Mallers Game 8/4

I have LOTS of notes about what I saw in this game.

First of all, we won the toss and deferred. Brilliant! I dont know why any coach wouldnt want to have the ball to start the second half. It doesnt make sense to me to recieve the kickoff to start a game.
On the first drive that Syracuse had, they went for a fourth down pass, and it was incomplete. Albany then had a 3 and out. We were taking so long to not only break the huddle, but to get to the huddle. The offense showed no urgency in the huddle, and it showed on the field. On their second drive, the Shock scored. It happens, the defense hung their heads, but it happens. The offense ran a few more plays, and the quarter ended. The Shock added another score making it 14-0. We retaliated with a 29 yard strike to Issmail Green. The Shock scored right before the half on what is the most confusing sequence I have ever seen in football. A player was made to leave the field with 29 seconds left because he was wearing a dark visor. In that time, the Refferee stopped the clock for no reason. The reasoning he gave was that there was a penalty. The penalty was the play after the clock had stopped. After the touchdown, we were told it was because he wasnt sure if it was a first down. The clock is only to stop for a first down if the chains are brought out to measure, which they were not, and then the clock starts of the ref's whistle. Which isnt at all what happened. The penalty was for offsides, even though the ball had been snapped by the center. This allowed Syracuse to score right before the end of the half. This was all set up because of a botched snap on what should have been a punt. WE NEED TO PRACTICE SPECIAL TEAMS MORE!!!
The Second half saw a renewed sense of urgency for the Mallers. The Mallers scored and the score was 20-14. Then, the Shock broke off an 89 yard toss for a touchdown. On that, I saw some great blocking which took 3 players out of the play (2 linebackers, 1 member of the secondary). Im not taking anything away from MA because he is a great player, and is an athlete, but in my opinion, if the opposite side defensive end is the closest player to the running back on that play, I feel we have a problem. I also saw a bunch of undisciplined penalties (some of which I honestly blame on the ref's for not knowing the rules). The mallers fought back and brought the game back to 26-26. Then, the Shock regained momentum when they returned a kickoff 92 yards back to the Mallers 3. They scored with just under 2 minutes left. The mallers made their way down the field, but couldnt make anything out of it.

The key things I noticed:
The team doesnt believe in itsself. When things are going well, its all me, me, me. When things are going poorly, its all them, them, them.

The players dont believe in the coaches

There is way too much arguing going on on the sidelines


The huddle needs more control

we rely too much on one player

The refs dont know all of the rules, and fail to enforce them

Players need to show up to practices

Practice hard: I hate to use examples, but if everybody practiced like Ace does, wed be all set

Finally, Keep a positive attitude. I hate hearing "you guys won" when were down by 6 points with 5 minutes left

Im Back!

Hey all,

It has been a while since I have posted last. I apologize. As much as I love the NFL, I want to keep this about NCAA football.

Since everyone is, I WILL NOT touch the Penn State scandal, nor Syracuse, nor anything controversial (until everything is 100 percent fact). That being said, tons of things have happened since I last wrote.

First, lets all welcome The University of Massachusetts (UMass) to the FBS world as they joined the Mid American Conference (MAC). Two years ago, they proved that they could perform at a high level as they had a great showing against Michigan. They came within 5 points of being the second team in 4 years to stun a top 25 team in Ann Arbor. However, unlike the Appalachian State game, Michigan was able to avoid the embarrassment. Anyways, welcome Minute Men! They play UConn, Michigan and Indiana this season (Good luck!)

We had some teams switch conferences this year. Missouri and Texas A&M are no longer in the Big 12. They joined the SEC officially in July. Other teams have joined new conferences in the past few weeks. West Virginia is now a member of the Big 12, as is TCU. Temple joined the Big East, Fresno State, Nevada and Hawaii all joined the Mountain West conference. The South Alabama Jaguars left the ranks of the 1AA Independents to join the Sun Belt Conference. University of Texas San Antonio and Texas State both left the FCS Independents as well, but joined the WAC.

Possibly the biggest news is a playoff is scheduled for 2013-2014. This will eliminate any doubt of who deserves to be national champions. Last year, the four teams in would have been LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma State and Stanford. A lot of people were saying that OK State would have beaten Alabama in a national championship. My response is, they could have, but it wouldnt have gotten to that point. LSU would have played Stanford (1 Vs 4) and Alabama would have played OK State (2 Vs 3). We still could have seen an Alabama vs LSU national championship, however, i doubt it.

This playoff is a great start, but it needs to be expanded. There will be errors in voting. We need an equal parts computer and human vote. This needs to be expanded to 32 teams. The top 25, and the next 7 teams.1 out of conference game is all that is necessary. Would anybody have missed LSU vs Western Kentucky? NO! LSU Vs Oregon, that was a good game. I want the out of conference game to be within 20 of each teams RPI. Had Auburn had to play a team like Wisconsin instead of Chattanooga, maybe then we would have gotten a fair look at how good they were down the stretch.

However, This debate will rage on, but we can all agree, this is a major step in the right direction!

Now, lets get to the meat of the post. Heisman hopefuls, and picks for the winners of each conference.

Here are my picks for Heisman Hopefuls:

In no particular order,

Landry Jones
Matt Barkley
Tyran Matthieu
Joseph Randle
and The trio of Ducks De'Anthony Thomas, Kenjon Barner and Darron Thomas

FCS Conference Champions!
Big Sky: Montana Grizz
Big South: Liberty
CAA: Old Dominion
Ivy: Brown
MEAC: Bethune-Cookman
Missouri Valley Conference: North Dakota State
NorthEast Conference: Albany
Ohio Valley Conference: Eastern Kentucky
Patriot: Georgetown
Pioneer: San Diego
Southern: Wofford
Southland: Sam Houston State
SWAC: Grambling State

Nationsl Champions: OLD DOMINION

FBS Conference Champions!

ACC: Virginia
Big 12: TCU
Big East: Temple
Big Ten: Michigan State
Conference USA: Tulsa
MAC: Ohio
Mountain West: Boise State
Pac 12: Oregon
SEC: Georgia
Sun Belt: Arkansas State
WAC: Utah State

National Championship: Oregon Vs Georgia

Oregon Wins!

Heisman winner: De'Anthony Thomas RB Oregon.

Next week, I grade each first round draft pick!