What's acceptable for Brandon this year?

[JohnnySwoop '85]

Actually it's a pretty fair assessment...so I'll have what your both drinking. FIU coached by Don Strock finished up well last year, so maybe returning lettermen figured things out. However, they do have some new coaches or coordinators so its pretty reasonable to bet the farm on a "W" especially considering their consistent rankings in the 110-119 range.

Recently, in the press... Akron already lost their 2nd string RB so if they get bit by the injury bug withtheir backfield it works out really well that we play them deep in the season provided that the same thing doesn't happen to us and BG players gel on both sides of thee ball.
Maybe it will come down to who has better Special teams, which could prove to be a huge x-factor in several MAC games...but for now...slight edge to Akron. If Getsy goes down, a lot of people in Green aand Tallmadge using all their new "Fear the Roo" t shirts to wash the car with.

[bgsufalcon24]

The first thing that we have to consider here is that our schedule is horrible with the exception of a few teams. Our nonconference schedule is decidedly hit or miss, with two really strong teams (OSU and Wisc) and two teams that absolutely suck (FIU and Temple). In conference, it should be the same old same old as far as which teams are contenders and which ones aren't, with the exceptions of maybe Central Michigan and Ball State, which I am not sure about really at all.

I divide the games of this season into four categories, easy games, medium games, hard games, and impossible games. Here goes.

Easy games - lock them up as W's right now
1.Buffalo - could be worst team in college football this year having lost 20 lettermen off of terrible team a year ago, plus the game is at home
2.Kent State - winless team in the MAC a year ago isn't going anywhere fast, plus game is at home
3.Florida International - This team isn't much better than Buffalo the only reason they went 5-6 last year was because they are in the Sunbelt Conf.
4.Temple - 70-7 last year. That pretty much says it all. You're not going to reverse a 63 point deficit in one year.
5.Eastern Michigan - This team actually showed some improvement in spots last year, but don't expect them to challenge us, not on homecoming.

Medium games - most likely will be W's but could be L's
1.Ohio - This team is an enigma, I can't tell if they will show the improvement some expect. They play really well at home though.
2.Miami - We embarrassed them bad last year and they lost tons of players. They might have get-you-back motivation for us this year.
3.Akron - Their fairytale season of a year ago won't last into this year without Biggs, but they will still be good. Road game here might actually benefit us because our fans will likely outdraw their fans at the Rubber Bowl.

Hard games - most likely will be L's but could be W's
1.Wisconsin - Still strong on defense and have much bigger guys in the trenches than we do, a big minus. Even though their skill positions are depleted, it will take a great 60 minutes for us to win.
2.Central Michigan - These guys will be better than last year since they are one of the few teams in the MAC not decimated by players leaving. Road game too, which will make this one tough. I know we were 4-0 on road in MAC last year, but I don't see that happening this time.
3.Toledo - Although Bruce is gone, their offense remains more intact than ours, and their defense was already better than ours, although that may not pan out this year. Game is at Glass Bowl, which benefits the Rockets.

Impossible games - games we will not win
1.Ohio State - As much as I would love for this to happen, I don't think it will. OSU is just too powerful in all dimensions of the game.

Record prediction - 8-4, (6-2 MAC, MAC East Champions)

We will win the MAC East with a perfect 5-0 record against the East Division, our two conference losses coming against CMU and Toledo. Our opponent in the MAC Championship Game will be NIU, who I think will go undefeated in MAC play, and honestly, they will probably kick our ass in the title game as they are loaded.

Bartender, I'll have what he's drinking!

What? You think that's unrealistic? Maybe I am being a bit of an optimist, but I realize that last year we got caught up in the hype to some degree and ended up underachieving. I don't see that happening this year, unless if Brandon is just a poor coach and lets it go to their heads again. (Which I don't believe to be true) Plus, even though our offense doesn't look as good as last year, our defense has been looking pretty good in practice lately and was clearly better than the offense in the spring game, a sign of improvement from last year. Also, we lost two games last year almost exclusively because of special teams (Akron and Toledo). We had two punts of less than 10 yards in each of these games if memory serves, and don't even get me started on placekicking.

If we are better on defense and special teams than a year ago, assuming the offense doesn't fall off the face of the earth, 8-4 seems VERY reasonable.

[reyray82]

I agree 8-4 is likely. I think we can make the title game with that. I do think we will take out toledo. That last loss was tough and the team will remember that. I dont know how fresh wolf will be at the end of the year, but I think this years team is designed to stop him.

[irs]

After reading Freak's perspective and Spart43, thought it would be interesting to see what the poll said before the season began. We can still be 6-6. There were 50 votes with only 13 being 6-6 or worse. Looking back is always easier. However, did we have on our "orange colored" glasses with wishful thinking or was it a coaching issue? Grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. How much difference would another coach have made with the team we had this year (youth and injuries)? Win or lose, we are proud alumni and always will be BGSU fans.

[hammb]

I'll go through J4H's list because it pretty much echoed my hopes coming into this year as well.

I want to see some of Brandon's recruits start to take over, which will be telling in his recruiting ability. I don't mean just in terms of pure talent, but rather his ability to recruit players to fit his schemes successfully.

We've got some promising young players on defense & at RB, but QB has been poor. WR play has been WAY below expectations. Not looking real great that he can bring in guys for his system.

I want to see some damn fundamentals -- tackling especially.

Ummm...nope. Blocking has been tremendous, but the tackling has been a marginal improvement, at best.

I want to see a team that looks like it cares and is fighting from start to finish.

You cannot tell me they were fighting in the loss to Temple. They totally threw in the towel against KSU. For most of the games we've come out flat and uninspired, with only a few real exceptions. I'm going to count this one as a NO, but time will tell with the rivalry games coming up.

I want to see some leadership on and off the field.

Still waiting to see some leadership...

Did I mention tackling?

Still below average tackling.

I do not want to hear our head coach disparage the importance of one phase of the game versus another.

Obviously they didn't put proper emphasis on STs in the offseason...inexcusable.

I do not want to hear our head coach throw players by name under the bus in postgame interviews.

Too late. Threw Partridge under the bus earlier, although now he praises him on the radio.

I do not want to see our coaching staff puss out in key situations against bitter rivals with the game on the line.

Hasn't come up because we haven't had that many key situations. There has been some awful playcalling late by running oddly timed QB draws (4th down in the UB game, late in the Akron game). Unfortunately we're so bad even Temple had put the game away before this could come up.

I do not want to see any more third quarter lambastings.

Don't have the stats, but I don't think the 3rd has been much worse than the other quarters for us this year, has it?

I do not want to hear our coach making excuses and passing the buck during a radio interview.

LOL...the biggest negative of all. Excuse after excuse after excuse. Not once will he ever stand up and take any criticism for the team he's built.

I do not want to see the whole season fall apart based on the loss of one or two players. We've already had one main cog go down. Well-coached and well-prepared teams can overcome.

We didn't lose that much when Turner wasn't playing. I think Barnes' loss has cost us a little, but not to the extent of Omar last year. When Macon struggled, it's nice to see Bullock step up as a star. We've lost a lot of defenders, but the unit has managed to persevere and at least be average. I'd say he's passed this test, but a lot of that is because we don't have any players that are good enough to cry when they get hurt.

[/quote]I do not want to see Wisconsin run our front seven over while we stay in base for 3/4 of the game. If this happens again, I may not watch another game this season for fear of harming myself and others.[/quote]

So have you held up to that, because they pounded us without fail again. Not quite as much as last year, but still when they needed to run the ball, they had no problems.

If I see marked improvement in the above areas, and we go 6-6, I'll be just fine. If we still look like crap in all these areas, but go 8-4, lose in the MACC, and play in a bowl game, I'll still be calling for GB's job.

How about the worse case where we look like crap in all these areas and also manage to go 6-6 or worse? I'm with ya J4H, this staff has failed in almost every test they've been put through this year.


It's interesting to see how so many people said they'd be mad with less than 7 or 8 wins, yet they're still claiming Brandon is a good coach and we're lucky to have him. My previous opinion has been cemented this year, and that is, quite honestly, we are among the 15-20 worst coached teams in all of college football.

The worst thing to come out of this year is that we don't really have that many great players. We've been told what a great job recruiting he's been doing for the past 3-4 years, but I ask, where are those players? I'm pretty well convinced that Brandon cannot coach a team to greatness, but I at least thought he'd be John Cooper-lite...he's looking worse than that this season...

[Jacobs4Heisman]

Well, I was going to do it, but Hammb has more time on his hands than I do today apparently =)


As far as Wisconsin, I was actually encouraged by that game. I thought the defense played admirably but just wore down as the game went on. It was most definitely an improvement from the utter ineptitude in the 2004 game.

Either way -- you didn't really think I'd be able to stay away from Falcon football for a whole year did you

[hammb]

Well, I was going to do it, but Hammb has more time on his hands than I do today apparently =)


As far as Wisconsin, I was actually encouraged by that game. I thought the defense played admirably but just wore down as the game went on. It was most definitely an improvement from the utter ineptitude in the 2004 game.

Either way -- you didn't really think I'd be able to stay away from Falcon football for a whole year did you

No, I knew you couldn't stay away

As for more time on my hands, I took time out of my lunch break to post that...this is the first time I've had a chance to check back...a lot of crap I had on order came in today, so I was pretty busy.

How dare they make work interfere with my web surfing!?