Sunday, September 8, 2019
#1 Clemson defended their right to be called the best by defeating #3 Georgia.
Upset of the Week: #2 Alabama falls to Virginia Tech. Is the Nick Saban era on the downswing?
UMass also upset #4 Wisconsin. There will definitely be a shakeup in the Top 25.
Taylor Robinson makes one of Vandal quarterback Mason Petrino's 5 interceptions on the day.
Lee's Vandals Blown Out In Debut
September 1, 2018 5:01pm
Denton, TX -- It was a rough start for Idaho's new head coach Buddy Lee as his Vandals fell to the North Texas Mean Green, 54-21. Quarterback Mason Petrino could carry most of the blame as he went 29-47 with 317 yards, one touchdown, and five interceptions.
"It definitely wasn't Masons day today", said Lee of Petrino. "There were a couple of bad reads and they proved too costly. But we will rebound from this. I saw some good things from Mason no matter what the narrative from today is going to be."
Petrino indeed started out in command of the Idaho offense. Having the opening possession, he drove the team down the field with a methodical approach and spread the ball out to multiple receivers. The result was a 2 yard handoff to running back Dylan Thigpen for a touchdown.
On the ensuing possession, North Texas drove the ball down the field as well, but was stopped short for a turnover at Idaho's 1 yard line. But what initially looked like a great start for Idaho turned into failure as the Vandals were stuffed in their own end zone for a Mean Green Safety. And on North Texas' next possession, they scored a touchdown easily, This was truly the beginning of the end. Petrino tried to force a pass on the subsequent drive, but was picked off for another Mean Green touchdown. This would become a trend, as Petrino threw four more interceptions over the course of the game. He did throw for one touchdown to senior slot wide receiver Jante Boston. But for the most part, North Texas denied any other passing for a score.
"Like I said, I saw some good things today and it gave me a lot of encouragement for this season", said Lee. We will win some games and surprise people."
As for the Vandals' defensive woes, Lee had no positive answer. North Texas quarterback Mason Fine had an excellent outing, completing 26 of 29 for 352 yards and throwing for three touchdowns and no interceptions. Mean Green running back Deandre Torrey ran for 177 yards and two touchdowns.
"We couldn't stop anything today", said Lee. "I'm not sure there is a scheme that can fit our personnel any better than another."
Idaho, 0-1, now prepares for Old Dominion who makes their debut against the Vandals.
Saturday, September 7, 2019
- All time record: North Texas leads 6-4
- North Texas has won the last 5 meetings
- Last meeting: 2013; North Texas won 40-6
Coach Buddy Lee definitely has his work cut out for him this week. On paper, North Texas looks to have a much more talented team and they want to continue this win streak against Idaho.
Preseason Top 25
1. Alabama
2. Clemson
3. Georgia
4. Wisconsin
5. Ohio State
6. Washington
7. Oklahoma
8. Miami
9. Auburn
10. Penn State
11. Michigan State
12. Notre Dame
13. Stanford
14. Michigan
15. USC
16. TCU
17. West Virginia
18. Mississippi State
19. Florida State
20. Virginia Tech
21. UCF
22. Boise State
23. Texas
24. Oregon
25. LSU
126. Idaho
That is correct, Idaho is ranked dead last in the entire FBS. 4-8 would be an accomplishment for them. Any more wins than that would be a miracle.
May 1, 2018 9:15am
It looks like Idaho will have their hands full this season, playing one preseason top 25 team and four other Power 5 Conference teams. They open at North Texas, so at least there is some opportunity to get some momentum going for this season. Here is the schedule:
8/28 - at North Texas
9/1 - Old Dominion
9/8 - at #7 Oklahoma
9/15 - at Washington State
9/22 - BYE
9/29 - Temple
10/6 - Fresno State
10/13 - at Arkansas State
10/20 - at Ole Miss
10/27 - at Wyoming
11/3 - vs Texas State
11/10 - BYE
11/17 - Texas Tech
11/24 - New Mexico State
Well, the 2018 Silver and Gold Spring Game is in the books and I learned a lot. Most notably, the fact that we're going to have a tough time scoring this season. I installed a spread offense hoping that getting our players into space would give them a chance. But there were tons of dropped balls when our receivers were wide open, and our running backs are too slow to capitalize on mismatches in the box. Furthermore, I may have installed some concepts that were too complex for our guys to pin down before this fall.
To alleviate the lack of success our offense was having in the first half, I simplified the play calls and had them run some basic Air Raid concepts such as shallow cross and stick. This seemed to get the ball rolling, so to speak, and also loosen up the defense for some gains on the ground. So I'm going to slowly install the Air Raid system during our 7-on-7 camps and fall camp, and hopefully we will have enough offense to run successfully by opening day.
As far as defense is concerned, our lackluster performance on that side was expected given our roster. I also learned that not only can this defense not be effective in the 3-4, it can't be an effective 4-3 defense either. I may have to run the 4-2-5 this year, but I'll need to find out who on this team can be the hybrid linebacker/strong safety types that the defense would need. I need to recruit a lot of defense, obviously.
Thursday, September 5, 2019
This 2018 Vandals football team is the worst rated team in the country. It will be a challenge in this first year to compete, but not impossible. Let’s break down the talent position by position.
Quarterback
True senior Mason Petrino (68 OVR) leads this offense with a decent amount of experience. He has 90 awareness and 71 speed which will be beneficial to create plays on the fly. Because it will be tough to hold up to pressure from our mostly superior competition this year. It’s still early to know if his passing prowess will be up to par.
Running Back
We have a true freshman that arrived with 93 speed, 98 acceleration, and 98 agility. His name is Nick Romano and his dazzling raw talent had me try him out for the starting role in spring camp. But his inexperience proved to be too much and I’ve decided to redshirt him. One thing is for sure, though. He looks like the future. So with that, senior Dylan Thigpen will be the starter and junior Roshaun Johnson will be the backup. These guys aren’t very fast runners with 79 and 81 speed respectively, but they have the experience and agility to hopefully make plays. Logan Kendall is the lone Fullback, but we run a spread offense. He will mainly be a substitute if we lose too many tight ends.
Receiving Corps
We have nine wide receivers and three tight ends, so there is a lot of depth and every freshman at these positions will be redshirted. Senior Jeff Cotton (73 OVR, 78 SPD) is the number one guy on this squad. He’s a 6’2” 203 pound possession receiver with a lot of awareness, so that’s the good news. The bad news is that it doesn’t get any better than that. Sophomore Cutrell Haywood (72 OVR, 85 SPD) is 6’0” 203 pounds and will join Cotton as the two guys we’re counting on to make this offense tick. Senior Jante Boston (62 OVR, 92 SPD) looks to be a serviceable slot guy with his speed. Let’s hope he can catch the ball when we need it. And finally at tight end, we’re counting on sophomore Connor Whitney (65 OVR, 72 SPD) to be that receiving threat in the middle. He was having trouble catching in traffic when we ran our spring practices, so we may be running a lot of 10 personnel sets this year.
Offensive Line
Rather than address every position on the line, I’m just going to give a collective description as this group averages a mid 60s rating. And that’s only because of the one bright spot, senior right guard Noah Johnson (77 OVR). This is what I mean about Petrino needing to be ready to run at a moment’s notice. I have already begun on the recruiting trail looking for linemen for this program’s future.
Defensive Line
I want to build a 3-4 defense here because I have seen success from this set in both stopping the run as well as providing good pass coverage. But we’re just not there yet. We’re built for a 4-3 defense and I’ll need to utilize our pass rushing defensive ends, senior Cameron Towndsend (69 OVR) and junior Dylan Beeler (60 OVR), as well as having both of our strong defensive tackles Vei Tomasi (69 OVR) and R. Crawford (62 OVR), both juniors, on the field.
Linebackers
This is another lackluster corps with a couple of guys we’ll be counting on. Juniors Christian Ellis (73 OVR, 81 SPD) and Charles Akanno (70 OVR, 67 SPD) are the only linebackers rated above 70, so it will be quite a task mixing and matching the right personnel on this defensive front to have success.
Defensive Backs
Look for senior cornerback Lloyd Hightower (71 OVR, 80 SPD) and junior free safety Jalen Hoover (77 OVR, 79 SPD) to be the leaders in the backfield. There’s not a lot of speed there, so I will consider playing a lot of cover 2 zone. But we’ll see how it goes.
Special Teams
It looks like Thigpen will handle return duties. And our punter, junior Cade Coffey (79 OVR) will handle both kicking and punting duties.
Overall Team
The system I want to install here is predicated on speed, and there aren’t many players on this team that will facilitate that. So there will probably be a lot of turnover in the future. I will figure out a way to utilize what I have for this season and hopefully not be embarrassed on the field.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Moscow, ID — Speculation about whether or not quarterback Mason Petrino will stay at Idaho now that his father was canned has now been put to rest. Mason will complete his eligibility at Idaho.
“I talked with the Petrinos and we’re at a good place right now”, said new head coach Buddy Lee. “Paul assured me that he wanted his son to finish what he started here, and I’m glad to be a part of that.”
No word on Petrino’s coaching future elsewhere.
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
The Vandals’ AD has decided to hire Texas State Offensive Coordinator Buddy Lee to be the new guy at the helm. Lee has gained notoriety as an offensive guru, first at Missouri State where he helped their offense break many records, and then at Texas State where his offenses put up gaudy numbers on most opponents including Idaho. This made him somewhat of a hot commodity and Spear has decided to jump on the opportunity. So here we go.
Game: NCAA ‘14
System: PS3
Difficulty: Heisman
Rosters: OS community 2018-2019 rosters from Vikesfan059
Sliders: Default; Fatigue OFF; HFA On; Minimum Speed Threshold 20
Length: 8 Minute Quarters
House Rules:
1) No Coaching Skill Tree allocations EXCEPT for Scouting.
2) No custom playbooks.
3) No spamming of the read option. To further enforce this, no recruiting of a quarterback above a C or 79 in speed.
4) Lower all injury ratings as follows: QB -10, HB -15, TE/FB -20, WR -10, OL -70, all defense -40.
5) Restricted plays - Cannot run these plays unless down by 21 or more points:
- Shotgun Trey Open Offset - Cake Read Option
Sunday, September 1, 2019
So there I was, taking Eastern Michigan to a bowl game and eventually getting picked up by FAU as a head coach, and that’s when it hit me - I couldn’t play without the modern college offenses. I had figured out how to beat the defense on NCAA ‘12 with a pro style/one back attack, as well as a barrage of compression plays. And it stopped feeling like a college game and more like the old Madden games. I missed the spread. I missed running out of shotgun. I tried all the slider sets and I just plain missed the reason I love playing these games in the first place. So I’m back to ‘14. And I have a plan.
I previously gave up on ‘14 because the challenge wasn’t there. But it never occurred to me until I saw this in the forums: don’t use the coaching skill trees and lower the injury ratings on top of turning Fatigue off. And with adding the house rule of not using custom playbooks, this is as close to perfect as this game can be for me.
So here I go again. I’m going to report a dynasty on here. I’m starting from the bottom of the barrel in the 2018 season with Idaho. This will be the story of how Buddy Lee takes over a struggling school that faces possible demotion to the FCS, and attempts to redeem this school and hopefully more. Should be fun!!
Monday, August 12, 2019
I have no patience when it comes to finally running the whole team, so I didn’t take the contract extension. I saw that FAU’s coach was ready to be fired, so I held out for that offer. Problem is, FAU’s coach didn’t get fired. He still had one season left on his contract and they weren’t going to buy him out. So I turned down SJSU’s final extension offer waiting for a head coaching job that never came, lol!! And I ended up taking the last available position: OC at Eastern Michigan.
Coming up next: Season 1 at Eastern Michigan...
Monday, July 29, 2019
First of all, defense is overpowered in ‘12 and that’s really all I wanted. But the bonus that hooked me was that I can’t take a low rated team and go undefeated. In fact, I’m finally getting blown out by premiere teams like it’s supposed to be and recruiting is truly meaningful.
So I started a dynasty as an OC for maybe the worst rated team, San Jose State. I practiced the game and got a scheme down that made me feel really good about my offense. But being so lowly rated, my QB missed wide open targets, my receivers dropped routine catches, and my OL was dominated. Season 1 results: 3-9. This is exactly what I was looking for and will make recruiting and gameplanning so much fun.
Season 2 to follow...
Friday, June 21, 2019
Since my last entry on here, I started that new dynasty which took me from Texas State to UNLV, and finally to Kansas. By that time, I had tried every slider, speed, and fatigue setting except for one: jkits’ slider set. So when I finally switched to it, I was in a place where I could lose to anyone (I lost to Ohio U in week 3), and I was hovering at just above .500 in the standings. This is great, and it gives me the confidence that starting with this slider set from the bottom will provide the ultimate challenge. Plus, I haven’t played in like a year. I will be quite rusty and will definitely lose some games.
I’m using the 2018-2019 roster and Rice has the worst offense in the country, so I’ll be taking over there at OC. The common theme from my storylines will be there again (offensive minded coach with success at the lower levels, etc.), and I’m just excited to see where it takes me. And like I said, I’ll probably take notes on here journaling what I see and how to plan for it.
Thursday, November 16, 2017
Continuing my dynasty, I played a game with Fatigue OFF and OS Community Sliders latest version, a 91 ranked Illinois team against mid-80s Old Dominion. It was a challenge, but my team had too much talent for Old Diminion to handle and I won 35-13. I knew that the OS Community set changed this year from a tougher setting, so I went back to version 1/17/2016 but kept threshold at 20. I went up against a 99 rated Michigan team and I finally found my match. I couldn’t score a touchdown for most of the game. Their defense was too strong for my formerly unstoppable running game, true to their ratings. And my quarterback wasn’t a good pocket passer, true to his ratings, so I couldn’t just pass my way out of this. I lost the game 17-10. I was only playing 5 minute quarters, so I’m not concerned about the stats being true to life. If I do want realistic numbers, I know I can always make my games longer. But I couldn’t ask for any more of a good challenge.
Dare I say, it’s starting to make me think I’d like to go back to dynasty reporting. I’m starting a new dynasty with Texas State, so we’ll see how things go.
Friday, October 27, 2017
Well, the game let me down again. I won the National Championship. Yes, a 79 rated UNLV team beat a 92 rated Power 5 team due to the last second heroics of one Armani Rogers. But before I get to that let me take you through how the game went down.
We got the ball first and Rogers started off a little shaky. He made the wrong read twice and forced a third-and-long situation that we couldn’t convert. We punted the ball and Miami scored quickly. Knowing we were now in an uphill battle due to our defensive woes against good competition, we finally got into a groove and scored to tie it at 7. Each team scored again, and then Miami scored to make it 21-14. We had a plan in the second quarter to try and milk the clock up until we scored and would tie the game going into halftime, but that didn’t happen. Tight End Giovanni Fauolo fumbled after a catch and Miami recovered. They scored off of that, making it 28-14 at halftime. I was pretty sure we were sunk.
Miami got the ball to start the second half, but we forced a punt. It was like a miracle considering they ran up and down the field on us at will. We got the ball and scored, putting the game within 7. We each scored again, making it 35-28. But on Miami’s next possession, we stopped them again. Unbelievable. We would subsequently score and tie it at 35. We each scored again (what a shootout), and time was running out. Miami was held to just a field goal on their final drive. With the score 45-42, we implemented a ground attack with Sean Watkins and Rogers. With less than 30 seconds left and the ball in the red zone, Rogers found Kendal Keys on a slant pattern in the end zone. And with only 19 seconds left, Miami could not get the ball down the field in time. UNLV wins the championship. Lamar Jackson won the Heisman, by the way.
What now?
So since then, I took a job at Illinois as the head coach. But I don’t think I’m going to continue reporting on this dynasty. It’s becoming too anti-climactic when I can turn a program into champions in two years. If I hear of any interest, I may continue reporting on this. If I can ever get the sliders and/or fatigue lined up to give me a good challenge, I’ll start a new dynasty and report on it. Until then, I bid you so long for now.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
It was a great senior night in Las Vegas. Nevada was held to field goals on their first four drives, which was good for us as we had the ability to score enough to put us up 35-12. By that time, it was too late for Nevada to come back no matter how hard they tried. The defense stepped up big for us.
UNLV 28, San Jose State 13
Sean Watkins broke the school record with 30 touchdowns in a season. But it wasn’t as easy as everyone thought it would be. Up 7-0 with the chance to go up 14-0, Armani Rogers threw an interception in the red zone, which resulted in a SJSU field goal. We would then turn the ball over again and the Spartans would score, making it 10-7. Luckily, we drove down the field in the final seconds of the half and scored, making it 14-10 at halftime. From there, we clamped down on defense and held San Jose State to just one more field goal. This game was a lot tougher than it should’ve been.
UNLV 28, San Diego State 10
We scored a touchdown in the opening minute of the game, and that set the tone. The Aztecs tied it up at 7 apiece, but that’s pretty much all they could muster. Our defense stepped up again. The freshman trio of defensive tackles Ernest Nelson and Anthony Thorne and strong safety Avery Edwards have really turned this defense around. San Diego State has a top 10 running game, but they were held to less than 100 yards on the ground. It seems we’re hitting on all cylinders now.
Well, we made it through the season undefeated and are playing Colorado State in the Mountain West Championship game. Our ranking right now is #3 in the nation. The only other undefeated teams in the country are #1 Florida State and #2 Miami. They will play each other in the ACC Championship game and one of them will fall in the rankings. So as long as we win our game, we will probably be in the national championship. This isn’t realistic at all and I know we don’t deserve to be there. We’ll probably get blown out and the pundits will be all over us. All we can do is play our games. Blame the committee I guess.
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