The Catholic Diaries (DIII ODAC) Topic

Season 2 - Game 2

Catholic @ South-Sewanee  Spread: South-Sewanee  -2.5

Score:
Catholic - 29
South-Sewanee - 10
Two wins for Catholic in a row and against the spread.

South-Swanee hasn't had a winning record in the past 7 seasons, that includes a span of a couple seasons with a human coach where they went O-fer. The SimAI almost had a break through season last year but fell short with a 5-8 record. Another patsy scheduled in the OOC to pad wins. 

OFF:
1st Downs - 23
Yards - 516
Passing - (2QBs combined) 22/38, 318yds, 8.4yd/pass, 2 TD, 3 INT (gah!) 
Rushing - (6 Runners combined) 40 att for 198yds, 5.0yd/rush, 1 TD, 0 Fum/0 Lost, 1 run @ 20+ yds 
Kicking - 2/3 FG, 3/3 XP, 4 punts @ 43.0 yrd avg
Sacked - 4 times for 26 yds lost
Penalties - 9 for 64yds (P.U.!!!)

OFF Allowed:
1st Downs - 9
Yards - 202
Passing - 15/33, 109yds, 3.3yd/pass, 1 TD, 0 INT 
Rushing - (3 Runners combined) 24 att for 93yds, 3.9yd/rush, 0 TD, 0 Fum/0 Lost, 1 run @ 20+ yds (had one Tackle for Loss for a Safety) 
Kicking - 1/1 FG, 1/1 XP, 9 punts @ 41.9 yrd avg
Sacked - 1 times for 2 yds lost
Penalties - 6 for 55 yds

Pretty much the same story as the last game. A balanced run/pass attack and a decent defensive effort to get the win. Playing SimAI teams doesn't really give me a good gauge of how the team really is, but it does allow me to pad wins and get better vision for recruiting. Like I said above, my goal isn't to get into the playoffs really quick, it is to build vision and recruit better talent to make the team more competitive at a faster rate.
10/18/2012 4:07 PM
Season 2 - Game 3

Catholic @ Wisconsin-Oshkosh  Spread: Catholic -0.5

Score:
Catholic - 19
Wisconsin-Oshkosh - 13
Third straight win in a row!!!! By winning my first 3 games of the season, I eclipsed the entire win total of last season. Already a victory but CUA is hungry for more!

Wisc-Oshkosh has fallen on hard times as of the last few seasons. This is their 4th season with a SimAI coach following a string of 18 consecutive human coached seasons where they went to the playoffs 11 times including 2 losses in the NC game, and amassed 9 conference championships. We all know that each season is a new and different season, but they have some really good and fairly recent history.  

OFF:
1st Downs - 15
Yards - 318
Passing - (2QBs combined) 19/37, 193yds, 5.2yd/pass, 0 TD, 0 INT 
Rushing - (5 Runners combined) 23 att for 125yds, 5.4yd/rush, 1 TD, 0 Fum/0 Lost, 1 runs @ 20+ yds 
Kicking - 4/4 FG, 1/1 XP, 5 punts @ 45.0 yrd avg
Sacked - 2 times for 7 yds lost 
Penalties - 6 for 42yds

OFF Allowed:
1st Downs - 18
Yards - 357
Passing - 25/37, 248yds, 6.7yd/pass, 1 TD, 1 INT 
Rushing - (3 Runners combined) 38 att for 109yds, 2.9yd/rush, 0 TD, 5 Fum/1 Lost, 0 runs @ 20+ yds 
Kicking - 2/2 FG, 1/1 XP, 5 punts @ 42.4 yrd avg
Sacked - 0
Penalties - 2 for 15 yds


I'll be honest, I don't really know how I won this game. It looks like a combination of hitting field goals, winning the field position battle, and winning the turnover battle. I really should have lost but thank heavens for a little random luck. So, 3 wins in the first 3 games to already push my W/L tally over what I had last season, it feels like progress. But I'm not going to be anything other than cautiously optimistic about posting a winning record this season. And by the by, even though we need one more game to see the WIS rankings, I some how have pulled a ranking of #34 in the Press and #37 in the Coaches Polls out of my a$$. That won't last very long.
10/18/2012 4:55 PM
After 3 straight wins, 3 straight losses, then W-L-W to arrive at a 5-5 record. I had work issues since last thursday, but I'll be back posting updates tomorrow.
10/25/2012 4:35 PM

Season 2 - Games Recap

An eff'd up work schedule has kept me on the go where I was not able to post daily game updates and the frequent team/player growth reports. Such is life. Let me do a quick season recap of W/L and hit some highlights.

The Season Ended for CUA with a 7 point loss to Hampton-Sydney which gave CUA a season ending record of 6-7, 146WIS, 177SOS. Only 7 points came between a complete reversal of 9 consecutive losing seasons (now at 10) in only 2 seasons as Coach. Very good progress, if I do say so myself. This season record was the highest win totals that CUA has achieved in that 9 season span. My two seasons as coach has more cumulative wins (8) than the previous 8 seasons combined (7).

 

Non-Conference

Date Opponent Record WIS SOS Coach vs. School Spread Result  
10/16/12 Wilkes 4-9 173 98 Sim AI 1-1  -14.5 5-30 W
10/17/12 at South-Sewanee 9-4 88 218 Sim AI 1-0 +2.5 29-10 W
10/18/12 at Wisconsin-Oshkosh 4-9 134 63 Sim AI 1-0  -0.5 19-13 W
10/19/12 Rochester 4-9 175 92 Sim AI 0-2  -17.5 20-10 L
10/20/12 at Lake Forest 5-8 112 51 Sim AI 0-2  -6.5 0-19 L
 
 
 
 

Conference

Date Opponent Record WIS SOS Coach vs. School Spread Result  
10/21/12 Washington and Lee 10-3 47 130 monkei 1-19 +5.5 40-7 L
10/22/12 at Manchester 7-6 108 173 Sim AI 6-14 +5.5 23-30 (OT) L
10/23/12 at Anderson (IN) 5-8 148 106 Sim AI 8-11 +6.5 26-10 W
10/24/12 Randolph-Macon 7-6 158 223 Sim AI 8-31  -2.5 30-6 L
10/25/12 at Emory and Henry 5-8 193 163 Sim AI 13-26 +3.5 23-3 W
10/26/12 at Guilford 2-11 225 211 Sim AI 8-31  -6.5 41-20 W
10/27/12 at Bridgewater 9-4 66 150 Sim AI 12-27 +2.5 10-16 L
10/28/12 Hampden-Sydney 8-5 73 122 Sim AI 3-36 +1.5 35-28 L
You can see that we had a couple of opportunities to win some other games, but they just didn't work out. Even though we posted a losing record, we out scored our opponents 252-251 for the season, averaging it out to 19.39 to 19.31 per game. A positive, of the slimmest margins,  but a posititve. Our opponents had a comined record of 79W-90L.

Most points scored in a game: 41-20W @ Guilford (2-11, 225WIS) 
Least Points scored in a game: 19-0L @ Lake Forest (5-8, 112WIS)
Widest Margin of Victory: 25 points in a 30-5W hosting Wilkes (4-9, 173WIS)
Widest Margin of Defeat: 33 points in a 40-7L hosting Washington&Lee (10-3, 47WIS, Only Human Coached team faced this season)
 
10/29/2012 12:06 PM
Season 2 - Offensive/Defensive Recap

Coming into this season, CUA had posted horrid numbers of total offense and defensive stats. Today we will look at the break down of CUA's O and D numbers compared to their opponents this season.

Total Offense: 4501 yds  - 3425 passing, 1076 rushing. 346.2 yds/game
Total Offense Allowed: 4408 yds - 2917 passing, 1491 rushing, 339.1 yds/game
     Difference: +94 yds - +508 passing, -415 rushing, +7.1 yds/game

Pass ATT/COMP: 281/531 for 52.9% averaging 12.2 yds/pass
Pass ATT/COMP allowed: 273/477 for 57.2% averaging 10.7 yds/pass

Team Passing: 18 TDs and 19 INT
OPP Team passing: 18TDs and 11 INT

Rush ATT: 360 attempts averaging 3.0 yds per carry
Opp Rush ATT: 453 averaging 3.3 yds per carry

Team Eushing: 10 TDs and 14 FF
OPP Team Rushing: 6 TDs and 17 FF

Turnover Margins: -5 (-8 INT, +3FF)

Sacks: 27
Sacks Allowed: 43
Margin: -16

So in the narrow margins that CUA had in out scoring opponents per game (19.4 vs 19.3) and out gaining opponents (346.2 yds/gm vs 339.1 yds/game), it is easy to see how our turnovers (-5) and sacks allowed (-16) negated those positives and we ended up with a losing record. Looking forward to next season, it will hopefully provide us with some more talented depth at key positions and broaden our reserve of experience where we won't have the same issues. 


Oh, I forgot the kicking game:

FG%: 79.2% (19/24FG)
OPP FG%: 67.6%

XP%: 92.6% (25/27XP)
OPP XP%: 100%

Punt Avg: 43.6 (76 punts, Long of 51)
OPP Punt Avg: 42.2

So the kicking game has improved and I'm not punting as often as I have been. That should give me the edge in field position. It is also nice seeing more XP kicks than FG kicks, even if it is only a slight difference. It means we are in position to score more TDs as opposed to settling for the FG.
10/30/2012 10:56 AM (edited)
Season 2 - Player Growth Recap

Top Overall Point growth: 62  - SO. DB (12 points were WE, but remaining 50 were practiced attributes)
Least Overall Point growth: 14 (Tie) between a RS FR QB(dang SimAC Signee) and a starting FR RB 

Top Overall Rating (Guess): SO. DB @ 50.76 (Safety)
Least Overall Rating (Guess): RS FR QB(dang SimAC Signee) @ 23.24

Top Overall Single Season Rating increase (Guess): Jr. WR whose GD rating increased 4.76 points from 35.23 to 39.99
Least Overal Single season Rating increase (Guess): Fr. RB whose GD rating increased 1.47 points from 43.81 to 45.28

Top Overall Kilabe era (Soph) Rating increase (Guess): So. DB whose GD rating increased 9.99 points from 40.77 to 50.76 in 2 seasons
Least Overall Kilabe era (Soph) Rating increase (Guess): So. RB whose GD rating increased 5.53 points from 42.78 to 48.31 in 2 seasons

Top Overall Kilabe era (Frosh) Rating increase (Guess): Fr. QB whose GD rating increased 4.08 points from 34.73 to 38.81 this season
Least Overall Kilabe era (Frosh) Rating increase (Guess): Fr. RB whose GD rating increased 1.47 points from 43.81 to 45.28 this season

With the exception of a couple fluke players, about 1 each class, everyone is growing rather well. I don't see that I need to move away from my practice plan but I may need to pay more attention to the scouting messages of my recruits to see if they are truly indicitive of the messages they convey regarding growth. But all in all, I am pretty happy with their progress.

  
10/30/2012 4:16 PM

You're doing great with them. Keep it up!     

11/3/2012 9:16 PM
Thanks sawedoff. And good luck with WALA! they are one of my favorite DII teams to coach.
11/6/2012 1:28 PM

Season 2 - End of season WIS Ranking

CUA posted their highest end of season WIS ranking in 6 seasons, climbing far enough out of the cellar of the 200's to end at 151. Although still firmly in the bottom half of the DIII field, we are no longer in the bottom 25%, or the bottom 10% for that matter.

11/6/2012 1:34 PM
Season 3 - Preview

The world just rolled over and brings with it the start of Season 3 at CUA of the kilabe era. The past 2 seasons have been marked with incremental improvement pretty much across the whole team. This season brings us the opportunity to add 10 more of my own recruits to the mix leaving 3 SimAC signed players (all SR.s) out of what once was 50. I'm pretty happy that I was able to weed out all non-hackers who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps Team. Sorry my FMJ Tourettes kicked in for a second. 

I'm also well on target to meet my 8 season plan of engineering 2 super-sized recruit classes in the 3-22-3-22 format. As long as I fill all my schollies and don't forget to apply the redshirts, I will start my 8th season in that format. 

Once again, the schedule is entirely Sim-AI coached teams except for one conference game scheduled against Washington & Lee, last seasons Conference Champion (and has been 29 out of the past 39 seasons). So I have a goal to aim for. one day. Right now, the goal is to build wins to increase vision, to recruit better players that will ultimately make me competitive.

This seasons goal is to have a winning record and finish in the top 100 of WIS ranked schools. While I would really like to achieve both, the winning record part is more important to the plan than the WIS ranking. I wouldn't mind getting into to the playoffs to try and see more training growth from the extra practices, but that just should not happen this season.

Of my returning class of 40, 25 of them are Juniors that I signed my first season here at CUA. I'm really looking forward to seeing how their experience and growth pays off this season. At the roll over, the team averaged 0.475 worth of rating growth (Guess) coming back from the off-season. Only 3 players posted no gains. The highest gain was 0.97 worth of ratings growth (Guess) by a So. RB to move from 44.8 to 45.77. Not bad for no practices.   Out of the 40 returners, over half (21) posted rating gains of at least 0.5. 
11/7/2012 1:21 PM
Nice Corps reference. :P 

Doing great kilabe!     

11/11/2012 12:30 PM
Season 3 - Ehibition Games

I broke from the plan of pretty much only playing SimAI teams by accepting a challenge request from bhouska for an exhib game. I'll get into the scores and ups/downs from each game in a bit, but first, I broke from the plan and accepted bhouska's request to play his PreSeason #1 Mount Union squad for a couple reasons. Bhouska and I go way back, he's been beating me for years. I also wanted to gauge the team against a top flight program just to see how they shake out. I have already said that I don't put much stock in exhib games as a barometer of success or anything like that, I felt it would be good to play an upper echelon team and see the results without really having to take a loss on the season and impact my vision. 

Exhib Game 1 - Dubuque vs CUA.
Spread: 10.5 CUA
Score: Dubuque 32 - CUA 35
Positives: Some improvement in the passing game, limited improvement in the running game. Jr. WR Morin had 8 reception for 223 yards and 2 TDs 83 YAC. Both JR. and SO. Qb's combined to go 22/41, 356 yds passing, 4 TDs and only 1 INT.
Negatives: CUA defense had no sacks or FF. CUA offensive line gave up 6 sacks and forced 9 scrambles. 
-- This game was kind of a jumble. I had let the game plan from the previous season ride out and still had several SO. from the previous season in key positions where I should have put the JR.s from my first recruiting class back in to start. The O line was weak on protection, the D line was weak on pressure. Both are going to continue to be a thorn this upcoming season. The Offense did show some signs of life with 2 TD strikes over 50 yds and posting some good yardage. The top 4 CUA tacklers for the game were all DL, so that is a plus. When you see a DB leading in tackles, you know you're screwed. 

Exhib Game 2 - CUA @ #1 Mount Union.
 Spread: 16.5 Mount Union
Score: CUA 14 - Mount Union 37
Positives: uh....  We scored some points and posted some good passing yards. Other than that, we were outmatched at every position and almost every play except for the 2 drives that we scored on.
Negatives: gave up 5 Sacks, had 3 FF and 1 INT (returned for a TD). They ran at will and posted huge a rushing yardage total, 453 yards worth.
-- I had my JR. players back in starting positions and did generate some offense in the air. Even so, Mount Union controlled the game from start to finish and Bhouska dictated the terms of my loss. Which I don't mind, like I said, I've been losing to him for years and I know he is always going to have a good team and wicked game plan to follow. He's a class act, he could have easily hung 100 points on me. I'm not saying that he dialed it down to make me feel good, but he didn't set out to embarrass the team, only experiment with his starter placement and game planning. Good luck to him this year.

Exhib Game 3 - Maranatha Baptist @ CUA
 Spread: 8.5 CUA
Score:  Maranatha Baptist 20 - CUA 41
Positives: A good offensive output - 424 yds total, 145 Passing and 279 rushing. No sacks given up, 2 sacks made 
Negatives: continued turnovers, 1 INT and 2 FF. Gave up a lot of passing yards.
-- Playing a middle of the road SimAI team, but positional changes and game plan updates finally sparked some offense. It really doesn't mean too much since it is exhibition games, but it allowed me to flesh out who I want playing where and what type of offensive sets benefit the team the most.

I kinda feel that CUA is no longer a guaranteed win for all SimAI coached teams. Maybe we can hold our own in the middle of the road rankings. Not much to be proud of, but then again it is a program rising from the ashes.

This Seasons goal: A winning record with 7 wins. Should be doable but who knows what can happen when you are playing SIMS. The secondary goal is to try and get into the CC game. A long shot, but I really want to be able to get the extra practice for my guys. With how lowly my SOS is, I don't think that posting a winning record will get me into any type of playoff scenario this season. Depending on how the season turns out, I may try to schedule one or 2 human coachs into the OOC mix next season, but there are a lot of football games to be simmed between now and then, so we'll see.  
11/13/2012 1:13 PM

GDReports has released their rankings to signal the end of the recruiting phase, I have an exact layout of where I stand according to them. With recruiting over and filling all of my 10 scholarships (no SimAC signees this time!) signed, here are my Guess ratings of where I am and what I signed.

As always, I selected my primary targets within my 359 mile radius and a couple backups for each position should those fail to pan out. My Primary targets were those guys who had the best Guess ratings as shown by yatzr’s Recruiting Tool, were within my radius, and had some other redeeming qualities like high WE or whatever. By the 3rd response cycle, I had all 10 of my primary guys green and plenty o’cash left. So I went shopping. It pretty much boiled down to finding 4 undecideds to upgrade some of the current targets that I already had green. The night before signing I hit them pretty hard and had 3 out of the 4 upgrades green by signing time. The 4th guy was a hold out who never moved off of undecided until a full 24 hours after signings started. I kept enough money to sign a fall back guy just in case he never budged (something I didn’t do last season), but he finally did. With how poorly the carry over situation for recruiting money, I’m just not a big believer in leaving that extra cash on the table.

QB – Guess rating: 30.97 – that’s pretty low, even by my standards. The other 2 QBs I have signed since being at CUA were both above 34.00. But since he is a FR and I have what seemingly are 2 decent QBs ahead of him, I have time to train him up and with a 39 WE and 51 GI, he may turn into something above decent.

RB – 44.97 - Didn’t have an extremely pressing need for a RB, but with 54/50 speed/elusiveness, he was difficult to pass on. Plus he is toting a 61 STR as a freshman. I think he’ll develop into something good. He came within the top 25 of all RB recruits for DIII at #20 (my only top 25 signee).

WR (2) - Guess rating: 41.81, 40.26 – both have SPD and WE above 40, one has HANDS and ELU above 50, and he’s the lowest rated one. I think they will develop well over the seasons.

OL (2) – Guess rating: 40.00, 38.40 – nothing fancy but a couple of platoon players to round out the OL as decent backups. Sporting such poor vision, my opportunities at high caliber players in my immediate recruiting path is pretty limited. One has STR of 33 (ugh) but compliments it with BLK of 69. The other has 51 STR/ 43 BLK and they both have GI over 45.

DL (3) – Guess rating: (all DT) 41.47, 41.02, 39.73 – again, nothing fancy but each of them have decent STR/TKL.  (54/43, 47/58, 52/50). This ought to set a decent foundation for growth until I am winning and improve my vision to get better recruits.

DB – Guess rating: (CB) 39.54 – decent SPD/GI/TECH at 56/35/40, but horrendous TKL at 26. Another development player until I have better vision.

So there they are. Only one top 25 recruit within his position and nothing too spectacular. Somehow I managed to rank 18th within Guess’ recruit class even with a horribly low rated QB our recruiting class average is 39.82. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy about that, I just don’t see how though. I did not sign any 4/5 star recruits according to Guess, and I believe that. The BIG news is that by moving out most of the SimAC signed recruits over the last 3 recruiting sessions, I only have 3 of them left on this CUA team. And with a practice plan in place, they have posted some growth into decent platoon players as well. BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE………. (I always wanted to say that)…..

CUA made a significant leap in overall full roster ratings by moving from 228 in the 3 consecutive seasons prior to my tanking over to 226th my first season, 207th my second season, until now in my 3rd season by coming in at (drum roll)………….. 29th!!!!! Completely blew my estimation of coming in around 150th away. Dropping as many SimAC signees and three top 50 (last two were top 20) recruiting classes has really moved us up the list. The overall full team roster rating is 49.24.

The season prior to me arriving, the full team roster rating was 24.16, my first season it was 34.38, then 43.58, until the 49.24 that I have it at now.

Position grades:

QB – C  

RB – C  

FB – N/A  

WR – D+

TE – C

OL – D

DE – N/A

DT – D

OLB – N/A

ILB – C+

CB – D-

S – C-

Pass Offense – C+

Rush Offense – B-

Overall Offense – C+

Pass Defense – B-

Rush Defense – B-

Overall Defense – B-

I’m looking forward to this season and trying to achieve my goal of a winning record for this team. Hopefully it will happen.

11/19/2012 9:54 AM
Season 3 - OOC wrapup

Non-Conference

Date Opponent Record WIS SOS Coach vs. School Spread Result  
11/20/12 Curry 5-8 187 193 Sim AI 0-1  -8.5 29-21 L
11/21/12 at John Carroll 5-8 99 39 Sim AI 2-0 +9.5 34-23 W
11/22/12 St. Norbert 6-7 67 57 Sim AI 2-2  -13.5 24-17 L
11/23/12 Eastern Oregon 6-7 122 77 Sim AI 1-1  -6.5 25-20 L
11/24/12 at Albion 2-11 211 137 Sim AI 1-1  -2.5 12-23 L

I started getting a little frustrated around game 3, I thought if I am still losing to SimAI coached teams on a regular basis, I may have completely overestimated where I was in the rebuilding process. Granted, I knew that I wasn't going to go out there and shoot the lights out but dropping 4 of 5 OOC games to some pretty bad SimAI teams (at least worse teams than mine, in my estimation) was pretty disheartening.

Around game 3, I started tweaking the roster and game planning to try and find something better to spark the team.
12/4/2012 11:07 AM
Season 3 - Conference wrapup

Like I stated above, I was a little frustrated going into conference play and basing estimations of future games on this seasons OOC performance, I didn't see how I would be able to achieve my goal of getting at least a winning record. I know 3 seasons of rebuilding would not be enough to make this team competitive but I felt sure that I would have a great chance at a winning record this season, for the first time in 11 seasons.

After splitting the first two conference games, it really looked like I would miss the mark like I did last season. In the first Conference game, I went up against the only other human coached team in the conference, but I don't think he is giving this team the same amount of attention as he has in the past, or any attention this season for that matter. This win was followed by a loss to another low end SimAI school that I thought I would defeat with no relative issues. Then.....

Conference

Date Opponent Record WIS SOS Coach vs. School Spread Result  
11/25/12 at Washington and Lee 8-5 104 177 monkei 2-19 +13.5 37-28 W
11/26/12 Bluffton 6-7 108 124 Sim AI 6-14 +2.5 24-20 L
11/27/12 Anderson (IN) 4-9 179 102 Sim AI 9-11  -7.5 0-30 W
11/28/12 Emory and Henry 6-7 170 184 Sim AI 14-26 +0.5 13-38 W
11/29/12 Guilford 3-10 208 163 Sim AI 9-31  -6.5 16-38 W
11/30/12 Bridgewater 9-4 72 176 Sim AI 13-27 +3.5 10-27 W
12/1/12 at Randolph-Macon 7-6 116 171 Sim AI 9-31  -0.5 29-10 W
12/2/12 at Hampden-Sydney 3-10 214 204 Sim AI 4-36  -8.5 34-29 W

I took a 2-5 record and went on a 6 game win streak! I guess I would have to attribute this to gameplan and personnel tweaks to get me where I thought I was going into the season. Granted all those wins came from SimAI schools that are horrible, but were the same type and quality of schools who were beating me in the OOC.
CUA finished the regular season at 8-5. It's first winning record in 11 previous seasons, and for my first time since taking on the coaching job here, 3 seasons ago. CUA also finished ranked as WIS 97, also it's highest ranking since the last winning season 11 seasons back. I'm pretty happy about that!!!!

BUT WAIT!!!! THERE"S MORE......................

CUA finished with a conference record of 7-1 securing a bid as the Northern Division representative in the ODAC CC game!!!

12/4/2012 11:25 AM
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