Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com

Now, I'm not going to get too detailed here, and please bear in mind that I am asking this question as one who has been very critical of Coach (even to the point of wanting him gone after the Boise game - emotiom makes some of us morons ).

I am wondering if we are acting too much like the Florida fans who demanded Zook be fired after only three seasons of winning ball and who are now starting to chirp about Meyer after one loss? Coach Brandon is in his third year, and quite honestly, he is doing a great job all-around. Compared to most other coaches in the country, his winning percentage is excellent.

Now, yes you can say that we play more than our share of cupcake games year in and year out, and yes you can say that we haven't performed very well in most big road games under his tenure. But, we can not deny Coach's record. We can not dismiss two bowl wins over two very good teams. We can not dismiss a MAC West Championship in his first year, and we can not deny (at this point) the fact that his team has shown marked improvement this year following a shaky start.

I guess the question I am posing is, shouldn't we give Coach Brandon a lot more than two and a half years before making broad statements about how he can't win the "big" road game, or before we start claiming that he is incapable of making hafltime adjustments. I think we forget sometimes (and again, I am most definately included in this group) that Coach Brandon is (a.) a first time head coach, and (b.) human. He is working on a learning curve as all of us would be in a new position professionally, and I am starting to regret my diatribes against him, partially because I am in a new professional position and am having some difficulty picking up the little things. Maybe I'm projecting a bit too much, but I don't think so at this point.

Now, I'm not trying to make any definitive statements here, just trying to offer a different perspective than most of us may have had heretofore. I think as fans we all tend to fall into the trap of expecting perfection and being crushed when we don't see it.

Also, I think it is important to remember that although he has had, and even explored, other coaching offers, Coach Brandon has made a contractual and verbal (on numerous occasions) comitment to BGSU. Now, you can dispute the validity of that comitment, and BG fans are more inclined than most to do just that given the treatment we as fans, and more importantly our players recieved when Urban left. But another thing we forget is the Coach Brandon was here when all of that took place. He witnessed the pain that players and fans alike experienced when we were betrayed (essentially...) by Urban. I've met Coach on several occasions, and if there is one thing that has impressed me about him it is how genuine and personable he is. I really don't see him pulling the wool over our eyes. He knows how much that impacts people on a very personal level.

Alright, so maybe I am going to get detailed...

I'm on the fence with Brandon. If he can win a conference title, he'll be a good coach in my mind. If he can't, it's going to be hard to convince me he's a big time coach.

BGDrew wrote:I'm on the fence with Brandon. If he can win a conference title, he'll be a good coach in my mind. If he can't, it's going to be hard to convince me he's a big time coach.

so your a bandwagon fan? If BG has a losing season are you going to transfer to UT?

tekekini wrote:

BGDrew wrote:I'm on the fence with Brandon. If he can win a conference title, he'll be a good coach in my mind. If he can't, it's going to be hard to convince me he's a big time coach.

so your a bandwagon fan? If BG has a losing season are you going to transfer to UT?

Teke, Drew ain't no bandwagon fan. He's just expressing the same type of view that has been expressed around here since our rough start to the season. He's not engaging my question, but I know him - he is a great fan.

I spent a lot of time and emotion typing up this post. Can someone engage the question rather than responses? I really am curious.

Are we, the BGSU fan base, being too hard of Brandon? I feel that's kind of difficult to answer, since I don't feel that the population of AZZ.com is a fair sampling of the entire BGSU fan base. Those of us around here tend to be the more die hard, expressive, fanatical, and passionate BG fans. This sampling of fans is almost always going to be more critical than say, the casual fan who shows up at the Doyt when Michigan and OSU aren't playing. I don't think the casual fans are being overly critical of Brandon. However, I do feel that those of us on AZZ.com tend to be overly critical of Coach. Is Brandon a good coach, in my oppion yes. Is he a great coach, in my oppion he could be. Personally I feel that it is somewhat unfair to judge a coach on a game by game basis. There are so many outside factors that go into a game, that aren't always able to be controlled by a Coach. I think you get a much better picture of how good or bad a coach is by looking at an entire season. Trying to judge a coach mid season is like trying to have a slice of bread when it's only half baked. You can get a clue what it might taste like, but you really can't tell. You've got to wait until it's totally cooked.

I think coach has the potental to become a great coach, and I also think that he can do that here at BGSU. Maybe I just have more patience that other. Thats just my take on things. They proably don't make much sense, since I'm writing this while running on sleep depravation, and not being on campus, but oh well. Ok, ya'll can begin to rip me a new one.

goofyeuph wrote:Are we, the BGSU fan base, being too hard of Brandon? I feel that's kind of difficult to answer, since I don't feel that the population of AZZ.com is a fair sampling of the entire BGSU fan base.

Well put.

goofyeuph wrote:Are we, the BGSU fan base, being too hard of Brandon? I feel that's kind of difficult to answer, since I don't feel that the population of AZZ.com is a fair sampling of the entire BGSU fan base. Those of us around here tend to be the more die hard, expressive, fanatical, and passionate BG fans. This sampling of fans is almost always going to be more critical than say, the casual fan who shows up at the Doyt when Michigan and OSU aren't playing. I don't think the casual fans are being overly critical of Brandon. However, I do feel that those of us on AZZ.com tend to be overly critical of Coach. Is Brandon a good coach, in my oppion yes. Is he a great coach, in my oppion he could be. Personally I feel that it is somewhat unfair to judge a coach on a game by game basis. There are so many outside factors that go into a game, that aren't always able to be controlled by a Coach. I think you get a much better picture of how good or bad a coach is by looking at an entire season. Trying to judge a coach mid season is like trying to have a slice of bread when it's only half baked. You can get a clue what it might taste like, but you really can't tell. You've got to wait until it's totally cooked.

I think coach has the potental to become a great coach, and I also think that he can do that here at BGSU. Maybe I just have more patience that other. Thats just my take on things. They proably don't make much sense, since I'm writing this while running on sleep depravation, and not being on campus, but oh well. Ok, ya'll can begin to rip me a new one.

I think that if you judge him as a bad coach based on losing 1 tight game to a Wisconsin team who has a chance at winning the Big Ten, and losing 1 bad poorly played game bye everyone than it is too premature. Judge him after he gets the team turned around, judge him after he shows his team how to deal with the tough losses, on how not to give up and cash in on the season.

People on here, not all but some, are way too critical. Right now he has the team sitting on top of the MAC east and ready to go straight to the MACC. Three weeks ago on this message board you would have thought the world was going to end in Bowling green.

Don't judge him until the season ends because after the 1-2 start we are flying high, he has this team turning towards the right direction. They got the defense fixed as it appears. They will work on special teams and it is time for everyone to quit being negative. this is a good team whose goal is still alive to win the MACC. They are in this postion becuase of Brandon.

Sometimes I do think that I, in particular, am too hard on coach Brandon. As someone else said, we are not representative of the overal BG fanbase, we are the die hards. We are the ones who are talking BG football in April, and tailgating for the spring game

Personally, I do think I'm too hard on Coach Brandon, but it's my nature. I'm the type that will pick out the negatives and try to learn from them and improve. So I do the same with football...I see what I don't like and point it out. Sure I could be happy and cheerful because we won by 40-50 points, but dang it, deep down I know there were things we could do better.

I try to counter my negative comments towards the coach with positives, but most of those are obvious, and everybody already knows about it...its more fun to me to discuss fixing faults than engage in mental masturbation over our strengths.

I'll try to go easier on the guy, but I don't know if I can do it...

AS with all things in life each persons Utopia is different, look at how our Nation is divided on issues of the 2nd amnedment, abortion two name two that are good examples. Coaching and what makes a good coach to each person is very divisionairy as well. To some being competitive in each game is enough, to others a coach must coach his team to nearly undefeated seasons year in and out and if he should loose the big game then he did a bad job.
Personally i think he is doing a very very good job and heres why:
in this system he is coaching the player to play to some perdetermined level and adjust all of thier skills to fit that mold. It is more fluid than that and as such so is his coaching style, as he coachs to the players strengths and adapts his scheems that way. Yes their are still skills each player must play to, but conceptually that is not the bench mark of BGSU football.
i do however see the system some less fluid than in years past...meaning our game plans of last year and before seemed more dynamic and adaptive and if stuff was not working a new offensive would roll out at the half instead of more of the same. Now this may be decieving because Omar is such a prolific passer and even though teams are keying in on that he is still able to play his passing game.

Coach B is a very good coach he is geting in some good young kids, he should drop the gay as hell punt formation, the D is coming along under a new coach as well as can be expected...yes they flat out sucked at the begining, but they are coming around in this learning season, as season WE ALL HAD HIGH hOPES FOR WITH A VETRAN CREW, but alis a new D coach and we are learning again and have some rough spots.
We are fine and our coaches are very good.

Short answer...yes. No coach is perfect, and the obvious failings of the team are amplified to a higher degree than they probably should be, and I put myself in this category as well. As others have noted, we can't help it because we feel so strongly about the program and the University.

Look at the run defense situation. It was a disaster, but upon further examination it was largely a result of matching up against prodigious offensive teams with a young defense whose coordinator only arrived after Spring ball ended. After a couple games to settle down, they completely shut down one of the top rushing teams in the MAC. I expect similar progress out of the Special Teams to come.

On the Sebo video, Paul Krebs correctly noted that, years from now, people will look back on this era of BG football with awe: national rankings, back-to-back bowl wins, record-setting players, ESPN GameDay on campus and unprecedented national exposure being the impetus for a multi-million dollar facility on the cusp of being built. Coach Brandon and his staff have been largely responsible for this resurgence and deserve credit. The next step in the evolution is a MAC championship, and we're 2-0 in conference and have UT at home. The next step is closer than we think...

The true measure is do we think Coach Brandon is equally hard on himself?

I think he is, so then I think we can be as well.

Let's just not be so mean-spirited as we are sometimes.

After all, IT'S STILL JUST A GAME!!

We all know what fan is short for! So, I tend to believe that we as fans are always too quick to praise and too quick to blame. Its just the nature of the beast that is sport, especially major college athletics.

I respect the hell out of what Urban Meyer did for our program. I give Greg Brandon credit for helping Meyer acheive the turnaround and for keeping it going the last few years.

What frustarates me is that we have an offense that allows us to compete with almost any D1 program in the country. Unfortunately, our defense hasn't allowed us to do that...even preventing us from achieving a MAC title. I hope that all changes this year.

Brandon seems to still be an offensive cordinator posing as a head coach. He still seems to have interest in and control of the offense, while turning over the defense and special teams to his assistants.

I can't validate him as a solid head coach until he proves he can manage all areas of a football team. I also want to see more out of him as a motivator.

Generally, I don't think we are being too hard on him because it comes with the territory of being a D1 head coach.

Coach Brandon has been great for our program, and we continue to improve each season. I think that the frustration has been that we expected to be playing for the NC this year (admit it!). That school up the road didn't just suddenly start winning conference titles, they had to build up their team.

The offense has been there for years. We've all known that. When you think of Bowling Green, you think of PS2 numbers in the stat column. I'd like to think we started to turn a corner against OU. Sixty-eight yards rushing?! That's unheard of in college football.

Yes, I'm hard on Brandon because I know what this team is capable of, and it took awhile to see what exactly this team is able to do. The Mythical NC? Never, and I don't really care. Now we just need to improve the Special Teams, continue to improve on D, and rest P.J. so we're full strength in the long stretch.

And teke, I could just tell you to go to Hell, because that was the first thing that came to my mind after I read your post. But I'm just going to take the high road and say you can have your opinion. You can accuse me of being a "bad fan." But if you knew anything about me, you'd know I was an advocate for BG and a pretty big fan on-campus.

Nice thread. Filter out all the stuff and all the nonsense and frustration (of which I am guilty of as well), and the bottom line is this:

For any faults or imperfections he has like anyone else, he's a good coach, and he's better than an awful lot of I-A coaches, and better than many we've had.

Does he have to continue to prove himself and make the team better? Yes. Can he live on the past? No. Neither can most people at their jobs.

"And teke, I could just tell you to go to Hell, because that was the first thing that came to my mind after I read your post. But I'm just going to take the high road and say you can have your opinion. You can accuse me of being a "bad fan." But if you knew anything about me, you'd know I was an advocate for BG and a pretty big fan on-campus."

I work next to a prison farm. how much closer to hell do you think I can get?

actually i like my job.

anyways i was just going off what you said and how it sounded bro