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My prediction of a 41-24 Towson win drew some skepticism from some of my fellow Tigers here. I wasn’t too far off. Just felt like the Towson squad we saw against UC was not a fluke but a truer indication of what this team is capable of offensively. Granted, that team was led by Davis. However, after what I saw from Brown against Villanova, I’m all in on that dude. I feel like he has better instincts and composure. There are still some challenging games left but none of them are “improbable” wins. I still wouldn’t be shocked if we ran the table the rest of the way.

Made the roundtrip there and back from the Twin Cities today (about 3:15 each way), so I really appreciated the fight in the second half to make the game interesting. This team has definitely shown some fight in the first four games, but I still feel like we don't know much about them. The NDSU offense is pretty good this year, but that is a somewhat subpar NDSU defense for that program. We didn't put enough pressure on them early when we could have made this a tighter game. Our first drive was pretty solid, but Davis missed an opportunity to get a TD on the third down play when he couldn't quite get enough air on his pass to get it to an open receiver. It was a difficult roll-out play, but one that could have been made. On our next two drives, we got decent yardage on first and second down but couldn't executive on 3rd and 3 and 3rd and 4 due to a combination of breakdowns. It felt like one at least one of those third down plays, Davis could have run for the first down. He made that adjustment very well in the second half, but it was probably too late at that point. I only listened on the radio last week, but was wondering what others think about the comp with Brown's throwing arm compared to Davis. It felt like there were 3-4 above average throws that Davis missed today that could have been big plays. He also had the jitters early on, and it seemed like his accuracy was off a little bit. Meanwhile four of NDSU's five 3rd down conversions in the game came on 3rd and 9 or longer. With the game tied at 3-3, we had them at 3rd and 10 from their own 30, and they came up with a 49-yard pass play to keep a drive that ended up as a TD alive. Late in the second quarter at 17-3, NDSU seemed content to run the clock out and was at 3rd and 11 from their own. Once they completed a 16 yard pass play, they quickly drove down the field and made it 24-3. They converted a 3rd and 15 from their own 39 in their first drive on the second half on pass interference, but thankfully missed a 44-yard field goal. They also had a 3rd and 9 from our 22-yard line and converted on a pass interference play, and pushed the score to 31-10 later in the third quarter. I know I am being picky pulling up each of those plays, but between the two punt play letdowns, the two PIs on 3rd and long, and the two other 3rd and long spots we gave up, we just had too many letdowns to make this as tight of a game as it could have been. That was little disappointing. I know some of the big plays we made against NDSU and Cincy show off some of the talent on this team, but finding yourself down 21-3 in the first quarter in Cincy and 24-3 at halftime against NDSU helps loosen the intensity of those defenses too. Our best offense has come try to claw our way back from huge deficits, and I hope we don't see many more of those this year. I also don't think NDSU is a top five team and that Villanova is a top 10 squad. They are still good teams, but both are a tad overrated from what I can tell. Still, credit the players for fighting hard the whole game and for making some adjustments in the second half. Davis did a good job of using his legs when things broke down offensively in the second half, and the Tyrell Greene Jr. TD run was a thing of beauty. We actually almost came close to replicating it with Devin Matthews when it was 34-24, but NDSU's safety made a solid one-on-one tackle to keep it from being a big gain and the drive broke down because of penalties. Overall, I was a little disappointed with some of the mistakes that let us fall behind by so much in the first half. Those mistakes won't just hurt us against NDSU and Cincinnati, we will pay for themi in conference play if we don't clean them up. The talent level and the fact that our total yardage has been 438, 346, 394, 366 in the first four games (even if we piled up a lot of it against NDSU and Cincy when we trailed big) are both promising. We have also run for 5.2 (194) total, 5.1 (137 total), 5.2 (161 total) and 8.5 (205 total) yards per carry in our first four games. We just need to clean up special teams and some of the mistakes we have made on both sides of the ball. They made the Morgan State game closer than it should have been, they cost us the Villanova game, and they blew a chance for this to be a really tight and competitive game against NDSU the whole way.

I think there are certain benchmarks this program needs to hit to continue to gain momentum on the way back to be at high level. Playing a good game at home was the first low bar to clear, because we didn't do that last year. I also grouped that together with eating a ranked team at home (after a 2023 season of stinkers, check). Next up, not playing down to a level of a lower opposition like we did against Morgan State. That is what is in front of us this week. We racked up a lot of yardage against Morgan State, but repeatedly shot ourselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers. After that we can focus on the upcoming three-game stretch. All three teams are probably top-25 (Richmond) or fringe top-25 in the case of Stony Brook and Monmouth. Obviously if we want to say we are playoff team we need to win all of those games and the rest. There are some signs this program is heading in the right direction with the level we have reached at at times this year, but consistently staying somewhere around that level is the next challenge.

Interesting comments from Takayo Siddle https://x.com/theseahawkperch/status/1844158836351041691?s=46&t=nScacl1TWT-KyOwj5stBaw

So much to talk about, but this was a big win and that was an understatement. Easily the biggest win of the Pete Shinnick era. I certainly wouldn't call him a risk taker (I know, 4th-and-1 at midfield), but going with Sean Brown at quarterback turned out to be the right move. Considering how well he played against Villanova, he probably should have started against ND State but Pete didn't want Carlos Davis to lose the job that way. He gave him a shot against the Bison and he realized that he left too many plays on the field. Brown was 17 of 24 for 185 yards and two TDs. Still can get better and needs to get Carter Runyon involved. But he's the guy. The real star tonight was Tyrell Greene Jr. who had 133 yards and a TD. He showed explosion two week ago against ND State, but for some reason, Sheppard had him with just one carry tonight. Devin Matthews was banged up early in the second half and Greene took over. At worst, he should have the same amount of carries. He was spectacular and they probably should have fed him on that second to last drive when we punted on 4th-and-1 and they went down the field and scored (thanks to help from us and the zebras). Pete did bring up the fact that we had four penalties against ND State and two were iffy or "interesting" as he tried to be diplomatic. I think both of corners, especially Myles Brodie, need work with finding the ball. I thought one of those PIs against Shafeek Smith was borderline at best. But once you start jumping offsides on D and get a few personal fouls, the penalties just start coming from everywhere. Defensively, I thought we played great in the first quarter, ok in the second quarter and then the forced turnovers won the game for us. However, you can't expect to force three turnovers to win games like these. You to force some punts or thankfully, as we did late, stop them on fourth down. Either way, it's very Towson-like the way we nearly collapsed and Greene Jr. was able to finish it.

don't disagree about Gordy...

Tribe: 24 Tigers: 41

Am I the only one here who thinks the special edition helmet logos for this weekend’s game are a little lame? Cartoon Doc decals? Really?

During the T-West years — and especially 2011 — a student group called T-Unit brought a regular contingent of students. who filled the center section for just about every game (except Delaware on a bitterly cold Halloween night). They tended to stay till the end and were into it. Of course, we were good and the games were high scoring and exciting, so that helped. But I wish there were a T-Unit equivalent these days.

Not much to see this weekend from the Tigers, as they beat NC A&T twice without dropping a single set. Vic Barrett won Offensive POTW yet again, and the Tigers will move into another tough road weekend at Charleston with a lot of confidence. The Cougars are looking very strong this season, and currently sit at 5-1, tied atop the standings with 4 other teams. Charleston has historically been the toughest place to play for Towson, but the last couple of seasons have been more fruitful in that regard. This weekend will tell us a lot about the strength of the “other” competitors in the conference, and if any of them can really challenge Towson and Delaware.

Trust the alum. Called it. Nice qb who can throw the ball. Greene looked like t west out there. Good special teams especially on punts. And yeah, Gordy combs sounded like a biased petulant child instead of a commentator. I muted the tv at times. Helmets sucked but great win. ARETE!!!

Nice win. Flipped back and forth between some great college games and exciting playoff baseball. Would have been nice to beat nova and been 2-0 in league and with a chance for the playoffs. Any reason this qb wasn’t the starter to begin the season? Or against Ndsu? Seems like he gives the team the best chance to win running backs we good and wrs played well special teams much better. Nice to have a kick off got into the end zone instead of the 10 the penalties are infuriating 14 for 110+?! Tons of penalties under Ambrose. Tons under shinick. Strange, since they both have different philosophies. 6000 in attendance?! Can we please get a new color commentator?! Spiro is not good but Gordy is horrendous and embarrassing. If the school insists on him showing up every week can someone please unplug his mic? Not sure he would notice. Though the things that cone Out of his mouth, make sense why the football program was so bad for years ..

LOL, I love it. Take my money - more cartoons and googly eyes on everything. Aside from my excitement and others' lack of it at least we are trying something and it's getting some buzz. Plus it's just a helmet sticker so the cost is low. I'd love to see the 80's and 90's tiger logos return as well.

Raises 50 grand https://x.com/gohcollective/status/1842209809849794936?s=46&t=nScacl1TWT-KyOwj5stBaw

What a great ACC rivalry game!

They are just assuming we’ll join CUSA due to their losses. I don’t see it happening now but potentially in the future. We can’t hang around the depleted CAA forever.

Can Tejada and Williamson make decent size jumps? What will Mays and the teams psyche be after the brutal choke job to end the season? Can Lowery develop some sort of any semblance of a serviceable jumper? Can tarke be more of a playmaker and defensive stalwart and less of a volume shooter? What if anything do we get from the “bigs?” (The other two good teams in the league have monsters) will skerry choke again? (We know that answer) Return a lot of pieces from Last year while everyone else has lost almost everything. Decent OOC schedule that should help them get ready for league play. Have the other two best teams, who lost a ton, early. Semi favorable league schedule. Everything is set up right, can this program finally take advantage ?

Our time… I think I’ve uttered that phrase many times before 🫣

Outstanding preview https://collegehoopstop50.com/2024/09/23/85-towson-tigers/

Looks like those games in the Canadian tournament will be on ESPN+. Gametimes look to be 5:30 and 7:30, which should be local time, so 7:30 & 9:30 here.

We better remember last year.

Yes!!!! T-Unit was legit. I know @TheGoldCrotchPiece remembers

TigersTigers great job again as the website's volleyball correspondence. Women's College Volleyball is really taking off. I enjoy checking in on matches from time to time as ESPN/ABC and Big10 Network show numerous matches during the week. Another team that is handcuffed by the wonderful conference's Flosports deal. Can't watch on Monumental either as I am out of the area.