North Texas @ Army link is up... look under the Radio tab for the stream.
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North Texas @ Army Internet Availability
Saturday, September 18, 2010
From The North Texas Perspective
Friday, September 17, 2010
The Mean Green come to Michie Stadium on Saturday, and hope to pull the road upset.
The anti-Army propaganda has already begun in Texas,
North Texas: Quarterback Derek Thompson gets his first career start after Nathan Tune dislocated a hip late in the loss to Rice. Tune, who beat out Thompson in preseason drills, might be out for the season. Thompson, a sophomore, lost his redshirt year when he had to play in an emergency situation late in his freshman year.
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Line: Army by 5½Series Record: Army 3-0.Last Meeting: 2009, Army 17-13.
"The worms get their name from their eating habits. They eat everything in one neighborhood and move as an army to the next neighborhood."
No idea what that's all about.
The Mean Green psyche is fragile though, due to their 5-31 three year record. The Denton newspaper notes the teams struggles this year and issues an early collapse watch for UNT.
I am not saying a collapse is going to happen. I actually think there is a good chance UNT will beat Army this weekend, but the signs are too great to ignore.UNT has lost its starting quarterback, center, one of its cornerbacks, a couple of tight ends/fullbacks and is moving people all over the place to cover for those losses.UNT is also starting a two-game road trip.By the time this ship pulls back into harbor at Fouts Field, there's a chance UNT could be 0-4 and 0-1 in the Sun Belt.
Rich Ellerson will call the Mean Green squad more than capable.
"Offensively, they're a nightmare," Ellerson said. "They're outgaining people all over the place. Turnovers have been their bane. We need to keep that going."UNT have got their backs against the wall, so Army can expect both barrels from the Mean Green. A beleaguered coach, injuries throughout their two-deep. and that W/L record.
North Texas outgained the Owls, 420-351, and it gave Army a tough game a year ago. The Mean Green outgained the Black Knights 447-287, but Army forced five turnovers and Steelman scored on a 2-yard run with 73 seconds left for a 17-13 win on the road.
Clearing the North Texas Week Links
Army has game notes up (pdf) for the North Texas game.
Clearing some of last weeks links, Rich Ellerson's presser quotes (pdf) are available and Josh McNary was selected for one of the weekly College Football Performance Awards. We know North Texas has had more success with their pass attack than with the run; so McNary should be visible on Saturday.
Sal has a new chat featured. For a guy who has so many irons in the Hudson Valley sports fire I don't know how he keeps producing such high quality outlets for his information. The chat is some of his best work, and it allows him to share his vast knowledge of Black Knights football with Army's most interested and involved fans. Check out Sal's chat - required reading for Army fans.
Like Army, the Mean Green are coming off a close loss to Rice and Phil Steele likes North Texas on the road.
Saturday's game will mark Hall of Fame Weekend at West Point I don't have a list of inductees, but you can probably expect one to turn up in the next few days.
Week 3 Blogpoll
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The third installment of the 2010 Blogpoll is up. The top 25 looks like this:
Results for Week 3
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »
Michigan and the Pac 10 get some love
You can look at each participant's votes with this link.
My official ballot looks like this:
The Unbalanced Line Ballot - Week 3
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 2 | Ohio St. Buckeyes | -- |
| 3 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 4 | Florida Gators |  2 |
| 5 | Texas Longhorns | 2 |
| 6 | Nebraska Cornhuskers |  -2 |
| 7 | Oklahoma Sooners | 4 |
| 8 | Iowa Hawkeyes | -- |
| 9 | Boise St. Broncos | -4 |
| 10 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
| 11 | Utah Utes | 2 |
| 12 | South Carolina Gamecocks | 13 |
| 13 | California Golden Bears | -1 |
| 14 | Houston Cougars | 2 |
| 15 | Arkansas Razorbacks | 6 |
| 16 | Stanford Cardinal | 8 |
| 17 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 18 | Arizona Wildcats | -- |
| 19 | Auburn Tigers | -- |
| 20 | Michigan Wolverines | -- |
| 21 | Miami Hurricanes | -3 |
| 22 | Clemson Tigers | -- |
| 23 | Missouri Tigers | -- |
| 24 | Penn St. Nittany Lions | -7 |
| 25 | Pittsburgh Panthers | -- |
| Dropouts: Florida St. Seminoles, Georgia Bulldogs, Virginia Tech Hokies, LSU Tigers, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, West Virginia Mountaineers | ||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »
Steelman
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Trent Steelman is listed as the starter for the week leading up to North Texas. That is a big relief, since Steelman's shoulder looked pretty bad as he was held out for most of the Hawaii game.
The play of Max Jenkins left nothing to be desired, while he was outrushed and outpassed by Steelman his task was to distribute the ball rather than make plays like Steelman.
The Steelman/Jenkins stat line looks like this.
Player Rush Yds YPC TD Long
T. Steelman 13 40 3.1 0 7
M. Jenkins 10 29 2.9 1 7
I don't want to read too much into the comparison, but I do want to point out the strength of Jenkins in that situation. Max ran less, but saw one less snap than Trent (36 to 35). Jenkins had fewer yards, but seemed to give the ball off a little more than Steelman.
Whether it was Jenkins' unwillingness to keep the ball or his plain effectiveness in executing Army's option is beyond my comprehension of the Army option - but either way it seemed that the offense opened up in the third quarter.
We know the defense did a lot in the 2nd half with the takeovers and getting Hawaii's offense off the field. But I was very impressed with Jenkins performance and results under center.
With that said, Steelman is back... as if there was any doubt.
#8 hasn't missed a start in his college career and he has played through things that I would probably take a few days off of work for (FYI, I'm a librarian).
This will make Steelman's 15th straight start and he will look to get back into rhythm against North Texas's 86th ranked Defense.
The opposition's starting QB Nate Tune is out for the Eagles' trip to West Point, Tune was injured Sat. during UNT's 31-32 loss to Rice.
Blogpoll Top 25 Week 3 - Rough Draft
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Here's what I have for my blogpoll top 25 ballot.
I'm pretty comfortable through about #18 or so... I really wanted to leave PSU and Pitt out in the cold, but I can't find any other teams worthy of jumping into the top 25.
Maryland? Michigan State? Georgia Tech?
Leave your thoughts in the comments section.
Rank Team
1 Alabama Crimson Tide
2 Ohio St. Buckeyes
3 Oregon Ducks
4 Florida Gators
5 Texas Longhorns
6 Nebraska Cornhuskers
7 Oklahoma Sooners
8 Boise St. Broncos
9 Iowa Hawkeyes
10 TCU Horned Frogs
11 California Golden Bears
12 Utah Utes
13 South Carolina Gamecocks
14 Houston Cougars
15 Arkansas Razorbacks
16 Stanford Cardinal
17 Wisconsin Badgers
18 Arizona Wildcats
19 Auburn Tigers
20 Michigan Wolverines
21 Miami Hurricanes
22 Clemson Tigers
23 Missouri Tigers
24 Penn State
25 Pittsburgh Panthers
Looking Back at the Hawaii Game
Looking back at Army's home opener, it was no question a disappointing loss.
To have a team like Hawaii bottled up like that late in the game and to give the game away in that fashion is just a tough way to lose.
In all honesty, before the fumble, while looking at 3rd and 4 from Hawaii's 23 yard line - Army wasn't guaranteed a win in that situation. Forget about the horrible late hit penalty on Erzinger...with one minute on the clock it was Army's own lack of discipline that cost them a shot at the win. Coach Ellerson said that there were "a thousand chances to win that game" and by my math that final offensive series contained about 600 of those chances.
A dumb delay of game penalty took Army to the edge of field goal range and led to the questionable coaching decision to center the ball for the kick and not try to root out some more yardage to make the kick shorter than 44 yards.
There's nothing that can be done about the 15 yard penalty on Erzinger it was an awful call in the worst possible situation. That kind of thing happens - the officials names are listed here, you can dig up the dirt on these guys on your own time. Personally, I'm over it.
As encouraging as it was to see Army adjust at the half and fight back to put the win within reach, it is important to win those kind of close games. 2-0 on the year, 2-0 playing from behind in the 4th quarter and 2-0 in last minute comebacks would have gone a long, long way not only toward bowl eligibility but earning respect across the cfb landscape.
It's not worth getting down about the game; indications are that Trent Steelman will be alright and this is the kind of game where teams learn how to win. I know it is imperative to win games this year, but despite the loss - and despite how Army lost there are a lot of good things to be drawn from this game.
Last night I went to a bar to watch the local Oregon Ducks and of course it was my dumb luck to sit next to the only Hawaii native in the place. I really wanted to hold a grudge against Hawaii, but their fans are dedicated and typically nice people. Hours after a painful loss I was forced to come to terms with what happened and I realized that overall this Army team can still do everything it set out to do this season. A winning record is still in play, a bowl game is in play, the CIC trophy is in play - and the Black Knights have been refreshingly competitive this year.
This is an Army team that can hang around in games and play strong as games wear on - let's hope that hope the Black Knights can press on and apply that same perseverance to the season at large.
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