TSU88

Would love to see Higgs commit. But after seeing all those southern belles down in Oxford & seeing the Rocky Mountains in Boulder, I'd think we have our work cut out for us (although, TU doesn't take a back seat to many when it comes to lovely coeds?)

I'm digging the idea of him, Sanders, Tunstall & Gotham up front next season, with Thomas thrown in for good measure

Wow. That link projects him to Ole Miss, with interest from some serious programs like Colorado & Xavier. You would think a kid from Baltimore would be swayed to get away from home, but you never know. I don't recall if this kid is listed on verbal commits as someone we offered, not that that necessarily means anything. Where'd you get the news that he's visiting, if you're allowed to disclose

Maybe Durkin will have jumped shipped from UM by 2020. I like the WFU game. An ACC opponent. We'll still be a prohibitive underdog, but at least we're not playing Louisville, Clemson or FSU, school's that might drop 70 on us.

Looks like a really good prospect. I don't see anything yet on his twitter, but I did see on there that he was offered by Georgetown, amongst others. Apparently he has an older brother who's a 7 footer & has committed to USC. I love the potential of our frontcourt next season. I agree with your assessment that the last 2 open ships for the 2018 season need to go to a PG & a small forward. Even if Prophete is the future PG, we still need a backup.

Kudo's to the freshman QB Stover for engineering the GW drive. Well done. Kudo's as well to O'Neill. Shades of last season vs Rhode Island. Nice to see the running game contribute. Was Simpson injured though? We outgained them like 450 yds to 290, but turnovers kept SFU in the game. Realistically, going into conference play 2-1 was the best case scenario, & that has been accomplished. But needing a last play of the game FG to beat a partial scholarship team, albeit a good one, leaves major pause for concern. On to Stony Brook

If we can find a way to somehow come out of next week with a W, that would be huge, to come home 3-1. Tall order though. I'm not all that impressed with the OL, we don't have a RB who can move the pile & while I'm bullish on Stover, he's going to make freshman mistakes on occasion. As for the D, I'm underwhelmed with the pass rush & SFU's RB might have had a 100 yd game, if they had fed him the ball more. Of course it could be worse. We could be Morgan State, who is 0-3 & been outscored 101-0. Yikes

I'm with Ironman; we need a change of pace back.

Why thank you.?. I like to think I have occasional moments of lucid thought.

I'm not sure how much of a big deal losing EK & Starr after this season will be. Unless one or both ramp up this year, we're only talking about replacing what, around 11ppg? Now, losing Morsell & Morman after this year is a bit of a different proposition, as that could require replacing 25 or so ppg. Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself, but I believe it's critical to bring in a quality recruiting class next fall, with 3 ships still open (Betrand, the kid out of Philly has already verbally committed). I would love to see Morsell go out with a flourish this season, & average something like 15-17 ppg, but I'm not terribly optimistic in that regard. If he doesn't, and frankly even if he does, there's still a void to be filled in terms of point production. I agree, a big question to be answered this season is if ZM can meaningfully help fill that void.

Runda, I think you're missing the point, with all due respect. As I see it, it's not a question of measuring in the big picture where we are as a CAA program with a bigger stadium and more scholarships than poor little underfunded St. Francis (paranthethically, if I had to pick today, I would pick St. Francis to win). It's more a question of using St. Francis, a pretty good FCS team (who I believe has been to the playoffs more recently than us) to get a more accurate measurement of where we are as a team this year. In other words, Morgan State is not a good measuring stick of our D, because their offense stinks. On the other hand, U MD is not a good measuring stick of our D either, for they are as dynamic, at least after 2 games, as Morgan is pitiful. So, enter St. Francis, which is clearly better than Morgan, but clearly not as good as U MD. Hence, they should provide us a better gauge of where we stand in general. Just like our fictitious friend Goldilocks found one bed too hard, and another too soft (I think she had a similar conundrum with porridge) Morgan State & U MD are simply too much at opposite ends of the spectrum to make any rational assessment as it pertains to our squad. Sooo, St. Francis is "just right."

Wagner was 6-5 last year, though 1 win was over a D2 team, and another was over an NAIA team. However, they did beat St. Francis last year, & lost to them pretty badly yesterday. As I mentioned in another thread, St. Francis' QB is a U of Houston transfer. One thing we have going for us is their star DB from last year, Lorenzo Jerome, is gone (he's the guy who not only returned a fumble like 90 yds for a TD against us last year, but he also delivered the vicious hit on Mahalak which effectively ruined his season, and perhaps by extension TU's season). I believe he is now playing with the 49ers.

If you had to guess, where do you see Prophete playing? He was a prolific scorer in HS, but we don't have a backup to Starr at PG, do we? I think this team could be a year away. In 18-19, we'll have Sanders, Gotham, Tunstall & Thomas up front. That's a pretty good group of mid-major bigs. As for this upcoming season, we've got to replace about 25 ppg & about 12 or 13 boards, with the departure of Moto & Davis. I'm counting on ZM to pick up some of those points, along with Gorham. Also hoping Starr, with a year under his belt, will be a little more productive. McNeill could be an X factor; I think he's capable of scoring 8-10 ppg, but sometimes last year it seemed like he disappeared at times. Be interesting to see if any of the freshmen are redshirted. Seems like it would be tough for Drayton and Ingram to get minutes.

So, just as the week one shutout against an inferior offense (I think Morgan got shutout again today) was not a true measure of what kind of D we have, hopefully the 8 TD's we surrendered today isn't either. Gotta tip your hat to UM; there QB is the real deal, & so are some of there other skill players. Keep in mind they hung half a hundred on Texas last week. As far as the other side of the ball, for his 1st career start, against an FBS squad, I liked what I saw from Stover. 21-36, over 200 yds & 2 TD's, plus over 50 yds running. We actually left some points on the field in the 1st half, when Stover missed a wide open receiver in the end zone & then RA eschewed the FG & went for it on 4th down (I would have kicked the FG there, but ultimately the decision not to had no real bearing on the outcome). I'll go so far as to say I wouldn't mind Stover remaining the starter going forward. On to St. Francis of PA who is 2-0, though they opened with a W against a D2 team and beat Wagner today (no idea if Wagner is any good). St. Francis' QB is a transfer from the U of Houston (Bear Fenimore-great name for a QB) and they'll be playing at home, so we have our work cut out.

Actually, the passing game improved from week 1 to 2. Week 1 saw 85 yds passing, 3 INT's & 0 TD's. Week 2 saw over 200 yds passing, 2 INT's (one was a horrible pass. The other, the DB made a nice play) & 2 TD's. We still got routed, but, realistically, what did you expect? U MD dropped 51 on Texas the week before. So, if Stover doesn't throw a pic 6, U MD scores 56 yesterday. What do San Jose State, Charlotte & ECU have in common? They're all FBS programs who had 55 or 56 pts scored on them yesterday (their might be other FBS schools who got similarly torched, as I haven't seen the west coast scores). The point is, routs like this are going to happen from time-to-time. Check back with me after the St. Francis game. If we lose that one (and especially if we get drubbed) then I'm inclined to say we're looking at a 3-4 win season. But, if we can pull next week out, we enter CAA play (which ultimately will determine whether we have a successful season or not) with a 2-1 record.

I feel your pain on the D, but it begs the question of just how, after 2 games, do we assess this D? Is it the D that pitched a shutout in week 1 or the D that got destroyed in week 2? I suggest the answer is obviously somewhere in between. Week 1 we played an inferior offense; week 2, a superior one. I'm almost inclined to say burn the film from yesterday's defensive disaster and move on. Next week against St. Francis, who is far better than Morgan State's O, but not as good as U MD, should be telling. Honestly, I've got a bad feeling about this game, but time will tell.

Being at the game today, I commented to someone I was with that we weren't fast enough to run wide on MD & Simpson and Platt weren't big enough to run straight up the middle on them. We really do need to start establishing the run. I hope we can begin doing that next week vs St. Francis.

I get it, the object is to win. And I don't expect us to score 45 points a game. Having said that, 102 yards of total offense, 17 yards rushing & 3 INT's, against a bottom feeder MEAC team, is pitiful. Our longest run by an RB was what, 7 yards? Why was the run game abandoned for much of the game? Is Morgan's D the FCS version of the 2000 Ravens D? Why was the O-Line pass & run blocking so woeful? Why is the play calling so vanilla? Is it a lack of talent, poor coaching? A combo of the 2? Perhaps it's too soon to push the panic button, but next week vs MD has all the makings of a 56-0 type loss. If this is indicative of the O this year, I'm hard pressed to see more than 2-3 wins. I feel like I've been sold a bill of goods by a snake oil salesman

To Tgr4life, I might not be a D1 HC, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night. So the record is clear, I posted no complaints about any specific players. Indeed, an unbiased reading of my post reveals my dissatisfaction to have been with the coaching staff (which I stand by). You're entitled to your opinion & I'm entitled to mine. If that putrid offensive performance the other night didn't set off alarm bells for you, so be it. As for me, as an alum, a season ticket holder & a donor to the athletic department, I've earned the right to point out my concerns with the product that was put out on the offensive side of the ball the other night. Personally I would love nothing better than to eat a heaping helping of crow going forward. We shall see.

As I stated in a different topic thread, if last night is any indication, a 2-3 win season, at best, is in the offing. As I was sitting in the stands last night, I noticed Morgan loading the box, and asked myself "why aren't we forcing them out of that, by going with 4 wides"? If I understand that, why was it apparently lost on our offensive coaching staff? We were thoroughly out coached & but for Morgan shooting itself in the foot on offense, we lose. And it wasn't lost on me that Rhode Island took an FBS team, Central Michigan, to triple OT.

13-21, 235 yards & 3 TD's, in only 2 1/2 quarters of work, against the defending state champions. Not too shabby

Great get

So, I see where Carleton, who we beat by 12 I believe, beat Bama by 13. And it's already been noted that we blew out McGill, who lost in OT to SMU. Sounds encouraging, but I suspect some of our CAA opponents will be improved this year

Are we MD's opener, or do they play a game the week prior?