TSU88

I’d be very interested to know how we fare in the scrimmage versus Rutgers.

Any word on DeBerry’s injury? He didn’t leave the sidelines, but was limping from what I could see. He’s a difference maker out there

I forgot to mention that EK was there-talked to him as well. Seems to be adjusting well to life after college basketball.

I attended the scrimmage before heading over to the football game. Great day to be a Tiger. I was really impressed with Fobbs. This kid is a scorer. He might not make up for all of Zane Martin’s points, but he has the potential to be a high volume scorer. Also very impressed with Timberlake & Bertrand. The future is bright IMHO. TJ Howard had a miserable day shooting, but I liked the fact he was confident enough to keep firing. I assume he’s a better shooter than he showed today. Didnt see much out of Solomon U or Yagi. It’ll be interesting to see how much PT they get this season. Thomas looked very good but we’ve been down this road before. I need to see him do it in the regular season. Sanders had his moments. I think we should be solid up front with him, Thomas & a somewhat beefed up Tunstall. I think we’re trying to get Gray cleared to play this season. We’ll see. On a personal note. I’m now a big Dottin fan. Young man came up to me after the scrimmage and introduced himself. Super personable. The kind of kid you want to root for & who represents the school well.

Good team W. Showed resiliency in coming back from halftime deficit. D did good “bend but don’t break” job, holding W&M to 1 TD. Also generated a pass rush today. I hope DeBerry isn’t hurt too badly (left the game in 2nd half & didn’t return). Flacco & Simpson are a great 1-2 punch. Unfortunately, we now seem to have a FG kicker issue. Can someone smarter than me (which is most everyone) explain to me why we eschewed an XP attempt & went for an 8-yard 2 point conversion, when not making it still gave W&M a glimmer of hope of tying the game with 2 TD’s & 2 two-Point conversions? On to Albany. Gotta beat the Scooby-Doo’s before what now appears to be a huge matchup with UD, who beat Elon today

Spot on post. This ain’t brain surgery or rocket science. Win Saturday & we’re 1 step closer to 8 W’s, which gets us to the show.

So in all 4 of the polls listed in this thread we’re in the top 20, ranking as high as 10, & no lower than 19.

The fact that JMU is in the middle of nowhere supports, rather than refutes, my thesis. Being in the middle of nowhere increases the likelihood that attendance at the local college sporting events will be higher, given that there is little if any competition for the hearts & minds of the students & locals. This also generates loyalty. TU is right smack in the middle of a metropolitan area, which, by its very nature, has more tugs on the attention of students & locals. I actually broached your idea of a $500-$1,000 a game giveaway to a student in attendance at the football game that week, with the drawing for the winner being held in the 4th quarter of the game, with a requirement that the winning student actually have to still be there in the 4th Q. The response was basically “are you going to pay for it, because we don’t have the money for that in the budget.”

Many reasons. I’ll touch on a few: At it’s core, TU has been, is, & likely will always be, a commuter school. US News & World Report notes that 26% of TU students live in university provided housing. So that amounts to about 5K students. The rest, the vast majority, are commuters & just don’t care about TU sports. And not every student who lives on campus is automatically imbued with interest in TU athletics. For some it’s probably not “cool,” for others it interferes with quality drinking time, & for others it cuts into their time staring like zombies into their smartphones. The argument that TU is a sleeping giant when it comes to an increase in students living on campus is, imho, a canard, at least when it comes to attendance at TU sporting events. Along this line, Towson never has been, & never will be, a true “college town,” in the mold of W&M, JMU & others. Locals who live in the area are much more likely to identify with the Ravens, or even U of MD, than TU. Add in unimaginative marketing & only 2 playoff appearances in recent history, and you have the ingredients for the kind of attendance we saw this past Saturday.

ATL, there’s zero chance of Game Day coming here, in my opinion. Its true they’ve been to NDSU & JMU, but those are college football hotbeds with rabid fans. Apathy rules the day here unfortunately. We had the biggest home game in 5 years this past Saturday & I believe the “announced” attendance was like 4,600. It didn’t seem to me like there were that many people in attendance-maybe 2,500, give or take. Game Day would have to go to central casting to get extras to fill in the background, to play the roles of TU students

The sports guy on WBAL radio on weekday mornings is a TU grad, & didn’t even mention the game on his Friday sportscast. Even though BAL broadcasts Navy games, I don’t see where it would have killed him to mention that there was a game on Saturday between two teams ranked in the top 25 nationally.

A few random observations: 1-the attendance was embarrassing; 2-I said to a guy in the stands that TF reminded me of Fran Tarkenton today, with his scrambling to keep plays alive; 3-A healthy Shane Simpson is a real boost to the O; 4-our receivers did a great job today of catching balls & getting YAC; 5-As TF54 posted earlier, kudos to the O-line; 6-I thought by and large the D played well. SB only had 1 meaningful sustained drive the entire game; 7-lets take care of business vs W&M so that we end the homestand 5-1

Nova, Maine & UD are not going to be ranked ahead of us. I’m not sure SB will be either

I think you summed it up pretty well. A W Saturday takes us to 4-1, & would be our 2nd W vs a ranked conference opponent. It would mean we could go 4-2 in our last 6 games & still make the playoffs. Lose Saturday & we realistically have to go 5-1 to finish the year to make the playoffs, no easy feat considering we still have to play JMU & Elon, not to mention UD & Maine. So, to some extent, Saturday is a crossroads game

Perhaps, but it beats grousing about a 1-3 start.

Right. I meant I don’t know if 8-3 gets us a home playoff game

No doubt would love to have a home playoff game or two, assuming we go dancing. I don’t know if 8-3 gets us there. Also, I don’t know if $ is part of the equation, as well as the demonstrable record of attendance a school has. In that regard, I remember how disappointing it was that we drew like 4K in our 2013 home playoff game vs Fordham. Of course, I also remember the home playoff game vs Lehigh the year before, which was sold out. Anyhoo, let’s make the playoffs before we worry about things like seeding and home games

I feel compelled to address an earlier post which reads that penciling us in as a top 15 team is getting way ahead of things. Prior to that post, I posted that IF (in all caps) we beat SB this Saturday (which is currently ranked 13th) that we might move into the top 15. I stand by this theory. Having said that, I’ve been preaching all along not to get bent out of shape about where we are currently in the polls because if we finish 8-3 in the CAA we’re getting into the playoffs. Nuff said

It’ll be ok...if we finish 8-3. I’m hard pressed to see a CAA team not making the playoffs with an 8-3 record. If we finish 7-4, that’s an entirely different matter. I feel pretty safe in saying that there are 7-4 teams ever year that don’t make the playoffs (I believe Delaware last year comes to mind). Soooo...if we handle our business we’re going to make the playoffs. If we don’t, we won’t. I’m skeptical that there is a conspiracy in play to stifle us in the polls. This Saturday is a watershed game, as far as I see it. The biggest regular season game since 2013. Win & we’re 4-1 & I would think we vault into the top 15. Lose & we’re 3-2 & who knows where things go from there. In the immortal words of the late Al Davis, “just win baby.”

Last year we got off to a blazing OOC start, & things went south in conference play. I’m kind of hoping it’s a bit opposite this year-that we perhaps struggle early with all the new guys, but that hopefully we begin to gel come conference time. It’s going to be very interesting to see which newcomers assert themselves & take on bigger roles as the season moves forward. Realistically, anything over a .500 finish this season would be a success in my book, with an eye towards building towards the 2019-2020 season.

Appreciate & look forward to the basketball updates. I ran into PS at the football game yesterday. Basketball season is right around the corner

We were wondering up in the stands who the penalty was on, & what the penalty was for. We assumed it was taunting.

Wow, those passages from the game story are embarrassing

I wish we didn’t have to play Citadel again next year, but nothing we can do about that now. It was almost galling watching their slavish devotion to the run, even in obvious passing situations. If we had to schedule a SoCon team, I would have liked it to have been one that runs a more traditional offense that we’re used to seeing. Also, 1 critique of the play calling. I wasn’t crazy about the time on the goal line we brought Stover in & get stuffed on 2 straight plays. Maybe though that was after TF ran for near 80 yards, and just needed a breather

Stoney Brook rallied from a 21-pt deficit to beat Nova, 29-27. Nova’s 2-pt conversion attempt with less than a minute left in the game failed. Sets up a huge matchup next Saturday between us & Stoney Brook. Colgate shut out W&M, who has struggled mightily to score points so far this season. Hope that bodes well for us when we play them. Elon beat UNH by 3 TD’s, dropping UNH to 0-4. I still wouldn’t write UNH out of the playoffs. If they somehow win their last 7, they’ll make it. JMU destroyed Richmond by 53. We’re all just playing to be the runner up to JMU in the conference Maine lost to Yale, which is good for us, as it drops Maine to 2-2, & is a bad loss for them in any event Rhode Island keeps rolling, beating Harvard. I’m not buying URI...yet. They still have a handful of tough conference games coming up after a walkthrough vs Brown next week