Topic: This Kiffen thing is going to be fun.....

[herdorbust]

In football at Marshall you have to be happy to just make it to any bowl and play the UCONN's, NIU's, Ohio's etc...That is what you are going to get no matter if you are 6-6 or 11-1. It's predetermined before the season starts. If in basketball it was predetermined before the year started that Marshall was trying to have a good enough season to get to the CIT or CBI for their highest payoff? I personally just couldn't do it anymore. But that is just my opinion. That is why I like basketball. I want to be playing in the post season with the bigboys and at least there is that chance. And once you get to the NCAA tournament you are playing for that title. That is why I loved 1AA football. You got in and if you kept winning the excitement kept building and there was another game and another and then it was 4 and then 2. I just don'y see the excitement in the bowl games we go to. It's another game no more and no less. But that is just me.

[chris88]

Lane Kiffen is an excellent offensive coach.  His problem as a HC, IMO, is he is kind of laid back and not much of a disciplinarian...so players slacked off at times and he never seemed to care much about defense.....too busy being the mad scientist on offense. But coaches, like in all professions, have the ability to learn from mistakes if they are willing.  He has his kids playing hard with a lot of enthusiasm and the results speak for themselves.  Certainly not world beaters, but better than most thought they'd be at this point...and they are fun to watch.  BTW the Buffalo loss is not that bad of a loss.  It took WMU 7 OTs to beat them last weekend and they would be competitive in CUSA this year for what its worth.

[coalherd]

In football at Marshall you have to be happy to just make it to any bowl and play the UCONN's, NIU's, Ohio's etc...That is what you are going to get no matter if you are 6-6 or 11-1. It's predetermined before the season starts. If in basketball it was predetermined before the year started that Marshall was trying to have a good enough season to get to the CIT or CBI for their highest payoff? I personally just couldn't do it anymore. But that is just my opinion. That is why I like basketball. I want to be playing in the post season with the bigboys and at least there is that chance. And once you get to the NCAA tournament you are playing for that title. That is why I loved 1AA football. You got in and if you kept winning the excitement kept building and there was another game and another and then it was 4 and then 2. I just don'y see the excitement in the bowl games we go to. It's another game no more and no less. But that is just me.

Strange as you may find it, herdorbust, I agree with you to a great extent.

My take on the bowls, however, is this.  They potentially give MU the opportunity to play some opponents, even power opponents, that they couldn't play in the regular season.  That's why I strongly disagree with Hamrick's policy, a stupid policy, IMO, to go play another MAC school when there's an opportunity to play a power opponent or a "Power 6" opponent.  Only positive CUSA football teams have had going for them, of late, has been success in bowl games against other G5 and power opponents, like MU's wins against Maryland, Northern Illinois and UConn.