Zach Charles

[BGGrad01]

I thought the second punt return (the sprint to catch it on the shoestrings) was Antonio Smith. I could be wrong, but I thought he got one shot at a return after Charles' first fumble.

You are correct. That one was Smith. My bad.

But that begs the question, if the coach was smart enough to not send Charles out there again after muffing one, what the heck were they thinking putting him back out there in the fourth quarter with the game on the line???

Didn't Charles return punts early in the year when CP was out? I think I remember him refusing to fair catch then as well. He scared me back there, but at least he caught the ball. I think Smith only had the one return all year. The coaching staff probably decided to go with the more experienced punt returner late in the game. No clue why the fair catch call was not ordered by the staff, though.

[hammb]

No clue why they put Charles back out there for that final PR, but I want to know why our team shows a total lack of heart & hustle in going for the ball? Those guys were just standing around making piss poor grab attempts at the thing. Jump on the freaking ball, they teach you that in Jr High football!!!!

[Schadenfreude]

And for what it's worth, my friend shooting video at the game had that fumble play they ruled not a fumble for OU at the end on tape...the ball was out before the knee hit the ground. His footage was in with all that was reviewed so I assume there was something else...maybe the ball was dead before that?

I watched the game at home (I was there virtually; my season tix count whether I show or not), and it was unquestionably a fumble.

The only reasons I can think of that they didn't reverse the call was:

1. They weren't clear on who got possession. It seemed like it was Bowling Green, but it wasn't obvious.
2. They decided the play had been blown dead, so they couldn't reverse it.

[Warthog]

2. They decided the play had been blown dead, so they couldn't reverse it.

That is what I figured. If you watch any play, the whistle is generally very late, almost like it is an afterthought for the ref to blow it. So whenever you have one of these situations where there is a pile and the ball comes out, the refs cop out and just say the runner was down.

[Flipper]

None of us have a "right" to call out Zach Charles, but we do have a right to call out a coaching staff that has no other or better options, and have a team that continually goes "downhill" as the season progresses!!!!!!!

I have missed one home game in more than twenty years, and have attended more than 50% of away games over that period, but I may just find a good high school game to attend next Friday night! I am completely fed up with the direction of this team and lack of improvement during the season.

Yes... we used "youth" as an excuse last year, but simply saying "they're freshmen" doesn't explain why they aren't getting any better. This year's team has had a couple of really good efforts and a couple of really poor ones. I do not get the sense that the team is continuosly improving, they just appear to be capable of playing up to the level they showed early at Minnesota or down to the level displayed at Miami. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it, they either show up or they don't...you simply cannot have that. I can take a game like the Miami loss if the team learns from it. Based on last night's game...I don't think we learned anything from that Miami game. The coaches need to show that the team is progressing or I think Greg Christopher will have to look at making some changes.