Just out of curiosity, does anyone believe that Coach Martin still has the ears of his players? I'm sure the team is at least somewhat aware of his history here, and the happenings of the last two games have to leave them feeling like "here we go again". That question may be answered Saturday.
For what it's worth, I think part of Martin's problem is that the ship is not being run tight enough. In the first half of last week's game, several Kent State football players were on the sidelines yelling comments to Rocket fans. Basically talking about the scoreboard and how they were going to run up the score on us in the 2nd half. Maybe if Martin ran a tighter ship they would have been more focused and not blown it in the 2nd half. And even if Kent State would have held on to win the game, it was pretty "bush league" by those individual players. It reminded me of the Temple players back before Al Golden came in as the coach. We played them at Temple before they joined the MAC and several of their players were getting into heated debates/yelling matches with Rocket fans before the game. Probably part of why they lost to Toledo 38-3 that day.
I bet they were quiet by the end of the game.
I have never been one to support trash talking hence why I do not do much even when we play teams like Akron. I hate how much we get from them and I do not like being anymore hypocritical than I am already. So I am rather unhappy with our players if they were doing that especially before the game is over.
We are never in position to trash talk. That is the height of stupidity.
I hear you guys. Amstutz ran a very loose ship at Toledo and the fanbase hated that about him. Last time we played Kent State it was at your place during the Amstutz era, I think 2006. Before the game a lot of players on our team ran to midfield and stomped all over the Kent State decal. Pretty pathetic display. Kent State then went out and *****slapped us by like 30 points. We got what we deserved. I am so glad that Beckman doesn't put up with that stuff.
Martin would be classified as a "players' coach". Players and parents of players like him. That makes it a little difficult on an AD when it comes time to do what is required to be respectable. Very seldom does that type of coach produce consistent winners. You hate to fire a good person, but at some point you have to recognize that the Peter Principle as invaded your program and the AD is exposed to the virus, also. It has to be corrected before the top catches it from below. In the longer run, a "players' coach" should be one that gets more out of the players than they ever thought possible, and they will win games that they are not suppose to win. Losing winnable games and games that you are suppose to win, is a disease, and a painful one at that.