Topics

61

YSU Penguin Athletics / Kicker commits for 2015 season

« on: July 17, 2014, 11:34:59 AM »

IAA Fan, It might be time to add a 2015 football recruiting thread.

Anyway, for those of you who are out-of-town, Mooney kicker Zak Kennedy committed for 2015 when he was offered a scholarship after our kicking camp.  Good stats for a high school kid: 13 for 15 field goals.  Longest was 42 yards which was into a stiff wind at Fawcett stadium in November.   According to a Vindicator article, he will also start to punt this year for the first time.  I expect that he and McFadden will compete for both jobs in 2015.

62

General BS / Vindy Coverage of YSU

« on: June 04, 2014, 04:21:18 PM »

IAA Fan,

You and the sports editor from the Vindicator are assuming that my jibe against a "journalist" from that paper was targeted towards a sports writer.  That is not the case.  My target was the well-known YSU hater Bertram de Souza, a man who has slandered the university for decades with his lies, half-truths, and misinformation.  That is a fact that your father understands perfectly well.  I should not have assumed that everyone would have automatically made the connection.  But Paladin and de Souza are the most prolific YSU haters in the universe.

63

YSU Penguin Athletics / The Year in Review

« on: June 03, 2014, 02:48:11 PM »

Four years ago, I posted a summary of our sports for the just concluded academic year.  The picture was bleak and ugly.  Except for Gorby's runners, who themselves had an off-year, we stunk at just about everything.  Our women's sports were especially awful, marked in infamy by a basketball team that lost all of their games.

Four years later and it is hard to believe that we are talking about the same programs.  Here is a summary of our 18 sports and how they finished their league competitions.

Fall Season, Men:

2nd Football (a statistical quirk from which nobody can take any satisfaction.)
2nd Cross-country (runner-up in conference meet)

Fall Season, Women:

6th Soccer (lost in tournament first round)
3rd Volleyball (lost in the tournament semi-finals)
1st Cross-country (champions of conference meet)

Winter Season, Men:

7th Basketball (lost in tournament first round)
2nd Track and Field (runner-up in conference meet)

Winter Season, Women:

3rd Basketball (lost in tournament semi-finals)
6th Swimming and Diving
1st Track and Field (champions of conference meet)

Spring Season, Men:

3rd Golf (third place in conference tournament)
3rd Tennis (lost in conference semi-finals)
1st Track and Field (champions of conference meet)
1st Baseball (champions of conference tournament)

Spring Season, Women:

3rd Golf (third place in conference tournament)
1st Tennis (champions of conference tournament)
1st Track and Field (champions of conference meet)
5th Softball (lost in second round of conference tournament)

For every three sports in which we participated, we won a championship (6 out of 18.)  Amazing.
Our women won 40% of the available championships in the Horizon League.  Amazing.
To use the horse racing parlance of win-place-show as an indication of success, we finished at least third in 14 of 18 sports. (77.7%)

Now I realize that as long as the football team remains bad and the basketball team flirts with oblivion, these women and Olympic sports victories will mean very little to most of you.  Nor do I think that these successes exonerate the performance of an athletic director who fails in his prime mission (football playoffs) 91% of the time.  But in interest of fairness, these figures must be documented.

64

YSU Penguin Athletics / Softball

« on: May 07, 2014, 03:11:14 PM »

We just won the first game, 3-2, by scoring twice in the bottom of the seventh.  Good start, but at 6:30 we have to face the #1 seed with our number 2 pitcher....unless Crozier can throw again on short rest.

65

YSU Penguin Athletics / Basketball and Track

« on: February 27, 2014, 03:04:27 PM »

Your first place basketball team plays a crucial game tonight.  These kids fully deserve your support.  Also, we host the conference track meet at the WATTS this Saturday and Sunday.  On the men's side, competition should be fierce.  If you crunch all performance numbers, Milwaukee projects to 150 points, YSU 130, and Oakland 96.  Of course, such projections rarely conform to reality.  On the women's side, Detroit projects to second place at 92 while Milwaukee shows 67 for third.  We are heavy favorites, but I will not give our performance totals since I do not want to curse our athletes.

66

YSU Penguin Athletics / The Tressel Movement

« on: February 20, 2014, 11:47:33 AM »

I am surprised that nobody has reported this yet.  For the benefit of those outside the area, Tim Ryan sent a letter to the Board of Trustees urging the appointment of Jim Tressel to the presidency.  It was signed by a Who's Who of 31 community leaders including Denise DeBartolo York, Tony Cafaro, Sam Covelli, plus high tech and traditional business owners and union leaders.  As I mentioned in the Dunn thread, a modern university president has little hands-on control of academic matters.  Instead, he must be proficient in public relations, fundraising, and lobbying.  I would grade Tressel highly in each of those.  This is still a long shot, but if the movement grows it could make trustees very uncomfortable and more willing to think outside of the box.

67

YSU Penguin Athletics / Basketball Scheduling: Can It Get More Stupid Than This?

« on: December 26, 2013, 03:11:31 PM »

I hate the NFL, so I will be in my seat for our basketball game against South Dakota on Sunday afternoon.  I will be joined by about 250 other fans.  What kind of fool scheduled a YSU basketball game on the Sunday afternoon when the Browns play the Steelers?  Was it Slocum?  Strollo?  I don't know.  Now perhaps it was necessary because of South Dakota travel plans.  Perhaps they are playing somebody near us on Friday or Tuesday.  Nope.  They last played on December 19 and won't play again until a home game on January 2.  Saturday would actually have been much better for them.  It is this kind of nonsense that causes most fans in the community to consider the YSU athletic department to be completely dysfunctional.

68

YSU Penguin Athletics / Congratulations to the Cross Country teams

« on: November 02, 2013, 12:53:39 PM »

Very good day.  Women won the team title with a commanding performance, finishing 2nd, 4th, and 5th in the top five.  Men finished second while Eric Rupe won the individual title.  Becomes a perfect day if the football team does its job in about an hour.

69

YSU Penguin Athletics / The South Dakota game

« on: October 27, 2013, 02:44:42 PM »

All road games are dangerous.  This team threw 47 passes against Illinois State and will throw more against us.  Fortunately, they have scored 20 points only once, in the UNI meltdown two weeks ago.  For what it is worth....probably not much.... their performance against common opponents (Western Illinois, Indiana State, and Illinois State) has been unimpressive.

Looking at the "conference-only" statistics, here is how YSU stands half-way through the season.

We are first in turnover margin and second in penalties.

On offense, as you would expect, we rank well in many categories:

1st scoring offense
1st red zone offense
2nd total offense
2nd rushing offense
1st passing efficiency
1st sacks against
2nd third down conversions
1st fourth down conversions

On defense, a few ugly stats, again as we would expect:

9th total defense
10th pass defense
10th opponents third down conversions

But also some positive surprises among the defensive stats:

2nd scoring defense
3rd rushing defense
3rd sacks
1st red zone defense
1st opponents fourth down conversions

70

YSU Penguin Athletics / Halftime Adjustments

« on: October 07, 2013, 02:49:57 PM »

I was going to post this after the game, but it would have been buried with all the concern about giving up the two touchdowns in garbage time.  Early in his tenure here, we all remember that Wolford was well prepared at the start of a game.  We held leads against FCS foes in the first half in nearly every game.  Then we had to endure second half meltdowns as opposing coaches made halftime adjustments for which Wolford seemed clueless to respond.

Now consider these first two league road games.  In the first half, the defense was inadequate (to be polite) or terrible (to be realistic.)  Yet we made the adjustments and Southern Illinois got next to nothing in the second half while Indiana State made little until garbage time started around the 8:00 mark of the final quarter.  So has Wolford matured and learned?  Or has Mark Mangino made a difference?  Your thoughts please.

71

YSU Penguin Athletics / No television coverage of the first half of the game

« on: September 09, 2013, 02:00:11 PM »

 I just checked the Saturday schedule on the Time Warner cable guide.  The Big Ten network is showing Akron-Michigan at noon, followed by YSU-Michigan State at 3:00, obviously joined in progress.  That is just wonderful.  The Big Ten scum monopolize tv and refuse to let a local channel carry the game.  Then, they refuse to show all of it.   I hate big time college football more and more each day.

72

YSU Penguin Athletics / It begins: Football roster is up

« on: July 21, 2013, 12:54:44 PM »

The updated roster is now posted on the university web site.  At first glance, I do not see any notable subtractions.  The whole season revolves around this question.  After expending so much time, effort, and resources, can Wofford fix the defense in general, and the pass rush in particular? 

73

YSU Penguin Athletics / Not sports, but alumni and friends should be very proud of this

« on: July 15, 2013, 12:56:32 PM »

IAA Fan,

This is not sports, but please leave this here for about a day before you move it to the proper folder.  I want to be sure that our community knows about two spectacular events that took place this summer.  First, the Siemens corporation gave the YSU STEM college a grant of $440 million for software related to additive manufacturing.  That positions our science students to become world leaders in this revolutionary field.  Yesterday, a reputable education organization named our College of Education as one of the forty best in the NATION for training teachers.  I use this forum because that local rag that masquerades as a newspaper NEVER highlights our academic accomplishments.

74

YSU Penguin Athletics / YSU Sports: The Year in Review

« on: May 28, 2013, 01:14:35 PM »

Three years ago, I posted the collective results of all of our teams in league play.  It was a sad picture that supported the argument that we operated one of the worst DI programs in the country.  Today I will do the same thing.  The continuing failure in football and the lingering mediocrity in men's basketball sort of disguise the fact that we have made dramatic improvements in some areas, especially on the women's side.  Here are the records for all 18 sports.  I used our finish in the regular season for those sports that played full schedules; post-season tournaments or meets for the others.  Only the softball team performed better in the post-season than the regular season.  I will comment on this in a day or two, but I am most interested in your reactions to our collective performance in the 2012-2013 academic year.

Men's sports

6th out of 10   football
7th out of 8     cross-country
5th out of 9     basketball
3rd out of 6     indoor track
3rd out of 7     tennis
6th out of 7     golf
3rd out of 6     outdoor track
5th out of 5     baseball

women's sports

4th out of 8     soccer
6th out of 8     volleyball
3rd out of 9     cross-country
2nd out of 9    basketball
6th out of 7     swimming
3rd out of 7     indoor track
2nd out of 8    tennis
2nd out of 7    golf
2nd out of 7    outdoor track
6th out of 8     softball (runner-up in tournament)

75

YSU Penguin Athletics / Canisius game

« on: March 22, 2013, 02:41:12 PM »

The basketball team is now operating in uncharted waters after three decades of oblivion.  If you claim to be a YSU fan and you live in the vicinity, it is your duty to attend this game tomorrow evening.  For our fans that only follow football, I understand that you do not like basketball.  Suck it up.  This is about university and community pride.  Come to this game.  It is not going to kill you.