The End of the Locked Gate

Coach Brandon had his weekly presser, and he put an end to the ridiculous spectacle of our team "locking" the gates behind the opposing team as they enter the Doyt. We are lucky it didn't start a brawl last week, as the entire team ran over there while Miami was coming out of the tunnel.

And it is embarrassing to be "locking the gate" when we keep losing at home.

Wags in the Falcon Nation have been letting rip with all kinds of things....we should lock ourselves out, etc.

I know that these little theatrical things are part of football culture. And, we seemed jacked up after we pulled it against Miami. Then we proceeded to play awful.

I guess I'd rather our players were focusing on not committing personal fouls, jumping offsides, etc, than "locking the gate."

OK, what else did the coach say? In response to "Do you ever get mad about anything," Coach said, "not in front of you guys, that's for sure." laughing. Which is actually a pretty good line.

The questioner went on to make the essential point...that people might get the wrong idea from the way he reacts. Coach admitted he was upset at Boise...and he went on to say that someone has to be a consistent leader. But he was upset after Boise and EMU....it sound might start to come off like he has resigned himself to the fact this team isn't going anywhere.

Everyone has their style. And, I get it...this isn't a movie about football, its football. I don't know that anger is what anyone is looking for, and no one is looking for a "Mike Gundy moment."

But, you know, a little "we gotta prepare this team better," or "we got out-coached" would probably make some people feel better. How about "we're still in the race, but we've made it a lot harder on ourselves than it needed to be" or "yes, there's parity in the MAC." And a ban on talking about being in a "position to win the game in the fourth quarter" (which he said again. Twice).

So what else?

Freddie Barnes is pretty badly injured, and may miss a month or so. Given our stunted playmaking ability on offense, its not going to help that we are missing a playmaker. He was also strong in the direct snap, and gave us some variety. Geter and Bullock are both injured, which impacted the ability to use Bullock in short yardage situations.

Someone asked coach about Tyler Sheehan's comments about slipping discipline on the team. He said, essentially, that Tyler was grasping at straws as he tried to explain what was happening and that he didn't think showing up on time for meetings was related to discipline on the field.

According to Ryan's blog, Sheehan did not back down.

“For the most part, yeah. We have a lot of guys who have great discipline and they show it week in and week out. It might not even be relevant to anything at all with football. But stuff that happens off the field is showing on the field as well. Coaches have addressed it and until we get that fixed we’re not going to be as successful as we want to be.”

Coach also had great things to say about Corey Partridge, a true Falcon warrior. A lot of fans have wondered about why he doesn't play more downs, but apparently he is not healthy enough to practice regularly, and Coach says we are playing him fewer downs with the idea that he might finish the season. Corey's a great player who cannot be guarded, and who has not set records only because of injuries. I'm a big fan.

There was lots of discussion about penalties. Coach went through, seperating the bad personal fouls from the really bad ones. I get his point....you're playing football, and a horse collar or hands to the face is gonna happen and sometimes gets called. Bad, but not really bad.

Then, he was asked about his threat to bench people and he said that situation had come to a head. Then, there was a long pause and he said:

If one of our players cannot control his emotions, then we are going to have to sit him down.

Now you could take that two ways....he might have meant it like "If any of our players," but he also might have been referring to a specific player. If so, you know exactly who he is talking about. No need to list it here.

Coach asked this question, apparently without irony:

Miami punted nine times. How does a team punt nine times and win the football game?"

When the topic turned to NIU, the discussion centered on:

• NIU Coach Kill visiting BG while he was coaching at SIU.
• The need to take care of the ball against Northern's defense.
• We are also going to do what we do.
• We are who we are (but maybe not who we THOUGHT we were).