Kent State

[TommyG]

Over 700 yards and 62 points to Kent. If this isn't rock bottom...

My God, we are even worse than I could have imagined. I had to leave the game early because I couldn’t stomach it any longer. Maybe it was the Kent State fans laughing at BG and heckling BG for how bad it was. I never thought I’d see the day Kent State was doing that, but today it happened. Or maybe it was the fact our defense made 10 yards look like 2 for them, or the fact our offense plays inside a bubble within arm’s reach of the line of scrimmages. Our defense was beyond shredded today. Pathetic. I saw a tweet that said Kent State's 750 yards of total offense is the most for any team in the country this year against an FBS team. That’s beyond embarrassing. I also saw the 62 points were 14 more than KSU has ever score vs BG - EVER. Embarrassing. I cannot stand the offense we are trying to run. We are absolutely no threat of doing anything downfield and teams know it. Teams are loading the box because of it, and when we try and run we struggle doing it, and when we pass we’re doing everything underneath. It seems like almost every pass attempt is within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, and most are way short of 10 yards at that. We also can’t kick PAT’s and FG’s, so yeah, we suck there too. This is the same train wreck from the last few years and dare I say, it might even be worse. We’re still years away from any sort of improvement, and there’s no guarantee of that happening either. Akron is looking like the only team we’ll have a shot at. If we’re giving up 750 yards and 62 points to a mediocre-at-best Kent State, we’re in a world of trouble the rest of the way.

My concern at this point is pretty simple. Good coaching staffs don’t get blown out often. We seem to be short on talent obviously, but more importantly we are getting out schemed. I’m officially skeptical of this staff until I see some adjustments made on both sides of the ball. Not asking us to win. I am asking to play competitively against probably the worst conference in FBS.

[Class of 61]

OK, I understand the misery... I’ve seen a GREAT MANY one sided losses by BG, including the last OSU fiasco among others. But I have NEVER seen a MAC game where we gave up 62 PTS, and 750 Yds!
Because of a family funeral, I got there after about 5 min. Were gone and down already. But I was shocked to get to the traditional BG section at Kent to see TWO PEOPLE, Falcon Freak and Mrs Freak all alone with rows of empty seats where we usually have several hundred folks!
I knew this was going to be a rough season, but this game was a shocker! On the other hand, unlike our friend , a 2009 grad who’s given up (forever?), I’ve been around a bit longer, will be heading to S.Bend in 2 wks w/ no preconceived notions, just a chance to see another historic campus and college football.
And certainly hope The Falcons are more competitive than today.

[jpfalcon09]

Over 700 yards and 62 points to Kent. If this isn't rock bottom...

My God, we are even worse than I could have imagined. I had to leave the game early because I couldn’t stomach it any longer. Maybe it was the Kent State fans laughing at BG and heckling BG for how bad it was. I never thought I’d see the day Kent State was doing that, but today it happened. Or maybe it was the fact our defense made 10 yards look like 2 for them, or the fact our offense plays inside a bubble within arm’s reach of the line of scrimmages. Our defense was beyond shredded today. Pathetic. I saw a tweet that said Kent State's 750 yards of total offense is the most for any team in the country this year against an FBS team. That’s beyond embarrassing. I also saw the 62 points were 14 more than KSU has ever score vs BG - EVER. Embarrassing. I cannot stand the offense we are trying to run. We are absolutely no threat of doing anything downfield and teams know it. Teams are loading the box because of it, and when we try and run we struggle doing it, and when we pass we’re doing everything underneath. It seems like almost every pass attempt is within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage, and most are way short of 10 yards at that. We also can’t kick PAT’s and FG’s, so yeah, we suck there too. This is the same train wreck from the last few years and dare I say, it might even be worse. We’re still years away from any sort of improvement, and there’s no guarantee of that happening either. Akron is looking like the only team we’ll have a shot at. If we’re giving up 750 yards and 62 points to a mediocre-at-best Kent State, we’re in a world of trouble the rest of the way.

My concern at this point is pretty simple. Good coaching staffs don’t get blown out often. We seem to be short on talent obviously, but more importantly we are getting out schemed. I’m officially skeptical of this staff until I see some adjustments made on both sides of the ball. Not asking us to win. I am asking to play competitively against probably the worst conference in FBS.

Today was the first game that the staff looked under prepared. Defensively it was a mess. Corners consistently beat deep. Missed tackles. This was the movie we've seen the last few years. Any team that runs the spread tempo is going to lay a ton of points on BG this season.

I'll say this about the offense, slowing down the tempo might the best thing at this point. We have two below average quarterbacks. There's a lack of talent at WR. The O-line is mediocre. Might be best to be deliberate to slow down your QBs and give your defense a blow.

The biggest disappointment today was the lack of effort against a conference team. If this what the rest of the season is going to look like, I'm checking out after the ND game, only because I already bought tickets.

[guest44]

We’ve all assumed this staff is going to turn this thing around, but I’d ask how did this experienced staff end up here? It’s not because they had better options. What in Loeffler’s resume says it’s even better than 50/50 chance of getting to a Championship level? This is Kent St. The MAC school that always sucks with the high school bleachers. Kingston didn’t make this hire, but his crew is still hanging around.

[Flipper]

Clawson got blown out a lot when we were 2-10 .
The team couldn't adjust to the fastball pace. Coaching is a part of that...so is depth.

This year....I'm not going to blame the guy holding the garden hose for the massive dumpster fire he's trying to put out. Given the mess Jinks left, I'm withholding judgement for a year. If we open the MAC next year with a crushing defeat from a traditional door mat....I'll be worried

[MarkL]

I turned the game off way early and didn't see the final score until much later. Still haven't seriously looked at stats. Turning off the game early has been a pretty common thing in recent years and I've been tending to a sick one year old. So on my list of things that concern me right now, the health of my daughter trumps BG football by a substantially wide margin.
Yeah the final was ugly. Really ugly. And this is the worst case scenario I considered early in the season. And this is squarely on the previous coaching staff who completely mismanaged the program every step of the way.
I had patience with Clawson because I knew his background and could see progress. And so I will have patience with Loeffler. This will be a year you have to throw out the results entirely. Hopefully in 2020 we will see some amount of progress but realistically I don't expect to be competitive until 2021.
Bill Connelly's previews often talked about the third year for a coach being when things come together ... or fall apart. Brandon's third year was 2005, when BG was picked by everyone to win the conference and instead the floor fell out. Clawson's third year was 2011, when the team improved by three wins and showed some good signs in most games. Jinks' third year was last year when it became evident that the program was only regressing. As much as I hate to say it, we're all just going to have to wait. Until then ... support the team and donate to the Falcon Club.

[TommyG]

I turned the game off way early and didn't see the final score until much later. Still haven't seriously looked at stats. Turning off the game early has been a pretty common thing in recent years and I've been tending to a sick one year old. So on my list of things that concern me right now, the health of my daughter trumps BG football by a substantially wide margin.
Yeah the final was ugly. Really ugly. And this is the worst case scenario I considered early in the season. And this is squarely on the previous coaching staff who completely mismanaged the program every step of the way.
I had patience with Clawson because I knew his background and could see progress. And so I will have patience with Loeffler. This will be a year you have to throw out the results entirely. Hopefully in 2020 we will see some amount of progress but realistically I don't expect to be competitive until 2021.
Bill Connelly's previews often talked about the third year for a coach being when things come together ... or fall apart. Brandon's third year was 2005, when BG was picked by everyone to win the conference and instead the floor fell out. Clawson's third year was 2011, when the team improved by three wins and showed some good signs in most games. Jinks' third year was last year when it became evident that the program was only regressing. As much as I hate to say it, we're all just going to have to wait. Until then ... support the team and donate to the Falcon Club.

Maybe you can volunteer to assist the Strength and Conditioning Staff to speed up the rebuild....I’m sure the players will be motivated by your Bench Press Numbers!

[MarkL]

I apparently have a stalker on this page ....

[Class of 61]

Saddest thing occurred at end of game. Kent ran a simple dive to kill final seconds and the kid went 72 yds for a TD. Shook off two tackles around the 20 and into the EZ.
Though Wade’s stats didn’t look bad (16/25 or so), he continued to make some terrible throws, missing open receivers. The killer was when he overthrew a guy on checkoff after we’d stopped KSU in own end. Throw wound up as a backward pass resulting in 11 yd loss. Get ball at 36, wind up at 46? OUCH!

[hammb]

Clawson got blown out a lot when we were 2-10 .
The team couldn't adjust to the fastball pace. Coaching is a part of that...so is depth.

This year....I'm not going to blame the guy holding the garden hose for the massive dumpster fire he's trying to put out. Given the mess Jinks left, I'm withholding judgement for a year. If we open the MAC next year with a crushing defeat from a traditional door mat....I'll be worried

Pretty much this.

I wasn't at all enamored with the hire when it was made. To me the whole staff screamed of trying to do the opposite of what failed with jinks. Jettison a coach and staff with almost no experience for a group with decades of experience. Experience doesn't always make for a great coaching staff though, and recreating the Lloyd Carr years at UM isn't exactly something to get excited about.

All that said, I don't think we can draw any conclusions whatsoever from this season. The staff inherited a total Trainwreck. At least clawson and urban inherited strong senior classes that were sick of the losing...I'm not sure the current group of players cares. They probably do, but if they don't care enough to outwork everybody them does it matter?

We'll start to get an idea next season if this is the group to turn it around.

[Rollo83]

I always say that you usually get a good read on a new head coach their first few games. Urban came in and had an immediate impact. Blackney's last year was 2-9 and Urban went 8-3 with basically the same players that first year. Meyer was the epitome of the phrase, "he'll beat you and then take yours and give you his and beat you again."

Clawson inherited a 6-6 team from Brandon that had some talent but was beset with off-the-field problems. He went 7-6 his first year, 2-9 the next, but his 5 y-ear rebuild plan produced a couple of MAC championships for BG.

I know Jinks left a mess here and Loeffler has a tough job on his hands...and I am sure not ready to throw the towel in on this coaching staff. But, I certainly would have expected us to be more competitive. There is no way a perennial MAC bottom-feeder like Kent State is 42 points better than us?, Or, a Louisiana Tech is 28 points better than us in BG?

The overall talent level between BG, Kent and Louisiana Tech is relatively similar. Coaching plays such a big part of college football, especially at our level. Lets hope we see some imprisonment as the season goes along. But if we can't at least be competitive against the bottom of the MAC, it will be a big red flag for me.

[mbenecke]

I always say that you usually get a good read on a new head coach their first few games. Urban came in and had an immediate impact. Blackney's last year was 2-9 and Urban went 8-3 with basically the same players that first year. Meyer was the epitome of the phrase, "he'll beat you and then take yours and give you his and beat you again."

Clawson inherited a 6-6 team from Brandon that had some talent but was beset with off-the-field problems. He went 7-6 his first year, 2-9 the next, but his 5 y-ear rebuild plan produced a couple of MAC championships for BG.

I know Jinks left a mess here and Loeffler has a tough job on his hands...and I am sure not ready to throw the towel in on this coaching staff. But, I certainly would have expected us to be more competitive. There is no way a perennial MAC bottom-feeder like Kent State is 42 points better than us?, Or, a Louisiana Tech is 28 points better than us in BG?

The overall talent level between BG, Kent and Louisiana Tech is relatively similar. Coaching plays such a big part of college football, especially at our level. Lets hope we see some imprisonment as the season goes along. But if we can't at least be competitive against the bottom of the MAC, it will be a big red flag for me.

I think you make some fair points, but I also feel you're underestimating just how depleted the roster is.

[mcfalcons83]

Went back and looked at some posts from the 2010 2-10 season. Some brutal comments on how poorly prepared the team was, bad schemes, defense out of position and so on. Two years later all was well! Agree that 3rd year of program key to evaluating progress. Let's be honest below average Quarterback play equals poor offense. If Doege would have stayed I believe the O would be better. Defensively we are thin and lack impact players. Let's take a deep breath and trust the coaches to get the program back to the top half of the MAC. If after the 3rd year no improvement we get to go through the process again. Go Falcons!

[Globetrotter]

I turned the game off way early and didn't see the final score until much later. Still haven't seriously looked at stats. Turning off the game early has been a pretty common thing in recent years and I've been tending to a sick one year old. So on my list of things that concern me right now, the health of my daughter trumps BG football by a substantially wide margin.
Yeah the final was ugly. Really ugly. And this is the worst case scenario I considered early in the season. And this is squarely on the previous coaching staff who completely mismanaged the program every step of the way.
I had patience with Clawson because I knew his background and could see progress. And so I will have patience with Loeffler. This will be a year you have to throw out the results entirely. Hopefully in 2020 we will see some amount of progress but realistically I don't expect to be competitive until 2021.
Bill Connelly's previews often talked about the third year for a coach being when things come together ... or fall apart. Brandon's third year was 2005, when BG was picked by everyone to win the conference and instead the floor fell out. Clawson's third year was 2011, when the team improved by three wins and showed some good signs in most games. Jinks' third year was last year when it became evident that the program was only regressing. As much as I hate to say it, we're all just going to have to wait. Until then ... support the team and donate to the Falcon Club.

Maybe you can volunteer to assist the Strength and Conditioning Staff to speed up the rebuild....I’m sure the players will be motivated by your Bench Press Numbers!

1 guy talks about his sick daughter and another goes back to 3 posts ago to attack him. Get rid of Tommy G mods, this guy has huge issues.

[Flipper]

Don't know about Kent as I only saw hi kites and read the recaps...but LT had a definitive edge in talent on us at QB and they had defensive playmakers on the edge...esp that CB (Robertson?). That's more than enough to win at this level