Football Updates

Some football updates.

Nate Needham won the East Special Teams Player of the Week award, which was well deserved after he kicked four FGs in the NIU game.  I wish we weren't relying on him so much, but he has done great work.

Coach talked about him in the presser.  He said he had called out Needham for his transformation in a team meeting.  He said that last year in practice he was "killing cheerleaders" by which I assume he means putting bystanders in danger with wild kicking, a very similar description to how Dave Clawson once described Stephen Stein. This year Needham has tremendous "urgency" which is the word of the day, but you can see the difference on the field.

He cited Needham to make a larger point.  It was interesting.  He said that this team is at least competitive but they have to learn how to win.   I remember Meyer saying that Lou Holtz told him the same thing...first a team has to learn how to compete than how to win.

And BG is at least staying in games, which we did not do last year.  It is a low bar, but it is progress.  

He said BG was going to win a couple more this year. That would surprise me, but it would also be an excellent demonstration of progress.

There are significant portions of the fan base that are very restless/angry with the situation and calling for Loeffler to be fired.  I think there is a zero-percent chance of that happening.  Having said that, I do get it.  You wonder why we aren't giving someone else a shot at QB, you wonder about some of the in-game tactical decisions that are being made and you wonder about the lack of transfers on offense, when we have seen what they have done for the defense.  You wonder why he "isn't calling plays" but you see the offense stand and stare at the sidelines while Loeffler has his head over his playsheet barking into the headphone.  You wonder why NIU has had such a fast turnaround and why Akron beat us with a team as young as ours.

While I don't agree, we should be grateful these people are so angry.  We have been so bad for so long that we risk having no fan base left if and when we are competitive again.  Angry fans at least still care.

Loeffler says we are on schedule, and that's how I see it.  I didn't expect us to be any good this year and we aren't.  If we were still getting regularly blown out, that would be a different issue.  But at least there is some indication of progress.  As far as I am concerned, you can't make a move until at least the end of next season.  But I do get it.  If you commit to a long turnaround, you have to give it time, but it's also a complete disaster if it flames out.