Babers Message to EIU players....

As you know, I think coaches who leave one school without talking to their team first, face to face, are beneath contempt.  This time of year, there's another issue, though, and it was faced by Dino Babers.  EIU is out of school and the players are all home for winter break.  No way to talk to them...so he did this, which is the next best thing and shows a little bit more about Coach Babers.

Babers Presser...KEYWORD: Short

Somehow I remember Coach Clawson being a lot more loquacious at this opening presser...

Anyway, 12 minutes, start to finish.

I think the thing we learned most was his style.

He said he came into the player's meeting this morning and all the guys were sitting up, hands in their laps, feet on the floor...he said it looked "military."  He said the first thing he told the players was they needed to "loosen up a little bit."

He says you can be disciplined and tough without being "straight military."  He views himself as a player's coach, and says you can be engaging while holding high standards.  He says players will be comfortable talking to him about what is going on in their lives.

In that vein, he cited Art Briles as an influence.  Briles, who is very hot right now, follows the trending "positive reinforcement" method of coaching.  See the positive, don't focus on the negative.  Doesn't mean you can't improve.  It just means you don't build the team up by tearing guys down.

In his opening statement, he said that "I don't settle."  Continuing, "why do you want to be average?"

Anyway, other than Dan Cummins telling him it was his first head coaching job, there were just a couple questions and away you go.

My overall impression is that this is a guy with a lot of charisma.  I absolutely cannot believe he is not an effective recruiter with that kind of presence.  I personally believe that too much coaching is focused on the negative, so I like that, so long as you are able to keep the team under control.

Anyway, 12 minutes and that was all, but a good start, I think.  He has the bearing of a head coach, which is part of the job but not all of it.  Looking forward to seeing him get to work against WKU next Fall!

Dino it is...

And so the search is over.  Dino Babers of Eastern Illinois will be BG's next football coach.

I like the hire for a lot of reasons.

He is a proven head coach.  If you go for the big-time coordinator, you don't know if they are prepared to be a head coach.  Yes, I know, Urban Meyer, but the program was certainly in a different place when that hire was made.  We're poised for a run and I like that we aren't providing on the job training.

He is a winner.  EIU was a last place team when he got there, and he won the OVC title the next season and the season after that, his only two years there.  They outscored their opponents 675-319.  No, really.  They were ranked #2 in FCS this year, beat San Diego State 40-19 (Aztecs made a bowl game) and came with 4 of beating NIU.

He has high pedigree experience as an assistant.  Baylor, UCLA, Pitt, Arizona, SD State, Purdue.  He was OC at A&M and Arizona.  He was assistant head coach at UCLA.

He has a high-powered offense modeled on Art Briles.  At EIU, he featured the best offense in FCS.  Also, they used a mixed pass and run attack, which is perfect for the skilled players he is inheriting at BGSU.

EIU was also top 30 in scoring defense, along with other categories.

He is our first African-American Head Coach for football...though I think it is a credit to the society that this hardly seems to be a big deal.

So, what is not to like?

I can hear the more crochety members of the nation saying one thing in particular...these are people who want to make a "statement" hire, most notably with DJ Durkin or some OSU dude (didn't seem to matter which one)...what I can hear them saying is that he was considered at EMU and they picked another guy.  Why do we want EMU's leftovers?

All I can say to that is EMU had its own situation.  After what they went through, they felt they needed a guy who doesn't swear and doesn't let the players swear.  It is a different situation.  Just judge our guy on his own merits and ultimately on his results.

He has only been a head coach for two years.  Obviously, no coach has everything.  It would be nice to see him have a couple more recruiting classes under his belt, no doubt.  I assume we were able to check in how he did recruiting as an assistant at all those schools.  The proof will be in the pudding.

I think this is the right hire for us.  I like the FCS route.  We get good football coaches we can afford, and coaches who are used to making do with less.  Obviously, no one knows the future.  He might succeed, he might not.  Based on what we have seen, it is hard to believe he will fail, but the thing is not done until it is done.

Welcome to the Falcon Family, Dino.  Presser tomorrow at 10.

It is Babers...

Just a quick note with more to follow.  The coach is Dino Babers of Eastern Illinois.  I advised you to keep your eye on the FCS guys.  They have head coaching experience and we can afford them.  And it worked last time.  Anymore, more to come.

Preview! Preview! Pitt Game by Game, Part II

So we restart the game-game review of the Pitt Panthers.  They were 4-2 after 6, and (spoiler alert) they finished 6-6 which means they went 2-4 coming home.  Let's look.

Game 7:  @Navy 21, Pitt 21

Navy ended the season 7-4.  This is one I am sure Pitt would be glad to have back, given they had a lead and Navy lost to UT and WKU.  Pitt was up 21-14 with 8 minutes left in the game and then gave the Midshipmen 10 points in the last 8 minutes and lost the game on a last second field goal.  Pitt had the ball between scores with the game tied, but went 3 and out.

They did a decent job with the Navy option, holding them to 4.7 yards per rush.  The stats were pretty even, with Pitt having the game's only turnover, but I'd say they played them pretty even.  Pitt did struggle to run the ball against Navy.

Tom Savage was 20 of 23 for 202 yards and 2 TDs.

Game 8:  @Georgia Tech 21, Pitt 10

Georgia Tech finished 7-5 for the year.  They did it by putting a pretty big hurt onto the Pitt offensive unit.

Pitt's running backs had 19 yards in 14 carries.  Savage was sacked 5 times for 32 yards.  Taking sacks out, they had only 200 yards of offense to show for 42 passing attempts, which is not going to get it done, especially when you aren't running the ball.

Interestingly, playing Navy and Georgia Tech back to back is like a double play, since they both play the triple option offense.  Pitt did not have the same success with Tech's attack, as they averaged 5.2 yards a rush and decent yards when they did pass.

Even so, the game was close until the last minutes when Georgia Tech scored to ice the game.

Game 9:  @Pitt 28, Notre Dame 21

A win over Notre Dame makes anyone's season, even if this wasn't exactly the Four Horseman.  The game was tie entering the final quarter.  ND threw 2 pics in the quarter, the 2nd of which dumped out Pitt on the ND 5, and from there the Panthers engineered a scoring drive for the winning TD.

Notre Dame outgained Pitt by 101 yards for the game, but had 7.2 yards per play as compared to 4.7 for Pitt.  The Panthers were +3 for the game in turnovers, marking a significant part of the advantage.  ND also had a lot of big passing plays, but overall a low completion percentage.

Ray Vinopal had both INTs for Pitt.

Game 10:  North Carolina 34, @Pitt 27.

This one had to sting pretty bad, too.  The game was tied with about 5 minutes left and Pitt punted and UNC had a 61 yard punt return for the winning score...and it was the 2nd PR TD of the game.

They wasted a 100 yard day by James Conner (with 1 TD), and a 300+ yard game by Savage.  In addition to the poor punt coverage, Pitt hurt themselves with 7 sacks for 86 yards.  For a number of games, they appeared to have this under control, but the Tar Heels had open season on Savage.

On defense, they held UNC to 5.2 yards per play, which is average.  It would only have been 20 points allowed if they had covered punts.

Game 11:  Pittsburgh 17, @Syracuse 16

Bowl eligibility was narrowly achieved as the Panthers took a 17-16 lead and then hung on through a scoreless 4th quarter to get their 6th win.

Syracuse missed a 4th Q FG and stalled out their final drive on the Pitt 36.

Pittsburgh struggled on offense, getting no running game going.  Savage was 28 of 41, but that was for only 213 yards, and with 3 sacks deducting 25 yards, that left them with 193 yards of production on 44 pass plays, which is not very good.

Syracuse outgained Pitt by 68 yards on similar plays, but were unable to convert that into 2 more points.  Oh, and an early blocked XP made a difference.

Game 12: Miami 41, @Pitt 31

This one was probably not as close as it appears.  The U led 31-10 at halftime and Pitt never got the score within 10 points in the 2nd half.

By the end, Pitt had actually outgained Miami, but 2 turnovers to none for the Hurricanes helped to negate that advantage.

They had a big day on the ground, with Bennett gaining 141 yards on 21 carries.  Savage was 24 of 43 for 281, with only 1 sack and 1 INT.

Their early start was caused, according to their coach, a fumble on a kickoff, a blown coverage on defense and some untimely penalties, though they finished with only 4 for the game.

----

They have not played since November 29.

That's the story.  A couple games they could have won, a couple they could have lost. They certainly appear inconsistent on offense and sack-prone, while their defense had their games in both columns as well.  We will look at the aggregate numbers late as we get closer to the game, but for now this was the narrative of the Pitt season.

Preview! Preview! The Pitt Panthers...Game By Game...Part I

And now, the Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl.

Pizza Pizza.

We will spend the next couple of days learning about our opponent, the 6-6 Pitt Panthers, starting today with a game by game review of their season.

Pre-season, they were picked to finish 5th in the Coastal Division of the ACC....their first season in the new conference.  As it turns out, they finished 6th, with a 3-5 record inside the conference.

Game One:  Florida State 41, @Pitt 13

They had a rough introduction to the ACC, playing the team that ended up being #1 in the country.  Pitt scored the first TD and led 7-0 but then Winston and the rest of the boys outscored them 41-6 the rest of the way.  Winston was 25 of 27 (!) for 356 and 4 TDs and he ran for one too.

Their QB, Tom Savage, made his Pitt debut.  He was is a transfer from Rutgers.  Pitt managed 5.4 yards per play on offense.

Game Two:  @Pitt 49, New Mexico 27.

Pitt blasted a New Mexico team that finished the season 3-9.  Pitt scored on their first eight possessions and led 35-6 at halftime, getting a ridiculous 10.1 yards per play for the game.  The Panthers had 2 rushers over 100 yards (and 2 TDs each) and Savage was 13 of 17, but had 2 picks in those 17 attempts, which is not good.

Game is also notable as New Mexico had 11 players with a rushing attempt.

Game Three:  Pitt 58, @Duke 55

This was a wild one.  Didn't really generate any headlines at the time, since beating Duke is a traditional going back years, but looking back this was a nice win, especially on the road.

This was not an overtime game, by the way.

Savage tied an ACC record with 6 TD passes, 3 to Tyler Boyd.  James Conner had 173 yards rushing.

Pitt allowed Duke 7.7 yards per play.

Game Four: @Pitt 14, Virginia 3

The Pitt offense must have been tired after the previous week, as they only ground out a 14-3 win over Virginia, which finished 0-8 and 2-10.

Pitt scored their 14 points in the first quarter and averaged 3 yards per play for the game.  Their passing game was awful.  Savage was 13 of 31 with 2 picks and he was sack 7 times, meaning of the 38 times they dropped back, 9 times they had a negative result.  When you deduct the sacks, those 38 plays contributed only 122 yards.

The running game was not much better, as James Conner ran for 1.8 yards per carry.

Obviously, the Pitt defense rebounded, holding the Cavs to 2.7 yards per play and no TDs.

Game Five:  @Virginia Tech 19, Pitt 9

Second low scoring game in a row.  Va Tech ended up 8-4, though this program is clearly not what it once was.

The Hokies set the tone for the game with 10 first quarter points and led 16-3 entering the 4th.  Pitt scored a TD with 2 minutes left (down 19-3) and missed the 2xp to create the final score.

Another rough day for the passing game.  Savage was 13 of 28 with no INT but was sacked 8 times.  They only managed 18 non-sack rushing attempts for the game.

On the other side, you have to mention the defense.  Va Tech averaged only 4.4 yards per play and they had no turnovers, so the defense did this strictly getting stops.

Game Six:  @Pitt 35, ODU 24

ODU finished 8-4 with Idaho as their only D1 win, as they are transitioning to FBS football.  This game was uncomfortably close--UNC beat them 80-20 and they lost to Maryland 47-10.  The score in this one was 28-24 heading into the 4th.

They had the opportunity to run and did, with Jacob Bennett getting 240 yards on 30 carries.  Savage passed only 18 times with 11 completions and 104 yards.

Pitt gave up over 300 yards passing to ODU.

More to come

Bayer to East-West Shrine Bowl

Exciting news for Alex Bayer, who has been invited to play in the East-West Shrine Bowl.  This is a huge honor.  The Shine Bowl is actually the longest-running all-star game and it is a great thing for Alex to be playing.

He was all-MAC for the second consecutive year this year and was second on the BG team with 34 receptions.  He had a career game in the MAC Championship Game, and I'm 100% convinced he will do a great job representing BGSU.  He's been a warrior for the orange and brown.

Congrats, Alex.