FirefightnRick

I wouldn't consider 2003 or 2004 as rebuilding years and we got destroyed against OU, Texas, Baylor, Air Force, Memphis, Southern Miss and lost to a first year 1-A program during the span of those two years. We also won the Sun Belt conference both years that included wins over Sun Belt teams by margins I would describe as by the "Skin of our teeth" including a 3 point win against NMSU, a 2 point win over ULM and a 5 point win over MTSU. With that said, DD certainly deserves our respect and support as he has done more with less. I would just like to simply see a bit of a change in offensive philosophy. Rick

There's a new sherrif in town. Reid Mathew Turney arrived in classic fashion today in San Antonio around 4:45 p.m. Weighing in at 8 lbs, 5 oz and measuring 20 inches long. Baby and momma are both doing great. Congrats to the Turney's from the Mean Green Nation! Rick

NT 34 K State 28 Surely we are better than Florida International? Rick

I got them backwards, sorry about that. 50 attempts, 29 completions. QB rating means nothing to me actually. Scott Hall had a high one and look how that stat did for us last year in New Orleans facing a run stuffing defense. I'm more for whatever moves the chains and puts points on the board, regardless. And right now, it aint the power running game that's getting it done. Rick

Well, excuse me, that would be stupid if your playing Texas, or Texas Tech or UC Davis. They're QB's throw strikes all around the field. With us, we throw into the flat behind the line of scrimmage or a hail mary down the sidelines, forcing us to beat them with the run most times. And it's not worked now three games straight for us, time to change just a bit. My 2 cents again. Rick

Actually with the one tightend set your looking at 6 blockers blocking 8. But Tulsa had 9 many times so you had 6 blocking 9 at times. Send the tightend out for a pass, now your down to 8. Send either of the two backs out in motion and your down to 7. Still you have 5 blocking 7. However if they choose to send seven, which would be stupid, you have single coverage on Quinn, Muzzy, Davidson and SPJMo. Advantage: Mean Green! Rick

Yup! Rick

Don't know where you get 200% from, is that his true QB rating? As I read it, 29 divided by 50 is .58 which is his completion percentage. His QB rating is 124.6 and I'm going by the stats given, I don't remember how to figure up QB rating? Rick

Also, in case no one was paying attention, Florida International went into Manhatten three weeks ago and gave K State all they wanted. Until KSU scored a td with 8 minutes to go to ice the game it was a 28-21 game. FIU averaged 4.5 yards passing on them and was in position for an upset. Marshall two weeks ago had K State beat had it not been a bonehead decision to move the ball closer with a pass to set up for a field goal. Down 21-19 and with the ball sitting on K state's 21 yard line, Marshall's coach, for whatever reason, tries to move the ball closer with a pass. The QB either forced it or was trying to throw the ball away when K State picked it off as time ran out. No reason for it, they were close enough for the try. Marshall had their way with K State's defense all day with an average of 6.6 yards per pass. Had they taken care of the ball (5 turnovers) it may not have even been close. We watched the game in Murfreesboro and couldn't believe the MU coach took such a risk when they didn't need to. K State can be beaten if we take it to them. Rick

Lineberry, SR, 15 starts May, SR, 11+ starts Foster, JR, 13 starts Brown, Soph, 12 starts. 4 of our 5 starting offensive linemen have blocked for a national rushing champion and helped lead the Sunbelt conference as well as rank nationally in "fewest sacks allowed" the past two years. I understand what your saying, but this is not a young O line. Rick

Allen Webb is their QB. He has 29 attempts, 50 completions for 287 yards, with a completion rating of 58.0. He's averaging 5.74 per attempt. He has thrown 4 td, 2 ints and has a rating of 124.6 Thomas Clayton is their star RB. He has rushed 43 times for 329 yards with an average of 7.7 yards per carry. He has 3 TD's so far with the longest being 80 yards. He and three other backs have combined for 454 yards rushing on 88 attempts and 3 TD's. They have 6 recievers who have combined for 287 yards and 4 TD's. Their top guy is Jermaine Moreira who has 11 catches for 117 yards and no TD's. K State's scoring defensive rank as of this week is 44th. Their rush defense is currently ranked 14th, allowing only an average of 78 yards rushing per game To answer your question about Key Matchups? Their pass defense ranks 50th right now allowing 208 yards a game. I'd say Scott Davis or Mitch Maher plus Marcus Camper, David McGinty, Troy Redwine and Johnny Quinn match up quite well against them. We should be able to stretch the field and keep their DB's busy all day long. Any more questions? Rick

No, it's common sense. See Auburn's 2004 National Championship season as a reference. Rick

I think we should throw to the tightend more. Since 2002 we have thrown to the tightend exactly 69 times for 1037 yards. During those years we had one of the best sets of hands in Andy Blount but we only threw to him 53 times in four seasons inlcuding 1 time the entire 2002 year. Blount averaged two catches per game those three years. As we continued to throw to him more our offensive production went up substantially. He had 22 catches for 415 yards in '03 and 30 catches for 427 yards in '04. I know he had that one catch in '01, possibly more, but I cannot find the stats for that year. But the point is, the more we used him and the other tightends(Gardner, Muenchow, Davidson) the more yards our offense produced. In 2003 our tightend position averaged 2 catches per game but had 19 yards per catch. I know our system is to get them to creep up to hit them deep once or twice a game, but it's time for that thought to go. We have seen three straight games now where the defense knows what is coming. Our tightend, Davidson currently has one catch for 6 yards. Yet we got to watch Tulsa's tightend run all over us all night long. Since Meager has a tough time with the deep ball I would utilize the tightend more on the shorter range passes. Did anyone hear Johnny Quinn's interview Monday night? He mentioned one of the things he and (I assume he was talking about his reciever counterparts) the guys must continue to work on and get better at is their blocks downfield and when our young QB's do get them the ball they will know he and the guys will catch it. Here' s one of the most talented recievers we have had since probably Troy Redwine and he's got to go out and worry about run blocking? It just doesn't sit well with me. I'll never accept it. I'll never accept the fact we have this much talent and speed and 4 veteran linemen and tightends to boot and we can't produce any better than what I have seen the past two weeks. If you go with our single tightend set, Muzzy and Quinn split wide, bring SPJMO and the Emerald Express together in the backfield, send one back in motion, send the tightend out on a route of any kind off the line, YOU GET: 6 defenders in the box for the other back to deal with facing a base 4-3 defense. 6 MINIMUM! Not 9. When one back goes in motion either a LB or the extra corner must come up to cover, and right there the advantage goes to US. If they roll over the safety to help on either side then the tightend and one reciever is single covered. Again, advantage US. I thought this was what we were going to see this year? I thought this was why we were to be so excited with all the hype having these two backs in the same backfield? Surely the national media didn't chose to cover NT so much this year to just see history made or to see if we would try to power run against 9 men in the box.............AGAIN? Put the ball where they are not. Give them something to worry about instead of running straight at them trying to prove your system works when it isn't. Sure, if either back can break it in the first half and keep them honest, ok. But once it's not working, change. We saw first hand in the N.O. against Southern Miss what happens when you don't change and adjust. There's no way with NT having those two backs we should only be averaging 200 yards a game against the two teams we played. No way. Just my 2 cents. Rick

Wow! I completely did not see that. UC Davis? Wow, that team has played everyone tough for years while in Division II. I didn't even know they were making the move up to Division 1-AA? And to think Stanford was coming off a win over Navy 41-38. It didn't mean much to Davis though? I love seeing the smaller programs taking on the bigger ones with wreckless abandon like that. It grows your fanbase, helps fans let go of their money more and makes people fall in love with your program for years to come. Rick

Exactly. Tulsa showed two weeks ago what their D line could do against Oklahoma and it was no surprise to see them creeping up all night long against us. What is bothersome though is that our run was affective in the first quarter. Cobbs made them look silly a few times but the holding penalties equalized that every time. This is a very experienced O line. There is no reason we cannot get max protection from them, but we are going to have to have some help on the outside to keep them back or teams are going to stack the line from here on. You think the Tulsa game was ugly, wait until you see what K State's speed does this saturday. Rick

Good post. Rick

Good posts. Every time I meet up with someone who has been away for awhile say the same exact thing: "What a great game day experience!" or, "where did all the people come from?" I met up with some guests from Fort Worth who were first timers to Mean Green football. As soon as I got there a camera crew comes right up and starts to interview us. Their first question was: "What do you think of all the game day festivities". I responded with a couple of things about how it didn't used to be like this, that it was not allowed in the past, which led up to what I wanted to say and that was when I got my "Thank you RV" remark in there because truly, without Rick none of it would have been possible, festivities wise. Rick

Once again this season the 1500lb Victory Bell was hidden away from sight over behind the stands on the southwest side. I keep asking why the damn thing cannot be placed behind the endzone on the concrete, out into the open for all to see and hear and I keep getting told it's too heavy to roll over the track. HorseShit! There was a 12,000lb ambulance sitting on it all night long at the north end of the track and there has been tractors and other equipment rolling over it all summer long while the new turf was being installed. Bring in 4 sheets of plywood to roll over, something, anything to make it happen? Our alumni step up and bring back a very expensive, long standing tradition after several years of absence and it gets pushed aside. I'm so tired of the excuses. Wears me out! Rick

Good points, makes sense now. Rick

I posted something about this earlier, that other Belt teams seem to be able to produce on offense, if just a little bit against the bigger teams but we never seem to be able to. Other than Baylor in '03 and Colorado in '04, our offensive strategy just doesnt' seem to get it done. Arkansas State, 330+ yards against Oklahoma State this past weekend, Troy, 320+ yards against Missouri FAU, 246 yards against Minnesota ULM, 211 yards against Georgai. I know this isn't anything to talk about, but Tulsa is no Georgia? This in no way is a complete example of what I'm talking about. You can go back and search through the years past and see that even in blowout loses, and during some wins, that many of our Belt bretheren have been able to at least move the ball against the larger programs. But we consistently have not been able to including a crappy 129 yards against Tulsa. Something is very wrong with this. Thoughts? Rick

Ditto. Good job Rick. Rick

Great game for another one of those "Too" guys. Too small, Too slow, Too etc? Rick

Ebone has a good point. Without discussing too much dirty laundry here, I'll just say our "recruitment" was not at full strength last season. And I believe what AV is describing is us not having the ability to beat the blitz other than the back-out screen. Very few hot routes being thrown, especially none to the Tight End. Rick

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

I can and will get over the loss. Like my kids, I love the Mean Green because they are mine. Not because they buy wins every year like other programs, or that they look good, or because win in conference and make me proud, but because they are mine. But what burns more than anything, and this goes back to every good first decent crowd at opening day we have had the past several years(Baylor'00, TCU'01,Nichols State'02, FAU'04), is all the hard work so many people in the university and athletic department did to bring back such a great game day experience for all of us only to send people home with such a sour taste. Plus with all the hype this season has brought about our running backs, and all the media attention that was there yesterday that came with it, media attention all of us have demanded for, for ever it seems, it was just a horrible, horrible time to drop such a "Steamer" of this magnitude. Hopefully as many have said already that most fans, especially those with families will remember the good time they were having before the late second quarter started. One of my officers at the FWFD who I have educated on everything there is to know about NT over the years came up with his family for the day. His second oldest daughter is attending NT as a freshman this fall. She came with a scholarship and could have attended anywhere she wanted and chose NT and according to the family she has had a blast so far. FirefightinJoey got to meet these folks as well and to hear about their experience about the day, everyone had a wonderful time and admitted how shocked they were how nice everything was, all the new facilities , the tailgating and the game day experience and all. Most college game day experiences for them in the past has been at TCU. I spoke to him today and he said regardless of the lopsided loss, he's now a Mean Green fan plus the entire campus really made a complete new and different impression on him and his wife and mostly they are thrilled their daughter seems very happy to be there. This is what we must have for the future. Rick