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What we accomplished last year had a direct and notable effect on what happened today.

We got respect from all corners, from the opponent itself, to the opposing team's media (most of them anyway) to the opposing conference's officials, to a level we wouldnt have gotten had this been our opener last year.

We were treated fairly and with respect by all of them, and you just don't see that often in these "guarantee game" type situations.

Kudos to the USC program and the PAC 12 for treating us with class.

Props to USC for putting in their blind long snapper for that last XP. I think we gained more respect for overcoming what we've lost from last year to perform as well as we did on the road vs a Goliath in extreme heat.

(09-02-2017 08:20 PM)WMUlaxer97 Wrote:  Props to USC for putting in their blind long snapper for that last XP. I think we gained more respect for overcoming what we've lost from last year to perform as well as we did on the road vs a Goliath in extreme heat.

This. Says a lot about our new staff.

proud of how they played, but looking at it from our coaches perspective, not sure i am happy. Bad pass to end the first half to ernsburger a little short could have put us up 7. poor tackling by one of our best player in tranquil gave up a long running td in fourth and the dropped pass for the int return. a few big plays we gave up cost us the game. I am very happy with how we played though and were very respectable in the loss. Great game against a top rate team and could have been a 3 point game? Nothing against USC, they should finish as one of the top 10 teams and we were not far off their pace. in the end, i think their size on the lines did prove to wear us down a little. Is it to early to start planning a vacation for a new years day bowl? which one does the group of 5 team go to this year?

(09-02-2017 10:39 PM)NYbronco Wrote:  proud of how they played, but looking at it from our coaches perspective, not sure i am happy. Bad pass to end the first half to ernsburger a little short could have put us up 7. poor tackling by one of our best player in tranquil gave up a long running td in fourth and the dropped pass for the int return. a few big plays we gave up cost us the game. I am very happy with how we played though and were very respectable in the loss. Great game against a top rate team and could have been a 3 point game? Nothing against USC, they should finish as one of the top 10 teams and we were not far off their pace. in the end, i think their size on the lines did prove to wear us down a little. Is it to early to start planning a vacation for a new years day bowl? which one does the group of 5 team go to this year?

Like USC, the coaching staff is ironing out the problems. I thought Wassink did a great job as red-shirt freshman.

Most coaches say all the right things before a game.

Did we really get respect from this game? The narrative out there seems to be that USC can't possible be the 4th best team in the country playing a real close game against Western Michigan. Watch them tumble down the polls.

Even in their (USC) papers, it's more talk of we have this to clean up....blah blah blah...instead of that was a real good physical football team (WMU) by Helton.

Unfortunately, on a national scale, I don't think this did much for us in the respect category. Let's beat the crap out of MSU this next weekend to show USC wasn't a fluke.

Great opener Broncos. Still the most talented team in MAC from PJ's recruiting, and the new staff did a great job implementing the new schemes and having team ready to play. Picked you as MAC champs prior to season, first week only confirmed it. Congrats.

CBSsports ran an article grading all CFB new coaches on their first game of the season.

Quote:Tim Lester, Western Michigan: A-
Short of actually, you know, beating USC, I'm not sure how you can grade Lester's first game much differently. The Broncos never, ever went away and they out-toughed the Trojans on multiple occasions. Only when USC turned on the jets at the absolute end was the 49-31 game decided. Coach P.J. Fleck may be gone along with Corey Davis, but this team still has dudes.

PJ rated a C for his opener.

Here is the article: https://www.cbssports.com/college-footba...l-coaches/