CSNbbs

Thoughts by everyone?

I was back in the area took advantage of the weather and attended the game. I look forward to the day when it's not such an easy matter to secure game day seating. Something I noticed today compared to past years, the players had their heads up while on the field and when the defense made a stop on third down the offense was cheering them on. I hope the team can build on this positive energy.

It's not the end of the world, but I was really hoping for a victory today going out to have a better record than last year and have the positive energy that goes into the off season especially recruiting. If I remember though PJ Fleck was 1-11 in his first year at WMU.

At worst, we have a more exciting brand of football than previous years. Saw that WB III set the program record for completions in a season. With no seniors on the 1st and 2nd string of the Oline. They can have an offseason to bulk up and with at least 3 OLinemen coming in more competition bodes well for continued progress!

I am going to guess it is not normal to have range of 260-294 for OLineman. Seems undersized.

The record was disappointing, but there was clear progress in any number of areas. That's enough for me for year one.

But it was still painful to watch the tragic ways we still lose games. Today, it was the fumbles on three straight possessions on the first play (including the muffed punt.) And the end of the Ohio game. And the end of the Akron game...

I look forward to next season, though.

(11-23-2018 09:05 PM)axeme Wrote: [ -> ]The record was disappointing, but there was clear progress in any number of areas. That's enough for me for year one.

But it was still painful to watch the tragic ways we still lose games. Today, it was the fumbles on three straight possessions on the first play (including the muffed punt.) And the end of the Ohio game. And the end of the Akron game...

I look forward to next season, though.

I feel the same way - as a fan of 50 years we always have the could or should have been games. I am disappointed by the record too but the possibility of 5 wins was there. Kids did seem to play hard for this staff.. As I mentioned on the other thread it is becoming clear the Coach Haynes wasn't recruiting on a level to compete in the MAC.

I presently have a client that is a Texas A&M alumnus and we have had discussions about the first year coaches at both school. On several occasions he as told me that at Texas A&M the talent is there, it's a mental attitude of learning how to win the close games.I think more of challenge at Kent State because the talent is not here yet and the mental attitude of here we go again.

A simple sign of progress is having the same QB not get hurt all year!

I agree the offense has improved and most of the players are returning. The offensive line will be better and we will be deeper at all positions, especially wide receiver. I hope Crum stays and I hope we develop and / or recruit a solid, big tight end and use him.

On the flip side, the best defensive players (Morris, Bahr, Jones, Silva, and others) graduate. We have no big defensive linemen unless some are redshirted or transferring in. I see us doing what we've done in the past and attempt to bulk up linebackers to play lineman and then bulk up safeties to play linebacker. It doesn't really work (whether it's called a "4-3" or a "3-4"). If we can get some defensive linemen we may be able to win 3 or 4 games.

Instead of losing games 25 - 10 as in the Paul Haynes era. I see us losing more 55 - 35 games (Jim Corrigall era / I was actually at a 57 - 56 loss if memory serves me correctly / Central Michigan? / Missed extra point?). It makes little difference to me - they're still losses.

I still expect another 2 - 4 years before we even reach .500.

As bad as this league is there is no way in hell it takes four years to break even. That EMU team was flat out average and still won seven games.

Hmmmmm. No offense intended but let me check... I think it's been 6 years already... And during that span our BEST season was 4 wins if memory serves me correctly...

(11-24-2018 04:50 PM)pembroke1246 Wrote: [ -> ]I agree the offense has improved and most of the players are returning. The offensive line will be better and we will be deeper at all positions, especially wide receiver. I hope Crum stays and I hope we develop and / or recruit a solid, big tight end and use him.

On the flip side, the best defensive players (Morris, Bahr, Jones, Silva, and others) graduate. We have no big defensive linemen unless some are redshirted or transferring in. I see us doing what we've done in the past and attempt to bulk up linebackers to play lineman and then bulk up safeties to play linebacker. It doesn't really work (whether it's called a "4-3" or a "3-4"). If we can get some defensive linemen we may be able to win 3 or 4 games.

Instead of losing games 25 - 10 as in the Paul Haynes era. I see us losing more 55 - 35 games (Jim Corrigall era / I was actually at a 57 - 56 loss if memory serves me correctly / Central Michigan? / Missed extra point?). It makes little difference to me - they're still losses.

I still expect another 2 - 4 years before we even reach .500.

Oh I had buried thoughts of the Corrigal years - another alum I had held high hopes for. I recall sitting in the Rubber bowl and watching us almost comeback from a 30 point deficit. Amazing that such a great defensive player never built any sort of defense.

I went back to my predictions from another thread to see how I did.

1) We'll be better disciplined. Fewer penalties and boneheaded mistakes on both sides of the line. GRADE: D-. We did improve late in the season, saving me from an F.

2) Coaches will hold players more accountable. No more excuses for poor play. No more pats on the back for trying really hard. GRADE: A. Big culture shift from the past 5 years.

3) The scores will not reflect it but we'll be competitive in our out of conference play. No rolling over and collecting a paycheck. GRADE: B. A+ on our non-con games. F- for conference road games at Miami and Ball State.

4) The O-Line will make or break us. They'll be the difference between us going 1-11 or surprise some teams and winning 3 or 4 as we rebuild. GRADE: B. They protected Woody B and kept us competitive in games that could've gone either way. They overachieved as a unit, considering all the injuries and inexperience.

5) We'll see a standout freshman from SL's first class. My top 3 likely candidates would be Connor Parks, Julian Sams or Matt Harmon. Grade: C+. Sams started most of the season, Harmon played 4 games, and Parks is no longer listed on our roster??. I missed the mark not including Isaiah McCoy

I also predicted that we would go 6-6 in 2019 and I see no reason to back away from that number. There are so many bad-to-average teams in the MAC, that a 4-game improvement next season is completely possible.

(11-26-2018 04:47 PM)goldenflash99 Wrote: [ -> ]I went back to my predictions from another thread to see how I did.

1) We'll be better disciplined. Fewer penalties and boneheaded mistakes on both sides of the line. GRADE: D-. We did improve late in the season, saving me from an F.

2) Coaches will hold players more accountable. No more excuses for poor play. No more pats on the back for trying really hard. GRADE: A. Big culture shift from the past 5 years.

3) The scores will not reflect it but we'll be competitive in our out of conference play. No rolling over and collecting a paycheck. GRADE: B. A+ on our non-con games. F- for conference road games at Miami and Ball State.

4) The O-Line will make or break us. They'll be the difference between us going 1-11 or surprise some teams and winning 3 or 4 as we rebuild. GRADE: B. They protected Woody B and kept us competitive in games that could've gone either way. They overachieved as a unit, considering all the injuries and inexperience.

5) We'll see a standout freshman from SL's first class. My top 3 likely candidates would be Connor Parks, Julian Sams or Matt Harmon. Grade: C+. Sams started most of the season, Harmon played 4 games, and Parks is no longer listed on our roster??. I missed the mark not including Isaiah McCoy

I also predicted that we would go 6-6 in 2019 and I see no reason to back away from that number. There are so many bad-to-average teams in the MAC, that a 4-game improvement next season is completely possible.

Thanks for the look back - agree on the O-line and Miami and BSU games. The defense was the biggest downer. They played very well at Ole Miss (although they weren't a great team this year). Running yards allowed to UB and UT really bad. I hope we can make the kind of improvement you are suggesting

(11-26-2018 04:47 PM)goldenflash99 Wrote: [ -> ]I went back to my predictions from another thread to see how I did.

1) We'll be better disciplined. Fewer penalties and boneheaded mistakes on both sides of the line. GRADE: D-. We did improve late in the season, saving me from an F.

2) Coaches will hold players more accountable. No more excuses for poor play. No more pats on the back for trying really hard. GRADE: A. Big culture shift from the past 5 years.

3) The scores will not reflect it but we'll be competitive in our out of conference play. No rolling over and collecting a paycheck. GRADE: B. A+ on our non-con games. F- for conference road games at Miami and Ball State.


4) The O-Line will make or break us. They'll be the difference between us going 1-11 or surprise some teams and winning 3 or 4 as we rebuild. GRADE: B. They protected Woody B and kept us competitive in games that could've gone either way. They overachieved as a unit, considering all the injuries and inexperience.

5) We'll see a standout freshman from SL's first class. My top 3 likely candidates would be Connor Parks, Julian Sams or Matt Harmon. Grade: C+. Sams started most of the season, Harmon played 4 games, and Parks is no longer listed on our roster??. I missed the mark not including Isaiah McCoy

I also predicted that we would go 6-6 in 2019 and I see no reason to back away from that number. There are so many bad-to-average teams in the MAC, that a 4-game improvement next season is completely possible.

Nice recap!

I gotta disagree on the O line. We we're tied for 127th in the nation in sacks allowed. There are 129 teams. Only Oregon St took more sacks than us. Sure part of it was on Barrett and our pace contributed but I can't get behind the O line over achieving and protecting Barrett when we were elitely bad at avoiding sacks. Also, we had way way too many ineligible man down field penalties on RPOs. I've never seen a team get called for that as much as we did this year.

With that said, I'd give you a B+ on that point. You mentioned 1-11 if the line was bad. We we're 2-10 with wins over a non D1 school and BG. That's pretty close to 1-11.

Justin Rankin is transferring. Best of luck to him

(11-28-2018 09:34 AM)thanksjim Wrote: [ -> ]Justin Rankin is transferring. Best of luck to him

That's disappointing. I like him a lot. Hopefully he lands somewhere solid where he'll get to be the guy. This probably explains why he was seemingly a healthy scratch down the stretch. Well Shaw could be in for a big Senior year.

May be Kent State could contact University of Alabama Birmingham(UAB) and ask how they rebuilt the football program 4 years after it was shut down. UAB won the Conference USA Championship yesterday.
I checked UAB 2018 schedule they played ONE money game also some might think easier to get border line recruits into UAB . US News ranks Kent State 191st and UAB 157th academically.

Since they restarted the program transfers didn't have to sit out a year. They were also a bowl team right before they were dismantled. To top it off the received millions in donations to restore the program.

Some one wants to move this post feel free.
Bowden fired school will pay $700,000.00 buy out.