Miami

[MarkL]

I appreciate the historical perspectives but comparing Clawson and Jinks is a joke. Clawson was hired because he was a renowned program builder and known winner. Jinks was hired because he was from Texas Tech.
Clawson's teams improved yearly after Brandon's foundation collapsed following the 2009 season. The team's record improved, level of play improved, and individuals improved. Jink's teams have not improved. The record has dropped, the defense has dropped for two straight years, which is something of an accomplishment in a strange way, and there is no sign of individual improvement.
The calls for Clawson to be gone were from a minority of the board. The calls for Jinks to be gone are from almost everyone.
There is no comparison. And after my preseason projection of a bowl season and MAC east contention, after seeing three games I am just hopeful we can hit 3 wins. I would need to see actual tangible evidence of a turnaround rather than Jinks blowing hot air about players gaining strength and weight and defensive improvements.
Beat Miami soundly and there is some tangible evidence. And if he beats UT, great. One game does not mean anything other than winning one game. One game does not right a ship, especially since UT is taking massive steps back this year.

[Falconfreak90]

Miami has yet to hit 100 rushing yards in a game. So if we hold them to under 300 I will be content ...

[Falconfreak90]

I appreciate the historical perspectives but comparing Clawson and Jinks is a joke.

Dave Clawson...in the words of Pink Floyd, "Wish You Were Here". I still love that guy and coach.

[Schadenfreude]

Hypothetical situation: Jinks and the Falcons hit their stride big time going into MAC play and end up with 6-7 wins (remember, I said hypothetical). Do we start believing in him as a guy who has righted the ship or do we view it as the talent on the team outperforming the bad coaching? Just curious what it would take at this point to gain a little confidence as a fan base.

If this team wins six or seven games, Jinx will have earned a suspension of all this "he's on the hot seat" talk.

He lost me with the EKU performance. An FCS team running for 400 yards is inexcusable.

I agree. There's no excuse for that, especially in Year 3.

People wanted to fire Clawson even in year 4. Clawson's regular season records were 7-5, 2-10, 5-7, 8-4, 10-3. During his second season, people wanted him gone. During his third season, the team played better and people still wanted him gone. During his fourth season, we went to a bowl game and people still said he needed to be fired. Remember that year? We lost to Virginia Tech 37-0. Clearly that was just terrible! Some people just can't be happy.

Now, I am NOT saying that Jinks is Clawson. I simply wanted to draw a parallel. I agree that EKU game did nothing to boost my confidence, but I'll take the win. For our remaining games, I can see wins against Miami, WMU, Kent, and CMU. That brings us to 5-7. If we could squeeze out another win against Akron or Ohio, we're bowl eligible. Right now, I could see 5-7 being possible.

While we are on the hypothetical train, what it BG beats UT this year? Do we still want Jinks gone?

A win over Toledo would solve a lot of problems, wouldn't it?

For the record, I was 100 percent onboard with Dave Clawson the whole way. The thing about Clawson is that he set expectations very clearly. He made it be known that we would do okay in his first year because of a lot of Falcon seniors. After that, we would need to rebuild. He was clear about that very early on the process, and he stuck to that path. Year 2 was rough. Year 3 was better. Etc.

In contrast, I never got a strong sense from Jinks's public comments that Year 1 was going to be the debacle it turned out to be. He never really set expectations. It seemed plausible based on what he was saying that we could be competitive right away. And we weren't.

Here we are now in Year 3, and Eastern Kentucky runs the ball for 400 yards on us and darned near beats us?

In Clawson's Year 3, we hammered Morgan State. I'll grant the Ohio Valley is a better football league that the MEAC, but it's still FCS football.

A nice run in MAC play will calm me down. But I don't like where we are. I've been patient, but last weekend was not good enough.

[Schadenfreude]

(Deleted double post.)

[mbenecke]

If anyone is interested in his weekly presser, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMyBUBzQo9Y" target="_blank

[footballguy51]

I may have been misunderstood. I was in no way implying Jinks and Clawson can even be comparable. Clawson was an awesome coach. Jinks...I get closer and closer to writing him off each and every week. We won last week, so I didn't grab the pitch fork yet.

I only brought that up because the thought of 6-7 wins in a season and would we want him gone reminded me of how some people, even if they were in the minority, were glad to see Clawson leave even after his MAC Championship because he "wasn't that good" and he coached "boring football". The question of us being bowl eligible and would we want the coach gone made me think of how we wanted Clawson out when he was resurrecting a sunken ship.

Right now, this ship is taking on water. Our win on Saturday just helped us bail water a little faster. If we beat Miami, we may start making some headway in staying afloat.

Since this thread was started for the purpose of making predictions, I'm going to be risky.

BG 42
MU 28

[slashba33]

As I have said from day one, we (thanks Kingston) had NO business hiring Jinks as our head coach for several reasons. Given our financial situation, we are stuck with him for at least the rest of this season. Even if we somehow go 6-6 this season, we can't continue on with this situation. We were 2x MAC champs (between 2 coaches) in three years, dominated the EAST for several years and have now immediately become a basement dweller because of a bad hire. I don't care about what other programs go through or what is the "norm" with coaching turnover in the MAC.

WE CAN DO BETTER THAN THIS...

Miami 37
BGSU 30

[mbenecke]

Miami's #1 receiver James Gardner is out this weekend, and potentially the rest of the year, according to HC Chuck Martin. He was a first-team All-MAC selection last year, so this is a big loss for the RedHawks.

[jpfalcon09]

Hypothetical situation: Jinks and the Falcons hit their stride big time going into MAC play and end up with 6-7 wins (remember, I said hypothetical). Do we start believing in him as a guy who has righted the ship or do we view it as the talent on the team outperforming the bad coaching? Just curious what it would take at this point to gain a little confidence as a fan base.

If this team wins six or seven games, Jinx will have earned a suspension of all this "he's on the hot seat" talk.

He lost me with the EKU performance. An FCS team running for 400 yards is inexcusable.

I agree. There's no excuse for that, especially in Year 3.

People wanted to fire Clawson even in year 4. Clawson's regular season records were 7-5, 2-10, 5-7, 8-4, 10-3. During his second season, people wanted him gone. During his third season, the team played better and people still wanted him gone. During his fourth season, we went to a bowl game and people still said he needed to be fired. Remember that year? We lost to Virginia Tech 37-0. Clearly that was just terrible! Some people just can't be happy.

Now, I am NOT saying that Jinks is Clawson. I simply wanted to draw a parallel. I agree that EKU game did nothing to boost my confidence, but I'll take the win. For our remaining games, I can see wins against Miami, WMU, Kent, and CMU. That brings us to 5-7. If we could squeeze out another win against Akron or Ohio, we're bowl eligible. Right now, I could see 5-7 being possible.

While we are on the hypothetical train, what it BG beats UT this year? Do we still want Jinks gone?

A win over Toledo would solve a lot of problems, wouldn't it?

For the record, I was 100 percent onboard with Dave Clawson the whole way. The thing about Clawson is that he set expectations very clearly. He made it be known that we would do okay in his first year because of a lot of Falcon seniors. After that, we would need to rebuild. He was clear about that very early on the process, and he stuck to that path. Year 2 was rough. Year 3 was better. Etc.

In contrast, I never got a strong sense from Jinks's public comments that Year 1 was going to be the debacle it turned out to be. He never really set expectations. It seemed plausible based on what he was saying that we could be competitive right away. And we weren't.

Here we are now in Year 3, and Eastern Kentucky runs the ball for 400 yards on us and darned near beats us?

In Clawson's Year 3, we hammered Morgan State. I'll grant the Ohio Valley is a better football league that the MEAC, but it's still FCS football.

A nice run in MAC play will calm me down. But I don't like where we are. I've been patient, but last weekend was not good enough.

I don't even think a win against Toledo would make people feel any better given the trajectory the program seems to be on. That would likely be an anomaly as opposed to a win that's par for the course.

People were calling for Clawson to be fired because they're impatient. It's amazing now to look back and see the incremental strides the program made under his guidance. He was also able to recruit some of the best talent we've seen here since Urban took over. He had several players from his defense go on to play in the NFL.

The biggest barometer for me with Jinks is seeing that incremental improvement. He's supposedly recruited two of the best classes in program history, some attrition has occurred but there's still skill on both sides of the ball. A sign of poor coaching is recruiting players with high potential and never meeting those expectations. I get the feeling that's the current course the program is on, and that we're wasting talent that perhaps a different coach/staff could maximize the potential of.

[jpfalcon09]

Miami's #1 receiver James Gardner is out this weekend, and potentially the rest of the year, according to HC Chuck Martin. He was a first-team All-MAC selection last year, so this is a big loss for the RedHawks.

I expect Miami to be run heavy against us given the defensive struggles. They average 3.1 yards per carry but have a couple guys getting five a pop which is pretty good given the competition they've played.

[gmartin]

Miami's #1 receiver James Gardner is out this weekend, and potentially the rest of the year, according to HC Chuck Martin. He was a first-team All-MAC selection last year, so this is a big loss for the RedHawks.

I expect Miami to be run heavy against us given the defensive struggles. They average 3.1 yards per carry but have a couple guys getting five a pop which is pretty good given the competition they've played.

So when Miami beats us by more than a touchdown on our home field and without their best player and they run for 300 yards when they have not run for over a 100 yards all year then what will everyone say. We may have the lead at halftime but Miami will make adjustments where BG will remain stagnant. Miami is also out for revenge for how the game ended the last time they were in the Doyt. 95 yard fumble return for a BG touchdown and win.

[BillyLP]

Thomas Schmeltz reported that Scotty Miller was back today and Hargrove and Hale should be back tomorrow. Not that I think injuries are an excuse for only beating EKU by 7, but it will certainly help with depth and skill to get some healthy players back for Saturday.

[gmartin]

Thomas Schmeltz reported that Scotty Miller was back today and Hargrove and Hale should be back tomorrow. Not that I think injuries are an excuse for only beating EKU by 7, but it will certainly help with depth and skill to get some healthy players back for Saturday.

Getting Hargrove and Hale back will be nice. Miller out did allow us to see what else we had at WR. Miller out may have been beneficial.

[kdog27]

I don't think we have a chance if our run defense resembles the last 2 weeks.