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Topic: Bye week after first game...good thing?

Topic: Bye week after first game...good thing?

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Kevin Finnegan
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Bye week after first game...good thing?

Posted: 8/24/2018 9:57:27 AM

So, we open up the season against Howard and I imagine we are not going to put too many wrinkles into the game plan. I'm expecting we will see a heavy dose of the running game with a rather simplistic passing attack.

But then, we have a bye week before Virginia. Does that make the team more likely to be aggressive for the first game so that we can see what we have? There's the adage that a team shows the greatest improvement from game one to game two, but there's not usually a two week separation. Are there any thoughts that this could cause sort of a hiccup in the growth of the team?

Deciduous Forest Cat
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RE: Bye week after first game...good thing?

Posted: 8/24/2018 10:54:30 AM

I like it as far as early season health concerns might go, and that i think it improves our chances of pulling off a "mild" upset at Virginia.

Howard? Frank hasn't lost to an FCS team yet, but they strike me as at least a fairly dangerous group. Hope we get an early lead and can run out the clock. Frank will only show what he has to in these games generally. I think our O line will make some huge holes, but I'll be most interested in how our D handles a versatile dual-threat qb

Maddog13
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RE: Bye week after first game...good thing?

Posted: 8/24/2018 11:04:49 AM

I think that Howard is going to be a better foe than people expect; however, I am not sure that a break after playing them is warranted or productive. I think this team needs in-game reps and that going back to practice mode for two weeks is not exactly going to pay dividends for the Bobcats. That said, they are going to need to be sharp and rested if they are going to pull off an upset of Virginia.

GoCats105
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RE: Bye week after first game...good thing?

Posted: 8/24/2018 11:20:37 AM

Since when did Jeff McKinney join the football side?

I hate the bye week right after the first game, unless the team plays bad and they need to do a quick fix before the next one. Normally I'd rather see the bye week right before conference play.

Last Edited: 8/24/2018 11:21:34 AM by GoCats105

Pataskala
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RE: Bye week after first game...good thing?

Posted: 8/24/2018 6:56:43 PM

I'm glad we finally get a real week off instead of two half-weeks, but I'd rather see it later in the season. Still, if need to get one in September, I'd rather it be before UVA than UMass.

We will get by.
We will get by.
We will get by.
We will survive.

BillyTheCat
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RE: Bye week after first game...good thing?

Posted: 8/25/2018 12:40:29 AM

finnOhio wrote:

So, we open up the season against Howard and I imagine we are not going to put too many wrinkles into the game plan. I'm expecting we will see a heavy dose of the running game with a rather simplistic passing attack.

But then, we have a bye week before Virginia. Does that make the team more likely to be aggressive for the first game so that we can see what we have? There's the adage that a team shows the greatest improvement from game one to game two, but there's not usually a two week separation. Are there any thoughts that this could cause sort of a hiccup in the growth of the team?

You give Jim Burrow time to prepare for an opponent early in the season and he will create a lot of issues with his scheme. This bye is a good thing.

Buckeye to Bobcat
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RE: Bye week after first game...good thing?

Posted: 8/25/2018 10:18:00 AM

I will take a bye gladly out of the gates, especially before the $$$$ games on the road. I would rather be optimally fresh for those games than getting a BS injury against Howard....

TWT
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RE: Bye week after first game...good thing?

Posted: 8/25/2018 11:00:22 AM

Maddog13 wrote:

I think that Howard is going to be a better foe than people expect; however, I am not sure that a break after playing them is warranted or productive. I think this team needs in-game reps and that going back to practice mode for two weeks is not exactly going to pay dividends for the Bobcats. That said, they are going to need to be sharp and rested if they are going to pull off an upset of Virginia.

I'm sure Howard could be better than people expect but Ohio is out for blood in this one. If this is going to be any type of season the team needs to take care of business in Charlottesville. A loss there and its probably going to be another 8-4 regular season. They aren't as tough as some of the MAC teams on our schedule.

Most Memorable Bobcat Events Attended
2010 97-83 win over Georgetown in NCAA 1st round
2012 45-13 victory over ULM in the Independence Bowl
2015 34-3 drubbing of Miami @ Peden front of 25,086

ExCat21
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RE: Bye week after first game...good thing?

Posted: 8/25/2018 2:59:01 PM

Bye weeks are best right after your non-conference schedule ends (before conference games start). You want to build momentum playing weeks one, two and three. Bye weeks earlier in the year may hurt you at the end of season if a conference game is on the line.

Bobcat Grad 86
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RE: Bye week after first game...good thing?

Posted: 8/26/2018 10:37:05 AM

The bye before Virginia will be helpful as UVA is revamping their offense with Junior College QB transfer Bryce Perkins who originally went to Arizona State. UVA will probably incorporate more of the elements they had at BYU than they did the last two years.

https://virginiasports.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=601

Burrow will have the University of Richmond game film to look at during the bye week and the UVA-Indiana game will be on the Big Ten Network.

UVA returns very little on defense and are extremely thin on the DL. They are banking their DL hopes on Dylan Thompson who is transferring from O$U as a Graduate Transfer who just completed his degree last Wednesday. Thompson managed three tackles in his career at Ohio State and was academically ineligible for one year.

He has been deadlifting his girlfriend the past few months to stay in shape.

https://twitter.com/BRONCODE59

Ohio should be able to run the ball directly at UVA and expect the Ohio OL will do well. I am concerned about the graduation losses on the defensive side for Ohio, but the Virginia offense may be so poor that it will mitigate the inexperience of the front seven. If Maxwell was on the UVA roster, he would be the clear number 2 QB at UVA. If Perkins the UVA QB gets hurt, they will be in deep trouble.

I think that Ohio has a chance to put up 41 points against UVA which may include a pick six.

I do not follow UVA nearly as much as I did when we were season tickets holders. Their program is a dumpster fire at this point. Craig Littlepage the AD has finally retired, and they also forced out Associate AD Jon Oliver who micromanaged Mike London and his staff selections. Not sure how Oliver stuck around so long with his previous history of DUI, Cocaine and Bankruptcy. He was forced to withdraw his name from consideration for the University of South Florida position in 2000, but UVA kept him after the information went public in a Florida newspaper.

UVA lost their last game 49-7 to Navy. UVA gave them plenty of inspiration by cutting through their pre-game stretching lines and then being directed by UVA staff members not to clear the field for military parachute jumpers.

UVA also had to settle out of court for a hazing incident which included physical abuse that was coordinated by a staff assistant who is the son of the UVA OC.

http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/17832652/ex-uva-r...

Currently, UVA has over 60 players who as of today have not been deemed worthy of being issued a uniform number by the players council.

https://virginiasports.com/roster.aspx?path=football

As for the first game against Howard, they set a record for the biggest point spread upset in college football last year when they beat UNLV. Head Coach Mike London is a high character person who was a police officer in Richmond before going into coaching. I met him at a Rotary luncheon and he was very engaging continuing to use my first name during our conversation. He is a great position coach, but was in way over his head as a Head Coach and Clock Management during games. He is a good recruiter from the standpoint of developing relationships, but his roster management was very poor. He accepted the best recruits he could get but would wind up with too many at some positions and not enough at others in particular the OL, which Mendenhall is still trying to fix.

Virginia had a really strong program under George Welsh and they have never recovered from the mistake of pushing him out. That cost AD Terry Holland his job. After UVA blew a big lead in the opener against BYU, thesabre.com posters started talking about it being time for Welsh to retire and began dropping names of who the new coach should be during the season. Holland was stupid enough post an official response on the message board that UVA was in the process of evaluating the future of the program.

I know for a fact that Holland met with Jim Grobe about the job. I attended the Ohio � Virginia Basketball game in December of 2000. Coach Grobe sat behind the bench with Boeh and Glidden, both of whom looked depressed. I watched Grobe leave the seating area late in the first half and then with a few minutes left in the game I saw him and Holland chatting in the tunnel. Grobe went back to his seat and I had a chance to say hello after the game. Had only met him twice briefly but he said �Hello Chip� as I extended my hand before I had a chance to say anything. Grobe took the Wake job a few days later and then Welsh formally announced he was leaving a few days after that.

I believe to this day that Grobe would have had a much easier road at UVA than Wake. A true dual threat QB would have enabled him to be successful at his alma mater.
These first three games for Mendenhall are critical, losses to both Indiana and Ohio would put him in a bad position. The new AD is Carla Williams who came from Georgia where my daughter is a senior. Kirby Smart gave her a lot of credit for helping him during his transition and sends a message to many that UVA is finally getting ready to put more emphasis on their football program.

OU / UVA Trivia: Brian Burke was the OC at UVA while my wife was in law school there and was the job he had immediately prior to taking the Ohio job.

OhioStunter
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Member Since: 2/18/2005
Location: Chicago
Post Count: 2,516

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RE: Bye week after first game...good thing?

Posted: 8/27/2018 1:23:09 PM

A bye week in Week 2 after an FCS game?

That is not a good idea.

Students back to school. Good weather. Early season excitement (everyone still in the "race").

I don't like that at all.

And the first conference home game at the end of October? This may be the latest we've ever played a conference home opener.

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