TheTastyGreek

Guys, knowing you all pretty well... I know that you'd all get along great if you met in real life. Everyone please take it easy.

It's g-g-going strong.

Yeah. If you don't phrase this as some sort of corollary to Sarah Palin, Democrats, or Health Care... I'm going to have to ask the moderators to delete it. Seriously, though... Sorry to hear about this for your alma mater.

Who the hell is ragging on Riley Dodge here? Who? Who's saying he's not talented? Who's saying he's not capable? Who's saying he's not gifted with the potential to be a very good quarterback for us? Who the hell is judging and condemning him? WHO? Name a name. Identify ONE PERSON who has condemned him in this thread. "So many MG fans"??? WHO ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT???? There's only one guy here who's been critical/negative, and that was on the first page, and THAT was in regards to what we saw in the spring game. So who are you talking about? Where is the condemnation? Come on, already. Be serious. What's "simply freaking amazing" is your sense of hyperbole, lack of reading comprehension, or both. Enough of this crap already.

If I remember correctly, D-1AA teams were not eligible for votes in the polls. App State's win caused the ranking systems to revise their policies to allow any team to receive votes. Didn't go into effect until the week after that win, but I do believe that App State did get some top 25 votes then.

Throw Clayton George in there, too. And yes, here's to all of them proving the skeptics wrong. I hope it happens. It just damn sure hasn't happened yet.

I don't want to turn this into an argument, because I enjoyed reading your post... But Riley's game experience last year consisted of two interceptions and a season-ending concussion. I don't know that his game time was quite the same as being tested by fire and coming out ready to kick ass. I'm not trying to tear the kid down, just keep the expectations realistic. We all need to be fair- he's a freshman, not a particularly large one, and he's having to take over a team with zero returning proven receivers. Riley's got lots of ability and a ton of potential, but it seems very, very unfair to expect him to come in and upgrade our offense immediately. Again, not trying to fight with you. Just my perspective.

We'd need some meat between us in your hypothetical "sandwich board". Are you volunteering?

kt7L4X4li_k

These are the only two mild disagreements I have with your writeup. I don't think you can discount the significant hit we took in the receiver corps. All we can rely on here is optimism and potential... I think calling the passing game a push, given the growing pains and risks associated with Riley and the total dependence on new or unproven talent... That's not realistic. I think that we'll see a drop in the passing game. Or at least that we need to expect it. I also think you're being a little too pessimistic on defense. I believe we'll see a return to the Bleil level of performance this year. Adequate. But adequate is a pretty big gain.

Little brother and I will be in Alabama and probably Lafayette, but we're skipping Muncie. Having spent 10 years in the Midwest, I have no desire to make Indiana (a.k.a.- the boringest state to drive through) a vacation destination. Plus, Ball State will be televised.

bMckjwEwsrw Beavis and Butthead video review/discussion clips. About 50... Including many of the great ones ("Whoa, that's a really big dog!") are there. Here's the link to the guy's YouTube channel. If you were disappointed that all the great jokes and lines from music video segments weren't available on VHS and DVD releases... Enjoy. The one downside is that he apparently has to overdub the old audio tracks on the original videos (meaning, no B&B animation). So you don't get to see Beavis do his "monkey boy" during the Janet Jackson video. Otherwise... This was the highlight of my evening. I figure some of you might enjoy it as much as I did.

Typical... I come here for actual cinema analysis, and you jackasses hijack it.

Comedy is hard work. Still, though.. Below the Mendoza line? Surely I'm funnier than that. Surely! Wokka wokka wokka? Also... I wish I was "the youth these days". I'm getting up there...

Agree on everything. I just hope that if things don't go well this year, Riley sticks around and actually has a career here.

Uh oh... I'm worried that John F. Kennedy has officially said "Hello". I'm blaming you.

Hmm... Something familiar about Dodge recruiting a 6'0" 225 pound white linebacker. I just hope this guy's blood sugar is more stable than the last one we brought in here.

Vizza threw 16 INTs last year. He threw 17 the year before. If Riley throws ten less than either of those years, he'll throw fewer than Sam Bradford, Graham Harrell, Colt McCoy, Nate Davis, Matt Stafford... You name the top QB, it'll be fewer than they threw for in 2008. Again, let's try to be reasonable in our expectations of Riley here. And while we're at it, let's talk about Vizza's interceptions from last season. Of Vizza's 16 INTs, 8 came when down by double digits in the second half. 7 of them came when down by 3 touchdowns or more. Perhaps he wouldn't have thrown as many if he weren't constantly forced to play catchup, with the offense in obvious passing situations. The only game you can reasonably say we might have won if not for a Vizza interception would be Arkansas State. So... If Riley comes in and solves Vizza's interception "problem"... Congrats, we're a 2-10 team. Start planning the parade. Vizza wasn't the problem. Even if Riley is a world beater, he can't solve things for us. QB play and interceptions weren't even in the top 10 things we need to be different than last season for significant improvement.

I know you were disappointed with Vizza's sophomore season. I didn't think it was great statistically, but in my opinion the offensive struggles weren't due to him. You've already said he was good, but disappointing ("sophomore jinx"). The question isn't whether the quarterback makes a difference in the offense. The question is whether the NEW quarterback will be a differencemaker compared to the LAST quarterback. Given that the last QB was good, performed well, and was a pretty damn good leader... How much of a difference can Riley make EVEN IF he comes in and plays lights out from the very first game? We're hoping for an incremental step up at a position of relative strength, not a dramatic infusion of talent and ability at one of our weak spots. Put another way... Let's say that Riley is so much better and more effective at running this offense that he dramatically increases our point totals. Last year, we averaged about 20 points per game. Let's say that Riley is so much better than Vizza, from day one, that he comes in and singlehandedly bumps up our scoring by 50% per game. Hell, make it eleven points, because Riley hypothetically turns a dead drive into a touchdown and a red zone field goal into a TD. Net gain, 11 points in every game last year. What does that do for us? It gets us one more win, against Arkansas State in the final game of the year. Super Riley turns us into a 2-10 team again. Or hey, let's say that Riley is so much better than Vizza that he singlehandedly DOUBLES our scoring average. In every single game, we score 20 more points. Now, we're AVERAGING 40 ppg because Riley is such a phenom. Last year, this would put us in the top 8 in the NCAA, less than a point per game behind Texas Tech. Adding 20 points to each game would have transformed last year's team into... A 3-9 team. That's my point. Even if Riley, as a freshman, comes in this year and dramatically outshines Vizza (and I'm not personally holding the poor kid to those sort of expectations, and certainly not at the beginning of the year) to the point where he doubles what a Vizza led offense generated... Even if the kid is so amazing as a redshirt freshman that he could outshine our already talented (remember the accolades Vizza earned?) quarterback to the point where he makes us a top 8 scoring offense... We're still only a 3 win team. But I do agree that using a tight end, maybe even a fullback and a snap-under-center in the red zone, would help this team score more.

Not trying to speak for Lonnie, but... To be fair, I only hold Bob Stoops partially responsible for one of our humiliating, dispiriting losses in the past two years.

It's unfortunate that these guys aren't going to be eligible. But, trying to find the bright side... At least they weren't already on scholarship. Their academic issues will not hurt our APR score, because they never got here.

I'm just waiting for the day when I get to see our positional listing for more.

It's because the star system is an inherently flawed system skewed in favor of BCS forums.

There's my summary. Picture = 1000 words.

Wrong. Oldtimer has yet to send his condolences or express any sort of remorse over our forced hiatus.