mat1992

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.

More highlights

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.

https://www.newsday.com/sports/college/stony-brook/stony-brook-towson-football-1.21567038

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/football/bs-sp-towson-football-cruises-against-stony-brook-20181006-story.html

This team has now scored 44 or more points for three straight games for the first time in the history of the program. I think Flacco is ok. Even though I knew he was the starter in summer camp and thought he could really play, I didn't see this coming. When you turn the ball over twice, commit four penalties, miss an easy field goal and are still up 21 at the half? That's about TF14 but you also have to credit the receivers. Maybe it's the influence of Justin Harper as the new WR coach, but we are catching the ball and making plays after every catch. We're just not going out of bounds or going down. Leatherbury has improved as much as any receiver from his first year to his second that I've ever seen in 29 years. That's not to say he was bad last season, but was small and beaten up. Now, he's breaking tackles with his strength and elusiveness. Hell, Rodney Dorsey can't even get on the field and he played a lot last year. as a true freshman. Maybe they redshirt him. Jabari Greenwood plays but barely gets targeted. He caught 50 balls last season. But you add Chris Clark, who is still limited, and you see the potential he has when he's close to being healthy. You can't really defend him. Add Jabari Allen's size and hands and Gallahan's improved overall play and this might be the best offense we've ever had. Even without T-West. But how do teams defend us? Do you just stay back and play coverage? Flacco will run all over teams. Stony Brook took away his run (37 yards). So he'll just pass to receivers underneath or extend plays to allow guys to get open. Or we can run the ball out of the Pistol. Is Flacco going to keep it? Is he going to give it to Shane or Kobe? With Leatherbury get it on the end around. The defense is getting better. They hit, they wrapped, they tackled, the punished. Very impressive and sure, we're going to make mistakes in the middle of the field. Shuman didn't have a great night. He got beat on the deep ball, but they play as well. But again, if you can stop the run, you can't beat them. We held the Seahawks to 104 yards rushing and that's what won the game aside. Also, what can you say about Shane Simpson. Spectacular run to open the game with a nice hole, made very good decisions on punt returns and give Toomey credit on a nice punt to pin them inside the 5 when the game was getting too close for comfort.

Let's get a big crowd for this one. Arguably the biggest game in years. Probably the biggest home game since the playoff game against Fordham.

Well, they didn't have a lot of film available and with 50 minutes, you can't show everything. Do you really need to ask why they didn't mention Meggett? As for Vinson, he helped save Towson football. Just by his presence show that we could beat a program like Delaware. So sure, he should have been mentioned.

We're a little over a month away from the first basketball game against UVa. Thought I'd take a look at the team for the first time since the summer. There wasn't much to look at over the summer as they were working on skill level. This time, I did notice improvements and more confidence from the younger players. But without staying late enough to talk to PS, it's a little early to talk about lineups. I did see a first unit of Thomas, Nurkeye Sanders, T.j. Howard, McNeill and Brian Fobbs. The second unit was a mixture of Tunstall, Drayton, Jacquill Dottin, Nick Timberlake, Allen Betrand, Solomon U. and Yagi Selcuk. So you get the gist of this. We might end up starting the older guys until the younger guys are ready. Don't love the Sanders/Thomas frontcourt which is old school big. Sanders will have to score 12-14ppg and has the looks of a big-time rebounder. Fobbs loves the left wing (he's lefty) and is built like a tank. Just concerned about turnovers with him. His ballhandling needs work and well, we now Jordan isn't the greatest ballhandler but hopefully last year's experiment with him at the point will help him at the 2. I think it's just going to take time. That starting unit won't be able to score like last year's but they should be able to defend. Fobbs has the size at 6-4, 215 to play the 3, rebound and defend. Jordan is a pretty good defender. We know Thomas can defend the post. The bigger question is whether Sanders can defend those stretch 4s at 6-8, 235. The other issue is who will come off the bench and what will the rotation be. I think Tunstall is the first big off the bench and then probably Solomon U. Yagi is going to be really good but I think it's going to take some time to learn our defensive system. About when to switch and when not to. Dottin to me is the most improved player from what I saw. He looks a lot more confident in his shot. He can take guys off the dribble, which is something I don't really see right now from the others. You can't just rely on three-point shooting and one player who can score in the post (Sanders?). You need a guy who can create. Howard is a terrific shooter but he's not lightning quick and he just needs to set his teammates up when he's not open. Fobbs can fill it up but not sure yet if he can use that big body to get to the basket like Zane did. In some ways, they are pretty similar body-types except he's playing of the ball, whereas well, Zane had the ball from tip to end. I do like Betrand and Timberlake but at times, they seem a little timid on offense. They don't want to make mistakes. It's tough to tell about Betrand because he has the look. The long arms, he's pretty big already thought he's listed at 180. Think he's close to 200 but he's already has the defensive potential. His shot looks much better in drills but in more game-like situations, not so much. Tough to tell how much they will use him but I can tell our second unit (if that's the real 2nd unit) is much more athletic than the starters. Solomon, Betrand, and Timberlake are big-time athletes. So is Tunstall, esp. now that he's getting healthier. Maybe that will be more of a pressing unit. Timberlake is the x-factor. His shot looks better and while he needs to continue to get stronger, his speed and athleticism is going to make him a potentially very good all-around player. Sometimes, he's unselfish to a fault. He has to get used to contact when he goes to the basket and not shy away from it. Nobody is going to give you open dunks in college unless you have are open in transition. Confidence is everything. Belief is everything as a shooter. I wish had that when I played many years ago but I didn't. It's why I played point guard so I could feed guys that wanted buckets. The shot is getting there. I know mid-range games are frowned up so you need a dribble drive game. Once he gets in the paint, he can elevate over guys so he needs kind of a go to move, a crossover to get by people. I think that will come but maybe not this season. More later..

I had a small role. I provided the tapes from that 1990 forum to save football l. It finally paid off to be a hoarder. Jess did a great job putting that together.

https://towsontigers.com/news/2018/10/3/top-25-showdown-on-saturday-23-24-football-hosts-13-13-stony-brook.aspx

https://stonybrookathletics.com/documents/2018/10/4//Stony_Brook_notes_at_Towson_10_6_18.pdf?id=2467 Go to page 8 where they have a pretty impressive practice facility going up.

I think this is the key game of the season. A loss means you have to win another Villanova-type road game somewhere. You have to basically go unbeaten until you face JMU. That's very difficult to do with Elon coming up on the road and Delaware is not a gimme. So yes, win this and you can start dreaming big. We're not there yet but I think you say if you beat #13 Stony Brook and start out 4-1 that you can quote Eric Weddle by saying "this ain't the same old Tigers". If you watch this team, there's potential on defense, but they are nowhere near where they need to be. Too much given up on the ground and in the middle of the field. Just four sacks. Not enough pressure from a four-man rush. But this game is more about stopping or at least slowing down the run. We can't give up over 150 yards on the round or more than 5ypc and expect to win this game. We have to make it 3rd and long, just like The Citadel, when it was 3rd and short, they converted almost all of them. The O-line still has to improve the run blocking though the lack of a fullback I think hurts on short-yardage situations. But I feel as long as you have TF14, he gives you a chance to win every game until the last one. At this point, until proven otherwise, nobody in the CAA is beating JMU.

Khalil Gary listed in top 20 DL

https://www.hudl.com/profile/6002851/LOGIC-HUDGENS/about

https://towsontigers.com/news/2018/9/29/-25-football-celebrates-50th-year-with-win-over-the-citadel.aspx

He's obviously still looking.