FalconBlog--Triumphs and Trials in the BGSU Falcon Nation

Brandon Faces Music

The weekly presser. Smart aleck comments are in orange.

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - BGSU football quotes as the Falcons prepare for Saturday's Mid-American Conference East Division game against Akron ...

HEAD COACH Gregg Brandon
How is the mood of the team?
"Well, I think they still think we can win, and they are still playing as hard as they can considering what they have been through. We are still going to prepare just like we do every week to try to go and beat Akron."

Fans have seized on this statement as evidence of a defeatist attitude. I don't read it that way, though it isn't exactly Churchillian in its determination.

How is your mood?
"I'm a little testy, but losing will do that to you. But other than that we are going to stay the course. We are going to try and win the rest of our games. If you look at where Akron was at this time last year, Akron was 4-5 (overall) and 3-3 in the MAC, and they beat Ohio and Kent State, won a tiebreaker and won the conference at 5-3. They won a tiebreaker, got to the MAC Championship game and won that. We aren't ruling that out. Ohio and Kent both have to lose, but there is a chance they could lose another game, and right now we just need to take care of things on our end. That's what I am looking at."

And that is what he should be looking at. I also listened to this presser on the radio (the university publishes highlights, but not a transcript), and it is safe to say that Coach is emphasizing that we are still in the race at 4-5, and we would have needed to win our November games regardless of where we stood. Again, it seems like a little stretch, but competing is not about the past, so I suppose he might as well feel this way about it. Winning out from here would be a miracle for this team.

What is the quarterback situation right now?
"Well, we are going to evaluate that through the course of the week. I think we will get them both (Anthony Turner and Tyler Sheehan) ready and, shoot, I may play two quarterbacks. If one gets a hot hand I will stay with him."

Play them both. Great. The track record of success with that is spotty, to say the least. Of course, UM is doing it in Florida, so it must be really smart.

But Freddie Barnes is not in the mix at quarterback right now, is he?
"No. He's a receiver, and right now, Freddie's ankle is still an issue. We need to get him healthy. That hurt us big-time at Temple; when your leading scorer is out, it is going to hurt. And, we were struggling to score anyway, so it makes it all the more difficult."

Freddie is a big part of the attack, especially in the red zone. On the other hand, with that work he got early, it is no wonder he got injured.

Is Anthony Turner struggling with his confidence?
"Well, I think what you can say about Anthony, and what you can say about our entire team, is that we just have to develop some consistency. He has demonstrated that he can make plays and run the offense. The Buffalo game was an example; he did a nice job there. At FIU, he was moving us before he got hurt. I think since he got hurt he hasn't thrown the ball as effectively as he did going into the season. He seems to be a little rusty. He hasn't been able to practice as much as he wants coming off of that injury and I just think he should have been rounding into midseason form but he was trying to come off an injury. I think he has to make some plays like he did early in the season, and that will help his confidence, but that's easier said than done. And, we have to help him; we have to catch balls. We dropped some balls Saturday that should have been caught. And, things like the fumble on the one-yard line killed us. If we score there, it's a different ball game. So it's not just Anthony Turner, it's the whole team. We need to continue to develop consistency and I think that will create confidence."

Well, I think this is probably a realistic comment. We don't know how healthy AT has been. Some fans have seized upon this presser as further evidence of Brandon blaming his players. I guess I'd prefer he was a little less candid on the players by name, but it isn't a big secret. In another part of the presser, he said things like "we need to complete passes. We need to get the ball to the player who is open."

What did you see out of Tyler Sheehan?
"Well, I saw some good things and I saw some bad things. The interceptions weren't good. When he ran the ball he coughed it up; he has to do a better job taking care of the football both when he is running it and when he is throwing it. He made some nice throws, though. As I've said, he is a freshman, and if you are going to count on a freshman to lead you to win a football game, he had better be Michael Vick. But I think he is going to be a good football player, and I am not down on Anthony. I think they both, down the road -- hopefully this week, but eventually -- can help us win football games again."

Fair enough, I guess. See below.

How do you prepare two quarterbacks?
"We just have to get them to complete some passes. Right now, if it's Anthony (in the lineup), it's Anthony and if it's Tyler, it's Tyler. Anthony has struggled with his throws the last couple weeks and that's why we went with Tyler in the second half (at Temple). Now he just knocked them dead in the second half, which is why I think we have to prepare both of them. Hopefully, one of them gets a hot hand and completes some balls and gets some first downs. I don't think that's the problem. I think we just can't score;, that's the problem right now. If you would have told me after nine games we would have been leading the conference in rushing ... We stressed in the off-season that we wanted to help both sides of the ball. I think our defense is fourth or fifth in the league in rushing defense; I think we have given up 140 or something on the ground, and I will take that. And, we are rushing the ball pretty good. I think that has given us some chances to win some games. I would hate to be in a situation where we couldn't run the ball right now and try and throw the ball with our quarterbacks being inconsistent. We have been fortunate in that we haven't won some games (we would like to have won), and we are still in the hunt this late in the year with this young football team."

Who knocked who dead? Sheehan knocked Temple dead? Didn't see that. He did a little better than AT, but he didn't knock anybody dead. No doubt, though, the rushing has saved this team and it was badly needed once Omar's injury laid bare out one man attack last season.

On the play of Chris Bullock
"He showed some signs of this in the spring. He came on late in the spring, and then he got a little hamstring injury at the end of the spring and missed the last week. For him carry the ball 30 times and rush for that amount of yards, that's a credit to him but also to our offensive line. Our offensive line has been steady the entire season. We have to keep managing that, because they are getting a little dinged up now. Shane Steffy saw some action, another freshman, on the line for us. (Bullock) needs another winter in the weight room and another spring ball, as do 50 of my players. Another winter in the weight room and another spring football (season) and look out."

Chris Bullock is a beast, notwithstanding what follows. Future All-MAC performance.

On Bullock's fumble in the Temple game
"Yeah, we had to get him back up, it was tough. He shouldn't have left his feet, and if he didn't get (the touchdown) then, we would have just gone for it again. But, he is a kid trying to make a play. He tried to go over the top, and he coughed it up. It's just kids trying to make plays; with young players, that's going to happen."

"The running back fumbles, the quarterback throws a pick, our defensive back gives up a big play; you have to fight through that. Every time that happens to one of these kids their confidence gets tested. A lot of these young kids are making some nice plays, but they are also making some boneheaded plays every now and then. We just have to develop some consistency, and then I think we can be pretty good."

As I mentioned on Sunday, I think so, too. I think we can be pretty good. Having said that, we have a ways to go. He also spent a significant time in the presser whining about the schedule. Last year, when OSU was added, Coach made it clear he wasn't happy about it. He said straight out in the presser that he wanted a bye week sometime during the season--ideally, right after the OSU game. With our young team, he says he feels strongly we needed a bye week.

I'm sure it would have helped. But, with the 13 week schedule and the 12 games, and the Tuesday game in November against Miami, we needed the bye that week. Coach does, in fact, concede that he knew that this would be a challenge. I just think hate to see the general tone of these things be so fatalistic.