Rockets Destroy Falcons
The sad thing is that it was expected.
You have to figure if you can't stop Tyree Jackson, Logan Woodside is going to eat you alive.
The Falcons were simply dominated by the Rockets Wednesday night at the Doyt. There's no other way to look at it. Particularly on offense, UT rarely was challenged as they racked up 66 points, which is the most points ever scored in the 82 times these two teams have met.
And if you're keeping track, that means the Jinks teams have now played 23 games at BG and given up over 70 twice and 66 once, and the first two came early in his tenure and one was to Ohio State but THIS one was at the end of his second year, when he might have started to get it together and it was to a team in our conference. And our rival. On our field.
The defense is an absolute mess. Bad angles, bad fits, no one setting the edge, no tackling in the secondary, poor pass coverage, little pass rush. Just an absolute mess.
Somehow, I'm sure Dino Babers is to blame.
Something has to be changed. I understand that the university won't buy Jinks out, but if he brings his staff back intact, he's just setting a date for when he leaves at the end of his contract. I have been writing about his under-prepared staff since they got here. He under-estimated what you need to win at this level and now the program is paying the price. I am convinced that it won't get fixed with the guys in headsets for this game. If we can't get a new head coach, he's got to do something to change the trajectory.
Not to call anyone out, but, you know, you might start looking on the defensive side of the ball.
There is one good thing about this game. No one can be under any illusions about where we are, relative to our goal, which is to be the best team in the MAC. That team was on our field last night and they scored 66 points. Last year's mini-streak passing tired horses might have created the illusion that things have stabilized, but with this finish there can be no doubt how bad it is.
Changes need to be made if for no other reason than for recruiting. BG is going to be negatively recruited like crazy over the next few weeks, partly by the guys who beat us tonight. Yes, I know bad teams can offer playing time, but no player wants to be on the business end of a beating like that.
The fear is that we are slipping into the position that Miami was in after Hoeppner left. A decade of losing that they appeared to have snapped out of, but have not.
The negativity was already bad and this is just going to make it worse. Frankly, it's hard to see them beating EMU either, though I guess its possible. Either way, 2-10 or 3-9, this team has not improved over last year, record-wise or playing-wise. Changes are needed.
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I don't think any amount of defensive game planning was going to stop Toledo from doing what they did last night. They had better players up and down the line. Through strong special teams and offensive play we hung around for a while and took advantage of a couple of Toledo miscues. But Toledo ran the ball at will, and when the Falcons keyed on the run, Toledo had a quarterback who could find open receivers.
The Falcon defense is a disaster right now. It's very tough to watch. I'm open to to the idea that Perry Eliano needs to be replaced. But, let's be honest: It looks an awful lot like Eliano doesn't have the players he needs, either. And, people can make fun of this point, but it seems true: The best Falcon players on that field last night were either redshirt seniors recruited by Dave Clawson and company or true freshmen recruited by Mike Jinks and company. We had two or three lost classes in there.
A risk in making staff changes is in setting recruiting back further. So I'm not as certain this is as obvious a call as some are saying.
I just don't see it that way. Coaches aren't just supposed to stand around and be like, yeah, players are no good. Players are supposed to get better and put in positions to win, not set scoring records almost two full years into the system. Even with Morgan--why didn't he improve for two years? Where's the coaching?
We continually put our backs in man coverage they can't handle. We don't improve on taking angles and we continually don't stay home on the edge. These are coachable things.
Lastly, the risk to recruiting is telling recruits we're staying the course. Making changes gives us a response to the negative recruiting which is only talking about things that are observable. Even Babers made a change in DC that involved his best friend and without it we don't win in '15.
Coach Jinks took our job, coached in the Texas Tech bowl game and then hired the first people he could think of for assistants because he under-estimated how hard it was to win in the MAC because he didn't understand what he was getting into. If he doesn't remedy that mistake, it won't ever work.
I'll concur with Schadenfreude, planning wasn't going to stop them last night. The defense truly is a disaster, which was four and a half years in the making. Likewise I agree that the best players on the field are the last of Clawson's and the first of Jink's players. And in the end, the nature of how complicated the mess BGSU football is in means that Chris Kingston's hiring of Dino Babers, as well as the increasingly clear truth of Babers' time as head coach, will always be inexorably linked to Jinks' success or failure.
I will offer this thought, which I think is more important than anything else this year.
Jarret Doege is presently the best quarterback in the MAC and the future of BGSU football hinges on the young man. All things will now revolve around the amazing play of the true freshmen. Doege will be put forward by the coaches as the bright future of BGSU football, the foundation on which a powerful offense is emerging and proof that at least half of the program will be exciting and worth following. Doege will be used by coaches recruiting players on both sides of the ball as a Jinks player that represents what is coming together at BGSU. BGSU will market Doege as he is the first sliver of true hope for something people want to watch at Doyt L. Perry stadium.
Doege IS the foundation Jinks has to build on now and can hold his recruiting together with. Doege is the player that defines the line between the wreckage of Baber's program and the start of his own at BGSU.
Some may see a horrific season coming to an end. I see what could prove a few years from now as the true "turning point."
Orange: Babers had a entourage of "buddies" and family behind him that made it look like he was Moses leaving Egypt. Sure, he made a "change" at DC, but did he fire the guy? Nope. His loyalty was to his buddies first, BGSU second. Even the new DC was a buddy he brought into help on defense. He could only marginally improve what was the definition of total failure, which too many around BG declared to be "huge improvements."
Understand that like so much of this mess, I'm not far from agreement on many things here. But this isn't the simple mess people want it to be. I do think there can be real improvements from the coaching staff. I've alluded to watching the team and feeling like they look like crap on the field before games. Listless, unfocused, sloppy in presentation. You see an NIU, OU or even Akron come out and they have matching shoes, they move with clear and sharp purpose and routine. And BTW, they are better teams than BGSU.
Anyway, we'll see what comes of it. As I've said before, all things center around Jarret Doege. I think it is possible, even if Jinks is gone the year after he graduates, that Doege could be the thing that holds recruiting together and provides a foundation the program can build on top of.
I understand you're not far off. To both you and Schadenfreude, I just want to say that I don't think it is a simple fix or an obvious call. In fact, it is a very difficult decision to make for the program. I just don't think there's a better option, but time will tell. My hope is that Jinks succeeds, it is by far better than starting over again. I just don't see any signs it will happen.
I've said it on AZZ and I'll say it again, I thought Coach Jinks was unfairly harsh in his blame towards Morgan and light on how bad the D was early in the year. Doege is the guy for our futures at QB, but this defense is and has been HORRIFIC for the last two years. I believe plenty of blame is due in the direction of Babers, but there hasn't been any visible D adjustments to correct their failings.
I'm taking this just a little further. I agree that doege is our QB, our line in beginning to show something....we will have to wait to see who's back next year. But the D has been a train wreck waiting to go off the rails since the last couple years of Clawson and hadn't been righted since. There has been literally no consistency....and I'm not putting the blame on any of the coaches as each one has had to work with what they had. It was the mess that many defensive players put their teammates in by being arrested. Since Clawson's last year how many have been arrested and kicked off the team that also coincided with graduates. How many were starters? Most were or had significant playing time that made them important to the program. It's been a hole and for the first time we've more than one year where finally players have played together and that will build a cornerstone that had been missing. Is Jinks the answer? I'm not sure his assistants are though.
Perry. Clawson's last couple of years were the peak of BGSU's defense and the utter implosion took place on Baber's watch his first year and has not been fixed yet. He hired a buddy for his buddy at DC, but the damage was done, the defense remained in chaos. I don't so much see chaos now as I do thin talent and hard working but over matched coaching perhaps. Regardless, all agree it is an total mess that has to change if anything ever is going to be accomplished.
But I don't buy any push to toss this back still further to Clawson's time.
The Bowling Green interception-that-wasn't was a great example of a situation that seems like a Rorschach test on coaching. One of our DBs (Fred Garth, I think) was in excellent position and the deep ball bounced off his head or shoulders and into the hands of another Falcon.
Interception!
Except -- no! Garth wasn't even trying to turn around and look for the ball, so they called it pass interference and Toledo kept the ball.
Was this a case where our guy had not been coached well enough to turn around and look for the ball or was this a case where our guy is having trouble, for whatever reason, accomplishing what he needed to do? I'm not sure the answer is knowable. People who assume the coaches need to be replaced will blame the coaching. People who assume talent is the problem will blame the talent.
Likewise with James Morgan. Was he been sufficiently coached in not staring down receivers and in how to complete deep balls, or did he just not have it in him? Given the amount of time he was given to establish himself as the starter, I lean toward the latter, but it's true that I can't be sure. Maybe there is some drill or something that could have fixed this that our coaches never tried.
Jinks had an interesting comment after the game. I'm paraphrasing rather loosely here but he basically said he didn't have the depth right now to always take people out of the game when they make correctable mistakes. He is already looking forward to next year and getting more depth in here. His vision, it seems, is that the mental mistakes may start to cure themselves when people know they can be benched if they keep making them.
There are some flaws in this program that might be attributable to coaching, including the angles on some tackles and the degree to which our players are getting beat on the edge. Perhaps. But, are we sure? I don't know if we are.
A change might be good on the defensive side. Maybe. Like I said, I'm open to that. But a factor that's hard to measure is the effect this would have on recruiting. I suppose it is possible that it could send the right message to recruits and someone could come in and do some good on right away bringing in a good class. But when I look at the trouble we had in the transition to and away from Dino Babers, this makes me nervous.
(For what it's worth: Butch Davis appears available!)
i hear you schad. My point is that when everything points that way, you have to wonder about the skill development on defense. And while we can't know, it is knowable. Lastly, Jinks essentially said the only solution he has to skill development is to put guys on the bench. Glad none of my teachers had that attitude.
Just an fyi.....Garth is leading the team in tackles, a free safety which means a lot a plays are breaking thru while Nate is 2nd, which he should be up there.
A coaches job is to have his team ready for each game and competing on both sides of the ball. Also they are there to develop players so they improve week to week or year to year. We are clearly worse one year later; way worse. If I'm a recruit, I'm not sure I would play for this coaching staff. I mean this is embarrassing, he belongs at the high school level or lower. I've said it once on here and I'll say it again. We need to clean house, regardless of cost. I'm sure some well off alumni will gladly donate their hard earned dollars to offset any cost issues, I know I would if I had it like that. Fire Mike Jinks and his entire staff. A fresh start can do wonders to a football team, at least to have us out there competing. I refuse to believe this football team is as bad as they look out there. For all you idiots out there (Talking about you John Wagner from The Blade), just take a look at an NFL team who changed coaches and now is in year 2. Doug Pederson's Philadelphia Eagles are now on top of the NFL. I know there are vats differences but I'm talking about the attitude they bring and the effort. They are out there wanting to win, and competing. The Bowling Green Falcons are not. Bye Mike Jinks and staff, don't let it hit ya where the good Lord split ya.
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