I don't think Carey would have fared much better in these 3 games. Definitely still would have been 1-2 going into the Vandy game I think, and even then that game would have been a toss up with that staff, so I'm not gonna pout just yet.

Good lord now the beginning of wanting Childers back. Every year NIU is predicted to win 4 maybe 5 games in football on this site. At least now it is entertaining to me and makes me laugh. Laughter is the best medicine. Maybe a down year, it can happen. MD is right this is somewhat of a rebuidling year. New coach with players he did not recruit. I hope to be in DeKalb next week to watch the Huskies beat down Ball State.

Good comeback and innovative 2-pt conversion. That’s a win with Sutton. Hard to find the talent depth to replace an NFL early departure in the MAC.

There is a down-cycle in RB/WR talent right now compared to last 10 years. Hard to win without top skill players.

(09-28-2019 02:40 PM)SiegInc Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 02:34 PM)COHUSKIE Wrote:  So far this is a very questionable coaching hire

I'll give Hammock the benefit of the doubt until he can get his own recruits in here and coach them up. I don't believe Carey recruited all that well, its not like this NIU team is stacked with talent but all the sudden became clueless because of a new coach.

I'm with you... we should give Hammock the benefit of the doubt, but I don't think we should put this start on Carey. Carey's one deficiency in recruiting was QB, and Hammock has his guy starting.

(09-28-2019 03:01 PM)niu50yrdline Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 02:40 PM)SiegInc Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 02:34 PM)COHUSKIE Wrote:  So far this is a very questionable coaching hire

I'll give Hammock the benefit of the doubt until he can get his own recruits in here and coach them up. I don't believe Carey recruited all that well, its not like this NIU team is stacked with talent but all the sudden became clueless because of a new coach.

I'm with you... we should give Hammock the benefit of the doubt, but I don't think we should put this start on Carey. Carey's one deficiency in recruiting was QB, and Hammock has his guy starting.

With Carey’s wide receivers who can’t get open to save their lives.

Lots of people saying let’s see how Hammock does with his own recruits....currently he’s not even top 3 recruiting in the MAC. I expect him to get better, but you need the talent to fit the system. Kept hearing all off-season that Hammock will take this program to the next level. We will see. I hope so, but boy these last 3 games were hard to watch.

(09-28-2019 03:03 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 03:01 PM)niu50yrdline Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 02:40 PM)SiegInc Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 02:34 PM)COHUSKIE Wrote:  So far this is a very questionable coaching hire

I'll give Hammock the benefit of the doubt until he can get his own recruits in here and coach them up. I don't believe Carey recruited all that well, its not like this NIU team is stacked with talent but all the sudden became clueless because of a new coach.

I'm with you... we should give Hammock the benefit of the doubt, but I don't think we should put this start on Carey. Carey's one deficiency in recruiting was QB, and Hammock has his guy starting.

With Carey’s wide receivers who can’t get open to save their lives.

I'm ready for the day the blame Rod Carey thing is over.

We may be looking at the old ESPN bottom 10 soon. Our offense hasn't improved much from last year. Bowers hits a few more long balls. but Childers could get some yards running.
How many yards did we give up on sacks today? like 75?

(09-28-2019 02:58 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Good comeback and innovative 2-pt conversion. That’s a win with Sutton. Hard to find the talent depth to replace an NFL early departure in the MAC.

There is a down-cycle in RB/WR talent right now compared to last 10 years. Hard to win without top skill players.

Give Tucker some credit. He's reliable and he makes the clutch catches. That hit he took and still held onto the ball? Tough kid.

(09-28-2019 03:03 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 03:01 PM)niu50yrdline Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 02:40 PM)SiegInc Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 02:34 PM)COHUSKIE Wrote:  So far this is a very questionable coaching hire

I'll give Hammock the benefit of the doubt until he can get his own recruits in here and coach them up. I don't believe Carey recruited all that well, its not like this NIU team is stacked with talent but all the sudden became clueless because of a new coach.

I'm with you... we should give Hammock the benefit of the doubt, but I don't think we should put this start on Carey. Carey's one deficiency in recruiting was QB, and Hammock has his guy starting.

With Carey’s wide receivers who can’t get open to save their lives.

Love or Hate Carey, but he had a knack for preparing his teams to either beat or play competitively vs. power 5 teams in the regular season. Carey May have had some dumb calls in the past, but his teams never looked this unprepared with basic fundamentals. His offenses always sucked, but his defenses always showed up.

(09-28-2019 03:18 PM)MiamiHuskie Wrote:  We may be looking at the old ESPN bottom 10 soon. Our offense hasn't improved much from last year. Bowers hits a few more long balls. but Childers could get some yards running.
How many yards did we give up on sacks today? like 75?

400 yards of offense. Stupid mistakes cost drives and points

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

(09-28-2019 03:19 PM)MiamiHuskie Wrote:  Give Tucker some credit. He's reliable and he makes the clutch catches. That hit he took and still held onto the ball? Tough kid.

Had a couple of tough catches in the 2nd half of the Nebraska disaster too.

I'd like to see a starting three of Ritchie, Tears, and Tucker with a sprinkle of Robinson throughout and specifically in Red Zone situations to complement (not take the place of) Brinkman, Crawford, and the TEs.

The Michael Love experiment needs to end. Let that young guy redshirt. He's not ready.

Is Payne healthy?

(09-28-2019 03:20 PM)JoeNovak Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 03:03 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 03:01 PM)niu50yrdline Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 02:40 PM)SiegInc Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 02:34 PM)COHUSKIE Wrote:  So far this is a very questionable coaching hire

I'll give Hammock the benefit of the doubt until he can get his own recruits in here and coach them up. I don't believe Carey recruited all that well, its not like this NIU team is stacked with talent but all the sudden became clueless because of a new coach.

I'm with you... we should give Hammock the benefit of the doubt, but I don't think we should put this start on Carey. Carey's one deficiency in recruiting was QB, and Hammock has his guy starting.

With Carey’s wide receivers who can’t get open to save their lives.

Love or Hate Carey, but he had a knack for preparing his teams to either beat or play competitively vs. power 5 teams in the regular season. Carey May have had some dumb calls in the past, but his teams never looked this unprepared with basic fundamentals. His offenses always sucked, but his defenses always showed up.

Carey did have a tendency for staying in games he had no business staying in. Carey is like a safe stock purchase if you do not want to gamble, you are not going to bottom out completely , but you certainly are not going to be beating any nationally ranked teams or gaining national recognition. Of course bowl games Carey's teams looked totally unprepared for.

In fairness to Hammock, Carey left serious serious holes for him to plug right away which cannot be an easy thing to inherit. I think back to PJ's first year at WMU, and they got beaten at home by Nichols State. PJ looked like he should not be a FBS coach. Hammock is making big mistakes right now but there are circumstances around that and he deserves time.

(09-28-2019 03:32 PM)MaddDawgz02 Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 03:20 PM)JoeNovak Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 03:03 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 03:01 PM)niu50yrdline Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 02:40 PM)SiegInc Wrote:  I'll give Hammock the benefit of the doubt until he can get his own recruits in here and coach them up. I don't believe Carey recruited all that well, its not like this NIU team is stacked with talent but all the sudden became clueless because of a new coach.

I'm with you... we should give Hammock the benefit of the doubt, but I don't think we should put this start on Carey. Carey's one deficiency in recruiting was QB, and Hammock has his guy starting.

With Carey’s wide receivers who can’t get open to save their lives.

Love or Hate Carey, but he had a knack for preparing his teams to either beat or play competitively vs. power 5 teams in the regular season. Carey May have had some dumb calls in the past, but his teams never looked this unprepared with basic fundamentals. His offenses always sucked, but his defenses always showed up.

Carey did have a tendency for staying in games he had no business staying in. Carey is like a safe stock purchase if you do not want to gamble, you are not going to bottom out completely , but you certainly are not going to be beating any nationally ranked teams or gaining national recognition. Of course bowl games Carey's teams looked totally unprepared for.

In fairness to Hammock, Carey left serious serious holes for him to plug right away which cannot be an easy thing to inherit. I think back to PJ's first year at WMU, and they got beaten at home by Nichols State. PJ looked like he should not be a FBS coach. Hammock is making big mistakes right now but there are circumstances around that and he deserves time.

Ha notice how I left out bowl games because Carey’s teams were never prepared for them. Hammock is showing every bit that he is a first year head coach with some of his in game calls. He will get better and I expect NIU to get better in years to come, but you have to be realistic. I don’t expect them to compete in the MAC championship this year. Too many injuries with zero depth to replace them. No pass rush, so teams like Toledo will torch NIU.

Some reasons to be optimistic:

The O line played better. Bowers generally had plenty of time to throw (other than the Marcus Jones block whiff); the receivers just were not getting open in the 1st half. The running game was better. Taking out the Bowers sacks (-32 yards), we had 140 yards rushing, which is a heck of a lot better than the about 75 yards per game we averaged in the first 3 games.

In 3 games Bowers has as many passing yards as Childers had in the first 8 games last year. We have the right guy at QB and he will be very good against MAC defenses. We will move the ball and score points in MAC play.

On the D side, we sure could use getting back Ben LeRoy (to help with rotation on the D line) and Lance D. If Lance D. will be back soon, we should consider moving Jones-Davis to the middle and him and Cole to the outside LB positions, which would get our best 3 LBs on the field. Absent that, I am hoping that the guys we have filling in improve and the D comes together. We held Vandy to 373 yards; doing that in MAC play with what I see as the O moving the ball and scoring pints and we will be OK.

I don’t disagree with the coaching issues. Let’s hope this has been the learning curve that most of us anticipated, and the coaching improves week to week.

We spotted Vandy 14 points and the team did not quit, came back, and could have won the game, despite not playing well. We have a tough MAC schedule; however, there are some reasons to be optimistic, and it is premature to write this season off!

(09-28-2019 03:45 PM)NILAW Wrote:  Some reasons to be optimistic:

The O line played better. Bowers generally had plenty of time to throw (other than the Marcus Jones block whiff); the receivers just were not getting open in the 1st half. The running game was better. Taking out the Bowers sacks (-32 yards), we had 140 yards rushing, which is a heck of a lot better than the about 75 yards per game we averaged in the first 3 games.

In 3 games Bowers has as many passing yards as Childers had in the first 8 games last year. We have the right guy at QB and he will be very good against MAC defenses. We will move the ball and score points in MAC play.

On the D side, we sure could use getting back Ben LeRoy (to help with rotation on the D line) and Lance D. If Lance D. will be back soon, we should consider moving Jones-Davis to the middle and him and Cole to the outside LB positions, which would get our best 3 LBs on the field. Absent that, I am hoping that the guys we have filling in improve and the D comes together. We held Vandy to 373 yards; doing that in MAC play with what I see as the O moving the ball and scoring pints and we will be OK.

I don’t disagree with the coaching issues. Let’s hope this has been the learning curve that most of us anticipated, and the coaching improves week to week.

We spotted Vandy 14 points and the team did not quit, came back, and could have won the game, despite not playing well. We have a tough MAC schedule; however, there are some reasons to be optimistic, and it is premature to write this season off!

Heard on the radio that Lance Deveaux is our for the year?

(09-28-2019 03:43 PM)JoeNovak Wrote:  Ha notice how I left out bowl games because Carey’s teams were never prepared for them. Hammock is showing every bit that he is a first year head coach with some of his in game calls. He will get better and I expect NIU to get better in years to come, but you have to be realistic. I don’t expect them to compete in the MAC championship this year. Too many injuries with zero depth to replace them. No pass rush, so teams like Toledo will torch NIU.

I take it that you haven't seen Toledo play this year. They're just as unimpressive so far. Their QB doesn't look the same after an early injury, my guess is that he isn't 100% and it says something about what the coach thinks about the quality of depth at the position that he keeps getting trotted out there.

NIU, EMU, and Toledo will have a good battle for the top of the West.

(09-28-2019 03:49 PM)JoeNovak Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 03:45 PM)NILAW Wrote:  Some reasons to be optimistic:

The O line played better. Bowers generally had plenty of time to throw (other than the Marcus Jones block whiff); the receivers just were not getting open in the 1st half. The running game was better. Taking out the Bowers sacks (-32 yards), we had 140 yards rushing, which is a heck of a lot better than the about 75 yards per game we averaged in the first 3 games.

In 3 games Bowers has as many passing yards as Childers had in the first 8 games last year. We have the right guy at QB and he will be very good against MAC defenses. We will move the ball and score points in MAC play.

On the D side, we sure could use getting back Ben LeRoy (to help with rotation on the D line) and Lance D. If Lance D. will be back soon, we should consider moving Jones-Davis to the middle and him and Cole to the outside LB positions, which would get our best 3 LBs on the field. Absent that, I am hoping that the guys we have filling in improve and the D comes together. We held Vandy to 373 yards; doing that in MAC play with what I see as the O moving the ball and scoring pints and we will be OK.

I don’t disagree with the coaching issues. Let’s hope this has been the learning curve that most of us anticipated, and the coaching improves week to week.

We spotted Vandy 14 points and the team did not quit, came back, and could have won the game, despite not playing well. We have a tough MAC schedule; however, there are some reasons to be optimistic, and it is premature to write this season off!

Heard on the radio that Lance Deveaux is our for the year?

I did not know that. If so, we will have to go with Jones-Davis and Cole at the outside LB positions and Labus as the MLB, and hope we don't have any more injuries and bone-head mistakes like the Cole targeting penalty that gave Vandy a 1st down instead of 3rd and very long! I suppose the only bright side to that would be if both he and Pugh could get another year and wanted to come back, we would look good at LB next year.

(09-28-2019 03:52 PM)NorthCoast Wrote:  

(09-28-2019 03:43 PM)JoeNovak Wrote:  Ha notice how I left out bowl games because Carey’s teams were never prepared for them. Hammock is showing every bit that he is a first year head coach with some of his in game calls. He will get better and I expect NIU to get better in years to come, but you have to be realistic. I don’t expect them to compete in the MAC championship this year. Too many injuries with zero depth to replace them. No pass rush, so teams like Toledo will torch NIU.

I take it that you haven't seen Toledo play this year. They're just as unimpressive so far. Their QB doesn't look the same after an early injury, my guess is that he isn't 100% and it says something about what the coach thinks about the quality of depth at the position that he keeps getting trotted out there.

NIU, EMU, and Toledo will have a good battle for the top of the West.

Toledo beat BYU and Colorado State, and kept it close vs. Kentucky. Their QB play is not as great as in years past, but NIU’s defense is thin at LB with zero pass rush. Not a good recipe for success. I’m hoping Bowers and the offense comes alive and competes. This year reminds me of a slightly better version of the 2016 team. I’m guessing 6 wins.

(09-28-2019 03:18 PM)MiamiHuskie Wrote:  We may be looking at the old ESPN bottom 10 soon. Our offense hasn't improved much from last year. Bowers hits a few more long balls. but Childers could get some yards running.
How many yards did we give up on sacks today? like 75?

Just a horrible take. Huskies will be fine and are going to rake over the MAC. Would have loved to see at least one P5 victory in OCC, but newness in coaching and injuries have held us back.