Eli

My thoughts on the game:

Offense - Our offense, for the most part, wasn't too bad. We had some mistakes with throws and drops (one of which Brian Parker totally botched - no one within 10 yards of him in any direction). Fiacchi, for whatever reason, seems to fair much better on the longer throws than the shorter ones. The run game didn't do ANYTHING all day. Cole King has been a REVELATION this season. He has a HORRIBLE season last year and has played AWESOME this year.

All in all, I give the offense a grade of B-.

Defense - Like many folks, I think our defense has been our biggest issue of late (against JMU and Richmond). We all know our secondary is our weak link due to it's age (being very young)...but our front seven hasn't been able to pressure the opposing QB like it was earlier in the season. Basically, the quality of opponents we played in the beginning of the year made our defense look FAR better than it actually is. We need help. I'm sure this will be corrected with recruiting...nothing we can do this season. However, one thing we can fix is...STOP THE DAMN ARM TACKLES. I mean, like WHOA. We are a TERRIBLE tackling team. This tackling issue rears it's head the most in 3rd down situations. We suck on 3rd down.

Part of the problem is the offense sometimes isn't out on the field long and the defense is playing too much, too often. With little depth, this becomes a problem. I'm a Jets fan, so I know all about that. It's the exact same issue the Jets have. Sanchez/Geno can't keep the offense on the field so the D is EXHAUSTED by the 3rd quarter.

All in all, I give the defense a grade of C-. It wasn't very good although they did have 3 INT's today and evidently a fumble recovery or something (Richmond had 4 TO's...I only remember 3). If it wasn't for those 4 plays, I'd give them a D or maybe an F. It wasn't pretty.

Special Teams - Not very good but not horrible. Missed an XP and also a kick. Our kickers are still a problem. Fielding isn't an issue, Gontarek does well. At least we aren't snapping the ball over the kickers head, etc.

C

Coaching - Coaching seems to be decent. Play calls aren't too bad and they seem to have the players listening to them (UA came out a bit better in the second half). It's the first year, so can't really complain here too much IMO. No time management blunders, etc.

B-

Crowd - Crowd was decent. Not fully packed. I'd guess we hit at least 7k.

The other benefit is local kids bring with them 10-15 fans (family and friends) to each home game. Win win.

Wow, picking us over the Hokies is pretty big. Nice!

Hahah. That's hilarious.

Gontarek co-rookie of the week again. I love this kid. He's going to be UAlbany's greatest receiver too date.

That's a nice compliment. Means the Universities hard work is paying off. It's just from a fan, but good nonetheless.

In a separate but related comment: I was watching part of the brook-Towson game; and during a disputed call which WAS being reviewed formally via replay camera, the announcers said several coaches {did not say which ones} have complained to the league about the inequity of having replay capabilities @ some games and not others. I guess they feel that officiating has SO MUCH impact on a game, that the replay rule needs to be consistent throughout the CAA and not arbitrarily available as it is now. It certainly seems to me, it should be used at every game or NONE at all. Conference championship and at large bids certainly can be affected by the use or lack thereof. To have it "part time" seems capricious and leaves the league suspect on several levels. THOUGHTS?

There weren't...and now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure the ball hit the ground. Why wouldn't it? Albany guy wouldn't hit JMU guy until the ball was 'live'? Sounds like them just trying to make it seem like it was a bang bang play by the refs. That would have set us up at their 20 or whatever...of course they'd want it in their favor. None of the blown calls were as bad as that...that was ATROCIOUS IMO. I'm still mad about it hours later.

Ahh yes, that play. Again, a replay would have been freakin nice (YOU READING THIS BOB FORD FIELD AV GUY!?), but that play was called dead instantly...so ref must have seen the arm going forward. Hard to say without a proper replay though.

Refs are humans, I understand that, but it felt like UA got a SERIOUSLY raw deal.

EDIT: Didn't realize JMU player was tossed for that hit. The refs didn't announce it. Sounds like both teams got screwed a bit...but I still stand firm with the statement that UA got the worse of it.

5 games in...what do folks think we need to do to get into the playoffs this year? Is it even possible?

I think we have a solid chance of beating Richmond, Maine, and Colgate...maybe 2 out of 3...which would bring us to 6-2. I think we lose to NH, Delaware, and Villanova though...and beat SB to finish the season...making us 7-5/8-4 for the season. I'm optimistic though...I love my UA FB.

I will agree that it was his best game of the season possibly (although last weeks first half wasn't too bad either). Still a lot of plays that make you shake your head though. Perhaps the wet ball had something to do with it, who knows. He threw well short/into the ground multiple times.

I will also say this...JMU's secondary is as suspect as ours. They let up some big catches to Parker and Gontarek.

can't watch...how are we looking?

See below for my full take on the game.

Who knew there were worse refs than the AE basketball refs..

WOW. I'm also a BB season ticket holder and there is a few select refs who are NOTORIOUS for calling bad games. When I see them, I immediately know what kind of game its going to be. The short balding white guy is one that jumps to mind...looks like Danny DeVito but with gray hair.

Anyway, to the football game.

1) Front of the defense was decent again, however our secondary is still the weak link. However, JMU has their own #23 who is a beast and was hard to bring down, even for our front seven.

2) I thought special teams has been pretty good all year, and was today again (blocked a punt).

3) Run game must have been game plan against because it didn't seem to be a big part of the offense this game...although Osbourne did break a few for 10+ yards.

4) Fiacchi again was suspect. One play he makes a great pass, and then the next 4 times he drops back he makes you shake/grab your head and close your eyes and ask "WTF WAS THAT!?"

As for the refs. OH MYLANTA! I've never seen a worse crew in all of my years watching football. Even the replacement refs in the NFL who were filling in for the regulars were 100x better. A few plays come to mind...I will preface it with the fact that there were no replays shown of any of these plays as far as I know so I can only go by my initial reaction:

IIRC, all of these came in the 2nd half

1) Late hit on JMU QB. Didn't see it. Moved the ball for JMU after they seemed to have stalled.

2) Following play after the one above, JMU receiver is running out of bounds and BOTH him and the UA player who was going to hit him lowered their shoulders for the hit. He was NOT defenseless and he was borderline out of bounds (again, no replay so can't confirm). It was a bang bang play and he saw it coming/want to dish some pain back. HORRIBLE call. This put JMU at like the 10 and the rest is history.

3) The punt. OH MY GAWD THE PUNT. Worst call of the game. UA punts the ball to the JMU 25 or so and the returner muffs it WITHOUT GETTING HIT (again, no replay, based on direct obversation). UA recovers it, but after some discussion, the refs call interference on Albany. HOGWASH! BLASPHEMY!

4) Albany catches a TD in the end zone only to have it called back on offensive pass interference which again no one agreed with (and no replay). Bad call, IMO. It was a back shoulder throw, so not sure how that would even come into the equation if the CB/S is out of position.

All in all, Albany had chances to win (we didn't covert 4 players from within the 3 yard line for a TD and instead turned it over on downs in the 1st half), etc...but it was still aggravating to watch. I will say this...UAlbany is MUCH better than last year...even with a suspect Fiacchi at the helm. Once we get a legit CAA QB to run the show and continue to get more CAA level talent, we'll be aight. Progress has been made.

MsGDG, I saw your post in the other thread.

I say, do the 500 now to get people to the game, but I also say they should eventually sell them down the road online so people who live around the nation (and have NO WAY of getting to the game) to get one.

Dang, gotta get there EARLY.

How many bobbleheads does one get?

And how early do you think I'd need to get there to get one? I really want one too (or two), to add to my collection of UA stuff at my office (have a yellow mini-helmet that I bought on EBay and the Brown/Coach Abe ball that was given to season ticket holders a couple years ago). Also have a growl towel from a few years ago hanging on my cubicle wall.

I've sent a few emails...but I have not had any face to face sit downs. Perhaps I should. There is a bunch of things I'd like to see sold (with UA logos).

 

I think that it shows BPF is just a tiny portion of the fan base when we can't even get 30 people to go on a fan bus to Rhode Island. It's a circular argument whether things like merchandise increase fan involvement which would make them take a bus. Or does the school not invest in merchandise because they can't even get 30 people to go to RI..do you invest in expensive merchandise like jerseys etc if you can't get 30 whole fans to even take a bus..it's interesting. I'm not in marketing and I'm sure it's more complicated than it seems.

 

Hopefully with the new ADs background we'll see an overall shift in marketing and merchandise that may bring different things to the table that we haven't seen at UA.

 

BUT, we still have to remember we are a state entity that has budget constraints. So outside fundraising will be important.

 

I digress..back to JMU...

I hear what you're saying.

Maybe I can coax them into a 'one time' production of some goods for the season ticket holders at least...since we are obviously the biggest supporters of the program and are probably more willing to spend $100, $200 dollars on merchandise since we know that it furthers the program and is a type of 'donation' of sorts.

I've sent a few emails...but I have not had any face to face sit downs. Perhaps I should. There is a bunch of things I'd like to see sold (with UA logos).

I need to invest in a poncho...does UA have any UA ones? Oh wait...we don't sell anything worth a damn. /done

Raiders will be sorry. This guy was the OC for my team (Jets) and he was AWFUL. He made Brian Schottenheimer look like a freakin offensive mastermind, and both of them were epicly bad OC's.

Yeah, we are going to have to rely on Obsourne/Martin to do some serious work. This will force the defense to move up, which hopefully will help Fiacchi.

Definitely need to make it better for the casual fan. Two woman next to me, one who works for the university, have a very basic working knowledge of the game. I think they own the seats next to mine (not sure, we'll see if I see them both again). I spent a good portion of the game last night teaching them the in's and out's of the flags, why they were called, etc. It's good we are attracting casual fans, but we need to do better at connecting with them via social media, etc.

My eyes cannot unsee the Columbia band.

This. WTH?

Their 'play' or whatever the hell that was at halftime was atrocious. When they said something about Albany being the capital only in name and NYC being the real capital, many of us (at least in 205) booed them. And then they were doing pushups after the touchdown? And evidently heckling our fans in a game where they were getting DESTROYED?

What a bunch of idiots.

I never understood these whole "play teams 100000x better than you in the name of 'experience'" idea...to me, it would be utterly demoralizing if I went out to play a team that I had no business playing against and got smoked 50-10 or something. There is no silver lining there, other than maybe, "Hey, we scored 10 points on a team that is akin to the NFL for us."

It's like when LSU played Sam Houston State. Or Michigan State vs Jacksonville State (who?). Or Oregon vs South Dakota. Really? That's like pitting UAlbany against the Seahawks. Why? IMO all you do is risk your kids getting injured by getting smoked by a safety or linebacker who is 10x bigger, 10x faster, and hits 10x harder.

But hey...I guess if we're looking for easy wins to get fans in the seats...it's all good lol.