mat1992

Going 5-3 in the CAA may not be enough. However, Elon not only lost the game tonight but played without their top RB Malcolm Summers and QB Davis Cheek injured his knee in the first quarter and the initial prognosis is not good. http://www.compughterratings.com/FCS/rankings

Glad you went. Dottin did the same thing with me over the summer and Fobbs was very personable as well. That's not to say the kids from the past were a-holes. Eddie was there today and said hi. Maybe it was just the environment that got him a bit crazy. Just that these kids seem different. As bad as Howard shot, he took care of the ball. We had an official count of just 11 turnovers combined. That's pretty good for so many new players. Yagi really struggled. He has some excellent post moves and a pretty good shooter from deep. Maybe a bit scared but they want him to shoot.

As for the game, we're up 10-0 and then O'Neill's kick is blocked and returned for a TD. Without that play, W&M had no chance in this one. We completely took away their running game (which was bad to begin with), but we gave a bit too much cushion I thought on that last drive of the first half and when they were only down 16 with a chance to cut to 8. This was an odd game. I thought that the O-line struggled against their D-Line in the first half. They got a lot of pressure up the middle and for the first time, Flacco couldn't escape it because it was coming from both sides. And for some reason, Shane Simpson had just three carries (for 28 yards). He ended up with 12 for 66 and 3 catches for 48 yards. He's the playmaker. You have to get him the ball because for some reason, Shane Leatherbury did not play in the 2nd half. I didn't ask because we're coming off a win and already asked about special teams disaster. But he had 3 catches for 31 yards and while had a drop, it hard to be more than that. He wasn't hurt for what I can tell on the sidelines. I don't want to speculate but why would you put your best playmaking wide receiver on the sidelines if he's not hurt? Was it because of one drop or that he wasn't blocking in the running game. Flacco started taking off in the second half. He had to because we had four possession receivers lining up. Nothing against Brent Richardson or Caleb Smith, but they don't possess Shane's speed. Nice to see Yeedee finally break one. I think his issue is that he tends to look for that big play instead of going North-South for 3-4 yards. Jabari Allen's catch was just magnificent. Here it is along with some other players

Because you can motivate your players by the old, we should be top 10 but we're not. Why are they ranked ahead of us? That type of thing. Of course he cares for that reason.

You just answered your own question about whether we have a FG kicker issue. We might but we have an entire unit that couldn't block 92 issue. Maybe the snapper Conner Brake is partly to fault or O'Neill's low kicks but he was going to go for 2 after that last blocked XP every time. Now the bleeping call was terrible. Shane up the middle after the 5-yard penalty. That was bad.

Pretty good scrimmage today. Brian Fobbs was the star with 27 points today. He was fantastic, went 8 for 14 and made all four of his free throws. Also made 5 of 7 from 3pt. Thought T.J. Howard ran the team well but he struggled from 3, making just 1 of 9. Did have him for 9 points, 2 assists, one TO and one steal. Jakigh Dotti was very aggressive as the backup point, but made just 1 of 9 from the field and 4 of 9 from the line. But very aggressive to the tin. Jordan McNeill (hand) did not play, though PS says hopefully out two weeks. That allowed A. Betrand and N. Timberlake to play more and both played well. I had Timberlake for 15 points on 6 of 10 from teh field and 3 of 6 from 3pt. Would like to see him attack the basket more. It's a waste of all those hopes if you sit back and just take 3s. He did have a nice reverse layup on a nice cut. Also loved Betrand, who attacked the rim and had 12 points on 4 of 7 shooting. Also made 2 of 3 from 3 pt. Heard he's now close to 6-6 and 205 with a 40 inch vertical. Not a lot from Yagi Selcuk and Solomon up front. It's going to take time for them to develop. I think you'll see Thomas, Sanders and Tunstall rotate at the post spots. Sanders was very foul prone though he did have 8 pts and about 6 boards with 7 fouls. He'll be fine. Al Thomas always plays well in preseason. Now he needs to translater that to the regular season. He had 12 points and seven boards on my count. Tunstall als is up to 230 pounds. Not as impressed with Juwan Gray, the San Diego transfer. He's about 10 pounds away but a lot of guys on their sit-out seasons play tentatively.

As for not having a star NFL player or starting-caliber skill position player like Dave Meggett was, that's tough. It's difficult enough to make an NFL roster out of an FCS school. Sure, the hope was that T-West was going to break through and become more than just a journeyman runner, who may never play in the NFL again. But we do have Tye Smith, Ryan Delaire, Jordan Dangefield, Jermon Bushrod. That's not bad. But sure, it would help if we had a Pro Bowler other than Bushrod. Leatherbury might not be a pro prospect due to his size. So I think he'd have to make it as a return man and a slot receiver. At least he has one more season and he's been terrific this season. He does have great speed and would have to run 4.4ish to get a look. Same with Shane Simpson, who I think can get looks as a returner. Look at the third-string running back for the Ravens, De'lance Turner. A rookie free agent from Alcorn State. However, he's bigger than Shane at 5-11, 215. Also intrigued with Jabari Allen if he can put on more weight though not sure he's fast enough. I also think if they can move DeBerry inside next season, he can be a prospect. He's incredibly strong and runs a 4.65. Chris Clark has the size at 6-6, 260 and can run. Just needs to stay healthy. In a couple of years, LT Andrew Garnett could be the next Bushrod. He's 6-5, 320ish with good feet. Fenner will get some looks this season as scouts are coming out to see him. Would love to see what a healthy Troy Vincent Jr. can do at either corner or safety. Maybe the move him to replace Fenner next season because we have a ton of good young corners to provide depth for Gillette and Shuman in 2019. Oh yeah, there's TF14, who is probably better than at least 1/2 of the NFL backups but his size will hold him back of course.

Welcome to the board 2018. We have alums from around your age to probably around 60. The same issues that we have now were prevalent in a smaller scale many years ago. We did win from 2011-13 and had pretty good crowds until the Deb-Debacle that crushed tailgating. The losing didn't help matters but it started with that incident. I don't think the opponent matters. We had a very good student crowd against The Citadel and they disappeared against Stony Brook. Wouldn't you think some of the Long Island students would show up for that one? I guess. I thought the tailgating issues were supposed to be mostly fixed. More fan-friendly, student-friendly with a DJ and I guess that wasn't enough. We'll see what happens on more of a fallish day this Saturday with the weather getting colder.

https://towsontigers.com/news/2018/10/10/football-form-the-broadcast-booth-is-17-fair.aspx

https://towsontigers.com/news/2018/10/9/mens-basketball-towson-participates-in-baltimore-basketball-media-day.aspx

The music is annoying but I'd rather that something instead of no noise, especially when the opponents have the ball. Maybe we shouldn't play music when were are on offense, but that hasn't bothered us this year. That's a good idea about doing something in the fourth quarter or maybe third quarter. You can't force people to stay if it's a blowout. But leaving at halftime is fine as long as you get them in the stadium in the first place.

We played LSU in 2012 and lost by 16. We beat UConn and should have defeated ECU. I know the kids want to play in The Swamp. It’s better than playing at Albany or Elon even if there’s no shot of winning

We’re playing Florida next season for the $$$. That one game could mean close to a million dollars if not more. You’re not making that when you play an FBS mid-major. Why would Charlotte or Georgia State play us now and risk losing. They can make millions by playing a P5 or two. Kent State is making $3.4M next season by playing Auburn and Arizona State. This season, they made $3.65M by playing at Ole Miu, Illinois and Penn State.

Villanova is 25th in one of the polls. Joke.

Send this to Kim Schaetzel as well. She has the power to change things. A Letter to the Editor at The Towerlight can’t hurt.

I never find the same harassment on the other side. I would send an email to TL or Dan Crowley. This is not the athletic department. It’s the school’s responsibility. If the security is being overbearing on the non-press box side, then maybe that explains some of the awful attendance issues. I still think weather is the other because it looked like it was going to rain all day. Just win.

I don't want to take away from this team or the win. This is a topic that will unfortunately never go away though good, bad, great or mediocre. Tailgating is not being ruined by Deb Moriarity anymore. There was a real nice student turnout against The Citadel. I could go through the litany of excuses why they didn't attend including the weather and last week's borefest of a game featuring the dull triple option. So all the bells and whistles that they added including a DJ in the parking lot to make it more student-friendly either didn't work or the kids just weren't going to come due to the weather. Or they just don't freakin' care. The 300 or so that did deserve a medal I guess.

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I wasn't surprised the attendance took a dip. We had about 1,000 alums and their families last week that just came for the 50th celebration and many probably will never return. Or maybe they come once a year. The students were given something free, but that wasn't enough to entice as many as the previous week. And then you have the weather. If the kids can't get a tan along with some nice swag, they aren't going, even though it never rained. It was also an extremely boring game last week thanks to that option offense. Makes no sense that you would get 4,300 for SB, a conference opponent and 7,300 for The Citadel but that's Towson. You would think with one of the best offenses in the nation, and Joe Flacco's little brother, that you'd get thousands of Ravens fans coming here (though I know they all don't love Joe). There's no Ravens home game this weekend but why not spend a few bucks (lot less than Ravens games) on TF14 and the resurgence Tigers. But does anybody know? It's barely covered in the Sun the week before. The local all-sports station doesn't have Towson guests anymore though we do some advertising. We get some local TV coverage, but you know what hurts the most? No regional TV coverage. No NBC Sports Washington (Comcastsportsnet), no NBC Sports or any other cable channel. FCS is just an afterthought and not being on TV or just sparingly does not help our brand.