MAC Blogger Roundtable...

This week's host is Over the Pylon, and the compiled MAC Blogger roundtable is here.  On the question about rivalries, check out my answer compared to Let's Go Rockets.

Love college sports....

Fewer than 25 Questions about VMI...

The Keydet Football Team, 1895

Usually we do 25 questions about our opponent, but this is relatively difficult for VMI, about whom there is not as much information.  We will see what we get.

Body of Work:

They are a struggling program.  They have 2 wins in each of the last years.  Over the last 10 seasons, they are 21-90.  Their last winning season was 1981 and that was their last win over an FBS team.

In their first game, they lost a close contest to Bucknell, which was picked to finish 4th in the Patriot League.  VMI is picked to finish last in the Southern Conference.

They returned 6 players on offense and 7 on defense from last year's team.

Their top returning RB, Derek Ziglar, did not play in the first game due to a high ankle sprain.  I can't find any word about whether he is expected to play Saturday.  They also played without their leading returning WR, Sam Patterson.

Even with Ziglar last year, the Keydets were 114th out of 120 in the FCS in rushing offense.  They were 103rd overall in scoring offense.

They started a R-FR QB named Al Cobb and he had a good enough game to be named the conference Freshman of the Year.  He threw for 4 TDs and ran for one and had 308 yards passing.

Their fill-in RB, Deon Watts, had 98 yards on 22 carries.

They do have some size across the offensive from.  L-R, they go 310, 325, 285, 325, 325.

Stonewall Jackson--
Formerly on the Faculty, students
called him "Tom Fool"

On defense, they gave up almost 8 yards a rush to Bucknell, who also passed for 230 yards on 25 attempts.  Last year's defense was 103rd in scoring and total defense.

Special teams, wise, their PK, Dillon Christopher, hit 56% of his FGs last year and then made his only one--34 yards--against Bucknell.  He had a 52 yarder last year.  Their punting game is soft.  They are using a new punter, and he averaged only 29 yards a punt and a 13 yard net.  He did put 2  of his 4 punts inside the 20.

They defended kickoffs well, but allowed a 62 yard TD return with 13 minutes left in a game that was tied at the time.

Their coach is (I swear to God) Sparky Woods.  Sparky was a head coach at Appalachian State and South Carolina, lasting at the latter job for 5 years with a 6-win ceiling.  He then served as an assistant at Memphis, Virginia, Mississippi State, and Alabama.  He then came to VMI, where he is in his 7th season.  In 16 seasons as a head coach, 78-98-5.

Intangibly, there are a lot of question marks for BG.  It has been a very long six days for the orange and brown.  You produce a "unrecognizable" defense performance and get smoked at WKU, and then you lose your starting QB and starting DE in the next few days.

In that sense, this is just what the doctor ordered--a soft landing.  Look, either VMI has gotten a lot better since last year, or they just aren't a good team even at the FCS level.  The team will get an opportunity to stretch its legs and get the new guys introduced at the right level.  Two Big 10 teams follow, so things get less soft pretty quick, but let's be honest...I'm glad we're not heading into Camp Randall tomorrow.

The last major QB injury for BG...

I remember seeing it.  BG was playing WMU at the Doyt in 2005.  After a seemingly non-descript play, Omar Jacobs left the field holding his wrist.  At that exact moment, BG was 4-2 and 4-0 in the MAC, with the only losses being @Wisconsin and @Boise.

Jacobs did not return.  BG ended up losing to WMU 45-14  on that day and then losing to Akron and beating Kent State before Jacobs returned.  BG ended up losing in the season ender in double-OT to the Rockets and missing out on a chance to win the division.

That's the last comparable situation.  There were QB injuries during the early Clawson years, but Jacobs and Johnson occupy a different role on those teams than Matt Schilz did.

History does not have to repeat itself.  When Jacobs was injured, Anthony Turner was the heir apparent and he never developed into an effective D1 QB, eventually losing the job to Tyler Sheehan.  The question is whether James Knapke can do it.

Beyond that, my feeling at the time was that the team lost its bearings when Jacobs got injured, something that I place onto the head coach.  The question is whether this team--which has shown resilience in the past--rallies around this or finds itself defeated by it.

Breaking: Strack reports Zach Colvin out for year

Source: BGSU Senior Defensive Lineman, Zach Colvin, will miss the remainder of the season with a medical issue. Another huge blow for BGSU.
— Jordan Strack (@JordanStrack) September 4, 2014

Things are not getting any easier for our Falcons.  DE Zach Colvin is a Senior who played for the Falcons as a true freshman.  In his first 3 seasons, he had played in 37 games.  He never put up huge numbers, but he was always in the rotation and his experience was needed on the line.

Last I had heard, he was out of practice because he was "ill."  Believe I saw that from John Wagner.

Anyway, sending our best out to Zach in what I know must be a difficult time.  No idea what the medical issue is, but hope for a full and speedy recovery for him and nothing but the best as he returns to health.

What is a keydet, anyway?

So, I did a little research on the VMI team, which mostly incorporated...what the heck is a Keydet.

According to the VMI website, essentially, your guess is as good as theirs.  It could have something to do with grey uniforms or maybe how a southern drawl would say "Cadet."

Notable alumni include George "Marshall Plan" Marshall, Senator Harry Byrd, Dabney Coleman, Bobby Ross (coached the Lions), Fred Willard ("wha happen?"),  and Randall and Mortimer Duke of the movie "Trading Places."  OK, I made the last 2 up.

Men's Basketball Schedule Released

The Men's Basketball schedule was released today...here it is, analysis below.

11.07.14 Notre Dame College (Ex).
11.15.14 AT DRAKE
11.19.14 WRIGHT STATE
11.25.14 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE
11.30.14 AT DETROIT
12.03.14 AT WESTERN KENTUCKY
12.06.14 ALABAMA A&M
12.09.14 AT DAYTON
12.13.14 CLEVELAND STATE
12.21.14 FERRIS STATE
12.28.14 AT SOUTH FLORIDA
01.03.15 CHICAGO STATE
01.07.15 AT KENT STATE
01.10.15 OHIO
01.14.15 AT AKRON
01.17.15 BALL STATE
01.21.15 EASTERN MICHIGAN
01.24.15 AT TOLEDO
01.27.15 NORTHERN ILLINOIS
01.31.15 AKRON
02.04.15 AT CENTRAL MICHIGAN
02.07.15 AT NORTHERN ILLINOIS
02.10.15 WESTERN MICHIGAN
02.14.15 AT BALL STATE
02.18.15 MIAMI
02.21.15 BUFFALO
02.24.15 AT OHIO
02.28.15 AT MIAMI
03.03.15 KENT STATE
03.06.15 AT BUFFALO

Right sized, not one Power 5 team on the schedule.  There is a team from the A-10 and one from American Athletic, which are strong basketball conferences.  Drake is in the Missouri Valley.

Beyond the fact there are no big names (and no tournaments) on the schedule, there were two teams that finished in last year's top 100 Sagarin-wise (Dayton and Cleveland State) and two others in the top half of D1 (Wright State and Western Kentucky, both teams BG has been playing).  Chicago State and Alabama A&M are much lower-ranked teams and a couple other are in the middle.  (ending Sagarin rankings below).

DRAKE (190)
WRIGHT STATE (138)
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI STATE (218)
DETROIT (202)
WESTERN KENTUCKY (162)
ALABAMA A&M (305)
DAYTON (33)
CLEVELAND STATE (94)
FERRIS STATE
SOUTH FLORIDA (196)
CHICAGO STATE (286)

Ferris State is a DII school and the only non-D1 team we play.  (As I have said before, I think playing one is OK).

If we are thinking home crowds will be increasing, we are not going to do it with interesting opponents, at least this year.

I am looking very forward to seeing what our new leadership will do.  Having said that, the schedule looks like the end of the Dakich era.

Babers Presser: Drop a Bomb Edition

So Coach Babers went all the way through his presser today, answering questions about the next game, talking about VMI, etc.  Then, when everyone thought it was over, he said he had something to say, and dropped the bomb we all know...Matt Johnson is out for the rest of the season.

In fact, at the time he said he didn't even know if Knapke knew yet.  Coach said that he found out late last night that the injury was severe.  An earlier test had been inconclusive.  He was injured on the play where he got sacked and came up stretching his leg.  Coach says that he and his parents have not decided whether to seek surgery for the injury or not...apparently there are two options.

Coach has raised a theme earlier in the presser---that it was "take care of BG" week, and, as a reporter pointed out, that takes on even more significance with Johnson down.

A lot of people have seized on the statement that BG "trained one QB, really."  He went on to say the starter got most of the reps.  I don't think this is any different from what any other team would do.  You can't split reps evenly and expect your starter to be in the flow of the game.  I don't think it represents negligence or anything like that. I just think that's the best way to prepare the team unless someone gets injured, and then you have to do some follow up work.

Beyond that (and before that) Coach said some other stuff.

I will say this.  As I watch him, it is impossible to do anything but like him.  We were all disappointed Friday, but I liked his response then and I liked him today.  I am rooting for the guy.  Let's hope we has the success at BG he had at EIU, because it could be a lot of fun.

Among the quips were that BG could now "toilet flush" the pre-season clippings.  Now we can "see what we are and how we can get better."

He said there's no "grey" in a program...just black and white.  You can guess where last Friday fell.

He didn't "see" it coming, which was one of the things that upset him.  He wasn't expecting the defensive issues.  But, after practice, the players have a "good feel" for what is acceptable and unacceptable.

Assume there is some understatement there.

He referred to a VMI LB as being their "bell cow."

When asked if teams will attack the BG secondary, he said "I would."

He noted that WKU has a hard time running against BG, but they didn't have to.

He also clarified the comments about the offense keeping the defense off the field.  He said BG had 6 drops.  A couple were for TDs and if you make the other ones, you keep the offense on the field--who knows how long the drives run?

Anyway, that was today's presser, with the end overshadowing the beginning and the middle.  Everything changes now.  Everything isn't over, it just changes.  Let's give our QB a chance and let's have the team raise their game around him and let's see what happens.