Well, we've got 6 games in the conference this week that shouldn't be close, 2 that are reaches but not longshots to win, and this is the one coin flip game of the week. Right not it looks like we're a 2-point favorite, and that looks right.

The Good news for us is that all in all when everything is taken into consideration we did okay on offense in the first game. Even though SCSU won 3 games last year statistically their defense was solid by MEAC standards and only gave up 19 points a game in 2017. SCSU also only lost something like 5 starters and has been playing really young teams the last couple of seasons, so I expect them to win a lot more games this year given Buddy Pugh's history there.

On top of that, we have kept a lot of the playbook under wraps (Coach Lunsford said so and anyone who has studied Bob DeBesse's offense at UNM would know that as well) and basically the only passing we did was perpendicular to the sideline or 6 yards downfield to a running back. UMass defense wasn't that great last year on defense and last year gave up around 300 yards of offense to us, which was well above what Tyson Summers was averaging up to that point in the season.

The bad news is that we didn't really get an overly good test on defense. Secondary and front look great, but at times the middle of the field looked open and there seemed to be some holes to run through not created by SCSU's OL but by the movement of our line. I think Nate Woody's 3-4 will work well for our personnel but it might take half a season for it to gel.

UMass was good on offense down the late stretch last year and returns 9 starters.

All in all, I expect we'll find our offense is better than it appears to be and the defense not as good as it appears to be.

This game has me all kinds of nervous. Last year they exploited our weakness which was pass defense and threw it over our heads all day long. We did a great job on defense against SCSU, but they weren't exactly passing aficionados. I'm hoping we play a tight, clean game, and prove to our fans that we are on our way back. If we win this game, and don't get too injured against Clemson, I'll feel pretty good about starting conference play.

The reason our defense got exploited is that we were putting LBs on their WRs and just got beat the entire time. That defense was absolute trash.

Last year's game was a comedy of errors for us, turnovers and bad penalties ended this game with 7 minutes to go in the 1st quarter. In fact, after reviewing the film with Klak and eaglewraith last night, we were 6 inches away from being down 35-7 in the first quarter.

I don't think they were that good of a team last year, we were just THAT bad and they capitalized.

Fun Fact: Our offense coordinator from last year is now a Defensive Analyst at Georgia Tech... let that sink in.

(09-05-2018 08:53 AM)TheEagleWay Wrote:  The reason our defense got exploited is that we were putting LB on their WR and just got beat the entire time. That defense was absolute trash.

Last year's game was a comedy of errors for us, turnovers and bad penalties ended this game with 7 minutes to go in the 1st quarter. In fact, after reviewing the film with Klak and eaglewraith last night, we were 6 inches away from being down 35-7 in the first quarter.

I don't think they were that good of a team last year, we were just THAT bad and they capitalized.

Yup, UMass had three consecutive offensive plays go for touchdowns. That's Georgia Tech versus Cumberland-level stuff.

I'm betting that they don't get big plays passing and that we get more QB pressure without all that needlessly aggressive blitzing.

The way we played against UMass last year was GARBAGE and we still managed to move the ball the first half, and we were starting with the ball around midfield since their kick coverage was so terrible.

I watched the Duquesne game earlier this year and they had success on the perimeter against UMass's defense, I would expect to see us do some of the same things. Their defense REALLY sold out on presnap motion last year, so I hope we make them pay for it.

I think we'll be ok and it should be a close score. Not sure which way it goes though. I know we can't turn it over 4 times again and hope to win.

This game is make or break for a lot of the casual fans in statesboro. Short of upsetting Clemson, this will have the biggest impact on our casual fans interest so for the sake of our program this season this win means a lot.

I think we survive 28-24 but I could see them coming away with a win if we don't improve on offense.

If your offense can't get it going early, you will lose. UMass seems to finally be putting it together (despite Week 1) at the FBS level.

(09-05-2018 09:36 AM)ericsaid Wrote:  If your offense can't get it going early, you will lose. UMass seems to finally be putting it together (despite Week 1) at the FBS level.

Because UMass has such a good offense? They struggled to score points against Boston College and 2 of the 3 scores came in garbage time.

I'm hoping the humidity and crowd play a factor in this game.

(09-05-2018 09:36 AM)ericsaid Wrote:  If your offense can't get it going early, you will lose. UMass seems to finally be putting it together (despite Week 1) at the FBS level.

Summary of UMASS drives against a mediocre P5.
PUNT
TD
PUNT
DOWNS
PUNT
PUNT
FUMBLE
INT
INT
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT 7-55
TD GARBAGE
TD GARBAGE

Basically got an early adrenaline TD and two complete garbage scores. Boston could have kept their starters in and kept throwing instead of running basically the entire 4th qtr to kill the clock.

Our D is getting a stud LB back and we are getting a OL stud back as well.

UMASS is not good but we were 2-10 so we probably are not good yet either yet. Our D was nearly flawless in the first game and we did not have many penalties. Will probably have to win the TO battle an have our D put some points up for us.

Just thanking the Lawd we opened with a bad FCS to get some film to eval players and plays.

(09-05-2018 10:22 AM)JCGSU Wrote:  

(09-05-2018 09:36 AM)ericsaid Wrote:  If your offense can't get it going early, you will lose. UMass seems to finally be putting it together (despite Week 1) at the FBS level.

Summary of UMASS drives against a mediocre P5.
PUNT
TD
PUNT
DOWNS
PUNT
PUNT
FUMBLE
INT
INT
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT 7-55
TD GARBAGE
TD GARBAGE

Basically got an early adrenaline TD and two complete garbage scores. Boston could have kept their starters in and kept throwing instead of running basically the entire 4th qtr to kill the clock.

Our D is getting a stud LB back and we are getting a OL stud back as well.

I haven't seen where Todd Bradley is back (hope you're right), but according to the game notes, Logan Hunt (one of the top defensive linemen in the conference) is expected to return.

(09-05-2018 10:34 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  

(09-05-2018 10:22 AM)JCGSU Wrote:  

(09-05-2018 09:36 AM)ericsaid Wrote:  If your offense can't get it going early, you will lose. UMass seems to finally be putting it together (despite Week 1) at the FBS level.

Summary of UMASS drives against a mediocre P5.
PUNT
TD
PUNT
DOWNS
PUNT
PUNT
FUMBLE
INT
INT
PUNT
PUNT
PUNT 7-55
TD GARBAGE
TD GARBAGE

Basically got an early adrenaline TD and two complete garbage scores. Boston could have kept their starters in and kept throwing instead of running basically the entire 4th qtr to kill the clock.

Our D is getting a stud LB back and we are getting a OL stud back as well.

I haven't seen where Todd Bradley is back (hope your right), but according to the game notes, Logan Hunt (one of the top defensive linemen in the conference) is expected to return.

Thought I read it on our board. We need him after rewatching the game.

We all basically said UMass was garbage last year, than they went and beat App.

I'm just not sure what to expect here...

I think we are underrating Boston College. They are sitting at #28 on the AP right now.

With that said, I think we win this one and win it comfortably. Capitalize on solid, long drives. Utilize our new Defense. I think we have it -9.

Lets please stop with the praise of SC State. They got destroyed last year by Savannah State. A D2 program. We played one of the worst teams possible last week.

Winning this game is going to rely solely on the defense stepping up and keeping UMASS out of the end zone while our offense figures itself out. Otherwise, it will be another blowout.

(09-05-2018 01:59 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  We all basically said UMass was garbage last year, than they went and beat App.

I'm just not sure what to expect here...

I dont think they are garbage just decent G5 that has not put it all together yet who knows if they will ever be more than that being a NE homeless team. We are a rebuilding team with good speed and talent. Goes without saying our coaching is better and we only had 8 seniors last year with only one or two being consistent starters. They probably stayed about the same the question is has this new staff had time to get us pointed in the right direction.

They are well coached but a good G5 does not get dismantled against Boston, beat by two scores or more yes, but Boston could kept them to 7 and scored probably two to three more times easily. We will not know what Boston really is until the end of the year since their schedule is back loaded.

(09-06-2018 02:50 AM)eagleskins Wrote:  Lets please stop with the praise of SC State. They got destroyed last year by Savannah State. A D2 program. We played one of the worst teams possible last week.

While that may be true they averaged 18 ppg on defense last year compared to Sav States 31 ppg with basically the same schedule.

We play Sav St last week and we likely win 50-6 not 37-6. I'm not saying it was a great performance, but SC States defense is lightyears better than any Sav State team we have ever played.

Quote:COORDINATOR CHANGES: Georgia Southern is breaking in a pair of new coordinators and UMass has very little film off which to study.
The Eagles handled South Carolina State with ease on Saturday, leaving Whipple with only a slight idea of what to expect on Saturday. The Minutemen have spent much of this week delving into tape on Appalachian State’s defense from last year when current Georgia Southern defensive coordinator Scot Sloan was running the Mountaineers’ defense. On offense, Whipple is studying both Georgia Southern’s read-option scheme as well as the wrinkles added by former New Mexico offensive coordinator Bob DeBesse, who is now Georgia Southern’s coordinator.
It is the defense, though, that has Whipple the most concerned because of the limited tape he’s seen on Georgia Southern in Sloan’s scheme. He said he expects to have to make a lot of adjustments as Sloan and the Eagles unleash some of the wrinkles they didn’t need to reveal during last week’s blowout victory.
“They’re an odd-front now and they have a little more mixture of coverages and different blitz patterns,” Whipple said. “He’s brought their package and Appalachian State has had a lot of success on both sides of the ball, but especially defensively. It’s studying the things off that tape a little bit more than watching last year’s Georgia Southern.”

https://www.gazettenet.com/UMass-cornerb...s-19941393

The GS OLine is suspect. There's at least some semblance of looking like a football team so far. The inside zone must be successful for the offense to work. I trust Debesse to get it there but it may take more time.

Instead of recruiting OL who are athletic and use good technique, the last couple of years saw us recruiting "long" players who are the 195th ranked OL. That's fine if you're throwing it like most teams do, but I see DL blowing by our guys into the backfield on many running plays. Up front, we're big, but at least we're slow too.