Dear Friends,
Slightly less people at twenty in attendance this time around.
Coach Creighton had Anthony Zappone attend with him. After talking with Anthony, he said the difference between Coach English and Coach Creighton is the difference between night and day. The attitude of the coaches is one of let's work for improvement, even with the losing. The atmosphere is always upbeat and positive. He (Anthony) is very happy at Eastern, and said they will win some more games this year. I know that is what one would expect a player to say, but he said he rooms with Ibe and O'Connor and Matt, and they constantly talk about how to get better.
Coach Creighton said that Mike Hart left because he had second thoughts about staying at Eastern. Hart thought he would be better off getting a fresh start at a different school. Brogan Roback does have an orbital fracture, and will be out of service for another three to five weeks. So, right now Eastern is down to Bolden and Bell as quarterbacks. If they both were to go down with injuries, then Bossard would be brought back to the quarterback position. Creighton is still very optimistic with the rest of the schedule, and thinks the team is improving, especially defense.
Offensively, we all know they have to cut down on the turnovers, and going back to the defense, he said they are working very hard on getting turnovers from the other team.
Buffalo has a good offensive line and a returning quarterback in Lacata, but Creighton thinks that Eastern can still give them a good game come Saturday.
I need to give credit to scaggie who initially reported the injury to Roback.

My question is Roback eligible for a medical redshirt and will they try to get one?

Let's assume he is healthy come November. Play him a few games or go for the redshirt?

Roback could have 5 years at EMU, enough to get a degree and do a graduate year (essentially a 'free' graduate education if he wants it. Some would kill to get say a 30K graduate year).

Part of being a good defense is creating turnovers. They had ZERO last week.

No one is saying they are the Steel Curtain dude. Just that they're improving. Why does that bother you so much? Last year, they couldn't stop a nose bleed. This year, they've had two respectable performances so far against decent competition. They're doing better. The offense, on the other hand, has been in reverse.

Sam I want to agree. I really do but...I see a lot of red flags that tell me that the defense has not really improved and I fully expect Buffalo to put up BIG numbers. They are going to be able to run and pass on us with ease. After studying the matchup, I'd be shocked if they don't score 42...

(10-09-2014 06:42 AM)Bob Wickersham Wrote:  Sam I want to agree. I really do but...I see a lot of red flags that tell me that the defense has not really improved and I fully expect Buffalo to put up BIG numbers. They are going to be able to run and pass on us with ease. After studying the matchup, I'd be shocked if they don't score 42...

I don't know what your "red flags" are, but one needs to only watch the games to see that the front seven is much better than it was last year. Filling gaps better, beating blocks, and tackling significantly better (especially Zappone and Ibe). The secondary is still a bit of a mess, but last year EVERYTHING was a mess. This year, against similar competition, it hasn't been as bad. That's called improvement.

Buffalo also isn't as good as they were last year, with their wins coming against two FCS teams and Miami (barely sneaking one out against partial-scholarship Duquesne). Sure, they stayed close with a banged up BGSU, but they also lost to a bad Army team. This isn't the Buffalo that blew us off of their field last year. They lost quite a bit of talent.

I hope you're right. Halftime adjustments could be the deciding factor. Hopefully the staff is learning from past failures. Could be an intriguing game. I'm really hoping (against my better judgement).

I'm with someone's (forgot who) said to the effect: "No passing therefore no running therefore no offense therefore no defense."

Without solid QB play, opponents are doing 8 in the box which kills the run game. No passing or running, kills the offense which kills the defense because they have to play too much.

I do not know when the passing game will be righted. Next game? Next month? Next season?

(10-09-2014 09:08 AM)emu steve Wrote:  I'm with someone's (forgot who) said to the effect: "No passing therefore no running therefore no offense therefore no defense."

Without solid QB play, opponents are doing 8 in the box which kills the run game. No passing or running, kills the offense which kills the defense because they have to play too much.

I do not know when the passing game will be righted. Next game? Next month? Next season?

I know. Hard to believe this is a school that produced Ron Adams, Charlie Batch, Walt Church, and Andy Schmitt.

I mean, all schools go through spells of bad QB play. We've been unlucky with Roback's injury, but the play calling hasn't been very good either. We ran the ball down Morgan State's throat in an I-formation (which plays to the strength of our O-line), yet seemingly every play we ran against Akron was out of the shotgun. Creighton needs to play more to our strength. If we wants to run some read option to mix it up, that's fine, but Akron started reading every play and we got predictable. That can't keep happening.

(10-09-2014 09:51 AM)EagleSam Wrote:  I mean, all schools go through spells of bad QB play. We've been unlucky with Roback's injury, but the play calling hasn't been very good either. We ran the ball down Morgan State's throat in an I-formation (which plays to the strength of our O-line), yet seemingly every play we ran against Akron was out of the shotgun. Creighton needs to play more to our strength. If we wants to run some read option to mix it up, that's fine, but Akron started reading every play and we got predictable. That can't keep happening.

Funny we often heard that about English's offensive coordinator. Lets not forget Wylie, Hurcombe and purportly Collins have been banged up.

(10-09-2014 09:51 AM)EagleSam Wrote:  I mean, all schools go through spells of bad QB play. We've been unlucky with Roback's injury, but the play calling hasn't been very good either. We ran the ball down Morgan State's throat in an I-formation (which plays to the strength of our O-line), yet seemingly every play we ran against Akron was out of the shotgun. Creighton needs to play more to our strength. If we wants to run some read option to mix it up, that's fine, but Akron started reading every play and we got predictable. That can't keep happening.

Agree 100%

Dear Friends,
One more point that came out of the luncheon from Athletic Director Lyke. Helmets last five years. They are reconditioned every year at a cost of $75 per helmet. If the school does not remove the face masks, they are charged $4 for taking them off and the same charge for putting them back.
This came up because of a question about the new helmet look for Akron. Eastern will be wearing the gray matte helmets and gray pants for the game this week. The white helmets will probably not be worn any more this season, since Eastern now has two green helmets and the gray. The uniform look for the Buffalo game was chosen by the team.