Game Day Thread! (including menu)

[Yosef84]

I think the announcers make too much of the "we don't slide" thing. Zac has and does slide but he's willing to lower his shoulder and pick up the first down when a game or drive is on the line.

[clemmonsapp]

I am sorry, but I have to side with the concerned crowd. Our one solid opponent dominated us (worse than the score) and we have continued to play undisciplined, mistake prone football. App became a brand with coaches that demanded we do the little things right. Precision and execution. We continue to make mistake after mistake. It is no longer an aberration, it is a trend. Coaching is the reason.

This power running game is not what won us championships. We look like the team that Scott Satterfield quarterbacked, not the one he coached. We have always been run first, but we won by running from spread formations. This bunched power stuff is not going to work against good teams (Marshal stuffed us and we never adjusted). Scott was criticized for running too much, but when we needed to against good teams like Marshal, ULL, and Arkansas State we came out with open schemes and blistered them through the air. We closed them out with the run. Our passing game and routes look elementary. Even with a great offensive line we look terrible because our opponents are stacking the box and bringing more defenders than we can block.

I really like coach Clark and want him to succeed. I hope he will grow into the job. At this point the results are not good. Saying we are Appalachian and we do what we do sounds great. With previous coaches that meant we will do the little things and put in a scheme that beats you. So far this season it looks like "we are going to run down your throats even against numerical disadvantages". I don't want to commit sacrilege, but we under achieved under coach Moore (the GOAT and unmatched as a leader and person) for years until we changed to meet the new realities of the game. Everyone remembers dropping games to lesser teams that would stuff the run and we refused to adjust. We do not need to go there again.

The bottom line is in todays game you have to outscore people sometime (if not most of the time). I hope I am surprised for the rest of the season. Go App

[BambooRdApp]

I am sorry, but I have to side with the concerned crowd. Our one solid opponent dominated us (worse than the score) and we have continued to play undisciplined, mistake prone football. App became a brand with coaches that demanded we do the little things right. Precision and execution. We continue to make mistake after mistake. It is no longer an aberration, it is a trend. Coaching is the reason.

This power running game is not what won us championships. We look like the team that Scott Satterfield quarterbacked, not the one he coached. We have always been run first, but we won by running from spread formations. This bunched power stuff is not going to work against good teams (Marshal stuffed us and we never adjusted). Scott was criticized for running too much, but when we needed to against good teams like Marshal, ULL, and Arkansas State we came out with open schemes and blistered them through the air. We closed them out with the run. Our passing game and routes look elementary. Even with a great offensive line we look terrible because our opponents are stacking the box and bringing more defenders than we can block.

I really like coach Clark and want him to succeed. I hope he will grow into the job. At this point the results are not good. Saying we are Appalachian and we do what we do sounds great. With previous coaches that meant we will do the little things and put in a scheme that beats you. So far this season it looks like "we are going to run down your throats even against numerical disadvantages". I don't want to commit sacrilege, but we under achieved under coach Moore (the GOAT and unmatched as a leader and person) for years until we changed to meet the new realities of the game. Everyone remembers dropping games to lesser teams that would stuff the run and we refused to adjust. We do not need to go there again.

The bottom line is in todays game you have to outscore people sometime (if not most of the time). I hope I am surprised for the rest of the season. Go App

I agree from a long term perspective. We have to be unconventional (even though spread is not unconventional in 2020). I believe you can be a power running team and spread all at same time. You have to mix it up when playing good teams. I feel like we are winning on offense right now is primarily due to fact that we are just more talented than the past two teams we played.

[teaasu76]

If I remember correctly it was on a slide that Zac took the hit that resulted in the concussion. Should have been a targeting call and ejection. But I do agree that avoiding a big hit with a slide is the better choice.

[BUTCH1991]

Kind of like 4 passing TDs against Ark State and 2 more against ULM. So 6 passing and 5 rushing the last 2 games? I like it.

[AppNC]

While in Monroe this past weekend, the team's meal was catered by Catfish Charlie's on Friday night. They did not eat fish but the meal was so good that my son suggested we eat there before the game on Saturday. We followed his recommendation and so glad we did. Our group ate grilled seafood, fried seafood and shrimp Alfredo and the best mozzarella sticks we have ever eaten. I highly recommend if you are ever in that area eat at Catfish Charlie's!

[clemmonsapp]

No disrespect Butch, but that is a pretty shallow analysis. We have clearly switched gears on offense and are running from tight splits. The fact that we are scoring through the air doesn’t mean we are opening the offense. Look what a struggling Troy did at Jonesboro. We have beaten bad teams. We will need to clean up our execution to be competitive against CC and LL. We couldn’t pull it off against Marsha. We will need to change up the offensive philosophy to keep up or play super human d.

[BUTCH1991]

Almost as shallow as saying our coaching is a problem in the craziest of years while we have dominated our last 2 games after a nearly month layoff from Covid. We were competitive with Marsha even though our execution was bad. I'm not saying things are perfect but you did like we're desperate. I just don't think it's time to panic.

[ASU843]

I agree with clemmonsapp. "App became a brand with coaches that demanded we do the little things right. Precision and execution. We continue to make mistake after mistake." This concerns me the most.

[AppSt94]

I am sorry, but I have to side with the concerned crowd. Our one solid opponent dominated us (worse than the score) and we have continued to play undisciplined, mistake prone football. App became a brand with coaches that demanded we do the little things right. Precision and execution. We continue to make mistake after mistake. It is no longer an aberration, it is a trend. Coaching is the reason.

This power running game is not what won us championships. We look like the team that Scott Satterfield quarterbacked, not the one he coached. We have always been run first, but we won by running from spread formations. This bunched power stuff is not going to work against good teams (Marshal stuffed us and we never adjusted). Scott was criticized for running too much, but when we needed to against good teams like Marshal, ULL, and Arkansas State we came out with open schemes and blistered them through the air. We closed them out with the run. Our passing game and routes look elementary. Even with a great offensive line we look terrible because our opponents are stacking the box and bringing more defenders than we can block.

I really like coach Clark and want him to succeed. I hope he will grow into the job. At this point the results are not good. Saying we are Appalachian and we do what we do sounds great. With previous coaches that meant we will do the little things and put in a scheme that beats you. So far this season it looks like "we are going to run down your throats even against numerical disadvantages". I don't want to commit sacrilege, but we under achieved under coach Moore (the GOAT and unmatched as a leader and person) for years until we changed to meet the new realities of the game. Everyone remembers dropping games to lesser teams that would stuff the run and we refused to adjust. We do not need to go there again.

The bottom line is in todays game you have to outscore people sometime (if not most of the time). I hope I am surprised for the rest of the season. Go App

Against Marshall, we missed holes in the blocking scheme. It is as simple as that. We played a bad game. It happens.

[bigdaddyg]

At the risk of sending this thread into a Marshall rehash I just looked back at the stats. Total yards almost even, we had more first downs (we moved the ball). Two bad PIC’s and the horrific strip fumble on a sure first down. We gave up 17 points to what is considered a top 25 team- rankings debate on the other thread. If CCU is legit then so is Marshall. Without the player mistakes we are right there to win it. Coaches did fine.

Currently we are 5th in the country in rushing YPG. However you slice it that’s stout. We have shown that we can pass the ball as well- didn’t we throw a flea-ficker for a TD? We probably could have put at least 10 more on Monroe and probably could have stopped the last TD.

I think we are ok

[Yosef84]

For the folks who are concerned about the lack of execution and polish so far this year, I can't honestly say there is no reason to be concerned, but I also think it's premature to start drawing comparisons about the coaching staff based on comparisons with previous years. It's been said so many time that it feels cliche, and I'm not trying to be dismissive, but the fact is there has never been a season like this one at App. The crazy demands of the pandemic (distractions, loss of practice time, shifting schedules, etc.) come in a year when we have a brand new coaching staff. Our HC isn't new to App but he's brand new at being a head coach. Anyone who doesn't think that changes things simply isn't paying attention. Personally, I believe that Coach Clark's standards for execution will be every bit as high as we've seen in the past. App had undisciplined periods under previous coaching staffs in situations much less bizarre.

Yes, I think we played very vanilla on Saturday. I also think we would have done the same thing under either Satterfield, Moore or Drink. We've never pulled out all the stops against a totally overmatched opponent and I doubt that starts today. I look forward to seeing what we have in store for CCU and UL. Personally, I think Drink was way too vanilla against UL in our regular season game last year and we were lucky to pull that one out (thanks to outstanding D). It's true that the meat of our schedule is ahead of us, but that means our destiny is in our own hands.

GO APPS!!!

[AtlAppMan]

Just to go on record for Yosef84, any comments I have posted on this thread were NOT to say that our coaching staff is bad, needs to go, etc. I believe from what I have seen so far this year we probably have a very good staff but needs time to get the team rolling. We do have a new staff (3rd in 3 yrs) which will need time to get their footing and get all of team on board with their methodology and we had tremendous disruption from Covid. When I point out issues it is always with the intention of having our team achieve the most they can. I have seen enough to know they have the ability to be a top-25 team and the best in the SBC. I just want them to work out the kinks and achieve that level of performance, consistently.

[Yosef84]

Just to go on record for Yosef84, any comments I have posted on this thread were NOT to say that our coaching staff is bad, needs to go, etc. I believe from what I have seen so far this year we probably have a very good staff but needs time to get the team rolling. We do have a new staff (3rd in 3 yrs) which will need time to get their footing and get all of team on board with their methodology and we had tremendous disruption from Covid. When I point out issues it is always with the intention of having our team achieve the most they can. I have seen enough to know they have the ability to be a top-25 team and the best in the SBC. I just want them to work out the kinks and achieve that level of performance, consistently.

Understood and I really didn't interpret your comments (or anybody's at this point) to indicate you felt our staff was bad or that there is conclusive evidence of anything at this point. Some folks like to analyze and have valid observations (whether I agree or not). I just see a lot more reasons to be positive right now than to be overly concerned. We all want to see the Apps playing at their best.

[bigdaddyg]

There are obviously different ways to coach a game. Some guys will go all out no matter the opponent or the score. Against a clearly overmatched team some coaches will open it up and win by 50. Some get a comfortable lead and just milk the clock and get the win- even if it’s just by 3 scores. Most fans want that “bombs over Baghdad” deal no matter what. Sounds like a few here want the double reverse flea-flicker plays constantly. I’ll admit I’d like a little more than the constant runs. Even though we racked up over 300 yards it’s kind of boring. What I hope is that the staff has some cool stuff in the bag that’s not on film.

[AppSt94]

Coaches are also a fraternity. It is possible that we went vanilla when the game was in control out of sportsmanship or respect for the other coaching staff. Viator is a good dude in a bad situation. If Clark has respect for him, as a coach or person, then it could be a situation where he took the foot off the gas out of respect.

[appstate77]

Coach said that on Mountaineer Talk last night.