FB: Empire 8

[Saxon73]

Many interesting possibilities going on here.  From an AU point of view, I believe Pep also mentioned earlier in the year that this year may be reminicent of 2005.
After losing the first game with a first year QB throwing interceptions, AU has not given up more than 14 points in a game.  If an offensive line and a talented  frosh QB mature to some level, things can become very interesting. And that's part of the excitment of Div III football.

GO   AU, Penn State, Bills

[AUPepBand]

Hey Saxon73....you going to Hartwick Saterday?

[Saxon73]

Pep,  Totally intend to be there.  Looking forward to seeing Secky.
I may need to borrow a cane from a friend to get up to the cage though.  Wanted to rent a Llama but the Catskill Game Farm has been shut down.  These old bones are getting weary.

[Saxon73]

Pep, I'm coming up on post #666  What do I do? Send it to a Hatwick fan?, you, Kazoo - just trying to cut my losses! Help!

[theoriginalupstate]

I just gotta ask,

Since i was unable to watch or listen to the game yesterday, was SJF running their normal offense?

If so WHY?

Notice since SJF started to run the spread the majority of the time, also the same time that robby graduated, that SJF has lost to Wick twice.

Instead of lining up and just running the ball right at them they decide to spread it out and actually play into Wicks strengths on D.  Wick isnt going to hold up at the point of attack, so instead lets just run sideline to sideline instead of straight up the field.  Makes total sense, just about as much sense as whacking off with a cheese grater.

If you only put up 28 pts up on Wick, just after IC put up 69 on them you know something is wrong.  Its not like they have time to fix it either with Salisbury coming in.

[Jonny Utah]

I just gotta ask,

Since i was unable to watch or listen to the game yesterday, was SJF running their normal offense?

If so WHY?

Notice since SJF started to run the spread the majority of the time, also the same time that robby graduated, that SJF has lost to Wick twice.

Instead of lining up and just running the ball right at them they decide to spread it out and actually play into Wicks strengths on D.  Wick isnt going to hold up at the point of attack, so instead lets just run sideline to sideline instead of straight up the field.  Makes total sense, just about as much sense as whacking off with a cheese grater.

If you only put up 28 pts up on Wick, just after IC put up 69 on them you know something is wrong.  Its not like they have time to fix it either with Salisbury coming in.

Good points.  I think someone mentioned earlier that that defense probably gets abused by the offense in practice every week!

The hartiwck game should be a game where teams like IC and SJF have 5-6 new plays for instead of the 2-3 new plays for that game.

[theoriginalupstate]

Good to see that Tim Marion was in the backfield again in goal line situations, lets put our best WR in the backfield either taking shotgun snaps or taking handoffs....

To quote the Guinness commercial:

"BRILLIANT!!"

There is no Tim Tebow, Darren McFadden or Ronnie Brown on this roster.  Line up and play football!

The spread is killing this offense.  How many more fumbles by the WR's and QB's is it going to take for them to scrap this failure.

[fisheralum91]

what happened to brown btw----is he still injured?

[boobyhasgameyo]

What happened to Bieeeeehhl??  Dammit nobody has answered that question in the month or so i've been asking it.

[saxontad]

It was fun at AU this weekend watching a dominant performance.  But all Saxon fans must keep in mind that Norwich has not been difficult for us in the past.  But, neither has Hartwick.  We usually beat them.  I know every year is different, but are they that much better than they were last year?  Are we that much worse?  I think our chances are pretty good.  I wish I could be there but the stroke I suffered in March will render all the hills on Hartwick's campus a little much for me.

Go Saxons!

[JQV]

Yea JU is a union man.  Actually just settled on a contract so I feel good about both sides right now.  But there are other bad things going around with unions in MA right now that is making me very uneasy.

Here is something I just thought of last night while watching the Ohio St/Wisconsin game...

The spread offense (SJF, Florida, Hartwick, RPI) is an offense that is starting to look to me like the triple option like Springfield runs.  Although the spread does a lot more conventional things (running and passing 50/50), it is a gimmick that some teams (Hartwick, Mississippi) that might not be as good as the teams they beat (SJF/Florida) find a way to really shut them down. 

Its almost like the original tecmo bowl where the offense has 4 plays to pick, and the defense has 4 plays to pick.  The defense has a 25% chance of totally destroying the offensive play by guessing what the offesnse will do (except for the bears that had Waddle on that slant but thats another story for another time).  So once or twice in a season, stats will show that some teams will be able to gamble and beat that team that might be better than them?

Does this make any sense?

JU I think you have a point about the way the spread is often played but not about the spread in general.  The beauty of the spread is it maximizes the use of certain skills while de-emphasizing other weaknesses.  For Florida, they struggled under Zook trying to run straight ahead and drop back from center despite having undersized O-Linemen.  That has been a problem for UF (for some reason, big OL go to FSU, don't know why) for about 15 years but Spurrier got around it by running that Fun-n-Gun.  The genius of the spread was the way it used the smaller OL's athleticism and moved the pocket.

Then Tebow happened to Meyer and all his creativity went out the window.  The spread is very beatable when you go with the four plays that appear to work (as you implied with that awesome Tecmo Bowl reference).  For example, against Ole Miss, Tebow and Percy Harvin accounted for 401 of UF's 413 yards.  How the F is that possible?  It's not like they are the only weapons.  Between Emmanuel Moody, Chris Rainey, and Jeff Demps UF has three of the fastest RBs in the country, yet they COMBINED for 6 touches against Ole Miss.  

I didn't see the Hartwick game but I would bet the same thing happened to SJF.  It is easy to fall in love with one set out of the spread and forget that, for it to work, you have to make all eligible guys touch the ball regularly.

We can debate the union stuff later since this post is already too long.  +k.

[AUPepBand]

It was good seeing you there, Tad! Homecoming is always fun! Pep was pleased that Mark O'Meara was among those cited by the Sports Hall of Fame. During the game, Pep was tickled to recognize Omar as an "honorary member" of the AU Pep Band for carrying on "the Alfred Spirit" for so many years, awarding him a pep band shirt and a kazoo.

[theoriginalupstate]

I didn't see the Hartwick game but I would bet the same thing happened to SJF.  It is easy to fall in love with one set out of the spread and forget that, for it to work, you have to make all eligible guys touch the ball regularly.

No SJF loves to put WR's in the backfield and let him take snaps from center or take hand offs only to see him fumble inside the 10...

[fisheralum91]

ok -- guys---whats going on with rob brown?
is he still hurt?
wait--i just checked the fisher roster--he isnt on it---whats going on?

[theoriginalupstate]

ok -- guys---whats going on with rob brown?
is he still hurt?
wait--i just checked the fisher roster--he isnt on it---whats going on?

He was never listed on the returning players roster, he's still on the "newcomer" roster though...