Clawson Presser--Mystery Woman in Fuzzy Sweater

The Athletic Department now posts the Clawson presser video directly onto Youtube, and you can find it by clicking here. In today's presser, the primary visual feature was the woman you see above bouncing in and out of the shot. It got to be funny after a while.

I'm going to start doing slightly shorter reviews of the presser, for two reasons. First, you can watch it, and second, a significant portion of the pressers are the kind of thing you could hear at any presser at any college in the country, in this case punctuated by a fidgetty woman in a purple sweater.

So, I listened and tried to ferret out the interesting bits, leaving the robot responses on the cutting room floor....kinda.

Anyway. A couple housekeeping matters.

First, Ty Pronty is out for the season. That makes it Pronty, Wiley, and Brighton all lost for the season at WR.

Second, Willie Geter is fine, and he hopes Scheidler will play. He has been practicing.

Now, he talked about the OU Bobcats. He was very impressed with their performance at Tennessee where they threw for 300 yards. Theo Scott has won the QB job, and he is an athlete who has developed into a pocket passer. With the spread looks and triple option, OU is a very tough team to prepare for.

They also have good receivers, and Chris Gamble, an excellent runner and kick returner.

On defense, they have 11 Jrs and Srs.

He talked a little bit about Boise, but not much got beyond "we didn't play well."

A lot of talk about the kicking. We have missed 3 of our last 4 FGs, and a number of those have been after long drives. In fact, I think they were all inside 40 where MAC kickers hit 80% last season. Anyway, Coach says "there are only so many kicks you can miss."

Jack Carle had an excellent question...he wondered if anyone in the second half showed something as the reserves were brought in.

Coach Clawson listed:

Blaec Walker

Chip Robinson

John Pettigrew

Justus Jones

Dwayne Woods

As for the lower productivity for Freddie, there were plays when Boise was just determined to keep the ball away from Freddie. If he was the only receiver split out, they put him in press coverage with a safety over top. The offensive staff tried moving him around, but they are a good team. Also, that's why you saw Willie Geter in the wildcat...because if Freddie split out he took two guys with him.

A question was asked about Tyler Sheehan. Coach says Tyler is our best QB and "it isn't close." He thought he played well against Troy and Missouri, but forced a couple balls (and one in particular) against Boise.

Finally, on being 1-3 and our opening schedule, Coach said it either makes you or breaks you. You hope to become a mentally tough team, and, of course, he reminded everyone that winning the MAC is our ultimate goal.

Sneak Preview: Clawson Presser

The BG News is reporting on Twitter that Ty Pronty will be lost for the season but Jimmy Scheidler will play against OU.

Taking Our Medicine

So, we lost the blog bet to One Bronco Nation Under God, and as the winner, he gets one post on this blog, which is below.

His blog is outstanding....great content, high volume, and a mature fan community.

I have heard from so many fans what a great experience it was meeting the Boise fans. Even reading their blog, they are true fans of college football who love their team....which is the whole idea.

I'll be rooting for them. If they are the only undefeated team, do they get into the Title Game? Time will tell...

With no further adieu......Kevan's Post...

Top Ten places Bowling Green fans were headed in the middle of the third quarter

10. The exits

9. Back to only caring about Bowling Green every time a Top Ten team comes to town

8. The ceremonial burning of the Freddie Barnes 4 Heisman bandwagon

7. The tattoo parlor, to cancel an appointment for a lower back tattoo pronouncing "BG beats BSU 9-26-09 I was there!"

6. A Dave Clawson help group, led by a Tennessee fan

5. Shoney's, most likely

4. Back in time, to tell Urban Meyer how much they love him because they just didn't tell him enough when he was there

3. They were really just going to the bathroom, but by the time they got back, Boise State had already scored two more times, so ...

2. The Bowling Green backfield, as Ryan Winterswyk's "plus-one"

1. Home, to be the first to read FalconBlog's insightful recap of the game

Hopson Joins Falcon Hoops Staff

The Falcons have announced that Dennis Hopson will join the team's coaching staff. He comes to BG after being an assistant for Rollie Massimino somewhere in Florida.

Anyhow, this has been rumored for a long time. It is very good news. He is a Toledo native, and was a professional basketball player for 13 seasons, six in the NBA. He was also a great college player, and has an NBA Championship ring...which might play well in the living room of a recruit.

Here's is what Coach Orr had to say....

"Dennis has been where they are and also where they want to go. He’s very organized in his thoughts and his direction. He understands the game and can teach the game. He’s skilled in the areas you need to be skilled in to be a productive collegiate basketball coach today.”

Welcome to the Falcon family, Dennis. We look forward to your contribution to championships for the orange and brown!

(PS, I hear there will be some more good basketball news coming in a day or so).

Revised Blog Poll Ballot

OK, below is my blogpoll ballot revised. One of the strong points of our poll is the opportunity to reflect....and as I did, I had no idea (none) what I was thinking with where I had Oregon and Cal. So, that has been remedied. Rock on

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Alabama	1
3	Texas	1
4	Virginia Tech	5
5	Oklahoma State	6
6	Southern Cal	4
7	LSU
8	Boise State	6
9	Miami (Florida)	1
10	Georgia	5
11	Iowa
12	Ohio State
13	Oregon
14	Penn State	9
15	Oklahoma	2
16	South Carolina
17	Houston	3
18	Cincinnati	3
19	Missouri	3
20	TCU	3
21	Mississippi	17
22	UCLA	4
23	California	17
24	Michigan	2
25	Nebraska
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Florida State (#19), Pittsburgh (#23), Washington (#24), Brigham Young (#25).

Redshirts Part II

For those who track such things the post-game report shows that Jordan Roussos, a true freshmen appeared in the Boise game, and will not be red-shirted. The report also showed that true FR. Ricky Retzinger played too, but sometimes those are inaccurate, so I left him off. The report showed that our backup kicker played, but I couldn't see where, and DeMark Jenkins played, even though he is out for the season. Anyhoo.....

• Pettigrew
• Moore
• Woods
• Jones
• Roussos
  

Slideshow from Boise Game

Courtesy Todd Pavlack and AZZ.com is a really nice slideshow of photos from the Boise game. Excellent work!

International Centre for Special Teams Research

The fourth meeting of the International Centre for Special Teams research is hereby convened for the purpose of evaluating special teams.

If you recall, this is a system I have been cooking up for some time. It awards points for positive plays and negative plays made on special teams, and gives no points to plays which are expected or in an ordinary range. You can read the explanation here if you like.

A couple of events happened that I hadn't anticipated. The first one is a roughing the punter penalty. Since it allows the offensive team to keep the ball, I'm going to treat it as a turnover...-3. Also, there was a 2-point conversion. I don't give any points for kicking a PAT, so I decided that getting the deuce is worth one point.

On Bowling Green's side, I would suggest that special teams might have been the highlight in Saturday's game, given the dominance the Broncos had on both sides of the ball. BG did not have a positive special teams play, but did have 4 negative plays. One of those, the missed FG, was pretty important, the other three are pretty close to being neutral plays.

On the Boise side, they were only -2 for the game. They had 5 positive plays that were OK, but then had 5 negative points for -7, including the game's biggest special teams play, the roughing the kicker penalty that extended BG's first quarter drive.

Bowling Green Positive

{null set}

Bowling Green Negative (-4)

Missed 29 yd FG (-1)

BG returns kickoff to own 19 (-1)

BG Ko return to own 19 after penalty (-1)

BG KO return to own 20 (-1)

Bowling Green Neutral

BG KO return to own 23

BG punt net 42 yards (roughing)

Boise net punt 27 yards

BG Punt net 40 yards

BG net punt 31 yards

BG KO return to own 29

BG KO return to own 36

BG Punt for 37 yard net

BG punt 38 yard net

Boise KO return to own 26

BG Extra point

Boise KO return to own 34

BG Extra point

Boise KO return to own 23

BG punt 31 net yards

Boise positive (+5)

Boise punt 49 yard net (+1)

Boise 2 pointer (+1)

Boise KO touchback (+1)

Boise punt inside 20 (+1)

BG kickoff return to own 20 (+1)

Boise negative (-7)

Roughing the punter (-3)

KO Out of bounds (-1)

FG missed (bad snap) (-1)

FG Missed (-1)

Missed xp (-1)

Boise neutral

BG KO return to own 23

BG KO return to own 29

Boise KO return to own 26

Boise KO return to own 34

Boise KO return to own 23

Boise net punt 27 yards

Boise xp

Boise xp

BG KO return to own 36

Boise xp

Boise xp

Blog Predictions--success repeated

So my first week in the MAC Blog prediction contest I finished first and this week I finished tied for first.....Bull Run is attributing it to beginner's luck. I have pretty much made my living picking Buffalo to lose. Just sayin'

Recruiting Update, New Verbal

Darius Gilbert, a D-lineman from Hamilton, OH has verballed to the Falcons. He's 6'2", 250 and this local media report says he had offers from "most" of the MAC schools.

Welcome aboard, Darius. We always like to beat out our conference brethren.

Still more Boise talk....

I've had a chance to review the box score a little more, and a couple of things do jump out at me.

The first thing is that we were completely ineffective on offense. When a series of events happen, people always remember what happens at the beginning and at the end, and not what happens in the middle.

So, looking at Bowling Green's offensive drives we actually get a much clearer picture of how dominated we were.

Of course, our first drive was 7:00, 65 yards, 13 plays, 4 first downs and a huge conversion on 3rd and 15. Ad we scored in garbage time at the end when it was all over. In the middle??

After the missed FG, the next eight Falcon possessions (not counting the one right at the end of the half), were all three plays......or less. In fact, we didn't even make it to punting on three of them. The most productive drive was 14 yards in that period. And, the string did not break until after it was already 43-0. So, while it is tempting to focus on Boise's speed scoring machine, we were not producing on the offensive side of the ball.

Also, when you look at our final numbers, you have to remember that many of the positive plays were after it was already over. For example, 12 of our 18 first downs came after Boise hit 43 on the scoreboard. We had 73 yards at halftime.

Kellen Moore just shredded us. He was 17-21 for 247 yards, which is more than 11 yards per attempt. Those are playstation numbers. And he would hit the killing pass over the middle about 15 yards downfield with plenty of space....Bowling Green used to be able to hit that all the time in the Harris/Jacobs days.

I don't think our defensive line was killed. I thought on the runs between the tackles we did a pretty good job on a number of plays. Jeremy Avery, who is a pretty good runner, had 92 yards on 12 carries, but one of those was for 71 yards, so he was 11 for 21. On the edges was another matter--we did not have the speed to cover that.

If Willie Geter can stay healthy, he is going to be a great MAC football player.

That's getting to be just enough Boise. I will still do the special teams report tomorrow, and then we will focus on the OU Bobcats as BG begins the chase for what we really want, which is a MAC Championship.

One last thing. We're 1-3, and that was a reasonable expectation for our team facing the four games we have played. There were no FCS teams lingering in there. We could easily have been 0-4, in fact. Let's not get too wrapped up in 1-3, and let's keep our fingers crossed that we find what we had against Troy.

Because I know this. We won't see anything the rest of the way that looks like what we saw Saturday.

CBSSports.com Blog Poll Draft

This is by far the toughest year to make these votes. Everybody keeps losing. Anyway, input appreciated.

I did jump Boise up. First, having seen them play in person, I was very impressed. And, their win over Oregon looks a whole letter better now than it did at this time last week.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Alabama	1
3	Texas	1
4	Virginia Tech	5
5	Oklahoma State	6
6	Southern Cal	4
7	LSU
8	Boise State	6
9	Miami (Florida)	1
10	Georgia	5
11	Iowa
12	Ohio State
13	Penn State	8
14	California	8
15	Oklahoma	2
16	South Carolina
17	Houston	3
18	Cincinnati	3
19	Missouri	3
20	TCU	3
21	Mississippi	17
22	Oregon
23	UCLA	5
24	Michigan	2
25	Nebraska
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Florida State (#19), Pittsburgh (#23), Washington (#24), Brigham Young (#25).

Oh the Humanity!! Part II

Well, I've had a night to sleep on last night's Boise game, and listened to Coach's post-game presser a couple of minutes ago, and have some thoughts on last night's game at the Doyt.

Perhaps the most disappointing this is that we have brought in big-name opponents two years in a row and had huge crowds and then sent them home disappointed. I think this is a big problem in our desire to build this program. I'm not saying we needed to beat Boise to reward fans for showing up, but you'd like to stay with them and make it somewhat of a game.

Boise is a really good football team. I said before the game that they are the best team we would play all season, and I think that was right. As Coach said, the are "bigger, faster, stronger." They also are very well prepared and coached, and execute their game plan. There are tons of skill players, a very good QB.

So, count me as impressed by Boise. Their win over Oregon looks better after the Ducks destroyed Cal, too. That's a good football team.

I'm still disappointed in how we played. I thought we started out OK, and got a couple of stops and drove the ball into their territory, but then we stalled out in the red zone, committed two critical false starts, missed an easy FG, and then everything started to catch up with us. We made lots of mistakes, and Boise is too good to be unforgiving.

The very start of the second quarter was where the reckoning came....

First, Boise scored on the first play of the second quarter on a reverse. BG had done decently bottling up the run, but the Broncos saw we were partly doing that by over-pursuing, and the reverse just killed us. And that dude (Titus Young) can run. Wow.

Second, they lined up in some goofy extra point formation and actually ran an oddball 2-point play and made it.

Third, they got us three and out, and followed that up with a 78 yard, three play drive.

Fourth, BG threw an INT, committed a personal foul on the return and Boise scored on the next play.

2:33. 22 points.

BG made three turnovers in total. We were trying to make something happen and went deep sparingly, but in two cases were intercepted. Boise's d-backs had a ton of INTs this year, and you just can't loft the ball into multiple coverages as we did on those two INTs--and on at least one other occasion I can think of.

One play was a max protection route. We had a power formation in the game, ran play action and then tried to go deep to Freddie. Boise's backfield was not fooled and was all around him, but because we had limited receivers out there, they had the luxury of doing that.

Another mistake Coach Clawson mentioned was on the throw back pass to Freddie. BG had set up an obvious slip screen formation to Freddie Barnes, but Barnes stepped back and grabbed the lateral. Willie Geter was streaking down the sideline. But, Sheehan's throw was high to Freddie and it ended up being a loss of yards as BG scrambled for the loose ball.

I'm not saying BG would have won if we had executed these things better. What I am saying is that if we had gotten a couple of those scores, we're at least in the game, and that's how upsets happen.

I thought Willie Geter ran the ball effectively. He is incredibly determined and I believe will be very productive in the MAC season. He did leave last night's came with a sprained toe (according to Coach), but could have played some in the second half. I hope he can be healthy for the OU game, because he does add a nice element.

Coach also said we made more mistakes on defense than we have in the other three games so far, and that does not surprise me. Undisciplined mistakes like not having anyone home on a reverse were hallmarks of the Brandon years and had been refreshingly gone in the first three games, but they were all over the place against the Broncos last night.

Eight penalties, three turnovers and numerous mistakes on the defensive side of the ball, and you end up with Boise delivering an old-fashioned butt kicking in the flatlands of Ohio last night.

I'll have some more analysis coming up later. This is one game, and a game that doesn't detract from our goal of winning the MAC. We're all allowed to be disappointed, but I'll be far more disappointed if we don't win against the Bobcats. A defeat is just an opportunity to get better.

OH the Humanity!!

Game day at the doyt

Recruiting Links....

Heath Jackson of Ada might be playing at a smaller school, but he is putting up some Playstation numbers. He had 324 yards receiving and four TDs against Toledo Christian last week. On ten catches!

Isaiah Byler blocked a FG by Parma's kicker....and the kicker was a She!

QB Commit Trent Hurley is trying to get his team back to the promised land. Hurley is nearing 2,000 career passing yards and 40 TDs.

Justin Ford, who is coming in as a DB, had a pick six and three other TDs from the QB slot in a win over Northview.

Caleb Watkins of Middletown has his team at 4-0 and scoring over 40 a game, more often than not. He is dangerous, even on a run-oriented offense.

DJ Lynch, who is also coming to BG on defense, had 90 yards rushing.

MAC Blog Roundtable is on the air....

Good stuff as always, hosted this week by Let's Go Rockets.....

25 Questions that Bust the BCS

What is their body of work?

It is outstanding. This is a highly accomplished team that went undefeated in the regular season last year and lost in their bowl game to a very good TCU team. This year, they are undefeated again, with wins over an unimpressive Oregon team, Miami, and @Fresno State. Look at the margins of victory...only two games within one touchdown:

Idaho State +42
BG +13
Oregon +5
La Tech +35
Southern Miss +17
Hawaii +20
San Jose State +17
NM State +49
Utah State +35
Idaho +35
Nevada +7
Fresno +51

What was their best result last season or this season?

They had a nice win @Oregon last year and Boise absolutely destroyed Fresno State.

What was their worst result last season?

Not applicable.

What was the turnover margin?

They are +3 this year and were +7 last year. They seem to fumble more than you would expect but get a sick number of interceptions. A team with an explosive offense can get by with a lower turnover ratio than other teams.

Offense:

How is their QB play?

Kellen Moore is a good QB. 8th in the nation in pass efficiency, he completes 66% of his passes, 8 TDs over 1 INT, with 8.5 yards per attempt. There is nothing else to say except that is highly productive. They only pass 26-27 times a game, limiting his passing yards, but he is a very effective QB. (He is not a dual threat QB).

What was their yard per play?

This year? They are making 6.5 yards per play and last year it was 6.3. The rocket-fueled Ball State offense was gaining 6.7 yards per play last year, for reference.

Can they run the ball?

This is an open question. Sorta. Generally, the run the ball great. DJ Harper was gaining 6.5 yards per carry, but is now out for the season. They still have Jeremy Avery, who is also getting over 6 yards per carry and Boise fans are high on Doug Martin. However, he has only 9 carries this year and 24 last season, with an average somewhere in the low-mid 4s.

Do they pass the ball?

See above as it relates to Moore. Austin Pettis and Titus Young are both excellent WRs and account for over half of their receptions.

How is their run/pass balance.

Actually, this is interesting. In terms of play mix, they are heavily run, which I suspect is not what most people would think. They have run it 117 times against 86 passes this year. (In case you think the Miami blow out is throwing things off, they were actually pretty close to 50/50 against Miami and Fresno, but ran the ball 59 times against Oregon in 89 plays. They certainly meet the test of being able to produce with either weapon--5 per play on the ground and 8 per play on pass is very effective.

Do they convert on 3rd Down.

43% this year and 44% last year, both are very solid though not among the top 40 in the country.

Do they score in the red zone?

4.2 points per red zone trip, which is good but not spectacular. They have been shut out on 3 occasions.

Do they protect the quarterback?

Yes, only 2 sacks this year and that is an improvement over a stellar 13 all of last season.

In general. This is a very strong offense, with a good line. They are productive running and passing and appear to be strong despite a serious injury at RB. We will be hard pressed to pressure the QB. Simply put, our d-line is going to have to play great along the line of scrimmage to keep us in the game.

Defense:

Topline: Scoring and yards per play.

They have given up only 14 ppg, with 8 points between the Miami and Oregon games. Fresno did get 34 points against them. They are allowing 4.8 yards per play, which is among the 30 top figures in the country.

Do they defend the run effectively?

This surprised me, they give up 4.7 yards per rush, which is even a little worse than BG's. I looked a little further and saw that both Oregon and Miami averaged below two yards a carry, while Fresno State gained 320 rushing yards on 39 attempts, for an average of 8.2.

Could they be passed on?

Of all the things that Boise does well, this is the thing they may do best. Opponent passing against Boise has been difficult at best. They are allowing only 53% completions, 1 TD against 7 INTS (one of the best figures in the nation) and 4.8 yards per attempt, which is next to nothing.

Did they get off the field on 3rd down?

Yes. So far, they have allowed only 29% of their opponent's third downs to be converted. This is among the top 25 percentages in FBS.

Do they defend in the red zone?

Well, it is hard to tell. As I mentioned, Boise had 15 red zone trips to date. They have only allowed 3. Are you kidding me? One TD, one FG and a stop. So, if you must know, they allow 3 points per rz trip. But mostly, they stop teams early so they don't need red zone stops.

Do they pressure the QB?

Four sacks in three games is a typical amount.

Special Teams:

Punting?

This is another astounding figure. They average 45 yards a kick and have a 43.8 yard net. This is the second highest net punting in the country. On top of that, 6 of their 11 punts have been inside the 20.

Punt Return?

Their punt returners are dangerous, average over 10 yards on the punts they do return, and they have gotten measurable returns on 10 of 19 punts, which seems like a lot in today's game when everything is done to prevent a return.

Placekicking?

Brotzman is 3-5 this year and was 17 of 26 last year, making him a good but not great kicker. He hit two past 50 last year and has a career long of 51.

Kickoff?

Opponents are starting, on average, on the 27, which is pretty normal.

Kickoff Return?

We better be ready to cover kicks, because Boise's two returns AVERAGE 35 yards a return with a start on the 38 yard line. They each have a non-scoring 77 yard return. I predict a high number of high pooched kicks to the 30 yard line.

Miscellaneous: Overall atmospherics and intangibles.

On paper, this game should be a win for Boise. They are simply a great football team from a great football program.

Games are not played on paper, though. If Bowling Green plays well in all facets of the game, plays effectively on the line of scrimmage so we can have some offensive diversity, converts for points, and gets building momentum from a big crowd, who knows? A win is improbable, and improbable wins have happened before. And they did not blow us out last year.

I joked with the Boise blog about them looking past us to the big UC Davis game next week. Boise knows they have to win every game to bust into the BCS. I don't believe that they look past teams, and their track record of kicking ass last year reflects that.

I'm looking forward to it. It will be a great test. This is probably the best team we will play all year.

FalconBlog Wins First Week of MAC prediction pool

So, I joined in with Bull Run on a contest to pick the games in the MAC each week. I was a little late getting started, and I won last week, apparently on the strength of calling the UCF win over Buffalo. So, you know, being pessimistic about the MAC has some value.

Blog Swap, Away Game

Hey, with thanks to One Bronco Nation Under God, here are my responses to his questions....

A pleasure as always....

Blog Swap with Boise--Wagering included

Well, it is Blogswap time again, as we take the opportunity to learn about our out-of-conference opponents. We actually swapped with One Bronco Nation Under God last year, and it was good fun. We also have wagering....if Bowling Green wins, I get one post on the OBNUG site, and if the Broncos win, he gets a post on my site.

After looking around their site, those guys in Boise are true fans. They have a good sense of humor, and they are proud (as they should be) of what they have accomplished.

So, the bet is on this year again. (Last year he offered me points and I took the game straight up. I think we might have actually covered the spread. Anyway, we're going straight up again this year.) If you want to know more about the Broncos, check his site out.

Do you think you might be looking by BG for that big UC Davis matchup?

The Broncos' most important game is always their next game, according to the nonhuman, unfeeling automated response bot that BSU head coach Chris Petersen uses at his press conferences. Still, that emotionless robot is awfully convincing, sitting there in his real world cocoon. Boise State honestly does not overlook opponents. I believe that they have been numbed by years of playing awful teams like Idaho, Utah State, and New Mexico State year in and year out.

Were you surprised at last year's game? It was your closest home victory.

Last year's game was horrifying to watch as a Boise State fan. The offense looked bad. The defense looked burdened. It wasn't at all like how I pictured the game would go, namely Kellen Moore throwing seven TD passes before halftime then being airlifted out of the stadium to headline a Ron Paul rally. I've wondered many times if the Bowling Green result was more the Falcons playing well or the Broncos playing poorly. I don't have an answer. But I do have night sweats. Thanks a lot, Gregg Brandon.

Tell me about the offense without DJ Harper. And, how does the offensive line look this year?

Hyperbole alert! D.J. Harper's replacement, Doug Martin, is as talented a running back as Bowling Green will face this year. The man can flat out run the football. He runs angry and downhill, like a boulder with an intense fear of heights. His style of running is different than Harper's, and that might be the biggest offensive change following Harper's injury. I don't expect the playcalling to change all that much, other than maybe putting Martin in the backfield with a fullback. This week, Martin admitted that his biggest focus needed to be pass protection, so that is the one area that I would watch on Saturday.

The offensive line looks better than it did last year, particularly up the middle. On the ends? Eh, not so much. Thomas Byrd, Will Lawrence, and Kevin Sapien have done an exceptional job for the most part. Boise State pulled a switch at RT (Kellen Moore's blindside) last week, starting Garrett Pendergast in place of Michael Ames. If there's a weakness on the offensive line, it is at tackle. But that's better than last year's O-line weakness, which was "somewhere new on every given Saturday."

After two pretty strong defensive performances, Fresno State lit it up a little. Did they find something in your defense?

Fresno found out that Boise State does not tackle well 60 yards from its own goalline. Other than that, the Bronco defense played well enough that we shouldn't stop comparing them to great college football defenses just yet. I certainly haven't stopped. On an interesting note, cornerbacks in man coverage got beat by Fresno's receivers more often than I thought would be possible. Just thought I'd mention that.

I drafted Kyle Brotzman in my fantasy league. WTF?

Are you referring to the revelation that you play fantasy college football or the revelation that Kyle Brotzman is the new Mike Vanderjagt? Here's my theory on Brotzman (I can't help you with fantasy college football; sorry): Kicker consistency is overrated, especially over a there- or four-year period. Brotzman was great his freshman year, and he's been okay since. His misses early this season were as much a result of a new snapper and new holder as they were with his aversion to the left hash. I have been on the fence confidence-wise with Brotzman since the middle of last year. Overall, with punting, kicking, and kickoffs, his game has improved. But his field goal kicking had nowhere to go but down from his freshman year.

Talk about your defensive backfield. They have been pretty productive this year.

I think they are one of the best secondaries in the West, top to bottom. The starting five (Wilson, Johnson, Iloka, Venable, Thompson) has no holes. They can cover one-on-one, blitz, support the run - basically, whatever you ask them to do, they are capable of doing. So far this season, I think their play has been overshadowed a bit by how good the defensive line has been. I know you won't hear many other Bronco fans admit it, but I've been more impressed by the Broncos' front four than I have of their back five.

So you go undefeated all year, you get hosed out of a BCS bowl by Utah, and then you draw TCU and lose to them in a bowl game. Discuss.

It's the injustice of college football at its finest. The NCAA lumps 120 teams into a division then makes it so that a team can do everything right during its regular season and still not have a chance of competing for anything meaningful in the postseason. What other entity does this? Fidel Castro's Cuba? I think that the only redeeming element of the whole situation last year was that the Broncos were able to play one of the nation's top ten teams in their bowl game. TCU was really good, and it's a shame that the Horned Frogs didn't have a chance to prove that to more people.

Do you mind being thought of as the "Gonzaga of Football?"

Gonzaga has a chance to win a national title every year in a fair and equitable postseason tournament, so I don't really follow your analogy.

Will the Bronco nation represent in the Flatlands of Ohio?

I know of at least two Bronco fans who will be in attendance on Saturday, so my hopes are high. I will point out, though, that it will be hard to tell which fans are Bronco fans if BGSU's Orange Out comes to fruition.

There seems to be some dispute...what is the correct pronunciation of Boise?

The correct pronunciation is "Boy-see," unless you work for ESPN's family of networks, in which case you tend to just pronounce it however you want to pronounce it.

Clawson Presser--Inverted explosion

So Coach Clawson did his presser today, but if you measured it, you would probably find out that he spent more time talking about Boise than he did about the Falcons. In a certain sense, that is not surprising. After all, this is the highest ranked team to play on our field, and the excitement around the game is palpable.

Before we fall into the same trap, a couple points on Marshall.

First, I had wondered why we didn't even try to run the ball more than we did against Marshall. We had hardly any running attempts. Coach said that two of our TEs were injured (Scheidler and Jenkins) and that our game plan had been to run from the two TE set, and with the TEs out, we had to abandon the straight running game. He did go on to talk about pass plays (like shovel passes and screens) that we consider runs.

Second, Coach mentioned the same three-play sequence that I did, with the missed field goal, 80 yard TD run and fumble all coming on top of each as the place where we lost the game.

Now, on to Boise:

• Boise has won low scoring and high scoring games.
• They are very well coached.
• Defense is their hidden secret
• They have explosive kickoff returns
• Not signing 5-star guys
• They are a complete team--they can pound it and get big plays
• If you have a weakness, they will find it
• Our goal is to be where they are

Now, looking at our team....

He said our players have been jacked up for all 3 games, but with a sellout crowd, they will be fired up.

You worry about who is lining up against you, but the key thing is to make your own game better.

"We're close"

We want to be a consistent program, which means not having up and down seasons and that happens on the practice field

Our Red Zone offense has to get better. We have failed to score in the redzone against Missouri and Marshall and that impacted our game. (My note, this is something that has been a problem for a couple of years and stems from having a team well suited to using the big passing lanes up and down the field but not having recruited the guys you need to move the ball in tight quarters.)

Also, our run defense is not getting better, and d-line play has not been as good since Troy.

He talked about Freddie Barnes quite a bit. He says his success is partly his hard work and partly the system. Our game plans are designed to insure he gets the ball, so if they are inverting and rolling over and whatever the hell that all means, he can get the ball on screen passes or in the wildcat. He's like a FB in that he can dodge backs but also take a tackle and still move forward.

Scheidler did not practice Tuesday. DeMark Jenkins is out for the season.

He said Carlos Tipton has been playing better on the line. Our goal there is to rotate a lot of guys since we do not have the one big star. Also, Keith Morgan played well at safety and our corners have been a pleasant surprise.

Practice yesterday was excellent.

Then someone asked him if he would be "surprised" that there wasn't a sell-out, which is kind of a bizarre question and seemed almost to harken back to the Brandon/Buffalo comments. Still, a sell-out would be a great atmosphere.

CBSSports Blogpoll is Final and on the AIR

More troubling news from Akron

Jacquemain is dismissed from team, as suspensions hit others in the coaching and playing ranks, including a felony assault.

Bowling Green has certainly had their turn with stuff like this, so we have no right to feel superior. Best of luck to Akron in bringing things around and keeping the program under control.

Final CBSsports.com Blogpoll

OK, based on comments placed here, I have adjusted my CBSSports.com blogpoll ballot. I moved Cincinnati and Houston up two spots--UC because of their two road wins and Houston because of their win over OK state--and dropped Michigan, who has one win over a Notre Dame team I don't have ranked (and at home) beneath those teams.

Thanks for the feedback.....

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Texas	1
3	Alabama	1
4	Mississippi	1
5	Penn State	1
6	California	1
7	LSU	1
8	Miami (Florida)	5
9	Virginia Tech	2
10	Southern Cal	8
11	Oklahoma State	4
12	Ohio State
13	Oklahoma	3
14	Boise State	2
15	Georgia	2
16	Missouri	2
17	TCU	1
18	UCLA	1
19	Florida State
20	Houston	1
21	Cincinnati
22	Michigan	2
23	Pittsburgh
24	Washington
25	Brigham Young	16
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Georgia Tech (#22), Nebraska (#24), Utah (#25).