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But CD that’s exactly what I meant. You have infinitely more intimate knowledge than 99% of us. And I’m sure you are doing scouting that none of us are privy too. Also you have connections (networks) inside the program that none of us have. Ergo, you know more about things than WE do.
And Go, not once did I say everything was rosie. I did say that I personally was impressed after this game over any time during the last 3 seasons. We struggled to win those games against lessor competitors in the early games the last 3 seasons. I can’t remember after watching any of them that I had hope like I had after this win, only because I did not see an offense that struggled in this game. As good as our QB play was the last two years (at times) the current OC, his play calling and system, and the QB play was as good “in MY estimation” as we’ve see at State in the past 5 years. And I say that is MY opinion. All I said to you was from my perspective “vastly inferior” wasn’t a valid observation, and that was the only thing I said about your opinion. I’m also not naive enough to think we are conference title material yet. But I did like what I saw.
Smarter than the average bear
Gowolves, we just expressed joy in what we are seeing this year in the first game over what we saw over the last 3 years. None of us claimed anything other than how the team performed in THIS game. I just took exception to the vastly inferior is all, since I did not feel that was an apt description of W&M. Had we played some lesser team I would have agreed. By the same token anyone who watched that game had to come away with the impression that this Pack team at THIS point in time is much improved over the last 3 iterations. In no way did anything I read imply that anyone feels this season will be easy, the schedule is brutal. BUT my optimism is much higher than I expected it to be. Also considering CowDog went as far as to say in not so many words “you haven’t seen anything yet” gives me even greater hope since I’m sure with his inside connections he knows a great deal more than any of us who are “out in the weeds”.
Smarter than the average bear
it’s not a matter of atta boys, you can say what you want but the Tribe beat the FCS champion last year in the regular season and just did loose to them in the semifinals. They gave Virginia all they could handle too. The top tier FCS teams can and do beat good FBS teams. Wanna bet how many times DD told the team not to look past that team? W & M are far from vastly inferior. That’s disrespecting the Tribe and in turn disrespecting how good that win was.
Smarter than the average bear
I’m not so sure the vastly inferior moniker fits. The Tribe is a pretty darned good team even if they are FCS.
Smarter than the average bear
That’s one thing that impressed me CD. Usually I don’t notice that much what the line is doing, unless they are porous and killing the QB. Last night I caught myself zoning in on what the line was doing and at times it looked like a chinese fire drill. And then Boom, a gaping hole would appear and somebody with the ball was headed down field and LBs and defensive backs were having to chase. And yes, it looked like EVERYBODY was blocking. The jet sweeps had a blockade in front of them. And if there is even more complexity in what we didn’t see, and if they can pull it off, it will be difficult for defenses to know what’s coming.
With the Canada offense it got to the point where even I could predict what he was going to run. The other night I didn’t have a clue and that’s what got me caught up in the line movements to try and catch where the play was going. At that point though for defenses it is a matter of minimizing the long gainers, and bill & mary didn’t react very well most of the time. Drink is definitely taking advantage of our deep backfield. If we can continue to run the ball like we did then this team is going to be tough to beat. But then that’s just my opinion.
Smarter than the average bear
Did anyone see Pharoah McKever last night? If he was on the field he didn’t make a great number of plays.
Smarter than the average bear
Well according to what I’ve been reading they only showed 30% of their offense, it that’s the case then I’m impressed. As for stretching the field remember it was WET. I love the protection the o line gave and some of the blocking schemes broke open some pretty nice holes. Heck, even the receivers were blocking! Yeah, yeah it was Bill & mary BUT to me the pack looked a lot better than what I saw last year if only from the how the offense was run. Even the few times they got behind the chains they never panicked and managed to pick it up. Only one 3 and out early on. They also scored at will. And they could have been up even bigger. And I can hear everyone say it was an FCS team but the Tribe is a pretty darned good team, not the typical cupcake.
Smarter than the average bear
Some levity as game time approached was in order. Kinda like being in the locker room suiting up. You find things to talk about that are distractions. Just sayin’
Smarter than the average bear
Ryan is the real deal. nd he can run Drinkz offense, and a great offense it is too. The oline is opening holes and giving protection. I know it’s bill and mary but still, they are a top notch FCS team.
Smarter than the average bear
Not sure about defense BUT… in spite of getting behind the chains on that second drive they still got it done. That O line looks pretty darned good!o
Smarter than the average bear
Someone should pop Ron’s “cherry”… WHAT A BAD PUN!
One of my favorite sayings of my father in law…
What I used to do all night now it takes me all night to do… rimshot.Smarter than the average bear
THANK YOU for the belly laugh rye! I’ll have to try that sometime. My guess is it’s not very gratifying in the long term though.
Smarter than the average bear
For how to watch XBOX 360 is no longer an option since the espn app no longer works on there.
Smarter than the average bear
I have sex almost every day
That is hysterical. I’m right there myself Grey, I know EXACTLY what you’re saying. My father in law and I did a lot of the mall visuals in his last 10 years. That just made me miss him even more.
Two words …. Adrienne Barbeau
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. That was one fine woman in her day. Made watching Maude almost tolerable.
Smarter than the average bear
IT’S GAME DAY By God! Strap ’em up and HIT SOMEBODY! That “hit somebody” is a nod to my old ball coach, God rest his soul. Thanks much for the kind words Grey, just doing what I can to boost morale and give positive influences. In this world of negativity (it’s all around us) it really tends to wear down these old bones. At this age I just want to enjoy life, and that’s what football should be, win, lose, or draw. Oh wait, there is no more draw, my bad.
Personally I think the last time I was this excited about the first game of the season was Rivers third year and that one was special. The bowl in Jax was probably the most fun I ever had at a State game especially when they crumpled the ND QB, oh wait, that win over FSU at the end of the season was crazy good too even though it was COLD! At any rate is time for some FOOTBALL! GO STATE!
Smarter than the average bear
My first excitement with Pack football was with Dr Lou, but then he poofed.
Rick, I’m a senior systems engineer at a company that does recruiting that tends to be all over the place from Hickory Farms to RTI. We also do payroll and HR and intensive survey stuff from data analysis to gathering. RTI does a ton of surveys and we handle all their stuff. Continuous Process Improvement is a daily task for us. The one thing I’ve enjoyed more than anything over the past year is a seminar on How to Get Promoted. A friend of mine wrote that book, Michael Fletcher, and I have a blast doing the seminar with his material. And yes I’m very familiar with Six Sigma in all flavors. I almost took a job last fall with a company out of Durham that does the Lean version stuff worldwide like you received training for.
Smarter than the average bear
Rick, just some of his conversations during his show on Sunday night during the season, things said during the caravan stops I’ve been to. Talking in terms of how they measure success position by position, person by person. How they track progress based on measurable factors. In hearing some of those things my first thoughts were “Demming”. I have no idea if he’s ever studied it or if he or someone on his staff are familiar with the concepts. I do know for a fact that Dr. Yow is.
Smarter than the average bear
Grey, a 500 year plan? Nope, but through Kaizen (Japanese term for Continuous process improvement, which I taught during my last years in the Navy) they have a strategic plan that is broken down into 10 year vison, 5 year plan, 2 year plan and 90 day plan. Each of them are built to drive the longer plan above them. What i see so far is DD is looking for continuous improvement week over week, month over month, and season over season, with the 5 year plan thrown in for long term measurement purposes. Some of the things I’ve heard him say leads me to believe he is following this philosophy, or one close to it. That’s one reason I’m sold on what he’s doing, I’ve seen this stuff succeed in every environment imaginable (I’ve even facilitated this concept for churches). It is long term thinking. Being better today than yesterday. Eventually the gains add up and the product is considered to have high quality. Many may not think so OR think our progress is too slow, but my personal perception is we are better today and 3 years ago by a long shot. Are there some unknowns? Of course, but each year in college football has that, no matter who you are. Do we have holes? Yep, some due to factors way beyond the control of the staff, like injuries and the ceiling we face on recruiting (and that ceiling does exist for a multitude of reasons whether all admit it or not). Think of it in these terms, it took Japan 30 years to take over the worlds car market and for the last 15 – 20 years they have been unbeatable. If DD is in fact using principles of Continuous process improvement my money is on him.
Smarter than the average bear
Grey, this comment is not for you.
NONE of you have an answer except to say DD needs to come up with the answer. I HATE that, no one who works for me comes to me with a problem without offering a solution. It may not be THE solution we go with but I make them think and DEFINE the problem. You Yahoos can’t even define the problem. You expect magic results. 100 colleges are out there vying for the top talent. 2 of the top 10 are in OUR division, much less our conference. You complain about our results, you expect miracles. If you’re so smart TELL ME THE ANSWER! Wave your magic wand and give us a top 10 recruiting class. I tell people moree times than I care to, “If you don’t have a solution then you’re part of the problem”. And I DARE you to define the problem, if you do you’ll see that there is no simple way to fix it. Lou and Steve couldn’t do it when they went to USC, and they are pretty smart cookies.
Tell you what, I dare any of you to let me follow you around on your job for just 3 days. I’ll even take vacation to do it. And in 3 days I’ll find more ways than you can imagine to tear your performance to shreds and give you a week’s worth of work to figure out how to fix it.
It’s easy to sit back and look at another claiming they should do better, it’s damned hard to come up with solutions, REAL solutions, to help them achieve it. And last time I checked, the number of REAL coaches on here, ones who really know the hard work and challenges of being a REAL coach (not talking about volunteer for little league) you can count on one hand with fingers left over.Smarter than the average bear
The excuses never end………
OK, give us a plan. Tell all of us how YOU would fix recruiting. It’s easy to complain about something, it’s much harder to actually provide a SOLUTION. So tell us!
Smarter than the average bear
Some of you guys think you can just waltz into a living room and sign the top recruits in the country. Trust me DD and company see these kids, talk to them, try to convince them to come. In the end, no matter what, this is an 18 year old making the decision. Think back to how stupid you were when you were 18, or has it been too long? St. Nick walks in and says “come play in the big big house down in Bama, play for the #1 Tide” even though chances are pretty good they may never see the field. And then DD comes in and says “Come play in your home state at Carter Finley” where a top recruit “could” start on day 1. Honestly, do you really think DD and company aren’t trying? But given these two choices just what idiot thinks even 10% of these 18 year olds would pick State? So what magic words or potions would you use to make them choose us over whoever? I’m sure if you can come up with some DD would love to know. Heck, you could make millions of bucks selling that secret, and there would be nothing in the NCAA rule book that would say that’s illegal. You could use the same thing to become an advertising genius and make billions. But there are no magic words or potions. And the stark reality is that paradigm is almost impossible to shift. Steve and Lou couldn’t do much of it down at USC and they are legends. Really? Really??? Over and over I’ve been hearing “just recruit better”. That’s like telling a homely woman that she should be prettier. Try that reality on for size.
Smarter than the average bear
LOL 44, after the years I put in with the Navy, the hours, lack of sleep, crappy meals, and insane stress there is no way I’d do it. But to each his own. Then again you said “for one year”, and that’s not the supposition, he does it year in and year out. I’ve done my time on a treadmill like that and the pay just wouldn’t be worth it.
Smarter than the average bear
Amato and TOB had 3 NFL caliber QBs. That alone makes for more wins than loses. If PR wasn’t here Amato tanks immediately. He knew it and that’s why he begged PR to come. TOB luckily recognized Wilson was a keeper and started him in year two. If he didn’t have Glennon in the wings he would have been toast because he hadn’t recruited anyone else. Say what you want but no QB = not many wins. Even with Super Mario Amato was toast without PR. The 3-9 record from 2006 as evidence without Williams. Amato at least had PR even if he was a freshman and he did pretty well. Having Chow as OC didn’t hurt either. CTC had much more to work with than DD did. TOB didn’t though. Still the worst was Sheridan. He took over an atrocious team.
Smarter than the average bear
rye, I would completely agree with except for one glaring problem in year one. We had NO QB, ZILCH. With no QB no score, no score no win no matter how good (or bad) the rest of the team was. And the QB play was dreadful. Look at the vast turn around in year two. If TOB had recruited someone, anyone with a stitch of talent we may have gone that 3 – 5. MAYBE. We could have been even worse. And since Bible had cancer he didn’t do any recruiting either. I have all ideas that when DD lined up for spring practice his first thought was WTF have I gotten myself into. As I think back to some of his decisions knowing what I know about having people who are in over their head from my days in the military, some of the decisions he made could be attributed to a few different things:
1. The lack of talent may have him taking chances sometimes just to get an edge. Some of it worked, some didn’t. When it didn’t he got blasted.
2. He did have somewhat of a lack of experience. Again, not something he could do anything about, he came to us with only two years wearing the big boys pants, and in coaching that ain’t a lot of experience. He was learning on the job. I’m sure none of us have ever been in that situation and with every promotion we have been ready from the get go and had nothing to learn about that new position.
3. With every loss came a touch of despair, for him, his staff and the team. I don’t care who you are, losing is TOUGH, especially when you’ve always been associated with winners like he had.
4. It had to be tough facing kids you know would be great for the program knowing they are just giving you lip service as you pitch the future to them. In today’s society with today’s recruits tomorrow is tomorrow, not 2 years from now. The winners want to play on a winning team even if they ride the pine waiting their turn due to a host of talent in front of them.
I could list at least 10 challenges to DD being successful in that first year, much less subsequent years. From where I sit he was dealt a hand much worse than any other coaching hire since 1992. Only Sheridan took over a team that was as bad, and back then high profile college football is NOTHING like it is today. Even with that Sheridan was 52-29-3, and I’m sure most would say he was one of our most successful coaches. This medium makes the desire for instant gratification way to easy for both fans and recruits. Building a winner is REALLY hard work, REALLY hard. Harder than anything 99.9% of us do on a daily basis. The hours are atrocious, the stress immense, the putting up with wildly unrealistic expectations insane, and the lack of long term stability nil. The only job that even comes close to the lack of job satisfaction is being in the military or first responders and getting shot at. In 1990 I figured out my hours pay and it was 2.35 an hour (far below minimum wage). This was after being at sea for 73 days straight. I may be wrong but I’m pretty sure there ain’t anyone on this board who could come close to doing DD’s job except maybe cowdog or tfouse. Those two guys I’m sure could share how difficult Dave’s job is. Now some smart butt is going to say he gets paid well to do it. NOPE, not in my estimation, not even close. He doesn’t even get paid enough to put up with the crap that board monkeys say about him. But then that’s just my point of view.
Smarter than the average bear
It amazes me how people with college degrees cannot grasp the real problem at hand. You have to have recruits, and to get the really good…best recruits one of two things have to happen. The kid just loves State and wants to go there (Williams) or a recruiter gets lucky (Rivers, Wilson). Past that you have to have success. One one my favorite songs is “Nothing Succeeds Like Success – Bill Deal and the Rhondels”. WE DON’T HAVE SUCCESS! And whether you want to admit it or not it’s not all DD’s fault. He had NOTHING when he came here. Quite honestly we were probably lucky to get him. If I was a coach of any stature and looked at the roster I’d have said “Ain’t NO WAY”. And yet you naysayers have expected miracles. Wine out of water so to speak. Gradually his recruiting is getting better. Look what CTC had to do to get good players here. Look how long it took Cut to get semi decent ones at Duke. And say what you want but UNX has an upper hand there. They tend to get better classes for a multitude of reasons, some of which is THEY CHEAT! I’m tired of everyone laying EVERYTHING that is wrong with State football (and other sports) at the feet of the coaches. SOMETIMES there are factors that make it almost impossible for them to succeed. DD’s first team is a prime example. I deal with people blaming everything that goes wrong on everyone else or a scapegoat. Sorry, but our woes ARE NOT DD’s or Yow’s fault. And IF, IF we could have hired a top shelf coach I sincerely doubt he would have come or even entertained taking the job. Sorry to burst your bubble but THAT is the honest part of where we are, whether you want to admit it or not.
Smarter than the average bear
