Green shoots used more recently in terms of RECOVERY. Something which was in the tank and starting to come to life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_shoots

Our defense against CMU was pretty bad. Surprisingly bad. There was no Dan LeFevour or Antonio Brown out there for CMU.

There WERE green shoots on OFFENSE despite the dismal score:

1). Karutz continues to show he is the real deal. No fluke.

2). The WRs/TEs looked pretty good to me. Young and good. I was afraid he'd have the WRs KPJ posted about (e.g., Scott) but no one to get them the ball.

3). Our RBs are getting there but hurting. I read a lot of them are hurting with several including Scherer with high ankle sprains. Marrow will be the up back lining up ahead of Scherer next season and the up back we need behind Payne. We need HEALTH here. EDIT: Javonti Green also has a high ankle sprain per Annarbor.com. IF healthy, we'd be okay here.

4). The BIG green shoot for me yesterday was PAYNE. What potential this redshirt frosh has and he has 45 more games in his EMU career to develop. His arm, I think, will rank up there with Big Ben, Leftwich, etc. in time if he develops. Before one series in the Miami game and yesterday, basically all we knew about him was his HIGH SCHOOL reports in Rivals or Scout. Yesterday we saw him vs. a good defensive team. He was not the erratic QB I expected to see.

If he continues to develop, I can't see Gillett holding the #1 job even though Gillett won it in spring/pre-season practices.

EDIT: 5). I believe all of the OL recruits are either being redshirted. Don't think hardly any have played as true frosh. I like that we are redshirting OLs. This is a + going forward.

Interesting enough all of my favorite 'green shoots' are on offense.

We didn't give Payne a lot of time to set and throw, which may have contributed, but I saw him both under- and over-throw several passes. Still, I do see potential. Just very raw potential. I'd say Gillette is more game-ready right now, but he'd best not get too comfortable.

I think you guys have a real shot at taking out Ohio. The Bobcat offense looked pathetic the past couple of weeks.

Hard to see Green shoots when the EMU-CMU games used to be competitive games and now are snoozers Steve.

(09-19-2010 12:14 PM)emu79 Wrote:  Hard to see Green shoots when the EMU-CMU games used to be competitive games and now are snoozers Steve.

'79, end of year games with nothing on the line are almost meaningless.

Almost as meaningless as the current EMU-CMU games ?

The fact is that in the not so distant past EMU was competing head to head with CMU and WMU.

Its not that way now but I guess that's meaningless as well.

Green shoots used more recently in terms of RECOVERY. Something which was in the tank and starting to come to life.

EMU's offense under the previous coach was not in the tank. Coach English inherited a fine good of offensive weapons in Schmitt, Priest, Stone,Gage, a good offensive line and others who start for EMU even under English. If people have doubts about that they can look up the EMU career stats.

If the reference to being in the tank was the last half of last year I would agree with the statement there's some flashes with some of the players but the overall offense has trouble scoring against teams other than the lower half of the MAC.

And yes I agree the defense is still terrible.

The difference is that JG had a offense that could score at times. While it was not a powerhouse, EMU's offense under JG was far more potent than English's offenses.

That RE cannot construct a decent defense even though that is his specialty is telling. The guy is a complete failure as a HC. He should be fired after this season because it is painfully obvious that he is simply not head coach material.

(09-19-2010 04:46 PM)wolverineeagle Wrote:  The difference is that JG had a offense that could score at times. While it was not a powerhouse, EMU's offense under JG was far more potent than English's offenses.

That RE cannot construct a decent defense even though that is his specialty is telling. The guy is a complete failure as a HC. He should be fired after this season because it is painfully obvious that he is simply not head coach material.

There is an obvious talent gap that needs to be closed. Our Linebackers lack speed, they allowed Cotton to get around the corner all day. Our DB's really struggled, particularly the Safeties. Definitely more speed is needed.

On offense, although I think he is a gamer, Gillette has a weak arm and should probably be playing another position. Genyk's offense would have struggled with a QB that couldn't put enough zip on the ball to complete a ten yard out and it did when Tyler Jones was in that position.

Genyk's teams did not play as disciplined as English's team has shown the last three games. Not nearly as many foolish penalties.

The spread offense can overcome talent differentials because the field is spread in hopes of creating mismatches. The problem was that we used to have trouble sustaining drives with the spread. English is trying to build an offense that can sustain drives, but doesn't have all the personnel yet to blow people off the ball, run down the throats of defenses and threaten down the field with the long pass or even hitches and outs of more than 10 yards. We desperately need to upgrade our talent.

Just an observation that I haven't seen anybody mention - the kind of thing that doesn't get any attention with near 0 media coverage. Ryan Downard, Latarious Thomas, Marcus English, and Tyler Palsrok, all senior leaders and starters the previous week, were out for the CMU game due to injury. In addition, Nate Paopao was also out. Downard did manage to fair catch some punts, but played no defense. I'm not sure about the timetable for the return for these guys. Palsrok's injuries occurred last week after being in a fairly serious car accident (rear ended as he waited to turn into the player parking area off Hewitt by someone doing 50 mph). Every defense has injuries to deal with, but I would suggest that this was a lot for the Eagles to handle in one week.....

First off, we all hope Tyler is all right. Second I did note I did not see Thomas play and was wondering why and did see Downard fair catching but not on field which was curious. If injured couldn't someone else be returning punts?

(09-20-2010 10:03 AM)EagleAttack Wrote:  Just an observation that I haven't seen anybody mention - the kind of thing that doesn't get any attention with near 0 media coverage. Ryan Downard, Latarious Thomas, Marcus English, and Tyler Palsrok, all senior leaders and starters the previous week, were out for the CMU game due to injury. In addition, Nate Paopao was also out. Downard did manage to fair catch some punts, but played no defense. I'm not sure about the timetable for the return for these guys. Palsrok's injuries occurred last week after being in a fairly serious car accident (rear ended as he waited to turn into the player parking area off Hewitt by someone doing 50 mph). Every defense has injuries to deal with, but I would suggest that this was a lot for the Eagles to handle in one week.....

Thanks!!!

We interrupt the negativity for some much appreciated information.

Best wishes to Tyler.

I did notice, but didn't comment, about Thomas. Someone e-mailed me wondering about him.

I too wondered about Downard.

One of the TOUGHEST things about being an EMU fan is NOT knowing what is happening.

Things in perspective look a little different today then two days ago.

BTW, I'll be at the Virginia game (I'll drive down from D.C.).

Steve,

The team went 0-12 the first year and is now 0-3. I think we all like it to be different. But it is not a positive situation or direction we're in and some of us are being honest about our feelings about our concerns about the program and the direction its headed in.

I continue and always have believed we have quality kids on and off the field to give it their best. There's value in that whether they win or lose.

But if the program continues to where it appears to be heading and there's no improvement I am worried there might not be a program. If that's negative so be it.

The hard core fans on this site have the right to be positive, negative, or anything in between, IMO. No excuses, just wanted to point out what I thought were significant losses on the D in one week. Hopefully they will all be back in action very soon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Novak

Novak only one 1 game in his 1st 2 years at NIU. Hope this helps us remain calm.