Best of Luck to Omar

[Falconfreak90]

Omar is checking out his options and that is exactly what I would expect him to do. It may depend on what a lot of the other QB's do. If they come out early, there could be a logjam of available talent this year. If that happens and he comes back for another year, well then he could sit at the top of the QB class in the 2007 draft.

Whatever he chooses, I wish him the best. I will not get angry with him for choosing to go out and earn a living for himself and his family. Isn't that the whole point of going to college?

I'm with WH. I wish only the best for Omar.

[orangeandbrown]

No flames, Bleeding. Just a question. On what basis would you propose that the 2006 Falcons will be better than the 2005 Falcons. For the sake of laying this out, you may assume that Omar will be back.

[Flipper]

I wish Omar the best regardles of his decision.

Personally, I think he's gone.

I think it's too early to say if we'll be better or worse next year. We have no idea how good the incoming recruits will be and we have no idea how most of the talent from last year will pan out.

We going to be missing some seniors next year, but there were some games in which we were missing those guys this year too....

[BGSU33]

I hope he comes back, I want him to come back, and I think BG needs him to come back to stand a chance at being a factor in the East next year. With all of our losses, he would certainly be a big help for the Falcons. I think Turner is going to be a good one, but he's got a lot of work to do and we all saw a flash of our offense with him "WITH" all of our RBs, WRs, and lineman that we will be losing. That's not a cut on Turner, I'm just saying he's still very young and had a lot of work to do. But......I just have a feeling Omar is gone too. My gut feeling told me this was his last year and our year to win the MAC. I hope I am wrong, but I think he's gone. I personally feel another year in college will do him a lot more in the long run than leaving early, but I'm not a scout or an agent either. So with that, I wish him the best in his decision, but I really, really hope to see him in orange and brown next year (and I'm not talking about the Cleveland Browns).

[HappyBG]

For Omar's sake, I hope he stays. He has had one great year followed by half a decent year. He needs to play more to become a better player and he would be drafted as a project player. He is not ready for the NFL and needs as many snaps as he can get to become ready.

[Bleeding Orange]

No flames, Bleeding. Just a question. On what basis would you propose that the 2006 Falcons will be better than the 2005 Falcons. For the sake of laying this out, you may assume that Omar will be back.

With OR without Omar, I don't see how anyone can pick this team to be 6-5 next season with all of the talent we have coming in. For one thing, the team will not be laying all of their hopes on one quarterback or one running back (can we agree this team was never the same without P.J.?). Having huge stars on the team is great, but not when the team treats them like the be all and end all of the team as they seemed to this year.

Yes, we will miss P.J. and B.J. next year, but Dan Macon and Bobby Thomas show a LOT of promise, and I don't happen to think that the drop-off will be all that great at that position, and they may even prove to be better than this given the unfortunate year that our RB's had this year. As far as WR's go, Chuck and Steve are going to go down as two of the best recievers in the history of BGSU, no doubt. But think of it this way: at least in Steve's case, he was not always the stud reciever that we came to know and love. He was a guy early in his career that had a hard time buying into the system, but once he came around he was one of the best in the conference. Who knows what is lurking in this year's two-deep? Who knows what guys like Ruben Ruiz will do once they get the chance to be one of the top guys? I'm not even going to mention how much better our defense (that did get better as the season went on) might be once the redshirts come off of this year's talented recruiting class.

All I'm saying is that there are many, many reasons to be optimistic about next year. Basing next year on the performance of this year's team is absurd, in my opinion, because there were a lot of extenuating circumstances surrounding our demise this year. The talent is there, and Brandon is still learning how to utilize it. We saw this year that he is learning how to adapt to a certain extent, and he has 260-some-odd days to continue honing those skills and break down what went wrong this year.

The bottom line is that we all need to have a little faith and not give up so easily. Yes, this past season was painful, and the last game was gut-wrenching. That does not mean that the entire future of the program is in jeapordy.

[Falcon52]

I remember in 1991 after the Cal Bowl we had lost so many key seniors. Even being on the team I thought how can we replace those seniors?

Guys step-up! When opportunity is given, you would be surprised who is just waiting in the wings. The young guys gained experience and feel much more confident about themselves. They workout all winter and get big opportunities in the spring game, then get bigger all summer.

I will tell you this, no one on this team today will be the same at the start of next year. They will all have grown, become stronger and more confident in themselves as individuals, by the time the season starts next year.

Everyone is replaceable! Everyone, even OMAR.

The coaches should even improve. I would love to see a few JUCO's to help, but we will be fine next year.

[UK Peregrine]

I think BG needs him to come back to stand a chance at being a factor in the East next year.

So who in your opinion will be the favorite to win the MAC East next season? Even with all of the losses from seniors graduating and the possibilty of Omar moving on, I feel we can be very relevant in what I see a weak MAC East. Do you forsee Akron with the loss of Biggs and Hixon as the favorite? How about Miami with the loss of Betts, Nance and Nande? Perhaps even Ohio with the loss of their best players in Byrum. And I can't see Buffalo or Kent improving so much as to make us irrelevant for a MAC East title. I just don't see any reason BG cannot compete for the MAC East with or without Omar.

[Bleeding Orange]

I forgot to even mention Corey Partridge! No one has mentioned Corey in all of this Drano drinking!

Plus, we have another Alaskan waiting in the wings at WR...

The horizon looks bright, in my estimation.

[PGY Tiercel]

The horizon looks bright, in my estimation.

The future's so bright I gotta wear shades 8)

[Falconfreak90]

Omar will be drafted before B... B.... Bruce ... who ?

After seeing Bruce beat us 2 straight years, I will no longer put the guy down. He earned my respect. He may not be pretty but the guy can lead and get the job done. His is one hell of a competitor and a winner....as much as it pains me to say it.

Give the kid credit.

[orangeandbrown]

Bleeding. Fair enough. A couple points.

My question was on what basis you think the team will be better than last year's team.

A couple points:

First, as promising as Thomas and Macon are (and I agree they are), they will struggle to be even as good as Pope and Lane were, and are very unlikely to be better--even then the year our RBs had this year. Same with our WRs--Partrdige, Ruiz, JUCOs, whatever. Even raising their game, they will be fortunate to be as good as we had this year.

Second, I understand your point (and other's) that guys will step up, etc. Here you place a lot of faith in guys we haven't seen yet, including our "talented" recruiting class pulling their redshirts off.

That defense is more than a couple redshirt freshmen away from getting some stops, and was relatively experienced on top of it. Getting the defense next year to be as good as this year will be a challenge as well. (And I challenge your theory on the "improving defense." They played one good game against good competition (Miami), and played no better against Toledo than they did against Boise.)

Third, there were extenuating circumstances to our "demise" this year. But let's not forget that we were playing poorly long before Omar got injured. And with a full, healthy compliment we lost on our home field in a game to take the East. Even allowing for some obstacles, this year's performance is a fine starting point for looking ahead.

Its not a given that guys come back from the winter and turn into players. It simply doesn't have to happen that way.

Every other year in the Meyer/Brandon era I felt we were just reloading for another run at the title. I don't see that talent coming back for next year. Given our schedule, 6 wins is very possible, even with Omar.

[Falconfreak90]

I think BG needs him to come back to stand a chance at being a factor in the East next year.

So who in your opinion will be the favorite to win the MAC East next season? Even with all of the losses from seniors graduating and the possibilty of Omar moving on, I feel we can be very relevant in what I see a weak MAC East. Do you forsee Akron with the loss of Biggs and Hixon as the favorite? How about Miami with the loss of Betts, Nance and Nande? Perhaps even Ohio with the loss of their best players in Byrum. And I can't see Buffalo or Kent improving so much as to make us irrelevant for a MAC East title. I just don't see any reason BG cannot compete for the MAC East with or without Omar.

Totally agree with that, UK. I can understand how the feeling is we're gonna fall. I don't see that happening. The MAC East is not going to be as good as 2005...We will be able to compete for the East title either way. I am not as doom and gloom as some but that's ok. We all have opinions that matter.

[Columbus_Zak]

At the end of the day all that matters is that fans continue coming to games. Based on the home schedule for next season, I can't see that being a huge problem.

Perhaps my perspective is just a bit different, but win, lose or draw my friends enjoy coming back to BG. Of course it makes the ride home easier given a victory, but I'm excited either way.

[BGGrad01]

IF Omar comes back, I think we're in a fairly similar position to 2003 offensively (not going to mention defense). Great QB returns to lead an offense that lost its main receiving target and best RB from the previous year. In 2002, we had senior Robert Redd at WR that caught nearly every ball thrown by either Harris/Sahm. Hawkins/Magner/Sharon combined for a total of about 1,300 yards receiving in 2002, but I think there were big time doubts about someone being a "go to" or #1 receiver. I remember Sharon having a case of the drops in 2002 and Magner fumbling a couple times, including a big one at UT. Those receivers plus some guy named Sanders (who only caught 2 passes in 2002) turned out to be a good group in 2003. The receivers that we have returning next year did not put up numbers as good as the Hawkins/Magner/Sharon group did in 2002, but we need to remember that Patridge was not the same for 90% of the year and Parks only played for half of the year. I think Partridge, Parks, Ruiz, and a couple of the redshirt freshman could step up and be as good as that 2003 group.

At RB, we lost Joe Alls in 2002 to graduation and some freshman named PJ Pope showed some promise, but I think there were still some concerns going into the next season. Pope turned out just fine in 2003 (over 1000 yards rushing) and I think Thomas and Macon can combine for similar stats in 2006.

I'm not saying we're poised for a MAC championship run next year, but I don't think we'll be dreadful either.