(01-08-2019 04:57 PM)Rocco Wrote:  That seems like worrying about an untidy garden when there's a hole in the roof. Maybe London would rather go 4-7 than 4-8?

Thought that I would let the dust settle before I responded to this.

As we all know, London has won an FCS national championship, coached big-time ball at UVa, and made good strides at Howard. He just signed a (what, 5-year?) contract with us. So I really don't think London has even the smallest concern about what his record will be in the first year (in fact, even if he goes winless, he will just blame it on Laycock's players).

On the other hand, playing that extra game has a lot of advantages. More game time to evaluate players (and coaches); more exposure/recruiting at some venue not within the CAA (we already have 6 home games lined up so this 12th game would most likely be on the road); possibly more money if it is a cash game; and, hey, wherever it is, he might even win the game. It might, just might, possibly affect playoff consideration, too. So the advantages of playing the game far outweigh the disadvantages (and the only one of those I can think of is overall cheapness/frugality from not wanting to pay travel expenses; classroom/study time, you say? Please!).

Lastly, I am apparently more optimistic about the coming season than some others are. Even though I am on record as having preferred someone like Cignetti to London, now that London is on board I am on the train. To me, I am more optimistic because of Brennan Marion than because of London. Anyway, this year's team won 4 games and I think they also let a couple of others slip away (funny how the brain has already cleared storage on the details of some of those defeats). So with a totally revamped offense and a hopefully similar defense (and some other CAA teams regressing a little because of graduation losses), I can easily see through rose-colored glasses that next year's Tribe could get to 7 wins. You heard it here first!