[What coaching can do --> Army leads Iowa St.]

Army is playing pretty darn good football against a very good Iowa St. team. A good gameplan and great playcalling are keeping them in it.

[DMN Brandon Monroe to start at middle LB]

Mendoza is a decent MLB but he lacks speed from sideline to sideline. I like the move.

[Time to Rethink the Dickey situation]

In "rebuilding" years, aren't you suppose to do worse than what you did in non "rebuilding" years?  So far we have beat a Sun Belt team and lost badly to a OOC team...I don't see the difference.  Sounds like the last 4 years to me

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Hammer, nail, hit it on the head.

[ESPN Bottom 10]

Finally, some good news for the week.

[Game Plan for K-State]

Why not use the flea flicker?

Oh yeah, I forgot, we don't have an offensive line.

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That and a QB who can't loft it 40yds down field.

[FFR you out there?]

We had open scholarships at the end of signing day. 

Good players signed, we needed a few more.

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How many open 'ships?

[Score Predictions Against Kansas State]

Manhattan, KS is one of the toughest places to play.

KSt - 56

NT - 6

[Who Should Start At Quarterback This Week]

play Byerly and run the wishbone!

oh wait, nevermind...

seriously, until Maydayger can throw deep and is healthy play Phillips...

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LOL!!!

Catchy nickname. However, I will refrain from using that until he turns in a performance vs Troy.

[Who Should Start At Quarterback This Week]

Michael Crabtree of Dallas Carter. Would be a franchise player for the Mean Green right now!

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He's not even considering NT is he?

I'd be happy if NT was even on his radar!

[I was hoping a Cowboy win]

Mike Zimmer's defense seems to always break down in the 4th. They almost lost it last week and have done it today.

[Who Should Start At Quarterback This Week]

Another vote for Korey Washington. Another threat that can move with such bad o-line play.

[Recruiting woes]

It's hard to fathom just how much this loss has hurt NT.

[What is OK to ask of DD?]

I think if I had one question I would ask:

At any point in the past, or possibly will you in the future, consider changing to a "Pass to set up the run" system?

To me this has been a very interesting discussion.  Without a top 10 defense, like what we had in 2002, our conservative "Run to set up the pass"(does not include any passes that invovle a crossing route of any kind)  has not competed very well with the bigger programs, with blowouts coming to top programs and outright losses to others such as to Memphis, Southern Miss, Baylor, Colorado, Air Force, etc.

And what is even more confusing to me is why does our system work against Belt teams but not against OOC programs...for the most part? 

Several of the Belt teams seem to be able to compete with the bigger programs during their OOC games at least offensively at times.  Even before Troy was 1-A they put up offense and points against teams like Nebraska yet like in '03, they come to Fouts and get shut out?  MTSU regularly puts up offense against the bigger programs and FAU doesn't seem to have a problem moving the ball either.  I know FAU beat us last year but barely.  Other than the '02 Baylor and possibly the '04 Colorado game we haven't had many games where we put a scare in anyone offensively in OOC play. 

I do know the past two years we have seen us pass more as the season moves on but we are still a set up the run with the pass type offense.  Everyone loses players.  Look what it's done to OU.  But we seem to always have these stagnant offensive outings at the first of the season.  I wonder if it's time for a change offensively?

Thoughts?

Rick

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I agree with you FFR. How can this team play power football with ease against teams in the Belt but get blown away in OOC play? These same belt teams are competing and winning games in OOC play.

Could it be coaching? Bad coaching with superior talent in OOC games? OR great coaching with inferior talent in Belt play?

I'm just amazed that our O-Coordinator was a gun slinger in college yet runs one of the driest, blandest game plans I'ev ever seen. I read in an earlier post Dickey ran this same offense before Flanigan came in. Maybe, Ramon's hands are tied by DD???

[What is OK to ask of DD?]

This Mean Green football team (according to the MGRN guys) is the 3'rd youngest team in NCAA D1-A.  Something tells me this is going to be a pure "get the kids experience" rebuilding year.  Still amazes me that we beat the MUTS, although we will still take that "W."

Lest we all forget, the last CUSA football team we beat was its CUSA football champion and that was in a bowl game in 2002. All is not lost, folks.  We are mostly pissed because our team got beat in front of a good crowd last night but.............we will all get over it, some of us already have.

GMG!

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This is the argument I don't buy. If this team was building on that amazing year when NT won the NO Bowl against Cincinnati, the talent level would have been recruited to jump in and fill roles. Players come and go for various reasons, but I expect NT to have upped it's level of recruiting since 2002. I completely understand not having game experience, but c'mon now, these guys practiced through spring and fall AND viewed tape AND had time to prepare for Tulsa before this weekend. I was expecting a much better showing.

54-2 not only shows NT's lack of a gameplan, but it alse shows a lack of talent in key positions, IMO. Talent that should be there.

[Will We Win the SUNBELT?]

Stay on top of the SBC, and we will continue that trend.  It's then up to our coaching, etc. to bring us to the next level (aka: winning OOC games).

Come on guys... chin up

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I think most people here believe that has been the problem the last 3 years. This team has plateaud since the NO Bowl victory over the 'Cats.

[DICKEY isn't that good]

I'm still mad from last nights loss.

[Borrow some offense from USC?]

Now comes the real question..

After seeing USC's offense destroy the Razorbacks D and Norm Chow's current struggles with the Titans, can we say Chow benefited from superior talent at USC? Is this why Dickey/Flanigan's O is severely lacking?

Things that make you go Hmmmmmm.....

[Thoughts from the game....]

Not to make this loss worse... but I heard Tulsa didn't even play their starting tailback. 

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In trying to stay in line with tonights theme....

yes this makes teh loss 100X's worse!

[DICKEY isn't that good]

Im serious.... WHEN THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO START WINNING OUT OF CONFERENCE GAMES?!!!?!!??!?!?!!??!?!?!?!?!?

A conference championship takes us 1 step forward but all these out of conference losses take us 2 steps back.

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Do like the rest of us and hang your hat on that Baylor win of a few years ago. That should hold you off for another 10 years.

[Best bet in football]

A friend of mine who is a handicapper played tonights game. He has no ill feelings for NT, but played against them for one reason...they don't win OOC games.

The trend is there so he played it. I tried to talk him out of it.

[Glasses of Scotch for everyone...]

dickey is an alumni of k-state.  He is going to walk into that stadium, pull his pants down, bend over, and say, "I love k state, please have your way with me and NT." 

And you know what, they will.

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[Borrow some offense from USC?]

Do you think those Southern Californians would lend us some offense?

They have over 700yds of Total Offense in the 4th qtr against the Razorbacks!!!!!!!!!

[Tortillas]

When in Rome ....

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LMAO!!

I'm at work and people are walking by my cube looking at me like I'm crazy.

[Glasses of Scotch for everyone...]

Jose Cuervo, you are a friend of mine.

Anyone want to share a shot of some good top shelf tequila?

Tonight, about 3 rows in front our our group and before the game, a poor little 6 or 7 year old girl puked her guts up.  It was quite a mess!  Then later on, there were some adults who (almost) started doing the same.  What a puked up sort of night, eht?

We are young, running on empty and many thought we have the Mean Green team of old but.................we don't.   Time to rebuild, folks.  I just hope we aren't one of those programs who has a "young team" for the next 5 years running.

Anyone want a carafe of, uh, patience?

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Of all people!!

Plumm, I'm surprised you've jumped on our popular sky is falling theme tonight! We're glad to have you as a new member. MootPoint and I are founding members.

[Thoughts from the game....]

Why did we put in Phillips?  He looked terrible.

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I think FFR hit the nail on the head with this post:

"When Phillips came in, his first snap was a roll out to the right and our recievers were heading long down field, but the ball was blown dead at the snap due to a delay of game or something yet Phillips continued his roll out. At that point it was obvious we were going to try something different, possibly a stronger arm at QB. And Tulsa knew it as well. They read that and blitzed the remaining plays Phillips was in there, sacking him at least once, maybe twice. This told Tulsa that Meager can't throw long due to his shoulder. 35 yards seems to be his range and Quinn has yet to have a ball thrown in front of him. He's had to stop on every long throw so far. Due to this, we currently cannot stretch a defense to open the running lanes. Our coaches are in a pickle right now on offense and I'm not sure what else they can do to change it. "