A10 - Week 3 Review, Week 4 Preview

[JMU Duke Dog]

Scoreboard
Stony Brook 7 at New Hampshire 62
Massachusetts 31 at Villanova 21
VMI 7 at Richmond 58
Liberty 3 at Towson 10
Albany 17 at Delaware 10
Maine 20 at William & Mary 17
Northeastern 10 at North Dakota State 23

Standings
North Division
Massachusetts 1-0, 2-1
Maine 1-0, 1-1
New Hampshire 0-0, 2-0
Hofstra 0-0, 1-1
Rhode Island 0-0, 1-1
Northeastern 0-0, 1-2
South Division
Towson 0-0, 3-0
Richmond 0-0, 2-0
Delaware 0-0, 1-1
James Madison 0-0, 1-1
William & Mary 0-1, 0-2
Villanova 0-1, 0-3

Schedule
Delaware at Rhode Island - Noon ET
New Hampshire at Dartmouth - 12:30 PM ET
Stony Brook at Massachusetts - 1:00 PM ET
Bucknell at Richmond - 1:00 PM ET
Shaw at Maine - 2:00 PM ET
Northeastern at James Madison - 6:00 PM ET
Villanova at Penn - 7:00 PM ET
Towson at Hofstra - 7:00 PM ET
VMI at William & Mary - 7:00 PM ET

[blur2005]

I'm really surprised that Delaware lost to Albany at home.

[Granite]

Not a lot of marquee matchups in the A-10 in week 4, but a couple of somewhat interesting games -

Delaware at Rhody - will be interesting to see how the Hens bounce back on the road against URI. URI was blown out by UConn and then turned around and blew out D-II Merrimack. Delaware needs this game.

Towson at Hofstra - Towson is 3-0 with wins against Morgan State, Elon and Liberty - interested to see how they do in their first A-10 matchup this year. They were my surprise pick in the South, so I'm curious about the Tigers in this one.

[Tribe4SF]

Delaware appears to have some serious problems. Their o-line is getting abysmal reviews on GoHens, as are their WRs. Their defense has yet to face a good team, so there's no telling where they are.

Maine and W&M played an awkward game, in which the Tribe O was simply inept. Tribe o-line disappointed after showing promise at MD. Whitcomb was the consistent glue for Maine, and played like a four-year starter should. Arel Gordon made enough plays to compliment Whitcomb. Surprise for the Tribe is the defense, which played well enough to win, but got little help from the offense. Tribe kicking game is currently a disaster. Poor officiating in this game, as the refs frequently interrupted the flow of the game, and made some awful calls.

[Anovafan]

Don't be fooled by the Nova-Umass score. It could have been 59-21. Umass faltered in the red zone four times and if they get points there, the score isn't even close. I think Umass and UNH are the class of the A-10 this year and are national title contenders. After what I thought was going to be a decent Nova team, I have now concluded it is the worst football product I have seen since 1993. I will be shocked if we win 3 games this year.

[Umass74]

Don't be fooled by the Nova-Umass score. It could have been 59-21. Umass faltered in the red zone four times and if they get points there, the score isn't even close. I think Umass and UNH are the class of the A-10 this year and are national title contenders. After what I thought was going to be a decent Nova team, I have now concluded it is the worst football product I have seen since 1993. I will be shocked if we win 3 games this year.

Anovafan:

What is up with the Wildcats secondary? The write-up on the game said that Talley had benched the two starters prior to the UMass game.

The two replacements did not seem to be very competative to the UMass wide receivers. The rest of the team does not seem to be that bad, but the secondary seems to be a sieve. I realize Nova was geared up to stop the UMass running game, but I think every team that sees that tape is going to go over the top of the Nova defense.

If the CBs can improve, you may be too pessimistic.

[Anovafan]

Anovafan:

What is up with the Wildcats secondary? The write-up on the game said that Talley had benched the two starters prior to the UMass game.

The two replacements did not seem to be very competative to the UMass wide receivers. The rest of the team does not seem to be that bad, but the secondary seems to be a sieve. I realize Nova was geared up to stop the UMass running game, but I think every team that sees that tape is going to go over the top of the Nova defense.

If the CBs can improve, you may be too pessimistic.

I agree, if I was playing Nova I would go deep all the time. Nova can't find any corners who can cover, freshman, senior or whatever, which baffles me. They have good athletic safeties, LBs, and some quick DLmen, but have absolutely no cover corners. They run a 3-3-5 and bring pressure with the safeties and end up leaving the corners on islands. The Umass Wrs were big, strong and very impressive, always going up for the ball and beating Nova's corners on any one on one coverage. It baffles me why Nova didn't just bracket the WRs in passing downs. When Nova played zone, Umass settled down and found the spots, and when Nova played man, Coen went to the right WR and the WR made the play. Coen is a pretty darn good QB, he manages the game well and puts the ball where it needs to be. Some Umass Wrs actually dropped a few easy passes, or Coen would have thrown for 400 yards. I wish Nova would run an offense more like Umass. With a great D, Umass is a real title contender this year.

[Umass74]

I agree, if I was playing Nova I would go deep all the time. Nova can't find any corners who can cover, freshman, senior or whatever, which baffles me. They have good athletic safeties, LBs, and some quick DLmen, but have absolutely no cover corners. They run a 3-3-5 and bring pressure with the safeties and end up leaving the corners on islands.

UMass plays the same style defense. They play man on the corner even against I-A teams and UNH----and live with the results good or bad.

IMHO, Villanova has shown flashes of good play against UCF and UMass. It will be interesting to see how they do against Penn. Good luck.

[ngineer]

I agree on the 'nova secondary. I was at the Lehigh game, and but for several drops by our WR's we would have been up by a couple scores at the half and Threatt would have thrown well over 300 yards. To me it looked more like blown coverages than a physical issue. 'Nova certainly was able to move the ball, so if they can tighten that aspect up, they may do better than one thinks at this stage.
That aside, I'm hoping the Wildcats can get it together and throttle Penn. Can't stand 'em after they broke their contract with us a couple years ago. Good Luck.

[ChickenMan]

After what I thought was going to be a decent Nova team, I have now concluded it is the worst football product I have seen since 1993.


After UD's first two games.... I'd say it is the worst football product that I have seen since 1983!

UD/Nova to end the season should be a great match up... :bawling:

[TigerFan17]

Alone at the top of the A-10 South. :rotateh:

Seriously though...if we do beat Hofstra, I think that means we are a pretty solid team. And if you look at the schedule we have Maine, UMass, W&M and JMU at home, and Nova, UD and UR away. Thats a fairly favorable schedule in terms of home and aways. UMass is homecoming, so the place should be electric, especially if we can come into the game 5-0.

Now I'm not trying to get ahead of myself and in no way am I guaranteeing a win over Hofstra, in fact, I have no idea how good/bad we are...just saying that if we are good enough to beat Hofstra, the schedule pans out in a manner that could send us to the playoffs. Weird.

One game at a time though....FIGHT ON TOWSON TIGERS!

[89Hen]

Towson at Hofstra - Towson is 3-0 with wins against Morgan State, Elon and Liberty - interested to see how they do in their first A-10 matchup this year.
FWIW, Towson is 9-0 OOC since joining the A10 and 3-13 in the A10. :eyebrow:

[TigerFan17]

FWIW, Towson is 9-0 OOC since joining the A10 and 3-13 in the A10. :eyebrow:

Don't twist the stats 89, you're better than that. You have to follow the progression. Make a graph if it helps.

0 A-10 wins, then 0 A-10 wins, then 3 A-10 wins. I'm 14% sure that graph is heading upwards. :nod:

Don't you have a free-falling team to worry about? :rolleyes:

[89Hen]

Don't twist the stats 89, you're better than that. You have to follow the progression. Make a graph if it helps.

0 A-10 wins, then 0 A-10 wins, then 3 A-10 wins.
Why am I twisting stats? Did I say how many A10 wins the Tigers would have this year? You have to admit, 9-0 is a very interesting stat. I was showing that the 3-0 figure Granite posted is basically meaningless since it would seem that the Tigers have had no problems OOC since joining the A10. I like the Tigers winning OOC, that makes the A10 look better.

BTW, this is only the third year for TU and with no wins the first year, the trend coudn't go down. ;)

[DTSpider]

FWIW on a different note...

Last year after the first two games Richmond was 0-2 and looking like they would go nowhere. Way too early to write any team off.

[GannonFan]

FWIW on a different note...

Last year after the first two games Richmond was 0-2 and looking like they would go nowhere. Way too early to write any team off.

Nah, may not work with us - Tutt has used up his eligibility and besides he would need to sit out a year before suiting up for UD. Oh, and Tutt couldn't play offensive line anyway so even he could not be able to help us. ;)

[TigerFan17]

Why am I twisting stats? Did I say how many A10 wins the Tigers would have this year? You have to admit, 9-0 is a very interesting stat. I was showing that the 3-0 figure Granite posted is basically meaningless since it would seem that the Tigers have had no problems OOC since joining the A10. I like the Tigers winning OOC, that makes the A10 look better.

BTW, this is only the third year for TU and with no wins the first year, the trend coudn't go down. ;)

And wouldn't it make sense for the progression to follow the move to A-10 scholarship football from a mediocre non-scholarship PL team?

Also, you have to check out who our non-conference opponents were. We actually have a 11 game OOC win streak going, but unfortunately haven't played anyone earth-shattering. However, that was the idea. Pad the OOC during re-classification so we didn't finish our first 2 or 3 seasons without a win. You gotta crawl before you can walk. Heres to Navy, Northwestern and Indiana in '08, '09 and '10. And hopefully some other decent OOC's.

[th0m]

Navy huh? I'd take Colorado ;)

[TigerFan17]

Navy huh? I'd take Colorado ;)

I have this weird feeling Colorado will be wary of scheduling I-AA opponents. Hmm... :rotateh:

[89Hen]

Also, you have to check out who our non-conference opponents were. We actually have a 11 game OOC win streak going, but unfortunately haven't played anyone earth-shattering. However, that was the idea. Pad the OOC during re-classification so we didn't finish our first 2 or 3 seasons without a win.
Hence my pointing out that 3-0 is nothing to even make note of at this point in Towson's season. xcoffeex

[TigerFan17]

Hence my pointing out that 3-0 is nothing to even make note of at this point in Towson's season. xcoffeex

But you also pointed out that we were 3-13 in conference play obviously to say "don't get ahead of yourself, you are still a bad A-10 team". You neglected, however, to see that the natural progression in going from a non-scholarship team to a scholarship team in a full scholarship league would likely start off very unsuccessful and climb into competitive mediocrity and in some cases, propelled by the momentum of a programs rehabilitation, can send them into the upper echelon. We still are underscholarshipped in terms of the I-AA full scholarship levels. So maybe we win 0, then 0, then 3, now we win another 3-5. Say we win the 5. Thats 8 division I wins...which will likely lead to a playoff berth or at least high consideration.

I have personally watched this team grow and this is the best overall Tiger squad I've seen in A-10 play, by far, and largely based on the big increase in team speed.

We are definitely missing Andrae Brown's play-making, and he'll be back for game 5. We've definitely missed Castor and Williams, and they're back for this weekend. We've done everything we have without 3 key players (the third is our starting TE, who has had mono all season).

Saying we are 3-13 is not really a representative of where we are, just as 3-0 OOC isn't.

:read: :read: :read:

[Granite]

Why am I twisting stats? Did I say how many A10 wins the Tigers would have this year? You have to admit, 9-0 is a very interesting stat. I was showing that the 3-0 figure Granite posted is basically meaningless since it would seem that the Tigers have had no problems OOC since joining the A10. I like the Tigers winning OOC, that makes the A10 look better.

BTW, this is only the third year for TU and with no wins the first year, the trend coudn't go down. ;)

Which is why I thought the game against Hofstra would be somewhat intriguing, since its the Tigers first A-10 game of the year. I wasn't indicating that the 3-0 record meant anything by itself, beyond making TU's first Conference game an interesting one for A-10 watchers.