FirefightnRick

Good question Rick

No excuses. Rick

....losing 37-14. Didn't Auburn win a share of the national title last year? Rick

GMoney, I'll throw that other 1-AA team in there that we were on the same level with who's gone on to greener pastures, seeing the top 25 several times and placing well known names in the NFL: MARSHALL. We traveled to Huntington W VA in 1989 to play them in the first round of the playoffs. They beat us 7-0 after recovering a fumble inside our 10 yard line late in the game. They moved up to 1-A a year ahead of us as well, I believe? Both programs, Boise St and Marshall, run wide open offenses being aggresive utilizing unique and different systems along the way. They are entertaining to watch, they always play to win, they always try to score if there's a second left on the clock and they have built a huge fanbase doing so and all with so many personel changes, different assistant coaches and different QB's it would make your head spin. And what makes it even more amazing, and I'm not sure about Marshall, but Boise St has to recruit a majority of their talent out of state. Imagine trying to recruit offensive weapons for our system being in their location? Forget about it! Rick

Yes, you may have had some special team help today, but your offense always seems to move the chains in these OOC games and at times play above others expectations. 2004 3rd Full year in 1-A Besides beating Marshall(261 yards) and #17 ranked Mizzou(293 yards) last year, you then went to #16 ranked LSU and put up 176 yards of offense and played some stellar D and nearly came out of Death Valley(one of the toughest places in the nation to play) with a win, losing a close one 24-20. 2003 2nd Full year in 1-A Led 5-0 mid way through 1st quarter against #10 ranked K State 200 yards and 7 points against #20 ranked Minnesota 150 yards in a 30-0 loss to #21 Nebraska 314 yards in a 24-0 loss to Virginia 2002 1st Full year in 1-A 16 points and 374 yards in a 31-16 loss to #9 Nebraska. 2001 Provisional 1-A season Defeated SBC conference champions....us.

only a week later after putting up 21 points on 331 yards of offense against the Big 12's Missouri. This is Troy's 4th full year in Div 1-A. They beat the tigers last year. Rick

Does South Florida even have a stadium of their own to play in yet? They were having to play in Tampa Bay's stadium? Did their coaches ever get out of the trailers and into permanant offices? Rick

Look at it this way. If we are going to produce this poorly on offense after having to replace basically three positions, the Center, the Tightend and the QB, then we have peaked as far as we will ever go with this system because we will ALWAYS HAVE POSITIONS TO REPLACE. All teams go through this. We have 4 O linemen that have 40 starts under their belts. We have one of the two tightends back. We have all our recievers back and we get something very few teams ever get, we have the last two top backs return to share the same backfield. I'd understand two losses where we get outscored. But our offense is very, very poor right now. Something must change. Rick

I didn't do the Poll right. The question asked is: Can we raise the bar with this type of offensive philosophy, Yes or No. Rick

He's the inexperienced Junior QB that came in for an injured Tye Gunn and led TCU to two or three second half TD's and come from behind and beat BYU in Provo in overtime. TCU put up over 500 yards of offense with a backup QB and RB. Rick

I'm not asking for a coaching change, just a change in mindset that we pride ourselves on going out and playing not only for conference championships but for wins with any team. Without a top ten defense the field position game does not work. No one but NT has won a conference championship in the last so many years with our style of offense. And our OOC record speaks for what would happen to us if we were in a different conference. This is an entertainment business. I would like to see a change in philosophy. Thoughts? Rick

Davidson dropped a first down in the second quarter. I nearly peed with excitement that we threw to the tightend. But as history will have it, that will be one of his only throws he'll get today. Rick

I'll praise the players if they are able to slip out of those handcuffs and beat someone else, or not. That's who I'll praise, regardless. REGARDLESS. Rick

FirefightnRick Maybe not! God Bless JQ, SPJMo, EExpress, Phillip Graves, Mendoza, C Miller, Danny Meager and all the rest for dragging this anchor as hard and as long as they can. Rick

God knows Spencer will get his opportunities. "We're gonna party like it's 1999".....and play offense like it too. See y'all Oct 4th. Rick

NMSU's NEW coach decided that for HIS system Paul Dombrowski could best be uitilized as an all purpose threat at the reciever position. He also has worked in a few WR screen passes for him to throw as well. So with him you get a WR that can run like hell, has good hands, throws fairly accurate and is tough as a boot...to boot. He was their leading reciever going into last night. Rick

Final: Cal 41, NMSU 13. Middle of the second half, NMSU had a TD catch in the endzone but the ball was stripped after the reciever came down with it and was called incomplete. Replay showed it was a catch but there is no replay in the WAC this year. NMSU settled for the field goal to make it 34-13 NMSU finishes with 330 yards against #13 ranked Cal.....with a QB getting his very first college start. Rick

Army's defensive line gave up 38 pounds per man, and their offense was matched nearly pound for pound by ISU's defensive line. Terrible non-holding-call the same play Army is called for a face mask, turning a turnover on downs to an ISU first down inside Army's 20. Result at the point was a tied game at 21. Good game plan that spread the ball around mixing in misdirection runs with quick strike passes by a slower, undersized team against a top 25 program. It might have been a loss but tonight veryone in attendance went home excited about their next home game. Rick

NMSU can't even begin to slow down the Bears but they are giving people at the game a good show. Instead of running the clock trying to get the game over with to avoid injuries or a blowout, the Aggies have put up 10 points, 226 yards and are moving the chains with an exciting offense. Remember Paul Dombrowski? He's still playing and is a wide out now and seems to be a favorite target of their QB. Funny thing at the end of the first half. At the end of the 2nd qaurter Cal interecpts the ball and takes it back to the other end of the field, but their drive stalls at the NMSU 15. First year NMSU coach Hal Mumme waits until Cal's kicker lines up to kick the easy chip shot field goal, and calls all three of his timeouts just before they snapped the ball. The announcers talked in between each timeout how if Mumme has any time at all left on the clock he will try to score. After the last timeout Mumme was shown on the sidelines laughing because he knew how irritating he was being. Then the Cal kicker lines up to kick and misses to the left. Promotion for the game: Show the Nation the Blizzard in the Desert on ESPN this friday night. Wear White to the game and get a $1 off your ticket. Interestingly, NMSU S.I.D. Sean Johnson has already mispelled or mispronounced Hal Mumme 27 times this week Rick

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2168935 Rick

Congrats Nick! Rick

This is Nealy's third year at TSU. And he was hurt part of last year. He got hurt the week before the Baylor game in which their second string QB, Chase Wassom of Southlake Carrol, stepped in and came within a TD of beating the bears going 12 of 26 for 169 yards and two TD's. One 73 yard TD went to ex NT reciever K.R. Carpenter, who by the way is TSU's all time single season reception leader. Nealy came back in time to help the Bobcats play within a TD of FAU in San Marcos. Yes you read that right, this was against FAU and Baylor in 2004. Rick

I understand your point exactly Calvin. Zebranski averaged 8.8 yards per pass. They spread out a defense due to their well known, well established passing threat, and they set up the run with the pass. Once they have teams on their heels and the pass is established the running lanes are there. Boise had two backs with over 80 yards rushing because of it against Bowling Green(Mixing Orange and Brown does not make Green). Same reason you will see Tech at times have a couple of hundred yards rushing and even tonight, Texas State, a 1-AA team, have over 120 yards rushing against a big money big 12 powerhouse. Instead, North Texas sets up the pass with the run. Only this year the run isn't working, and because we have shown our hand that we only have two routes for pass recievers and only one of them we can hit consistently: the back out swing pass, all a team has to do is stuff the run, and we're done. Rick

Final Total: a&m 41, TSU 31. One might say a&m is very lucky TSU shot itself in the foot so much: 15 penalties for 143 yards, and many of them came when a&m needed them most because they could not stop the Bobcats. TSU puts up 497 yards of offense on Texas a&m Their QB Nealy goes 26 of 37 for 373 yards. Because of that, TSU rushed for 124 yards on 29 attempts for an average of 4.3 yards per rush. And their running backs look slow compared to what we are used to. David Bailiff is the TSU head coach. Not too damn bad for a guy who has only had ONE full recruiting season to install HIS SYSTEM for this, only his SECOND SEASON at Texas State. When your trying to grow your fan base, sell season tickets and earn respect, that's the way you go about it. That's the way to take it to the big dog. That's the way to get ready for conference. That's the way to make sure guys like me are buying season tickets 20 years later. That's the way......PERIOD! Rick

Unbelievable, just unreal. TSU stops a&m to get the ball back and after the play the announcers admit a very late flag that they had no idea where it came from.....DEAD BALL...PERSONAL FOUL, HANDS TO THE FACE against TSU. First down a&m so they can sit on the ball and get this embarrassment over with. Not one penalty against TSU was showed on replay at any point in the game that I saw. Rick