest grade on the team, while the defensive line and linebackers graded poorly in our Week 12 Saints report card:

The New Orleans Saints lost to the Atlanta Falcons and many things went wrong. It wasn’t all bad, though, as some positions performed well on Sunday.

Here’s a letter grade for each position group after reviewing their performance:

Report card: Grading Penn State’s performance against Michigan State

What more needs to be said about Penn State’s performance against Michigan State? Here’s the postgame report card.

You are not about to find anything too critical to say about Penn State when reviewing their performance against Michigan State. A nearly flawless performance on both sides of the football warranted some good praise in this week’s postgame report card.

Penn State blasted Michigan State 42-0 in the final game of the regular season on Friday night in Detroit. The Nittany Lions did exactly what it needed to to lock up a 10-2 regular season and give the College Football Playoff selection committee something to think about when it comes time to filling out the New Years Six bowl lineup.

Here is a look at this week’s postgame report card, the final one of the regular season.

Colts’ report card after first 10 games of season

Grading the Colts after the first 10 games of the season.

The Indianapolis Colts are 5-5 coming out of their bye week and will have a chance to crack into the postseason during the final seven weeks of the season.

But how have they looked in their first 10 games? Let’s take a look at how the roster has performed thus far in 2023:

Report Card: Perfect first half leads to relaxing second half at ASU

Oregon went six-for-six for first half touchdowns for a happy report card from Tempe.

It’s difficult to be “perfect” in the game of football, but the Oregon Ducks were nearly that in the first half of their 49-13 win over Arizona State.

Oregon had the ball six times in the first half and scored six touchdowns to take a commanding 42-0 lead. The defense was also able to hold the Sun Devils off the scoreboard despite their unconventional offensive sets.

The highlight was the 98-yard touchdown drive that took a whole 58 seconds to match down the field for the sixth score. Oregon could have easily run the clock out, but the Ducks wanted more and set a tone, not only for that game, but for the Civil War coming up on Friday.

Here’s the happy report card for the No. 6-ranked Ducks that moved to 10-1 on the season.

Report Card: Grades for Auburn’s stunning loss to New Mexico State

Just like the game, these are not pretty.

Auburn entered their game against New Mexico State with plenty of momentum but after a stunning upset, the Tigers will have to do some soul-searching.

Auburn never led as the Aggies, who entered as 25.5-point underdogs, controlled the game from start to finish to hand [autotag]Hugh Freeze[/autotag] and the Tigers one of the worst losses the program in program history

The Aggies shut down Auburn’s offense which has looked to turn a corner after abandoning the two-quarterback system earlier in the season and dominated a Tigers’ defense that has been great for most of the season.

Here are grades for every Auburn positional group as well, as the coaching staff.

Report Card: Grading Penn State’s performance against Rutgers

Let’s hand out some postgame assessments for Penn State following the win over the Scarlet Knights.

Penn State got back into the win column and kept their New Years Six bowl hopes alive with a 27-6 victory over Rutgers on Saturday. Penn State’s latest win got off to another sluggish start by the offense as the clock ticked away quickly in the first half. With Rutgers and Penn State each finding ways to move the football on the ground, the pressure was on to find something that worked to establish an edge.

Penn State did that in the second half, possibly out of necessity after losing Drew Allar to an injury in the third quarter. Whatever the case may have been, it worked out this week.

Here is a look at the postgame report card for Penn State following the win over Rutgers.