The Ladder - 2024
 

It's time to do redshirts, recruiting, and scheduling. Let me know which out-of-conference teams you'd like me to try to schedule for you.

Note: This season, there will be 4 OOC slots. I turned on protected rivalries, so nobody gets to dodge their top conference rival during their conference schedule.

I'll get to this in the morning and let you know who I want to play.

Board set, redshirts declared, UTSA is ready to advance. Very excited for this season, I think it might be the best overall team we have put together.

I'd like to play the toughest schedule possible aside from one game with Texas State. Would like to get my home games starting week 4 or later if possible. Everything before that can be on the road.

Would also like to play at least one home game in week 8/9/10, as well as one more as late in the season as possible.

Do what you can, I'm not too worried about things. Just want a tough schedule, one game with Texas State (Week 1 on the road would work), and no home games before week 4.

I'd like Notre Dame on my schedule and the other opponents to be as highly ranked as possible. I'd like to load up on away games early and homes games after week 4 or 5 if possible. I also would like at least 1 home games in weeks 9 or 10 if possible.

I will start my recruiting board in a few minutes. Not sure if I will get it done tonight or will need an extra day or two to finish it.

edit: USC is set to advance. :)

Dola -

Count me among the very excited as well.. I have the most team speed on offense that I have ever had. I have WR's who can absolutely fly who will start and play in 3 WR sets. I have 2 great QB's who are so good that I will redshirt our super fast freshman phenom QB and pray that he doesn't transfer out. Our defense should be much improved as well as our linebackers are much better than the last 2 years.

I've begun redshirting people in their sophomore seasons to avoid the transfer issue. Had to do that this year with my future starter Blaylock. The down side is he won't get to play this year, but the up side is that he should come in next year as a redshirt sophomore with 97 speed which will hopefully be quite a weapon as a dual threat, something I rarely get the chance to make count.

Will get stage done tomorrow am

No rush. I haven't got my boards together eithed.

Week 3 at #7 Auburn
Week 4 at #19 Clemson
Week 6 vs #8 Ohio State
Week 13 vs. Texas State

Week 1 at #5 Notre Dame
Week 2 at #6 Oklahoma
Week 5 vs. #10 Georgia Tech
Week 8 vs. #11 Alabama

FAU:

Week 2 at #9 UCLA
Week 3 at #19 Clemson
Week 5 vs #13 Florida
Week 14 vs FIU

Yay. I can't wait to beat up on ND!

Beautiful. Lets get this baby rockin!

GTG here

Sorry for the hold up. Daughter was sick today.

No worries, gotta take care of family business.

I hope your daughter feels better soon.

She went back to school today, so hopefully she's past it.

I should be able to roll us forward tonight.

That is definitely good news :)

We dodged a bullet. Luckily, I decided not to use advance from the web this afternoon. My hard drive had become detached, and all our games reset to the original schedule. That would have sucked.

Ladder 2024 - Week 1 - Deadline is 5/30 (Tues) at 11 p.m. DST
 

We're on to Season 14 of the Ladder! Good luck, boys.

Week 1 Games

#4 USC at #5 Notre Dame

2024 Preseason Poll
 

2024 Heisman Watchlist
 

I will destroy ND tomorrow morning :)

USC had a tough QB decision so I decided to give both 99 rated QB's a chance to play in the 1st quarter. They both played well but Spencer did a bit more and got to play the rest of the way and will be our starter throughout.

All was not lost for James Johnson though as he is now the #2 QB and a backup WR. He finished with 6 of 9 passes completed for 83 yards and he caught 3 passes late in the game for 31 yards and a TD.

However, he was not the only 2 way player this game. I somehow missed that starting QB Walter Spencer is so athletic that he was put in as the #5 CB in my depth chart. Late in the 2nd quarter when we were tired, he was out there on the field and he got burnt bad by a WR. I decided to give him one more opportunity to play DB in the 3rd quarter because I thought it would be fun to have him get a pick, but he got burnt again and will hopefully never see the field at DB again this year...

However, as a QB, he was spectacular. He ran 11 times for 118 yards and 4 TD's. He completed 36 of 52 passes for 610 yards, 8 TD's 0 INT's and 0 sacks.

SR RB Jordan Richard added 11 carries for 77 yards and 2 TD's.

SR Speedster WR Tye White used his speed on a deep ball but also showed the ability to catch the short and intermediate passes and finished with 13 catches for 271 yards and 3 TD's.

Freshman Speed WR T.J. Adams used his big 6'4 foot frame to block off defenders on runs and also added 10 catches for 114 yards and 2 TD's.

In total, we had 11 different WR's, TE's, and RB's catch passes with 5 of them finding the endzone.

Our 2nd string defense got torched at times but our 1st string defense played very very well. We had 2 pick 6's and a 3rd interception with SR Jordan Burks getting us started with an acrobatic interception and an amazing return for the TD in which he weaved through several guys.

Sophomore DT Caleb Atkins was absolutely unblockable as the DT powered his way through their line time and time again and finished with 6 sacks. In total as a team, we finished with 9 sacks.

Star CB Eric Allen finally looks like he will live up to his billing as he smothered his man and also had 1 of our picks. His was the only one that was not a pick 6 as he caught it on the sideline and barely got the feet in bounds.

Our special teams return game was the only semi-disappointing part of the date as our returner was generally bottled up and will make me look to see if anyone else can do the job better.

Final score: USC 112, ND 14 (thanks in part to Spencer giving up a 55 yard bomb.)

After the game, the Golden Domers were like "at least we didn't lose by 100." Maybe next week will be easier for them... (Indiana travels to ND in week 2.)

:D

Week 2 - Deadline is 6/1 (Thurs) at 11 p.m. DST
 

Week 1 Results

USC 112, Notre Dame 14


Week 2 Games

#2 USC (1-0) at #5 Oklahoma (0-0)
#3 Florida Atlantic (0-0) at #8 UCLA (0-0)
#4 Indiana (0-0) at #15 Notre Dame (0-1)

#1 UTSA (0-0) - Bye

These got damned byes... Got a new play book I'm aching to put in motion.

I'm thinking of incorporating some new stuff in my playbook too to get my best players on the field at the same time.

USC played one of our most impressive halves of football ever in the 1st against Oklahoma. In the 1st quarter, we had more picks against their QB than he had completions as we held him to 1 of 11. Our offense was perfect and we were up 28-0.

In the 2nd quarter, we continued to dominate defensively with sack after sack. We had 10 before the half. We also held them to incompletion after incompletion and 3 and outs. They finished the half with only 2 completions and 3 interceptions and our offense remained nearly perfect as we jumped to a 63-0 halftime lead. At the half, we allowed 1 yard of offense and had over 500.

In the 2nd half, I decided to work on some new running plays and we had a bad fumble. Also, my QB threw his 1st pick of the year. We also slowed down our tempo a bit as we tried to rest our tired defense.

We cruised to an 87-7 win over Oklahoma.

A few defensive stat lines that stood out:

Sophomore LB Sterling Brown who is now a key piece of our defense had 11 tackles, 6 for a loss, and 3 sacks.

JR DE Adam Burns had 6 sacks (several of them due to outstanding coverage.)

RS Sophomore DT Caleb Atkins continued his great season with 3 more sacks.

As a whole, our defense finished with 14 and we were definitely gassed in the 4th.

Eric Allen is shutting down his side of the field and teams are throwing to the other side. Star JR CB C.J. Johnson capitalized with 2 more picks to add to his 1 from last week.

True Freshman CB Jeff Wilson got his first 2 career picks and looks like he will be a very good CB for us!

SR SS Josh Huff got one of his few career picks as he separated the ball from the WR and then caught the deflection!

Our return game clicked this time including a 101 yard kick off return to start the game that was called back due to clipping.

Spencer completed 51 of 67 passes for 596 yards with 11 TD's and 1 INT (stupid decision by me when I thought I could force it into a tiny window.) On the downside, he did take 5 sacks this game which cut into his rushing totals which were only 13 carries for 65 yards.

SR RS starting HB Jordan Richard had a 78 yard TD run to finish with 9 carries for 136 yards and a TD. He would have had a lot more but he was exhausted by the 4th quarter and I could not get him to return. In fact, by the 4th quarter, I was down to my 6th string HB which happens to be my backup QB...

RS Freshman T.J. Adams was our biggest target this week, the big WR had 12 catches for 157 yards and 3 TD's.

Speedy SR WR Tye White had a few drops (only got credited with 1) and also got dinged up late so he only had 8 catches for 141 yards and 2 TD's which were almost all in the 1st half.

JR TE Mike Harris had 6 catches for 96 yards and 2 TD's.

Backup HB/Kick returner Carlos Sewell had 3 receiving TD's and almost had a rushing TD.

Again 11 different guys with receptions including backup QB James Johnson who caught 1 out of the backfield.

I'm really liking what my defense can do when they aren't tired. Look forward to maybe being able to slow down Indiana's rushing attack this year.

"I'm really liking what my defense can do when they aren't tired. Look forward to maybe being able to slow down Indiana's rushing attack this year."

Never! This year, we have two beasts to rotate at running back! And a line that has matured a bit. Our guys will make sure that your D is tired in crunch time.

:D

I'll be doing my recruiting shortly.

Man, I can't wait to get this team out on the field and crush ND.

So first week was a mixed bag. Some good some bad.
I threw 2 bad picks that were totally on the button pusher.

But the story of the game for me was my child of destiny.
Last year during recruiting I desperately wanted to add a kid from TX to establish a pipeline. I searched TX over and over and eventually added a 60 OVR OLB just to have the numbers. But everytime I searched there was this WR. a 5* who had me 4th some 3,000 points back. But I was 3,000 points back, over full at WR and even though he was faaaaast...I just didn't have room. Besides if he was so good why wasn't that ruthless crew of WR horders in SC on him...

Finally as the season wore down he was still there I was still 4th and still 3,000 points back. Threw him on the board and offered just for shits and giggles. The next week we were only 1,190 back. Quite a jump. He quickly let me schedule a visit, but his only date was week 15. No game that week but we'd show him around campus. Heck we were dealing with house money what is there to lose. Just scheduling that visit however rocketed me up to 280 back. He went on to sign on that OV and we were excited to have a TX pipeline and be able to cut that 60 OVR kid.

But WR is stacked. I have no place for him. If I redshirt him he's probably gone. He is literally 9th on my WR depth chart in terms of OVR even though his 94 speed is 5th overall among WR. I formation subbed him into a 5 WR set that normally wants to line a RB up at the 5th WR just to get him a few snaps. I thought nothing more of it.

Late in this weeks game I was basically running out clock when UCLA went sack master on me and quickly had me in a 4th and 23. I refused to punt so I lined up in a 5 wide out set and all go routes. At the snap my (Y) WR streaked open down the middle of the field and I lofted a 74 yard TD. I didn't realize until the TD graphic that young Kenneth Moore, that kid from TX, had just played his first snap and caught his first pass and scored his first TD. What a cool story. So on we move. And UCLA should just end the game with 42 seconds to go. Instead they call timeouts and throw incompletions and despite getting a first down they still find themselves punting to me which I field with 13 seconds left.

Now the gentlemanly thing to do would be to kneel this out, but hoping to win mercy on USC's staff when we play next, and seeing how happy young Kenneth Moore was after hiss first catch I decided to call the same play again.

Guess who came streaking through the crowd again all by his self behind the Defense.

Young TX WR Kenneth Moore who begged me to recruit him finished the game, his first college game, with 2 plays, 2 catches, 140 yards and 2 TDs. Maybe we should play him Moore.

We've got some things to work out on offense. Threw a couple of picks, but enjoyed a lot of success on the ground. Screw Notre Dame.

Week 3 - Deadline is 6/3 (Sat) at 11 p.m. EST
 

We're on to week 3, by the way. I'll post details later. Everyone has games except USC.

Week 2 Results

USC 87, Oklahoma 7
Florida Atlantic 56, UCLA 13
Indiana 56, Notre Dame 18

Week 3 Games

#3 UTSA (0-0) at #5 Auburn (1-0)
#2 Florida Atlantic (1-0) at #14 Clemson (1-0)
#4 Indiana (1-1) at Duke (0-1)

Fuck yes. I'm on it. Got some frustrations to get out of my system.

Somehow I ended up with Wake and Louisiana Lafayette on my schedule..

But anyway, we beat Auburn 70-10 and lost our top QB for 5 weeks in the process. Our second guy is more mobile and will enjoy the playing time, but I can't say it doesn't take the wind out of our sails a bit.

Conference rivals, sir.

:D

:(

Boo for the bye. Happy we advanced. I'll do recruiting later tonight.

In a rare double header day FAU embarrassed Clemson 70-13.
We have had a log jam at RB.
Lemon is a (r)SR who has been a change of pace back and a 99 SPD guy
Neal Sharpe who has better awareness but has never really been given a shot
Burke is a So and the future used in spots last year.

Week 1 we gave all 3 some carries and no one separated themselves.
This week we again started Lemon but had a quick hook prepared. He came out like a man possessed. Having 60 yards on his first 5 carries before breaking his elbow and ending his season.

Our Freshman phenom WR again flashed as we featured him late...

Oh, hahaha.. Weird.

Week 4 - Deadline is 6/4 (Sun) at 11 p.m. EST
 

Week 3 Results

UTSA 70, Auburn 10
Florida Atlantic 70, Clemson 13
Indiana 63, Duke 10

Week 4 Games

#1 UTSA (1-0) at TCU (0-2)
#11 Oklahoma (0-1) at #3 Florida Atlantic (2-0)

#2 USC (2-0) - Bye
#4 Indiana (2-0) -Bye

Ill be on it in a jiff!

Boo for the bye! :(