Media Day Catch Up

Was out of town for a couple days, so just now catching up on the media day stuff for the football season, which is growing bigger every day in the windshield.

You've heard by now that BG was picked to finish 3rd in the East.  This is probably about right and on the optimistic side of the bubble, which is fine.  Coach Jinks agreed, saying that given last year, this is a reasonable place.  Of course, as pointed out by the same Coach Jinks in the Blade, we were picked to win the East last year and most people were wrong so let's hope they are wrong again this year...though that's only partly comforting....they could be wrong low too.

UT is the overwhelming favorite to break their struggles and win the MAC Championship this year.  All the stars are aligning, including PJ Fleck leaving, NIU continuing to rebuild, etc.  Whether it happens, that remains to be seen.  But they are the favorites.

If you are looking at the BG schedule, the Falcons play OU, Akron, NIU and UT at home in the MAC, and Miami, Buffalo, Kent and EMU on the road.  According to these rankings, probably the three toughest games are at home (see below) with two winnable road games.

Here

1 - Ohio (11 first place votes), 131 points
2 - Miami (12 first place votes), 129 points
3 - Bowling Green (1 first place vote), 88 points
4 - Akron, 79 points
5 - Buffalo, 41 points
6 - Kent State, 36 points

West Division
1 - Toledo (22 first-place votes), 142 points
2 - Western Michigan (1 first-place vote), 107 points
3 - Northern Illinois (1 first-place vote), 89 points
4 - Eastern Michigan, 74 points
5 - Central Michigan, 62 points
6 - Ball State, 30 points

As has been said here before, with the non-conference schedule, a 6-6/5-3 season would be a success for the Falcons at this time in the Jinks era and represent a step forward.  Anything above that means that we have guys who can win games...there will be a game by game look, but for right now, BG going 6-6 and to a bowl game would be enough progress for me to feel good about our future.  Less than that--like 4-8, which is possible--and you start to look at things a different way.

In the Blade, Coach said that the team needs to be more disciplined...cutting down on turnovers and "unexplainable" big plays on defense.  Isn't that an interesting word.  Unexplainable.  What has to happen for a big play to be "unexplainable?"

BG's new MLB, Nate Locke, had an interesting comment:

“[Defensive coordinator Perry] Eliano is doing a great job of catering his defense to the players we have,” Locke said. “We’ve had conversations about what he wants particular linebackers to do, what he wants different safeties and cornerbacks and other position players to do. We want to make sure the defense relies on the strengths of our different players.”

What's interesting is that when Jinks did his review of the team last winter, he said one of the biggest problems was asking players to do things they couldn't and continuing to do it way too long before adjustments were made.  One factor is that he said he didn't have enough evaluation time because he went to Texas Tech's bowl game...and he did note this Spring that he felt that he was getting much improved player evaluation.  Anyway, Nate is telling us that their building the team around the players who are there, which is the only way to go, especially with our young and unproven defense.

So, that's the media day update.  It's going to be an interesting year, to be sure.  As a fan, you can ee the guys can recruit.  Now you want to see them execute winning game plans, make adjustments, etc.  Some improvement this year and moving some of those recruits into their roles as time moves forward...and maybe we can get back on the track again.