(05-30-2015 05:12 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  

(05-27-2015 02:30 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  Driskel will be adequate enough to run the offense. I'd be more worried about the loss of the five starters on defense and the DC who did such a good job.

That's actually a very valid point. Indeed, DEFENSE is my biggest concern for LA Tech going into the 2014 season. It's not that I don't think they can do it again on D, it's simply that we don't know yet whether they can do it again.

That LA Tech defense last year was very good. It will be a tough act to follow without Manny Diaz.

That may very well be the key to our season but we are very good and experienced on the back end of our D and at DT.

So jealous of all this defense talk.

(05-30-2015 07:01 PM)ODU2011 Wrote:  So jealous of all this defense talk.

I hear you, but the next two seasons should bring much improvement on D for us.

(05-30-2015 11:35 PM)paintedblue2 Wrote:  

(05-30-2015 07:01 PM)ODU2011 Wrote:  So jealous of all this defense talk.

I hear you, but the next two seasons should bring much improvement on D for us.

Having seen the changes at Marshall from 2012-2014 defensively, trust me, a good DC and a good recruiting class can make an immediate difference. We couldn't stop a youth league offense in 2012 (not to mention we gave up several kick return TD's, including two in one game). We hired a good DC and the last two years, we have been had twice...by MTSU in 2013 and by WKU last year. It happens to every team at least once a year, but you obviously hope that doesn't mean you give up 50+ in those games. I shudder to think what WKU would have done to our 2012 defense. Very well could have hit 90 or more and I'm not kidding :/

Gotta say I am chapped by preseason rankings. When MT is rated low, I "try to ignore it!" When, they get a decent or good preseason rating; "I get "pumped up!" So far, Athlon (owned and managed by a Vandy Grad and sideline radio analyst for VU FB); Lindy's published in Birmingham; and Sporting News all have MT ranked third in CUSA East, behind both Western and Marshall. While all of these !@#$%^ are probably right on the money; it's time for the Stock(still) Exchange to post some BIG GAINS across the board!

(05-31-2015 10:54 AM)BlueRaiderBoy Wrote:  Gotta say I am chapped by preseason rankings. When MT is rated low, I "try to ignore it!" When, they get a decent or good preseason rating; "I get "pumped up!" So far, Athlon (owned and managed by a Vandy Grad and sideline radio analyst for VU FB); Lindy's published in Birmingham; and Sporting News all have MT ranked third in CUSA East, behind both Western and Marshall. While all of these !@#$%^ are probably right on the money; it's time for the Stock(still) Exchange to post some BIG GAINS across the board!

Western is a trendy pick, because they have a video game QB that was granted a sixth year, but the issues that plagued Western last year aren't going to go away this year. And this is a team that only went 4-4 in the league last year.

As I have mentioned on several occasions before, there is no doubt that Doughty will put up ridiculous numbers this season, because there are some teams that simply aren't capable of deploying the right strategy to beat them. That strategy or blueprint for how to slow down and even stop Doughty is out there. He buckles under pressure, so the teams that are capable of covering on an island and blitzing the snot out of him can blow up that offense, because their passing game is all based on timing. There are quite a few teams in the league that are very much capable of doing this. And I can't - for the life of me - figure out why in the world Marshall played so soft last year.

As for their defense we would have to be talking about an exponential improvement for that side of their team to make much of a difference, and I personally believe it will be only incrementally improved.

For the teams that try to blitz but don't have the personnel to do it those games are going to get ugly. Western will put up a lot of points again this year because of that but expect a few more teams to get in his grill and knock him off his game. He's going to be blitzed so much this season my biggest fear as a Western fan would be him getting injured.

(05-31-2015 11:38 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 10:54 AM)BlueRaiderBoy Wrote:  Gotta say I am chapped by preseason rankings. When MT is rated low, I "try to ignore it!" When, they get a decent or good preseason rating; "I get "pumped up!" So far, Athlon (owned and managed by a Vandy Grad and sideline radio analyst for VU FB); Lindy's published in Birmingham; and Sporting News all have MT ranked third in CUSA East, behind both Western and Marshall. While all of these !@#$%^ are probably right on the money; it's time for the Stock(still) Exchange to post some BIG GAINS across the board!

Western is a trendy pick, because they have a video game QB that was granted a sixth year, but the issues that plagued Western last year aren't going to go away this year. And this is a team that only went 4-4 in the league last year.

As I have mentioned on several occasions before, there is no doubt that Doughty will put up ridiculous numbers this season, because there are some teams that simply aren't capable of deploying the right strategy to beat them. That strategy or blueprint for how to slow down and even stop Doughty is out there. He buckles under pressure, so the teams that are capable of covering on an island and blitzing the snot out of him can blow up that offense, because their passing game is all based on timing. There are quite a few teams in the league that are very much capable of doing this. And I can't - for the life of me - figure out why in the world Marshall played so soft last year.

As for their defense we would have to be talking about an exponential improvement for that side of their team to make much of a difference, and I personally believe it will be only incrementally improved.

For the teams that try to blitz but don't have the personnel to do it those games are going to get ugly. Western will put up a lot of points again this year because of that but expect a few more teams to get in his grill and knock him off his game. He's going to be blitzed so much this season my biggest fear as a Western fan would be him getting injured.

Correct Western was 4-4 but also 3 plays away from playing Tech in the CUSA championship...

muts won in OT and got there by a 4th down flag that would have ended the game. And by Western getting stopped TWICE (great defense by muts) on 3rd and 4th from the 1/2 yard line. ..

I'm going to guess 1 out of 50 times a team stops the other with 2 tries inside the 1

FAU...Western's Offense stopped playing after half. Very bad coaching decision by a rookie coach that he repeated in a few games (2 losses). Doubt if that happens this year. But even with that Western was 1 play away from winning and had around 8 tries to get the one play. Stop FAU on 1 4th down and it takes the wind out of them. I believe they made 8 of 8...which shows how bad the defense was . But defense did show improvement over the season.

UAB...Western missed 2 extra points and went for two twice and didn't make it...loss by 3. Another game where Western was up by 2 TDS and came out with a ball control offense. And up 2 TDs and went for it on 4th and 1 from our own 30....rookie coaching mistake

Tech beat the dog crap out of Western

So while all 4 are losses...3 of them were winnable in many ways on plays a team makes 85% of the time.

The defense will improve...it can't get worse and a 10 to 15% improvement is something every team should expect with most of the players coming back and the additions of 2 starters from one of the best defenses in CUSA.

So a small increase in defense..getting off the field on 3rd or 4th down and anywhere close to the same offensives numbers (a offense that shut their self down in a few games) is the reason most are picking Western...

With that small increase on defense Western would have played Tech for the championship last year...

Tech
MUTS
Marshall

all road games....home this year. But that's not been a blessing over the last few seasons for Western.

Western hasn't beaten Middle Tennessee in Bowling Green since 1989. Though we obviously went a while not playing each other while you guys were playing in the kiddie pool, I thought I would drop that little factoid on you. And we are 6-2 against wkcc since restarting things up again in '07, so I suspect we will play confidently on 10/10.

That said, MT is not necessarily one of those teams that's capable of playing the style of defense to defeat the Western offense. We haven't shown an ability to do that since Manny Diaz left. But there are teams on your schedule that can including Rice, FAU, Marshall and La Tech (depending on whether their new coordinator can keep that going). Those are four games that every Western fan should be very afraid of. Four games that could very easily put you at 4-4 again. And playing North Texas in Denton could be a challenge as well.

Just my opinion, but I'm not buying into the hype. I believe Western is going to find a lot of road blocks even though Doughty puts up unhuman like numbers this year.

What bowl did MUTS go to last year?

(05-31-2015 02:35 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  Correct Western was 4-4 but also 3 plays away from playing Tech in the CUSA championship...

And you were only one play away from finishing a full 5 games back of Marshall... And you were 1 play from completing the biggest 4th quarter defensive collapse in NCAA history in your bowl game. This one play thing also works both ways...

To paraphrase Chad Pennington... If you put yourself in position where you let a single play or an official's call determine the outcome, then you didn't play well enough to deserve the win.

(05-31-2015 06:44 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 02:35 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  Correct Western was 4-4 but also 3 plays away from playing Tech in the CUSA championship...

And you were only one play away from finishing a full 5 games back of Marshall... And you were 1 play from completing the biggest 4th quarter defensive collapse in NCAA history in your bowl game. This one play thing also works both ways...

To paraphrase Chad Pennington... If you put yourself in position where you let a single play or an official's call determine the outcome, then you didn't play well enough to deserve the win.

And that last game is the reason why you wont see Western call the dogs off on offense in the 3rd qt. Like I said a rookie coach made the mistake in a few games and it cost us in 2 of those.

But what you said still doesn't change the fact Western was a few plays away from playing for the CUSA championship. And with almost every key player back and a year to grow and the addition of people on defense...

is the reason Western is being picked to win CUSA.

In the end everything get settled on the field and then we can look back and see how close or how far all of us were.

(05-31-2015 06:13 PM)Jack Bauer Wrote:  What bowl did MUTS go to last year?

What does that have to do with this thread? You have to learn to love idiot wkcc fans folks.

I still think Marshall is the best team in the East and CUSA overall.

(06-01-2015 11:30 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 06:13 PM)Jack Bauer Wrote:  What bowl did MUTS go to last year?

What does that have to do with this thread? You have to learn to love idiot wkcc fans folks.

"Western hasn't beaten Middle Tennessee in Bowling Green since 1989. Though we obviously went a while not playing each other while you guys were playing in the kiddie pool, I thought I would drop that little factoid on you. And we are 6-2 against wkcc since restarting things up again in '07, so I suspect we will play confidently on 10/10."

Had to do with that.... you quickly forget what you write. You brag about beating us when we first started up. Thats like bragging on beating UNCC over the next 5 years. We went on a 0-100 streak for a few years (seemed like it at least). Come on man don't talk about the record against a new FBS team.

(05-31-2015 07:03 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 06:44 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 02:35 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  Correct Western was 4-4 but also 3 plays away from playing Tech in the CUSA championship...

And you were only one play away from finishing a full 5 games back of Marshall... And you were 1 play from completing the biggest 4th quarter defensive collapse in NCAA history in your bowl game. This one play thing also works both ways...

To paraphrase Chad Pennington... If you put yourself in position where you let a single play or an official's call determine the outcome, then you didn't play well enough to deserve the win.

And that last game is the reason why you wont see Western call the dogs off on offense in the 3rd qt. Like I said a rookie coach made the mistake in a few games and it cost us in 2 of those.

But what you said still doesn't change the fact Western was a few plays away from playing for the CUSA championship. And with almost every key player back and a year to grow and the addition of people on defense...

is the reason Western is being picked to win CUSA.

In the end everything get settled on the field and then we can look back and see how close or how far all of us were.

By this logic, Marshall was one play away from the Access Bowl.

(06-01-2015 12:21 PM)Jack Bauer Wrote:  

(06-01-2015 11:30 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 06:13 PM)Jack Bauer Wrote:  What bowl did MUTS go to last year?

What does that have to do with this thread? You have to learn to love idiot wkcc fans folks.

"Western hasn't beaten Middle Tennessee in Bowling Green since 1989. Though we obviously went a while not playing each other while you guys were playing in the kiddie pool, I thought I would drop that little factoid on you. And we are 6-2 against wkcc since restarting things up again in '07, so I suspect we will play confidently on 10/10."

Had to do with that.... you quickly forget what you write. You brag about beating us when we first started up. Thats like bragging on beating UNCC over the next 5 years. We went on a 0-100 streak for a few years (seemed like it at least). Come on man don't talk about the record against a new FBS team.

More of that wkcc education shining. No, the point was discussing Western's ability or lack thereof to win or even place second in the east, which was - kind of the point - of the thread.

You face four teams very much capable of beating down your team's vaunted offense as well as a Middle Tennessee team that is very much confident in playing Western in Bowling Green. All that is relevant. Middle Tennessee's five more bowl games than the community college to the north? Not so much.

(06-01-2015 12:29 PM)SVHerd Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 07:03 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 06:44 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 02:35 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  Correct Western was 4-4 but also 3 plays away from playing Tech in the CUSA championship...

And you were only one play away from finishing a full 5 games back of Marshall... And you were 1 play from completing the biggest 4th quarter defensive collapse in NCAA history in your bowl game. This one play thing also works both ways...

To paraphrase Chad Pennington... If you put yourself in position where you let a single play or an official's call determine the outcome, then you didn't play well enough to deserve the win.

And that last game is the reason why you wont see Western call the dogs off on offense in the 3rd qt. Like I said a rookie coach made the mistake in a few games and it cost us in 2 of those.

But what you said still doesn't change the fact Western was a few plays away from playing for the CUSA championship. And with almost every key player back and a year to grow and the addition of people on defense...

is the reason Western is being picked to win CUSA.

In the end everything get settled on the field and then we can look back and see how close or how far all of us were.

By this logic, Marshall was one play away from the Access Bowl.

No Marshall was 1 play away from 13-0

Still no Access Bowl

But you seem to missed the key as to why I laid out how close...

Western has 85% of that team back and all key starters are returning and that's the reason Western is being picked #1 in CUSA by most right now.

Western did win 8 games last year...
1 less than Tech and Tech is losing a lot on defense

same as Rice and Western has more coming back

5 less than Marshall but Marshall is losing a key part of their offense and that head to head must play a part

So yeah...close losses and 1 close win and a lot of returning players is that reason

It was very frustrating in the moment seeing Daughty tear up our defense last year, then the way he acted toward the fans and Marshall sideline after the game. I was upset because he was a senior and that would be the lasting image I would have of him. And before we get into finger pointing, please note, that was in the moment.

I'm not going to lie, I was actually thrilled that he got an extra year. Now I may very well regret that come November this year, but I embraced the chance that Marshall would get another crack at him.

He was picture perfect that day, take absolutely nothing away. Bombs, underneath, off balance, whatever he threw was placed with laser-like precision. One of those games that after you step back, you appreciate just how well he performed that day.

I just hope Devon Johnson is healthy when we get there. Making arrangements to be in Bowling Green that day.

I'm a neutral party in this, but I don't blame the kid for getting fired up.

I was behind the WKU bench (see my post about bringing family since I was up that way for Thanksgiving) and the Marshall fans there were atrocious. Spitting on WKU players, throwing bottles, really nasty language all game long.

I'm all for trying to unsettled the visiting team, but Marshall fans took it to another level that day. Hope that the people I saw were the exception, not the norm. Plus, you have to figure WKU was told all week how they were going to get slaughtered. Hell, I figured I'd leave at halftime because it was cold and the Herd would be up by 20.

(06-01-2015 12:48 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(06-01-2015 12:29 PM)SVHerd Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 07:03 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 06:44 PM)CoachMaclid Wrote:  

(05-31-2015 02:35 PM)WKUYG Wrote:  Correct Western was 4-4 but also 3 plays away from playing Tech in the CUSA championship...

And you were only one play away from finishing a full 5 games back of Marshall... And you were 1 play from completing the biggest 4th quarter defensive collapse in NCAA history in your bowl game. This one play thing also works both ways...

To paraphrase Chad Pennington... If you put yourself in position where you let a single play or an official's call determine the outcome, then you didn't play well enough to deserve the win.

And that last game is the reason why you wont see Western call the dogs off on offense in the 3rd qt. Like I said a rookie coach made the mistake in a few games and it cost us in 2 of those.

But what you said still doesn't change the fact Western was a few plays away from playing for the CUSA championship. And with almost every key player back and a year to grow and the addition of people on defense...

is the reason Western is being picked to win CUSA.

In the end everything get settled on the field and then we can look back and see how close or how far all of us were.

By this logic, Marshall was one play away from the Access Bowl.

No Marshall was 1 play away from 13-0

Still no Access Bowl

But you seem to missed the key as to why I laid out how close...

Western has 85% of that team back and all key starters are returning and that's the reason Western is being picked #1 in CUSA by most right now.

Western did win 8 games last year...
1 less than Tech and Tech is losing a lot on defense

same as Rice and Western has more coming back

5 less than Marshall but Marshall is losing a key part of their offense and that head to head must play a part

So yeah...close losses and 1 close win and a lot of returning players is that reason

Welcome back, StillJonesing.