FB: American Rivers Conference

[sportsknight]

I just voted in the poll above.
My thoughts have been skewed a little on that.
The sophs I coach have punted less than once a game over the past 2 seasons, and had a kicker nail a 53 yarder and we kickoff a lot. I'll take a good kicker over punter any day.
Probably depends a lot what your experiences are.

I thought about your perspective...my last coaching experience was that we had a dominant defense and offense we simply tried not to screw it up.  Our punter, who would go on to play in the NFL, punted with so much hang time and had a knack for pinning the opponents deep in their own terrritory, punts wer rarely returned.  But then I remember back...that same kid was our kicker and he kicked a 57 yarder.  But mostly we expected him to make the 25 yarders...

But with  juggernaut offense, when would you ever punt?  And, yes, the number of PAT's and kickoffs would far outnumber the number of punts.

I can definitely see both sides of the argument, but in the end I can't get over how much of a difference the Brondyke kid has made for Central, especially going back to his freshman year when they made the deep run in the playoffs.  Field position can determine the winner or loser of a game more than a lot of other factors, and in an evenly matched game (and WH I'm assuming a lot of your games weren't all that evenly matched), a good punter and punt coverage team can dictate field position a lot more than a kicker can.

Coe lost (all) 3 games in 07 because of missed field goals/extra points. Field position can be a factor in winning or losing a game, but points actually win or lose the game.

10/6/07:  Dubuque 28, Coe 21 (OT).  Coe was 3-3 on PATs and 0-1 on FGs.  I could see your point if it was a missed FG on the first possession of OT, but in fact Jermar Jackson ran in for a TD on the first possession and one of the Coe receivers fumbled it away when Coe had the ball.  http://www.iowaconference.com/TASFBC/2007-FB/HTML/coe-dbq.htm
10/13/07:  Central 24, Coe 17.  Coe was 3-3 on PATs and 1-2 on FGs.  I don't know what kind of 8 eight-point field goal you think Rausa could have made that would have won that game.  http://www.iowaconference.com/TASFBC/2007-FB/HTML/cen-coe.htm
10/20/07:  Wartburg 27, Coe 3.  Coe was 0-0 on PATs and 1-3 on FGs.  Even if Rausa is perfect on his FGs on this day, he still would have only scored half as many points as Neil Suckow.  http://www.iowaconference.com/TASFBC/2007-FB/HTML/war-coe.htm

To quote the movie A Few Good Men, "These are the facts of the case, and they are undisputed."

[Kohawk Krazy]

I just voted in the poll above.
My thoughts have been skewed a little on that.
The sophs I coach have punted less than once a game over the past 2 seasons, and had a kicker nail a 53 yarder and we kickoff a lot. I'll take a good kicker over punter any day.
Probably depends a lot what your experiences are.

I thought about your perspective...my last coaching experience was that we had a dominant defense and offense we simply tried not to screw it up.  Our punter, who would go on to play in the NFL, punted with so much hang time and had a knack for pinning the opponents deep in their own terrritory, punts wer rarely returned.  But then I remember back...that same kid was our kicker and he kicked a 57 yarder.  But mostly we expected him to make the 25 yarders...

But with  juggernaut offense, when would you ever punt?  And, yes, the number of PAT's and kickoffs would far outnumber the number of punts.

I can definitely see both sides of the argument, but in the end I can't get over how much of a difference the Brondyke kid has made for Central, especially going back to his freshman year when they made the deep run in the playoffs.  Field position can determine the winner or loser of a game more than a lot of other factors, and in an evenly matched game (and WH I'm assuming a lot of your games weren't all that evenly matched), a good punter and punt coverage team can dictate field position a lot more than a kicker can.

Coe lost (all) 3 games in 07 because of missed field goals/extra points. Field position can be a factor in winning or losing a game, but points actually win or lose the game.

10/6/07:  Dubuque 28, Coe 21 (OT).  Coe was 3-3 on PATs and 0-1 on FGs.  I could see your point if it was a missed FG on the first possession of OT, but in fact Jermar Jackson ran in for a TD on the first possession and one of the Coe receivers fumbled it away when Coe had the ball.  http://www.iowaconference.com/TASFBC/2007-FB/HTML/coe-dbq.htm
10/13/07:  Central 24, Coe 17.  Coe was 3-3 on PATs and 1-2 on FGs.  I don't know what kind of 8 eight-point field goal you think Rausa could have made that would have won that game.  http://www.iowaconference.com/TASFBC/2007-FB/HTML/cen-coe.htm
10/20/07:  Wartburg 27, Coe 3.  Coe was 0-0 on PATs and 1-3 on FGs.  Even if Rausa is perfect on his FGs on this day, he still would have only scored half as many points as Neil Suckow.  http://www.iowaconference.com/TASFBC/2007-FB/HTML/war-coe.htm

To quote the movie A Few Good Men, "These are the facts of the case, and they are undisputed."

I'm pretty sure TME was referring to the 2006 season and not the 2007 season.

http://www.iowaconference.com/TASFBC/2006-FB/HTML/coe.htm

[BB]

Pretty sure that I remember a certain college coach saying, "Punt is the most important play in football."  Take that for what it is worth...

[doolittledog]

Getting my first look see at kickoff 2009.  Interesting interview with Zweifel.  He said the Dubuque offense will be completely different this year.  Dubuque ran a spread and threw the ball 55-60 times per game.  Funny that I don't remember Dubuque throwing the ball all that much.  It was pretty much run option the last 3 years under Brautigam.  Zweifel also said there were 67 players coming back but they chose to only keep 24 of them.  That is a lot of players to say "no thanks" to.  I have a feeling this might be a long long year in Dubuque.  But hopefully things change for the better sooner than later.  

[footballfan413]

Oh, please have faith doolittledog.  
Hopefully the Guru's won't mind if I post this one quote from an interview with Coach Zwiefel.  

"And then we had 67 players returning from last year's team. We've only kept 24 of those. We have 110 new players coming into our program. So get me a scorecard so I can tell who the heck is who in this fall camp. But the exciting thing is we can mold this team and put it together in what our vision is of what our football team should be."

Just curious, anybody have an idea how many new recruits UD usually sees every year?  I'm guessing 110 is a huge number!  I guarantee that every player he and his staff said, "no thanks," to have been replaced with an improved recruit.  He's a hell of a recruiter.  I'm also willing to bet that anyone that has predicted the Spartans ending their season at the bottom of the standings are going to be off by a few spots.  

[sportsknight]

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Fred Jackson was escorted off the Bills' practice field today after injuring a thumb.  No word yet on the extent of the injury.

[doolittledog]

No matter how good these kids are...they are freshmen or transfers.  Even changing systems I would have thought it might be a good idea to keep some veterans around.  Even if just for having insight into the teams they will be facing this year.  Even if these kids will turn out to be good.  You don't win many games with 24 returners and 100 or so newcomers.  That is a recipe for disaster I think.  I suppose the team could have been populated by a bunch of cancers and they got rid of the bad seeds, but that just seems like a lot of players to give the heave ho to.  If 67 players were willing to come back to school after a coaching change that showed they wanted to be there.  They couldn't have all been worthless players...certainly as good or better than some kid right out of high school.  Who knows though.  

Zweifel might be great coach.  I just think he is going overboard on overhauling the team.  And quotes like saying Dubuque was a team that threw the ball 55-60 times a game says to me he didn't really look into things too deeply at Dubuque from past seasons.  Again, though, winning cures all ills.  I hope we start winning soon.  

[doolittledog]

footballfan413 - You pretty much have to bring in the neighborhood of 100 recruits if you are only bringing back 24 kids.  Of course that is a bigger than normal number of recruits.  Unless you are MUC that is

[badgerwarhawk]

Oh, please have faith doolittledog.  
Hopefully the Guru's won't mind if I post this one quote from an interview with Coach Zwiefel.  

"And then we had 67 players returning from last year's team. We've only kept 24 of those. We have 110 new players coming into our program. So get me a scorecard so I can tell who the heck is who in this fall camp. But the exciting thing is we can mold this team and put it together in what our vision is of what our football team should be."

Just curious, anybody have an idea how many new recruits UD usually sees every year?  I'm guessing 110 is a huge number!  I guarantee that every player he and his staff said, "no thanks," to have been replaced with an improved recruit.  He's a hell of a recruiter.  I'm also willing to bet that anyone that has predicted the Spartans ending their season at the bottom of the standings are going to be off by a few spots.  

That is a staggering number of recruits.  Evidently Z has been out beating the bushes and beating them hard.  Of course the only problem with that is that you're going to have a significant portion of your roster who will be graduating at the same time.  It's going to take him a while but he will completely change the look of that program.  I really think that this would be an exciting time to be a Dubuque fan.  

[caddy1]

My camp report is that Wartburg is no threat this year. No one should spend any time preparing for them. Spend all your time getting ready for Cornell.

What time is the scimmage against Platteville Friday?

[Willie University]

No matter how good these kids are...they are freshmen or transfers.  Even changing systems I would have thought it might be a good idea to keep some veterans around.  Even if just for having insight into the teams they will be facing this year.  Even if these kids will turn out to be good.  You don't win many games with 24 returners and 100 or so newcomers.  That is a recipe for disaster I think.  I suppose the team could have been populated by a bunch of cancers and they got rid of the bad seeds, but that just seems like a lot of players to give the heave ho to.  If 67 players were willing to come back to school after a coaching change that showed they wanted to be there.  They couldn't have all been worthless players...certainly as good or better than some kid right out of high school.  Who knows though.  

Zweifel might be great coach.  I just think he is going overboard on overhauling the team.  And quotes like saying Dubuque was a team that threw the ball 55-60 times a game says to me he didn't really look into things too deeply at Dubuque from past seasons.  Again, though, winning cures all ills.  I hope we start winning soon.  

D-Dog,

I would bet you a million dollars that Coach Z has reviewed every film from last year a hundred times. He may have exaggerated some but bottom line is, he is saying they will be more balanced.

Also, as a reminder from the past, when Coach B took over for coach murray, as is customary when any new staff takes over, they want to bring in as many guys as they can that will fit their system and their mold as a student-athlete. Coach B did a similar thing and also brought in a load of his former players from mount scenario at the time. Leaving behind very few from Coach Murray's team so please don't act like this is a suprise.

The fact is, they were 2-8 last year so really, are all those guys really that hard to replace? I am sure the ones still on the team are there for a reason. The other fact is, Coach Z knows how to recruit. He "may" not win the conference this year but I am not counting him out. And you certainly need to attend a few games before you pass judgement on his recruiting, his team chemistry, or his new system.

I, for one, am excited for the season. And I am confident he will make incredible strides for the program.
Willie U

[coocooforcoekohawk]

According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, Fred Jackson was escorted off the Bills' practice field today after injuring a thumb.  No word yet on the extent of the injury.

Not to worry.  No one heals like Freddie.

[doolittledog]

Willie, yeah, I know.  This is just the second or third interview with Coach Z where he mentioned he was going to be more balanced instead of throwing all the time like Dubuque had done in the past.  Even a casual observer would know Dubuque wasn't much of a passing team for the past few years.  As far as being balanced I am all for it.  The offense and defense he described sounds like a description of the Hawkeyes...so I am all for that.  

I also know when Brautigam took over there were only 21 returners so he had to bring in about 100 that first year as well.  I know UD only went 2-8 last year and a new staff wants to bring in their type of players and I knew there would be some kids let go.  THAT wasn't a surprise...what was a surprise was 43 getting let go with only 24 staying seemed a bit excessive to me.  But, as I have said, I am on the outside looking in.  

I'm not passing judgement on his recruiting or system.  I think he will be very successfull with that.  My only surprise was the amount of turn-over and the fact he keeps saying Dubuque was pass happy in the past.  To me, that just comes across as not being very observant.  Or, he could be taking a page from the psychology notebook of Hayden Fry and playing that up!!!  

We are making some games this year.  UW-Platteville @ Dubuque, Homecoming, Dubuque @ Cornell so far is on our schedule.  UD @ Coe and Wartburg @ UD were on our schedule until weddings intervened.  Who gets married during football season??? 

[Thunderbolt]

Oh, please have faith doolittledog.  
Hopefully the Guru's won't mind if I post this one quote from an interview with Coach Zwiefel.  

"And then we had 67 players returning from last year's team. We've only kept 24 of those. We have 110 new players coming into our program. So get me a scorecard so I can tell who the heck is who in this fall camp.

No damn wonder they don't have their roster up yet. Maybe they should have kept a few of those other guys around to pass out jerseys and get the right names on them.

[Willie University]

Willie, yeah, I know.  This is just the second or third interview with Coach Z where he mentioned he was going to be more balanced instead of throwing all the time like Dubuque had done in the past.  Even a casual observer would know Dubuque wasn't much of a passing team for the past few years.  As far as being balanced I am all for it.  The offense and defense he described sounds like a description of the Hawkeyes...so I am all for that.  

I also know when Brautigam took over there were only 21 returners so he had to bring in about 100 that first year as well.  I know UD only went 2-8 last year and a new staff wants to bring in their type of players and I knew there would be some kids let go.  THAT wasn't a surprise...what was a surprise was 43 getting let go with only 24 staying seemed a bit excessive to me.  But, as I have said, I am on the outside looking in.  

I'm not passing judgement on his recruiting or system.  I think he will be very successfull with that.  My only surprise was the amount of turn-over and the fact he keeps saying Dubuque was pass happy in the past.  To me, that just comes across as not being very observant.  Or, he could be taking a page from the psychology notebook of Hayden Fry and playing that up!!!  

We are making some games this year.  UW-Platteville @ Dubuque, Homecoming, Dubuque @ Cornell so far is on our schedule.  UD @ Coe and Wartburg @ UD were on our schedule until weddings intervened.  Who gets married during football season??? 

Maybe I don't observe the same as you but UD has always looked pass happy since they put the spread in  Jermar would tuck and run more often and colton did somewhat last year also but UD was definitely a pass first team the past 3 or 4 years.

Also, on the other note but really not meant to cut down anyone, but would you rather be UD with 30 returners that won 2 games and 90 new guys or cornell with 30 returners that won 0 games and only 25 new guys??

Enough said,
Willie U