TSU88

We’re 118th (out of 123 teams) in scoring offense. Only Delaware State, Houston Baptist, Alabama State, Robert Morris & VMI are more inept...at this point in the season. Time will tell where we will rank at the end of the season.

Wow, indeed. Other words that come to mind are, oh, I don’t know, how about woeful, awful, pitiful, impotent....Feel free to chime in if I left any out. Look, I get we’re playing without our best RB & starting QB, but, as another poster pointed out, our head coach, before the beginning of the season, proclaimed we’d be better this year than last, if our starting QB went down. How’d that prediction turn out? Is it poor recruiting, poor development of otherwise good recruits, poor game planning, poor in-game coaching? A combo of all of the above? Round up the usual suspects

In passing efficiency we’re 120th out of 123. In rushing we’re something like 115th (again, out of 123 teams).

Interestingly enough, we’re 52nd out of 123 teams in scoring defense, meaning we’re in the top half of FCS teams in this category (we’d be ranked even higher but for the outlier game vs MD).

I’m going to have to try & satisfy my curiosity later & check online to see where we rank amongst FCS teams in categories like points & rushing yards. Can’t be very good

Frankly, I thought the defense played fairly well. Paye made a great pic & return for TD-I never saw a replay on the stadium scoreboard, so I don’t know if the flag that negated the TD return was legit or not. If we had better than a D-III offense we probably win the game. I’m no QB guru, but after another afternoon of watching Stover fumble & throw multiple pics, I’ve seen enough of him to have serious doubts whether he’s the future of the program. Frankly, I thought the 3rd team QB, Harris, looked far better than Stover. Mahalak ain’t playing again this year (have to wonder whether he’s ever going to play again for that matter) so the question doesn’t become whether we’ll win another game this year, the more relevant question (and I’m not being flippant) is whether we’ll score another offensive TD this season). Of course, it would certainly help the inexperienced QB’s if we could run the ball, but we can’t. 5 games left-NH, Delaware, Elon, W&M, & Rhode Island. 3-8 seems best case scenario, though 2-9 is more likely. BTW, I pose the following rhetorical question-can someone explain to me why the brain trust coaching staff opted to try a 50-TD FG (with a kicker who has inexplicably lost his touch) instead of going for it on 4th & short? Granted, it probably didn’t effect the outcome of the game, but I contend it is just another example of how we continually get out X’d & O’d week after week.

Well, since you mentioned it, I keep rhetorically asking myself why don’t we have any gadget plays? When you can’t beat the opposition straight up, why not try some chicanery? What do we have to lose? Why not try no-huddle? If you look up vanilla in Webster’s it will read, “see TU offense.”

For you stats geeks-we’ve scored 7 TD’s in 6 games. We’ve scored 72 points in 6 games, for an average of 12 ppg. We have not had a game where we’ve scored more than 2 TD’s in a game. Single highest scoring output in a game this year-17 points

Well, the playoffs are a distant memory, so I tend to agree. Might as well play kids who haven’t played up to this point, to evaluate whether they can contribute next season.

Whatever happened to Parker, the LB who decommitted from Syracuse? Just another ballyhooed recruit who seems to disappear into a vortex once they come here. Wait until the last Home game vs URI, where me & a few other diehards might have to sit through the final indignity of the season. Depressing

Wow, I didn’t know that!!! I assumed Lee simply chose JMU over us. Now I’m even more aggravated

But Vlad Lee didn’t come. We didn’t get any W’s for being the runner up to JMU

I forgot about the Olsen debacle.

You’re right-I meant FBS transfers. We need them, but the ones I mentioned (Mahalak, Tsimis, Kilgore) haven’t worked out. At this point, I’m exceedingly skeptical this coaching staff is capable of competently evaluating potential transfers. Not the staff’s fault if a kid gets injured, but wasn’t Tsimis, for example, injury prone at Rutgers? If so, why bring him in?

I do blame RA. All his post game pontificating is nothing more than words in the wind. Recruit better players and do a better job of coaching them up. He really needs to go, but we (the few of us who care about the program) know we’re saddled with him until his contract runs out. Pathetic

I’m assuming Mahalak is still suffering from the effects of the cheap shot to the head he took in the opener against Morgan State. Safe to conclude he’s not playing again this year & one has to question whether he’ll play again, period. If he doesn’t play next year that leaves Stover, who has regressed horribly since the MD game, where he made a few plays, Harris, or maybe Miller, the kid coming in from HS in California. We really need to recruit several RB’s with size. It’s shocking how bad our running game is. Has to be one of the worst in the country. Also have to hope a couple of kids who aren’t playing this year, like Greaves & Wright can make meaningful contributions next year. I’ve given up on counting on any meaningful contributions from FCS transfers. Mahalak, Tsimis, Kilgore-all spend more time in the trainers room than the field. Certainly not their fault that they’ve been injured, but it does call into question how we’re evaluating potential transfers. Also curious why JUCO transfers like the TE Moore & Francis, the OL, don’t play, along with RS freshman OL Garnett. If we go 2-9, we’ll be 17-27 since Frisco. Totally squandered what should have been the momentum of a championship game appearance. Losses since Frisco to Central Connecticut State, Dartmouth, & Rhode Island, while barely eeking out wins vs Morgan State & Delaware State. I agree with whoever posted in the chat thread that we’ve regressed to the end of the Combs era days. Yet there doesn’t appear to be any accountability, other than the fairly meaningless firing of the D coordinator after last season

I for one say “welcome to TU”!! What a great name, Big Al Desire! Is he an OL or DL guy? How big is he?

Well, it’s a bit of a vicious cycle; to get impact players we’ve got to start winning the regular season conference and/or the conference tournament; to win in that fashion requires impact players. See where I’m going with this? The kid from Fla (who’s last name I’ll never learn to pronounce) seems like a legit prospect. As for transfers, we hit on Benimon, but even with him we didn’t go dancing. I think Moro, at least in my mind, was a victim of being overhyped, to a degree. On the heels of Benimon, & coming from the ACC, I had him pegged as a 20/10 guy, which, except for a few games, he just wasn’t. We’ve still got 2 open ships, so I’m optimistic PS is going to bring in some good talent to go along with the 2 commits we already have.

I was pleasantly surprised with the results of the Canada tour. Still think it’s possible this team is a year away, what with Sanders having to sit out this year, & the 3-Star kid from Fla coming in next fall. Not to mention ZM & Gorham will be Junior’s and this year’s freshman crop will have a year under their respective belts

Going to be interesting. Did you happen to hear anything on the recruiting front?

So, I’m curious as to your observations of Ingram-does he have an outside shot or is he strictly a transition guy? What about Prophete? Dude was a scoring machine in HS. How does he look on the offensive end? Does he have an outside shot? Can he drive & dish or keep it & finish or get fouled? I’m cautiously optimistic about your assessments of Thomas & Keith. The cynic in me can’t help but think how often guys look great in preseason & then it doesn’t carry over when they start playing guys in different color uniforms. We lost what, 25 points ppg & 13 or so boards with the departure of Davis & Moto. Assuming Morsell & Morman replicate their scoring from last year, it would seem those 25 ppg have to be made up primarily from a combo of EK, ZM, Gorham, McNeill & Thomas (with a bit of freshman scoring sprinkled in for good measure). I’m going to check later, out of curiousity to see what the aforementioned 5 combined in ppg last year-off the top of my head I would guess around 20 ppg. That means collectively they’d have to double that, with hopefully the freshman chipping in to make up the difference. I don’t know-Thomas is foul prone & McNeill struck me last year as streaky-I remember a game vs NE where he came out on fire & had like 9 quick points & then didn’t score the rest of the game. That leaves EK, ZM & Gorham.

Great info. Thanks!! I’m going to hector and vex you later with some questions & comments. To the bat cave!!

Well, at least he didn’t go to Mason. I’ll wait for the announcement about the yet to be named PG you seem to feel will be committing soon to us.

First game 5 weeks from tomorrow, at ODU

Always appreciate your “insider” info. Any thoughts when this might be made public?