Shockingly I was actually ok with how things played out at Kansas State. I never intended on coaching there, but do to an irreversible error on my part there I was. I gave it my best shot and that is all you can do. I left the program better off than when I got there that is for sure.  After being released I found myself at Oregon where I predicted a 10 season and that is what occurred. We were never out of any of our four losses which is something that made me happy.   My track was to stay there and see how things shake out with the Ducks. As always plans got derailed when California opened up again, though my application was denied, almost leaving that storied program as a sim run team .  Now I find myself here in West Point and the biggest culture shock known to man. I am excited and interested to see what we can do here. I felt like we were on the cusp at State but was not given that one last shot. Hopefully we maintain the success of this program.

Not in Dobie, but a huge Army fan. Go get em.

Recruiting Review 2052:

This class will be a key part to our success here. Never have I had to go and get 20 players to commit to what I wanted to do, a task that we will make sure does not happen again.  With that being said what we brought in we are content with. Some of the guys brought in will hype up the West Point faithful as we look to the 2052 season. The class last season was on the lower end of the tier and we are scratching our way back to the top of the pecking order.

Again we miss out on our top Qb target to an elite status program in Michigan. Couldn’t have lost him to a finer institution and I hope he pans out well for them. We were able to rebound and picked up one fairly solid guy in Charles Gill, who will easily start three years here barring no prodigy is signed in the next few seasons. We also sign a one year starter in Daniel McDonald. McDonald should be our starter his 5^th year as we plan on shirting him.  To go along with a couple of fine pitching targets we also land a star back  from Scranton Prep in Arthur Henson. The rest of our recruits are role players at this point and will provide good depth especially on the defensive side of the ball.

One coach had something to say about how we went about recruiting this season. To that I say if you think we want to survive on picking off D-1AA programs…well then more power to you. With 20 schollies, us being a mid-major, and no bowl money if a d-1aa was on a guy in our area we had no choice but pounce if he fit the bill. You coached one season here you know the drill. That is all we have say towards those comments. Look forward to getting the season started I hope every program out there had a successful recruiting outing.

Your in a good situation at Army.You did a good job at KSST and at Oregon.I was hoping you would take on the Houston job but Army got you first !  That darn SIMMIA1 got it though.He didnt exactly recruit real well.That being said Houston remains a dangerous SIM if simmy starts the right guys.I wish I had the Houston Defense with me at CSU.The defense before the sims came on board that is.GL my man you will do well !

hold

Preview @ Tulsa:

Time to show this group can be just as hungry and successful as last year’s team. We are a program that went 15-0 last season, but this Military Academy team is nowhere near as talented as what that club put on the field. We do however return some key guys to the sidelines. Senior quarterback Ryan Mills, wide-out Tim Holloway, and wide-out Joshua Stanley are guys that must perform this season. We hit the road to take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Playing this game marks the second time I have started my stint at school against Tulsa. The difference is this Tulsa team is not even close to the one that we played coached by Atcchris.  We win the match-ups by a ton and hopefully we are playing back-ups after the half.  It’s important for us to get out to a good start and end the game early. Looking at the clock it’s about an hour before the start the Military Academy’s season. Let’s show the Hurricane how to play sound fundamental ball.

Half-time:

You can’t really ask for a better half out of your club then that one.  The talent advantage was ours and it showed on the field. On offense we continue the new era Academy offense and light up the scoreboard for 41 points. Mills has played decent throwing for 458 yards, five touchdowns, and no interceptions. Wide receiver James Zamora has put up silly video game type numbers in the first half. Zamora has six grabs for 207 yards, his ability to make guys miss after the snagging the rock will be big for us as the season moves on. Offense was not the only unit to put together a pretty good half. Some freshmen have really stepped up on the defensive side of ball. As a unit the Knight defense has only given up 81 yards and only two drives of more than four plays. Freshmen defensive linemen Mike Miller and Defensive Back Mark Wallace are really showing their worth making key stops on Tulsa drives. All in all a pretty solid half by our bunch and let’s keep up the pressure in the second half of the game. Donald Conrad has caused two fumble’s that were recovered by Tulsa. If we aren’t able to recover our forced turnovers, we have no shot at beating Alabama and Texas. Preparing for those two games start now.

At the Half:  Military Academy 41 Tulsa 0

Final:

Playing this game told us a lot about our team. With our group jumping out to a big lead it allowed us to put in our back up QB, and get him some much needed play time. Gill made some good plays as a true freshman QB but he still has lots of learning to do. For a while he looked like a first time out there if you catch my drift. As the game wore on and he got more comfortable with his surroundings, Gill made a pretty pass to Holloway for a touchdown. Seventeen points is all that we could put together in the second half with Gill but that was to be expected. We have some play makers on the roster and we need them to start performing and quick.

That had to be one the lowest attended games out there this week. With no crowd noise someone had to step up and cause some raucous.  The Knight defense stole the show in the second half. We were finally able to get some turnovers causing four in the half alone. Freshman defensive linemen Miller will be a stud for us in coming years. The guy was a key part of our success on defense today. We hold the Texas cowboy wannabes to 142 yards of offense, and only 3 drives of more than four plays. If that is not a a$$ whooping then I don’t know what is. We consistently pressured the Yeager and forced two interceptions out of him. This side of the ball is really young for us and we will take any solid performance we can get. Make no mistake we are far from where we need to be and have a long way to go to being competitive.  

This team still has a ton of improving to do this season. Pretty obvious for anyone who takes a look at our roster sporting a lofty 20 new faces on this team. Next up is a huge jump in competition level with Texas coming to town. We know we will have to be almost perfect to have a chance against this team. I coached them close at Cal, but we don’t have Golden Bear talent walking around our building. We are Army and we expect to put forth our best effort in every game we play and this one will be no different.

Final:  Military Academy 58 Tulsa 3

Military Academy’s record stands at 1-0 (0-0)

 

Interesting to follow your progress here, I hope you continue it all season.  But it is my first season here and just a quick question as to how long halftime is?

Posted by nbaker10 on 9/15/2012 1:50:00 PM (view original):
Interesting to follow your progress here, I hope you continue it all season.  But it is my first season here and just a quick question as to how long halftime is?

approx 11 hours, 58 minutes. From 2:31am-2:29pm you have the opportunity to make adjustments.

Preview vs. Texas:

If one was to compare our opponent this week to our opposition last week, it is like Grandma’s Day School versus the NFL All-Stars. We have got our hands full this go around. Texas comes in having put together quite a performance last week.  The Longhorns allow only 138 yards of offense and keeps possession of the rock for over forty minutes. In the last five seasons Texas has won at least eleven games every season. Bottom line is we must play much better than last week.  Our offense is predicated on strong quarterback play and Mills must perform this week to give us a chance. Texas also has one of the best in the business at the helm once again, having plucked Matt from Colorado State. I personally have played him close twice and we will try to do the same here and hopefully get a win. It is about an hour away from the Military Academy’s home opener against the Texas Longhorns. Let’s sock these beef jocks in the mouth and show them the big apple is the place to be.

 
Half-time:

Well we just sucked it up out there. You can’t really question the fight and effort but we are just not playing very smart right now. We have basically allowed Texas to do anything and everything that the longhorns want to do on both sides of the ball. Texas has two backs averaging over five yards a carry in the first half alone. With that said, we have got to execute better to compete with teams like this. We had two good opportunities with drives inside the Texas forty yard-line and come up empty handed. The score should really be 24-13 at the worst and 24-21 if we execute the way I know we can. We have three linebackers racking up the three of top five tackle totals in the first half. This is proof that Texas is killing us in the short and mid-level passing attack, and the longhorn running-backs are continually slicing and dicing their way to the second level. We have done ok from the end of first quarter to the end of half, holding Texas to only seven points after giving up seventeen quick. Mills has managed the game and that is about it. To get back in the game we have to get points when we get across the 50 yard-line just about every time. We have a young team and let’s see how they go out and stand up against one best the country in the second half.

At the Half:  Military Academy 7 #1 Texas 24

Final:

Our fans came out to support us and we cannot express how much we appreciate that. The performance put forth by our ball team is embarrassing. I knew we would have a tough time getting a win this week, but we were not even competitive at all. Texas continues its dominance showed in the first half racking up close to 500 yards on offense for the game. The one silver lining for us is they eased up and only scored 17 in this half. It was really flip a coin as far as drives are concerned. Texas either scored or went 3-5 plays and a punt after minimal yards. Now the Army offense did more of the latter. I guess we should be happy to not get shutout but we always expect more out of our team. While we didn’t gain any enormous amount of yards I am happy with the effort given by our receiving corps. This was a tough opponent and they gave it everything they had out there.

We learned some things about our team. We are as young as we thought we were and are far from the 15-0 spotlight of last year’s group. The fight and want to is there without a question, but at this level of the game that is not good enough. In the end I feel that it does help us to play at least one or two of these games a year. We get to test ourselves and see just what type of club we are putting the field every season. Hats off to Texas on a fine performance and if we meet again in the future hopefully we are a stiffer challenge. Today we were limp all game and we all that won’t get you anywhere, and not just in football…

Good can come out of a Ron Jeremy type pounding. How will we bounce back against a team that we should destroy next week? Our guys are hungry to back out on the field and erase that last game. We are back in historic Michie Stadium next week. Joins us the Military Academy brings its high flying act to the general public once again. I expect a much better performance against inferior competition next week.

Final:  Military Academy 10 #1 Texas 41

Military Academy’s record stands at 1-1 (0-0)

 

Preview vs. Oklahoma State:

This week’s lesson is the art of the rebound. Many teams have won National titles having put forth a head scratching effort along way. They have either lost that game they did not play well in, or they have clawed out a win. Anyone who has been keeping up with us knows which one applies to our club. This week brings on the Oklahoma State Cowboys a team that should not give us any problems. The Cowboys come in 1-1 with a big win last week and getting thrashed in week one. Kind of sounds like a reverse of our first two games. When we are able to have the talent advantage I really like our chances this season. As long as we show up and don’t have a hangover from last week we should be fine in dispatching of the pesky Cowboys. We have never lost to them in school history and don’t plan on starting a losing streak today.  It is about one hour away from the Military Academy’s week three contest against the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Time to unleash the offensive fire power again, the cannons should be rocking all game.  

 
Half-time:

God Dammit, is it just me or did we all drink too much last night? Want to talk about hangover from a previous week, we served up that addition hot off the press. This half could not have started out any worse for our football team. The Knights of West Point step on the defensive side of ball throughout the half, baiting Oklahoma State quarterback Frank Frank to throw a pick on their first drive. Momentum was on our side for only a split second as our offense gives the ball right back on a pick six. The big uglies step up again and cause another turnover. One would hope that the play of the defense would ignite the offense correct? WRONG. Wham bam thank you ma’am we cough it up again and just like that we are down 10-0. Let the churches say “Amen” and the first quarter was over just like that.

In a game that even the fat lady started singing before it started, we find ourselves in a must score situation against the Cowboys. Our defense continues to play lights out as it did from the start. Finally Mills puts down the tabloid write-up on this game and started to play like everyone in the country knows he can. Mills leads us down the field on some smart passes and also a surprising rushing effort by Richard Thorpe. We got down to the Oklahoma state thee yard line and it stalls out and we settle for a field goal. From that point on we start to settle in and rack up fourteen more points to take the half-time lead. Stud freshman linemen Mike Miller shows why the money was spent in recruiting on his services. He will be a key anchor on our defense for years to come. Let’s just say unlike Cleveland we are glad he decided to bring his talents to our city.  

 

At the Half:  Military Academy 17 Oklahoma State 13

Final:

Whatever funk we were in the first half, let’s hope that we never see that again this year. We preach capitalizing on turnovers and we did exactly the opposite. Something started to click and just like that the sun came out and the gospel choir started singing halleluiah. The second half was much more productive for our team. We started to put it in and put it in and put it in and put it in…yea you get the point. We go all Alabama on Oklahoma State and blank them and put up 42 points in the second half. Mills has his finest performance since I have been coaching this team, throwing for 542 yards and seven touchdowns. He better watch out if he keeps playing this well he could find himself playing for Jets before the season is over. Want to hear a real joke? New York Jets!! I am happy with the performance of our receiving core especially Zamora. I believe he has emerged as the go to guy in the group and he will be essential in our success this season.  

All in all I guess it was an ok performance. We really looked to be in trouble at the start of this one. I like the fight our guys showed in the will to battle through playing rather pitiful. Our fans really helped us in this one and it speaks to how special playing at this place is. One week after just getting destroyed the Knights fans show up in full support of their team. As long as I am coach we will show how much we appreciate that. Next up is on the road at Auntie Annie’s Backyard College. If we struggle to beat Marquette it could be a long season.

Final:  Military Academy 59 Oklahoma State 13

Military Academy’s record stands at 2-1 (0-0)

 

 

Preview @ Marquette:

There are levels of opposition ranging from the highest level of ten which is like Texas, and then there is this team who we play this week. Here is a Big East team that managed to only score seven points against another futile foe in Buffalo. If we don’t pimp slap this team then something major went wrong. I think it is pretty clear that we own the talent advantage here. My teams at Pennsylvania back in the day would stomp Marquette. Also, can someone please tell me where the heck this game is going to be played? They must be like that famous illusionist guy as I swear they didn’t have a football team the last time I checked…at least not since 1960. I hate to be that club team out there when we take the field. I would be expecting a total air raid on the Golden Eagles if I were a betting man. It is about one hour away from the Military Academy’s ball game against the Golden Eagles of Marquette. It’s about to be unleash the dragon time where ever these illusionists dream up a stadium to play this thing in.   

 
Half-time:

Now that is more like it. This time against sisters of the poor we play like we have a purpose. Our offense decided to be the main event for once. Gill and company light up the scoreboard for twenty-one points in the first quarter alone. In the first they were aided by a strong defensive performances by the front four, lead again by whom other than freshman Mike Miller. Our fans were more than pleased by what they saw out there. We looked determined and focused for the first time all season and could not have come at a better time with the Crimson Tide waiting for us next week. Finally Stanley and Holloway step up in a game and perform like our best receivers. I guess they got tired of sitting in background to Zamora, who by the way again got his fair share of yardage. I was starting to think they had accepted the roles of second and third best, nice to see them work hard out there.

The most surprising thing is the showing by our tight end Mark Gibbons. I told this guy before the season started that if he stuck it out with us we would get him his touches. Mark rumbles down the field for a catch and go route and puts in the end zone. His two touchdowns in the half match his total from last season. The defense started to struggle there in the second quarter. Our guys gave up ten points to the Golden Eagles and that is something that we just cannot let that happen. We are playing physical and disrupting the Eagles line already racking up four tkls for the half, but we have got to play smarter as well. Oh, for any one wondering this game is being played at some high school stadium. Sadly looking at that high schools team they would give us a better game than these leftovers we are playing right now. Time to keep up the pressure put the finishing touches on the Eagles. To be honest we have already moved on to Alabama and how in the world we can stop them.

 

At the Half:  Military Academy 31 Marquette 10

Final:

And that is how it is done people. When you are that big of favorite you have to put the game away as early as possible. What a second half showing by all three phases of our ball team. Some scared faces appeared there late in the third quarter when Mills went down. What was impressive was his ability to shake off the pain and go back out on the field and throw two more touchdowns before the end of the contest. Even more impressive is the play of our true freshman quarter Charles Gill to come into the game and a few plays later leads the offense into the end zone. Marquette looked lost out there at times but surprisingly only gave up one sack. Where the Knights of West Point made the most impact was in play recognition racking up seven tfls for the game. Mills was stellar this game and one should not expect any less from the senior leader that he is. It’s getting kind of repetitive and boring to keep saying it, but Mike Miller again turns in an impressive performance. All together we did exactly what we should have done in this game. Anything less than a blowout of the Cowboys may have sent the fat lady to Jesus.

Next week we again face a team we probably have no clue playing this season. Alabama comes in ****** off having had a bad performance against Virginia Tech. The Crimson Tide put together quite a game against Texas, El Paso, beating the Miners 87-0. We will need to play our best game ever to knock off the tide. Join us next week as we are back in Michie Stadium to challenge Bama. To all in West Point, watch your trees.

Final:  Military Academy 68 Marquette 10

Military Academy’s record stands at 3-1 (0-0)

Preview vs. Alabama:

So some idiot has us ranked over the Crimson Tide. We need to find him and put him to justice because that is the biggest load of baloney known to man. Our team does come in sporting a lofty ranking in total offensive. The only bad thing is that Alabama is ranked higher DOH! The Tide brings an attack that is going to be very hard to stop for our ball team. These are the sort of challenges that we want to build to win and not just play. Gone are the days of just settling for decent showings, we have got to start winning some of these types of games. Michie should be rocking for this one and our fan support will be stronger than ever. If we can come out stronger than we did against Texas we give ourselves a good chance.  It is about one hour away from the Military Academy’s ball game against the Tide of Alabama. “Dear lord please don’t let us get embarrassed on the national stage, Amen.