CurveItAround

Coach Mac was playing it cool this year, making sure not to win enough to make a bowl game as he knew that would surely result in having to change jobs. Explains some of the calls and putting the clamps on the offense. Well played DMac. Well played indeed.

Looking for depth? Didn't we only play 6 guys pretty much last season? Maybe he is planning on shuffling some guys over to DL.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8722185/cal-golden-bears-introduce-new-coach-sonny-dykes "We will turn it around," Dykes said. "It's going to be a long, arduous process. How many years is it going to take? I don't know. Is it going to be next year? I don't know. What's the future hold? I can't answer that question. But I do know that's what's going to drive us every day. Every single day we get in our car and come to work, our goal is going to be to get to the Rose Bowl."

It's all good. Man, we need some positive news. And some wins.

Ok, I think I see your point. If I were to have written something along the lines of , "XXXXX is acting like the biggest d-bag in the world", it would have been hyperbole. However, what I wrote previously was not, because even though all other defintions of hyperbole I have seen, including the one in your post, indicate that it is simply an exaggeration used for emphasis or effect, my original post was not because it was not exaggerating a fact. Thanks for the correction. We're having fun here, no?

The sooner we get to 8 conferences, the sooner this all gets resolved.

We're talking hyperbole here, no.

UNT will be a bowl team next year.

Unbelievable stories. Must watch TV.

Actually these particular numbers don't have anything to do with TM??? All these numbers were trying to show is that defense and rebounding have dropped off in a larger amount than offensively. It seems like most of the angst (other than the 'L') so far on this board has been focused on how TB's new offensive 'system' was killing the team and his substitution pattern was the reason for our losses. The numbers that I provided seem to paint a picture of regression in defense and rebounding so far this year as a real, quantifiable area of under performance when compared to last season. And based on all the athleticism on this team, those areas should be our strength. Everyon can form their own opinion on whether you believe the responsibility of playing defense and rebounding is on the coach, players, or both. The mistakes on defense are also plausible reasons for the frequent substitutions that we have seen, if the coach feels like he is not getting effort on both ends of the floor. I get the fact that everyone got super hyped about this season, and are disappointed in how things have gone so far. I wish that JJones would not have bolted on us and left us with what seemed to be a team on the edge, only to have been let down so far this season with the same up and down performances that we have seen for the last several years that we hoped to avoid this season. We didn't shoot well early, we haven't played tough defense, and the new coach has made several missteps. It sucks. I just happen to NOT believe that 100% of the blame belongs on the new coach, like so many on here have expressed, and the players share at least an equal amount of responsibility for the way things have gone primarily because of their defensive performance so far this year (IMO). I am also not saying Benford deserves 0% of the blame, but there seemed to be no one looking at this from the other side, so I tried to provide an alternate view. I am really not trying to be the defender of Benford. I have not seen enough to know whether he will be a good or bad coach long term. I can say I haven't seen enough personally to warrant calling for his head, and so far he seems like he can recruit, which in this business will beat great x and o guys that can't get talent. I will 'try' to refrain from further discussions on this topic since our 10-12 main posters seem to be intent on firing Benford. Fire Benford!

So, in games like tonight where Tony comes out and is agressively looking for the ball and is being forceful, is that because Benford is coaching and gameplanning in those games or does that show that TM is taking some nights off? I agree that the coach is ultimately responsible for wins and losses. He is the one that will ultimately pay with his job if he doesn't win enough, but he is not the one on the floor. I am sorry, but I see a group of players that are not bringing it every night being just as much to blame for this mess and not the only one showing immaturity. Benford will catch the heat because he is new and inexperienced as a head coach. So far the players seem to be getting a pass. I have tried to present the other side of the argument, but it has fallen on deaf ears. Lesson learned. Fire Benford!

Great point, I do agree that the first 8 oppoenents that Tony played against last year were probably weaker that the ones he played the first 8 this year. Or you could look at it as an effort to prove to people on this board that were claiming Benford was not getting TM the ball and that Benford was 'ruining his career in front of our very eyes' may need to tap the brakes a little. The sky isn't falling that much. This is what you get when you schedule tougher competition and don't play well. You get kicked. But you pretty much summed it up. Obvious proof that Benford sucks more than anyone has ever sucked before at coaching, and TM has somehow fought his way through it an kept his numbers up despite Benford making him less efficient. Sorry to provide information to support my opinions. I will try to do less of it in the future, but I am beginnng to think that unless I am willing to run down the program, that type of information is not welcome around here. Thanks.

Solid effort tonight. Several mental mistakes coming down the stretch, but better. We went brain dead and let their guard drive uncontested to go up by two and then later let their post get an uncontested put back. Tony's lane violation when they missed the front of a 1-1, only to then make both did not help either. I was watching the game and Chris never even thought about passing to Tony on the late possession when he ended up taking an off balance shot that missed and SLU rebounded and was pretty much church at that point. That was a pretty good defensive team they played tonight and they pretty much shut down everyone but Tony and Chris, Alzee was decent. When Tony matures a little and decides to give that type of effort every night out, we will be able to hang with a lot of people. Chris played well in back to back games. Noticably fewer minutes (20) for Jordan tonight and responded with an 0-4 night. I hope we get rolling early in conference play and can carry that into the tournament.

California. La Tech fans reporting that Sonny Dykes is heading to Cal. http://coachingsearch.com/coaching-search-ticker.html

I am sure SLU will put the clamps down on defense in the 2nd half. We will have to do the same. Hoping we can hold them to 30 or less in 2nd half, we made several shots we haven't been hitting.

My bad, didn't mean that directly at you either. I agree that this isn't that hard, but I happen to think the players play a larger role in what's gone wrong so far than some, and was just trying to provide some backup. I should know better and realize where I am at. Man, we need some good things to happen for a change.

I guess you are probably right. Unsupported opinion works much better around here... I promise that I am working hard to be more negative and to blast anything and everyone that is UNT until such a point in time they are no longer here, then I will defend them to the death. It will take me a little time, but visiting this board frequently is really helping.

First 4 games of the TM era were OOC, first 2 were Jackson St and Grambling. Next 4 were against lower conference mates. Either way, the point was that the numbers were surprising comparable for TM year over year and really didn't go up until Chris and Jordan went out. The real point of this particular thread whas the downward trend so far in defense and rebounding, which to me are less system based and more motivation/hustle based. Hopefully Benford and his staff can figure out a way to light a fire get the lack of defensive/rebounding effort turned around.

I realize the frustration with the teams W/L results so far this year. Maybe that is a factor of the coaching, the schedule, the players, all of the above. Each has their opinions. I started digging into TM's individual numbers earlier today and compared them to last season, expecting to see that his numbers had dropped dramatically, only to discover that his numbers through the first 8 games this year, are actually up across the board compared to his first 8 games last year. His numbers definitely increased over the last part of the season when Chris and Jordan went out most likely due to carrying a bigger part of the load. There has been a lot of discussion regarding to how bad the offense has been but I was a little surprised there as well. Our scoring offense has only seen a minimal drop off from last season. Our FG percentage is down, which could be cause by a few things. Jordan and Alzee are the two that have dropped off the most in terms of FG% when compared to last year. Maybe I will create a post that shows everyone's numbers. However, when I started digging deeper into the team stas, some troubling numbers started to appear. Category, per game average, national ranking 2012 Offensive points per game, 69.6, 151st 2011 Offensive points per game, 70.3, 115th 2012 Offensive FG%, 40.2, 276th 2011 Offensive FG%, 43.4, 167th 2012 Scoring Defense, 69.4, 239th 2011 Scoring Defense, 65.0, 108th 2012 FG% Defense, 42.6, 194th 2011 FG% Defense, 40.6, 44th 2012 3pt FG% Defense, 39.6, 329th 2011 3pt FG% Defense, 31.5, 53rd 2012 Rebound Differential, 1.5, 161st 2011 Rebound Differential, 4.1, 48th The troubling trend here seems to be large decreases across the board in defensive categories and rebounding margin. These are largely hustle stats. We have played primarily a man to man defense so far this year. There is no excuse for the players to not put forth the effort. This could also explain why players that just made shot on one end may have been getting pulled because they were not hustling on the other end. It will be up to the coach to get the message across that lack of hustle will not be tolerated. I noticed in the ULL game, we started running some zone on a few different occasions that was effective. We may have to resort to more of that if the players do not pick up their intensity. Without questions, the UAH and ULL games were lost on the defensive end. Too many times we would score only to have them get an easy bucket. It was pitiful. Our offense went stale in the 2nd half against UTA, but we still gave up over 70 points to them. I firmly believe defense and rebounding are the areas where we have the greatest opportunity to improve. If you want to fault the coaching staff or players or both, fine. Defense and rebounding has to improve and really has no excuse with as much athletic ability as there is on this team.

You might be right. I had incorrectly calculated Tony's numbers so far this year. His numbers are actually higher than last year through his first 8 games. I updated the original post to reflect the correct info.

The article really says they get pulled after each single mistake they make? Man, that's rough, but should make the folks that want people held accountable pretty happy.

Fun with numbers: Tony Mitchell's numbers through the first 8 games this year (no exhibition) with Chris and Jordan 13.6 pts, 8.3 boards, 10 shot attempts Tony Mitchell's numbers through the first 8 games last season (Jackson St was 1st game) with Chris and Jordan 13.1 pts, 8 boards, 7.4 shot attempts Tony Mitchell's numbers last season without Chris and Jordan (last 13 games of season) 15.2 pts, 11.6 boards, 9.9 shot attempts So far TM is scoring slightly more, rebounding slightly more, and getting 2.5 more shot attempts per game under the new regime than he was last year when Chris and Jordan were still in the lineup.

No doubt this team has fallen on its face. I this has been much more of a blip nationally, but obviusly a lot of people around here feel let down tremendously.

So Ryan Aplin helps Freeze get the HC gig at Ole Miss and Malzahn get the HC gig at Auburn? Not bad.

Mabye I was a little too subtle? However, your second point does seem incredibly valid.