Chasing the ring...a Deepoute dynasty.

[nfg22]

Hi. My name is Thomas Ryan. Most people call me Tommy. I am the General Manager of the Clearwater Tornadoes. I have been GM for 3 years now and have yet to win a Championship. When I took over the team they had a few key peices in place but were coming off of a 6-10 season. I have since then had winning seasons of 10, 9 and 14 wins respectively but had only last year made the playoffs for the first time. After losing to division rival Florida Seminoles, in my first ever playoff game, I had a crisis of sorts. So I figured I would blog about my quest to win a ring.

Why did I pick this site? Maybe it was because I love FOF. Maybe it was because I need advice. Maybe it was because...who cares why. I did. So if you read, awesome. If you dont, then thats cool too. I hope you follow along, and cheer me on my quest.

(OOC. This will not be as much a story as it will be about stats and my team. I will add in the story of Tommy, but only in bits and peices. This will center around the success of my team. Thanks!)

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Well coming off of last season, I suppose I should let you guys know a little about my team. I am returning most starters and seeing as I did win 14 games, I am not looking to change too much, but my team could stand to get better.

Offense
Run Game
We are returning the strength of our team. We had the third best running team in the league at 163 yards per game. We had two backs over 1000 yards with Willie Thomas getting 1342 on 4.8 per carry and Keith Graves coming in at 1007 at 4.6 a carry. These two guys are a great 1-2 punch. Willie being a 4 year vet, starting 3 of those. He isnt blazing fast but finds the hole and can make men miss. He plays out of all 1 and 2 WR formations. Graves on the other hand is our speed back, but dont let that fool you. He can still make men miss and remember, he was only a rookie last year. He will come out all 4 WR formations and split time at 3 WR formations. Our O-line is headlined by 3rd year C Jason Fox. He will play G most of the season. Our other starters will be G William Baxter, T Franky Grantham, Scotty "Too hotty" Drake and C Dean "Cool" Waters. Our O-line is beast. Thats all there is to it. We are deep. We have back ups at every spot. Our two backup guards could easily start on most other teams. We look to average 170 this year.

Pass game
This is an area we could improve on. We ranked 8th in this area last year. Obviously we were up most games and thus passing was not as important but still I think we can improve greatly. We split time last year between Fred Toombs and Earl Boyd. Toombs is a veteran, proven but not flashy. Earl took over late in the season for an extra push, he can sling the ball deep, and seems to throw less interceptions. Problem? He is young and is prone to dissapear for stretches of time. Our RB's tend to block alot and dont get many passes so I wont go over them. Our #1 WR last year was split between many players, none who did much good. This year it will most likely be FA pickup Horace Muller. He is a 6 '3 well rounded player. Our goal for the #1 is to get open and give the QB an out on every play(high rate of completion pct). Our #2 will be Matt Fletcher. One of the few guys who has his spot locked up for the WR's. He was a rookie last year and led the team in every category. He will be the guy to take most passes and will look to use his route running get open and his juking ability to get yards. After that we have a competition between Manuel Schmitt, Robert Alvarado, and Micheal Clark. I hope to average 210 yards a game this year.

Defense coming next....as well as draft results....

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Defense
Our defense was very consistent last year. # 1 in Pass D, with 112 yards a game and to counter that the Run D was 6th. Together this put us at 2nd overall behind only...the Florida Seminoles. We also came in 2nd in scoring, only allowing 6.9 points a game. Our pass rush is fantastic, with Jack O'Connor having two 20+ sack seasons in a row. Bobby Jahaly has shown promise and is a beast as far as abilities go. Our DT's are a three headed monster with Virgil Boatfield, Mark Tregan, and Charles Olli. They are all strong and good at tackling, thus stopping the run effectively and even adding the occasional sack. At linebacker we have our weakest part of the whole team. Starting Eric Hayden at MLB. He isn't fast but he reads well and wraps up well. Jesus Negroni at SLB can pass rush and cover, he is a play maker. Last we rotate between the rest of our guys as I feel they are playing. Our secondary is second to none with veteran playmaker Andres Alaniz and young superstar James Weems. For our Dime and Nickel formations we have Shawn Lee and Jose Orloski. For the safeties, we will have a competition this year between four players. The leaders being Tom Slingluff and Dick Lefevers, along with the contenders Bob Serpa and John Finley. Overall I expect our defense to improve this year with the newcomer Tommy Slingluff. He should shore up the big plays and help to keep the RB's from getting past the second line. My goal is to hold opposing defenses to less than 200 yards a game and 6 ppg.

Thanks for reading. Up next.......Draft Results.

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Draft Results
Round (1) Pick 25 G Ike Jimenez This guy is strong, has great run blocking and footwork. Would start for almost every other team. Will become our #1 backup and may start depending on performance and injuries.

Round (2) Pick 25 WR Timothy Hall Hall was somewhere around 12-15 on my draft board. He is blazing fast, quick off the line, and can evade tackles like nobodies business. Will look to upseat Manuel Schmitt from the #3 spot.

Round (3) Pick 25 T Charles Harvey Isn't the strongest but will be quick off the line with great footwork and run blocking technique. He will be a legitmate #1 backup. We may need him as Franky Grantham is getting old.

Round (4) Pick 25 CB Shane Carter Carter is pretty solid. He will be an adequate nickel back and may challenge for Alaniz's spot when he retires, which might be soon.

Round (5) Pick 25 WR Andrew Rosas Well rounded but still raw. May be the #5 this year but may never play. Preseason will be huge for him.

Round (6) Pick 25 C Ryan Rock We are alrteady stacked at center. While he may be able to make something of himself in the future, he will most likely ride the inactive list this year.

Round (7) Pick 25 CB Philip Koenemund Cant tackle and plays a position we already have. Will most likely be cut.

Up next? Preseason.

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Well with the season coming up, preseason games starting this week, I don't know what to think. Is my team better than last year? Was last year a fluke? What really makes a good player? What is really a good strategy? Its funny. I grew up being saturated in sports. My dad was a GM in baseball and I looked up to him like he was a hero. I used his high profile to attend every game I could in every sport I could. I was never good at playing but I could tell you every stat in every situation of every player of every year. It became me. Some would say I needed balance. I would say I had it. I was balanced in the only thing that made me alive. Sports. It didn't matter which one. Well maybe it did, everything but hockey. Baseball(of course), football, futball, basketball. They all fascinated me. So after running a couple minor league teams in Baseball, I decided to try college football. I did well. I had a name from my father, and the skills to prove it. I got offered this job three years ago. I was highly touted. I had confidence that I would win. I know I have done well but something snapped in that last loss. Everything I knew vanished. Gone. Just. Like. That. All of a sudden my confidence is nil. I don't know what to run. A 4-3 with strong corners who can jam off the line? Maybe couple that with a couple bruiser line backers. Then get some fast safeties to stop the deep plays. Wait. No I dont want to have to be stopping deep plays. So maybe Fast corners and linebackers?...UGH! See what I mean. I second guess myself. Well time moves on. It doesn't wait for me to figure it out. This week is our first game. Maybe I can set expectations and then form my team around them? That might help me. So here are my expectations. Lofty for such a man as I am right now.

Goals...rather expectations.
Offense
At least three games of 300 yards passing.
Average of 230 passing for the season.
At least one game of 100 yards rushing...for both rushers.
Have two RB's get 1000 yards. Again.
Have a WR top 1,200 yards.
Have two WR with over half of their yards YAC.
No one with over 6 sacks allowed all season.
No more than 16 sacks allowed total.
Fewer than 20 turnovers.

Summary
Lots of yards. Balanced yards. Few turnovers. Few losses. Do it with speed and finesse. We shall see.

Defense
Less than 80 yards a game rushing.
Less than 120 yards a game passing.
Two players with 12+ sacks.
Overall 45 sacks.
One player with 20 passes defensed.
One player with 4+ interceptions.
Overall more than 30 turnovers.

Summary
Basically opposite from Offense. Except for the speed part. I use speed everywhere. Even on the line. That first step is crucial.

Overall
Beat Florida twice.
Have a at least a 5-1 division record.
Match last season of 14 wins.
Get at least to the conference championship.

Summary
Florida is our rival. We must beat them. We must win in our division as it is a compilation of the best teams. We had both wild cards last season. I want to go one round further in the playoffs.

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Preseason: Game 1

Well we won. But that doesnt matter, its the preseason. Here is the boxscore. In the preseason I will focus much more on individual performances, as this is more of a time to get line-ups set than work out team kinks.

QB Earl Boyd goes 9/13 with 2 TDs and cements his status as the starter. His only real competition Toombs goes 3/9 with a measly 25 yards and that was against their backups. At RB we had a down day, barely clearing 100 yards total and Willie Thomas had 2 fumbles, neither of which were lost but still. At WR, the always solid Matthew Fletcher played great with 4 targets and 4 receptions bringing him to 91 yards and a TD. R Timothy Hall didnt record a stat and that is not good for him. I had high expectations for him, maybe I need to try him out in a more prominent role in the preseason.On defense we played solid, having three sacks out of DE Jahaly, LB Negroni and CB James Weems. I don't like to have our coach blitz the secondary but obviously it worked, still I am going to talk to him about that. Overall the defense played solid and I was impressed by Andres Alaniz, he made some tackles and even had an interception. He is definitely proving he is not too old for the game.

Overall. Good game. The coach didnt play the rookies as much as I would like but I did get some good info out of the game.

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Well seeing as the preseason isn't much of as measure of my team I have decided to just sum up the results of all the games together and how it shook out for position battles.

Earl Boyd locked up Starting QB with a 99 rating and 6 TDs to 1 INT. Fred Toombs had 1/2 the yards and 1/3 the TD's in a comparable amount of attempts.

At RB Kieth Graves edges closer to snatching full stake in at RB. He finished with 4.0(still lower than I want) YPC. Willie Thomas continued to struggle with 2.9 YPC and had two fumbles. We will contiue to evaluate this throughout the season.

Muller will continue to start at WR #1 but his job is not very secure as he only pulled in 8 out of 20 targets.for a measly 88 yards. Matt Fletcher has locked up #2 with 287 yards and 4 tds in the four games. He also pulled in 16 out of 25. Manuel Schmidt will take the majority of the #3 snaps, he had 132 yards and 3 TD's but will still give up some plays to R Timothy Hall, who only snatched 3 catches but still shows promise.

The O-line will continue as it was in the preseason but with the depth I have I will be playing people only as they perform. There will be no room for error as our team hinges on this.

D line will consist of Jahaly(6 sacks), Jack O'Connor(NOTHING), Charles Olli, and Virgil Boatfield. O'Connor will probably start through the year no matter his performance due to 2 reasons. No depth and he has lead the team in sacks for three years.

At LB we will start Harris, Negroni and Hines. They all performed decently and I dont have much depth here. Things might change as the season goes.

Both of our CB's Alaniz and Weems picked 2 passes, were solid in Run D and covered without giving up big gains. They will start followed by Shane Carter and Shawn Lee.

At S Robert Serpa and Tom Slinguff will start. They will most likely play all year because they are so well rounded.

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Well we play the dynasty Cincinnati Cursed who have won the championship three years in a row. Thankfully we play at home. I am hoping to start with a strong run game and work into the pass. We need to get a few turnovers on this team as they are so powerful. They will score their points, we need to score ours. As I sit here in skybox watching, I am hoping my coach follows my recommendations to run and play contain defense. He often goes by the seat of his pants. I am nervous. Here we go.

1st Half
They get a 14 yard pass play on 2nd and 9. Ok I can deal with one of those but then what is this? NO! Alaniz is down on the ground. WE NEED HIM against this team. Hopefully he will come back.Dang.

They get a couple more first downs on 5-7 yard plays. We need to shore this up now. They are just killing our soft coverage.

A short run and two incomplete passes brings us to 4th and 8 on the 32. Can they make the FG? yes. . A 48 yarder. Well not too bad 0-3.

Its 3rd and 11, this isn't looking good. Boyd drops back, cant find anyone! Wait, he dumps it off and Tony Suarez breaks two tackles and is off to the races. Nice! Tackled at the 7!
Just our luck. Two losses on runs and an incomplete pass. We tie the game with a FG 3-3.

Well after two runs of 10+ yards in a row, we hold em and they have to punt.

A couple first downs. But then just like them we stall and give up our first sack of the game. Punt.

They keep driving on us. Then we stop 'em at the 40 but they get a Pass Interference call and we are at the 10. They run it in after two plays. 10-3

We get the ball at the 20. Get a quick first down. Then after a bad run and couple of incompletions we have to punt.

Nice! My coach is finally limiting their offense. a quick 3 and out after a couple short run plays.

We do the same with Graves not being able to get going.

They drive a little but we stop em at the 32 again. They come on for a 49 yard field goal? Good again.

We have 1:30 to do something before end of half. We stall and run out the clock....10-3

Half.
Stats and observations
Boyd is 5/11 with 77 yards. Not horrible but not great. Its really or running game which is just horrible. 12 for 22 yards. WOW! What happened to our game. They are 17 for 78 in running. We need to create a couple turnovers and get them passing. I think if we had gotten up early we would have killed their offense. They are just power rushing on us. Well at least we get the ball back.

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2nd Half

A 41 yard return and a quick first down puts in their territory. 3 straight runs equals a first down. Maybe Graves will pick it up. Three more runs by him says no . Its Fourth down on the 34. WHAT! We go for it with 4 and 2 and get the 1st! Matt Fletcher catches a 4 yard pass. Clutch! HOLDING! figures. Im a horrible GM we will lose. We punt.

They drive. 1 first down on a run. second first down on a run. Great we cant stop the run. Fantastic. One pass incomplete. Another? incomplete! On Third and ten they pass, and a completion he has room but is blindsided out of nowhere by Shane Carter. 6 yards and 4th down. Punt.

First down. 18 yard shot to Horace Muller. Keith Graves takes the ball for a 7 yard gain. Boyd drops back again. Throws into double coverage. Three players go up for the ball and...Amazing catch by Matthew Fletcher. The two defenders colided on the jump and fall over! He runs. HE COULD GO ALL THE...Dang! Tackled from behind at the 22. 50 yard gain. 3 downs with a couple small completions. FG for 3. 6-10.

They get a quick first down and we are into the 4th quarter. Next set if downs we quickly stop two runs and they only get a short pass on 3rd down. Punt.

We get a nice third down catch by Muller for a first down. Yes! A 30 yard pass to who? Of course. Matthew Fletcher. Again he caught it for four yards and turned it into that gain. A run for loss and a false start quickly leave us on 3rd and 13. Interception. GRRR. We just cant finish. Returned one yard.

An offside and couple runs gives them two 1st downs. We stop them on two quick runs and a pass. They get a field goal!...

Can we have a 4th quarter comeback? We have 2:20 left. A 44 yard return! Puts us at the 40 yard line. Once again we stall and its 4th and 9. Do we punt and get a quick stop or go for it. We go for it and PASS FOR EXACTLY NINE YARDS! They bring out the chains... ...and 1st down!!! A timeout. A small loss on a run. . Why are we running? UGGGHHH. Second and 13..and fourteen yard pass!!! We take a timeout and have none left! 1:16 to go on the 14. Incomplete. Incomplete. Scrambles for 2 yards...This is it. Last play if we dont get the 1st. Great...false start....William Baxter is about to get benched. We need 13 yards....we get a completion!!!! He is stopped right at the first down line...the chains are out again...and...and...SHORT! . We lose. They knee. Dang!