It could just as easily been a 54-7 game. I take nothing away from Mars Hill, but they pulled every trick play in the playbook, while the Bucs ran a vanilla offense and defense

First game, new offense, 5 uncharacteristically dropped passes by good receivers, rare missed field goals by an all conference kicker ( from my view looked to be a problem with the snaps and holder ), fumble at Mars Hill 2yd line, 288 yrds rushing, two good looking freshman running backs, offensive line had push, plus got to the second level for extra blocks. RB's and TE's involved in passing game ( practically non-existent last in three years ). Defense was as expected, except getting caught out of position by some well executed trick plays. Kick-Off and Punt teams very aggressive ( blocked punt ).

Plenty to work on, lots of good stuff.

Will reserve my judgement of coaching and team after we play six games.

I loved seeing our size at RB. I think we will be improved there. Werts is a big target out there. Hope to see him involved more. Not good to be trailing to Mars Hill that long. Hope it was just first game jitters. Fun atmosphere.
We always give opposing receivers too much space off the line, and Mars Hill tried to exploit that. Drives me nuts. If we can’t line up and get physical and cover D-2 players, we are in trouble.

We werent the only socon team to struggle a against D-2 team. WCU had to score in the final minutes to beat Newberry 33-26.

(09-02-2018 09:19 AM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  I loved seeing our size at RB. I think we will be improved there. Werts is a big target out there. Hope to see him involved more. Not good to be trailing to Mars Hill that long. Hope it was just first game jitters. Fun atmosphere.
We always give opposing receivers too much space off the line, and Mars Hill tried to exploit that. Drives me nuts. If we can’t line up and get physical and cover D-2 players, we are in trouble.

We werent the only socon team to struggle a against D-2 team. WCU had to score in the final minutes to beat Newberry 33-26.

A quick glance at the scores of the various levels of the college game from yesterday shows the system is rather well entrenched from DII up through FCS to the FBS pretenders on through the Power Five. Everybody seemed to fall into their assigned category rather well, including the SoCon teams. If there’s one thing that hasn’t changed in the last 50 years of college football — the pecking order has held virtually unchanged from bottom to top irregardless of the various structuring schemes attempted.

Anyway, it’s obviously ALWAYS better to be winning no mattter what level you’re assigned or the level of your opponent. That’s certainly something that hasn’t changed either over these same 50 years.

GO BUCS!

I take back my mad ranting from last night, some white trash Mars Hill fans at the game were driving me insane. The run game is improved 110 percent from last year, and most of our problems were related to dropped passovers and giving up plays to whoever #2 was.

(09-02-2018 03:46 PM)etsuandpurdue3 Wrote:  I take back my mad ranting from last night, some white trash Mars Hill fans at the game were driving me insane. The run game is improved 110 percent from last year, and most of our problems were related to dropped passovers and giving up plays to whoever #2 was.

#2 could really scoot and its a good thing for the Bucs that he got cramps. Like I said in my earlier post I couldn't believe how poorly conditioned Mars Hill was and how many of their athletes were constantly lying flat on there backs getting stretched iced rolled pushed pulled and tugged. They were dropping like flies. All their trainers (5-6 at least) and medical staff, assistant coaches, and hell I think their bus drivers and possibly even our very own Kasey Marler might have pitched in a time or two stretching some of their big guys. Never saw anything like it.

Go Bucs

(09-02-2018 08:43 AM)Buc76 Wrote:  It could just as easily been a 54-7 game. I take nothing away from Mars Hill, but they pulled every trick play in the playbook, while the Bucs ran a vanilla offense and defense

First game, new offense, 5 uncharacteristically dropped passes by good receivers, rare missed field goals by an all conference kicker ( from my view looked to be a problem with the snaps and holder ), fumble at Mars Hill 2yd line, 288 yrds rushing, two good looking freshman running backs, offensive line had push, plus got to the second level for extra blocks. RB's and TE's involved in passing game ( practically non-existent last in three years ). Defense was as expected, except getting caught out of position by some well executed trick plays. Kick-Off and Punt teams very aggressive ( blocked punt ).

Plenty to work on, lots of good stuff.

Will reserve my judgement of coaching and team after we play six games.

I agree with this. I was as upset as anyone after the first half but after thinking about the entire game we came back and did what we were supposed to do. I believe the VMI game will be a good indicator as to how we are improving. Overall I think Marchi did a good job and the defense did its job. The night time atmosphere and weather were perfect for football.
Cannot wait for the next home game.

(09-02-2018 08:10 PM)bucfan81 Wrote:  The night time atmosphere and weather were perfect for football.
Cannot wait for the next home game.

Kudos to the Bucs for scheduling the early season games to begin at 7:30. And, the fireworks were actually pretty good. Now, if they will please stop scheduling Homecoming for the same weekend as the Storytellling Festival in Jonesborough.

(09-02-2018 09:19 AM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  I loved seeing our size at RB. I think we will be improved there. Werts is a big target out there. Hope to see him involved more. Not good to be trailing to Mars Hill that long. Hope it was just first game jitters. Fun atmosphere.
We always give opposing receivers too much space off the line, and Mars Hill tried to exploit that. Drives me nuts. If we can’t line up and get physical and cover D-2 players, we are in trouble.

We werent the only socon team to struggle a against D-2 team. WCU had to score in the final minutes to beat Newberry 33-26.

But it looks like WCU struggled the whole game, us just for a half. The second half we made them look like a D2 school. That encourages me for when we play them later this year.

I expected more of a blow out, but I’ll take this one too. We’re in for a rude awakening Saturday if we don’t straighten some things out though.

(09-02-2018 08:10 PM)bucfan81 Wrote:  

(09-02-2018 08:43 AM)Buc76 Wrote:  It could just as easily been a 54-7 game. I take nothing away from Mars Hill, but they pulled every trick play in the playbook, while the Bucs ran a vanilla offense and defense

First game, new offense, 5 uncharacteristically dropped passes by good receivers, rare missed field goals by an all conference kicker ( from my view looked to be a problem with the snaps and holder ), fumble at Mars Hill 2yd line, 288 yrds rushing, two good looking freshman running backs, offensive line had push, plus got to the second level for extra blocks. RB's and TE's involved in passing game ( practically non-existent last in three years ). Defense was as expected, except getting caught out of position by some well executed trick plays. Kick-Off and Punt teams very aggressive ( blocked punt ).

Plenty to work on, lots of good stuff.

Will reserve my judgement of coaching and team after we play six games.

I agree with this. I was as upset as anyone after the first half but after thinking about the entire game we came back and did what we were supposed to do. I believe the VMI game will be a good indicator as to how we are improving. Overall I think Marchi did a good job and the defense did its job. The night time atmosphere and weather were perfect for football.
Cannot wait for the next home game.

Assuming more then likely UT will be an automatic loss more then likely, as early in the season as it will be, I think VMI will definitely be a critical indication of where this team is and where it's headed. Last year despite struggling and some outright embarrassing plays, the Bucs managed to win over VMI. A win against VMI, especially on the road, could set the team up well for the home stretch against Furman, Chattanooga, and Gardner-Webb.

I'm also pleased that they're doing a lot of the early games of the season up in the evening when it's getting dark, so hopefully if you're sitting in the stadium for 3 or 4 hours of a game you aren't sunburned by the end of the game.

What a wonderful atmosphere it was. Great crowd, the vast majority of which stayed until the end. Neat to see folks hanging out on the grassy hillside.

From behind the bench, the players looked sharp and well conditioned. The coaching staff looked impressive to me.

You could see no one was bothered more than the players themselves from mistakes (dropped passes, fumbles). Will actually help in future games I think.

My daughter was blown away by the band singing Africa. The fireworks were great. The foghorn could be louder. IMO the 3rd down video/sound production was annoying; surely they could come up with something better.

What an FCS jewel we have right here.

Not counting Marchi's 5 rushes (3 were sacks, the other 2 gained 16 yards), our running backs averaged over 7.5 yards. Pretty good.

12 incomplete passes (half of which could've/should've been caught). 3 turnovers and 2 missed field goals. Better now than later on.

Marchi completed 5 straight passes to end the 2nd quarter, the last being a TD. From the end of the 3rd through the 4th he completed 4 straight passes, 2 for TD's. We averaged 16 yards per catch to 8 receivers. Pretty darn good.

etsuandperdue3:
I take back my mad ranting from last night, some white trash Mars Hill fans at the game were driving me insane.

White Trash ?? Gee, I always blame my dum posts on drinking.

(09-02-2018 09:19 AM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  I loved seeing our size at RB. I think we will be improved there. Werts is a big target out there. Hope to see him involved more. Not good to be trailing to Mars Hill that long. Hope it was just first game jitters. Fun atmosphere.
We always give opposing receivers too much space off the line, and Mars Hill tried to exploit that. Drives me nuts. If we can’t line up and get physical and cover D-2 players, we are in trouble.

We werent the only socon team to struggle a against D-2 team. WCU had to score in the final minutes to beat Newberry 33-26.

Notice we allowed the fewest points of SoCon teams, shutting them out the final three quarters while scoring twice in the 4th qtr. Slow start, fast finish — much better than the other way around.