TIGMA Award -- Bowl Eligible, and stink has to watch

[WVAPPeer]

I think we ought to give it to the couple of "fans" on here who predicted we would lose to GaSo and we would be lucky to have 12,000 in attendance ---

[Appstate88]

Honorable mention goes to Ryan Neuzil (Rfr) #58 who started at left guard. Blocked the outside and inside zone read well.

[JMappfan5]

Two FR and a Soph starting on the left side & Center of OL. Great performance!!!

[Rick83]

Haven't watched the recorded game yet, but from my seat it looked to me like all 3 phases played extremely well Thursday night. ALSO, as mentioned earlier, the students showed up and were totally engaged and it felt good to have a good crowd although some in my section were hunkered down due to the cold I guess. Felt like I was a lone wolf howling in the wind many times even on 3rd downs. Overall though, it was a great night.

[boonetown1]

Haven't watched the recorded game yet, but from my seat it looked to me like all 3 phases played extremely well Thursday night. ALSO, as mentioned earlier, the students showed up and were totally engaged and it felt good to have a good crowd although some in my section were hunkered down due to the cold I guess. Felt like I was a lone wolf howling in the wind many times even on 3rd downs. Overall though, it was a great night.

Totally agree about the students. It might have taken them a couple games to get the App State chant down, but they have shown up all season.

Williams Jr is a good back and it was good to see consistent line play.

All that said, Stanton gets the award for me this week. His 53 yarder with the wind swirling at the half was awesome. He was smiling from ear to ear walking to the locker room.

I like Rubino and hate he lost his job, but he better watch out on kickoffs. He could not get it in the end zone all night when GaSou about hit the goal post on theirs (did on one).

[AppSt94]

As board member of the Rose Colored Glasses society and frequent visitor to the lollipop guild, I have watched the game replay. I have been a bit skeptical of our third down defense for awhile but made a concerted effort to watch it this week. We seem to give up too many third and long conversions. This game was no exception. GS converted just five third downs on Thursday, however three of them were five or more yards. Has anyone else noticed this? I apologize for bringing this up on a positive thread, but no one started a thread about how horrible we are this week.

[MDaniels84]

As board member of the Rose Colored Glasses society and frequent visitor to the lollipop guild, I have watched the game replay. I have been a bit skeptical of our third down defense for awhile but made a concerted effort to watch it this week. We seem to give up too many third and long conversions. This game was no exception. GS converted just five third downs on Thursday, however three of them were five or more yards. Has anyone else noticed this? I apologize for bringing this up on a positive thread, but no one started a thread about how horrible we are this week.

If you can't find a debbie downer thread, you just haven't looked hard enough!

[HeffnerIV]

As board member of the Rose Colored Glasses society and frequent visitor to the lollipop guild, I have watched the game replay. I have been a bit skeptical of our third down defense for awhile but made a concerted effort to watch it this week. We seem to give up too many third and long conversions. This game was no exception. GS converted just five third downs on Thursday, however three of them were five or more yards. Has anyone else noticed this? I apologize for bringing this up on a positive thread, but no one started a thread about how horrible we are this week.

I think you have to consider where they’re converting. Our D is designed to tolerate some fluff between the 20-30s. We’re designed not to give anything over the top.

[AppSt94]

As board member of the Rose Colored Glasses society and frequent visitor to the lollipop guild, I have watched the game replay. I have been a bit skeptical of our third down defense for awhile but made a concerted effort to watch it this week. We seem to give up too many third and long conversions. This game was no exception. GS converted just five third downs on Thursday, however three of them were five or more yards. Has anyone else noticed this? I apologize for bringing this up on a positive thread, but no one started a thread about how horrible we are this week.

I think you have to consider where they’re converting. Our D is designed to tolerate some fluff between the 20-30s. We’re designed not to give anything over the top.

Excellent point. That is the M.O. of this defense. Thanks.

[hapapp]

Haven't watched the recorded game yet, but from my seat it looked to me like all 3 phases played extremely well Thursday night. ALSO, as mentioned earlier, the students showed up and were totally engaged and it felt good to have a good crowd although some in my section were hunkered down due to the cold I guess. Felt like I was a lone wolf howling in the wind many times even on 3rd downs. Overall though, it was a great night.

Totally agree about the students. It might have taken them a couple games to get the App State chant down, but they have shown up all season.

Williams Jr is a good back and it was good to see consistent line play.

All that said, Stanton gets the award for me this week. His 53 yarder with the wind swirling at the half was awesome. He was smiling from ear to ear walking to the locker room.

I like Rubino and hate he lost his job, but he better watch out on kickoffs. He could not get it in the end zone all night when GaSou about hit the goal post on theirs (did on one).

He did actually put the first one in the end zone, but I get your point. I'm not sure what's going on there because in the past he was at least 50/50 on putting the ball in the end zone for a TB.

[AppStateNews]

I like Rubino and hate he lost his job, but he better watch out on kickoffs. He could not get it in the end zone all night when GaSou about hit the goal post on theirs (did on one).

He did actually put the first one in the end zone, but I get your point. I'm not sure what's going on there because in the past he was at least 50/50 on putting the ball in the end zone for a TB.

Now, I know this is crazy to some people on here... but perhaps the coaches wanted him kicking it high and short for a reason? Maybe they thought we could stop them short of the 25 yard line with our kick coverage? And then maybe GaSo made some adjustments to allow for longer returns? We don't know if the outside coverage guy went too far inside and caused an open lane. Or if GaSo double teamed on a guy they haven't blocked all year in film. Or maybe they wanted the high kicks because of the wind and potentially making it harder for the returner to catch?

Believe it or not, football doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's a game of chess. Just because a player isn't doing something how YOU think it should be done, does not necessarily mean he isn't capable. That could (and a large portion of the time, likely is) a decision the coaches made as part of the game plan.

If we were sitting at 0-9, then yes, start questioning the coaches decisions. The bottom line is the coaches will forget more about football and game planning for certain teams this week than majority on this board will ever learn. Trust their decisions. They work majority of the time!

And to add, this reply isn't to hapapp or boonetown1. I just quoted them since they brought it up. They are knowledgeable. It is more of a response to all the debbie downers that automatically assume a kid is no longer doing his job right because of a possible change in tactic.

I will also add I read this thread and wrote this post right after reading the complaining about the $10 million donation so I am a little unnerved at the absurdity of some people on this board at this time..

[boonetown1]

I like Rubino and hate he lost his job, but he better watch out on kickoffs. He could not get it in the end zone all night when GaSou about hit the goal post on theirs (did on one).

He did actually put the first one in the end zone, but I get your point. I'm not sure what's going on there because in the past he was at least 50/50 on putting the ball in the end zone for a TB.

Now, I know this is crazy to some people on here... but perhaps the coaches wanted him kicking it high and short for a reason? Maybe they thought we could stop them short of the 25 yard line with our kick coverage? And then maybe GaSo made some adjustments to allow for longer returns? We don't know if the outside coverage guy went too far inside and caused an open lane. Or if GaSo double teamed on a guy they haven't blocked all year in film. Or maybe they wanted the high kicks because of the wind and potentially making it harder for the returner to catch?

Believe it or not, football doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's a game of chess. Just because a player isn't doing something how YOU think it should be done, does not necessarily mean he isn't capable. That could (and a large portion of the time, likely is) a decision the coaches made as part of the game plan.

If we were sitting at 0-9, then yes, start questioning the coaches decisions. The bottom line is the coaches will forget more about football and game planning for certain teams this week than majority on this board will ever learn. Trust their decisions. They work majority of the time!

And to add, this reply isn't to hapapp or boonetown1. I just quoted them since they brought it up. They are knowledgeable. It is more of a response to all the debbie downers that automatically assume a kid is no longer doing his job right because of a possible change in tactic.

I agree and thought the same. However, with the exception of the first kickoff, they got very good returns out to the 30-35+. I was also at the game and we had kind of a cross wind coming from the northwest/Owens field house side. In the second half, Southerns kicker hit it off of the post kicking from Owens, while we had a couple from the Owens side that were not directional and did not make it to the end-zone. He could have been told to kick it high and short, but i dont know.

I just remember an older lady in front of me saying "maybe GaSoutherns kicker can transfer here. We cant get one in the end-zone and they're getting out to the 40 every time..." Not completely accurate on her part, but it was noticeable to most around us.

[AppState89]

Marcus Williams has to be the fastest player we have had since Dexter. The kid can fly. Can't wait to see what he does when he gets a step on someone.