I STILL hate Falcon Football...

[hammb]

Consider this a followup to the post I made after the Wisconsin game. I said then that I hated our football philosophy, and I hate it even more now.

At our very best we are very, very good at 1/3 of the game. Unfortunately we are absolutely putrid at another 1/3 of the game (ST's), and really really bad at the final 1/3 of the game (defense). So what happens when the 1/3 of the game that we're actually good at has an off day? We get absolutely embarrassed on national television that's what.

I have grown very tired of the Gregg Brandon act. I noticed it within the first 5-6 games of his coaching tenure, and it has not changed. We are a poorly coached team. We cannot, with any consistency, get our guys ready to play. Last night's game it was obvious, less than 2 minutes into the game, that we had no fire or intensity. As I mentioned in the chatroom, I show up with more intensity to play playstation that what that team had last evening. This is not a one time occurrence. It happened against NIU last year and against Miami in '03. How do you not have your team fired up and ready to play on national television!?!?

Not only do we not get our guys fired up, we don't make adjustments. Last night coach Brandon was quoted at halftime as saying that Omar & the offense was confused by what the Boise defense was doing. I think this is about the most embarrassing thing I've ever heard a coach say in a halftime interview. For starters, if they weren't prepared for what Boise was going to do that is the coaches' faults for not having them ready. Secondly, MAKE AN ADJUSTMENT. After 2 3-and-outs, I would try something different. I don't know what, but SOMETHING...ANYTHING.

I firmly believe that Gregg Brandon is taking what Urban Meyer built and slowly running it into the ground. We put all of our athletes on offense, saying we don't care about the defense. Notice that we have not had a single dominant (above average even?) defensive player that came in through Brandon's recruiting. Each year our defense gets worse and worse, but the offense can only get so much better. In interviews the coach spews rhetoric about defense winning championships, etc, but he does nothing to help that situation. What's worse special teams have also gotten steadily worse during Brandon's tenure. In '01 & '02 our special teams were top notch, best in the MAC. We'd hit a return every once in awhile, sure, but it was more coaching. We blocked a ton of kicks. We covered kicks well. We were always in position to make a special teams play, and when in the position they MADE the play. Now our best special teams plays are to kick the ball out of bounds so we don't have to cover it and to go for it on every 4th down and PAT

I don't know what the solution is. I don't know if we could do better than this current staff. Thankfully the MAC championship is still a possibility, but at this point I see nothing to make me think we can beat Miami on the road. We are flat out NOT a very good football team at this point, and I think that's very disheartening.

I think I could go so far as to make the bold statement that we will never win a championship under this coaching staff. Their philosophy is totally out of whack. They have no motivation skills at all. They have no clue how to make adjustments when the opponent is showing a new look. It's quite disappointing to watch what has been a fun couple years go down the spiral like this. The best thing that can happen is that we win out, or nearly so, putting up a good record again. Hopefully that will be enough to land Gregg Brandon another job...Let me be the first to pass the collection tin to buy him a new suit for his interviews...

[sbrown]

I really wish I could refute what you just said...but I can't. Being a Bengals fan for decades, I KNOW how to spot a team without a spark and that is the kind of team BG is. On defense, there is nobody on the field that is stepping up and getting in the face of the other players. There is no ball hawking. There is no sense of urgency or passion. That is fine for the offense - I like an offense to be methodical and set the pace of the game. But the defense needs to play with a desperation and intensity to be successful. That being said, I still have trouble putting the blame on the players. Lovett has many returning players on the D-line and linebacking squads and the guys are all underachieving to a man. For the third game, I am seeing the D-backfield making the tackles and I am seeing huge running lanes in the defensive front. I can handle the offense being out of synch for a single game, but the defense has not shown a single spark this year. On the whole, this team is very poor in fundamentals. Poor tackling, dropped passes, not staying in your lane on kickoffs and punts.

[04forheisman]

very good post. A football coach is not a nice lovable guy(Brandon). A football coach is a guy that will get in your face, tell you your good or bad, intimidate his players a bit(Meyer). A team plays like it's coach, and BG plays like a bunch of uninspired, unmotivated, weak, heartless, nut less pansies. That makes me sick, that is not football the way our team plays.

Go hard or go home. Begin search for next special teams background young fiery assistant NOW!!!!

[Jacobs4Heisman]

now that I've taken some breaths after watching last night's game I'll chime in.

You know what Hamm? I was watching the game last night thinking about almost those exact things. You pretty much spoke out my feelings word for word. Brandon looked like a 3rd grader trying to do calculus last night. Our team was lost in every phase of the game all night long. That was the first time that a game was televised that I didn't go to that I didn't watch the game in it's entirety. It was too disgusting to me to continue watching. I still love this team and I still think we have the best chance out of any team in the east to go to the MACC. But it's gonna be a struggle every game.

Back to the coaching, I have never seen a team fall victim to momentum as much as Brandon-coached falcon teams do. In college sports the saying goes -- "everybody makes a run". The problem is -- once the other team makes their run we are powerless to stop it. It's like we are cruising along and a 10 foot wide brick wall pops up in front of us. instead of calmly stepping back and going around the wall, we smash our face into the center of it 47 times and wonder why we're bleeding.

Omar Omar Omar....I've never seen him look like that except for portions of the Toledo game last year. He looked completely lost. I hope this was just a case of every great QB has bad games, but that's dude's confidence was non-existent last night. When a QB starts making hand signals to coaches and receivers about which way he thought they were going to go, things are getting out of hand. The only bright side, as others have mentioned, is that this makes it much more likely he will be here next year.

As far as Lovett goes, people have been very very hard on him only three games into his tenure after he got her late. When he arrived this spring, our defensive cupboard was BARE. This man has absolutely nothing to work with outside of a secondary that can tackle. It will take him three years to recruit to his style of defense and implement it. Let's not run him out of town after 3 bad games with someone else's players.

Sure -- the defense has been downright bad so far, But I have seen improvement in the details. Before they got tired last night, the defense played much much better. They were attacking and shooting gaps on those toss plays. Our secondary still can't cover, and our front seven still can't tackle, but they looked better. By midway through the second quarter they were gassed and it was over. I have seen our defense improve in 3 games and seen our offense take significant steps backwards. That is more of a function of coaching than anything else. I think Lovett will be a good one and eventually be loved by all of us. it's just a hunch, but I think he's the next head coach at BGSU. And boy do we need a defensive guy leading this ship. He may not be the best choice, but I feel he may get the nod when Brandon leaves.

Bottom line -- Boise played great and whooped us. We have a lot of work to do, but the season is far from over and our main goal is still well within our grasp. I have family coming into town for Temple and I for one can't wait to see this team run onto the field in the Doyt and put a hurtin on somebody.


WIN THE MAC.

[sbrown]

Plan on every team that BG plays the rest of the year to run the ball 75% of the time. Thank goodness we don't play Garrett Wolfe and NIU this year. On the bright side, I wonder what the NCAA record is for most consecutive games without a field goal attempt? Who out there thinks that BG will attempt even a single field goal this season?

[jmillerbg]

I think we could break that record -- whatever it is.
Even after last night, I would bet that Omar could get us a TD/first down more often than we could make a field goal.

[Falconfreak90]

hammb,

I was thinking of some of the things you stated in your previous post as the game entered the 4th quarter last night.

I don't want to wear orange glasses today. As a fan, I am so disappointed in the effort last night.

Congrats to Boise for kicking our azz....plain and simple. Gotta be realistic anymore. We have problems but still can get it going. We're gonna find out what this coaching staff is made of.

We got hammered by a very good team...one that has ONE SENIOR STARTER, btw.

[BGSUFootballFan]

i agree with you hammb 100%. we need a football coach, not a nice guy. I say we bring Lou Holtz out of retirement!

[Jacobs4Heisman]

Lou Holtz is a permadrunk. I don't want any more Notre Dame stench on our program anyways. Urbanski was enough.

[04forheisman]

Lou Holtz is a permadrunk. I don't want any more Notre Dame stench on our program anyways. Urbanski was enough.

yeah sure glad urban moved on...................

[Falconwise]

Urban wins. His systems wins. You don't have to be an Urban clone, but unless you have a different effective plan and a passion to win, don't change the system.

[BGSUFootballFan]

i miss Urban Meyer.

[hammb]

i agree with you hammb 100%. we need a football coach, not a nice guy. I say we bring Lou Holtz out of retirement!

I wouldn't touch Lou Holtz with a 10 foot pole. Every program he leaves ends up on probation within 3 years of his departure. The guy runs a dirty program. Great football coach, yes, but just cannot play by the rules.

Somewhere out there is another great young football mind who is toiling away as a position coach or coordinator. He could be on our own staff, I don't really know, but I do think that Krebs has a talent for finding that sort of coach. Krebs has a talent in finding good coaching talent. Paluch, Urban, and Miller are all fine examples of this.

[Flipper]

"I don't think fatigue got to us that much," linebacker Teddy Piepkow said. "I think it was more mentally, we were kind of suffering where the idea is, we can't stop these guys."

This is NOT an acceptable attitude from a SR captain. You expect your defensive captain to be kicking some asses and telling his teammates
"we have to stop these guys"

Then again, the coaching staff isn't doing that, so why should Teddy?

Let's engage in some crazy speculation. The defense is packing it in because they don't think John Lovett should have been brought in as an outsider over John Bowers or Mike Ward. The staff has always preached togetherness and "family". Bringing in some guy with no experience in the program at that point kind of runs counter to that philosphy.

Don't be suprised to see more redshirts coming off and more freshmen sprinting up the depth chart like Smith, Lewis and Wiley.

[Goose]

i agree with you hammb 100%. we need a football coach, not a nice guy. I say we bring Lou Holtz out of retirement!

Lou Holtz is the shadiest college football coach in history! Minnesota, Arkansas, Notre Dame and now South Carolina have all received NCAA sanctions the year after he skipped town. I would rather have Bowling Green struggling and running a clean program then having Lou Holtz anywhere near Wood County!

Remember the episode of the Simpsons where the guy sold a monorail to Springfield and skipped town with the town's money? That episode pretty much sums up the coaching career of Lou Holtz:

I hear those things are awfully loud...
It glides as softly as a cloud.
Is there a chance the track could break?
Not on your life, my Hindu friend.
What about us brain-dead slobs?
You'll all be given cushy jobs.
Were you sent here by the devil?
No, good sir, I'm on the level.
The ring came off my pudding can.
Take my pen knife, my good man.
I swear it's Springfield's only choice...
Throw up your hands and raise your voice!
Monorail!