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Post by joe on Nov 20, 2016 10:47:09 GMT -5
So bear with me as I make this it's own post. Since so many of us feel so strongly about the areas that HC needs to focus on, both on and off the field, how about we start two composite lists - one for what happens on the field and one for what happens at an institutional or program-level. I've compiled what me and HC92 have said into one list and started another one regarding the program in general. Anyone can add, I will check periodically and update this initial post. Someone or multiple people will have their eye one this and perhaps it will be helpful on some level. What else can we do? Fire away.
Team Goals:
1. Work-out the lineman such as to have a leaner body mass composition by the fall. Monitor diet, weekly body fat caliper test.
2. Get us a fullback. Alternatively a nose guard with good paws and feet, even a TE who can run H-back a little.
3. Get us taller DBs.
4. Get us bigger ILBs and move the current ILBs to OLB or SS.
5. Shift offensive focus in the Spring to developing a power running game. Try putting two back in the backfield and running some off tackle plays that set up the counter. We have PP coming back so we don't need to focus on passing as much as we would if he were graduating. Get the TEs involved. Make Winter training and Spring ball like boot camp again. Learn how to inflict pain and fear when you carry the ball. Watch video on Bragalone from Lehigh and have a challenge to see who can replicate what he does best. Make our goal 3.5 yards per carry. Make our goal to have one series each game where we score a TD with no passes.
6. Hire a sports psychiatrist for the defensive so they understand their goal is to physically destroy the guy in front of them. No more 10 yard cushions.
7. Condition, condition, condition. If we're not going to win on talent, win on physicality.
8. Practice 500,000 field goals from 40 yards and in so this becomes rote.
9. Keep doing what your doing with the receivers, no problem there. Develop the tall ones. 10. Make it somebody's job to manage the clock at the end of the half and the end of the game and make that person watch as many late-half/late-game situations as possible to develop clear plans for any situation. 11. Start using the athletes you have; don't let them rot on the bench if someone is better than them at their position. Move people from offense to defense if you have to. 12. Let's recruit locally, and make HC a destination school again for the Northeast's top student-athletes. Dive deeper into North Jersey Parochial Schools, particular in Bergen County.
Program Goals: 1. Buy lights for Fitton field. 2. Install Jumbotron at Fitton field. 3. Reschedule games for late afternoon or evening start times as much as possible. See 4. Fix website so links to video and audio coverage on the schedule are displayed on iphone when the iphone is held vertical so people know they can watch games online. People may not know to turn the iphone horizontal. 5. Go back to workingman's uniforms, gray pants with strips, non-Barney purple or white shirts, black trim, black shoes, black facemasks. 6. Make band and cheerleaders attend every game, home or away. 7. Go back to a mascot that does not look like a Disney character. 8. Continue and build upon ticket offers in the Worcester area - especially for young people to build fans for the future. 9. Improve the "game day experience?" Make it more if a full day event. 10. Tone down police presence at tailgate.
11. Campus-wide support of all athletic programs. Everyone on board.
12. Put hand rails on at least some of the stands for senior fans.
13. Place the TV cameras on the visitors sideline at home games so the HC crowd can be captured. Makes sense to see the home sideline and fans at a home game. No more excuses about wires not reaching, etc. Let's be big boys and figure it out.
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Post by rgs318 on Nov 20, 2016 10:55:44 GMT -5
Good idea. I am guessing, but was Team Goal #6 intended as a joke? If by college a defensive lineman does not know that, I am not sure a sports psychiatrist (or psychologist) will be of help. Also, if any adult who owns an iPhone does not know how to turn it it can be viewed horizontally, they may be beyond help.
How about a point addressing the need to continue and build upon ticket offers in the Worcester area - especially for young people to build fans for the future? Also, might one goal address the "game day experience?" I have not been to a game at Fitton in some time but I have see how many schools are building the game day into a full day event. (Security guards harassing tailgaters is not the way to get folks into the stands to watch a game...providing an exciting team that is worth watching will be what makes people not want to miss play.)
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Post by joe on Nov 20, 2016 11:07:20 GMT -5
RGS - damn straight I'm serious, about all of these. A sports psychologist is where were at. It's that bad. We tried this during the Vaas era by the way. Let's try it again and with someone better.
Regarding the iphone, let's not dwell, but why would one know to turn it sideways to see the links to the video coverage? I'm tech savvy and am not sure how or why I even thought to turn it sideways once upon a time. I am sure in viewing the schedule on their iphones, many people have not realized that the links are there because they would have no reason to know to turn their phones sideways to look. Maybe some of these people might have actually felt like tuning in. Anyway, let's include but not then not nitpick on these small issues and let's try to focus on the larger items.
I paraphrased and added your excellent suggestions.
Have at it folks! |
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Post by gks on Nov 20, 2016 12:38:36 GMT -5
Under program goals...campus-wide support of all athletic programs. Everyone on board.
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Post by wayback on Nov 20, 2016 13:08:45 GMT -5
Put hand rails on at least some of the stands. I have noted a number of more senior fans (such as my self) have difficulty, or fear, climbing up and down the steep grade of the stands. It is the only place, including high schools, that I have been to that doesn't have railings. Pretty inexpensive investment that would be greatly appreciated and might help attendance.
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Post by bringbackcaro on Nov 20, 2016 14:23:31 GMT -5
I'd argue that Fullback should be #1 for the first section and plain uniforms should be #1 for the second section. We're a boat without a rudder until those glaring issues are fixed.
In all seriousness, I've seen the height of the DB's mentioned several times now. Let's compare against North Dakota State, a pretty good benchmark for a 1-AA program, to see how the roster defensive backfield breaks down across three heigh categories:
Under 5'10:
NDSU: 16%
HC: 15%
5'10-6'0:
NDSU: 63%
HC: 54%
Over 6'0:
NDSU: 21%
HC: 31%
The idea that there is an unlimited supply of "bigger, stronger, faster" high school football players, is silly and ignores reality. It's not as if we're recruiting a class filled with guys who don't have offers from other school at our level. We just need to do a better job with them once they arrive.
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Post by rgs318 on Nov 20, 2016 15:14:00 GMT -5
Too bad that strong desire cannot be translated from players like McBeath to others. As to a big RB, it could be a nice addition, but look at the height of some of the RBs who have given HC fits. Chase Edmonds is 200 lbs, but he is only 5'9" tall.
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Post by purple1 on Nov 20, 2016 16:32:39 GMT -5
If Edmonds is 5'9" our db's are 5'5". Look at the game film there is a significant difference especially at the corners......reasonable size at safety and strong safety. Does Walker, Alexander or Cormier look as big as Edmonds ? NO. we need to get a proper measuring scale....
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Post by sader1970 on Nov 20, 2016 17:43:31 GMT -5
Edmonds is listed at 5'9" and 205 lbs in the Gameday Program and I have little doubt he weighs the full 205. For RB, I am not concerned about height as weight, and more importantly, muscle. Diquan Walker is listed as 5' 10" and 180 lbs. I would be happy to trade the one inch height differential for the 25 lb. weight differential. Cozier is 5' 9" and 175 lbs. That's a 30 lb. differential. Freshman RB, Miles Alexander, presumably the next man up is listed as 5' 11" and 182 lbs. Tate Beachley, a sophomore is 6' 0" and 184 lbs.
Guild (injured) was listed at 5' 11" and 205 lbs. We missed him most of this season. He is the closest thing we have to Edmonds, though Macklin Kortebein, a freshman is 6' 1" and 195 lbs and maybe can grow into the job?
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Post by joe on Nov 20, 2016 18:08:11 GMT -5
If Edmonds is 5'9" our db's are 5'5". Look at the game film there is a significant difference especially at the corners......reasonable size at safety and strong safety. Does Walker, Alexander or Cormier look as big as Edmonds ? NO. we need to get a proper measuring scale.... Glad someone else uses the good old fashioned eye test. I don't care what the programs say. They are always wrong and obviously don't account for body mass composition. Just watch the game and it's so clear there's a size difference at many key positions. I just wrote a whole diatribe on the physics of it all but deleted it because it's just so obvious so why bother. |
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Post by rgs318 on Nov 20, 2016 20:44:09 GMT -5
Look at Edmonds in some of the game videos. He is much shorter than most of his teammates.
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Post by joe on Nov 20, 2016 21:01:09 GMT -5
Look at Edmonds in some of the game videos. He is much shorter than most of his teammates. We need bigger running backs, rgs. Running backs who break tackles and gain positive yardage after contact. This has been well-established over many seasons. That being said if you can find another Chase Edmonds for us who "plays big" that would be fine too. No more pop and drop. You get the point. Let's stay focused. |
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Post by sader1970 on Nov 20, 2016 21:18:54 GMT -5
I can assure you that TG would love to get a tackle breaking RB and almost had one that would have been on the team this year. He is not constitutionally opposed to a big RB. But it does make you wonder if the kind of offense we run, scares a big back off from thinking he won't get much playing time.
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Post by bringbackcaro on Nov 20, 2016 21:58:39 GMT -5
I can assure you that TG would love to get a tackle breaking RB and almost had one that would have been on the team this year. He is not constitutionally opposed to a big RB. But it does make you wonder if the kind of offense we run, scares a big back off from thinking he won't get much playing time. Didn't we have a "big back" last year who flipped to Stanford at the last second? Also, who knows what Gabe Guild could have become if he could have stayed healthy. |
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Post by Sons of Vaval on Nov 20, 2016 22:28:03 GMT -5
It would have been nice to have had Jordan Scott, but he wasn't allowed through admissions.
He went to Colgate, instead.
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Post by hc87 on Nov 20, 2016 22:33:39 GMT -5
I love how "If we only had a big back" all our football problems would be solved....
As joe has laid out here...the problems with our football program lie far deepah (both on and off the gridiron) than having another Andy Clivio, Jerome Fuller etc. carrying the pigskin for the Saders.
Is Gilmore the only problem? No, but he is hardly the answer either. We are only delaying the inevitable here....much to the continued detriment of Holy Cross football.
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Post by sader1970 on Nov 20, 2016 22:41:46 GMT -5
Caro, I believe the one I am thinking that got away went to BC after verbally committing to Holy Cross.
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Post by sarasota on Nov 20, 2016 23:54:05 GMT -5
I have emailed Jamie Reynolds twice begging him to place a TV camera on the VISITORS side of Fitton so we can see our coaches and players on the home sideline, our impressive home stands, faces in the home crowd (then show them on a jumbotron. This has become commonplace in all kinds of stadiums and arenas), etc. If Charter TV3or other producers won't do it, we should pay for the camera and required cabling. Place the camera in the visitors side press box. It would be a major improvement to the streaming experience. I believe that when Lafayette produces its games' videos, they shoot the home sideline. Some money and some imagination. Please. I beg of you.
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Post by bringbackcaro on Nov 21, 2016 0:16:35 GMT -5
Caro, I believe the one I am thinking that got away went to BC after verbally committing to Holy Cross. Dorian Maddox is the kid I was thinking about. I'm sure Breezy would know better, but I seem to remember him verballing to HC before flipping to Stanford just before Signing Day. www.hudl.com/profile/1856149/dorian-maddoxPoint is that it's far more difficult to find and sign these guys than some are pretending. Not only are we fighting off stiff competition from the rest of the PL, Ivy's and low 1-A schools, but we're trying to get into a sweet spot where the Stanford, BC, and Northwestern's can swoop in a pluck virtually whoever they want, whenever they want. It's very tricky waters, especially if you want to go hire someone who has no experience at this level, and don't forget how tight the margin of error is with only 60 scholarships. Our focus needs to be to maximize the talent that we do attract to Mt St James, and without any clue what's going on, it's hard to see the results of a strength and conditioning program that is maximizing what we can get out of our athletes right now. The injuries and way we wear down just seems pretty glaring. I hope it is something that is at least being evaluated. |
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Nov 21, 2016 6:34:55 GMT -5
I agree with bringback and sader1970's points about posters here under-estimating the difficulty in recruiting in the FCS level these days. On running backs, here is what Brendan Flaherty did in high school Flaherty played for Beverly, which is in a high ranked Massachusetts conference, Division 2A. Yet methinks he had neither the size nor the speed (nor the durability?) to be a featured RB at HC. At the FCS level (and max of 63 full equivalencies) schools get 40-45 full scollies, and the remainder are partials. Public schools have a clear financial advantage over expensive private schools because it will probably cost the parents of a recruit on a half scollie at UNH about $80,000-$100,000 less than if the recruit attends HC on a half scollie. None of this applies to the Ivies, as there are no limits on need-based scollies, with the Ivies' expansive definition of what constitutes 'need'. Then there are the high schools, and the offenses they run. If high schools these days primarily feature passing offenses and eschew Woody Hayes, 'three yards and a cloud of dust', then the pool of running backs is going to be small. The better ones will be grabbed by FBS, and those FCS schools whose offense is built around a running attack. alabama.rivals.com/news/gameday-the-evolution-of-the-offensive-lineman All of society may have grown larger, but not to that extent. What are the consequences of this increased weight, with the players having the same or increased speed? Mass + speed = kinetic force, and injuries go up, as the underlying skeleton was not intended to support the musculature and weight that is now draped on it. Secondly, many players are sacrificing speed for weight (and quickness). (As an aside, take a look at old photos that show the frame of Jack 'the Shot' Foley 50+ years ago,, and I daresay he wouldn't see the court in today's game. Foley, BTW, was the 16th overall pick in the 1962 draft, Havlicek was #7.) A linebacker who was pretty quick at 195 pounds in high school might be a step slower at 215 pounds in college. Finally, there is Holy Cross' location in New England. As I have pointed out in another thread, the football talent in New England high schools seems to be sparse in the current era. The most competitive private schools in FCS are filling their roster with recruits from areas of the country other than New England. IMO, schools located in regions where talent continues to be produced in significant numbers have a recruiting advantage over HC, because of their network of high school coaches (and alums) built upon proximity and familiarity. IMO, a head coach at Holy Cross (whether Gilmore or his successor) has to over-achieve, and perhaps significantly so, when it comes to recruiting before HC will get to be highly ranked consistently in the FCS. |
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Post by joe on Nov 21, 2016 7:01:20 GMT -5
I can assure you that TG would love to get a tackle breaking RB and almost had one that would have been on the team this year. He is not constitutionally opposed to a big RB. But it does make you wonder if the kind of offense we run, scares a big back off from thinking he won't get much playing time. Now you're getting it! That's part of the reason why we have to have a running game. It's a vicious cycle. What running back wants to play for a team that passes on 3rd and 1? People need to stop excusing inadequate recruiting because it's "tough." Too freaking bad. Wanna play D1 ball? Figure it out. 'Sota I forgot about the camera thing. Good point. Added. |
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Post by sader1970 on Nov 21, 2016 7:06:39 GMT -5
Oh, I think I always "got it."  Problem is, Holy Cross has not been able to "get it" in the form of a powerful RB. |
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Post by breezy on Nov 21, 2016 7:29:14 GMT -5
Dorian Maddox is the kid I was thinking about. I'm sure Breezy would know better, but I seem to remember him verballing to HC before flipping to Stanford just before Signing Day. This is correct. HC had the big, tough back we wanted. Stanford swooped in and made him an offer two or three days before National Signing Day, and he took it. |
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Post by gks on Nov 21, 2016 8:10:51 GMT -5
Phreek, CMass has had it's share of D1 talent last few years. Obviously in the overall it's not a huge number but for it's size it does OK. There are at least three going D1...Melifonwu from Grafton committed to Syracuse, McCubrey from West Boylston committed to UMass and Lindstrom from Shepherd Hill going to BC. I can't think of the last CMass kid HC recruited and got. Lack of locals is disappointing.
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Post by joe on Nov 21, 2016 8:33:17 GMT -5
Phreek, CMass has had it's share of D1 talent last few years. Obviously in the overall it's not a huge number but for it's size it does OK. There are at least three going D1...Melifonwu from Grafton committed to Syracuse, McCubrey from West Boylston committed to UMass and Lindstrom from Shepherd Hill going to BC. I can't think of the last CMass kid HC recruited and got. Lack of locals is disappointing. Comments added. |
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