TSU88

Mixed feelings on this one. Great comeback from down 27-10, but we had multiple chances to win. Elon tried to hand us the game with that 19 yard punt late in the 4th Q, but Stover threw the INT. Then we had a chance to win in the 1st OT, after holding them to a FG. Also, with 3rd & 1, deep in their territory, with the clock winding down in the 4th Q, we inexplicably call a pass play (naturally incomplete) instead of running the ball. I contend if we had run & made the 1st down, we very well win the game in regulation. Egregiously bad play calling. That’s on the HC and/or OC. 

It’s C of C’s conference to lose. After that, it’s a mad scramble. Hofstra has a potent lineup, but not sure about depth. Elon is solid, we’re deep & UNCW can’t be counted out, despite losing some key players. Also wouldn’t sleep on NE.

So we drop NH, Rhode Island & Richmond, in favor of Maine, Albany & JMU. 2 of those 3 might be winnable, so that doesn’t seem bad.

Don’t like opening with 3 straight on the road. Very distinct possibility we come home 1-2, but obviously time will tell.

Last game of season vs JMU, so, if we’re lucky/good enough to be in the playoff hunt, we better have it sewed up before what will almost certainly be an L to end the season.

Forgot LaSalle, ranked #92, who we play in Ireland.  

As to the CBS sports rankings, We're #111, out of 351.  Obviously, these preseason rankings, while interesting to look at, can vary wildly by the end of the season.  But, for what its worth, here are rankings for some of the teams we play this season:

C of C:  (everyone's preseason CAA darling) 48

Oakland (not the Raiders):  45

Missouri State (who we might play in the Florida tournament) 58

Georgia Southern (who we might play in the Florida tournament) 89

Bucknell (who we just beat, albeit in an exhibition game) 72

Manhattan (who we play, or might play, in Ireland and/or the Florida tournament) 134

Elon:  131

Hofstra: (my pick for CAA sleeper team) 139

UNCW:  (be nice to see them knocked down a peg) 159

Pittsburgh (not the Steelers.  Our only P5 opponent this year, I think) 153

UMBC:  173

ODU (our season opener, on 11/10) 191

NIU (who we might play in the Florida tournament) 246

Holy Cross (we we play, or might play, in Ireland) 277

FAU (our 1st opponent in the Florida tournament) 313

Being the rat bastard that I am, I just enjoyed my trip to the UD message board, where the themes are, in no particular order, “our D (I mean UD) is overrated; “our (again talking about UD) passing game is pathetic,” “kiss the playoffs goodbye” & (my favorite) “if this is the best we can do, we should fold the football program & save the school a ton of money.”

How sweet it is.

Agreed. A great day to be a Tiger. Picture perfect weather, an impressive (exhibition) W by the basketball ? squad over a good Bucknell team, & the cherry ? on top was a W over UD. All is right in Tiger land, at least for one night.

Very impressed with the team. Bucknell is a legit mid-major, & we beat them, without Morman & Tunstall in the lineup.

We’re deep, & athletic. There will still be stretches where we’ll struggle to score, but, when we get out on transition, we can score in spurts. I thought today that we simply wore Bucknell out in the 2nd half. 

Gorham looked great. Had like 20 & 10. Looks like he might be one of those guys you hear about who makes a big jump from freshman to sophomore year.

Martin is a player. Just needs to control the occasional out of control drives to the hoop.

Morsell looked really good. While his outside shot wasn’t falling, he was extremely productive in transition & driving to the rack.

Eddie Keith had a sports center worthy dunk & looked good 

Alex Thomas showed a nice shooting touch. His challenge will be staying out of foul trouble 

McNeil knocked down a couple 3’s. He looks poised for a productive season

Starr did a nice job handling the ball. I don’t recall any TO’s off the top of my head

Ingram is skinny but really athletic. I don’t see him redshirting, as he can be a big asset in transition 

Prophete was ok. I think he only took 2 shots, but I don’t remember any turnovers 

Drayton didn’t get off the bench. I’m guessing he’s going to redshirt 

On to the regular season 

Gotta admit that after the 2 1st half INT’s, I was hoping they’d give Stover the hook. Kudo’s to him though-he showed me something in the 2nd half, culminated with a cool as a cucumber winning TD drive with the clock winding down.

We still can’t run the ball, but I thought the pass blocking was outstanding.

Hats off to the D. They gave up some running yards, but no home run. When they had to get a stop in the 4th Q, after we muffed the punt, they saved the game by holding UD to a FG.

Memo to our kickoff guy-please stop kicking the ball out of bounds.

I hope this loss sinks UD’s playoff hopes. Winning is always nice, but beating them, especially they way we did it, was particularly satisfying.

Risk/reward analysis needs to be done, though he’s only been offered-he may not commit here, especially since schools like New Mexico & Wichita State have offered him as well. In fact, if I had to guess, I’d say he winds up somewhere else.

According to verbalcommits.com, we’ve offered 2 JUCO PG’s-Tobias Howard, who transferred out of Western Kentucky after last season & Courtney Williamsonbey. Williamsonbey has a checkered past-originally committed to Texas Tech. Transferred from there to Florida Gulf Coast & left there after an incident where he was involved in a theft (I didn’t check to see if he was formally charged and, if so, what the outcome was).

Only an exhibition, but hopefully a good opportunity to assess where the team is, by virtue of playing a quality mid-major, in Bucknell. A win ould be a nice way to go into the opener vs ODU, which is 2 weeks from this Friday. First & foremost though is to come out of the exhibition game with no injuries 

8 TD’s by the offense in 7 games

No player on offense has scored more than 1 TD

Leading rusher, Stover, averaging 26 yards per game

Leading RB rusher averaging 25 yards per game

3 passing TD’s & 11 INT’s

Offense averaging 12 ppg

Highest single game scoring output-17 points

Average yards per carry-2.9

At some point, the assertion that we’re financially competing with one hand tied behind our back begins to take on the tone of excuse/rationalization.

I’m hard pressed to imagine we’re ever going to get the type of alumni donations to bridge the purported (if not actual) gap between us and some of the other schools in the conference. At the core, we are a commuter school with an apathetic student body, who, when they graduate, become apathetic alums. We’re not a true “college town” in that we will always lose out to the Ravens &, even to some degree, to MD, when it comes to the competition for the hearts & minds of our own students & alum.

So, perhaps we should move down in football. I for one hope we don’t, & I still believe that we can be competitive in the CAA. While RA will always have a place in TU history, we’re now in the midst of our 4th consecutive season of not making the playoffs. Injuries are part of the game-poor recruiting & coaching isn’t. Every coach is hired to be fired. I suggest the “use by” date on this current coach has expired.

Bunk is the only rationalization I have at the moment. You’re right-but at this point I’m grasping at any passing straw I can grab onto

Sadly, at this point, a 5 win season would be cause for minor celebration 

Ah, ok. Thanks

UD fired their previous coach & made a good hire with the new one. They might go to the playoffs this season. Perhaps there’s a lesson for us in what UD did.

Matt, I saw some reference in the chat to a basketball scrimmage. What, if any, intel do you have on that? Sorry for posting this in football thread 

It’s a sad commentary when hardcore fans lose interest. If it weren’t for the basketball game next Saturday, I’m not sure I would go to the football game

Maybe the freshman suffering growing pains this season will pay off in the future. Maybe. I’m trying to come up with any rationalizations I can to convince myself things will get better. 

I didn’t watch or listen to today’s thoroughly predictable debacle, so it wouldn’t be fair of me to comment any specifics of the game. (The fact I couldn’t muster the interest to watch or listen is indicative of how bad things have gotten). I will say this though-the worst thing a football team can be, in my humble opinion, is a loser & boring. We’re both. It’s pointless to continue to point out the obvious-a fish stinks from the head down. Who can objectively say we don’t need a coaching change? And yes, I get it, no such change is forthcoming.

Sadly, I suspect the University doesn’t have a million dollars lying around to buy him out, not to mention the $ we’d then have to pay a new coach.

Numbers don’t lie. Not only are we awful, but we’re boring to boot. Watching this team is a joyless endeavor.

Only 600 season ticket holders? Is that any surprise, given the product that’s being put on the field?

I don’t know this Moriarty, but I know one thing-I now have a good fact pattern for an exam question on defamation one of these semesters. Calling her a “major drinker” who is often seen being a stumble drunk in public could be actionable, unless it can be proven as true (truth is an absolute defense in a defamation suit).  

Ok, enough of the legal “mumbo jumbo.” Who’s starting at QB tomorrow-Stover or Harris?

You make a good point. When the topic is about what’s going on on the football field, there’s like 5 people, give or take, who post. But when it’s about tailgating, suddenly it’s the hottest topic going