Mike
STOCK DOWN: The Service Academies. Navy’s lost four in a row, Air Force has lost two straight and is in last place in the Mountain West, and Army turns into 22 adorable golden retriever puppies whenever they play away from Michie Stadium (which they do in 4 of their last 6 games). Yay shared misery! :fingergun:
STOCK UP: Kansas State. The Wildcats are 6-0 and up to #12 in the AP poll. Did you chuckle when K-State brought Bill Snyder back? I did a little, but nobody’s laughing anymore. Snyder was the architect of the original resurgence of Kansas State football from their nightmare decade in the ’80s– I mean, they re-named the stadium after him– so maybe he just needed someone to run the program into the ground just to make the job interesting again. Kansas is up next week, and then the Wildcats get to host Oklahoma for the inside track at the Big 12 title.
STOCK DOWN: Georgia Tech. It’s gotta suck to come this far only to lose to Virginia.
STOCK DOWN: South Carolina. The Stephen Garcia drama made things hard enough for the offense, but now Marcus Lattimore is out for the year? The only hope for the Gamecocks at this point is to become the football equivalent of Big Ten basketball and win games 7-3. That’s pretty much what they’ve done all year anyway, and that was WITH Lattimore.
STOCK UP: Riley Nelson. After a 1-2 start that included a 54-10 embarrassment at the hands of Utah, BYU has won 4 straight to move to 5-2. The catalyst has been quarterback Riley Nelson, who led a comeback against Utah State two weeks ago and threw 3 TD passes in a 38-28 win over Oregon State that saw BYU rack up almost 500 yards of total offense. The 5 games left on the schedule include only two tough matchups for BYU: TCU and Hawaii in Honolulu. The Cougars are well on their way to 8 wins, with 10 being a real possibility. Not a bad start for your first season on your own as an independent.
NOT SURE IF STOCK UP OR STOCK DOWN: San Jose State or Hawaii. Hawaii is always a different team on the mainland, a phenomenon that manifested itself earlier this season in a 40-20 loss to UNLV. I shouldn’t be surprised when they pull a stinker like this, yet somehow I always am. San Jose State does deserve credit, though, for gutting out a win in a crazy– some might say ugly– game.
STOCK UP: San Diego State. The team looked like it was in disarray after back-to-back losses to Michigan and TCU, but they righted the ship with a decisive 41-27 win over Air Force. Ronnie Hillman slashed his way for 172 yards, reminding everyone that he’s the best player in the conference not named Kellen Moore. The win solidified the Aztecs’ standing as the leader of the second tier in the MWC behind Boise State and TCU. The Frogs are Big 12-bound and Boise has one foot out the door, making the future pretty bright on Montezuma Mesa for a change.
Adam
STOCK UP: Southern Methodist. I’ve always held that defense wins the day in Conference-USA, and because of that mantra, I figured Southern Methodist would have dropped a league game by this point. But June Jones has the Ponies playing inspired football through the first half of the season, and after dispatching the conference’s traditional defensive powerhouse in UCF on Saturday, the Mustangs are primed for a huge showdown with Southern Miss. And now that Texas A&M has recovered from a two-game skid, that week one loss is starting to look a lot more explainable…
STOCK DOWN: Northwestern. As a Navy fan, please feel free to take solace in Northwestern’s 2-4 record. The Wildcats were talked up by some as a darkhorse in the Big 10, but have folded on defense down the stretch in games, and remained frustratingly inconsistent on offense. Sound familiar?
STOCK UP: Eastern Michigan. Granted, two of the team’s four wins have come over FCS teams, but give Ron English credit for having the Eagles at 4-3 through the first half of the year. With a win over Central Michigan last weekend they’re halfway home to winning Michigan’s highly coveted Direction Trophy, and although they’ll be underdogs against Western Michigan this Saturday, they will be at home.
STOCK DOWN: South Florida. Yikes. After starting out 4-0 ,the Bulls have dropped the last two. I’m not sure what is worse at this point – losing to Pittsburgh (which then turned around and lost to Utah) or losing to (gulp) Connecticut.
The Birddog 
Stock way way down…Ole Miss
Honolulu to Los Angeles is 2558 miles, which works out to at least 2 time zones. This fact alone is worth 10(?) pts, especially for young adults.
Stock up: THE BIRDDOG. Good to have you back.
Birdog/Adam,
I noticed last Saturday that Navy used the Pistol/Minnie-Shotgun on a few occaisions. Any chance we could use this formation on the goal line (see if it helps)? Slot Back catches that pass in the end zone or if LB snagged that INT we might have pulled it off.
What would it help exactly? I don’t think anyone wants to move the ball backwards 4 yards on the goal line. I assume that the coaches installed it to help with pass protection in certain (obvious passing) situations. I can’t imagine that kind of scenario would come up on the goal line, but maybe.
I’m not a big fan of the whole thing to be honest with you.
I agree the shotgun would be bad on goaline. The worst play calls I think in 4th and goaline situations involve teams with poor blockers and slow developing plays. Navy might not be bad at blocking but starting 4 yards deep isn’t helping the line any.
The problem on the goal line against Rutgers was that Kriss was still barking out changes with 4 seconds left on the play clock. Someone should’ve called timeout to get everyone on the same page.
Mike,
Re: Problems on Goal Lines
I cringed at same thing, i.e. Navy rushing to get the play off. Navy appeared confused to me.
Is your take that Navy’s recent problems (AF, So Miss, Rutgers- a pattern for sure) at goal line are due to:
a) Poor Blocking
b) Bad Play Calling
c) Mechanics of sending in plays
d) all of the above
If we can’t get the ball in the old-fashioned way at the goal line, moving into the shotgun is not going to solve a thing. Makes no sense to me except in certain obvious passing situations.
Excellent point on the TO and Proctor should have called it……..but tell me the last time a Navy player called a TO? Seems to me that the TOs are reserved for the coaches only. Maybe the players are conditioned that way too.
The players, especially the QB needs to recognize the gravity of the situation and the risk that could happen if he didn’t call a TO. Safe is better than sorry in that situation, and we’ve been sorry an awful lot lately.
Adam,
You are confusing me a bit with your comparing Navy’s Defense pattern thus far to that of Northwestern??? –> To date Buddy Green’s troops have seen to have gotten “stronger” down the stretch in games, not “folded”???
And actually, PITT followed that impressive W over South Florida by getting pasted by Rutgers –> The Utah loss was this past week.
The players call timeout all the time.
One possible advantage to the shotgun on the goal line is the Tim Tebow play – start the QB draw then lob it over the head of the DL and closing LB’s. It comes to mind because I saw a highlight of Florida pulling it off a week or two ago. As I think you mentioned in a post somewhere, those kind of “trick” plays look great when they work, but when they blow up, everyone says, “Why don’t they just give it to the fullback?” The danger is if the defense gets quick penetration, there is no time to pass.
Too bad we don’t have Tim Tebow for our goal line offense.