Good, Bad, and Ugly

[T_Won]

Good:

Chris Norwood is emerging as a true star of this team! The run defense pretty much shut down the BSU running game (if it were not for a couple of plays, we would have held them to about 50 yards rushing). McConathy played a great game. I think our guys showed what kind of character they have today. Despite the inadequate coaching staff, they showed that they DO have the talent to play with Top 25 teams until coaching comes into play. I was very impressed how our defense was flying around in the 1st half.

Bad:

Offense is still too predictable in the second half. 439 yards should result in more than 10 points. WAC referees, God bless them, are probably the worst group of officials in the world. The lateral pass could have made this game go down to the wire.

Ugly:

Of course the ugliest part of the game can be attributed to the coaching staff....the kickoff we returned to the 32 and then took a Boise offsides penalty, only to return the next one to the 12 and get a penalty to take it back to the 6 (which eventually resulted in a safety). The team also had several dumb penalties. The facemask on the sack of Dinwiddie in the end zone was a heartbreaker.

I was fairly pleased with this effort. I think our players are extremely handicapped with the knuckleheads we have as coaches, but they showed alot of heart in holding them to 34 offensive points. I thought it was a great effort considering how bad they have been playing.

[DawgyNWindow]

This is what I keep thinking about:

What will attendance be like in Shreveport for the UTEP game? Will enough people care to make a respectable crowd? What kind of damage have we done to what we were attempting to accomplish? We have achieved far below our talent level in a year when we could have bolstered our fan base. What kind of a traveling fan base will we likely have next year? Who would plan their year around watching an underachieving football team that you just know will find a way to lose in the end?

Do you think Bicknell really wants this program to grow? If he has one or two good seasons in a row (unlikely given his track record), don't you think he will bolt for the first east coast university that offers him a head coaching job? Truthfully, I don't believe he would care if we even meet the minimum attendance requirements if he could land his dream job out of the deal. Why can't we get someone with Tech roots (that bleeds red and blue) to push this program forward. You know, someone that thinks half-time adjustments are not a waste of time. Can anyone think of anyone?

I just don't think I will be able to sit in Tiger Stadium next year with a bunch of obnoxious drunks breathing bourbon in my face, telling me how they are going to kick the dawg's butts...and be absolutely right.

This is not a great time to be a dawg, but I WILL be in Shreveport next week. I have a suspicion, however, that parking spaces will be easy to come by.

[markay714]

Another bad and ugly - when you lose to a ranked team you have to keep seeing the ugly score rolling across the bottom of the ESPN ballgame screen. Now, I'm torturing myself watching another team that is gonna kill us next year - LSU. It seems the Boise St - Tech score has been on a bunch of times already - too bad BSU didn't wait to get ranked until this week!!

[DogsWin]

Of course the ugliest part of the game can be attributed to the coaching staff....the kickoff we returned to the 32 and then took a Boise offsides penalty, only to return the next one to the 12 and get a penalty to take it back to the 6 (which eventually resulted in a safety).

Question 1: I realize Jack has no answers for why he accepted that penalty, but can anyone tell me why we refused a kickoff return to our 32 yard line? How many kickoffs do we regularly return beyond our 32 yard line? Boise had just scored to make it 21-10 and we would have had 68 yards to go to cut it to a 4-point game. Instead we took a pointless 5 yard penalty got the ball on our own 6; Luke was sacked on the next play in the endzone! Net result- 2 more points for Boise and we have to kick off AGAIN to them.

Question 2: With the game Boise 29 - Tech still at 10, we had a 4th and 1 yard to go on the Boise 6 yard line. Joe Smith had 3 runs of 5 or more yards during this drive, but we PASSED the ball- incomplete, 1st down Boise going the other way. Why do we consistently pass on 4th & 1, yet run on 4th and 10 or more yards to go??? Why must we choose the low percentage plays to try to pick up critical first downs?
________
VISA GIFT CARDS

[dawg80]

Another bad and ugly - when you lose to a ranked team you have to keep seeing the ugly score rolling across the bottom of the ESPN ballgame screen. Now, I'm torturing myself watching another team that is gonna kill us next year - LSU. It seems the Boise St - Tech score has been on a bunch of times already - too bad BSU didn't wait to get ranked until this week!!

The really sad part is LSU has been exposed for the mediocre team that they are, I mean mediocre by SEC standards, which makes them better than 2/3 of the teams in the nation. But! with a truly great effort they are beatable. Bama destroyed the Tiggers(and I enjoyed every minute of it too). If not for a miracle, the Tigs would be on a 3-game losing streak. Next year, Saban has to rebuild the best part of his team, the defense.

Point is, with a REAL coaching staff, Tech could go into Tigger Stadium and play 'em tough. With REAL coaching the Dawgs would compete and have a chance to win that game. At worst it would be a tough, competitive game (probably decided by the SEC refs).

As it stands now, a mediocre LSU team will easily dispatch us.

Bicknell MUST go while there's still time to salvage the program.

[T_Won]

They are a different team without Matt Mauck. The Randall kid should not be playing 1A football---he hurts that team alot (and yes Tech did offer him a scholarship too). Mauck wasn't spectacular, but with that defense, he didn't need to be. Their offense is keeping their defense on the field way too long. We will see the Matt Mauck offense and a good defense, but probably not as good as this year's LSU defense. I just hope we play hard and make their starters play the whole game. Their offense isn't anything close to Boise State's offense.

Let's hope Bicknell goes to a coaching clinic and learns how to make adjustments. Think about it---we have played very well in the first half of just about every game this year. All we have to do is put 2 halves together and we can be a good football team. We are not far from being good. I look for better things from the Dawgs next year.

[Dirtydawg]

[quote:69920f9b9a="markay714"]Another bad and ugly - when you lose to a ranked team you have to keep seeing the ugly score rolling across the bottom of the ESPN ballgame screen. Now, I'm torturing myself watching another team that is gonna kill us next year - LSU. It seems the Boise St - Tech score has been on a bunch of times already - too bad BSU didn't wait to get ranked until this week!!

The really sad part is LSU has been exposed for the mediocre team that they are, I mean mediocre by SEC standards, which makes them better than 2/3 of the teams in the nation. But! with a truly great effort they are beatable. Bama destroyed the Tiggers(and I enjoyed every minute of it too). If not for a miracle, the Tigs would be on a 3-game losing streak. Next year, Saban has to rebuild the best part of his team, the defense.

Point is, with a REAL coaching staff, Tech could go into Tigger Stadium and play 'em tough. With REAL coaching the Dawgs would compete and have a chance to win that game. At worst it would be a tough, competitive game (probably decided by the SEC refs).

As it stands now, a mediocre LSU team will easily dispatch us.

Bicknell MUST go while there's still time to salvage the program.[/quote:69920f9b9a]

The SEC refs don't do favors for LSU. The whole SEC can't stand LSU.

[Dirtydawg]

They are a different team without Matt Mauck. The Randall kid should not be playing 1A football---he hurts that team alot (and yes Tech did offer him a scholarship too). Mauck wasn't spectacular, but with that defense, he didn't need to be. Their offense is keeping their defense on the field way too long. We will see the Matt Mauck offense and a good defense, but probably not as good as this year's LSU defense. I just hope we play hard and make their starters play the whole game. Their offense isn't anything close to Boise State's offense.

Let's hope Bicknell goes to a coaching clinic and learns how to make adjustments.

Won't happen. Bicknell doesn't believe in making adjustments.

[EJ]

This is a quote from Boise St. coach Dan Hawkins from The Idaho Statesman article (see www.latechbbb.com)...

He is talking about why our defense was able to stop them in the first half and not in the second half...

“Part of it was personnel, part of it was technique, and part of it's on us as coaches, too,” Hawkins said. “We cleaned some things up at halftime.”

I guess adjustments are not overrated in Boise...

[Jetstorm]

[quote:523e079203="markay714"]Another bad and ugly - when you lose to a ranked team you have to keep seeing the ugly score rolling across the bottom of the ESPN ballgame screen. Now, I'm torturing myself watching another team that is gonna kill us next year - LSU. It seems the Boise St - Tech score has been on a bunch of times already - too bad BSU didn't wait to get ranked until this week!!

The really sad part is LSU has been exposed for the mediocre team that they are, I mean mediocre by SEC standards, which makes them better than 2/3 of the teams in the nation. But! with a truly great effort they are beatable. Bama destroyed the Tiggers(and I enjoyed every minute of it too). If not for a miracle, the Tigs would be on a 3-game losing streak. Next year, Saban has to rebuild the best part of his team, the defense.

Point is, with a REAL coaching staff, Tech could go into Tigger Stadium and play 'em tough. With REAL coaching the Dawgs would compete and have a chance to win that game. At worst it would be a tough, competitive game (probably decided by the SEC refs).

As it stands now, a mediocre LSU team will easily dispatch us.

Bicknell MUST go while there's still time to salvage the program.[/quote:523e079203]

A few comments.

First off, sorry about the loss to Boise St. I know you guys are feeling down right now, and I see some of you getting VERY agitated. I don't know what the solution is, but I'm sure Jim Oakes has Tech's best interest at heart and that things always work out for the best. Keep your heads up.

I was at the Alabama game. No excuses, the Tide flat out beat us. They are playing about as well as anyone in the country right now. We, well, we played just as bad, if not worse, than we did against Virginia Tech. Randall just had his second "learning experience" (first one came against Auburn). We couldn't do anything on offense. The two biggest reasons we lost: 10 penalties for 80 yards and four red zone penetrations that resulted in ZERO points. It doesn't get more futile than that. Alabama started consistently running the football and just wore us down in the 2nd half. Our defense was on the field way too much and was sucking wind with about ten minutes to go in the 4th quarter.

You say we're mediocre in the SEC, but the fact is, we are still 4-2 in conference and can go to the SEC Championship if we win our last two. Are we head and shoulders above everyone? Of course not. I think this is such a balanced conference anyone can beat anyone on any Saturday. Alabama waxed us, we waxed Florida, Florida beat Georgia in a tight game, but Georgia beat Alabama, and all of those games were won by the road team (except Florida/Georgia, on a neutral field). If we win our last two games, we go to the title game, although Alabama will gripe that they are really the best just like Auburn did in 1994.

As for our defense, they are still pretty good, and we will be fine in that department next year. We lose two linebackers (James and Lawrence) but 3/4 of our d-line and secondary. We will be fine next year, if Mauck and Toefield stay healthy on offense.

I still expect Tech to play us tough next year. The Bulldogs have good talent in a lot of places, and when you throw the football you can make things happen. I just hope your team is having a good season when you get to Baton Rouge, so the game is interesting and a marquee matchup. The Bulldogs always seem to do well in odd-numbered years. As for "SEC refs," they have never done us any favors, although I wouldn't say the whole SEC can't stand us. We all get along very nicely, except for Alabama and Auburn, who can't stand each other.

Dawg80, it kind of disturbs me that you would take enjoyment out of seeing others fail and that you would side with an outside school against a Louisiana school. Alas, I'm afraid my mission of fostering a climate of greater civility and camaraderie amongst Louisiana sports fans is proving to be much more difficult than I expected. But hey, you can feel that way if you like. It doesn't affect me. I will still turn the other cheek and pull for Louisiana Tech to win every ball game except when playing LSU.

GEAUX TIGERS!! BEAT OLE MESS!! GO DAWGS!! BEAT UTEP!!

[inudesu]

We all get along very nicely, except for Alabama and Auburn, who can't stand each other.

You're kidding about this right?

[Dirtydawg]

We will be fine next year, if Mauck and Toefield stay healthy on offense.

Has Toefield ever been healthy for a full year?