Penguin Game Day: Penguins vs. Bulldogs

[IAA Fan]

I slept on it before posting, but here it is:

We struggled to figure Samford out most of the entire first half. However from the last drive in Q2, we clearly had them figured out and opened up a "can-of-whoop-***" on them. Then to let those garbage drives (for TD's) just left a HUGE bad taste in my mouth & the coaches and players need to know that is all anyone was talking about after the game. Imagine winning a play-off game (in eventually a convincing fashion) and feeling like you lost the contest? We have got to have more pride in ourselves.

Sure, we did fumble and the Samford coach should have put in some back-ups when they were down 24-points with less than 3-minutes to go; but he did not, so we needed to respond in kind. We did fumble; but folks we let them score twice in 2:49 and they went the length of the field both times. The Bulldogs have some pride and I could have lived with the one TD against back-ups, giving them 17 ...but then to let them do it again, just exposed every single weakness in our defense for JSU to watch. I am ecstatic to win a play-off game again, but I feel somewhat empty & the players/coaches should have seen this. Once again this is all anyone was talking about.

People of Youngstown ...Shame on you. Your failure to support your team disgusts me. I grew up with Thanksgiving being the start of the post-season and my favorite Holiday for just this reason. Who gives a darn about the Buckeyes? You live in the Valley & that place should have been packed. This is coming from a man who lives in Columbus, Buckeye fan and a proud father of a daughter that graduated from OSU. Yet I drive to Youngstown every weekend. If you learned anything watching the OSU game, learn this ...the scarlet & gray sold 104k tickets and there were no empty seats. I know it has been a while. but YSU football needs to once again become part of our culture and I expect coach Bo, Ron Strollo and even President Tressel to be much more vocal when this hopefully becomes a habit in the Valley once again. To the fans in attendance ...congrats on being so vocal and supportive ...it was awesome and prideful to hear and see.

good luck next week ... hope see you some of you there.

[Double ET]

I slept on it before posting, but here it is:

We struggled to figure Samford out most of the entire first half. However from the last drive in Q2, we clearly had them figured out and opened up a "can-of-whoop-***" on them. Then to let those garbage drives (for TD's) just left a HUGE bad taste in my mouth & the coaches and players need to know that is all anyone was talking about after the game. Imagine winning a play-off game (in eventually a convincing fashion) and feeling like you lost the contest? We have got to have more pride in ourselves.

Sure, we did fumble and the Samford coach should have put in some back-ups when they were down 24-points with less than 3-minutes to go; but he did not, so we needed to respond in kind. We did fumble; but folks we let them score twice in 2:49 and they went the length of the field both times. The Bulldogs have some pride and I could have lived with the one TD against back-ups, giving them 17 ...but then to let them do it again, just exposed every single weakness in our defense for JSU to watch. I am ecstatic to win a play-off game again, but I feel somewhat empty & the players/coaches should have seen this. Once again this is all anyone was talking about.

People of Youngstown ...Shame on you. Your failure to support your team disgusts me. I grew up with Thanksgiving being the start of the post-season and my favorite Holiday for just this reason. Who gives a darn about the Buckeyes? You live in the Valley & that place should have been packed. This is coming from a man who lives in Columbus, Buckeye fan and a proud father of a daughter that graduated from OSU. Yet I drive to Youngstown every weekend. If you learned anything watching the OSU game, learn this ...the scarlet & gray sold 104k tickets and there were no empty seats. I know it has been a while. but YSU football needs to once again become part of our culture and I expect coach Bo, Ron Strollo and even President Tressel to be much more vocal when this hopefully becomes a habit in the Valley once again. To the fans in attendance ...congrats on being so vocal and supportive ...it was awesome and prideful to hear and see.

good luck next week ... hope see you some of you there.

Ditto on those late tds by Samford. I know they were scored during garbage time with our backups. With that being said, we should still be playing the same defense scheme by protecting long passes and fast scores. To let that happened, twice, was totally unacceptable. I was also looking at our defense front four, they did not push hard to go after their QB. They were just going through the motion. If they were backups, they were not trying very hard to impress the coaches.
In those late drives, they did not even call the timeouts to stop the clock. They were almost saying that here we come with the long TD passes in your face, try to stop it. We were still playing one on one on the corners. Wow.
As for OSU, my son is from Columbus and we went the game after watching OSU on tv. We live 25 miles north of the campus and we made it in time for the kickoff. If you want to go the game, that really should not be a factor.

[Penguin Ice]

I agree with most of your post. I flew 4 hours yesterday morning to make the game and was disappointed in the turnout of the fans. My daughter is getting married next Sunday in South Carolina about 3.5 hours from Jax State. I will drive over to the game on Saturday morning and be back in South Carolina Saturday night.

It did take the Guins about a half to figure out Samford but once they did like you said they opened up a can of whoop ::. That was some great adjustments by both coordinators.

As for having them score and that's all everyone was talking about. That's not what I heard, I think your nit picking. You need to take into consideration the personal that was on the field. It wasn't the starting D. Rivers barely played in the 4th quarter. They got Wright some valuable playing time going into next week. I take my hat off to Samford for not quitting but I don't think it tarnished the victory in any way.

[penguinpower]

I agree with most of your post. I flew 4 hours yesterday morning to make the game and was disappointed in the turnout of the fans. My daughter is getting married next Sunday in South Carolina about 3.5 hours from Jax State. I will drive over to the game on Saturday morning and be back in South Carolina Saturday night.

It did take the Guins about a half to figure out Samford but once they did like you said they opened up a can of whoop ::. That was some great adjustments by both coordinators.

As for having them score and that's all everyone was talking about. That's not what I heard, I think your nit picking. You need to take into consideration the personal that was on the field. It wasn't the starting D. Rivers barely played in the 4th quarter. They got Wright some valuable playing time going into next week. I take my hat off to Samford for not quitting but I don't think it tarnished the victory in any way.

I think you have the wrong Jax State.  The one we are playing is in Alabama.  I live in near Hilton Head and it is 5.5 hour for me to drive. They are located East of Birmingham near Talladega.

[penguinpower]

We had the game clearly under control.  We were simply better than them.  The road to the championship runs through Eastern Washington.  I think they can win the title this year.

[Penguin Ice]

I agree with most of your post. I flew 4 hours yesterday morning to make the game and was disappointed in the turnout of the fans. My daughter is getting married next Sunday in South Carolina about 3.5 hours from Jax State. I will drive over to the game on Saturday morning and be back in South Carolina Saturday night.

It did take the Guins about a half to figure out Samford but once they did like you said they opened up a can of whoop ::. That was some great adjustments by both coordinators.

As for having them score and that's all everyone was talking about. That's not what I heard, I think your nit picking. You need to take into consideration the personal that was on the field. It wasn't the starting D. Rivers barely played in the 4th quarter. They got Wright some valuable playing time going into next week. I take my hat off to Samford for not quitting but I don't think it tarnished the victory in any way.

I think you have the wrong Jax State.  The one we are playing is in Alabama.  I live in near Hilton Head and it is 5.5 hour for me to drive. They are located East of Birmingham near


It's 3.5 hours from Greenville

[go guins]

All this shaming of the public for the lack of attendance is in my opinion unfounded.  All of life is marketing.  We have a product and you have failed to sell it to the public.  I'm not sure the reasons, but there is PLENTY of competition for the disposable dollar (good grief, read the adds in the papers all week!)  You don't get somebody to make a major commitment of time and some money by embarrassing or calling them names.  You get them to come by making it attractive and convincing them that would be really enjoyable.  We played on a very cold night following a major holiday.  I left my wife with three grandchildren as my daughter and son-in-law were in Columbus for the "big" game.  What did we do to make this game well aware to people in the valley?  What did we do to make it attractive?  Don't try to shame people, come up with ideas that can be used to compete for the $$

[JaxSinfonian]

My daughter is getting married next Sunday in South Carolina about 3.5 hours from Jax State. I will drive over to the game on Saturday morning and be back in South Carolina Saturday night.

I think you have the wrong Jax State.  The one we are playing is in Alabama.  I live in near Hilton Head and it is 5.5 hour for me to drive. They are located East of Birmingham near Talladega.

Jax State fan and Jacksonville resident here. The trip from points west of Greenville can probably be made in 3.5 hours or less. North Augusta could also conceivably be within a 3.5-hour drive, but I'd plan on four. I was just on the Georgia side of the Savannah River for Thanksgiving, and it took about 3 hours, 45 minutes each way.

Safe travels on Saturday, Penguin Ice, and congrats to your daughter. I hope the Gamecocks make the outcome clear by halftime so you can get back early.

[Penguin Ice]

Thanks Jaxs.  I hope to be back in Greenville early also with a Guin win well in hand. 🐧

[Double ET]

Home town newspapers:

I subscribe to both Youngstown and Warren newspapers.
In today's sport section,:

Youngstown Vindicator: top story on the top of the page: Warren JFK high school won the playoff game. The middle page (3/4 of the page in large print) OSU over Michigan. The bottom of the page: (in small print with less than 1/4 of the page) YSU won the game with one article.

Warren Tribune: top of page (1/3 of page) Warren JFK won playoff game. Center of page (over 1/2 page) YSU won. 2nd page, almost the whole page was on game analysis of the YSU game. A total of 3 articles on the YSU win. A small section on the side of first page on OSU win over Michigan.

So much for hometown coverage by the Vindicator which must believe there are more readers care about OSU then the Penguins. It must be a business decision.

Now we know.

[robmat2571]

I have a question for you all who live in the Valley.  What is attendance like on Friday nights for the High School games in comparison to what it was like 20 years ago?  I was a student at YSU from 1990-1996.  I watched with the others in close to sellout crowds at Stambaugh and attended several of the National Championship games.  I now live in the Pittsburgh area and have noticed that the appetite for high school football over here has diminished in the past 20 years.  Pitt often times only draws 25-30k for games... and that is a pretty good Power 5 team.   It seems like people are much more willing to stay home, watch on their computers, get updates. and stay warm.  IMO technology and the advancement of information has made it much easier to stay home.  Thoughts?  BTW-  I was there last night!  #goguins

[Penguin Nation]

All this shaming of the public for the lack of attendance is in my opinion unfounded.  All of life is marketing.  We have a product and you have failed to sell it to the public.  I'm not sure the reasons, but there is PLENTY of competition for the disposable dollar (good grief, read the adds in the papers all week!)  You don't get somebody to make a major commitment of time and some money by embarrassing or calling them names.  You get them to come by making it attractive and convincing them that would be really enjoyable.  We played on a very cold night following a major holiday.  I left my wife with three grandchildren as my daughter and son-in-law were in Columbus for the "big" game.  What did we do to make this game well aware to people in the valley?  What did we do to make it attractive?  Don't try to shame people, come up with ideas that can be used to compete for the $$

^^^ This.

So when someone puts #NoExcuses in their tweet pressuring and shaming ppl to attend a FB game, IMO it is mental laziness, and counterproductive.  The University is entitled for ppl to attend their games?  PPl are obligated to see a sporting event?  Absurd in the extreme.  Are ppl obligated to shop at local non-chain stores, buy Lordstown cars, eat at non-chain local restaurants....regardless of quality or their needs?  Obviously not, they are supposed to value their hard-earned resources and spend them wisely, if they spend at all.  Prove why it is worth spending valuable time and $$ to attend a YSU FB game.  Why is Atlantic City (a drive from Philly and NYC) floundering and a remote city in the Nevada desert thriving?  Las Vegas makes it an experience to go there.  Be creative and make YSU FB an experience.  I thought having Jerreau at an OOC game was a good start. As I mentioned earlier, you could have had a jumbo screen with the tOSU/MI game in a tailgate lot.  You are not going to compete with tOSU esp when they are #2....may as well turn it to your advantage.

....or you can continue to b---- and shame ppl and hope it magically starts to work.

[FOOTBALLFEVER]

We had the game clearly under control.  We were simply better than them.  The road to the championship runs through Eastern Washington.  I think they can win the title this year.

I agree Power..The message was clear in this game..We are going to run the ball down your throat untill we impose our will on you. I thought Wells did a good job of managing the game and made some nice throws. The one to #5 over the middle on a 3rd and 9 was a thing of beauty. Mays also did a nice job when he was in there. For our defense to basically hold them to 10 points before the two late touchdowns is a statement. This was a offense that put up 40 points on a S.E.C. foe in the middle of the season. I think is was smart not having Kennedy kickoff untill he is 100%. Glad to get out of this week healthy and get another week of rest for some of the injured..I really like how this is coming together..The pieces are there in all 3 phases of the game.

[penguinpower]

My daughter is getting married next Sunday in South Carolina about 3.5 hours from Jax State. I will drive over to the game on Saturday morning and be back in South Carolina Saturday night.

I think you have the wrong Jax State.  The one we are playing is in Alabama.  I live in near Hilton Head and it is 5.5 hour for me to drive. They are located East of Birmingham near Talladega.

Jax State fan and Jacksonville resident here. The trip from points west of Greenville can probably be made in 3.5 hours or less. North Augusta could also conceivably be within a 3.5-hour drive, but I'd plan on four. I was just on the Georgia side of the Savannah River for Thanksgiving, and it took about 3 hours, 45 minutes each way.

Safe travels on Saturday, Penguin Ice, and congrats to your daughter. I hope the Gamecocks make the outcome clear by halftime so you can get back early.

Were you in Savanah or west?  How do you avoid Atlanta traffic?   How far were you from Savannah?

[YSUGO]

I tailgated all day. We all had a wonderful time.  Till we get rid of the deadweight in the marketing department nothing will change and we all know who that person is.  They knew they were competing with the Buckeye game and instead of avoided they should of embraced it and tied both games together.  We have lost the casual fans and the bandwagon fans.  We have lost population as well.  The demographics will represent why so few.  The media and print media are worthless.  The last thing is.  Cable tv and ESPN has destroyed attendance too.  This area having Power 5 conference overlap doesn't care either about FCS football and why should they.