Gameday Thread Sac St 52 @ Eastern 28

[luckyintheorder]

On another note, did Sac look like a Top 5 team? :?

They have Griz, Vandals and Wildcats coming up. One on the road. I believe they drop 2 of 3 of these. Idaho looks tougher, Montana is faster and Weber is well coached.

I thought Sac St was better than Montana State. Probably not better than Weber. Not sure how Montana and Idaho are, but I assume pretty good (we beat Idaho by what, a thousand last year?)

I loved their RB that just kept lighting us up. It felt like he was an every play kind of grinder. When was the last time we had a guy that could handle that kind of workload? It feels like we’ve devolved into a team where players can only go 4-5 plays at a time. And then we see this guy just coming, and coming, and coming.

It's probably pretty hard to judge Sac when the contrast is this current Eastern team. It will be interesting to see those 3 games and see how the BigSky shakes out. Everyone thinks Taylor can coach, so that won't be an issue. Idaho is vastly improved with Eck but may not quite be there yet even with the win on the road against the Griz. Sac is better than MSU, but I didn't think their QB's were particularly good throwers which will matter against the Griz and Weber who can stop the run. We might not have seen their full playbook now that the Eags are vying for last place. (yes the schedule has been BRUTAL) Should be a fun finish to the BigSky.

 

[luckyintheorder]

Not sure how recruiting works. Lose 5-6 coaches all the time and what happens to those players who are getting recruited one year and position coach or coach who is in charge of a certain area are gone. Where do those players end up.

:blink:

 

[LDopaPDX]

The facilities are shot...at MSU game bathrooms spewing out brown water/toliets down below brown water...gross and lines for grub too long. Best takes pay cut, prolly dont pay assistants enough to get top assistants, throw in Hinkey leaving(whos working two full jobs) and prolly won't replace her. Hey Shari McMahan, PhD what are doing to help image of EWU?

This hits our problem on the head from a macro-perspective. Can you point to a school in the conference more poorly managed than Eastern? Maybe Portland State. Maybe Southern Utah back when they were in the conference. All the other schools seem to be able to attract and retain students at a clip that far exceeds Eastern. There was a time when we figured it out, but all of that got torn down when Arevalo left. The problems at Eastern start at the top and the problems work their way down into all the other departments. How Eastern can always be so completely behind the 8-ball with enrollment- especially among the traditional students living in Cheney- is beyond me.

From a strictly football perspective, that talent has dropped this season. However, that doesn't change the fact that we don't have any idea of how to defend. That's Xs and Os stuff that a D1 coach should be aware of beforehand.

 

[LDopaPDX]

Just other random facts...

Right now, Eastern is dead last among 123 FCS programs in scoring defense, total defense, and rushing defense, and are 121/123 in defense against passing efficiency. At this point, the defense is so completely rotten to the core that I don't see a way to improve. We run a 4-2, can't stop the run, while at the same time allowing completions at an astronomically high clip.

On the same note, we give up 298+ yards per game on the ground. The next two worst teams in FCS are giving up 260. For those of you math-inclined folks, that means we are a whopping 13% worse at rushing defense than the next-worst team.

I sort of expected a drop-off this year, but we were bad on defense last year. That might have been an easy area to improve. Not only has it gotten worse, it's gotten much, much worse.