More Rocket Failure....

Orr Presser

Coach Orr's presser from this week is up on the bgsufalcons.com website.  Seeing the video helps a lot.  Anyway, he had some interesting things to say.

The first thing was that someone asked Coach is he was praying more given the results of the last two games.  You know, I don't know if they were joking or not, but it was kind of an "awk-WARD" moment.  You won't be surprised to know that Coach prays the same whether the team is winning or losing.

Anyway, he then segued effortlessly into a pretty nice metaphor when he said it was "revelation time" for our team is.  These early games, you find out what you have and what you need to fix.

The foundation of our team is defense, and we have not guarded---especially the perimeter--in the last two games.  As such, we have not "established the foundation" of our team.

He said some interesting things about defense, which he said is mostly about "will."  Yes, we need to defend the easy basket better (he ticked off about a dozen things that go into defending your basket)  but it starts with will--the determination to shut your opponent down every time down the floor.  If you don't defend you are just "playing tag" and that makes it hard to win.

Coach feels that we have to improve our man and zone balance, because we apparently are not doing either one very well.  (Which is a kind of balance.....anyway).

Other than a stretch where BG got 7 straight stops against Wayne State, (DII), we have had no real sustained success on the defensive end of the floor.

We are a work in progress, and everyone is still sorting their roles out.  Someone asked, more or less, who's going to be Nate Miller, and Coach said that it doesn't work that way, we don't have a guy like that right now, but the team has to sort out the roles that work and then find the team's chemistry within that.

You can't look at our team to date without noting that we just aren't getting to the line.  Coach says that our guys who handle the ball have to do better at creating foul situations, which you can do other ways besides just driving to the basket.  So, Jakubowski, Brown, Thomas, etc, need to get themselves to the line more.  (Our opponents have attempted 55 FTs to our 27, and BG is shooting 48% on top of it).

Finally, he had nice things to say about Marc Larson, who has really brought his skills along for his senior season, which is what Coach expects when a player becomes a senior.

Key words are revelation and work in progress.  We had a read from the last two games....the question is can we grow from there?

The votes are in for Biletnikoff, Barnes a finalist

And Freddie Barnes is in the final three.  (Screenshot above from BGSUfalcons.com).

This is a huge honor for our program and for Freddie.  He is having a dominant season, far more than I think any suspected he would have.  Teams are keying on him, and yet he finds ways to get open and makes plays after he gets the ball.

The other two are Jordan Shipley of Texas and Golden Tate of Notre Dame.

I also give credit to the people who vote for this award for recognizing when someone is having an excellent season, even at a non-AQ school.

Voting was before the one-handed highlight reel catch against Akron.

Finally, let's not forget the rest of the offensive team.  The coaches are figuring out how to get him the ball and Tyler is getting it there, the line is blocking and the other WRs are contributing.  They are all part of Freddie getting in a position to perform like no player has in our conference at this position.

He is having an historic season for our program.  I haven't gone back and looked, but it probably is among the top 5 seasons any player has had in orange and brown.  Martin Bayless' season with all the INTs is the only one that leaps to mind, but I will do some research when I get some time.

Now....beat the Rockets.  Again.

CBSSports.com Blog Poll Draft

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

Dropped Out: Wisconsin (#15), Brigham Young (#25).

International Centre for Special Teams Research

We are reaching the end of the season and the first season of work for the International Centre.  As we look at the second to last game of the season, we see that this was a game with only one big special teams play, and that was the onside kick BG returned for a TD.  Other than that, there were some minor plays here and there but pretty much a non-event.

Bowling Green Positive (+8)

BG Punt to Akron 14 (+1)
Akron kickoff returned to BG 46 (+1)
BG kickoff return TD (+6)

Bowling Green Negative (-5)

BG Kickoff returned to Akron 37 (-1)
Akron Kickoff to BG 18 with penalty (-1)
BG kickoff returned to Akron 42 (-1)
BG Kickoff Out of bounds (-1)
BG missed xp (-1)

Bowling Green Neutral

BG Kickoff returned to Akron 22
Akron kickoff returned to BG 27
BG Xp
Akron kickoff 44 yard net after safety
BG punt 35 yard net
Akron kickoff returned to BG 27
BG xp
BG xp
BG xp
BG Kickoff returned to Akron 22
BG Punt, 35 yard net before penalty

Akron Positive (+2)

BG Kickoff returned to Akron 37 (+1)
BG kickoff returned to Akron 42 (+1)

Akron Negative (-8)

Akron kickoff returned to BG 46 (-1)
BG kickoff return TD (-6)
BG Punt 45 yard net with penalty (-1)

Akron Neutral

BG Kickoff returned to Akron 22
Akron 27 yard FG
Akron kickoff returned to BG 27
Akron Xp
Akron kickoff returned to BG 28 before penalty
Akron kickoff 44 yard net after safety
Akron kickoff returned to BG 27
Akron punt 30 yard net
Akron 30 yard FG
Akron xp
BG Kickoff returned to Akron 22
Akron punt 30 yard net

Looking at the season as a whole, we do see some small improvements in special teams play for BG.

It is our third straight game in positive territory, after several games of being on the negative side of the equation.  Still, our special teams play has been worse than our opponents and certainly not where they could be if we were making more plays

Conversely, Akron was -6, which is the 3rd straight week in negative territory and tied for the worst game of the season.  Akron only had two positive plays, which is by far the lowest for any BG opponent this year.

It is Rocket Week!!

Enjoy....

Permutations Fins

It was downright quiet in the MAC this year.  No four-way tie breakers or other mind numbing possibilities.  Temple and OU will battle in Athens for the right to play CMU in the MAC Championship.  BG looks to be in position to finish third.  The loss to OU--and the lack of a chance to beat Temple--end up being decisive.