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So, who are these Bears...

So, next up on the Falcon's docket are the Morgan State Bears.  We'll have some more previews coming up between now and game time.  In the interim, here are some tidbits to start with.

Morgan State is an FCS team.  These games were more common at one point, but is the first one since 2007 when we played WKU.  I believe you can expect one FCS game on our schedule for the foreseeable future.

Morgan State is in Baltimore.  It is a historically black college.  It was originally formed in 1867 and today is a doctorate awarding institution.  They have around 6,000 undergraduate students.

At one point, Morgan was a football and track powerhouse.  But, as larger schools integrated, it spelled the end of dominance for schools like Morgan State and Grambling.

Overall, Morgan State sent 30 players to the NFL, including four Hall of Famers.  (Willie Lanier, Roosevelt Brown, Leroy Kelly, and Len Ford.)

They were 4-7 last year, and are now on a five-game losing streak.  They haven't played a MAC team since 2009 where they lost to Akron 41-0.

Last year, they were last in FCS in total offense and second to last in passing efficiency.  They were stronger on defense....they were 40th in total defense.  They were 111th in punting.

Their first game was against Towson State.  They lost 42-3.  They changed QBs part-way through.  In the post-game, their coach was happy with their special teams play but the offense and defense are not there.

By the way, their Coach's name is Donald Hill-Eley.  He is the first coach BG has ever faced with a hyphenated name.  (I made this up, but it might be true anyway).

Finally, in case you are pondering, there are a few hundred caucasian students at Morgan State.  One of them is their kicker....and he is believed to be the only Jew.

Former and Future Opponent Land

So, the time has come to restart our weekly look at how our former and future opponents did on the gridiron...helpful both for looking ahead and looking back to see (for example) how much a win over Idaho means as they play more games.

Morgan State---Lost 42-3 against fellow FCS school Towson State.
Wyoming--Won at home, 35-32 over FCS Weber State.
West Virginia thumped Marshall, 34-14 in Morganhole.
Miami--Lost @Missouri 17-6.
WMU--Lost 34-10 in Michigan, opting not to finish.
Toledo--Routed FCS New Hampshire.
Temple--Routed arch rival, FCS Villanova.
Kent--Defeat @Alabama.  Roll Tide.
Northern--Beat Army 49-26 in Dekalb
Ohio--Beat New Mexico State 44-24 on the road.
Buffalo--Lost to Pitt 35-16.

MAC vs:

All out of conference: 8-5
All FBS:  4-5
All FCS: 4-0
All BCS: 1-5

International Centre for Special Teams Research

So, the hallowed halls of the International Centre for Special Teams research are now teeming with scholars blowing dusts off ancient scrolls and dipping their quill pens into pots of black ink.  Abacuses (abacuii??) click in rooms on monastic humility.

The first report is out.

The basic idea here is that it isn't the small yardage differences that you are really worried about. If you typically have 35 net yards on a punt, you don't really care if it is 31 or 39. What matters is when it is 20 or 50, or when a game changing play (touchdown, turnover, block) occurs.

On that idea, I hereby found the International Centre for Special Teams Research. I score each play....most plays will be worth no points, meaning that what occurred was in the neighborhood of what should be expected. Plays above that get positive points, plays below that negative.  Total scoring explanation is here.

BG had a good game with special teams, though, in retrospect, most of the points on both sides were earned on the punting game.  In fact, it might be the best (hot) punter on punter action in the modern era.

BG ended up with a +5 on the day, net.

Positive plays included:

52 yard punt net.
61 yard punt net.
punt down on 2 (+2)
Punt down on 4 (+2)

Negative plays included

Missed PAT (-1)

The bulk of the plays were otherwise within a normal range....kickoffs returned in the 20s, a 39 yd FG, made PATs, etc.

On Idaho's side, they ended up at +3

Positive plays include:

Punt puts BG on 19
Punt 51 yard net
Punt 53 yard net and inside 20 (+2)
Punt return of 18 yards leads to net 40
46 yard net on punt after safety
48 yard net punt

Negative plays include

KO return start on 16 after penalty
KO fumbled out of bounds at the 1
BG KO return to 40 with Idaho penalty
Missed 2XP

This is BG's second best performance dating back to the Marshall game last year, as you can see below.

Blogpoll Week 2 Ballot.....

Took some twitter input.  I decided not to rank ND.  I have been fooled by them before, and until I see more, this just looks like another overrated Notre Dame team.  They get a chance to prove me wrong Saturday in the Big House.  In the meantime, Brian Kelly should consider yelling more.  Seriously.

I have LSU #1.  They whooped a team that was picked to be in the Top 5 and made a serious claim to start at #1.  Similarly, Boise's win over Georgia moves them into 2nd.  Both Alabama and OK have the chance to get back in the top spots if they win bigger games on their schedule.

Here's the ballot....

Falcon Blog Ballot - Week 2

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	14
2	Boise St. Broncos	2
3	Alabama Crimson Tide	-2
4	Oklahoma Sooners	-2
5	Florida St. Seminoles	--
6	Texas A&M Aggies	--
7	Nebraska Cornhuskers	--
8	Virginia Tech Hokies	--
9	Stanford Cardinal	2
10	Arkansas Razorbacks	-1
11	South Carolina Gamecocks	2
12	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	4
13	Wisconsin Badgers	4
14	Oregon Ducks	-11
15	Texas Longhorns	3
16	Florida Gators	3
17	Georgia Bulldogs	-7
18	USC Trojans	2
19	Ohio St. Buckeyes	2
20	West Virginia Mountaineers	3
21	South Florida Bulls	--
22	Pittsburgh Panthers	2
23	Arizona St. Sun Devils	2
24	Michigan St. Spartans	-2
25	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	--
Dropouts: Notre Dame Fighting Irish, TCU Horned Frogs

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

The reaction from Moscow

Gotta confess that a favorite guilty pleasure is reading the opposing papers after we paste a team, especially an out of conference team.  They are nearly always suicidal over losing to us.

Anyway, this piece is from the the Spokesman-Review by John Blanchette.

Correctly, he identifies that Idaho was hoping to make a bowl and they needed this win.  He posits that to make a bowl game now, they will need to win a bunch of conference games, which at the current performance level, will require Fresno, Hawaii and Nevada to actually leave the WAC this year instead of next.

Anyway, here are some choice quotes:

OK, one game does not a college football season make, so rather than suggest it’s going to be a long year for the Vandals let’s just say Thursday was a long night. Or a short one – all intrigue having been sucked out of their season opener before the second quarter was half gone.

Bad timing on letting all the sunshine in through the Kibbie Dome’s end walls. This one deserved to be played in the shadows.

Listening to Akey, it sounded as if the Vandals suffered from stage fright: “I need to see a better response to getting hit in the mouth.”

Linebacker Tre’Shawn Robinson thought it was something else altogether. “We got complacent with ourselves,” he said, referencing Idaho’s quick first touchdown and a heartening early stop. “We came out and stoned them and didn’t keep our eyes on the prize.”

The defense, after that attention-getting fourth-down stop on its own side of the 50, didn’t stop anything else. In building a 30-7 halftime lead, the Falcons reeled off six plays of 22 to 76 yards, and five others beyond 10.

“I saw some wide eyes,” Akey said, “and the wide eyes weren’t looking at the keys, because if that was the case we wouldn’t have those guys running free on us.”

But the offense was similarly horrible. Quarterback Brian Reader, finally getting the chance to run the show with the graduation of Nate Enderle, was a dismal 19 of 43 with a pick and two fumbles – victimized by a slew of drops, yes, but also lots of miscommunication, perhaps exacerbated by the fact that three top receivers, including the explosive Justin Veltung, sat out with injuries.

But as openers go, this was more damaging. Favored at home over a team that counts 28 freshmen and sophomores on its two-deep, the Vandals didn’t just lose but laid a smelly egg. And this is no season to be giving away games if there’s a realistic – or at least genuine – aspiration to be playing during the holidays. 

“It’s one game,” said Akey, “and we have to make sure one game doesn’t cost us.” 

As long as they don’t look back and have to wonder if they were done after this one.

Vandal Victory, Part II

Now, let's switch over and look at the defensive side of the ball.

As effective as the offense was, the defense was just as good.  It was very encouraging.  I think the d-line got a bunch of push, I thought we tackled much more effectively than in the past, mixed blitzes up to get pressure (succeeding, I might add) and kept Idaho off balance most of the game.  Idaho also turned the ball over 3 times.

The run defense was very solid, though not as great as the stats looked.  Idaho had 75 sack adjusted yards on 17 (adjusted) carries, which is 4.4 yards per carry, which is probably higher than we would like.  Their stud transfer averaged only 3.7, however, and the rest was made up by some scrambles by Reader.  Bass' long was only 11 yards.  Idaho never dominated the run game, and that was a big part of BG's ability to hold Idaho to 15 points.  And, the defense got the safety that eventually put the game away, as BG's line completely manhandled Idaho as they tried to drive out of the end zone.

The pass defense was also solid.  BG had 4 sacks and was credited with only 2 hurries, which seems pretty low.  Brian Reader was certainly expected to be able to step in and had performed well in spot duty, but Thursday night he looked every bit the first time starter.  He was never in rhythm, missed a bunch of open receivers, completed only 44% of his passes and took a bunch of hits.  Now, as we will discuss below, he did not have all his options at WR, but I thought we got good pressure and by and large the coverage was pretty good (3 pass break ups)..  We had a blown coverage on the double pass that led to the first TD and the second TD was an even bigger blown coverage, but, in the end, the defense kept Idaho off the field.  They ran 65 plays at 4.5 yards per play overall and were 2 of 12 on 3rd down.


Finally, special teams.

Brian Schmeidebusch.  Welcome dude.  The transfer from Findlay had a really good game.  He hit an 81 yard punt (indoors) and nailed two punts inside the 5 in the second half, helping to keep Idaho on their heals.  The one that was down at the 2 lead directly to a safety and making the game a 3-score game and closing the door.

Finally, placekicking.  Kyle Burkhardt did nail a 39 yard FG, his only attempt.  He also missed an extra point.

So, some perspective.  What does it all mean?

First, the disclaimers.

• Idaho was missing 3 WRs and 2 CBs.
• Idaho is picked to finish outside of the top 90 teams in FBS.
• Idaho had a new QB coming into the game.
• BG had a good game against Marshall last year, too.

All that's true.  At the same time.

• Idaho was expecting to be pretty good this year.
• Reader in a senior and was as prepared as any new QB in the country.
• Idaho was at home.

So, the perspective is that this was just one game, and some things might have aligned for us out there to make it easier.  Idaho isn't a great team.

At the same time, this team showed more out there today than they had since the Marshall game.  It showed (to me) that significant improvement has been made since last season and that if we remain healthy, we're going to be able to be competitive.  And, as our young players become more mature, I think we have a chance to be really good.  I am significantly more optimistic about this year than I was on Wednesday.