FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[wasper68]

Macon just recovered 2 onside kicks in a row and scored off the first one.  Emory forces fumble and will now knee the ball to closeout out the game.  Great win for the waspers today.  Totally different team this year as compared to last year. 

[odacsuperfan]

Guilford may have something for HSC this year. W&L could not hang with Quakers today.

[Scots13]

Macon just recovered 2 onside kicks in a row and scored off the first one.  Emory forces fumble and will now knee the ball to closeout out the game.  Great win for the waspers today.  Totally different team this year as compared to last year.

Congrats to E&H. Makes that 1 point loss sting a little more. Pun not intended.

[jknezek]

Well I can't say I'm much surprised at the three ODAC outcomes so far. Little surprised how much E&H was rolling RMC until the end. A little surprised how easily Guilford scored on W&L, but not at the outcome. Not too surprised about HSC at Catholic. We will see what tonight brings.

[abnrgr]

Bridgewater!!?? Was there an accident where 25 Eagles got hit by a bus walking to the field?.

There is always some time left but man. Was not surprised by the EH/RMC Virginia is for lovers game.

If GC-Q made the playoffs would they hold Mount to 75? 

[hasanova]

It's worth noting that Guilford is now 0.500 in the Chris Rusiewicz Head Coaching era.  After the Quakers were 0-10 in 2010, Rusiewicz has gone 2-8, 5-5, 6-4 and now 4-0 to reach 17-17.

[abnrgr]

It's worth noting that Guilford is now 0.500 in the Chris Rusiewicz Head Coaching era.  After the Quakers were 0-10 in 2010, Rusiewicz has gone 2-8, 5-5, 6-4 and now 4-0 to reach 17-17.

HAIL TO THE RUSIEWCZ. He is somewhat of a miracle worker. I guess this is the fruition of his first recruiting class?

I know the alumni have been waiting I imagine. Good for you too Hasa

[hasanova]

Thanks, abnrgr.  It is definitely fun for now ... I think Guilford has moved from the "hope to win" to "expect to win" mindset.

[odacsuperfan]

How about a scouting report on E&H , RMC ,  and Bridgewater ? Anyone ?

[GC2005]

Hello all, I am new to the board but I have been following the posts for years.  I look forward to talking football with you all.  Jknezek, I was at the W&L/Gc game yesterday and I did see a few good things from your Gennies.  They looked pretty young on paper so there are some guys racking up good experience on the field.  I will say I was impressed by the way the QB and the rest of the backfield excuted the option.  They take care of the ball and appear to try and get north/south quickly.  They gave GC's defense problems at times.  With those guys being so young I am willing to bet they will be very formidable in years to come. 

[hasanova]

Hello all, I am new to the board but I have been following the posts for years.  I look forward to talking football with you all.  Jknezek, I was at the W&L/Gc game yesterday and I did see a few good things from your Gennies.  They looked pretty young on paper so there are some guys racking up good experience on the field.  I will say I was impressed by the way the QB and the rest of the backfield excuted the option.  They take care of the ball and appear to try and get north/south quickly.  They gave GC's defense problems at times.  With those guys being so young I am willing to bet they will be very formidable in years to come.

I was there also and agree with you.  Welcome to the board.  +1

[jknezek]

Hello all, I am new to the board but I have been following the posts for years.  I look forward to talking football with you all.  Jknezek, I was at the W&L/Gc game yesterday and I did see a few good things from your Gennies.  They looked pretty young on paper so there are some guys racking up good experience on the field.  I will say I was impressed by the way the QB and the rest of the backfield excuted the option.  They take care of the ball and appear to try and get north/south quickly.  They gave GC's defense problems at times.  With those guys being so young I am willing to bet they will be very formidable in years to come.

Welcome to the board. And yes, W&L is very young. Something didn't quite go right with Coach Abell's first two recruiting classes as a head coach. There are some guys in those classes, but not enough. I feel for guys like Micah Fleet, who is a senior Olineman. He's excellent, but there just isn't enough around him right now so this has to be a tough year to swallow. It happens, and I think the frosh and soph classes show that Coach Abell has got it going the right direction now. We'll see how the guys mature and how the classes go from here.

All that being said, the guys are working hard, they just are out gunned right now. This year I think belongs to HSC, though there is a lot of football to play and Guilford certainly isn't going to be a push over. But the Tigers look good right now. I think starting with the Wabash loss was so good for them to understand what it is going to take. Will they have a let down? Maybe, but I think if there was a year where it isn't going to happen, it's going to be this one.

Guilford... man what a difference from a few years ago. Coach R has done real good work with that program and it would not surprise me if they get a crown this year or next (not projecting farther than that!). The Quakers are good on offense, but I'm not sure they are tough enough on defense yet to take down the Tigers. Especially on the road. We will see, but I said two years ago the Quakers were improving, I said last year I wouldn't bet against them much this year, and there is no doubt the Quakers are making those thoughts look good.

On another note, a fresh coach has done wonders for E&H. The last couple years that was a team that just couldn't muster the extra bit to one tight games when needed. While they faded a bit against RMC, I'm seeing a lot I like with E&H and I haven't been able to say that for a long time. I think E&H is going to get their wins this year. Enough to make noise and we will have to see how they recruit going forward and how the ODAC adopts to the new schemes, but it is definitely looking up right now.

Overall I think the ODAC is looking stronger these days top to bottom. With the exception of Catholic, and W&L, everyone has taken a step forward in quality. W&L I think is in a temporary lull. Not sure about Catholic. They just don't look good.

[GC2005]

Thanks for the welcome Hasa and Jk.  True, playing on a young team like Fleet can be tough, however, I see W&L being competitive against a few ODAC teams this fall.  I definitely see HSC being the cream of the crop so to speak, but I haven't heard much about the other teams in the conference.  I do believe that W&L can and will be competitive against the likes of CUA, Shenandoah, Bridgewater, RMC, and E&H. 

GC has a really good offense this year, but they are suspect against the run at times.  This worries me a little bit, as they were torched on the ground last year by both RMC and HSC.  I was at both of those contests, and during the RMC game they pounded Guilford up front with what appeared to be a simple zone blocking scheme.  Also, during the HSC game, I was surprised at what looked like a designed draw for Nance.  They ran it over and over, and GC never found an answer for it.  Those two examples are my reasons for being a little reserved about Guilford being a complete team.  The secondary is good, but they are going to have to improve up front. 

Does anyone know anything about Shenandoah this year?  I saw where they looked to be in a pretty tight game with BC, but I really haven't sat down and looked at the box score or anything. 

[jknezek]

GC has a really good offense this year, but they are suspect against the run at times.  This worries me a little bit, as they were torched on the ground last year by both RMC and HSC.  I was at both of those contests, and during the RMC game they pounded Guilford up front with what appeared to be a simple zone blocking scheme.  Also, during the HSC game, I was surprised at what looked like a designed draw for Nance.  They ran it over and over, and GC never found an answer for it.  Those two examples are my reasons for being a little reserved about Guilford being a complete team.  The secondary is good, but they are going to have to improve up front. 

Does anyone know anything about Shenandoah this year?  I saw where they looked to be in a pretty tight game with BC, but I really haven't sat down and looked at the box score or anything.

Yep. That's my comment about being tough enough. Run stopping is when the defense proves its steel chops and Guilford will have to do it well if they want to beat the Tigers. Not sure they have it in the front 7 yet. Shenandoah should be marginally better than last year. I think a 3-4 or 4-3 conference record, like last year, is likely. There is some excellent coaching in the conference these days and Coach Yoder is a part of that.

[tigerfanalso]

I hear all of talk about HSC, but the Tigers have some tough games approaching starting this weekend @ W&L, a place the Tigers have not performed well in recent years. If the Tigers get out of Lexington with a win, they host E&H which is obviously a much improved team followed by road trips to SU (which beat us last year) and to BC then home to host GC and RMC. Not an easy path but if the Tigers take care of business they have a really good shot at winning the odac, one bad week can change everything. Turnovers have been our problem. I believe this past weekend is the first turnover free game played by the Tigers is quite some time. CAU is not very good so I'm not buying at this point the Tigers are better than the rest of the odac. Hosting E&H, GC and RMC will help only if the Tigers can hold up to playing 4 of the first 5 odac games on the road. As always, the odac will be a fist fight again this year.