If you don't look around, you might miss something....

There will be lots of chances to review our football season, most of which will focus on deficiencies.  In other words, what went wrong in one of the worst years (on paper) in the program's history.

But, there was one positive which I don't think should be missed, and that is the year Kamar Jorden had....because it was one of the best years in our programs history for a WR.

I think it is easy to overlook this for two reasons, one of which is that it came in a poor year and the other of which is that it comes a year after Freddie Barnes had the BEST YEAR ever for a WR in our program, and in some senses, any program.

So, here are the highlights.

• 96 receptions....3rd most in our history.  (The #2 season is Magner in '03 and he played in 14 games).
• 1,109 yards....3rd most in program history.
• 14 receptions in one game is tied for 4th in the program's history
• He caught 36% of our completed passes.  (Barnes caught 42% in his record year).
• He was 13th in the NCAA in receiving yards
• He was 4th in the NCAA and 1st in the MAC in receptions.

Consider, as well, that those numbers were produced with a QB who was a freshmen, wasn't healthy, and did not provide a huge amount of completions.  Consider, also, that some of that was with a backup QB.

Anyway, I was thinking about this and Jorden having our 3rd best season as a WR ever is worth mentioning and worth congratulating.

Blade Reports Henderson Red-shirting

Not much surprise here, since he has yet to play this year, but the Falcons are red-shirting Start Grad Anthony Henderson this year according to The Blade.  Coach Orr makes a strong effort in the interview to talk about what a gifted player he is and that they are red-shirting him because of how good they think he can be over 5 years.

Football Verbal---O-Line

The Falcons have another verbal commitment to play football.  A couple of weeks ago, I did a review of the offensive line members who are coming back, and I said that it would not surprise me to see us try to jump start the process and add a JUCO player, at least for depth.  That has come true.

Scott Hodges of Sacramento Junior College has verballed.  He is an O-lineman....6'7". 310 lbs, so he's a pretty good sized fella.  He was all-conference.  According to this, he was one of the top JUCO tackle prospects in the country and he did have other D1 offers.

Welcome to the Falcons, Scott.

Looking back at MAC Football Predictions....what were you thinking edition

This is take your medicine day Part II....yesterday I looked at an OK/regrettable record on the Falcon games...today I look at a horrifying record picking the MAC.

East:

My Predicted finish, with actual finish in ()

1. Temple  (3)
2. Kent  (4)
3. OU  (2)
4. BG (5)
5. Buffalo (7)
6. Miami (1)
7. Akron (6)

Yeah, I know.  Pretty horrifying.  My closest pick were BG and Akron, where I was only off by one.  A few notes:

• I don't feel bad that I didn't see Miami coming, because I don't think anyone did.
• Temple was really disappointing.  I'm not sure what happened.  They aren't great at QB, but they had lots of other things going for them.  They lost all their big games.
• I did say that I didn't think Golden would be in the MAC long.
• I liked Kent.  Their offense did not produce like I thought it could
• OU scored better than I thought they would, and had better line play.

West:

My Predicted finish, with actual finish in ()

1. WMU (3)
2. NIU (1)
3. UT (2)
4. CMU (5)
5. BSU (4)
6. EMU (6)

A few notes:

• The only team out of 13 I got in the right place was EMU.  And who couldn't have gotten that?
• I always overrate WMU.  They are always disappointing--they were playing well by the end though.
• I did like NIU (and Kill) a lot, though I somehow thought they would lose to WMU.
• I didn't think that UT would have enough defense to compete.
• CMU fell farther than I expected, given talent and winning tradition.
• Ball State and EMU had forgettable seasons.

Falcons Land 2 New Reported Football verbals

We are starting to see some publicly reported progress on football recruiting.  Two players have committed who are our 9th and 10th reported verbals.  There may be more, but the teams are not allowed to comment and the blog only works on information that is available.

The first is Johnny Joseph, a CB from Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  He's been a part of a very successful defense down there this season, and they are still alive in the HS playoffs.  He leads the team with six passes broken up.  ESPN ranks him as a 74, 2-star player, which is a pretty good MAC player.

The other is Christian Piazza, a football player who also sounds like an Italian vacation.  He is from Ann Arbor (Huron) but attended the Fort Union Military Academy.  He's an O-Lineman who appears to project to OT, and is 6'7" 270.  ESPN gives him a 1-star but says he is a bulldozing run blocker which is certainly what the program needs.  He's probably a little raw, since he mostly played basketball as a young man.  Then, he was introduced to Jeff Genyk, a family friend and the Coach at EMU (formerly) as well as a former Falcon who burned his BG jersey to celebrate his last win as a head coach.

Welcome to the Falcons, Johnny and Christian.

2010 Take Your Medicine Day

So back before the season started (for football), I undertook my annual exercise in humility and tried to pick every game on our schedule.  At the time, I felt a little Jekyll and Hyde.  I was certainly concerned. I though our team was young and the schedule was unfavorable.  I saw 2-10 as worst case and 6-6 as the very best case.  For my real prediction, I split the difference and went 4-8.  As it turns out, I was the disappointed optimist once again, as the worst case came true.  

I wasn't as far off as it looks.  I thought we could beat Buffalo and Miami and we almost did.  I had the Marshall game back.  I decided the 4th win would be Toledo, which was pretty much not even close, and the team surprised me with a road with at CMU that I didn't think we would get.  All of which makes me 8-4 for the year.

Remember, the whole Jekyll/Hyde thing is about a dysfunctional mind....

9/4/2010 at Troy Troy, Al.   L   RIGHT

9/11/2010 at Tulsa Tulsa, OK  L  RIGHT

9/18/2010 Marshall Bowling Green, Ohio W  RIGHT

9/25/2010 at Michigan Ann Arbor, MI  L   RIGHT

10/2/2010 * Buffalo Bowling Green, Ohio W  WRONG

10/9/2010 * at Ohio Athens, Ohio L  RIGHT

10/16/2010 * at Temple Philadelphia, Penn. L RIGHT

10/23/2010 * Kent State Bowling Green, Ohio L  RIGHT

10/30/2010 * at Central Michigan Mt. Pleasant, MI L  WRONG

11/10/2010 * Miami Bowling Green, Ohio W  WRONG

11/17/2010 * at Toledo Toledo, Ohio W  WRONG

11/26/2010 * Western Michigan Bowling Green, Ohio L  RIGHT

Falcons Finally Get D1 Win...

I am sure that there is a great sense of relief inside the program as the team heads into Finals.  It was a much needed win for the guys, who have truly struggled thus far this season.  While FIU is not a great team, this is not a pushover team.  They're certainly better than a Howard team we did lose to.

To make matters more difficult, Scott Thomas, our most consistently productive player, did not play due to back spasms brought on by a practice injury.  To win anyway was very good.

Here's the game flow (76-67 final).  Coach Orr mentioned in particular a point where we got 5 straight stops, which you can see as that little flat part of the FIU line.  The series of stops came at what I am coming to believe is the most critical part of a game, which is between the 8 minute and 4 minute media timeouts.  That time is when the dynamics for the final part of the game are established.  That little run did just that, and BG had very comfortable leads in the final minutes, despite heavy pressure from FIU.

College Basketball Stats

Now, an observer of this year's Falcon team will notice one thing especially....76 points for us....without our leading scorer.  That's 35 and 41 by half, and gives us 3 straight halves where we have had good offense.  Obviously, this is a good trend, though one that is still in the early stages.  FIU was known to defend poorly, and we took advantage.  Dee Brown had a career high 24 and did it using a very low number of possessions....he was 6 of 8 from the field, 3 of 4 from 3, and 9 of 13 from the line.  He averaged 1.5 points every time he concluded a possession.

BG also got productive minutes from a number of players.  Notably, Danny McElroy had 15 points on 6 of 10 shooting and 3/4 from the line (that's 1.32 points per possession) and A'uston Calhoun came around from his slump with 12 point (6 of 9 shooting).  It is difficult to over-state the idea that this is a different team when those talented players contribute.

Fouls limited Cam Black to 12 minutes, but BG still controlled the boards (Black and Calhoun with 6) and Erger and Sealey gave some good minutes off the bench.

From a team standpoint, BG won each of the four factors.  BG shot over 50% from the field and hit 33.3% from 3, which are both season highs.  Yes, BG did not even shoot this well against Ohio Dominican.  We took care of the ball and kept FIU off the offensive boards, and we got to the line, though we only shot 61%.  On defense, FIU shot 43% which is our 4th best of the season and while it is not what we hope (I assume), it was enough to win.

We averaged 1.08 points per possession, our best D1 total of the season.  The game had 70 possessions, 1 above our average for the year.

NCAA Basketball Stats

So, with a win, our guys can head into exams with a feeling of some relief.  Obviously, the team is not out of the woods yet.  We head to Wisconsin to play UWM...a good team that beat us last year and is 4-5 against a tough schedule to date.  The end game is the conference season, and you'd like to see the trend start to point up by then.