Catch Fyre -Coaching legacy of Brendan Fyre- (NCAA 14)

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David Oku breaks out one of many big runs against a dilapidated Panther defense

Running with the Wolves

Everyone knew the Panther's aerial defense was awful, beaten up and down the field on a weekly basis all season. Today though, with one of the best running backs they faced all season (TJ Yeldon aside), they gave up 301 rushing yards in a rather embarrassing tilt that was actually close until late in the game.

David Oku finished with an insane 248 yards on the ground, averaging 14.5 yards per carry including a long touchdown rush of 81 yards to open up the scoring in the game. The small speed back made excellent cuts all game and showed absolutely no signs of slowing down. Even more impressively, he picked up 62 yards after initial contact. Now account for the fact that Gerald Howse of Georgia State only picked up 63 total rushing yards, he nearly eclipsed the half back on yardage primarily after being hit. David showed why the Wolves made him captain and with a performance like this, national player of the week honors could be on the horizon for the Arkansas State back.

Adam Kennedy had a decent game in his own right, after all when you're picking up everything through the ground, the aerial attack doesn't take so much prevalence. He finished 11-18 for 110 yards with 2 touchdowns and tacked on two more touchdowns and 30 more yards on the ground. It wasn't an effort quite like Oku's, but he definitely had a solid game and limiting the turnovers was big. Especially with the stupid turnovers the Wolves had.

Early in the third quarter, when going for a fair catch, sophomore safety, Chris Humes lost sight of the ball and it hit him in his helmet and bounced right into the hands of Myles Morris, the redshirt freshman secured the ball and it would lead to a touchdown later on in the drive when Travis Evans punched the ball in managing to slip between guard and tackle and eke his way into the end zone. That would bring the game within 7, at 10-17, but the Red Wolves rattled off 21 unanswered to put away the Panthers. Adam Kennedy scored two consecutive rushing touchdowns (7 and 3 yards) and connected with Darion Griswold from 11 yards out for the third touchdown.

Ben McLane who came in for Ronnie Bell who suffered his second concussion of the season hooked up with Drew Pearson for a touchdown. The tight end was wide open but McLane had to throw the ball on the run to evade the pass rush. McLane went 6-11 for 128 yards with the lone touchdown in relief of Ronnie Bell who went 8-13 for 107 of his own yards. Both quarterbacks would be sacked twice in their time in the game as the Panther offensive line continues to struggle.

The Panthers fall to 4-7 on the season and will close out their season against an equally helpless South Alabama program, with several recruits on tap for that game, it has a lot of precedence for next year, but this season is effectively a wash, the main thing now is to rehab Ronnie Bell and likely get McLane into some first team snaps. Inversely, the Red Wolves improve to 9-2 on the season and effectively hold the Sun Belt title on lock, they close their season against Western Kentucky, a loss there could cause havoc on the standings, but being a two touchdown favorite, they should improve to 10-2 and be the Sunbelt's representative in the Go Daddy.com Bowl.

Georgia State Panthers at Arkansas State Red Wolves
Nov 23, 2013	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Georgia State Panthers (4-7)	0	3	7	7	17
Arkansas State Red Wolves (9-2)	10	7	7	14	38

Team Stats Comparison
	GSU	ARST
Total Offense	305	420
Rushing Yards	70	310
Passing Yards	235	110
First Downs	14	12
Punt Return Yards	14	0
Kick Return Yards	78	19
Total Yards	387	438
Turnovers	2	1
3rd Down Converstion	2-9	5-9
4th Down Conversion	0-0	0-0
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	(2-1)/4	(3-1)/4
Penalties	0	0
Posession Time	16:30	11:30

Georgia State Panthers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Ben McLane 6/11 128 1 0 Ronnie Bell 8/13 107 0 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Gerald Howse 12 63 5.2 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Danny Williams 4 106 26.5 0

Arkansas State Red Wolves PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Adam Kennedy 11/18 110 2 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD David Oku 17 248 14.5 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Darion Griswold 2 31 15.5 2

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NCAA Wrapup
Week 13 Edition

- Ohio State slipped to #3 in the latest polls and look to climb back up into the top 2 with their marquee rivalry matchup against Wolverines, a win could keep Michigan from bowling!

- #19 LSU puts a major dent into the Manziel campaign, forcing three interceptions en route to a 31-28 upset of the Aggies on Saturday night

- Notre Dame looks to hold onto the #2 spot when they take on #15 Stanford in their regular season finale, a win clinches their undefeated season and a likely bid to a consecutive NCG

- In a battle of the corn states, the Cornhuskers at #13 take on the Hawkeyes (9-2) in what is looking to be a much better match up now than it did back in August

- #15 Stanford unloads their offense to end the Cal Bears season without a second big upset 42-35

- Blanking a FCS squad makes voters move Alabama up to #1; 52-0

- The post-Bilema era has been tough so far in Wisconsin, but they improve to 6-5 and knock Minnesota from bowl eligibilty with their 30-24 victory on Saturday

- The Cowboys climb back into the top 25 following their beating of the Baylor Bears, 38-10 in Big 12 action

- Johnny Manziel drops out of top five after floundering against LSU. Taylor (T-Magic) Martinez jumps to the pole position followed by Logan Thomas, Teddy Bridgewater, Braxton Miller and Jeff Driskel in a quarterback dominated heisman race

- Despite their 3-9 record, the Cal Golden Bears hold onto the 7 recruiting class in the nation

Sunbelt Results

UL Monroe (3-8)(2-4) 28 @ South Alabama (1-9)(1-4) 14
Western Kentucky (7-4)(5-1) 35 @ Texas State (4-7)(1-5) 21

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Tensions rise in practice

Following a decent outing and a second concussion to Ronnie Bell, the quarterback position was jostling and there wasn't a firm starter in place. When Fyre announced Wednesday that (after being cleared medically) Ronnie Bell would be the starter, Ben McLane reportedly started to get into a verbal altercation with the head coach and ended up leaving.

Fyre has come out to say the sophomore is suspended for the remainder of the season and Ronnie Bell will take all snaps with first team as per usual with the team running several wild cat and abnormal offensive snaps incase he is unable to medically perform in the game against South Alabama.

As news comes it will be reported but heading into their final game of the season, there's only one active quarterback on the roster and he's only at 75%.

[Icy4me]

I somehow haven't seen your thread until now, lol. Better late, than never, huh? Anyway, this has been a rough season. Hopefully, you can end the season positive with a win!

[K0ZZ]

Definitely is hard! Always nice to have a challenge though. Definitely going to be an interesting offseason!

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Thundering hits like this one were common on Saturday

Panthers dig deep but pull out shootout victory

In an oddly entertaining matchup the South Alabama Jaguars took on the Georgia State Panthers, in the season finale for the later. In front of their home crowd they put on a show, the offense spurred fourth fireworks and the defense even joined in on the festivities, all isn't well though as Ronnie Bell left yet again with concussion like symptoms and wouldn't return. With that being his third, he will have to get stricter evaluation before he can begin off season work outs.

Ronnie Bell got to take part in a game where the passing game was prevalent and the ground attack was secondary. The quarterback went 14-30 for 283 yards and 3 touchdowns. Somehow managing to not throw an interception despite 11 deflections by the Jaguars defense. In his wake, Kelton Hill (WR) stepped in to go 5-8 for 59 yards and a touchdown pass to Albert Wilson who tied the school record again with two touchdown receptions.

After surrendering 17 sacks through four games, the Panthers allowed only one sack today, a rather impressive turnaround especially given how much they've struggled to keep the quarterback upright. It allowed the ground game to be much more efficient, Gerald Howse went for 113 yards (10.2 YPC) and a touchdown, with a long run of 41 yards on a play that will likely be put in whatever highlight reel the school puts together for Fyre's inaugural season.

Kail Singleton put together a senior day to remember as the fifth year senior intercepted two passes, taking one back for a touchdown while securing the records for interceptions in a game (2) and interceptions in a season (3) entrenching his name in the record books. Tilting into next year, strongside linebacker, Tarris Batiste went for 8 tackles and two for a loss. Senior captain, Terrance Woodard and junior Nermin Delic would each have a sack of their own, Delic will likely be the defenisve line captain next year and closed out 2013 strong.

The Jaguars jumped out early, picking up 10 unanswered points, with an early field goal after looking virtually unstoppable on their first position until a sack derailed the drive. The following drive, Metheny hooked up with Jones for a long touchdown pass to put them up 10-0, Ronnie Bell would connect with Albert Wilson from 20 to bring it within 3, and while the Jaguars led heading into the second, that would be the final time.

Gerald Howse broke off a highlight reel run where he broke five tackles and stumbled his way into the end zone from 41 yards out, the Jags added a field goal on the following drive but Ronnie Bell led the Panthers downfield and hooked up with Lynquez Blair for a long touchdown. Blair also had a nice play on a screen where he was just knocked out at the goal line.

From than on, the Panthers were in control and the fans that made their way for a late fall game left rather pleased. The fireworks were there on offense and for the Panthers there were big hits all over the place. It was as if the team finally came to life, after an entire season of struggle, to have one game where they could go out, hit somebody, put up points and come out on top, it was a massive morale builder heading into the offseason.

"I'm proud of them, we picked up four more wins than we should've, and while we need to work on coming back from surrendering points and finishing games, that's something that we will look at throughout the offseason. We close out senior night with a win, our season is over. We improved in almost every way and next year we will keep climbing, any step forward, is still forward progress. As long as we keep moving forward, this program will keep rising" spoke Brendan Fyre as the team celebrated near by.

The Panthers finish their season at 5-7, they will watch the last month play out from the sidelines and spend bowl season watching from their homes. This has been a rather big year for the first year program and they can definitely build off this performance. On the flipside, South Alabama had a strong offensive performance that they can build off of for their season finale but it's hard to pull much good out of this game. Especially if they level out with only one win, beating Texas State is hardly an accolade.

South Alabama Jaguars at Georgia State Panthers
Nov 29, 2013	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
South Alabama Jaguars (1-10)	10	3	7	15	35
Georgia State Panthers (5-7)	7	14	14	14	49

Team Stats Comparison
	USA	GSU
Total Offense	469	471
Rushing Yards	80	129
Passing Yards	389	342
First Downs	18	18
Punt Return Yards	24	20
Kick Return Yards	116	40
Total Yards	609	531
Turnovers	2	0
3rd Down Converstion	8-13	4-11
4th Down Conversion	0-0	3-3
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	(2-0)/3	(3-0)/3
Penalties	0	0
Posession Time	20:49	13:21

South Alabama Jaguars PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Ross Metheny 29/44 389 2 2 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Jay Jones 9 58 6.4 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Jay Jones 10 187 18.7 1

Georgia State Panthers PASSING C/A YDS TD INT Ronnie Bell 14/30 283 3 0 Kelton Hill 5/8 59 1 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD Gerald Howse 11 113 10.2 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD Albert Wilson 4 45 11.2 2

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NCAA Wrapup
Week 14 Edition

- In the upset of the year, the Auburn Tigers climb to #25 after stunning Alabama who had almost no fire power without AJ McCarron, 27-10

- USC gets the final laugh of the season, climbing to 8-4 after their 38-17 beating of the Bruins, thanks in large to a 17 point fourth quarter

- Ohio State rolls into the B1G championship game undefeated after beating up on their hated rival from Ann Arbor, the Wolverines fall 38-10

- With their win over Stanford, the Fighting Irish for the second consecutive season will close out the regular season as the top overall team and playing in the national championship game

- Florida State takes down the Gators who were looking to soar following Alabama's loss.

- After losing their first five SEC games, the Razorbacks roared back to close out the season at 7-5 and (3-5) in conference play. With their 35-28 win over the LSU Tigers whom can definitely call this season a very disappointing one

- The Jayhawks only won four games, but with one of them being against the now #20 Wildcats, Charlie Weis might've cooled off his hot seat, the Jayhawks win 24-20

- State rivals go at it this week when Oklahoma and Oklahoma State meet, the Sooners look to knot themselves up with the Cowboys while the Cowboys look to secure a better bowl matchup

- Taylor Martinez remains the heisman favorite

Sunbelt Results

Texas State (4-8)(1-6) 21 @ Troy (5-7)(3-4) 34
Arkansas State (10-2)(7-0) 25 @ Western Kentucky (7-5)(5-2) 21
UL Monroe (3-9)(2-5) 17 @ UL Lafayette (8-3)(5-1) 34

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McLane granted release

Ben McLane was released from the football program earlier today when he asked to be released from his scholarship and to transfer immediately. He will transfer to Georgia Southern where he will receive a partial scholarship and be able to play immediately. He asked for release after a year where he lost the starting job and seemed to be unable to retain it.

There seemed to be a rather quick falling out between Fyre and McLane and it's unsure if there was any further escalations between the two, but needless to say, it has culminated in the events of today, while the rest of the nation concludes it's regular season, the hunt for quarterbacks on the recruiting trail suddenly become a need. Especially with Ronnie Bell being such a liability with his concussion history this season.