Welcome back to me-

Sadly, I have a career that needs to be attended to at times, so I have been here less than I would like. Thus is life. I have caught myself up recently and would like to add some comments.

1) Colby's coaching situation is unchanged as of this moment. Michaeles remains the head coach. He is still being active in his position on campus and with alumni. While I have been vocal about rumors and my personal opinions about the coaching situation. This is coming from almost an extended period of experience since my time as a recruit, player and alumni of the program and the current staff. The fact of the matter is that it does nothing but harm to spit venom on an online board rather than report facts of the situation.

2) Regarding some ire from and towards Colby posters in recent days, I would like to offer this council. Parents, stay out of it. Your son will make a decision for their own sake or they will become a miserable SOB and consider the Cornell method (that's a suicide joke). Your jobs as posters and parents are to offer opinions and facts consummate with your position. You are privileged to sit in a position where you interact with parents and coaches and peers while hearing from your sons. Do not assume otherwise. And yes, some of the other posters come towards the other Colby posters with a sense of "I know better". They do. They have been here longer and have a greater depth of experience with the NESCAC and being a parent in the league. Just because your sons finished one season does not an expert make. In the words of an old coach, "know your position and act it."

3) We will see where the coaching staff shakes out during the coming months or years, but spitting vitriol online makes you seem the inferior to your sons' maturity. And moving offline, the least fun person at a tailgate (a great tradition at Colby) is the one who constantly thinks they are the AD and especially in the negative light. We have seen many parents/posters of this ilk over the years. They stop coming around because they are constantly rebuked. There is a difference between offering an opinion and being the constant doomsayer. While you may view me as hypocritical, consider my much longer term exposure to this program since before Michaeles was HC and that so few of my posts deal with directly with the coaching and more with the performance of the team. When I do concern with the coaching situation, it is either directly related to news or stats.

Again, I will always try to be more active, but something about avoiding homelessness tugs my priorities. As always, happy to discuss these points. If you take personal offense to these points (as some of my more famous board friends have), feel free to personally message me. The board is not a place for personal tiffs but discussions of the best conference in college football.

My bet for this week is Colby - 1HC

Hello all - been away from the board for personal reasons but I was lucky enough to make the Tufts game this past weekend, always a good time in Medford. I take that it is quite unfortunate the state of the team. You cannot be given the ball twice off fumbles in your opponents territory and only manage 9 yards and 2 FGs on 8 plays. Again props to John Baron for hitting 4 fields goals this week and 6 in the past two. On a happier note from my point of view, Colby's inability to reach 4 wins would seem to support the idea that the Michaeles tenure will come to an end soon following the season. I am looking forward to hearing more in either direction.

Quote from: gridiron on October 23, 2016, 02:29:31 PM
In fairness to Coach Michaeles, he hasn't had much experience running the victory formation.

Based upon the box score, Colby must have had someone else calling the plays (as reported by the ColbyFootball). Spread the ball around to many different receivers and many different ball carriers. Great to see since 2015 was completely one dimensional with Jabari right, Jabari left, Jabari screen pass...lots of other wasted talent last season. 

Surprised some are still looking for HC Michaeles' head, given he apparently handed off play calling to the OC, and the Mules had a big win. Isn't that what was being hoped for???

1) You're not wrong.

2) What I had hoped for is to be competitive in a wide range of games, not just (I am sorry) the lower end. I don't hope for a HC where I say, 4 wins would be great. I hope for an HC where I say, we should compete for the title. Michaeles will at best lead a mediocre team. I want better for my mules.

And if you need further proof that Michaeles should be fired. They run the victory formation from the shotgun. That alone would have gotten Bear Bryant fired.

LC - I will elaborate a bit on the Hurdle-Price issue. I think there has been a confluence of things to hurt his production. His sophomore year when he stepped onto the scene following the Lipani injury, he had a veteran offensive line of 3 seniors and 2 juniors who had all been starters since their sophomore or junior seasons. He continued to excel behind those juniors turned seniors who held the left side of the line down for another year. This year, his offensive line is young and it shows dramatically. I do not believe in the athletes that they have and the young nature accentuates that. On top of that, Michaeles teams struggle to find an identity between power and zone running teams. Yes it is a positive to have a balance and a mix of the two but it limits the offensive lines ability to excel in either. Being able to excel in one or the other is key to a good offense. Thirdly, we are on our third QB. Try to find a team that hasn't loaded the box against us to limit him and force the game into either the freshman or 3rd stringer's hands; and I would fault them if they did not. I could go on. But I feel these are three of the major factors limiting JHP. Not his talent, but factors beyond his control.

Quote from: westcoastDad on October 22, 2016, 03:42:05 PM
Congrats to the Cardinals.  Well coached and well played.  Their 5'8 QB seemed 6'3 as he picked apart our secondary

But is he a real football player? Does he get concussions? I love that metric considering CTE

Colby pulling off a win I thought they could get bit by a much greater differential than imagined. While I am very happy for the guys. But the disparity between playing good teams and playing worse ones just reiterates in my mind the need for a coaching change. This has been stagnation or deflation over the course of Michaeles and the end of the Mestieri era.

Quote from: Grabowski on October 21, 2016, 03:00:33 PM
I'm sure the 9% were kickers and punters

But were they All-City?

Quote from: westcoastDad on October 21, 2016, 11:52:07 AM
Retired Mule ....emotions? 

I clearly supported my thoughts. 

Yeah. I was referencing the Colby pick. Just a number. No thoughts. Odd for you to be throwing picks for a Colby game. Not your typical thread.

Also oddly, your Colby pick involved was 24-14. Interesting. Most common way to get there is with a FG and 4 PAT kicks. But they aren't football players. We should revise. You actually think 18-12.

Quote from: Jonny "Utes" Utah on October 21, 2016, 07:34:17 AM

Quote from: westcoastDad on October 20, 2016, 11:59:19 PM

Dodgers getting whipped.

Hamilton 24 Colby 14

No, you said they weren't football players, that's what people are arguing with you about. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies

I think westcoast dad has covered every single type of fallacy now in this argument. 

I googled the same thing and didn't see any Seattle Seahawks there.  Therefore, people who play for the Seahawks are not football players.

WCD - now was that pick made with impartiality or were you letting some emotions skew your view of the game. "Yeah. I'll pick against Colby. That will show the poster who called for the head coach's firing for two straight seasons.

Utes - thank you for bringing up the issue of fallacious arguments. I have pointed this out in more private places, but he tended not to agree.

Quote from: westcoastDad on October 20, 2016, 05:55:55 PM
The holder is usually the backup QB.

The longsnapper is a dicey one.  At first thought....No....but in lieu that he actually wears pads , makes tackles and a flag isn't thrown for knocking him on his rear......

But, no.....that position is a specialist that is dependent on needing a punter. 

Since we really don't need a punter.....we really don't need a long snapper.

Punter actually wears pads. Punters actually make tackles (again see Joey Julius). There is a flag for knocking a lingsnapper on his rear, in fact it is also called interference.

But based on your interpretation here, I assume that you believe a team should never punt, never kick a field goal, never kick a PAT and presumably always inside kick. I assume this because of your belief that these players punters and kickers are unnecessary and thus the long snapper is also unnecessary, as you stated above. Please enlighten us to your lofty football understanding that the rest of us are clearly not privy yet.

Hey West Coast -

What's your view on longsnappers? I figure you would love to pull some crazy logic about their pointlessness and not-actual-football-player status? They don't even score points but only perform one unique task on two types of plays. They definitely aren't players. (hard sarcasm in case you missed it)

What I am going to do is offer a mea culpa to rest this issue and hopefully return the board to normalcy as we approach a pivotal week 5. I apologize if I have personally offended any particular users or their sensibilities; it was not my intent. If anyone would care to continue these discussions, I would be more than happy to finish this in a more private setting of individual messages.

Yeah but when was the last time an offensive guard was on the cover of a program?