Blessed to get the 102 ranking we should be worse.

preseason ranking=meaningless

(02-15-2017 01:44 PM)7 Wrote:  This team was decimated by injuries, was a mess at QB, and still won 5 MAC games last year. To say they'll be lucky to win 4 games this year is laughable.

Not going to defend Carey about Huff, but to say he barely played is wildly inaccurate. He should have played more, yes, but he had like 110 carries last year.

You're being overly generous. We beat five bad teams and barely beat them at that. We lost to an average 1-AA school and looked like we didn't belong on the field against South Florida and San Diego State (our 2nd half slight comeback was not a good indicator at how overmatched we looked in that game either).

Additionally, the injury excuse is getting old. Every team has injuries. Injuries do not excuse the coaching staff for playing Graham over Maddie. Maddie was clearly above and beyond better than Graham.

We should not look so overmatched against teams like USF and SDSU and we should NEVER lose to 1-AA teams.

This program has been on the downtrend under Carey and anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial. Is there anyone who thinks this program is getting better under his guidance?

(02-15-2017 03:54 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(02-15-2017 01:44 PM)7 Wrote:  This team was decimated by injuries, was a mess at QB, and still won 5 MAC games last year. To say they'll be lucky to win 4 games this year is laughable.

Not going to defend Carey about Huff, but to say he barely played is wildly inaccurate. He should have played more, yes, but he had like 110 carries last year.

You're being overly generous. We beat five bad teams and barely beat them at that. We lost to an average 1-AA school and looked like we didn't belong on the field against South Florida and San Diego State (our 2nd half slight comeback was not a good indicator at how overmatched we looked in that game either).

Additionally, the injury excuse is getting old. Every team has injuries. Injuries do not excuse the coaching staff for playing Graham over Maddie. Maddie was clearly above and beyond better than Graham.

We should not look so overmatched against teams like USF and SDSU and we should NEVER lose to 1-AA teams.

This program has been on the downtrend under Carey and anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial. Is there anyone who thinks this program is getting better under his guidance?

Yea we didn't have that many injuries, maybe not any more than the other MAC teams. We did have the injury at QB, which was huge. But even that wouldn't have been as big if our 2nd best QB wasn't playing WR.

But CFN's listings are always ridiculous.

(02-15-2017 03:54 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(02-15-2017 01:44 PM)7 Wrote:  This team was decimated by injuries, was a mess at QB, and still won 5 MAC games last year. To say they'll be lucky to win 4 games this year is laughable.

Not going to defend Carey about Huff, but to say he barely played is wildly inaccurate. He should have played more, yes, but he had like 110 carries last year.

You're being overly generous. We beat five bad teams and barely beat them at that. We lost to an average 1-AA school and looked like we didn't belong on the field against South Florida and San Diego State (our 2nd half slight comeback was not a good indicator at how overmatched we looked in that game either).

Additionally, the injury excuse is getting old. Every team has injuries. Injuries do not excuse the coaching staff for playing Graham over Maddie. Maddie was clearly above and beyond better than Graham.

We should not look so overmatched against teams like USF and SDSU and we should NEVER lose to 1-AA teams.

This program has been on the downtrend under Carey and anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial. Is there anyone who thinks this program is getting better under his guidance?

+10000000000000000000000

Of course there's a down trend. Where does a 12 win team go? That level of success was unsustainable. Carey is average to below average. But I didn't hear anyone here screaming to start Maddie over the last 3 years. So while Carey was dead wrong on Graham, Maddie never gave any indication he was this good until he started in 2016. I also think Graham has gotten worse due to the beating he has taken. Primarily to his head. Carey is average at recruiting. And maybe a below average tactician. But he's here because of a lack of money to pay a good coach. And blame that lack of money on a Apathetic college fan base this state has.

(02-15-2017 03:54 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(02-15-2017 01:44 PM)7 Wrote:  This team was decimated by injuries, was a mess at QB, and still won 5 MAC games last year. To say they'll be lucky to win 4 games this year is laughable.

Not going to defend Carey about Huff, but to say he barely played is wildly inaccurate. He should have played more, yes, but he had like 110 carries last year.

You're being overly generous. We beat five bad teams and barely beat them at that. We lost to an average 1-AA school and looked like we didn't belong on the field against South Florida and San Diego State (our 2nd half slight comeback was not a good indicator at how overmatched we looked in that game either).

Additionally, the injury excuse is getting old. Every team has injuries. Injuries do not excuse the coaching staff for playing Graham over Maddie. Maddie was clearly above and beyond better than Graham.

We should not look so overmatched against teams like USF and SDSU and we should NEVER lose to 1-AA teams.

This program has been on the downtrend under Carey and anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial. Is there anyone who thinks this program is getting better under his guidance?

Yes, a lot of sheep on this board are in denial.

(02-15-2017 05:03 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Of course there's a down trend. Where does a 12 win team go? That level of success was unsustainable. Carey is average to below average. But I didn't hear anyone here screaming to start Maddie over the last 3 years. So while Carey was dead wrong on Graham, Maddie never gave any indication he was this good until he started in 2016. I also think Graham has gotten worse due to the beating he has taken. Primarily to his head. Carey is average at recruiting. And maybe a below average tactician. But he's here because of a lack of money to pay a good coach. And blame that lack of money on a Apathetic college fan base this state has.

I had never seen Maddie in a game (except for 1 or 2 plays) since the Northwestern game a few years ago. And he didn't look bad in that game I thought. I don't know what he looked like in practice but in the Western Illinois game it was like night and day when he came in after Graham.

(02-15-2017 05:03 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Of course there's a down trend. Where does a 12 win team go? That level of success was unsustainable. Carey is average to below average. But I didn't hear anyone here screaming to start Maddie over the last 3 years. So while Carey was dead wrong on Graham, Maddie never gave any indication he was this good until he started in 2016. I also think Graham has gotten worse due to the beating he has taken. Primarily to his head. Carey is average at recruiting. And maybe a below average tactician. But he's here because of a lack of money to pay a good coach. And blame that lack of money on a Apathetic college fan base this state has.

A 12-win team doesn't go from 12 to absolutely sucking three years later and getting completely destroyed in bowl games and losing to 1-AA teams. No one wanted Maddie to start three years ago because Hare was good.

I didn't think Graham was any good based on his late 2015 season after Hare went down to injury. Everyone knew Hare was getting his job back last season. Unfortunately he got hit with another injury early in the season but anyone could tell after the USF game that Graham was way out of his league. We made USF look like a top 10 team the way they thoroughly destroyed us. We didn't start winning games until Maddie took over and even the teams we beat weren't good wins by any measure.

I look forward to seeing how we do against a weak Boston College team to open the season. Before Carey I would have looked at the BC game as a nearly automatic win, especially at home. Now I wonder if we can even beat Boston College.

(02-15-2017 05:29 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(02-15-2017 05:03 PM)Rabid Squirrel Wrote:  Of course there's a down trend. Where does a 12 win team go? That level of success was unsustainable. Carey is average to below average. But I didn't hear anyone here screaming to start Maddie over the last 3 years. So while Carey was dead wrong on Graham, Maddie never gave any indication he was this good until he started in 2016. I also think Graham has gotten worse due to the beating he has taken. Primarily to his head. Carey is average at recruiting. And maybe a below average tactician. But he's here because of a lack of money to pay a good coach. And blame that lack of money on a Apathetic college fan base this state has.

A 12-win team doesn't go from 12 to absolutely sucking three years later and getting completely destroyed in bowl games and losing to 1-AA teams. No one wanted Maddie to start three years ago because Hare was good.

I didn't think Graham was any good based on his late 2015 season after Hare went down to injury. Everyone knew Hare was getting his job back last season. Unfortunately he got hit with another injury early in the season but anyone could tell after the USF game that Graham was way out of his league. We made USF look like a top 10 team the way they thoroughly destroyed us. We didn't start winning games until Maddie took over and even the teams we beat weren't good wins by any measure.

I look forward to seeing how we do against a weak Boston College team to open the season. Before Carey I would have looked at the BC game as a nearly automatic win, especially at home. Now I wonder if we can even beat Boston College.

I'm by no means giving Carey a pass on the Graham debacle. But I don't think it was a case of blind negligence. To me it seemed Carey was getting away from a QB runnoriented offense. Partly for Hares sake. Partly because no one can take the beatings Lynch took. I think it was suppose to be a quick-hitting, safe pass offense to get the ball into the hands of Galloday, Turner and Beebe. In 2015, Graham looked to be better equipped to hit short passes. Maddie looked inaccurate to me from the day he arrivedo at NIU. So I get why Carey went to Graham. But it just didn't work. Graham got beat up and now, to me, has no confidence and is lost out there. They've changed the offense to let Maddie make plays and it's working. The Graham/Maddie thing was about changing the offense as much as it was about who is better..IMO.
I also believe the team lost it's identity and confidence going through this. If Maddie returns I think their confidence returns. I see 8 wins next season. And really, it's about 8 wins worth of talent at the moment.

Since Huff can't block and runs to the outside put him Turner's position and let him run jet sweeps.
Can Huff catch the ball?
I wish we would learn how to run a real screen pass.

(02-15-2017 03:54 PM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(02-15-2017 01:44 PM)7 Wrote:  This team was decimated by injuries, was a mess at QB, and still won 5 MAC games last year. To say they'll be lucky to win 4 games this year is laughable.

Not going to defend Carey about Huff, but to say he barely played is wildly inaccurate. He should have played more, yes, but he had like 110 carries last year.

You're being overly generous. We beat five bad teams and barely beat them at that. We lost to an average 1-AA school and looked like we didn't belong on the field against South Florida and San Diego State (our 2nd half slight comeback was not a good indicator at how overmatched we looked in that game either).

Additionally, the injury excuse is getting old. Every team has injuries. Injuries do not excuse the coaching staff for playing Graham over Maddie. Maddie was clearly above and beyond better than Graham.

We should not look so overmatched against teams like USF and SDSU and we should NEVER lose to 1-AA teams.

This program has been on the downtrend under Carey and anyone who thinks otherwise is in denial. Is there anyone who thinks this program is getting better under his guidance?

They won 5 games by an average of by an average of margin of victory by 17.2 points. Lost 7 game by an average of 12 points per game. The San Diego State game was a 35-28 game halfway through the 4th quarter. They were competitive in every game but USF. They played a legit tough OOC with Wyoming, USF, and San Diego St. Three of the best Group of 5 teams.

They lost the starting QB in week 2, 2 of the top 3 CBs (Smalls and Brooks) didn't play 2 games combined, and Lurry missed a ton of time.

I'm not being overly generous. The MAC is terrible. NIU went 0-4 OOC last year and I think you could make a real argument they were they 2nd best team in the MAC.

Plenty to complain about Carey. Maddie, Huff, etc. are all examples of that. They're (still) not bad enough to lose the majority of their games in the MAC. Ball State, Buffalo, BG, Kent, and EMU are all likely wins. EMU should be another win. They nearly beat Toledo with Graham last year. WMU will take a step back.

They'll win 7-9 games unless the entire QB room dies again.

(02-15-2017 06:11 PM)huskie1stdown Wrote:  Since Huff can't block and runs to the outside put him Turner's position and let him run jet sweeps.
Can Huff catch the ball?
I wish we would learn how to run a real screen pass.

1000xs yes for a Huff screen pass. I'm having flashbacks to Garrett Wolfe at Ohio State.

Carey will never utilize a screen pass because a mistake could be made

(02-15-2017 01:44 PM)7 Wrote:  This team was decimated by injuries, was a mess at QB, and still won 5 MAC games last year. To say they'll be lucky to win 4 games this year is laughable.

Not going to defend Carey about Huff, but to say he barely played is wildly inaccurate. He should have played more, yes, but he had like 110 carries last year.

The injury excuse may be old, but it still is valid. I would like to think with Maddie back this team can have a 7 win season. It crazy to think that 40% of our wins were with Santa at QB. So I think there is reason to be optimistic.

(02-16-2017 12:41 AM)Djud Wrote:  

(02-15-2017 01:44 PM)7 Wrote:  This team was decimated by injuries, was a mess at QB, and still won 5 MAC games last year. To say they'll be lucky to win 4 games this year is laughable.

Not going to defend Carey about Huff, but to say he barely played is wildly inaccurate. He should have played more, yes, but he had like 110 carries last year.

The injury excuse may be old, but it still is valid. I would like to think with Maddie back this team can have a 7 win season. It crazy to think that 40% of our wins were with Santa at QB. So I think there is reason to be optimistic.

Carey is still the coach, and there is much less talent this year. Trust me I always can spin some positive out of any post-season. This is one of the few times I come up empty for any positive. Worst coach in the conference, no skill at QB, no skill at WR, a very poor defense. I just don't see how NIU even cracks the top 100.

Worst coach in the conference hahahaahahahahahaha

(02-16-2017 06:56 PM)7 Wrote:  Worst coach in the conference hahahaahahahahahaha

Certainly close if he isn't the worst

(02-16-2017 06:50 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(02-16-2017 12:41 AM)Djud Wrote:  

(02-15-2017 01:44 PM)7 Wrote:  This team was decimated by injuries, was a mess at QB, and still won 5 MAC games last year. To say they'll be lucky to win 4 games this year is laughable.

Not going to defend Carey about Huff, but to say he barely played is wildly inaccurate. He should have played more, yes, but he had like 110 carries last year.

The injury excuse may be old, but it still is valid. I would like to think with Maddie back this team can have a 7 win season. It crazy to think that 40% of our wins were with Santa at QB. So I think there is reason to be optimistic.

Carey is still the coach, and there is much less talent this year. Trust me I always can spin some positive out of any post-season. This is one of the few times I come up empty for any positive. Worst coach in the conference, no skill at QB, no skill at WR, a very poor defense. I just don't see how NIU even cracks the top 100.

Don't sleep on this defense. They were young and confused early last season. They improved in the second half of the year. A healthy Lurry will boost a talented secondary. They DEs are talented(Corcoran is a stud) and linebackers are fast and athletic. Up the middle is a weakness. MLB especially scares me. Incoming freshman QB Rodney Hall is actually bigger than all the LBs we have. Yikes.

I don't follow the other MAC coaches enough to know if Carey's the worst but I do know there's a reason no school has hired him away from us. He's an underperforming coach who is 13-13 the last two seasons and is 1-6 in the postseason. Only three of those 13 teams we beat had winning records and the 12 FBS teams we beat had a collective average of 4 wins.