Football Schedule

mquast53000 · Post by **mquast53000** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:50 pm

What does everyone think about the non-conference schedule for 2005? I understand the benefit of playing a large 1-A school ($$$), but it is so hard going into a game that you really are not expected to win. Why not play another home game? I hate the thought of going into the conference season with at best a 3-1 record. You never know when one game could have made a difference (ask Cal Poly).

9/3 at Oklahoma State
9/10 Stephen F. Austin
9/17 at Cal Poly
9/24 North Dakota State

Helcat72 · Post by **Helcat72** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 4:53 pm

Kramer said that playing it on the first weekend at least lets you get it out of the way and then concentrate on the winable games

Cat Pride · Post by **Cat Pride** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:07 pm

I'd schedule another SFA, NDSU, SDSU, UNC, Cal-Poly home-and-home versus going after the yearly 1-A money game.

Mike, you played, what did you think about playing the 1-A teams?

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 5:24 pm

Until fans start selling out all home games and the budget is corrected this road games vs. I-As are essential. Even UM with 23,000 per home game has to take on Oregon to rectify their debt. UM was able to get around the big schools due to their big fan base and before the debt was uncovered.
Job One at MSU is building the fan base, then continuing to enhance and enlarge the stadium, then have a schedule w/ I-AAs only.

thetruth3 · Post by **thetruth3** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 9:04 pm

I'm a little leary about the Oklahoma State game. I think that it provides good experience for the team, but it is also dangerous at the same time. If one of our key guys go down it could be big trouble. I think that's also why Coach K is not fully excited about it either. we never had any problem with injuries when playing up in the past but lets be real, Big 12 football is a little different than Pac 10. Definately a little more physical. I hope all goes well in that game. I think the other non BSC games will be good competition and preparation for the conference season.

DaGriz · Post by **DaGriz** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 10:49 pm

Big 12 football is a little different than Pac 10. Definately a little more physical.

That was obvious in the national championship this year.

thetruth3 · Post by **thetruth3** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:19 pm

My reference obviously to WAZZU and i think we can all agree that USC is at a different level than any team in the nation.

BozoneCat · Post by **BozoneCat** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 11:41 pm

thetruth3 wrote:My reference obviously to WAZZU and i think we can all agree that USC is at a different level than any team in the nation.

Don't put too much into that. I remember Wazzu kicking Texas' butts all over the field in the Holiday Bowl a couple years ago. I've never seen a team blitz so often and so well - ever.

I agree about USC being on a completely different level right now. It is my opinion that USC would beat many NFL teams in the bottom tier of the league right now. And yes, I understand the implications of making a statement like that. USC is that good. It will be interesting to see if or how much they suffer from losing Norm Chow.

Hell's Bells · Post by **Hell's Bells** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 2:09 am

BozoneCat wrote:
thetruth3 wrote:My reference obviously to WAZZU and i think we can all agree that USC is at a different level than any team in the nation.
Don't put too much into that. I remember Wazzu kicking Texas' butts all over the field in the Holiday Bowl a couple years ago. I've never seen a team blitz so often and so well - ever.

I agree about USC being on a completely different level right now. It is my opinion that USC would beat many NFL teams in the bottom tier of the league right now. And yes, I understand the implications of making a statement like that. USC is that good. It will be interesting to see if or how much they suffer from losing Norm Chow.

is it just me or does texas always seem to loose the big game? what is mack browns record vs oklahoma? also any conference that looses the championship game by 40 + points to me is a joke

mquast53000 · Post by **mquast53000** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 9:25 am

Cat Pride wrote:I'd schedule another SFA, NDSU, SDSU, UNC, Cal-Poly home-and-home versus going after the yearly 1-A money game.

Mike, you played, what did you think about playing the 1-A teams?

I didn’t mind playing a team like Wyoming or Idaho, but when you play Oklahoma State or Washington State you are taking a certain degree of risk with little team payoff. I believe that the Cats have a chance to beat Idaho and Wyoming, but when you are talking about a Big 12 or Pac 10 team the chances of winning that game are much slimmer. Of course the reason that a 1-AA team plays a 1-A team is for the payout and you are going to see a bigger check from a bigger football program.

As a player I didn't like it much. It seamed really like everyone (players, coaches and media) expected you to lose. As a competitor I thought ever game was ours to win, even when Washington State was in the top 25.

PDXKat · Post by **PDXKat** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 9:31 am

BozoneCat wrote:
thetruth3 wrote:My reference obviously to WAZZU and i think we can all agree that USC is at a different level than any team in the nation.
Don't put too much into that. I remember Wazzu kicking Texas' butts all over the field in the Holiday Bowl a couple years ago. I've never seen a team blitz so often and so well - ever.

I agree about USC being on a completely different level right now. It is my opinion that USC would beat many NFL teams in the bottom tier of the league right now. And yes, I understand the implications of making a statement like that. USC is that good. It will be interesting to see if or how much they suffer from losing Norm Chow.

USC is good but no way do they beat even the worst NFL teams. Oregon State should have beat USC this past season and they darn sure aren't as good as some NFL teams. Back to the point, we can be competitive with Ok. State for the first game of the year with the new guys they will be playing. In fact, my prediction is that we surprise some people. But I am sure glad that their running back opted for the NFL, he's a special type of player.

catatac · Post by **catatac** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 10:00 am

I still stick with my opinion that there is not really an increase in injury when we play up a level. Injuries are largely luck of the draw. I haven't dug up any stats but would bet history backs me up on this. If you look at the total # of injuries sustained throughout all our games against 1A opponents and compare to DII and 1AA, they should even out. If we lose a key player in that game

(Knock on wood) I may have to eat my words...

Regarding USC - sorry Bozone but we'd have a better chance of beating USC than USC beating any NFL team...

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 12:06 pm

A lot of the fear of injuries from the I-As stems from the game against Florida (Emmitt Smith and Co.) back in the mid-80s. MSU came back beat to a pulp and a couple guys were lost for the season. I don't think anything like that has happened since. I agree with Catatac, that the injuries are a luck of the draw, but sure there is probably a physics formula that explains that there is a greater chance of injury playing the big guys.

Also agree that MSU has about as good a chance of beat USC as USC has of beating an NFL team. I doubt there are even 20 guys from USC that could make SanFrans roster. And of those very few would start. But I'm sure Leinart would beat out Dorsey. SanFran was the NFLs worst team, but their defense was decent and would tear USC's offense to shreds. If you took the worst player at every position in the NFL, they would still beat USC.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 12:34 pm

My take after having had so many of my kids come out of Augusta, Georgia and go on to play on Sunday or follow the bouncing ball is this: I want all of my kids to measure themselves against the best of the best. When you examine CSUs season last year, you could see the competitiveness early in the game against USC until depth took over. When Furman nearly beat Pittsburgh (the Big East champ) the kids weren't concerned whether or not they were playing a "superior" athlete. I'd like to point out that against Colorado State, our offense finally got it together whereas another "should win" team would have kept them mired in mediocrity and attention deficits would have lasted the rest of the year. To see Wolfe survive the hit he received against CSU and bounce right back up only to get hurt in the demolishing of NAU in the first series of the second half suggests what every one of you were taught: play every play full speed and see what happens. I don't think our kids are guilty of looking at OSU as a controlled scrimmage game with a vanilla offense. My bet is that Lulay and company are examining film right now from last year's OSU model and researching what they "may" look like this year. Plus, the most growth in any team occurs between the first and second game. I still think Bailey and Lulay are going to find a way around that huge, immobile defensive line and OSU will be pretty surprised to see how hard our defense hits. That is, of course, making the assumption they're all in the weight room and running the field house

raincat · Post by **raincat** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:25 pm

I hate playing "up" out of our backyard. The Florida game is a good example. We actually played them pretty well in the first half (I was there) and we went in at halftime down 19-zip. The natives were not happy. Florida took control early in the second half and beat us up pretty badly. Long after the 1's should have been on the sideline Florida was running things up, much to the delight of the boosters. I don't think I've really seen that when we played Wazzu or CSU. The WORST matchup I ever saw in Bobcat history was our last game in '85 vs. the Cougs. We were so beaten up going in. Started a third string true freshman qb, our linebacking corp had been wiped out. Meantime WSU had one of their best teams-ever, with Mark Rypien, Ruben Mays, etc. Cougar coach, Jim Walden was looking for every way he could to take his foot off the pedal by early in the second quarter. WSU could have easily scored 100 but found a way to hold it down to 64. Mike Price was the same way. While I'll agree the Cats played WSU somewhat competitively recently, the relative closeness of the score was partly compliments of the Cougar coaching staff. Same with Colorado State. Sonny does not get his jollies running up the score. Florida would have scored a 100 without batting an eye. But here's the kicker that makes this one so interesting. I think this could be as good a Cat team as we've had in long time. If we lose I hope we don't get beat up mentally. And besides, I think one of these days we just might win one of these things. Would beating OSU be the biggest win in Bobcat history?
PS: I liked Quasts comments about believeing you're going into every game to win. If not, why practice? If not, let's just go to Stillwater, play the two's, collect the money and come home.

DaGriz · Post by **DaGriz** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 6:50 pm

Long after the 1's should have been on the sideline Florida was running things up, much to the delight of the boosters

When was that game? It seems like it wasn't that long ago that margin of vitory was a factor for I-A schools when Top 25 rankings were being determined.

BozoneCat · Post by **BozoneCat** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 6:51 pm

DaGriz wrote:When was that game? It seems like it wasn't that long ago that margin of vitory was a factor for I-A schools when Top 25 rankings were being determined.

1988, I believe. Emmitt Smith was playing for the Gators when we played them.

Bleedinbluengold · Post by **Bleedinbluengold** » Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:22 pm

From a purely shelfish standpoint, I like it when the Cats play Wazzu. I've a lot of friends who graduated from there, and it was great getting together for that game a couple years ago. The same would be true for Oregon and Oregon State.

Otherwise, my only observatoin is if you are going to play a I-A, you have to at least get $250,000 guaranteed. Thus, it doesn't make much sense to play Wyoming, Idaho, CSU, etc. Ya, those games might be winnable 1 out of 50 times, but the risk/reward ration just isn't good.

raincat · Post by **raincat** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 12:54 pm

MSU-Florida, 09-03-88. Warm and very humid afternoon in Gainsville. Gators 69 Bobcats 0. 09-10-88...NAIA Mesa State 41, Montana State 10! A much more painful loss than the opening week!
This was actually a pretty good Bobcat team who rebounded to finish 4-7 with wins over Nevada and a 51-7 blowout of Boise State.

Cat Grad · Post by **Cat Grad** » Thu Feb 24, 2005 1:12 pm

Because I took off for Gainsville to see the Cats, I'll always be a fan of Steve Spurrier and his staff that year. As he shuffled kids in and out the entire game, it quickly became apparent why Dennis Erickson listened to Sam Jankovich. Remember reading about Erickson and Lubick talking about their first day of practice when they actually had a chance to see all that size, speed and strength first hand, after leading Wazzu to a 9-2 record the year before I believe. I also remember Sonny telling the Montana reporters after he was fired in Bozo: "Hell no, I'm not going to apologize for recruiting in Washington. There's more Big Sky caliber football players in Spokane than the entire state of Montana." Glad to see we're finally able to get over worrying about where a kid played high school ball, although at a Booster function I listened a while to someone much, much older than I am complain about not recruiting enough Montana kids. I asked him if he's so damn worried about having Montana kids play, what's he doing to make sure there're jobs for them to stay home after they graduate. He said: "You know, you're right."