Charlie Ragle has a saying about the sideline: It’s never missed a tackle in its life.
“So knowing that as a linebacker,” Ragle said, “and I’m sprinting out there, knowing that I have the sideline as my leverage, I can’t overrun that play and get cut back where the guy comes right back into the field. That’s Day 1 elementary stuff. We can’t do those things. That’s what I talked about in beating ourselves. If we’re gonna lose, then let’s make the other team beat us.”
Ahead of Idaho State’s second game of the season, a road matchup with San Diego State on Saturday, that will become the theme of the Bengals’ practices this week. To their head man, they made too many mistakes their last time out, too many plays they drilled in practice then somehow forgot about on the Allegiant Stadium field.
To Ragle, the mistakes numbered many: ISU dropped a pair of interceptions. Players missed too many tackles. Sometimes they didn’t line up in the right positions. For the coaches, it was only frustrating because they went over these things in practice. What wasn’t clicking?
“That’s frustrating as a coach,” Ragle said, “when you go, oh man, we’ve done this thing 50, 60, 70 times, and you’ve run it the right way — and then you go out in the game and all of a sudden, you line up wrong. So that stuff is frustrating.”
Whether that will be enough for ISU to upset San Diego State, well, nobody knows. Here’s the skinny on the Aztecs: They’re 0-1, with a 38-20 loss last week to Arizona. Their starting quarterback is Braxton Burmeister, a Virginia Tech transfer, but he didn’t get much chance to shine last week. San Diego State ran the ball 42 times — which ran counter to coaches’ plans to play balanced — and Burmeister exited early with an injury, but he’s expected to play on Saturday.
In all, it amounted to an inauspicious showing for SDSU, for a number of reasons: Fans wondered what happened to the balanced offense coaches mentioned before the season. The loss also came to Arizona, which had dropped 23 of its past 24 games. The Aztecs’ first game at the new Snapdragon Stadium hardly went to plan.
For ISU, at least on paper, it projects to be a similar game to the one two weeks ago: A road test against a Mountain West opponent. The Bengals changed nothing about their depth chart. Tyler Vander Waal will start at quarterback and Hunter Hays will back him up. The Bengals will play, get a nice paycheck, and look forward to playing their first game at home.
“They’re a very talented team, got great speed,” Ragle said. “What they do defensively, from that stack position and bringing different types of blitzes that you don’t ordinarily see — that’s kinda been their trademark for a long time. That’s certainly gonna present some problems for us.”
That’s the thing, though: Ragle feels like his group has enough to worry about, whether the Bengals are playing SDSU or Alabama. We touched on a few issues already. The Bengals’ linebacker and secondary positions slogged through a forgettable outing, dropping picks and getting burned in coverage, which is why ISU coaches have to strike a balance: Practice to get better, and practice to prepare for the Aztecs.
It’s a little like walking a tightrope: Lean one way and you risk failing to improve your own mistakes. Lean the other and you risk going into the game with limited understanding of the opponent. That’s why on Tuesday and Wednesday, ISU plans on incorporating its SDSU gameplan into practice.
“So it’s a fine line,” Ragle said, “but we’re in the game plan mode now.”
Injury updates
Ragle shared that defensive lineman Raemo Trevino, who missed the UNLV game with an injury, is expected to play against San Diego State.
Running back Damir Collins, Ragle said, will continue to be out with an injury. They’re hoping to get him back soon, maybe even for the home-opener, Sept. 17 against Central Arkansas.