9/30/2023

Austin Peay (Away)
Lindenwood (Home)
1:00 P.M. CT St. Charles, Mo.
TV: ESPN+ Stats Radio: Govs Sports Network Video

Tarleton State (Away)
Southeastern Louisiana (Home)
3:00 P.M. CT Hammond, La.
TV: ESPN+ Stats Video

Utah Tech (Away)
Colorado State (Home)
5:00 P.M. MT Fort Collins, Colo.
Stats Radio: The Fan Sports Network Video

Texas A&M University - Commerce (Away)
Stephen F. Austin (Home)
6:00 P.M. CT Nacogdoches, Texas
TV: ESPN+ Video

Eastern Kentucky (Away)
North Alabama (Home)
6:00 P.M. CT Florence, Ala. (Conf.)
TV: ESPN+ Stats Video

Abilene Christian (Away)
North Texas (Home)
6:00 P.M. CT Denton, Texas
TV: ESPN+ Stats Video

Central Arkansas (Away)
Southern Utah (Home)
6:00 P.M. MT Cedar City, Utah (Conf.)
TV: ESPN+ Stats Video

This week's talking points:

• UCA looking like a contender early
  

• SFA rekindles an old rivalry
  

[*]Upset Alert: EKU at UNA

• ACU gets a crack at UNT
  

(09-25-2023 08:17 AM)Itinerant Texan Wrote:  This week's talking points:

• UCA looking like a contender early
  

• SFA rekindles an old rivalry
  

[*]Upset Alert: EKU at UNA

• ACU gets a crack at UNT
  

Correction, ACU gets a paycheck...

(09-25-2023 10:55 AM)Outsider Wrote:  

(09-25-2023 08:17 AM)Itinerant Texan Wrote:  This week's talking points:

• UCA looking like a contender early
  

• SFA rekindles an old rivalry
  

[*]Upset Alert: EKU at UNA

• ACU gets a crack at UNT
  

Correction, ACU gets a paycheck...

Perrenial CUSA gutter dweller FIU beat UNT last week, so y'all just might come out of there with more than a paycheck.

UCA breaks into FCS Top 25 this week

Austin Peay, Tarleton (miraculously) and EKU getting votes

25 Central Arkansas 2-2 116 NR

Others Receiving Votes (schools listed on two or more ballots): Southeast Missouri State 103; Fordham 82; Mercer 62; Chattanooga 55; Eastern Illinois 48; Austin Peay 33; Samford 29; Tarleton State 27; Northern Iowa 23; Albany 22; Harvard 12; Eastern Kentucky 7

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/f...fcs-top-25

(09-25-2023 02:10 PM)Itinerant Texan Wrote:  

(09-25-2023 10:55 AM)Outsider Wrote:  

(09-25-2023 08:17 AM)Itinerant Texan Wrote:  This week's talking points:

• UCA looking like a contender early
  

• SFA rekindles an old rivalry
  

[*]Upset Alert: EKU at UNA

• ACU gets a crack at UNT
  

Correction, ACU gets a paycheck...

Perrenial CUSA gutter dweller FIU beat UNT last week, so y'all just might come out of there with more than a paycheck.

This is definitely not an up year for UNT so who knows. Have we learned anything these last two weeks? That question and the continued size/speed differential we will face for the 3rd week in a row makes me less positive. I actually thought we had a shot to beat UTEP a couple of years ago. ACU is in no way down and out, but for a team that has been growing and progressing for so long now, we really haven't gotten anywhere; even after coaching and recruiting changes. Week 5 still seems like another great chance for the great mediocre ACU team to be greatly mediocre.

As a Tarleton guy I am curious about how we will fare against SE La, but I think the most exciting match up is UCA at SUU. SUU may have a bad record, but they only lost to Ariz St by 3 ( Yes AZ St looks kind of lousy but are a P5 TEAM) and to #20 UC Davis BY 2. Factor in the elevation and SUU might just pull the upset.

I am curious about the UCA/SUU match-up as well. SUU has made a lot of progress. This week will show how consistently they can play and how if they can adjust to both the offensive and defensive speed of UCA.

(09-26-2023 03:54 AM)Spolovilo4EVER Wrote:  As a Tarleton guy I am curious about how we will fare against SE La, but I think the most exciting match up is UCA at SUU. SUU may have a bad record, but they only lost to Ariz St by 3 ( Yes AZ St looks kind of lousy but are a P5 TEAM) and to #20 UC Davis BY 2. Factor in the elevation and SUU might just pull the upset.

Might come check out yall vs SUU in a few weeks. Hear yall have been packing the house!

Well, I suppose a Congratulations is in order to Coach Whitten. 100 wins at Tarleton is a nice accomplishment. Yes, we won the game, but man, it was about as ugly as it gets. Gotta say, SLU has some really good athletes, and the announcers said they were ranked 15 in FCS preseason coaches poll and unanimous pick to win the Southland. They outgained us 400 to 200 on offense. Yet, we found a way to win. Or better yet, found a way to not lose. One thing is for sure: our offense is officially on the Fritz. We are not confident in anything we're doing, and it shows. Whitten and Miller were caught on camera arguing the play-calling on the sidelines. Can't do that. Players will pick up on that and choose sides = division. Even saw Whitten arguing to punt on the 4th and 1 to end the game. Had we punted there, we probably lose. As I said before, I don't think Whitten and Miller can coexist. Egos are too big. Us running the ball 90% of the time is all Whitten. Surely he must know we don't have the type of O-Line for non-stop power football. QB2 Greek got in for a series, but never got to show his arm. QB1 Gabalis obviously must very accurate in practice, then lays an egg come game time. We better figure it out and pull ourselves together before next week. Southern Utah ain't no joke!

We lost the game as expected against UNT but seemed to finally find our offense again. We fell back into out funk again after our first series. Then we went back to spreading the ball around the field, successfully utilizing the option. McGivor finally decided to run the ball when needed and that opened up other possibilities. Sunday had a great game after losing Dobbins. Now that we are two running backs down, we will have to get creative. What gets me is still trying to tackle by throwing our bodies at opposing teams and getting the team to 4th down and then letting them convert. We basically met the spread though.

SUU had one heck of a 4th qtr against UCA, only losing 27-29. That's really impressive.

QB1 is suspect and no Bueno. There’s got to be another answer in that position

They keep calling Tarleton an Air Raid offense. When I hear that, I think of Texas Tech from a few years ago. Slinging the ball all over the field to receivers breaking free everywhere. We don’t remotely resemble that. We run up the middle twice then throw 2 yards out of bounds 30 yards downfield. Or to the other team right in the middle of the field. We’re not even an RPO. When does Gabalis ever pull the ball back and throw it? Sometimes it’s a poorly disguised fake, but I’m not fooled, and neither are the defenses. Just like the last 6 years, production steadily decreases as the season rolls along. Just like Duncan and Allen before him, Gabalis is not comfortable with this scheme. Is Greek or Siderman? Let’s pleas find out! Sometimes guys rise to the game time challenge.
I love Gabalis, but this offense after 5 games is not for him!!

It is time for Greek to start playing. Gabilis has lost all of his confidence and this offense is looking like last year’s. It will not get better. Bring in the backup and massively start recruiting a new QB for next year.

(10-01-2023 01:34 PM)Oscar P Wrote:  They keep calling Tarleton an Air Raid offense. When I hear that, I think of Texas Tech from a few years ago. Slinging the ball all over the field to receivers breaking free everywhere. We don’t remotely resemble that. We run up the middle twice then throw 2 yards out of bounds 30 yards downfield. Or to the other team right in the middle of the field. We’re not even an RPO. When does Gabalis ever pull the ball back and throw it? Sometimes it’s a poorly disguised fake, but I’m not fooled, and neither are the defenses. Just like the last 6 years, production steadily decreases as the season rolls along. Just like Duncan and Allen before him, Gabalis is not comfortable with this scheme. Is Greek or Siderman? Let’s pleas find out! Sometimes guys rise to the game time challenge.
I love Gabalis, but this offense after 5 games is not for him!!

We're not running a true Air Raid, that's how I know Whitten is still in control of the offense despite him saying otherwise. Whitten runs what's called a "Veer & Shoot" which is based in Air Raid, but run-heavy with blocking Tight Ends. It is essentially Art Briles' offense from his time at Baylor. A true AIr Raid, like Mason Miller ran with Mike Leach at MS State, is all-in on the pass. No Tight Ends, only 1 RB and everybody is a receiver. It's unstoppable if ran correctly, and we actually have a guy on our staff in Miller that was a Disciple of the Godfather of Air Raid for 20+ years, and we are not running it! Makes no sense. To run the Air Raid efficiently, you need a gunslinger QB with a cannon arm, that is extremely patient under duress, and ideally, was developed within the offense. We actually have THAT GUY on our roster in Daniel Greek. Greek was Mike Leach's recruit to MS State to run the Air Raid because the Air Raid is what Greek ran in HS. Greek's HS coach (his Dad) studied under Mike Leach. Greek also spent 2 years in Mike Leach's QB room, so you could say the kid is somewhat of an Air Raid Disciple himself. Don't get me wrong, the Veer & Shoot is great offense when ran correctly, but you need a QB that is built for making those quick decisions and pulling the trigger at the line of scrimmage rather than patiently sitting back in shotgun formation and letting things open up and develop like with the Air Raid. Ben Holmes, for example, was an excellent Veer & Shoot QB. One of the best. Suffice it to say, we do not have a Ben Holmes on our roster, but we do have a Mike Leach Air Raid recruit/student and the absolute perfect coach to help him run it in Mason Miller. But, for whatever reason, we keep trying to force-feed Whitten's offense, which gets back to that ego thing I mentioned earlier. Extremely frustrating to watch, but I'm glad to see Mason Miller standing up for himself on the sidelines. It's high time we try something different!