College Football Coaching Dynasty - Western Michigan

[mtaystl03]

I have decided to give TCY another go with version 1.3 and I feel really good about keeping up with this dynasty report. I think the key to a good report is to not get too bogged down in stats and numbers and all that stuff.

I will give you what you need to know and what I feel is necessary. I won't go too much into stats (although, I will note when a player has a nice game and so on).

Without further adu...

Hi. I am Jack Stanton. No, not the guy from "Primary Colors", I am a football coach and a damn good one. I played my high school football in Texas and went on to play at the University of Wisconsin and later in the pros for the Green Bay Packers.

My playing career was less than glamorous. I was a hard-nosed defensive back that switched from cornerback to safety on many occasions and never recorded more than 2 interceptions in any one season. I did give the Packers five good years at the position but nothing special.

I knew what I was going to do with my life after hanging up the cleats. I was going to be a coach at the collegiate level and I was going to win a national championship.

I begged the Packers front office to give me a position coaching d-backs and they were happy to comply. I coached there for one season before taking over as the linebackers coach for the Atlanta Falcons. I did that for 2 years and was offered the head coaching position at Western Michigan University.

I was in a tough spot. I knew I wanted to be a football coach at the college level but I felt I was moving my way up nicely in the NFL and felt I was close to getting a defensive coordinator job, which would be another dream job.

After a week of sleepless nights I informed the Falcons and the WMU that I would be taking over the duties as the head football coach of the Broncos.

http://www.wmubroncos.com/images/masthead/home/masthead_home_r2_c1.gif

[mtaystl03]

I must let everybody know that my intentions at the Western Michigan University are to bring this program to a high level, a level worthy of winning a National Championship. However, if another opportunity arises, I will look very closely into accepting a position elsewhere.

I got WMU and saw my office and the facilities and feel they are adequate to what I need to get started. I knew the first thing I needed to do was meet my players. I meet with my assistant, Mr. Mario Proehl, no relation to Carolina Panthers wide receiver Ricky Proehl.

We don't have a very talented team at all. We aren't deep at any position and we know this. Our schedule is fairly tough with games against #18 Virginia Tech in week 2 and #34 Illinois week 3.

I let my team know right away that we will settle for nothing less than a .500 record in our first season. We will do our best to improve upon the nation ranking that we hold in the pre-season which is number 89 in the nation. I will not have a losing season as long as I am a head football coach, that is my promise.

Our best player is Senior DE T.J. Brock who while being our defensive captain, even he has holes in his game. Junior CB Levon Taylor is our best defensive back and could be a decent shut down corner for us. WR Desmond Farnell,another Senior, is our most talented player on the offensive side of the ball. Other than that, nobody stands out. We have our work cut out for us.

Our first game is against The University of Anaheim, an S8 school, and a team we should beat. We are going to focus on them and not worry about Va-Tech in week two or even Illinois a week later. We need to win that first game.

Pre-season went well, the guys worked hard but there are glaring holes and things we need to improve on if we are going to meet our goal of six victories.

[mtaystl03]

Week One: vs. University of California-Anaheim (S8)

We got the boys ready for our game with a team that we should beat. It is at home in front of all of the Bronco faithful, who, from what I hear are very good fans. I am excited to see them for myself in this game.

We got off to a good start in Kalamazoo in front of a solid, but not great 19,700 fans. Our starting quarterback Brant Nathan found Ray Barrett from 8 yards out to get 2004 started out right. RB Casey Hussey scored from 4-yards out to make it 14-0 in the first quarter.

Early in the 2nd quarter, Nathan found Clyde Clements for a 14-yard strike and then backup running back Victor Talbot scored from the 3-yard line to put us up 28-0 early on. The fans were excited and the team seemed to be flying around the field. They broke our shutout on a 29-yard scoring play but that was all our defense would give up on the day.

Ramond Russell, another one of our runners busted out a 20 yard run for a TD. This was the point that I realized we might be playing the worst football team in the nation.

Nathan found Larry Humphries, who was our 7th man to score in the game with another 8 yard TD play. Raymond Russell added two more scoring runs for 2 and 43 yards to send Anaheim packing with a 56-7 rout. Our defensive captain T.J. Brock was just that today recording a team-leading 6 tackles and 2 sacks.

It feels good to win and win big, but again, this team we played may be the worst team we ever face. I am glad we did some things the way we did and the offense was fairly spread out. Russell got player of the game running for 3 TD's but the whole team was prepared to play and gave the 19,000+ fans what they came to see.

After the game at the press conference one of the reporters asked me if I was going to be an "instant savior". I was diligent in making sure all of the press knew that this team we played isn't anywhere near the kind of competition we will face later in the year, including our conference schedule. It was a nice win and we can't take anything away from the boys but we can't get complacent.

I am sure to pass along this message to the guys and before they leave the stadium that night I tell them to start thinking about Virginia Tech. Talk about coming back to earth. Their eyes lit up and looked excited to get on the national stage with a team of the Hokies' prestige. Should be a tough game, hopefully we can come away with a positive feeling.

Final Score: Western Michigan 56, Anaheim 7.
National Ranking (last week): 53 (87)

Other thoughts and observations: The other games in the MAAC only saw one of our teams win (Eastern Michigan beat Buffalo 45-10). The rest played very tough competition and lost.
Florida State takes over as the #1 team in the land with their impressive 44-0 win over Miami in Miami!

Injury report:

We lost our starting inside linebacker Kim Blades for close to 10 weeks after he broke his ankle after just three plays. That is not a good thing for us at all.

The only other injury was a minor one to backup DE Edgar Harkness who is questionable for the Va-Tech game.

[mtaystl03]

We got the boys to Virginia Tech and we got what we expected. A 66-7 beat down. They absolutely made us look terrible. This was a humbling experience but something this team needed. We, as a coaching staff, couldn't take too many good things out of this game. We had zero net rushing yards (45 yards minus 39 sack yards and minus 6 TFL).

One guy that did his job was running back Rondell Russell who got just 9 carries but managed 33 yards (a 5.0 yard average) against a very stout Va-Tech D.

Our QB's struggled mightily:

Brant Nathan (Senior): 3-13 for 41 yards, 0 TD and 1 INT.
Otis Sampson (RS Senior): 5-11 for 36 yards, 0 TD and 0 INT.
Sampsons numbers were a little better because he didn't throw any INT's but Nathan is still our starter.

DE Rondell Hall has our lone highlight of the game when he was handed an interception at their 29 yard line and broke a couple weak tackle attempts to get in the end zone. Hall, another senior, had a great game with 8 tackles.

T.J. Brock played well, accumulating 7 tackles and 2 assists.

We got bombed and we are 1-1. Now to head to Champagne, Illinois to play the Fighting Illini.

More to come before we get to that game...

[mtaystl03]

Well, instead of taking a step forward, we take a major step back. We go into Champagne and put forth no effort and get run all over 80-0. Yes, 80-0. This is the first time in my career that I feel helpless. This team is just plain bad.

They don't even think upset. They think, ok lets go get our ass kicked and play a team that we can actually play with.

I am not even going to go over stats in this one because it is just plain embarrassing. We need to start the conference season off right at Ball State next week.

1-2, 82nd in nation.

Recruiting has been coming along slowly but surely. We are looking into a lot of local prospects and we are battling both Central and Eastern Michigan for a lot of them. Unfortunately, we don't have a very solid academic institution and that is hurting us.

We are going to get ready for Ball State. That is a must win.

[mtaystl03]

Week 4: @ Ball State University

We got to Muncie, Indiana and we came into this game knowing that if we lost it we would be in for a long season. Ball State was ranked 104 in the nation coming in. They got beat almost as bad as us in their non-conference games but they are at home and that is a big advantage in college football anywhere. We are on the road for the 3rd strait game and it's starting to take its toll.

The first quarter flew by with both teams swapping 3-and-outs. Both defenses looked strong and we were knotted at 0-0 after the 1st quarter.

We had a defensive lapse with 8:40 left in the first half when their QB Robbie Barlow found WR Will Aragon with a five yard pass. That was set up by a 40 yard passing play earlier.

We salvaged a field goal with :04 left on the clock in the half and we went into halftime down 7-3. I layed into them. I told them that I was disgusted with the way we are playing and I tried to light a fire under their asses. I told them it looks like they don't care.

I challenged the defense to come up with a stop on their first possesion of the 2nd half. They didn't. Willie Biddle scored from 8-yards out and just like that we are losing to Ball State 14-3 with plenty of time left in the game. This was what I was worried about.

So I tried challenging the offense. They didn't get anything in the 3rd quarter. It wasn't until the 3 minute mark of the 4th quarter that Brant Nathan found Desmond Farnell from 8-yards out to make it 14-9. I wanted to go for two. The way this game was going we needed to get within a field goal. We gave it to Victor Talbot and he got the job done. 14-11.

Defense gets a stop and we run the ball down their throats and Talbot scored from 5-yards out and we went up 18-14. We played hard the rest of the game to hold on to the 4-point win.

Now 2-2 (1-0).

It wasn't pretty but we will take it of course.

Victor Talbot was awesome in this game. He carried the ball 17 times for 147 yards (8.6 average) and the one TD. He had a 59 yard run in the game as well. I had a feeling Victor would step up for us at some point this season and he just won the starting running back spot for good.

Brant Nathan played the entire game and while he wasn't great, he didn't quite kill us. He was 14-27 for 202 yards, a TD and 2 picks. The two picks didn't hurt us too bad. One was on a bomb and worked as well as a punt (probably better because our punter is pure crap).

We are now ranked #69 in the nation. We aren't the 69th best team in the nation I will tell you that right now.

Other MAAC action:

Toledo beat Temple 21-20 to move to 2-2 on the season.
Eastern Michigan lost to Colorado State 42-17, they are now 2-2 but already have 2 conference wins.

Bowling Green whipped Northern Illinois 37-0. They are now 2-1 and 1-0 in conference. Bowling Green is a good squad.

Next up: at home against Toledo. Big game.

[mtaystl03]

We were off in week 5. We need a break. Some bumps and bruises need to get healed up. We took a lot of time towards recruiting and scouting our next opponent, Toledo.

They beat up on Ball State 35-10. We will be the 'dog in this game but we will be at home and hopefully that will have some impact. They are a better team than us but I think we can play with them.

[mtaystl03]

We get home and just get ran all over. Toledo is a good team and they were clearly better than us. We held the 3-0 lead for close to :30 before they blitzed us all day and ended up handing it to us 46-13.

The offense played alright in the game but the defense couldn't stop them. Multiple 30+ yard touchdowns was the killer in this one. Offensively we ran the ball effectively with Talbot (13 carries for 46 yards), Russell (11 carries for 66 yards) and QB Nathan (8 carries, 42 yards and a score). Passing the ball, Nathan again continues to be decent but never puting together a solid game. He was 14-30 for 150 yards, a TD and 2 more picks. Senior WR Victor Francis isn't even starting for us but he is putting together a nice season. He had 5 catches for 76 yards and a TD.

On the season so far here is how the offensive players have fared:

QB Brant Nathan is 49-103 for 694 yards, 5 TD, 5 INT. Not bad but not good either.
RB Victor Talbot has carried the rock 46 times for 269 yards and 2 scores while Raymond Russell has 41 carries for 239 yards and three touches. We are excited about russell who is a red-shirt Junior, meaning we have him for 2 more years.
WR Desmond Farnell, our most talented wideout hasn't done anything in his senior campaign 7 catches for 110 yards and a TD. We expected those kind of numbers in a single game, not 5 games in!
3rd string WR Victor Francis is our most productive wide receiver with 15 catches for 262 yards and a TD.
Junior WR Clyde Clements has been targeted 30 times but only reeled in 12 for 179 and a TD.

Defensively, T.J. Brock leads the team with 24 tackles and 3.0 sacks.
Sophomore safety Rondell Hufnagel leads the way with 2 INT's.

So here we are 2-3 (1-1) and ranked 83 in the nation. We play #75 Eastern Michigan next at home. They are coming off of a loss to Ball State 38-7! They are 3-3 on the season and 2-1 in the conference.

The MAAC South looks like this now:
1. Bowling Green (3-2, 2-0)
2. Eastern Michigan (3-3, 2-1)
3. Toledo (4-2, 2-1)
4. Western Michigan (2-3, 1-1)
5. Central Michigan (1-4, 1-1)
6. Northern Illinois (2-4, 1-2)
7. Ball State (1-5, 1-2)

These next few games we are battling for some recruits attention as well. Eastern and Central Mich. are after a few players we are and that game should have some impact on where these guys will go. I am excited for this next game at home. Should be a dandy.

Injury Report
We got more bad news as our 4th ILB is now hurt. We have 4 injured ILB meaning we are moving guys around and they have to play positions they have never played before. Very unfortunate but we will just have to battle through it.

[mtaystl03]

Week 8: vs. Eastern Michigan University (3-3, 2-1)

This is a huge game for us. Not only do we need to get back to .500 on the season we need to get to 2-1 in the MAAC. Eastern Michigan is pissed after losing to Ball State last week and this is always an intense game. We do have the crowd on our side so that is very nice.

We give up a quick TD to them through the air. Our interior defense is getting raped because of the injuries sustained there. They know this and are attacking it. Quickly down 7-0, we rally on offense and Francis hauls in his 2nd TD reception of the year from Nathan. 7-7.

Twice in the first quarter Eastern Michigan put the ball on the floor but both times recovered it! Those would've been huge turnovers for us. After the 1st quarter we are tied at 7.

We get a stop on their first possession of the 2nd quarter but then Nathan promptly gives it right back to them. He is back even at 6-6 TD/INT ratio now. They have the ball at our 20 and it was only a matter of time. 14-7.

A holding call and another interception by Nathan really put us in a hole. They had the ball at our 23 and again rammed it right down our throats. 21-7 and the crowd getting restless.

We went into halftime trailing 21-7. No motivational speeches and I didn't get all over them. I simply told them that two touchdowns is nothing in this game. We need to win this game.

We do well on defense right off the bat which sparks something in us. We faced a 4th-and-10 at their 30, too long to kick a field goal we decided go go for it and sure enough a 23-yard gainer to the 6 of EMU! Nathan then found Humpfries in the end zone to make it a 21-14 game.

We knew we weren't out of it.

They fumbled again but recovered, nonetheless it was a stop and they punted. They have a great punter who punted close to 50 yards every time which really set us back. We get stopped and proceed to show our weakness in special teams with a measley 20 yard punt.

Next play, the defense comes up with a huge interception close to the end of the 3rd quarter.

In the final play of the 3rd we got the breakout play we needed and it came from Raymond Russell. A 69-yard TD scamper evened the game and gave us the momentum.

We trade stops and then we pin them deep at their own 7 yard line and on 3rd-and-22 from their 7, we get a 5 yard sack. Another good punt put us at our 49 yard line to start. On 3rd-and-5 from their 33 Talbot dropped a pass. It was decision time.

I decide to let our kicker, Nate Finch, a Senior try a 50-yard field goal with just over 4 minutes left. He nails it! 24-21.

We ride the high and pick them off one more time for good measure and Nathan scores from one yard out to make it 31-21. We get it back again and show a bit of class kneeling on their 6-yard line to end the game.

31-21 win! Very satisfying. Shut out in the 2nd half. Just plain awesome. The guys are jubilent after the game.

I give game balls to the entire defensive unit for their play in the 2nd half and to our QB Nathan and RB Russell for great days.

We move to 3-3 on the season and 2-1 in the conference and we get ready for Northern Illinois next week as we can hopefully sustain the intensity from this week into next weeks game.

In other MAAC-South action, Ball State must of figured something out over there. They hand Bowling Green their first conference loss 24-14! Toledo snuck by Ohio 28-25 and with that they move to 5-3 on the season, 3-1 in conference and a top the South.
Our next opponent, NIU beat up on Central Michigan 49-20.

I was also happy to see that Illinois beating us 80-0 doens't look as bad as they beat #1 Michigan in Champagne this week. They are 6-1 now.

That moves UCLA to the #1 spot in the nation, followed by Georgia and Florida State.

We are now back to #69 in the nation. NIU is #68. Should be fun. Again, it is really nice to be at home for this one.

Now let's get some recruits!

[mtaystl03]

Recruiting Update

We are getting into the heaviest part of recruiting. It is time for those young men to make their decisions on where they will be for the next four years and I remember for me how hard it was to make up my mind. Go to a small school and play right away or go for the Big 10 and red-shirt and hopefully grow into a successful player.

Being sort of new at this I didn't know how I was doing. A lot of sleepless nights for me. I got a call from a few guys telling me that they were coming and I was very pleased.

First, Joe Hannon, a quarterback from Connecticut told me he would be coming to school here next year. We were targeting Hannon pretty hard and got him away from other schools in the conference. It was nice to send a message to the rest of the schools (and recruits) that we mean business.

I later found out that Luther Haskins a center from Detroit is going to committ very soon as well. He was ranked by rivals.com as the 3rd best center in the state.

Then the bombsell. We were looking very hard at two very talented outside linebackers. Jamal Abolofia, ranked the 6th best linebacker in the state of Michigan was the more realistic of the two. Jamal told me that it was between us and Eastern. I figured since he was in attendance in our recent win over them he would for sure be telling me he would accept. Instead he turned us down and committed to Eastern.

The pain lasted about 10 minutes when I found out the main reason why Jamal decided the way he did. He heard that we were already going to get a guy at his position. I got a call from Mario saying that he heard that Brandon Perry was about ready to announce his preference towards us!

Perry, a linebacker from Ellington, Connecticut was not only named to the all-state team but the All-America team!!! My first high school all-american!

From what we hear, he has trouble in the classroom and his attitude isn't the best thing in the world and that would explain why he slipped to us. His on-the-field presense is not to be challenged though. We just need to keep him in line.

The past few days have been nice. We are targeting a few more impact players from around the area and hopefully they get wind that we are getting some good players to sign and they will follow suit.

Time to prepare for NIU.

[mtaystl03]

Week 9: vs. Northern Illinois University (3-4)

NIU came into our place and set the tone early. They utterly dominated us from the get-go and led 17-0 at the half. About the same predicament we were in against Eastern. I had to rally the troops once again and while the 2nd half started slow, we began to pick up the intensity a little bit.

We needed to get that crowd back in it. They went up 24-0 before we finally hit one deep as Nathan found Francis from 10 yards out and Talbot ran in the 2-point conversion. 24-8.

We got the ball back and Nathan then found Desmond Farnell for another 10-yard TD toss. We went for 2 again and failed. 24-14.

We continued out climb back into things when we got an interception and drove down the field and capped off the drive with a 1 yard Raymond Russell score. 24-14.

6:06 left. We had a shot. They drove down the field and our 7 offsides penalties in the game bit us in the ass on this drive. We needed to keep them to a field goal and we did just that. 23 yard chip shot was good. 27-21.

1:14 left and we have no timeouts. Just great. That is on me. We throw three incompletions and are faced with a 4th-and-10 from our own 18. We get it but the clock ticks down. We spike and have :08 left. Nathan didn't have any prayer so he ran and was tripped up and the game ended.

I was hoping for a better performance at home in a huge game but instead we drop back below .500 and to .500 in the conference, 3-4, 2-2.

Their running back Antonio Bennett just killed us. He took advantage of us not having that middle linebacker playing. He had 176 yards on 33 carries and a TD. Had we stopped him, we wouldve no doubt won or at least been in a better position. Thank got he is a Senior and we won't have to worry about him anymore.

Brant Nathan was 18-34 for 226, 3 TD's and 2 INT. His TD/INT ratio now stands at +1 (10-9).

WR Clyde Clements shows his ability to get open deep. He had 4 catches for 114 yards, giving him 19-342-1 on the season. He has two more years with us so we are enjoying his progress.

Junior safety Tyrus Neely had 10 tackles and 4 assists in the game and he has taken over T.J. Brock for the most tackles with 35. Brock sits at 33 with his 3.0 sacks. He had just 3 tackles and 2 assists in this one.

We are now ranked #75 in the nation and sit at 3-4, 2-2.

Injury Report
ILB Kim Blades still has 6 weeks until he is fully recovered from the ankle injury. Fernando Knieiling is playing in his spot and he is banged up as well. He did come up with a big INT in the NIU game. We need Blades back soon. We would like to get him back in 3 weeks.

Other than that, no new injuries.

[mtaystl03]

Recruiting Update

After the loss to NIU, the only thing that would lift my spirits is word that we got some of the guys we want really bad. I got just that.

We got word from 4 more of our targets to come. 2 of them decided to go elsewhere.

We got TE Leroy Ingram a local guy that stars on offense and defense in high school but he will be our new tight end. He might have to come in and play right away for the soon-to-be departed Humphries.

Andy Goodfellow, a cornerback out of Columbia, South Carolina has committed to us as well. I wanted this guy as much as any out there. It probably has something to do with me being a former d-back myself, but this kid impressed the crap out of me when I saw him play. He made the all-state team in S.C. and will be a nice shut-down corner for us in the near future.

We also got two local guys that will key our running game (hopefully) in the future. RB Howie Wayne and G Bo Quinn. Both being looked at by a lot of the schools in our conference we landed them both. They are friends and decided to go the same school together. We are very happy they chose us.

We also landed a couple players that we contacted but haven't been pursuing too hard. They are still nice pickups for us. They are ILB Desmond Plante from East Point, Georgia. DE Frederick Osborne from Fredericktown, PA and S Randy Henry from nearby Pinconning, Michigan.

Not bad so far. The main guy we would love to land now is a defensive end by the name of Darrell Ross. He is from St. Petersburg, Florida and we are the only school that has offered him a scholarship. The only problem is that he is big into academics and Northwestern is after him. :(

[Peregrine]

Nice start to the dynasty, I'll be reading it!

[Icy]

Nice, i'll keep reading too. You also made me fire again TCY, probably will take Toledo as my city where i live in Spain is named Toledo too :)

[mtaystl03]

Thanks guys.

Yeah Toledo is a good squad in the MAAC. The pretty much handed to me 42-16 as you probably read up there. Keep reading and good luck!

[mtaystl03]

Week 10: @ Central Michigan University (1-6)

This is the last game that we should win this season with Marshall and Miami (OH) left. CMU is ranked #117 and we are 75. But it is at their place and you can usually throw out the records in these games.

We start out slow going 3 and out and they convert a long 4th down play and score on a 10-yard pass (they miss the extra point). We come right back and get a 3 yard TD scamper by Russell. We then proceed to get a pick and then Brant Nathan found Clyde Clements for a 5-yard TD. This is the first time this season that Nahtan has been +2 in the TD/INT ratio. He is now at 11/9. Exciting. 14-6.

On the first play of their next possession they cough it up and we recover at their 14! We are pumped up now. We need to go up 2 scores right now. They stop us on a 3rd and G from their 5. We tried a QB draw. Decision time. Of course we decide to kick a field goal and the bum misses wide right from 20 yards. I didn't know that was possible.

The half continues with them getting a little past midfield and punting and we punted twice as well. We finally got some offense going again late but had to settle for a field goal. 17-6 at half.

I guess they came out more fired up than us because on their second play from scrimmage they bust out a 61-yard TD pass. I am pissed. I yell and scream and threaten and do all of that good stuff. Does it help?

Well, after a good kick return we got gains of 7-7-9-2-18 to get down to their 20. We need a touchdown. 3 false start penalties! Unreal. Somehow Finch nails a 41-yarder and we are back up a TD. 20-13. God this is ugly, we need to get out of here with a W.

We get a stop and drive to their 36 only to see a 3rd-and-1 turn into a 4th-and-1 and we throw an incomplete pass?! Turnover on downs. We are destined to lose this game. They take over with 3:00 left in the 3rd.

They put together a nice drive and as the 3rd quarter ends they are on our 2 yard line threatening to tie the game. They do so on the first play of the 4th and we are tied with the 117th ranked team in the nation. I think I might resign if we lose to this team.

We give them a heavy dose of Nathan and Talbot and then when we decide to throw it deep they pick Nathan off in the end zone. I am just plain pissed off. I go over to Nathan and say something about being a Senior and it's ok to be good or something like that. Hopefully that will light a fire or something.

I get the defense together and make sure they know that they are getting run all over by one of the worst offenses in the nation. They respond by forceing a 3-and-out and now we need the offense to pick it up.

Russell got nothing and then Nathan got sacked. I just stood there. Nathan then completed a 35-yard pass. False start. Talbot ran for 10 then caught an 11-yarder to their 6. He then got 4 to the 2 and Russell couldn't get it in from there. 3rd and 1 at their 1 yard line. We go with the fresher of the legs and Nathan sneaks it in. 27-20. Far from over. 5:58 left.

The D responds again giving them nothing. We get the ball back but Nathan fumbles after he started to scramble. Central picked it up. 2:29 left at our 45. Its on the defense once again.

They come up huge. Since my inspirational speech, on three drives they have allowed -2 yards! They went for it on 4th and didnt get it. We run out the clock and are happy to get out of there with a 27-20 win. It was ugly but we will take it.

The win moves us back to .500 (4-4) and 3-2 in the conference which puts us in 4th place in the south behind Toledo, Bowling Green (our next opponent) and Ball State. Ball State beat Northern Illinois 38-14! Who are these guys now? Our 18-14 win at Ball State is starting to look pretty sweet all of the sudden.

We are ranked 68 with three tough games left in Bowling Green, Miami of Ohio and Marshall. We will be the 'dog in all of these games and only the Miami Ohio game is in front of Bronco faithful. A 4-7 record is not out of the picture but I think we can win 2 of the games and be above .500. We hope so.

Let's get some more recruits! :)

[mtaystl03]

Recruiting Update

We weren't feeling too good after DE Winfred Garner signed with Eastern Michigan. That kind of hurt but we are still targeting our man Darrell Ross and can hopefully get him to come.

We did get a highly touted wide receiver in Larry Rodgers. From day one me and Mario wanted to get a QB-RB-WR tandem that we could look forward to in the near future. We got that with Joe Hallan, Howie Wayne and Larry Rodgers.

We are coming along nicely. Our goal in recruiting is to out-recruit (word?) everybody in our conference. Right now, I am not too sure how the other schools are doing but I feel we are doing just fine. We still need a few more including Ross and a new punter and kicker.

Let's get ready for Bowling Green.

[mtaystl03]

Week 11: @ #44 Bowling Green University

I am not expecting too much out of this one as we travel to the MAAC South leading Bowling Green who is 5-1 in conference play (6-3 overall) and play at their place. They somehow lost to Temple and Ball State whom we beat but their other loss was a respectable 30-3 loss at #6 Oklahoma.

They are a good squad. Much better than us. We play in front of 22,000+ fans and they got off to hot start. On their first drive they go 81 yards and cap it off with a Lincoln Runyan 4 yard run. That was all the scoring in the first quarter, surprisingly.

We were down 7-0 and a turnover just killed us. They scored on their 2nd possession of the 2nd quarter, a 24-yard TD strike. They added a field goal late and thier defense was smothering us. They were up 17-0 at half.

I lay into my guys seeing as that seems to be the only way to get them motivated.

It didn't work. Bowling Green was better than we were plain and simple.

Our lone TD came on a 4-yard pass from Brant Nathan to Clyde Clements. Nathan was just awful in this game. He completed just 4, yes FOUR passes. 4-17 for a measley 34 yards a TD and an INT. How he ended up with just one interception I will never know.

Raymond Russell continues to grow into a good back. He had the lone good performance for our guys breaking out a 60 yard run on the touchdown drive and ended up running 8 times for 110 yards in the game.

On defense, the safety Tyrus Neely continues to impress with 10 more tackles and 4 assists. It is telling when your safety is leading the team in tackles that you have problems.

To say they ran the ball all over us would be an understatement. Look at these numbers: 54 carries, 335 yards, a 6.4 average and 3 touchdowns. Wow.

We are now 4-5 (3-3) and the on the bubble of being bounced out of a chance to play for the MAAC Championship. We need to win our next two games and get a couple more things going our way.

In other MAAC action, the MAAC North leading Miami of Ohio (our next opponent) whipped up on Toledo 31-14. That one will get ugly. Central Michigan beat Eastern Michigan 52-27. Both of those teams are eliminated. Now Miami of Ohio and Central Florida stand at 5-1 in the North and Bowling Green alone at 5-1 in the South. Marshall is hanging in there at 4-2 and Ohio, Kent, Buffalo and Akron are all eliminated.

On the national scene, UCLA and Texas are 1-2 in the BCS with a couple games left. Virginia Tech, Florida and Florida State round out the top 5.

I can't wait to get back home to some messages of prospective recruits committing...

[mtaystl03]

Recruiting Update

We got calls from 5 more players that moves us to 16 on the season and that is our maximum. Here is a quick look at the last 5 players:

1. CB Lee McWilliams - Mario really likes this guy. I am not as high on him but he is a solid player. He is from New York but he seems to have some attitude problems and I won't put up with his crap too long. Hopefully we can straighten him out and get some good years out of him.

2. DE Darrell Ross - We really wanted this guy. He is the stud DE we wanted from St. Petersburg, FL. Well we did get him and we are excited about it. He is pass rusher and should get some sacks for us.

3. P Jorge Leora - I am so sick and tired of having a terrible punter and we got a pretty good one in Leora.

4. T Marshall Phipps - This one was all Mario. He went out and did a great job getting a very good bookend tackle from nearby Berkeley, Michigan. Only 27 miles away from Eastern but we went into their territory and got him. He is a run blocker and Howie Wayne welcomes him with open arms.

5. RB Stephen White - Another runner will join us as Stephen White, a smart and confident kid from New Jersey will try to give Wayne a run for his money at the running back spot. I am all for competition but I doubt he takes it from Howie.

Here is a look at our 16 new guys coming next season:

QB Joe Hannon*
C Luther Haskins*
OLB Brandon Perry*
S Randy Henry
CB Andy Goodfellow*
ILB Desmond Plante
DE Lawrence Osborne
G Bo Quinn*
TE Leroy Ingram*
RB Howie Wayne*
WR Larry Rodgers*
CB Lee McWilliams
DE Darrell Ross*
P Jorge Loera*
T Marshall Phipps
RB Stephen White


We will soon find out where that ranks in the nation and in our conference. I am hoping for a top 5 in the conference. That would make me happy.

[mtaystl03]

Week 12: vs. #43 Miami of Ohio University

We go into the MAAC South leaders house to play the Red Hawks. We, again, are underdogs as Miami is looking to capture a bid to play in the MAAC Championship game.
The game is on TV5 and we would like to at least put up a good fight in the national spotlight. We are at home so we do have that going for us.

We come out hungry and get a quick stop. We drive down the field keyed by two big plays, one by Nathan and another by Russell and we cap it off with a touchdown! 7-0.

They come right back and shove it down our throats letting us know that they will not be upset with this much on the line. 7-7. They score again after our offense fails to get anything going. 14-7.

We have a couple nice plays on our next drive and an unnessesary roughness and roughing the passer penalties on them also help a great deal. We score on a 2-yard touchdown scamper and tie the game at 14.

Just before half we get the ball back and Nathan hit Clemons with a 36-yard pass into scoring range but unfortunately it was the end of the half. A well played half by my Broncs. We are more than hanging with them with 14 1st downs to their 10. We trail 108-80 in rushing yards but Nathan leads passing yards 105-69.

I play the inspirational card hoping that the guys realize that this puts us in a very good position.

Nathan is immediately sacked which really took the wind out of our sails and then when we thought things couldn't get worse our wortheless punter punts it 18 yards returned 4 yards to our 26. I can't wait to get Leora in here.

A 24-yard pass and a 2 yard TD gives them the lead 21-14. Damn.

Our next possession was going quite well until they thwarted it with an interception of Nathan. They convert a 4th down and score. 28-14. We are toast.

The offense does nothing the rest of the game and we lose 41-17.

Disappointing after getting my hopes up at halftime. Still some good things did come out of the game. Raymond Russell had 10 carries for 82 yards and caught 4 passes for 34 more yards. T.J. Brock had 7 tackles, 3 assists and a sack in his 2nd to last game for us.

Brant Nathan had a mental breakdown and was intercepted 4 times in the 2nd half to kill us. Otis Sampson, our QB next year, came in and was 1-2 for 32 yards.

Other than that I would say our first season is about over and it's looking like a subpar campaign. We are guaranteed to be under .500 which really bothers me. We are 4-6 right now with Marshall next week and we are 3-4 in the conference and eliminated from post-season play.

Other MAAC action: NIU and Ball State both lost and are with us eliminated. It is now a two man race for the MAAC South title. Bowling Green holds the advantage at 6-1 in conference while Toledo is 5-2 and not out of it. Fittingly they each have one game left and it is against eachother. It is at Toledo is two weeks.

The North is also a two-team race with Miami of Ohio and Central Florida both sitting at 6-1 in conference. Central Florida plays Kent State at home in two weeks and Miami plays Akron, also at home. Both teams should get wins. The kicker will be the 17-10 Miami win over C. Florida back in week 9. That means Central Florida needs them to lose to Akron to have a chance to play for the MAAC Championship.

Our game next week against Marshall has no bearing on anything and our recruiting is done. We would like to pick up a win to add to that column before it's all over but we aren't going to cry if we don't.

[Balldog]

For the record it is MAC, not MAAC.

[mtaystl03]

Authors Note: I have decided to run a FOF2004 dynasty behind this to see how my players or other players do in the NFL after we are done with them. Just to create a little more discussion.

[mtaystl03]

Week 13: Final Week @ Marshall University

We go into our final game without any hope of post-season play but the Seniors know that this is their final game and hopefully they will put up a good fight. Before the game we got a quick "pickmeup" in hearing that Senior ILB Marshall Blades, injured all season, will get to play in his final game. We are going to play in front of 30,000+ fans today which will be nice for these kids.

It started out bad with them running it down our throats for a touchdown in the first 4 minutes. We drove and settled for a field goal. They drove again and went up 14-3. We showed a lot of fight when our senior fullback Wade Terry took his first carry 22-yards for his first touchdown. This was going to be a day for Seniors. 14-10.

We got another defensive stop thanks to a sack by Marshall Blades! Those guys were so happy to see him succeed in his only and final game. We got a field goal to pull within 1. 14-13. Unfortunately, with :00 on the clock, Talbot got tackled in the end-zone somehow and they got a safety to put them back up 3. 16-13 at the half.

I told the Seniors at halftime to go get them some. They would all start and play the rest of the game. I told everybody to enjoy their final half of football this year and for some of them the rest of their lives.

That did it. Right away Senior quarterback Brant Nathan finished off a nice drive with a 10 yard touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Victor Francis. We were leading 20-16. We weren't done as Senior kicker Nate Finch kicked his 3rd field goal of the game, this time a 43 yarder. 23-16.

We both got stops and then sophomore safety and probably defensive player of the year for us Tyrus Neely stepped in front of a pass, picked it off and rumbled 81-yards for the touchdown! Our guys were just in heaven. Beating up on Marshall on their turf in the final game of the season. Just beautiful. I kept it cool but had to smile after that one. That ended the 3rd quarter and the Seniors held up their 4 fingers for the final time.

They got a TD on the first play of the 4th quarter but that would be all they would get. Amazingly, we weren't done. Victor Talbot ended his career on a 63-yard TD run, Finch added his 4th field goal and Brant Nathan threw one more touchdown pass to backup tight end Ray Barrett! What a way to end the season. A 47-23 victory over Marshall on the road.

I thanked the Seniors after the game and couldn't help but shed a tear. They played so well in their final game and we ended up 5-6 on the season.

Other MAAC action: Miami of Ohio took care of business against Akron and have clinched a berth in the MAAC title game.

[mtaystl03]

The Rest of the College Football Season

Before we go any further let's see how the rest of the season went...

Going into week 14 Florida State led the BCS polls with their 17-16 escape against Florida in week 13. UCLA still has 2 tough games with #23 Notre Dame and #15 USC as they sit at #2, if they win both they should be in.

Big XII schools, Oklahoma and Texas are both sitting pretty but Texas still has to get by an upset bid by rival Texas A&M next week to secure a spot in the Big XII title game. Oklahoma is done at 10-1 and big Aggie fans.

Virginia Tech has an outside chance of sneaking into the top 2 with games against Virginia and #9 Miami of Florida still left. If they win both, they could sneak in.

Congrats to the University of Utah who went undefeated and picked up "surprise team of the year" honors going 11-0 and sit at #6 in the BCS standings. They won't play for a national championship but a big step up for that program.

Week 14

A big game in the MAAC-North to decide who will play Miami (OH) in the championship game. Bowling Green and Toledo did battle in Toledo. The game was televised on TV2 getting nice press for our conference. It was a great game but in the end Toledo outdid Bowling Green 24-14 to play for the title. Central Florida is the odd man out and they took out their displeasure on Kent State 75-0.

The Texas Longhorns' title hopes look a lot slimmer now with a 31-21 loss to rival Texas A&M. They do retain the hope in that they can win the Big XII title game since they got the bid over Oklahoma because they beat them head to head.

UCLA stayed true to form and beat Notre Dame 41-13 and are now one game away from playing for the national title.

#28 Colorado upset #6 Nebraska in Lincoln to capture the Big XII-North Championship. They now have a date with Oklahoma in the title game!

This could be deemed "upset saturday" because Virginia Tech also fell to rival Virginia 28-21 at home! This really shakes up the BCS stuff.

Week 15 - Championship Week

This conference championship week will determine the fate for all the teams hoping to get a bid to a BCS game.

What happened last week looked like it would mess things up but it actually cleared it up quite a bit. If UCLA beats USC in the Pac-10 championship game it will be UCLA/Florida State in the big game. Even if they lose they still have a shot of playing for it.

First of all, Toledo beat Miami of Ohio 34-14 to capture the MAAC Championship. Good to see it stay in the South.

The Texas Longhorns are the kings of the Big XII with a 35-20 win over Colorado. They have an outside chance of getting to play for the Natinal title. They would like to see UCLA give up their perfect record and lose to USC...

UCLA had other ideas. They rout the Trojans 44-7 and are clearly the best team in the nation and win the Pac-10. They will play for the title game.

In other conference championships, Virginia Tech captures the ACC title with a 31-21 win over Miami and the SEC goes to Auburn 33-14 winners over Florida.

[u]Bowls[/b]

As expected UCLA will play Florida State for the National Championship in the Fiesta Bowl. Oklahoma will play Virginia Tech in the Sugar Bowl and Texas will play Auburn in the Orange Bowl.

Results:

Game Matchup
Fiesta Bowl UCLA (12-0) 42, Florida State (11-1) 14
Sugar Bowl Oklahoma (11-1) 35, Virginia Tech (10-2) 10
Orange Bowl Auburn (11-2) 38, Texas (11-2) 16
Rose Bowl Utah (12-0) 20, Penn State (9-3) 14
Cotton Bowl Michigan (10-2) 27, Clemson (9-3) 0
Capital One Bowl Colorado (9-4) 27, Washington State (10-2) 20
Sun Bowl Miami (9-3) 31, Nebraska (9-3) 8
Gator Bowl Florida (10-3) 31, West Virginia (9-3) 24
Holiday Bowl Ohio State (10-2) 59, Brigham Young (6-6) 7
Outback Bowl USC (9-3) 24, Virginia (8-4) 21
Alamo Bowl Georgia (10-2) 48, Illinois (9-3) 10
Liberty Bowl Louisville (10-2) 34, Miami of Ohio (8-5) 3
Independence Bowl Kansas State (9-3) 27, Wisconsin (8-4) 24
Insight Bowl Notre Dame (8-4) 38, Air Force (6-6) 15
Seattle Bowl LSU (9-3) 27, Texas Christian (8-4) 20
Houston Bowl Michigan State (8-4) 41, Boise State (9-3) 6
Music City Bowl Nevada-Las Vegas (7-5) 24, Oregon (7-5) 17
Motor City Bowl Texas A&M (8-4) 21, Toledo (9-4) 7
Peach Bowl South Carolina (9-3) 28, California (7-5) 14
Hawaii Bowl Boston College (10-2) 31, Memphis (9-3) 24
Las Vegas Bowl Tennessee (8-4) 30, Syracuse (6-6) 6
Humanitarian Bowl Mississippi (8-4) 34, Arkansas (7-5) 21
New Orleans Bowl Middle Tennessee State (9-3) 42, Thousand Oaks (7-5)


So, UCLA wins the Fiesta Bowl and completes the dream-undefeated season win a National Championship.

I got the ballot for the Heisman trophy and my choice was UCLA quarterback Darren Crites, the senior had a great season going 272-426 for 4,238 yards, 48 TD, 17 INT. Most importantly, to me, he led his team to the title. The only guy that was more impressive statistically was Washington State quarterback Victor Marsh who was 311-485 for 4,634 yards, 51 TD's and 12 INT's.

Despite Crites' 35 California votes, March won it by 13 votes and is the Heisman Memorial Trophy winner.

That does it for 2004. More on Western Michigan coming soon!

[mtaystl03]

TCY Today magazine came out with its top recruiting classes of 2004 and I was very disappointed with the results. I thought we put together a nice class of players but I was wrong. We were ranked #103 in the nation. Other MAAC schools craked the top 30 (Miami Ohio 22, Toledo 24 and NIU 27!) Bowling Green was #37.

I am so disappointed in this that I now know that I need to go after higher profile players to make an impact. It was my first year and I will blame it on that. I will not, however, let it happen again.

I got a 4/100 for recruiting and 50/100 overall ranking at the end of the season. Another goal of mine is to improve on that end of the year score every season.

Let's get ready for 2005 and make it as good as we possibly can!

2004 NFL Results

In case you were wondering how the NFL ended up this season, here is a quick overview...

Tampa Bay beat Cincinnatti in the Super Bowl 28-14 to take the title. Peyton Manning, who signed in the off-season with San Diego won the MVP award. William Green was offensive player of the year and John Mobley was defensive player of the year.

We are going to follow three guys into the 2005 Amateur draft. UCLA quarterback Darren Crites, Washington State QB and Heisman winner Victor March and our very own C Skip Stone, our lone player up for the NFL draft...

Crites is ranked QB #1 current and #3 future. March is #10 current and #15 future.

I guess some teams think Stone will develop into a nice little center someday. He is a ranked 3rd to last (#16) in current but #5 overall center in future potential.

Crites went #4 overall to Pittsburgh. He will probably start right away there.
March went undrafted but was signed after the draft by the Jaguars. He will try to win the 3rd string job.
Stone went in the 7th round to the Houston Texans. Looks like he will make the team as the long-snapper.

[mtaystl03]

Scheduling Phase

We add Notre Dame, Anaheim and Rutgers to our 2005 schedule.

Here is a look at it:


Week
1 OPEN
2 v. Anaheim
3 OPEN
4 v. Rutgers
5 v. Ohio
6 @ Notre Dame
7 @ Northern Illinois
8 @ Buffalo
9 OPEN
10 v. Toledo
11 v. Eastern Michigan
12 v. Ball State
13 @ Central Michigan
14 @ Bowling Green


We have a road meeting with Rutgers in 2006 as part of the deal.

Looking over the schedule I expect nothing less than improving our win total from last year. I would love to get off to a 3-0 start and 1-0 in the conference after the Ohio game. I think those first three are winnable games.

Other games I think we should win are the Buffalo game, EMU, Ball State and Central Michigan. If we can throw in a couple of upsets we could challenge for the MACC Championship!

Next we will go through our pre-season and give a position-by-position breakdown of the 2005 version of the Western Michgan Broncos.

[mtaystl03]

Thanks Balldog. I thought it was Mid American Athletic Conference. Im an idiot. I will do MAC from now on.

[Peregrine]

Looking forward to the new season! In the bowl results I saw Utah beat Penn State in their bowl, that has to be a nice season for them, undefeated and bowl winners!

[Peregrine]

mtaystl,

I used to enjoy reading your Five Great Players dynasty too. Have you pretty much dropped it?

[mtaystl03]

I can see myself going back to that one sometime. I just realized that I had that one going. One problem I had was that I went into too much detail and I think I lost some people. I really want this one to go for a long time but that could be a nice change of pace dynasty. We will see. Thanks.

[Peregrine]

Well I've just started a "Five Great Player" type dynasty of my own, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes.

[mtaystl03]

2005 season

As we go through training we are getting a better idea of where we stand with our players:


The College Years
Western Michigan Roster, Standard View

Player # Pos Elig HT WT High School
Tyler, Bob 18 QB Sr* 6-2 219 New York, NY - George Washingt
Sampson, Otis 16 QB Sr 5-10 187 Detroit, MI - Mackenzie
Hannan, Joe 17 QB Fr 6-4 203 Corry, PA - Corry Area
Page, Deion 14 QB* So* 6-2 189 Farmington Hills, MI - Harriso

Otis Sampson will take over for the departed Brant Nathan. He is
our starter and while he doens't have the passing skills of Nathan, he can
take off and run a little more.Bob Tyler, another Senior is the backup and he is
capable if we lose Sampson for any period of time. Joe Hannon, our freshman will
get a red shirt and should develop into a starter here at some point. Our 3rd
stringer is a red-shirt sophomore named Deion Page who could challenge Hannon for
a spot at some point in his career.

Finley, Jesse 39 RB Sr 6-0 192 Remus, MI - Chippewa Hills
Russell, Raymond 32 RB Sr* 5-10 192 Vermontville, MI - Maple Valle
Knight, Terrance 30 RB So* 6-0 195 Columbus, OH - Briggs
White, Stephen 33 RB Fr 5-8 203 Maple Shade, NJ - Maple Shade
Wayne, Howie 31 RB Fr 5-10 207 Benton Harbor, MI - Benton Har

Raymond Russell is back for his Junior campaign. He ran 98 times for
645 yards and 5 TD's. He will be our starter. We are going to red-shirt Howie
Wayne, even though he may be the 2nd best runner on our roster right now. He could
develop into something special. Terrance Knight, a red-shirt sophomore will be #2
on the depth chart and is capable of running a few times this year. Senior Jesse
Finley and Freshman Stephen White round out the running back position.

Hansen, Brenden 21 FB Jr 5-9 195 Flint, MI - Central
Schneider, Kendall 34 FB* So* 6-0 222 Wayland, MI - Wayland

Both of our fullbacks are inexperienced and not very talented.
Schneider may be a little ahead of Hansen coming in but both will see time
this year at the position.

Barrett, Ray 87 TE Sr 6-2 234 Seymour, IN - Seymour
Hudson, Vince 81 TE Sr 6-3 221 Grant, MI - Grant
Ingram, Leroy 85 TE Fr 6-3 224 Byron, MI - Byron Area
Poirier, Jerry 86 TE* Jr* 6-5 248 Byron Center, MI - Byron Cente
Kemp, Ken 82 TE* Sr* 6-2 224 Alpena, MI - Alpena

At tight end we will look to Senior Ray Barrett to take over and play
the majority of the snaps at the position. Vince Hudson will also see some
action this year. Both guys are good over the middle receiving passes but both
lack the run and pass protection, which could hurt. Our Freshman Leroy Ingram
will get a red-shirt. Both Jerry Poirier and Ken Kemp will be on the bench but
could see a few snaps at some point. Its too bad Kemp is Senior because he
has blossomed a little late.

Turnbull, Leslie 7 WR Sr 5-11 183 Mesa, AZ - Red Mountain
Hussey, Casey 83 WR Sr 5-11 184 Westland, MI - John Glenn
Clements, Clyde 5 WR Sr* 6-3 211 Detroit, MI - Western Internat
Sweeney, Dan 8 WR So* 6-2 198 Livonia, MI - Stevenson
Rodgers, Larry 2 WR Fr 6-2 199 Alpena, MI - Alpena
Finney, Kent 89 WR* So* 6-1 186 Wadsworth, OH - Wadsworth

Clyde Clements is back for his Senior year after hauling in 29 passes
for 434 yards and 3 touchdowns last year. He is our #1 option for Sampson.
Leslie Turnbull, Casey Hussey Dan Sweeney and froshie Larry Rodgers all have
similar talents and will battle for playing time. Rogers will be red-shirted and
Kent Finney, a red-shirted freshman last year could see some passes thrown his
way this season.

Haskins, Luther 51 C Fr 6-3 248 Detroit, MI - Southeastern
Henderson, Cary 52 C* So 6-1 259 Burbank, IL - Reavis
Hanley, Mack 67 G Sr 6-5 303 Warren, PA - Warren Area
Lane, Brad 75 G Sr 6-6 297 Warminster, PA - William Tenne
Quinn, Bo 69 G Fr 6-5 279 Saint Clair Shores, MI - South
Gibbons, Ryan 61 G* Sr* 6-3 269 Vallejo, CA - Hogan Senior
Tibbetts, Randal 62 G* So 6-3 281 Washington, PA - Trinity
Buckner, Lewis 65 T So 6-5 276 Lincoln Park, MI - Lincoln Par
Peter, Terrell 76 T Jr* 6-4 274 Pendleton, IN - Pendleton Heig
Saldivar, Dustin 78 T So 6-3 271 Stanley, WI - Stanley-Boyd
Myrick, Casey 72 T Jr 6-5 289 Saginaw, MI - Swan Valley
Phipps, Marshall 64 T Fr 6-6 301 Berkley, MI - Berkley

Our starting offensive line will look like this:
C: Cary Henderson
G: Mack Hanley
G: Brad Lane
T: Casey Myrick
T: Lewis Buckner
The Center position is very weak with a sophomore Henderson and the freshman
Luther Haskins holding down the position. Our guards are strong and tackles
fairly strong. We are going to red-shirt Marshall Phipps and hope for the best.
We need Haskins to develop quickly and take over that position. He needs to put
on some pounds as he sits at 248 right now. We will track that closely.

Stringer, Preston 1 P Sr 6-4 213 Metamora, IL - Metamora
Loera, Jorge 15 P Fr 5-9 156 McHenry, IL - West
Gilmore, Norman 10 K Jr* 5-10 172 Niles, MI - Niles
Avila, Ed 19 K* Fr 6-1 203 Hopkins, MI - Hopkins

It could be another looooong special teams season. Preston Stringer will
handle the puntingduties and he couldn't be any worse than what we had last year.
Norman Gilmore will be the new kicker.We might red-shirt Jorge Loera because he
could be a great punter for us someday. It all depends if we have room for him.

Harkness, Edgar 77 DE Sr* 6-0 228 Saginaw, MI - Heritage
Ross, Darrell 90 DE Fr 6-2 237 Saint Petersburg, FL - Dixie M
Osborne, Lawrence 94 DE Fr 6-2 247 Fredericktown, PA - Bethlehem-
Zumdahl, Shane 99 DE* Jr* 6-3 233 Boonville, IN - Boonville
Bean, Lee 74 DE* Jr* 6-2 237 Grand Rapids, MI - Union

This may be our weakest position. We are going to red-shirt Darrell Ross.
Harkness, Osborne, Zumdahl and Bean, in that order will play this season. A
glaring weakness with the loss of T.J. Brock.

Kramer, Ben 73 DT Sr* 6-1 258 Grand Rapids, MI - East Grand
Garner, Mark 70 DT Sr 6-0 260 Downers Grove, IL - North
Baer, Lester 97 DT* Sr 6-3 279 Grosse Pointe, MI - South
Crider, Erik 71 DT* Jr* 6-6 268 Red Hook, NY - Red Hook

The defensive tackles are a little stronger and could make this a decent
line. Kramer and Garner are the starters and Baer and Crider will spell them
from time to time. I can see Kramer and Garner being the glue and hopefully
help those two bookends to grow quickly!

Kneiling, Fernando 91 ILB Sr 6-2 216 Mount Pleasant, MI - Mount Ple
Plante, Desmond 58 ILB Fr 6-1 201 East Point, GA - Tri-Cities
Godfrey, Nick 55 ILB* Sr* 6-2 247 Detroit, MI - Central
Bailey, Morris 92 ILB* Sr* 5-11 232 Dearborn Heights, MI - Annapol
Toth, K.C. 56 ILB* Jr* 6-1 214 Detroit, MI - Southeastern
Phipps, Vince 57 ILB* Sr 6-3 232 Alpena, MI - Alpena

This was the cursed position last year when we lost 4 of these guys including
starter Marshall Blades who didn't get back until the last game of the season. Now
our starting middle linebacker will be Fernando Kneeling with Plante, the freshman to
get the red-shirt and the rest will split time backing up Kneiling. Fernando isn't
great but he will do the job for us.

Anderson, Alan 54 OLB Sr* 6-1 204 Gladwin, MI - Gladwin
Hudson, Todd 43 OLB Sr 6-3 218 Garden Grove, CA - Bolsa Grand
Frederick, Ron 41 OLB Sr 6-3 236 New Lenox, IL - Lincoln-Way Ce
Westbrook, Quinn 96 OLB Sr* 6-2 208 Macomb, MI - Dakota
Lincoln, Sherman 48 OLB Jr* 6-1 238 Waterford, MI - Kettering
Perry, Brandon 53 OLB Fr 5-11 203 Ellington, CT - Ellington
Hironaka, Roman 45 OLB* So 6-1 240 Auburn Hills, MI - Avondale

Our two starting outside linebackers will be Alan Anderson and Ron
Frederick. This is a strong and deep position. Hudson and Lincoln are very capable
backups and we are going to red-shirt our prize recruit Perry who should develop
nicely if he can stay in the classroom and eligible next season.

Wheeler, Rico 40 CB Sr 5-11 169 Linden, MI - Linden
Whitfield, Jeffrey 49 CB Sr 6-0 179 Joliet, IL - West
Taylor, Levon 47 CB Sr 5-11 171 Livonia, MI - Stevenson
Goodfellow, Andy 38 CB Fr 6-1 179 Columbia, SC - Keenan
McWilliams, Lee 36 CB Fr 5-10 171 North Salem, NY - North Salem
Copeland, Joel 44 CB* So* 6-0 184 Scranton, PA - West Scranton

Levon Taylor has developed nicely and will spend his Senior season as our
#1 shut down cornerback. He had 3 picks last year and should improve on that this
season. Fellow seniors Rico Wheeler and Jeffery Whitfield will share time as the
second corner. Both are good players. Andy Goodfellow will get a red-shirt as we hope
he can continue to develop into a great cornerback. He may have the most upside of
any freshman we have but he also needs to stay eligible. I would love to give
McWilliams a red-shirt too but Joel Copeland is ineligible and we need 4. He is
more ready to start right away than Goodfellow.

Neely, Tyrus 27 S Sr 6-3 210 Manistee, MI - Manistee
Chandler, Paul 42 S Jr* 5-10 180 Pittsburgh, PA - Plum
Hufnagel, Rondell 35 S Jr 5-11 192 Corbin, KY - Lynn Camp
Farlow, Shane 20 S Sr 6-0 181 Piasa, IL - Southwestern
Sinclair, Brett 23 S Sr* 5-11 188 Chicago, IL - Bowen
Henry, Randy 46 S Fr 5-10 185 Pinconning, MI - Pinconning Ar

We have a stable of good safetys led by Tyrus Neeley who is now a Senior and
should be very solid back there again for us. Chandler, Hufnagel, Farlow and Sinclair
will battle for the other starting spot but Sinclair will probably win it. Henry, the
freshman will get the red-shirt.

[mtaystl03]

We have a bye in week one and we are ranked #84 in the nation to start. We have #120 Anaheim first.

Week 2: vs. University of Anaheim

We start out at home against Anaheim who we should handle. We started out good with a 13 yard touchdown from Sampson to Clements. 7-0.

We were shut out the rest of the quarter but they didn't get anything going on offense so we were safe. Our new kicker, Norman Gilmore hit a 21-yard field goal to make it 10-0 in the 2nd.

Terrance Knight had a 10-yard TD run to make it 17-0 with :45 left in the half and the defense was smothering them pretty well. The offense was just having trouble finishing drives. I am not worried going into halftime but I think we should improve on some things in the 2nd half.

We got a 10 yard run from freshman Stephen White and two more Gilmore field goals and won the game 30-0. Quite a moderate score compared to last year but we will take the win and move to 1-0. I think going 1-0 to start is so important just to get the feeling of winning in these guys minds right away.

They managed on 135 total yards to our 481 which is more telling than the score.

Raymond Russell had 18 carries for 118 yards in the game and Knight had 13 for 50 yards and a TD. Sampson was 18-29 for 229 yards, a TD an no interceptions. A solid game agianst a weak defense. Russell also had 3 catches for 31 yards.

Our new punter Stringer looked great in his two appearances on the day. He has 2 punts for 85 yards (42.5 average, 45 long) and 2 inside the 20! It would be so nice if he could keep that kind of production up throughout the season.

On "D", Taylor led the squad with 3 tackles and an interception. Not much to do today. We sacked them 4 times all by different players.

1-0.

In other MAC action: Purdue whipped up on Eastern Michigan 66-14. USC beat Ball State 42-10. Boise State took it to NIU 56-14. Bowling Green beat 34-7. Toledo beat Sacramento 55-10.

Here is the national top 5:
1. Texas
2. Florida State
3. Kansas State
4. Georgia
5. Alabama

We are officially ranked #48 in the nation, but that won't last long.

We will now have another bye week and prepare for a huge game against Rutgers in week 4.

[mtaystl03]

Week 3: Bye Week

We had a bye week and have more time to prepare for the 2nd game on the schedule in Rutgers. We also went hard on the recruiting trail. We hope to improve on that 101st ranking we got last year which was just awful!

MAC Action: #37 Central Florida beat Temple 35-16. USC feats on a MAC team for the 2nd time this season beating Marshall 58-0. #31 Toledo snuck by UCONN 13-9. #50 Bowling Green got the conference shedule started out right beating Ball State 38-10. Central Michigan put up a credible performace at #13 South Carolina losing by 3 touchdowns 28-7.

We now prepare for Rutgers.

[mtaystl03]

Week 4: vs. Rutgers

This is a game we should have won in front of our own fans and I don't want to spend much time talking about it because it was by far the worst game of my short coaching career so far. We lost to a bad team at home and lost our quarterback for 9 weeks.

Bob Tyler replaced Otis Sampson in the 1st quarter and was bad. He completed just 12 of 34 passes for 156 yards, 1 TD and 2 very costly interceptions. This after Sampson got started 3-for-3 for 68 yards. Disappointing.

We ended up losing 16-14 as the dramatic come from behind effort fell short. They got ahead 9-0 early because of costly interceptions and a fumble and we couldn't recover on offense.

Tyler suffered an injury of his own, to his ankle late in the game and may not be available for the first conference game of the year against Ohio. Bad news.

[mtaystl03]

Week 5: vs. University of Ohio (Conference game)

This is another game we should win in at home. We play our first MAC game in front of a Bronco faithful that are wondering when I am going to get these guys to play to their full potential. Injuries are killing us again but that will not be used as an excuse. We are 1-1 and should be 2-0. We need to battle through the tough times and hope for the best.

We start this game off right when the defense puts enough pressure on the Bobcats and they get holding called in the end zone resulting in a safety. 2-0 us.

We gave it right back to them when they drove down and two big plays capped off a 4 play, 67 yard touchdown drive with a 33 yard pass play. 7-2. Things only got worse when Tyler, who was well enough to play, threw a pick that was returned for a touchdown. Quickly down 14-2. Fans were already packing up.

Bob Tyler settled down and drove us down the field for a touchdown when he found Clyde Clements with a 6-yard lob pass. He then threw a screen pass to RB Raymond Russell who broke a couple tackles and found pay dirt to make it 16-14 good guys.

We continued our nice run with an interception return for a touchdown by Rico Wheeler, he rumbled 94 yards for the TD after the drove the length of the field. Talk about taking the wind out of their sails. WOW.

We got a 3-and-out and Raymond Russell scored from 3 yards out after the defense forced and recovered a fumble at their 20 and brought it down to the 5.

The defense continued to pour it on when the leader Tyrus Neely took an interception of his own to the house. A 37-yard return. This made it 37-14. Russell added his 3rd TD of the game, again from 3-yards out to cap the scoring. We blow them out 44-14!

Where did this come from? Who knows, but I like it. We have a tough stretch coming up and this game will add some much needed confidence.

We now stand at 2-1 (1-0) at are ranked 56th nationally.

Other MAC-South action: Ball State won their first game of the season, a 40-20 win over Akron. Bowling Green edged Toledo in a big rivalry game, 21-14. Eastern Michigan moves to 1-0 in conference with a 7-point win over Buffalo 38-31. Marshall, from the North beat up on Central Michigan 26-0. NIU got an impressive win over Miami of Ohio 28-3!

National top 5:
1. Georgia
2. Michigan
3. UCLA
4. Florida
5. Auburn

Next up: our big national game at South Bend, Indiana and little school called Notre Dame. That could get really ugly.

[mtaystl03]

Week 6: @ #15 University of Notre Dame (3-1)

Well here we are in the hallowed grounds of South Bend, Indiana. Our guys are in awe of the type of tradition they are stepping into. Few of these guys dreamed of playing on this field and while it may not be for the Irish, they are still living the dream.

We started out very well after taking the opening kickoff. Unfortunately we couldn't pound it in the end zone but settled for a field goal. 3-0! We are beating Notre Dame! We will see how long that lasts.

They took the ball and ran it a lot. They did face a couple 3rd and shorts and converted them all. Three times. They then dropped the bomb when their great quarterback Norris threw a 26-yard touchdown pass. 7-3 Irish.

On our next possession we looked like a pop warner team playing the New England Patriots. They got called for a pass interference. After that we got two false starts and two sacks. 4th and 32 from our own 12. The dream has already ended. :)

We did kick two more field goals to take a 9-7 lead but then the Irish ran away with it. It was respectable at 42-9 but I thought we could've made it a little closer.

We are back to .500 and we now prepare for a big conference game with Northern Illinois. We are ranked 71.

Other MAC Action: #37 Bowling Green whipped up on Temple 42-0. Ball State beat Bakersfield University 48-7.

[MizzouRah]

Excellent read mtaystl03!

You're making me want to fire TCY up again!! :)


Todd

[ice4277]

As long as you lose to Central every season you have my support :D

[mtaystl03]

"unable to load staff information file. Saved game is corrupted"

Wow. Somehow this got messed up. Looks like I won't be firing this one up for a while. This really makes me mad. :( I will try to restart but I doubt that does anything.

I will start up a new one very soon if I cant revive it.