Thoughts On Montana

[Ruler]

WOW!!!!!....is all I can say. They are the real deal. UA played a fantastic game against FAR FAR SUPERIOR athletes (that DE is a first round pick...how he is not playing for Oregon or someone is beyond comprehension) with our best Defensive player on the bench. If we had that effort against Hofsatra I think we beat them. When we got the onside kick with time on the clock I thought we were going to come up short in this contest but my thinking is if they play this way the rest of the way NO ONE WILL TOUCH US! UA is still 6-7 players away from beating Hofstra consistently. That just shows you what a motivator Fordie is! GET HIM HIS STADIUM already! As I have said many times I would rather spend $10,000,000 and give University Field a facelift and get us to 63 rides rather then a new stadium. A lot can be done with a new improved plkaying field.With 7 more kids on schollies on Sat we may be sitting here at 2-2! Look at Northeastern, If Fordie had those 63 scholarship players with those crappy facilities don't you think he would win at Northeastern? I know everyone wants a new stadium, me included but I would rather have 63 rides so we can beat Hofstra and Montana instead of playing them tough.

 

Injuries: Disch is my biggest concern. He has 2 weeks to get healthy but Sheehan and Fralicker are fine, in fact Sheehan finished the game. They played great w/o him but we need him the rest of the way. If Fralicker can't go our punter hit a nice XP and I think would be Ok from 30 yards in. A knee problem will slow Disch down (I don't know the severity)but there isin't anyone on the schedule like Montana. Disch at 85% is better then anyone he will face in the NEC. BTW we CAN'T PLAY DOWN to our competition or we will get beat.

 

Vinny continues to impress me and our D even without Disch is fearsome. I really am beginning to understand our Offensive scheme and I have to tell tou I love it. It really does keep "normal defenses" off balance. Our rb's are finally looking like fast backs, either that or the speed of the game was fast. If you go to Montana's board they are showing a lot of respect for UA and said they were nasty to play against! In fact their faithful is pissed it was a close as it was in the 4th. We need to have that attitiude come through against SBU!!!! For the record I f#$%in hate SBU!!!! A win is MANDATORY against SBU. I have to tell you I think we beat SBU going away. They have a good QB and WR's but we could manhandle them up front.

[ATL_DANE]

WOW!!!!!....is all I can say. They are the real deal. UA played a fantastic game against FAR FAR SUPERIOR athletes (that DE is a first round pick...how he is not playing for Oregon or someone is beyond comprehension) with our best Defensive player on the bench. If we had that effort against Hofsatra I think we beat them. When we got the onside kick with time on the clock I thought we were going to come up short in this contest but my thinking is if they play this way the rest of the way NO ONE WILL TOUCH US! UA is still 6-7 players away from beating Hofstra consistently. That just shows you what a motivator Fordie is! GET HIM HIS STADIUM already! As I have said many times I would rather spend $10,000,000 and give University Field a facelift and get us to 63 rides rather then a new stadium. A lot can be done with a new improved plkaying field.With 7 more kids on schollies on Sat we may be sitting here at 2-2! Look at Northeastern, If Fordie had those 63 scholarship players with those crappy facilities don't you think he would win at Northeastern? I know everyone wants a new stadium, me included but I would rather have 63 rides so we can beat Hofstra and Montana instead of playing them tough.

 

Injuries: Disch is my biggest concern. He has 2 weeks to get healthy but Sheehan and Fralicker are fine, in fact Sheehan finished the game. They played great w/o him but we need him the rest of the way. If Fralicker can't go our punter hit a nice XP and I think would be Ok from 30 yards in. A knee problem will slow Disch down (I don't know the severity)but there isin't anyone on the schedule like Montana. Disch at 85% is better then anyone he will face in the NEC. BTW we CAN'T PLAY DOWN to our competition or we will get beat.

 

Vinny continues to impress me and our D even without Disch is fearsome. I really am beginning to understand our Offensive scheme and I have to tell tou I love it. It really does keep "normal defenses" off balance. Our rb's are finally looking like fast backs, either that or the speed of the game was fast. If you go to Montana's board they are showing a lot of respect for UA and said they were nasty to play against! In fact their faithful is pissed it was a close as it was in the 4th. We need to have that attitiude come through against SBU!!!! For the record I f#$%in hate SBU!!!! A win is MANDATORY against SBU. I have to tell you I think we beat SBU going away. They have a good QB and WR's but we could manhandle them up front.

 

It was a very good effort by UA at Montana. No doubt. Adding scholarships will help dramatically over the next few years.

 

We have the worst facilities in D1... or close to it. Upgrading the field is just a band-aid solution. We'll need a stadium at some point. Let the political process work itself out. Accepting an improvement to field will not fix the problem long term and will only hurt our argument later when we out grow those "improvements". Just showing a picture of a high school facility, New York's flagship facility and then "tiny" Delaware should be all the argument necessary... at least for those who are wondering why we can't compete academically/athletically for students with Cal or Michigan. Have faith in Spitzer.

[Clickclack]

I personally was most impressed with our QB. Dare I say this is the first legit QB in my time being a fan. He looks poised, patient and has good upside as his awareness/experience increases he will only get better. He also won't be facing a D like he did in Montana again this year. 23 partials against 63 rides and we hung tough, we knew towards the end they would pull away because of the depth but we did ourselves proud.

[danefan]

I personally was most impressed with our QB. Dare I say this is the first legit QB in my time being a fan. He looks poised, patient and has good upside as his awareness/experience increases he will only get better. He also won't be facing a D like he did in Montana again this year. 23 partials against 63 rides and we hung tough, we knew towards the end they would pull away because of the depth but we did ourselves proud.

 

I think Vinny played well. Not great IMO, but well. He'll need to start completing more "easy" 12-20yrd passes if we are to become a solid passing team. But, as I was reminded by Dane96, he's a true soph who only has 3 games under his belt. And yes I would agree, that he has become our first effective QB since Joe Savino and I am a firm believer that the reason for this is the fact that Ford has done away with the platoon system. Vinny is the first QB to play without the worry of being benched since Savino. Well actually since Ryan Roeder's 5th year in 2002 (which was our NEC championship/ECAC win year). A QB who can go out there without that fear is much more effective. And I don't care how confident you are or how good you are, if you cannot get a rhythm with your team, you cannot be an effective QB. Vinny seems to have gotten that rhythm and the team seems to have responded to him.

 

Oh, what we could do with 45 rides and a stadium. I firmly believe with 45 rides and a stadium we will be as competitive as the middle of the CAA and the very best the Patriot League and Ivy has to offer.

 

With playoff expansion occuring soon, we need to get this stadium project pushed through and fast.

[Ruler]

There is a ton that could be done to our current facility. For starters it could be renovated to be enclosed like Hofstra. Bring the seating closer to the benches. Enclose one endzone or both. New stadium scoreboard and jumbotron. I have seen many colleges upgrade...aka Hofstra. You could turn this field into a 10,000 seat stadium with lots of bells and whistles and it will be beautiful if done correctly. Many schools have done this. If FBS is not an option and we know that it never will be, then this is a "cheaper" solution. UA will not have a Montana or Delaware like following or an APPY State following. We can certainly bring in a UMASS following about 8-10K if we build a proper facility. I am not talking about what Robert Morris did and build a nice 3000 seat facility. I am talking about building it up to 10K with boxes.

 

LET ME BE CLEAR. I want a new stadium, no question! I don't know if the pain in the ass's in power are going to allow it. I don't know if we are close or far from having the proper amount of private donations. Bruno and Spitzer are both jerks and I am already reading negative sentiments so they must have a "plan B" or we could be in football limbo for an eternity.

[Clickclack]

I'm personally not ready and/or willing yet to move on to plan B. We have just publicly gone out looking to garner support for this initiative, lets allow it to play out in the public arena and see if there is any movement before conceding Plan A and moving on to Plan B.

[madDOG]

LET ME BE CLEAR. I want a new stadium, no question! I don't know if the pain in the ass's in power are going to allow it. I don't know if we are close or far from having the proper amount of private donations. Bruno and Spitzer are both jerks and I am already reading negative sentiments so they must have a "plan B" or we could be in football limbo for an eternity.

 

Agreed. There is probably a plan B and I wouldn't be surprised if publicly they're asking for $60MM but privately thinking we could do ok with 40. Either way we need SOMETHING....ANYTHING other than what we have now.

 

On a side-note, the fall issue of the UA magazine arrived this weekend I was disappointed to see no mention of a stadium initiative included in it. I cant help but feel this thing is being half-assed when the department isn't going out of its way to promote the project to alumni and asking for support.

[danefan]

LET ME BE CLEAR. I want a new stadium, no question! I don't know if the pain in the ass's in power are going to allow it. I don't know if we are close or far from having the proper amount of private donations. Bruno and Spitzer are both jerks and I am already reading negative sentiments so they must have a "plan B" or we could be in football limbo for an eternity.

 

Agreed. There is probably a plan B and I wouldn't be surprised if publicly they're asking for $60MM but privately thinking we could do ok with 40. Either way we need SOMETHING....ANYTHING other than what we have now.

 

On a side-note, the fall issue of the UA magazine arrived this weekend I was disappointed to see no mention of a stadium initiative included in it. I cant help but feel this thing is being half-assed when the department isn't going out of its way to promote the project to alumni and asking for support.

 

UA's magazines have been a problem for some time now because they are produced so far in advance. You won't see football news usually until the spring edition. They need to figure out a way to have them more up to date.

[olddog71]

Personally, I think a new stadium is almost a done deal.

 

I base my opinion on how McElroy operates. A lot goes on behind the scenes that you and I don't see. I don't see him going out on a limb to publicize some fundraising effort just because it is on his wish list. He dots his i's and crosses his t's before he makes a move. I am thinking he already has some corporate sponsors lined up and a good handle on state funding.

 

This is just my opinion, and it is based merely on a couple observations.

[Clickclack]

Personally, I think a new stadium is almost a done deal.

 

I base my opinion on how McElroy operates. A lot goes on behind the scenes that you and I don't see. I don't see him going out on a limb to publicize some fundraising effort just because it is on his wish list. He dots his i's and crosses his t's before he makes a move. I am thinking he already has some corporate sponsors lined up and a good handle on state funding.

 

This is just my opinion, and it is based merely on a couple observations.

 

Excellent post olddog!

[danefan]

Personally, I think a new stadium is almost a done deal.

 

I base my opinion on how McElroy operates. A lot goes on behind the scenes that you and I don't see. I don't see him going out on a limb to publicize some fundraising effort just because it is on his wish list. He dots his i's and crosses his t's before he makes a move. I am thinking he already has some corporate sponsors lined up and a good handle on state funding.

 

This is just my opinion, and it is based merely on a couple observations.

 

Agreed. That all falls in line with what I've heard. The only hangup I have is the fact that we have such a ridiculously inept state government sometimes. If a senator or assemblyman hangs something ridiculous onto the legislation that would approve the funding, we could be in for a long haul with this. Such things are out of the control of McElory and even Spitzer.