[ToTheLeft]

I dont know that we are questioning decisions, well I guess we are. It would be interesting to know the plan is all that most of us are wondering. As far as using him for trick plays, I want those plays in MB's hands every chance we get. Maybe you see them like Gabe and MB up in the backfield at the same time with some kind of wildcat formation and you dont knwo who's getting the ball or where they are going. I dunno, I just hope we dont waste his year that's all I'm saying.

Which is more of a waste, playing him this year with Jimmy Eden out of commission for a while, or playing him next year, when he STILL won't be at QB, and Eden will (hopefully) be back?

"5th best WR" is still up on the depth chart. That's still a guy you want to be able to trust throwing the ball to. Gabe will be a weapon for us this year.

[olldflame]

Every defense is going to be keying on Mike wherever he lines up and looking for those "trick" plays from him whenever he is playing anywhere but QB. While I'm sure our opponents know Gabe can pass, I think there would be a somewhat greater element of surprise, particularly if he can first establish himself as a receiving threat. I could see having some plays with Tyler, Gabe and Mike all in the game. Passes could come from anywhere!

[olldflame]

I dont know that we are questioning decisions, well I guess we are. It would be interesting to know the plan is all that most of us are wondering. As far as using him for trick plays, I want those plays in MB's hands every chance we get. Maybe you see them like Gabe and MB up in the backfield at the same time with some kind of wildcat formation and you dont knwo who's getting the ball or where they are going. I dunno, I just hope we dont waste his year that's all I'm saying.

Which is more of a waste, playing him this year with Jimmy Eden out of commission for a while, or playing him next year, when he STILL won't be at QB, and Eden will (hopefully) be back?

"5th best WR" is still up on the depth chart. That's still a guy you want to be able to trust throwing the ball to. Gabe will be a weapon for us this year.

+1

Oh, I said I wasn't going to do that....................

[SuperJon]

Are we talking about on the field football or NCAA XBox football? You guys are throwing in a lot of trick plays when talking about a team that only tries maybe five or six of them a year.

[olldflame]

Depends on what you call a trick play I guess. I know we had a lot more than 5 or 6 last year where Mike was lined up at WR, RB or in the slot and ended up with an option to pass or run.

[LUconn]

lol @ griping that City Stadium won't let us admit more than 10k or bring in extra bleachers. Was the attendance ever announced? Saw a lot of empty metal on the MASN broadcast.

[jcmanson]

lol @ griping that City Stadium won't let us admit more than 10k or bring in extra bleachers. Was the attendance ever announced? Saw a lot of empty metal on the MASN broadcast.

Just over 8k

[soccer7]

lol @ griping that City Stadium won't let us admit more than 10k or bring in extra bleachers. Was the attendance ever announced? Saw a lot of empty metal on the MASN broadcast.

8,890+

[SuperJon]

Depends on what you call a trick play I guess. I know we had a lot more than 5 or 6 last year where Mike was lined up at WR, RB or in the slot and ended up with an option to pass or run.

Mike had 68 passing attempts last year. Of those, 48 were in the Lafayette game when he was the starting quarterback and in the NCCU game when Beecher got hurt. That leaves 20 passing attempts for the rest of the year.

WVU - 0 attempts
JMU - 4 attempts - all were in the same series when Beecher wasn't even on the field (52 total so far)
WVW - 1 attempt - it was to the fullback. I don't think we're running a trick play for nine yards to the fullback. (53 total)
CCU - 1 attempt - this was the actual trick play to Summers. (54 total)
CSU - 3 attempts - one was incomplete, one was completed for 11 yards, and the other was a 6-yard touchdown. None were trick plays. (57 total)
PC - 2 attempts - sideline screen pass and a crossing route. None were trick plays. (59 total)
VMI - 4 attempts - over the middle for five yards, sideline for 22, sideline incomplete, crossing incomplete. None were trick plays. (63 total)
GWU - 3 attempts - three incompletions. None were trick plays. (66 total)
SBU - 2 attempts - both attempts to the tight end. None were trick plays. (68 total)

Mike had one trick play last year in which he lined up at a position other than quarterback and threw the ball.

We are not a team that runs trick plays very often. When we do run them, we run them very effectively, but we're not like a PC who runs them 2-3 times a game.

[Old School]

To the postman and Jk37 .....the announcers were fine....I was very pleased with the entire announcing crew for the first game and expect even greater things from them the rest of the year.....Alan York also did a great job on the radio for his first game

[jenkins]

True, I mean i think most of us are still trying to envision how we are going to use gabe. I don't recall us ever running the wildcat at all have we. I think we have some guys in Henderson, Pratt, Barnett, Holloway that it would be interesting to see once or twice a game just to give another look. Especially since we are obsessed with trying to pound the football all the time.

I think the whole trick play thing is overrated anyway. I think it's more of giving the defense as many looks as possible to be able to do anything in any down.

Finally can i say one last thing. We dont throw the dang ball to Summers enough still. There is nobody that can match up with him anymore. Your going to have to double team him every time at this level if you want to stop him. I dont think he's getting enough attention to just how good and dominate he can be. I look over there and he's in single coverage all the time and I'm thinking just throw him the dang ball and watch him make a play.

[kuntryboimike]

I think as the season progresses they will. two things:
1. the more he gets the ball the higher chance there is of him getting injured and of course no one wants that
2. I think just for game 1 they were trying to spread the ball around to get more experience to more receivers and get in the flow of things

[thepostman]

To the postman and Jk37 .....the announcers were fine....I was very pleased with the entire announcing crew for the first game and expect even greater things from them the rest of the year.....Alan York also did a great job on the radio for his first game

I loved the radio guys and I plan on listening to their broadcast every week. I will continue to mute the tv and doing that. Very informative and very on top of things.

[LUaddict]

I know that we were a little slow to pull the trigger on offense like Rocco said. Since it was a warm up game it gave us some time to fix some of the kinks in our running game and passing game.

Running game:
Holloway and Davis are not big, heavy bruisers as backs and Barnett was playing very well at the mop up duty but that may be because of the defense was already worn down. I think those are flashes of things to come. Holloway and Davis were stopped because the flash were stacking eight or nine guys in the box. I hope that since these guys have so much eligibility left they can work on building some more weight and create holes with their size and strength like Rashad used to. I want to see these guys be able to run the ball with authority and with power. Barnett seems to be fighting for that starting spot and I could see him starting as the season goes on.

Passing game:
Mike had a great day and passed well. It seemed at time that when he threw the long ball it seemed to be lobbed up there and could have been intercepted if we had been playing a team that has better defense like a CAA team, Big Sky Team, or an FBS team. He was accurate to say the least and he had to make a play happen by running out of the pocket once and shows that his poise in the pocket and throws first and runs second. I commend him for that. He had three go to guys that had 1oo yrad receiving game and it was a great performance overall.

I just hope in the more competitive games we play we can gel and be explosive from the get go and the offense and defense can be more explosive. Great game and I have high expectations for these guys for this season.

[olldflame]

Do you realize LUaddict that the average height of those 3 running backs is 5 foot 8? Holloway already bears a bit of a resemblance to a bowling ball and Davis is a strong 190 at 5'10". Barnett is only 5' 7 and essentially a scatback. None of these guys are going to get much bigger, but that doesn't mean they can't be effective. Personally, I'm hoping they give Francis Bah a shot at carrying the ball in some short yardage situations.

[kuntryboimike]

Do you realize LUaddict that the average height of those 3 running backs is 5 foot 8? Holloway already bears a bit of a resemblance to a bowling ball and Davis is a strong 190 at 5'10". Barnett is only 5' 7 and essentially a scatback. None of these guys are going to get much bigger, but that doesn't mean they can't be effective. Personally, I'm hoping they give Francis Bah a shot at carrying the ball in some short yardage situations.

HAHAHAHA! May be true but he'd sure knock me flat on my back no questions asked. Very talented athlete period.

[FlameNForest]

One more thing, reading through the game thread from yesterday, did jk37 watch the same game I did or does he just have a personal vendetta? I thought the announcers did a good job, minus a couple of bobbles. I even thought Paul did better on TV than he often does on radio. I especially thought it amusing when this jk37 kid took exception to a comment about a 51 yard FG being called a chip shot. Did jk not pick up on the sarcasm in that statement or is he just too focused on some type of agenda?

I think you're probably right considering the source.