App vs USM Game Thread

[AppState2014]

well it didn't take long for someone to call for SS head, no offense, but I totally disagree, SS and the staff is having still deal with the mess left by Moore, we got players starting who really aren't FBS talent, but SS has no choice but to put them in the game. Don't get me wrong, Im not happy with 12 penalties, that shows a lack of discipline and I put the blame squarely on the coaching staff, like his players, SS and his staff needs to grow up quick, and improve their coaching techniques, but Im certainly 100% in the camp that they deserve alteast a couple more years to put on the field a competitive FBS program. As far as being envious of GS, I wouldn't be so quick to fall in love with their new head coach, this year they brought in 6, I repeat 6 JUCO to play for them, they are also a senior dominated team. They have put togeather a team to win now, we will see how this works for them in a couple of years. One more thing, you might not like SS coaching, but him and his staff are hell of recruiters, number one class, by Rivals, in the SBC this year. Be patent.

Nobody is calling for anyone's head but I think it's fair to expect some changes in the offensive approach, if we don't see improvement by the end of the year. Still early and I know things can get better. Heck, we could turn it around and win 6 or 7 games but USM was a game we all marked as a very probable win and special teams and coaching caused us to lose.

As far as those recruiting rankings you don't need to put so much stock in that. Drew Brees' recruiting class was suppose to be the worst in the Big Ten and Purdue won the Big Ten his senior year. I could give you hundreds of examples of unrated and 2 star players who ended up being NFL Pro Bowlers. That's just the opinion of some guys who write for websites that cover recruiting. We won't know if we had the #1 class until 4-5 years later. With that said, I thought our class was pretty good for the most part. And if we do have the best incoming talent the last two years like some believe, it just means we better see a winning program once those players have been on campus 2-3 years. The #1 recruiting class, if they are right, only happens if it translates to wins.

[AppState2014]

For those of you who refuse to question this coaching staff. Steve Brown said in the post game interviews, this game "looked like spring practice". Is that what we should expect?

I like several of the assistant coaches and I think they have a great future in football. However, SS does not get the respect from the players like you need to be a successful head coach and have a sustainable program. Want to ask how I'm such an expert on this, I personally know players that have been around him and played there since he has been back. Mark it down,(9/20/14) this coaching staff will be short lived. There will not be contract extensions unless the new AD hire is blinded or pressured by BOD. Not blaming this loss totally on this staff, but players respond to certain coaches and it's evident this is not the future of App State football. I hear many of you talking about you have to give him time to get his full recruiting class (2-3 years) before we start judging or calling for heads. Guess what? GA South has a brand new coach (Willie Fritz) and zero; let me say again zero recruits are his and look what they are doing. Hmmm....think about it. Sat is a very good offensive coordinator. Sometimes we have to come to reality and admit that we are not management material and accept what we are good at.

Nice endorsement for the new AD to become an instant hatchet man. Are you putting up the $1.5 mil to buy up all the contracts? The athletic department certainly doesn't have it and Chancellor Everts doesn't either. Even if she did, I guarantee you that she wouldn't spend it there.

I hope what he said isn't true. Even if we have the money it would be tough for a new AD to do it. 2015 is becoming very important for the staff. It is very hard to buy out those contracts and we don't have the money. This staff will be in place through 2015 and then be let go if we don't have a winning season. I do think Scott needs to tweak his staff a little in the off-season but I know we can't afford to replace everyone, especially the HC.

One thing he said about Willie Fritz. You have to be impressed. He turned around a bad SHSU team and now they are losing without him and he comes to Georgia Southern and has them winning, with someone else's players.

[sixtoes9134]

This whole thread sucks.

[AppinATL]

Well, I'm just going to go ahead and piss everyone off by pointing out one thing SS did right and that's making the decision to go with Lamb all night. We were all over him last year for taking too long to pull the trigger. I was as disgusted as anyone last night (and still am) but if any good came of last night, it's that we have our QB. The receivers had their best game of the year also and Cox looked great aside from the fumble. Play calling was restrictive as has been mentioned, I can't disagree with that, but let's see if it opens up a bit now that Lamb has shown he can handle it. His last drive to give us what should have been the tying score was stellar. We need a kicker.

[coachprouty]

This is not a well coached or inspired team. Its the same team that lost winnable games last year.

[Saint3333]

I'm just as disappointed as the next person about our kicking game, but we were breaking in a new holder. These things take time to mesh.

Didn't see it (listened on radio) but there was a very interesting point called out on the post-game show. It seems as tho Matics doesn't move to kick the ball until the ball has been placed on the ground. Of course, normally a kicker moves to kick once the ball leaves the longsnapper and the holder is in the process of setting the ball up to be kicked.

Again, I didn't SEE it but if it is true that Matics didn't move to kick until the ball was in place, it makes perfect sense as to why two kicks (especially a freaking PAT) were blocked tonight.

FGs and PATs weren't Zack notautoMatics only issues last night. He couldn't get KOs into the endzone. Two (if you count the on-side kick) went out-of-bounds. The "new holder" can't be an excuse for the KO meltdown. I believe that's the weakest performance I've ever seen for an ASU kicker. The kid just never got it going...period.

I have to agree, it is all mental right now.

89 thanks for deleting some of the posts from last night. Now is the time to support these coaches and players. Everyone who looked at the two deep inAugust and the schedule knew this year was going to be tough.

[hapapp]

Well, I'm just going to go ahead and piss everyone off by pointing out one thing SS did right and that's making the decision to go with Lamb all night. We were all over him last year for taking too long to pull the trigger. I was as disgusted as anyone last night (and still am) but if any good came of last night, it's that we have our QB. The receivers had their best game of the year also and Cox looked great aside from the fumble. Play calling was restrictive as has been mentioned, I can't disagree with that, but let's see if it opens up a bit now that Lamb has shown he can handle it. His last drive to give us what should have been the tying score was stellar. We need a kicker.

I wanted to see Lamb start in large measure because I wanted to see how he would handle starting and not coming in off the bench. He certainly grew as the game progressed. I was not one who took sides on the matter but I think it was instructive that he played the entire game when previously the coaches suggested both would play. At this point, I think Taylor is the starter but i have confidence if he falters in a game that Kam would be a good replacement.

[APPARJ]

well it didn't take long for someone to call for SS head, no offense, but I totally disagree, SS and the staff is having still deal with the mess left by Moore, we got players starting who really aren't FBS talent, but SS has no choice but to put them in the game. Don't get me wrong, Im not happy with 12 penalties, that shows a lack of discipline and I put the blame squarely on the coaching staff, like his players, SS and his staff needs to grow up quick, and improve their coaching techniques, but Im certainly 100% in the camp that they deserve alteast a couple more years to put on the field a competitive FBS program. As far as being envious of GS, I wouldn't be so quick to fall in love with their new head coach, this year they brought in 6, I repeat 6 JUCO to play for them, they are also a senior dominated team. They have put togeather a team to win now, we will see how this works for them in a couple of years. One more thing, you might not like SS coaching, but him and his staff are hell of recruiters, number one class, by Rivals, in the SBC this year. Be patent.

Say what you will, GS will roll us thursday. They are so much further ahead. I am not sure we could compete in the SoCon this year. SS has been terrible so far. The excuse of shirting players will work this year but he better produce next or his first HC job will be short lived! Can we win another game this year should be the concern

When we played GaSo on Black Saturday last year we were 1-6 with losses to teams that we should've easily beaten:
- Furman
- The Citadel
- Charleston Southern
- NC A&T

I remember thinking we were going to be embarrassed. Several friends of mine were coming to the game and I was bracing myself for humilation... then we bashed their brains in and went on to have a solid finish to the year.

I'm not calling for a huge victory but I do not believe we'll be embarrassed in Gnatsboro.

[AppSt94]

For those of you who refuse to question this coaching staff. Steve Brown said in the post game interviews, this game "looked like spring practice". Is that what we should expect?

I like several of the assistant coaches and I think they have a great future in football. However, SS does not get the respect from the players like you need to be a successful head coach and have a sustainable program. Want to ask how I'm such an expert on this, I personally know players that have been around him and played there since he has been back. Mark it down,(9/20/14) this coaching staff will be short lived. There will not be contract extensions unless the new AD hire is blinded or pressured by BOD. Not blaming this loss totally on this staff, but players respond to certain coaches and it's evident this is not the future of App State football. I hear many of you talking about you have to give him time to get his full recruiting class (2-3 years) before we start judging or calling for heads. Guess what? GA South has a brand new coach (Willie Fritz) and zero; let me say again zero recruits are his and look what they are doing. Hmmm....think about it. Sat is a very good offensive coordinator. Sometimes we have to come to reality and admit that we are not management material and accept what we are good at.

Yeeeaaahhh, I gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you on that one. This team played 60 minutes last night in a game that went to the wire. This team stayed focused and played 60 minutes against an over matched Campbell team when they could have put it on cruise control and they played 60 minutes when they were overmatched against Michigan. They don't quit and that is due to coaching. As for comparing SS and OUR football team to Fritz and GS. Let them have their little run. Have you seen their roster? They are loaded with Juniors and Seniors in their two deep that can play. Our two deep is loaded with with Freshmen and Sophomores. We will be fine. And there is a reason that we do not have upperclassmen playing at this level and that is because the former staff did not bring in the talent.

[Rekdiver]

Now that I've had a few hours to calm down I can reflect a bit better on our performance. Penalties are correctable. This falls on the coaches. Fumbles and interceptions and kicking. This falls on players. This is why we lost the game. Even with what I believe was very conservative play calling we rolled up 455 yards of offense. That is very good. We found a Q B and that is excellent and Satt made a difficult but correct decision. Lambs running surprised me. The drive to score the last TD was a real gut check and one to be proud of. There is a lot of work to do but we have the bones of a good team. Disappointed? Hell yes but we didn't fall apart and we didn't lose by multiple touchdowns like some of the "faithful" predicted. Matics didn't lose this game all by himself and I hate for any kid to go through what he is feeling right now. Was it the holder? Matics too slow to make the kick? Poor blocking? Listen he may be the only decent kicker we have so let's be a bit charitable. Besides if we score touchdowns on two drives where we fumbled and had penalties inside the red zone Matics is a small issue today. It's a short week and we all know GS wants a piece of us after the last couple of years. I hope they start getting ready today.

[YesAppCan]

Now that I've had a few hours to calm down I can reflect a bit better on our performance. Penalties are correctable. This falls on the coaches. Fumbles and interceptions and kicking. This falls on players. This is why we lost the game. Even with what I believe was very conservative play calling we rolled up 455 yards of offense. That is very good. We found a Q B and that is excellent and Satt made a difficult but correct decision. Lambs running surprised me. The drive to score the last TD was a real gut check and one to be proud of. There is a lot of work to do but we have the bones of a good team. Disappointed? Hell yes but we didn't fall apart and we didn't lose by multiple touchdowns like some of the "faithful" predicted. Matics didn't lose this game all by himself and I hate for any kid to go through what he is feeling right now. Was it the holder? Matics too slow to make the kick? Poor blocking? Listen he may be the only decent kicker we have so let's be a bit charitable. Besides if we score touchdowns on two drives where we fumbled and had penalties inside the red zone Matics is a small issue today. It's a short week and we all know GS wants a piece of us after the last couple of years. I hope they start getting ready today.

Excellent points Rekdiver...

[AppSt94]

Now that I've had a few hours to calm down I can reflect a bit better on our performance. Penalties are correctable. This falls on the coaches. Fumbles and interceptions and kicking. This falls on players. This is why we lost the game. Even with what I believe was very conservative play calling we rolled up 455 yards of offense. That is very good. We found a Q B and that is excellent and Satt made a difficult but correct decision. Lambs running surprised me. The drive to score the last TD was a real gut check and one to be proud of. There is a lot of work to do but we have the bones of a good team. Disappointed? Hell yes but we didn't fall apart and we didn't lose by multiple touchdowns like some of the "faithful" predicted. Matics didn't lose this game all by himself and I hate for any kid to go through what he is feeling right now. Was it the holder? Matics too slow to make the kick? Poor blocking? Listen he may be the only decent kicker we have so let's be a bit charitable. Besides if we score touchdowns on two drives where we fumbled and had penalties inside the red zone Matics is a small issue today. It's a short week and we all know GS wants a piece of us after the last couple of years. I hope they start getting ready today.

Excellent post. For the purposes of full disclosure. I said almost the exact same thing in the new thread before reading this.

[asutrnr81]

Say what you will, GS will roll us thursday. They are so much further ahead. I am not sure we could compete in the SoCon this year. SS has been terrible so far. The excuse of shirting players will work this year but he better produce next or his first HC job will be short lived! Can we win another game this year should be the concern

I remember an ASU that rolled into GS in 2012 with a quarterback with a torn ACL and GS as the #1 team in FCS.....IIRC we won that game. I was there.....I will be back there Thursday.

[asutrnr81]

Now that I've had a few hours to calm down I can reflect a bit better on our performance.

That was nice.....now think next time before you spew during the game.

I'd be deleting previous posts if I had said some of the things you did....and maybe some already were!

[asutrnr81]

I was as upset as anyone about losing a game we "should" have won. But I am more upset with how we treated the kids that wear Black and Gold....During the game while having to listen to the Southern Miss Broadcast, and ESPN Gamecast...I more than once said.....(TO MYSELF) dang kicking game, get the play in, and wondered why we could not stand still until the snap....but not once did I call a kid out.

ZM "walk back to Boone" WHAT? You think ZM missed on purpose.....heck he could have been a hero.

MC Did he fumble on purpose.

ASU Def. Did we make (ONE) bad coverage decision on purpose?

As for the coaching comments: Hold them accountable....they already have held themselves accountable with the late play call ins...and we pay them and they deserve to be held accountable....but this team with 70+ F, RSF, S, and RSS is a lot better than many teams we have had lately. That is coaching...IMO

We do not hold ourselves as accountable as we want to hold this team. If we did, we'd never make a mistake as a dad, a husband, or employee.

I have made plenty, I do not like losing but lack of effort has not been a problem in our first 3 games this year. We will LEARN to win and when we do I hope this team holds us all accountable.

[WataugaMan]

I was as upset as anyone about losing a game we "should" have won.

NC A&T, Charleston Southern, Furman

Need to break that bad habit.

[fjblair]

I have to just laugh at the crybaby posts or I would blow a fuse. Crybabies gonna cry.

[luvyosef]

I was as upset as anyone about losing a game we "should" have won. But I am more upset with how we treated the kids that wear Black and Gold....During the game while having to listen to the Southern Miss Broadcast, and ESPN Gamecast...I more than once said.....(TO MYSELF) dang kicking game, get the play in, and wondered why we could not stand still until the snap....but not once did I call a kid out.

ZM "walk back to Boone" WHAT? You think ZM missed on purpose.....heck he could have been a hero.

MC Did he fumble on purpose.

ASU Def. Did we make (ONE) bad coverage decision on purpose?

As for the coaching comments: Hold them accountable....they already have held themselves accountable with the late play call ins...and we pay them and they deserve to be held accountable....but this team with 70+ F, RSF, S, and RSS is a lot better than many teams we have had lately. That is coaching...IMO

We do not hold ourselves as accountable as we want to hold this team. If we did, we'd never make a mistake as a dad, a husband, or employee.

I have made plenty, I do not like losing but lack of effort has not been a problem in our first 3 games this year. We will LEARN to win and when we do I hope this team holds us all accountable.

You are correct. My walk back to Boone comments were simply out of frustration and I apologize.

[GreatAppSt]

Take heart, we lost because of bad breaks last night, but we're gonna kick the crap outta GS on national television this Thursday . It's gonna ruin their gigapixal photo memories for sure, can't wait!

[diehardapp18]

I was as upset as anyone about losing a game we "should" have won.

NC A&T, Charleston Southern, Furman

Need to break that bad habit.

This is a good point. A lot of times in young coaching staffs there will be an early prevalent issue. Look at the first two years of the Ron Rivera era for the Panthers, all the close games they lost and blew. It was unbelievably frustrating. This could be the problem in this coaching staff.... they struggle to win games they should win. I could think of worse problems to have, we just need to get the monkey off our back