1) For starters the wins. I love the wins. We are so far ahead of where we were 5 years ago its not even funny. Credit for this has to go to the combination of Krebs, Meyer, Brandon, and all their staff. The emphasis on strength and conditioning under the new coaching regime has likely been one of the biggest catalysts in this. I remember talking to John Mazur in the week or two following the Meyer hiring, he was saying that the new coach, Urban, was royally pissed because only one OL could bench 400 pounds. Mazur continued, with a smile, luckily I'm that guy!
Make no mistake about it, I'm thrilled every time we win.2) The way it has built some campus spirit. My first 3 years in school there were about 200 of us students that went to the gamesl. During Urban's first year here that changed, and the better turnout has continued through the past 3 seasons as well. Suddenly its cool to go to BG football games. Tailgating has become a weekly ritual, and is always a great time; we can eat, drink, and share falcon football stories in the hours leading up to the game. I remember when there were about 40-50 people tailgating before the games
3) Our offense. Philosophically its not in tune with what I like to see...smash mouth football. Still, I have warmed up to it, and I do believe we can run & pass with some balance in this system. It is, no doubt, exciting, and I think we can rack up points on anyone. I love bringing in exciting, mobile QBs to take advantage of the offensive scheme. I love watching our WRs & PJ Pope is the perfect fit at RB for us. I love that this gives our team an identity throughout the nation, and HS kids know that we can play some offense up here. I was lukewarm on it at first, but I have really warmed up to this scheme, and I think much of this is a testament to Brandon. Meyer drew up the strategy he wanted to employ, and Brandon (a master tactician & strategist) drew up the tactics to make it happen. Its one thing to say we want to spread the field and controll the game with misdirection running & short passes. It's another entirely to do so with the effectiveness we have done.
4) Recruiting. Meyer & Brandon brought in a new thought philosophy on recruiting. Suddenly we thought we could compete with some BCS schools on some recruits, and it has paid off. This new philosophy has brought us guys like PJ Pope, Omar Jacobs, Charles Sharon, Steve Sanders, the 5 blocks of granite, Pete Winovich, etc, etc. The current coaching staff, has been able to consistently sell kids that are capable of playing BCS football that BG is the place for them. In the end we are vastly more talented than all but the top few teams in our conference. It makes some of our games blowouts, and even boring, but it sure beats what we had before.
5) We take care of business. When we go up against a team that we are better than we have a tendency to smash them into submission immediately. We don't let them think they might have a chance against us, we pummel them early. We crush their spirits and let them know they just played Bowling Freaking Green. That's huge. So often you see quality teams that play down to their competition. We rarely, if ever, do that. Its a great testament to the staffs ability to get the team to not overlook the patsies.
6) We do all of the above with class. Our kids graduate. They go to class, get their degrees, and move on to more important things than football. When they are involved in wrongdoings off the field while they're still part of the team, they are punished, as they should be. They are not brushed off because they're star players. Our star DT sat for 2-3 games at the beginning of this season. We had another player kicked off the team. Sure you'd prefer if none of these incidents ever occurred, but these are college kids you cannot prevent it. What you can do is set precedent to ensure that everyone knows how this will be handled. The current staff has done a VERY good job handling discipline issues.
These are some of the things that jump out to me right now that I love about the BG football program. So yes, I've been quite down this week, and in general I will more likely harp on the negatives than celebrate the positives, but that's only because I think we need that perspective. I am a true fan, I do love BG sports, and I want more than anything for us to be the best. Not just great, but THE BEST. Period. I do think that we have made enormous strides in the past 4 years, I cannot just sit by the wayside and by happy with what we've got. There is always a bigger piece of the pie, and I want BG football to keep growing until we ARE the pie.
