Central Arkansas

[jneal318]

Great start to the game, driving right down the field! Let's keep it up Demons!!!!

[jneal318]

Proud of this team tonight, a lot of fight on homecoming! The defense is coming along.

[purplestorm]

Fast starts mean nothing when you get outscored 31-16 after the fast start.

You can pin this loss squarely on poor coaching decisions and lack of second-half preparation/adjustments:

1. Not ready for on-side kick
2. Failure to adjust to the opponent's adjustments in time in the second-half (been going on ALL year)
3. Going for two when we could have played for OT and given the team a chance to win the game properly

This is piss poor and I feel bad for the players. This kind of "heroic" BS doesn't usually work and these coaches should be called out on it. I don't get it. You're 0-6 and you just toss the game away on a gamble? Sure, we'd be celebrating the conversion had they succeeded, but that's the point ... very few succeed at it. Maybe someone can clarify it for me, but to me we just literally gave a football game away. Makes no sense at all.

[TrackDemon]

I like going for 2. Sends a message we are playing to win. I agreed with that call.

With that said we have to better better with second half adjustments. No excuse for that. Definitely agree with you on that.

Proud of the Demons though. They are definitely fighting.

[purplestorm]

This is not about being proud of our university. I think we're all always proud of them in every facet. Even when we get frustrated over a game, we're still proud. That's not even the issue. Yes, we fought hard, but what message did we send? To whom? Ourselves? Moral victories are for coping with losses; salve for defeat. Nothing else. We royally screwed up by going for two. We also screwed up by going for it on fourth down and not trying a field goal in the second-half. Sure, we missed a FG later from five yards closer, but maybe we hit the other. We'll never know because our coaches chose otherwise. At the end of the game, if we kick the extra-point, we're still playing to win the game. Not going for the FG and then going for two is bravado unfit for coaches of an 0-6 football team. If we were 6-0, 5-1, 4-2 or even 3-3, no big deal. It's easier to live with, but we haven't won a football game all year, so it looks quite amateurish, egotistical and careless right now. We'll never know if we could have won this game because the coaches chose not to extend the game. And at 0-7, calls like that should be heavily scrutinized.

[TrackDemon]

I agree with you. Nothing about this season is acceptable. While we respectfully disagree on the 2 point attempt there are still plenty of coaching decisions that need to be scrutinized

Simply put. We are not making the choices we need to make to win. Close doesn’t count. A 1 point loss is no different than a 50 point loss. As a program moral victories are never acceptable

Something isn’t working and this is the lowest our program has ever been

[purplestorm]

Well-said. Even though we are visibly playing better over the past two weeks, I think when you haven't won a game all year that you should give yourself the "best" chance to win the game. For me, that was going to OT. Mute point now. As for the season, if it is not HEAVILY scrutinized when it's over, we're not serious about our football program. I don't know any university in the country that would be OK with being 0-7. Not one.

[Cajundemon11]

I would’ve liked to see us kick the extra point and extend the game, personally. I’m all for being aggressive but that was not the right situation in my personal opinion.


Although our kicking game is so abysmal that had we missed the extra point I think that would’ve been more heartbreaking.

[purplestorm]

So, I talked to a very good friend today who is a football coach. He said Laird and company absolutely made the right call last night. He listened to my reasoning as to why I thought it was a bit cavalier and his words were, "Son, you're not a football coach, so you're not going to understand, but if I'm in Laird's shoes, I make that call almost EVERY time." I asked him why and he said, "You're 0-6, you're team is having a hard time stopping them in the second-half. You make a decision to take your chance, tell the team you believe in them and no matter how it turns out, that's your decision and you'll all live with it." He also said, "I know Laird. He's very sharp and knows the game. Trust him, support him and stick with him and he'll get the program where it needs to be. The program has been way down and it's not going to miraculously go from being way down to playoff contenders overnight. That takes time, hard work and some luck every now and again. Luck wasn't on NSU's side last night, but what it it were? You'd be very happy today." So, I was put in my place by a 70-something year-old who has forgotten more about football than I'll ever know. That said, we best forget about this quickly as 5-2 Incarnate Word awaits. Peace.

[Cajundemon11]

I have a family member who coaches football at the high school level and I asked and he said the rule of thumb in that situation is “go for the win on the road, kick the xp at home”.


But it’s situational, you can make a strong argument either way.


We have the perspective of hindsight.