Well THAT sucked.
Not too much positive to take from that game. It was a poor effort, but it was a tough situation to step into. I discounted NIU's offense until I looked at Phil Steele's preview where he listed 10 or 11 returning NIU offensive players. The good news is that Army can put this one behind them and look to the next test at Michie. The BAD news is that NIU is about the caliber of team that Army will face for the duration of the year.
It seems clear that it is a year of rebuilding for the Cadets, but before we write off all bowl hopes just keep in mind that the season is young and West point teams are built to adapt to adversity. Yes, there is a good deal of adversity - also, Army doesn't seem to have the pieces to adapt with, but this team will get better for next year and they will get better for this year as well.
If you want to write t off now, then do so - forget about national titles, forget about CIC trophy, wish that the team pushes through a youth movement if you like... it won't change that Army got drubbed in the season opener.
The consolation is that Army isn't the only team that got assfucked today, Duke got it, Oregon got an assfucking too, Oregon State? them too. New York City's team was also administered an assfucking.
That's the way it goes sometimes. If you were hoping for a 20-13 win in Army's season opener well, forget about that. Unless the Black Knights show the impetus to improve - not just for this year, but for 2012 and beyond, we are all in for a downer of a year. And while that does speak to a youth movement, I don't think playing sophomores and freshman is the answer for this team.
We should keep in mind how lucky the Cadets were last year in terms of turnovers and at the very least we should brace ourselves for more of the same adversity. You can't win these games unless you possess the ball and play the game mistake-free. Tonight's effort was simply just not good enough.
That has no implications on anything but the road opener, and not much went right tonight. Next week we can expect focus, determination and attitude; whether Army wins or loses next week it's clear that those elements were missing tonight.
Army 0-1
your story, stats and lowlights.
Disappointing, Discouraging, and Depressing
Saturday, September 3, 2011
Catching Up
It's been a weird weekend so far - one in which I've been immersed in college football chatter (Thursday fight from Portlnd, OR to DFW - University of Oregon cheerleaders included)
Then to Tennessee with more football chatter on the plane. I watched Friday's TCU/Baylor pillowfight from the bar of Nashville's Vanderbilt Mariott, where incidentally, the view from my room looks quite like this:
Speaking of keeping up: Sal has a preview available for the Army/NIU game. I am fairly certain that I won't be able to watch the NArmy/NIU tonight, but the good news is that ESPN should run a full compliment of highlights tonight since the game is on ESPN3.
The Military Times looks at this week's service academy games.
There will be a live chat on the Army Rivals forum (subscription access).
Some fellas on the Scout boards are trying to find a way onto ESPN3, so you can check there for any updates.
It's a frustrating way for me to start the season, but that's the way it goes sometimes.
An Army win and long postgame highlight reel would cure all of that for me.
I may have the chance to post a live stream so check under the Radio tab for whatever updates I might find.
UPDATE: (9:15 AM) There is a link up courtesy Ilemi, check the Radio tab in the above site navigation bar.
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Yearbook: Tennessee State The Radio
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Tenn. State has their yearbooks online and they make the 29th yearbook set in the collection. TSU's yearbooks are hard to find on their website, but are pretty easily read on PDF - which is the opposite of the norm. The yearbooks available are all older as the collection features selected yearbooks from between the years 1925-1966.
Not much football in this one, but you will have more than enough gridiron in the coming days.
Again I start the first week of college football season on the road as I'll try to be in touch from Nashville, TN.
Sorry for the sparseness of content here, I'll post when I get the chance this weekend.
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Blogpoll Preseason Top 25
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Ready or not, here's my Blogpoll Top 25 ballot.
The Unbalanced Line Ballot - Week 1
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
| 2 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -- |
| 3 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 4 | Stanford Cardinal | -- |
| 5 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 6 | Oklahoma Sooners | -- |
| 7 | Virginia Tech Hokies | -- |
| 8 | Georgia Bulldogs | -- |
| 9 | Florida Gators | -- |
| 10 | South Florida Bulls | -- |
| 11 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 12 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | -- |
| 13 | Penn St. Nittany Lions | -- |
| 14 | Texas A&M Aggies | -- |
| 15 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 16 | Northern Illinois Huskies | -- |
| 17 | Nevada Wolf Pack | -- |
| 18 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -- |
| 19 | Central Florida Knights | -- |
| 20 | Arkansas Razorbacks | -- |
| 21 | USC Trojans | -- |
| 22 | Texas Longhorns | -- |
| 23 | Pittsburgh Panthers | -- |
| 24 | Troy Trojans | -- |
| 25 | Utah Utes | -- |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »
I really thought I would get the chance to edit my first Blogpoll ballot before Monday's deadline.
I like my top 10 or so, but the bottom half of the list is very questionable. I consciously put these teams on the list, so for some reason I feel confident about each team that is on the ballot so I am confident that every team I ranked should be bowl eligible, but that isn't much of a standard for top 25 teams.
I'll get a chance to make it right next week, but for now that's my ballot.
Here is the official Blogpoll Top 25 ranking:
Results for Week 1
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Rankings 2011
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