Four losses by a combined 20 points

[ASUFan4863]

I am making this post for me more than anything. I know the sky is falling for many of us and close doesn't cut it, but in reality we have lost 4 of our games this season against teams that a) have been ranked or almost ranked at some point during the season and b) by one possession or less. Every game has had a couple of plays that changed the game against us.

UNC - Two 2-Point Conversions
JMU - Interception and Fair catch interference
CCU - Fumble inside the 10 and allowing an inexcusable long completion on 3rd and 11
Marshall - Punt Block and a terrible throw that resulted in an interception on the play right after our interception

These are plays/mistakes that past teams haven't made, which is why they were able to win those close games. The common issues in all of these games have been on third down and offensive consistency. These are things I feel are fixable with minor adjustments in the practices and the Spring. I think it is important to take a step back, take a deep breath and realize that despite ALL of our injuries, mistakes, poor execution, poor coaching decisions, etc... how close we actually are.

[Longrifle28]

I am making this post for me more than anything. I know the sky is falling for many of us and close doesn't cut it, but in reality we have lost 4 of our games this season against teams that a) have been ranked or almost ranked at some point during the season and b) by one possession or less. Every game has had a couple of plays that changed the game against us.

UNC - Two 2-Point Conversions
JMU - Interception and Fair catch interference
CCU - Fumble inside the 10 and allowing an inexcusable long completion on 3rd and 11
Marshall - Punt Block and a terrible throw that resulted in an interception on the play right after our interception

These are plays/mistakes that past teams haven't made, which is why they were able to win those close games. The common issues in all of these games have been on third down and offensive consistency. These are things I feel are fixable with minor adjustments in the practices and the Spring. I think it is important to take a step back, take a deep breath and realize that despite ALL of our injuries, mistakes, poor execution, poor coaching decisions, etc... how close we actually are.

I rarely think it is one play in any game, but my thoughts are:
Against UNC I think our defense couldn't stop their offense. One or two defensive stops in the second quarter and we win the game. Pass defense was bad.
JMU we couldn't score points in the second half. Pass defense was bad.
CCU and Marshall both had good run defenses and we started slow and quickly found ourselves in catch up mode, which most running teams don't like. Pass defense was bad.
In spite of this, one or two different bounces and it could have gone the other way.

[appgrad95&97]

It also took a miracle to beat Troy and A&M was a kick from putting it into overtime. We're also close to being 3-8 with two wins against really bad FCS teams.

[MrCraig]

This is basically what Shawn Clark said in his press conference today. Are you Shawn Clark!?!?

Seriously though, moral victories are still losses, and this team has some major issues to iron out, but looking at stuff like this does help a fan see that the sky isn't necessarily falling. App has a lot of young guys who made a lot of young guy mistakes. Ideally, the team and coaches are so good that you can make mistakes and still win games. App isn't that team this year.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm more than willing to give SC another year IF there are some staff changes below him. Next year's schedule should be a little easier.

[AtlAppMan]

Your original point is correct that from pure points on the board we are not far off. However one person posted on one of the many threads that this is the same story that many middle of the road teams could claim. “We are so close”. However that is the difference between the winners and the rest.

All that being said, anybody with any reasonable football IQ can see that this team is not performing at anywhere close to where we need to be to be a TOP G5 team. We can’t sustain drives with any consistency. 5 games with 155 yards or less rushing, 3 games with 88 yards or less. We are having trouble getting other teams offense off the field. So inconsistent throughout season.

We are clearly on a multi year downward trajectory. It is not an isolated one year situation. And they just keep saying week after week after week “we just have to address it”. And the next week it is Groundhog Day, again. That is the BIGGEST concern.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

This is basically what Shawn Clark said in his press conference today. Are you Shawn Clark!?!?

Seriously though, moral victories are still losses, and this team has some major issues to iron out, but looking at stuff like this does help a fan see that the sky isn't necessarily falling. App has a lot of young guys who made a lot of young guy mistakes. Ideally, the team and coaches are so good that you can make mistakes and still win games. App isn't that team this year.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm more than willing to give SC another year IF there are some staff changes below him. Next year's schedule should be a little easier.

You never can tell with the transfer portal. Could benefit us as well, but as it stands unless we hit the portal, we will have an inexperienced starting QB next year. Pre-portal fiasco days it was a lot easier to kind of gauge where a team would be next year as well as their competition. Now it's tough to tell. JMU isn't 6-3 without landing Centeio at QB.

[bigdaddyg]

We basically have 2 wins over teams our entire 2nd (maybe 3rd) string would have beaten. A&M win gets more diminished every week. I don't get the whole "they were ranked" argument. How many teams are ranked after 2 weeks then are no where to be found at the end of the year? An absolute miracle needed to beat Troy. We have one convincing win over a team likely to finish 4-8. How about against Marshall we don't stand there and let the punter pick the ball up and kick it?

[ASUFan4863]

This is basically what Shawn Clark said in his press conference today. Are you Shawn Clark!?!?

Seriously though, moral victories are still losses, and this team has some major issues to iron out, but looking at stuff like this does help a fan see that the sky isn't necessarily falling. App has a lot of young guys who made a lot of young guy mistakes. Ideally, the team and coaches are so good that you can make mistakes and still win games. App isn't that team this year.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm more than willing to give SC another year IF there are some staff changes below him. Next year's schedule should be a little easier.

Haha I am not Shawn. I agree on giving him another year to show drastic improvement to win these close games especially. I think the schedule played a huge part in our year that many people overlook. The build up to UNC, A&M and Gameday was huge. Unprecedented for our program. It feels like forever ago. It is an excuse to blame it on these things but in 2019 we got 2 tune ups before UNC and played USC in early November. The schedule was much more balanced. We had an imbalanced scheduled of a hard first 4 and a hard last 3 of 4.

[ASUFan4863]

This is basically what Shawn Clark said in his press conference today. Are you Shawn Clark!?!?

Seriously though, moral victories are still losses, and this team has some major issues to iron out, but looking at stuff like this does help a fan see that the sky isn't necessarily falling. App has a lot of young guys who made a lot of young guy mistakes. Ideally, the team and coaches are so good that you can make mistakes and still win games. App isn't that team this year.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm more than willing to give SC another year IF there are some staff changes below him. Next year's schedule should be a little easier.

You never can tell with the transfer portal. Could benefit us as well, but as it stands unless we hit the portal, we will have an inexperienced starting QB next year. Pre-portal fiasco days it was a lot easier to kind of gauge where a team would be next year as well as their competition. Now it's tough to tell. JMU isn't 6-3 without landing Centeio at QB.

It will be better for our program to develop guys - especially QB - than to hit the portal every year.

[kornegaylw]

Since the team has had to DRIVE to Marshall and Coastal how much "change" should we have expected to see in those 2 games given how long it takes to get too and from both places? Its not an excuse but the travel aspect of this season cannot be ignored.

[kornegaylw]

This is basically what Shawn Clark said in his press conference today. Are you Shawn Clark!?!?

Seriously though, moral victories are still losses, and this team has some major issues to iron out, but looking at stuff like this does help a fan see that the sky isn't necessarily falling. App has a lot of young guys who made a lot of young guy mistakes. Ideally, the team and coaches are so good that you can make mistakes and still win games. App isn't that team this year.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm more than willing to give SC another year IF there are some staff changes below him. Next year's schedule should be a little easier.

You never can tell with the transfer portal. Could benefit us as well, but as it stands unless we hit the portal, we will have an inexperienced starting QB next year. Pre-portal fiasco days it was a lot easier to kind of gauge where a team would be next year as well as their competition. Now it's tough to tell. JMU isn't 6-3 without landing Centeio at QB.

It will be better for our program to develop guys - especially QB - than to hit the portal every year.

And I believe we will see the benefit of that "development" next year.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

This is basically what Shawn Clark said in his press conference today. Are you Shawn Clark!?!?

Seriously though, moral victories are still losses, and this team has some major issues to iron out, but looking at stuff like this does help a fan see that the sky isn't necessarily falling. App has a lot of young guys who made a lot of young guy mistakes. Ideally, the team and coaches are so good that you can make mistakes and still win games. App isn't that team this year.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm more than willing to give SC another year IF there are some staff changes below him. Next year's schedule should be a little easier.

You never can tell with the transfer portal. Could benefit us as well, but as it stands unless we hit the portal, we will have an inexperienced starting QB next year. Pre-portal fiasco days it was a lot easier to kind of gauge where a team would be next year as well as their competition. Now it's tough to tell. JMU isn't 6-3 without landing Centeio at QB.

It will be better for our program to develop guys - especially QB - than to hit the portal every year.

I agree, but do the coaches?

Huesman had way more experience than the current back ups, yet they still went after Brice in the portal. Circumstances may have been different then, and maybe at some point they thought ZT would have returned before he decided not to, but the mindset was still there at the time to hit the portal. Does SC want that seat getting warmer with a young inexperienced QB?

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

Since the team has had to DRIVE to Marshall and Coastal how much "change" should we have expected to see in those 2 games given how long it takes to get too and from both places? Its not an excuse but the travel aspect of this season cannot be ignored.

I think any road game presents a set of challenges regardless of the distance. I'd say by time they loaded the buses, arrived to the airport, boarded, fly, un-board, load the buses and head to the hotel say for the Texas A&M game it's probably about the same amount of time as a trip to Huntington, Conway, or in a couple weeks GASo.

[AppState89]

This is basically what Shawn Clark said in his press conference today. Are you Shawn Clark!?!?

Seriously though, moral victories are still losses, and this team has some major issues to iron out, but looking at stuff like this does help a fan see that the sky isn't necessarily falling. App has a lot of young guys who made a lot of young guy mistakes. Ideally, the team and coaches are so good that you can make mistakes and still win games. App isn't that team this year.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm more than willing to give SC another year IF there are some staff changes below him. Next year's schedule should be a little easier.

You never can tell with the transfer portal. Could benefit us as well, but as it stands unless we hit the portal, we will have an inexperienced starting QB next year. Pre-portal fiasco days it was a lot easier to kind of gauge where a team would be next year as well as their competition. Now it's tough to tell. JMU isn't 6-3 without landing Centeio at QB.

It will be better for our program to develop guys - especially QB - than to hit the portal every year.

I agree, but do the coaches?

Huesman had way more experience than the current back ups, yet they still went after Brice in the portal. Circumstances may have been different then, and maybe at some point they thought ZT would have returned before he decided not to, but the mindset was still there at the time to hit the portal. Does SC want that seat getting warmer with a young inexperienced QB?

If we bring in an experienced QB via the portal, we will still have inexperienced QB the next year. If we continue to bring in QBs via the portal the soph then junior QB will still be inexperienced. I say play him next year as the starter and bring in a QB as backup. Just my opinion.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

This is basically what Shawn Clark said in his press conference today. Are you Shawn Clark!?!?

Seriously though, moral victories are still losses, and this team has some major issues to iron out, but looking at stuff like this does help a fan see that the sky isn't necessarily falling. App has a lot of young guys who made a lot of young guy mistakes. Ideally, the team and coaches are so good that you can make mistakes and still win games. App isn't that team this year.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm more than willing to give SC another year IF there are some staff changes below him. Next year's schedule should be a little easier.

You never can tell with the transfer portal. Could benefit us as well, but as it stands unless we hit the portal, we will have an inexperienced starting QB next year. Pre-portal fiasco days it was a lot easier to kind of gauge where a team would be next year as well as their competition. Now it's tough to tell. JMU isn't 6-3 without landing Centeio at QB.

It will be better for our program to develop guys - especially QB - than to hit the portal every year.

I agree, but do the coaches?

Huesman had way more experience than the current back ups, yet they still went after Brice in the portal. Circumstances may have been different then, and maybe at some point they thought ZT would have returned before he decided not to, but the mindset was still there at the time to hit the portal. Does SC want that seat getting warmer with a young inexperienced QB?

If we bring in an experienced QB via the portal, we will still have inexperienced QB the next year. If we continue to bring in QBs via the portal the soph then junior QB will still be inexperienced. I say play him next year as the starter and bring in a QB as backup. Just my opinion.

I agree. I've been more interested to see what the high school signees do rather than our transfers. That's not to say we haven't had successful transfers, but I'm definitely in favor of seeing more guys who only know App State get some playing time.

[BUTCH1991]

Not sure next year's schedule is any easier. Next year UNC is probably better than early this season UNC. ECU may be as good as Texas A&M considering the trajectory of the two. Wyoming is better than The Citadel, Gardner Webb is better than Robert Morris. We still have to play the East Division and will probably face someone in the West better than Texas State.

[AppSt94]

This is basically what Shawn Clark said in his press conference today. Are you Shawn Clark!?!?

Seriously though, moral victories are still losses, and this team has some major issues to iron out, but looking at stuff like this does help a fan see that the sky isn't necessarily falling. App has a lot of young guys who made a lot of young guy mistakes. Ideally, the team and coaches are so good that you can make mistakes and still win games. App isn't that team this year.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm more than willing to give SC another year IF there are some staff changes below him. Next year's schedule should be a little easier.

You never can tell with the transfer portal. Could benefit us as well, but as it stands unless we hit the portal, we will have an inexperienced starting QB next year. Pre-portal fiasco days it was a lot easier to kind of gauge where a team would be next year as well as their competition. Now it's tough to tell. JMU isn't 6-3 without landing Centeio at QB.

It will be better for our program to develop guys - especially QB - than to hit the portal every year.

I agree, but do the coaches?

Huesman had way more experience than the current back ups, yet they still went after Brice in the portal. Circumstances may have been different then, and maybe at some point they thought ZT would have returned before he decided not to, but the mindset was still there at the time to hit the portal. Does SC want that seat getting warmer with a young inexperienced QB?

Huesman wasn’t coming back. He only decided to come back after Brice was signed.

[AppSt94]

This is basically what Shawn Clark said in his press conference today. Are you Shawn Clark!?!?

Seriously though, moral victories are still losses, and this team has some major issues to iron out, but looking at stuff like this does help a fan see that the sky isn't necessarily falling. App has a lot of young guys who made a lot of young guy mistakes. Ideally, the team and coaches are so good that you can make mistakes and still win games. App isn't that team this year.

I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'm more than willing to give SC another year IF there are some staff changes below him. Next year's schedule should be a little easier.

You never can tell with the transfer portal. Could benefit us as well, but as it stands unless we hit the portal, we will have an inexperienced starting QB next year. Pre-portal fiasco days it was a lot easier to kind of gauge where a team would be next year as well as their competition. Now it's tough to tell. JMU isn't 6-3 without landing Centeio at QB.

Until we get the academic piece fixed to allow for an easier path to transfer in, I question the quality of player that we can get out of the portal.

[EastHallApp]

I don't care about "ranked at some point." JMU and Marshall are Sun Belt also-rans. Texas State still stinks. Coastal has surpassed us. UNC is good, but we had a chance to beat them if we could have held them under 60 with their top two WRs on the bench and we couldn't do it.

[appgrad95&97]

Not sure next year's schedule is any easier. Next year UNC is probably better than early this season UNC. ECU may be as good as Texas A&M considering the trajectory of the two. Wyoming is better than The Citadel, Gardner Webb is better than Robert Morris. We still have to play the East Division and will probably face someone in the West better than Texas State.

At Wyoming is not going to be easy at all. They are well coached, physical, and Laramie is 3,900 feet higher than Boone. Our out of conference schedule is harder next year. And a new QB, and who knows what RBs. Next year is scary.