Back from Champaign

[SpaceRaider]

Just a few miscellaneous observations:

Illinois did a good job in renovating their stadium when they did. That Press box/luxury suite tower is probably as beautiful as any in college football.

Love that video score board (96x36) and the running scoreboard along the margin.

The north end zone seating for the band and students is an excellent addition. Too bad they only had it about a third, if that full of students. 44K student enrollment and student section only 1/3 full.

Countdown to 2nd half kickoff on the video board using shots of players numbered jerseys from 30 down to 1 was excellent. Students flip cards in conjunction with the band's halftime performance was good. Would have been better with a full student section.

Had tickets on the 50 yard line. just under the overhang of the upper deck on the east side. UI fans were very gracious around us at the end and in the last couple of minutes. They asked what the hell our team was doing running/coaches thinking in the last minute. Shrugged my shoulders a couple of different times as they were asking about the play calling several times. MT should have won that game. Should never have come down to a comeback at the end or a missed FG.

Hope our guys are super pissed and ready to take a win this coming Saturday.

 

[dukewayne]

Agreed, I hope the team is ready to take out all of their frustration on Vandy this weekend. Playing with that sort of attitude is likely going to be needed vs Vandy. While Vandy is not necessarily lighting up the world of college football, they do look like they are battling with more effort and decent defense. Their QB and offense appears to be gradually improving each week also. Again, MT is going to have to play excellent ball this weekend to get the win. Maybe not as easy of a game as it looked before the season started.

And yes, the coaches, especially Buster, coach stock, and whoever handles sp teams really need to get some things together to give the players a fighting chance when things are gummed up and individual match ups are about breaking even with no real advantage to MT during periods of the game. Some smart play calling can really help the players and team open things up for some good success.

I get that you might not want to load up a young freshman QB with a complicated playbook, but I'm pretty confident that Brent Stockstill can handle some added plays to the playbook. In the few games I've seen Brent Stockstill play in, he looks like a natural at QB to me. He really impresses me. Not that I'm an expert of recruiting or evaluating recruits, but I'd say Brent Stockstill looks like he would have at least been a 3-star recruit by the way he is playing in the early going. Of course, I don't remember what he was rated a couple of years ago. Anyways, it seems that whenever a 3-star recruit signs with MTSU that the recruiting ranking services almost automatically lower the 3-stars to 2-stars! It seems a couple/few get through every year with 3-stars in tact.

But I digress...
The play calling on offense is in desperate need of some improvement. Usually, a loss generally looks like a team effort. Vs Illinois, it looked like the play calling was sabotaging the efforts of the players on offense. With a pretty banged up and injured OL, those players were really fighting well to give themselves a chance to win. The same hand offs and poor clock management were just awful.

 

[D-winns]

It has always be amazing how easy it is to coach from the stands!!!

Stands Coaches seem to always be right and know more than the Coaches on the sidelines, just ask them. But, then again there is NO pressure in the stands.

D-winns

 

[TeKEraider]

I think the notion that we just ran the same running play is wrong. Even on that last drive it was 4 different run plays. I pointed out in the other thread our backs averaged between 3 and 4 yards a carry. Not an awesome running game but serviceable. If you go back and watch our second drive before the bad snap we were running the ball right down their throat. They adjusted to shut down the run. We adjusted and threw more after that. Here is our yardage each carry for the first quarter by the running backs 7,4,5,4,9,6,5. We followed that up by losing 14 on a bad snap and 9 on a sac so the stat sheet says 9 for 17 instead of 7 for 40. Next drive we try to do the outside run (which everybody is saying we didn't try the whole game) and lost 3. Followed by pass plays and a punt. Next drive drive goes 4.5(8,1) per carry but was killed by a penalty. After that they adjusted to shut down the run. We ended the first half 16 carries for 55 yards on actually rushing plays. The stat sheet says 21 carries for 5 because of 3 sacks, a bad snap and a kneel down to end the half. I don't find much fault in the play calling. Both teams seemed to make adjustments and the other responded throughout the game. Their kicker made a 51 to win ours missed a 43 to lose.

 

[MTFNBY5]

How many did we take? I was moving about during the game - Saw some of the game on TV and listened to some on the BR network but never saw our crowd on TV or heard Chip mention our following.

Gotta think with the game at Bama earlier and WKU coming up soon we had a sparse showing considering our small (and possibly diminishing) fan base.

 

[SpaceRaider]

How many did we take? I was moving about during the game - Saw some of the game on TV and listened to some on the BR network but never saw our crowd on TV or heard Chip mention our following.

Gotta think with the game at Bama earlier and WKU coming up soon we had a sparse showing considering our small (and possibly diminishing) fan base.

I could not see many from where I sat, looked like some in a corner near the endzone. I went to Tuscaloosa and we had a decent crowd and the band. I had thought all along we stood a pretty good chance at Illinois and thought that was a road game I wanted to take. Glad I did. Disappointing that more people didn't take the opportunity to go.