The Juniata Project Topic

Can a career underachieving coach come back to a game with which he had an intense love/hate relationship, after a lengthy hiatus, and breathe life into a program that has never won a conference championship in Stagg's 121 season history?


More to come......
12/4/2016 1:05 PM
The combination of learning that WIS has become essentially a ghost town since I last roamed these sim streets, along with the realization that most of my coaching will be done via my phone, means this project documentation will be very, very stripped down. Not going to bother with the bells and whistles. It will mostly be for my own amusement.

I did bite the bullet and re-up with a 5-pack after my initial one season investment. Old habits die hard. The rush of adrenaline on the first day of recruiting caused me to invest in this project without waiting to see what I think of GD after such a long absence.

I see that DIII has been "dumbed down" to a beginner level. But at first glance, the game looks more cumbersome than ever. Maybe it's just that I'm starting over, and had misconceptions that I would pick right up where I left off.

I certainly have my hands full. In 121 completed seasons, Juniata has 1 playoff appearance and zero conference championships. The program hasn't flirted with even being on the fringe of the playoff field in 60 seasons.

My goal is build the program into a conference champion.

When I was hired, I was the only human in the conference. I considered this a bonus, would give me time to get my footing. Lay a foundation, learn the new version of the game. Well, that hope was short lived. Coaches were hired at Lebanon Valley (with me in the West) and Susquehanna (in the East). And now that recruits have reported and we are about to kick off season 122, both of those programs are ranked in the top 15. This turn of events, while a daunting roadblock to my goal, will certainly make it more of an accomplishment than sweeping through a bunch of sims. I welcome the competition, and now have some additional goals to achieve. Namely, knocking off the conference heavies.
12/9/2016 9:34 AM
Recruiting was easy. Too easy. 16 to fill. No problem. Plenty of cash to spare.

The problem?

It appears I signed the equivalent of the Texas State Armadillos.

GUESS recruit class ranking: 208

GUESS roster ranking: 194

12/9/2016 9:38 AM
We open the non-conference play on the road, at pre-season #24 Wisconsin La Crosse, as 15.5 point underdogs.
12/9/2016 9:45 AM
Dropped the opener, 44-10. About what I expected given the talent gap of the rosters. Especially worrisome is averaging less than a yard per carry on the ground.

No turnovers was a bright spot, but 0/13 on 3rd down is a stat that tells the story of the game. We were not worthy of sharing the field with WLC.



12/11/2016 6:06 PM
Home opener against sim coached Grinnell. 7.5 point home dog. This game was pretty run-of-the-mill through 3 quarters. Then it got crazy. The teams traded 5 TDs in the 4th quarter, the last of which was scored by Juniata on a 28 yard run by sophomore RB Eric Moore with 33 seconds remaining, giving Juniata a 32-31 lead that would be the eventual final score.

Can't get too excited about beating a sim, but a win is a win in this first season of the project. Highlights include recording 8 sacks in the game, along with no turnovers committed and a perfect day by freshman kicker James Cooke.

Finally converted some 3rd downs, but at 7/21, still need to get better in this aspect.

#24 Otterbein (sim) comes to town tonight. 6.5 point home dogs.



12/11/2016 6:21 PM
So nuch for my game by game documentation. Life got in the way.

Overall, a mixed bag of a season. Yes, we won 9 games. But we have a very very long way to go to be competitive with the other d3 human coaches in the world.
12/30/2016 9:33 AM
Pkid, just got around to reading this.

Thanks for sharing! I love this kind of stuff.
1/4/2017 10:40 PM
Seaon 2 - unmitigated disaster.
1/21/2017 9:30 AM
Good Stuff pttsbrgkid
1/29/2017 3:18 PM
The Juniata Project Topic

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