What if there was no COVID, and this had been a regular season? What do you think Eagles Football would have looked like? Going off what we saw, the team stumbled at the beginning, losing three of four they arguably should have won. They won the last two, looking like a team that was discovering their identity as a potential offensive juggernaut. And were some guys on defense starting to develop and show their potential in a way that would have solidified the defense with a few more games yet to be played?

If you translated that all to a regular season, would the Eagles have struggled in OOC games, only to start to gel as they hit the conference schedule? Or did this weird season allow several guys the opportunity to play who might otherwise have seen limited (if any) time in a “normal” season, thereby changing the dynamics of what we might have seen?

Did this season, as almost an exhibition season, change how the coaches approached scheming and game planning? Were they more relaxed in their coaching style thinking this season didn't really count, or had it been a regular season might they have been more traditional in their style, leading to a much different team hitting the field than what we saw?

There are some good football minds here…use your imagination and share what you think may have happened in a non-COVID football world based on what you saw in this mini-season.

5 at Kentucky
12 Coastal Carolina
19 *NIU
26 at Missouri
Oct.
3 *Central Michigan (HOMECOMING)
10 *at Ohio
17 at Army
24 *Toledo
31 *at Western Michigan
Nov.
10 *at Ball State (ESPN2/ESPNU/CBS Sports Network)
21 *Bowling Green
27 *at Miami (ESPNU/CBS Sports Network/ESPN+/ESPN3)

This is what we would have faced...

Probably a 4 or 5 win season.

4 and 8 and our athletic treasury would be a lot richer

Really? Based on what you saw, you still think this would have only been a 4 or 5 win season. So no bowl eligibility? No season momentum as they start to rack up some wins?

(12-14-2020 11:50 AM)emu79 Wrote:  4 and 8 and our athletic treasury would be a lot richer

The fiscal implications are a whole other thing I hadn't thought to include but definitely an impactful result of everything that happened as a result of COVID. How does that affect how this program budgets for next year (and likely the next few seasons)? We lost a couple of big paydays, but did save some money on travel costs, home game expenses with no crowd-related costs, and fewer game days to prep/pay for.

I don't see a lot of wins on that schedule with the way the team played this year. 0-4 in OOC games was very likely. I would've said 2-2 in those prior to the season but Coastal Carolina was a whole different animal than in 2019. We probably would've played them close but this team struggled to close out games. Probably a one score loss. We also played poorly against teams that ran the ball well so I'm assuming a loss to Army.

I'll give us the win against NIU since that happened and think we could get one from either WMU/CMU. I think I'd be safe with a W against BGSU. Other than that, maybe we steal one against Toledo/Miami or a game against a team with some injuries. I'd say 4 wins was how this season was going to shake out. Not having any clear OOC wins really put us behind the 8-ball.

(12-14-2020 11:54 AM)cidbearit Wrote:  Really? Based on what you saw, you still think this would have only been a 4 or 5 win season. So no bowl eligibility? No season momentum as they start to rack up some wins?

Not with the defense I saw out there and lack of consistent running game. I agree a 0-4 out of conference was likely.

(12-14-2020 12:57 PM)eastcoasteagle Wrote:  I don't see a lot of wins on that schedule with the way the team played this year. 0-4 in OOC games was very likely. I would've said 2-2 in those prior to the season but Coastal Carolina was a whole different animal than in 2019. We probably would've played them close but this team struggled to close out games. Probably a one score loss. We also played poorly against teams that ran the ball well so I'm assuming a loss to Army.

I'll give us the win against NIU since that happened and think we could get one from either WMU/CMU. I think I'd be safe with a W against BGSU. Other than that, maybe we steal one against Toledo/Miami or a game against a team with some injuries. I'd say 4 wins was how this season was going to shake out. Not having any clear OOC wins really put us behind the 8-ball.

This is a helluva "what-if" question.

I'm with you. 0-4 OOC and 4-4 in MAC. 4-8 overall. Coastal was better than anyone expected. Army was a little weaker then recent years but EMU does have problems with run defense (although they'd run a very different defense for Army).

I'm not sure that the coaches played this season as an exhibition. They stuck with the starters almost 100% on offense. They rotated a lot on defense but that's normal. The play-calling, especially on defense, may have been a little vanilla though.

(12-14-2020 01:23 PM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 12:57 PM)eastcoasteagle Wrote:  I don't see a lot of wins on that schedule with the way the team played this year. 0-4 in OOC games was very likely. I would've said 2-2 in those prior to the season but Coastal Carolina was a whole different animal than in 2019. We probably would've played them close but this team struggled to close out games. Probably a one score loss. We also played poorly against teams that ran the ball well so I'm assuming a loss to Army.

I'll give us the win against NIU since that happened and think we could get one from either WMU/CMU. I think I'd be safe with a W against BGSU. Other than that, maybe we steal one against Toledo/Miami or a game against a team with some injuries. I'd say 4 wins was how this season was going to shake out. Not having any clear OOC wins really put us behind the 8-ball.

This is a helluva "what-if" question.

I'm with you. 0-4 OOC and 4-4 in MAC. 4-8 overall. Coastal was better than anyone expected. Army was a little weaker then recent years but EMU does have problems with run defense (although they'd run a very different defense for Army).

I'm not sure that the coaches played this season as an exhibition. They stuck with the starters almost 100% on offense. They rotated a lot on defense but that's normal. The play-calling, especially on defense, may have been a little vanilla though.

I think the play-calling, in general, was relatively vanilla. Did we run any kind of trick plays this season? None that I recall.

An intangible to consider is that in a non-COVID world, there would have been a full contingent of Spring-ball for this team to have worked through. Having had that under their belt, would that have made a difference for this team?

Personally, I think a solid Spring-ball session is probably more important for programs like MAC teams than it is for SEC or B1G programs. MAC teams are loaded with players for whom additional development opportunities can make a big difference. P5 programs (in my opinion) generally have players who are much more developed as athletes, so I'd think for them Spring-ball is more expanded walk-throughs than true player development work as it would be in the MAC.

(12-14-2020 02:15 PM)cidbearit Wrote:  An intangible to consider is that in a non-COVID world, there would have been a full contingent of Spring-ball for this team to have worked through. Having had that under their belt, would that have made a difference for this team?

Personally, I think a solid Spring-ball session is probably more important for programs like MAC teams than it is for SEC or B1G programs. MAC teams are loaded with players for whom additional development opportunities can make a big difference. P5 programs (in my opinion) generally have players who are much more developed as athletes, so I'd think for them Spring-ball is more expanded walk-throughs than true player development work as it would be in the MAC.

I like the question. The OOC schedule would have been tough but to what you're saying, dont think of the OOC schedule with COVID conditions. We would have had Spring ball to see more of what he had and also address shortcomings. I think we would likely have been a 5-7 team, maybe 6-6. (Army has that cut block style which is hard to play against, Kentucky/Mizzou are who they are and Coastal is strangely good this year. Say, we won one of those games as an underdog in them all, would go 5-3 in MAC play to get to .500

I was super frustrated at the beginning of the season and by the end was starting to see us gel and get an identity. [i][i] I'll never put the issues solely on COVID, because Buffalo and Ball State somehow figured it out.

I do think the momentum with the last two games was AWESOME and I think the best thing it did was show us that we not only belong, but should 100% be competing for a MAC division in '21. I'm hopeful the guys are motivated by the last two games and that carries on to winter work-outs which should be after the Holidays I assume. Crazy to think Spring Ball is a couple months away.

Trying to not be a 'homer' but with a full spring ball, returners or Hutch, Beydoun, the O-Line, Quiann, Tanner, Dylan, Boone, the DB's getting experience and hopefully Rush and Myrick than the goal is no longer to get to a bowl game it HAS to be to be playing at Ford Field next Dec.

Given how this season played out, it seemed like we were just hitting our stride in last three games (so the mid-way point of a normal season). Assuming that were to happen in a normal year I could see....

5 at Kentucky L
12 Coastal Carolina L
19 *NIU W
26 at Missouri L
Oct.
3 *Central Michigan L
10 *at Ohio L
17 at Army L
24 *Toledo W
31 *at Western Michigan W
Nov.
10 *at Ball State L
21 *Bowling Green W
27 *at Miami W

5-7. Even if we had starting playing well in October that is a tough stretch of games. I know we lost to Toledo, but I could see beating them at home once we had worked out some kinks.

I think C Cs offensive play calling improved as the 2020 season progressed.Having Boone back made a huge difference the last two games. It gave CC more offensive options.We had a very productive offense. CC deserves credit for that.