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Post by bonafidebear on Sept 18, 2016 11:16:37 GMT -5
-Until the call, our team looked lifeless. I always think that a teams tempo and sense of urgency is a reflexion of the head coach. I'm not saying can Bobby, but the team looks like they are going through the motions during large sections of the game. Everything is slow. It takes so much time to get the call in. Also, we don't have a power back anymore. We can't expect these 220 pound flex tight ends to block the ends on power. We are really missing G Rad. Do we have someone who can do what he did? Our power game is struggling a little. Proud of the way Usher and Russ ran the ball. They showed a lot of grit. Pass the gavel, GO BEARS!
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Post by MUfan on Sept 18, 2016 11:37:18 GMT -5
The Bears had a sluggish start to the Ten Tech game, but had taken the lead in the game until THE CALL gave it away.
Naturally they got pissed and had more motivation after THE CALL.
I am worried about our running game.
Lakes looks injured or scared of getting hit because of what he went through last year.
Usher looks great but he can't be the workhorse all year.
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Post by bonafidebear on Sept 18, 2016 11:42:42 GMT -5
He does look timid. Losing TM put a huge damper on our run game!Why can't we keep players out of trouble and around?
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Post by BearDownMU on Sept 18, 2016 12:55:54 GMT -5
I have quite a few thoughts on this.
I would agree that there are times it looks like energy is down. I watched the broadcast replay this morning and even the announcers and the sideline reporter made it a point to comment that the energy level was completely different after TWCITHOCF (The Worst Call In The History Of College Football). As a data point by itself, I wouldn't say that teams appearing jacked up necessarily matters all that much, but, in our case, once we got fired up, you could see a difference on the field. Defense was flying around with their hair on fire in the 4th quarter.
A short comment on players that are no longer on the roster. You dance with the date that brung ya, as my PawPaw used to say. Some kids make bad decisions. Fact of life. But they are not out there and they aren't going to be out there. So I can't waste energy thinking about what ifs regarding guys that aren't suited up.
Re: the run game. I personally think there are a lot of little things that are ultimately impacting the run game. Obviously we have different personnel. And we are really thin at that position. After looking at all SoCon teams that played yesterday, on teams not named Mercer, the low amount of players that recorded a carry was 5 and the high was 9. Average number of players recording rushing carries for SoCon teams yesterday, seven. We had 3. THREE. Usher, Lakes, Russ. We are asking those guys to do a TON.
Also, I don't think we are running Power the way we used to and I think there are also reasons for that. I'm not a Oline guy, but this is just my understanding from talking to folks and listening to people that know better than I do. But a huge part of Power working properly is the ability of your Guards to pull, get to the right spot quickly and get on the right hat. Wilson Heres graduating really, really hurt. You could see it last year when he was out for his injury. This isn't at all a knock on the guys that are out there now, just more of a function of how good Heres was. All Conference good. Oline goes largely unnoticed to the layman, but what they are doing is really important.
Finally, and I don't have this verified at all, but I think Lakes is nicked up but is out there gritting his teeth and doing as much as he can because, as I mentioned before, for all intents and purposes it looks like we have 2 backs. Which is bad enough. But there's no margin for error and if he stepped out, what are we gonna do? Can't go with just Usher.
Just my nickel...
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Post by FUBeAR on Sept 18, 2016 14:01:33 GMT -5
-Until the call, our team looked lifeless. I always think that a teams tempo and sense of urgency is a reflexion of the head coach. I'm not saying can Bobby, but the team looks like they are going through the motions during large sections of the game. Everything is slow. It takes so much time to get the call in. Also, we don't have a power back anymore. We can't expect these 220 pound flex tight ends to block the ends on power. We are really missing G Rad. Do we have someone who can do what he did? Our power game is struggling a little. Proud of the way Usher and Russ ran the ball. They showed a lot of grit. Pass the gavel, GO BEARS! BDMU already commented on this...just a few things to add: * To concur with what was posted - I've had 'business-like' Teams that had no energy nor rah-rah that ran the table and won Championships. And, I've had crazy-wild Teams with 15 different war chants, etc. that did the same thing...and, also the other way around. Very hard to know what the personality of the Team is and how best to 'harness' / leverage that. Sr. Leadership probably drives that better than the Head Coach. And, I think we saw yesterday, this Team may need to be good and urinated off before they can play their best ball. With ALL of the Sr's, they may have thought, "Well, we're old pro's now and we don't need all that rah-rah stuff," but, perhaps, playing with a bit more emotion is going to be what it takes this season. * There are multiple ways to account for outside contain on Power. Mercer does miss Radakovich and Heres, but I think I saw some improvement in the OG play last night. Also, while everyone would love to have Barty Smith (SoCon Jacobs Blocking Trophy Winning TE/FB from...Richmond! (it was, well, quite a number of years ago...yes, I'm old)) back there, Mercer gots what it gots and those guys don't REALLY have to mash those DE's/OLB's on that play. If they can just do a good job of 'getting run over slowly,' that's enough. That defender can also be 'blocked' with the threat of the QB run using a PowerRead scheme. Could also run Counter-Trey and pull both b/s OG for the DE, and have the b/s OT turn up for p/s LB. Or...could run Power-F or Counter-F and have the OG kick the DE and the FB/H-Back/TE go to p/s LB. Point is...Power/Power-like plays can be run without having MONSTERS in those FB/TE/H-Back roles. To that point also, I think Sam Arrington, former starting OT (2013), Back-up Center (2014), and Part-Time Starter at TE (2015) CAN make those blocks. Like to see him in there some, but I don't know what the Coaches have/haven't seen at practice since last Fall. * Love Usher, Love Russ, Love Lakes - if he physically CAN get untracked, he will. |
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Post by 95sacks on Sept 18, 2016 15:34:52 GMT -5
Funny at game Saturday and was just sharing with a friend/parent our offense in past was the power run game but with a depleted backfield, the passing game with healthy WRs,TEs will carry this season and yes play calling slows the tempo and loved the hurry up, hopefully will continue.
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Post by chez23 on Sept 19, 2016 10:31:07 GMT -5
Is Lamb in trouble? How long will MU go with being an "average" program? MU made a big commitment to football and they play in a rich talent pool of high school players....I would think MU would expect a SOCON championship or at least a top tier program in the SOCON this year. Has BL had enough time to recruit and coach yet to see progress headed in the right direction? IMO is just dont see these recruits improving..and the team making necessary strides..I believe this is a make or break season.
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Post by BearDownMU on Sept 19, 2016 12:06:55 GMT -5
Well, we lost by 1 point to the pre-season favorite to win the conference championship. We played Georgia Tech closer than Vanderbilt did. And we just won a big OOC game that had TWCITHOCF. So, I'm trying to figure out where the "off-track" opinion is coming from.
Also, regarding "recruits improving". What do you mean? Like, we aren't signing better players? Or players aren't getting better when they get here? Would love some clarification.
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Post by mercerfan on Sept 19, 2016 12:20:49 GMT -5
Is Lamb in trouble? How long will MU go with being an "average" program? MU made a big commitment to football and they play in a rich talent pool of high school players....I would think MU would expect a SOCON championship or at least a top tier program in the SOCON this year. Has BL had enough time to recruit and coach yet to see progress headed in the right direction? IMO is just dont see these recruits improving..and the team making necessary strides..I believe this is a make or break season. This is silly. |
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Post by mercerfan on Sept 19, 2016 12:26:35 GMT -5
Is Lamb in trouble? How long will MU go with being an "average" program? MU made a big commitment to football and they play in a rich talent pool of high school players....I would think MU would expect a SOCON championship or at least a top tier program in the SOCON this year. Has BL had enough time to recruit and coach yet to see progress headed in the right direction? IMO is just dont see these recruits improving..and the team making necessary strides..I believe this is a make or break season. The true Freshmen this year are Mercer's 3rd scholarship recruiting class. If the Bears were still in the Pioneer non-scholarship football, they should be competing for a conference championship. By all reasonable accounts, a SoCon Championship "should be" out of reach this year against teams with 5 years of scholarship recruiting. However, I think the Bears still have a shot to be in the thick of it. |
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Post by bonafidebear on Sept 19, 2016 12:56:25 GMT -5
Is Lamb in trouble? How long will MU go with being an "average" program? MU made a big commitment to football and they play in a rich talent pool of high school players....I would think MU would expect a SOCON championship or at least a top tier program in the SOCON this year. Has BL had enough time to recruit and coach yet to see progress headed in the right direction? IMO is just dont see these recruits improving..and the team making necessary strides..I believe this is a make or break season. The true Freshmen this year are Mercer's 3rd scholarship recruiting class. If the Bears were still in the Pioneer non-scholarship football, they should be competing for a conference championship. By all reasonable accounts, a SoCon Championship "should be" out of reach this year against teams with 5 years of scholarship recruiting. However, I think the Bears still have a shot to be in the thick of it. In reality two things have followed BL his entire career: inability to manage timeouts and inability to consistently win BIG games. Say what you want but I think he has this year and next to win or MU will part ways. Underwood is not a loser. He expects to win. And before you all shout:"But we won against UTC last year!!" Yeah, we did, but we also lost way too many close games. In reality, the way Furman, Chatt and Samford look right now.... we may be lucky to win 6 games. Add to that, ETSU beat WCU. WCU beat Gardner Webb 44-14. Citadel beat Garner Webb 31-24 w/ a late touchdown. I know you can't use that bc anything can happen any given Saturday. However, I'm just saying it could be a longgggg year in the Den. See yall in Chattanooga. |
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Post by chez23 on Sept 19, 2016 13:06:12 GMT -5
The true Freshmen this year are Mercer's 3rd scholarship recruiting class. If the Bears were still in the Pioneer non-scholarship football, they should be competing for a conference championship. By all reasonable accounts, a SoCon Championship "should be" out of reach this year against teams with 5 years of scholarship recruiting. However, I think the Bears still have a shot to be in the thick of it. In reality two things have followed BL his entire career: inability to manage timeouts and inability to consistently win BIG games. Say what you want but I think he has this year and next to win or MU will part ways. Underwood is not a loser. He expects to win. And before you all shout:"But we won against UTC last year!!" Yeah, we did, but we also lost way too many close games. In reality, the way Furman, Chatt and Samford look right now.... we may be lucky to win 6 games. Add to that, ETSU beat WCU. WCU beat Gardner Webb 44-14. Citadel beat Garner Webb 31-24 w/ a late touchdown. I know you can't use that bc anything can happen any given Saturday. However, I'm just saying it could be a longgggg year in the Den. See yall in Chattanooga. 100% Well said. BL seems to lose the tight games which is a problem in this league. Also, not sure the players are showing big improvements under this regime? I don't like to call out anyone but what I saw Saturday was a team that just doesn't seem to making forward progress. Also to me it just seemed like the team was flat all game until that terrible call. |
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Post by mercerfan on Sept 19, 2016 13:15:08 GMT -5
Harsh. Sounds like some of you guys are ready to throw the towel in. I sure hope our players aren't like you guys..
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Post by bonafidebear on Sept 19, 2016 13:22:59 GMT -5
Harsh. Sounds like some of you guys are ready to throw the towel in. I sure hope our players aren't like you guys.. |
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Post by BearDownMU on Sept 19, 2016 13:47:16 GMT -5
The administration is going to do what it's going to do. That being said, I think there is a certain amount of realism that needs to be maintained in the posture of what's going on with the football program. It still new, we quite honestly went to scholarship football sooner than I think anyone anticipated because of the landscape and the opening up of spots in the SoCon, and while we have full scholarships this year, that still includes a full senior class that, for better or worse, arrived in Macon on their own dime, and not knowing when or if there would ever be any scholarships at all.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone's goal is "just be competitive and we'll be happy with that". Of course everyone wants to win and win now. But there has to be a degree of "where should be or could we be" to be sprinkled in with the "where we are". But that works both ways.
I posted a spreadsheet I worked up last October. It was every start up football program over the last 10 years with their records. Of 45 or so teams only 8 have records better than .500. Eight. Mercer is one of them. I'm just trying to figure out what we're talking about here.
I'm OK with a high bar being set. We should all want that. But I just personally think it's way to premature to look at any of this and talk about it being a failure or considering wholesale changes in staff. That's just my opinion based on the on field product. No idea what's going on behind the scenes politically, if anything is at all. But the product ain't bad for a new program. And, while and major staff change, I think you have to consider the impact to the timeline of success. How would recruits view a move like that? Does it set us back on new players because of the perception of volatility? Maybe not, but big change doesn't always work out for the better.
I'm just not ready to throw in the towel, or diminish the accomplishments of this program up to this point, given it's infancy.
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