MGN Dynasty: A Rivalry Win
5-4 and climbing up the standings
Last we left you your favorite head coach, “MGN MeanGreenNation” was recovering from a 0-4 start to the season. A couple of tweaks later — a couple of new formations, a depth chart switch, and some adjustments to the defense (not to mention a softer schedule) and we are now winners of five straight. It was four straight heading into the UT-San Antonio game. Much like the real-life basketball squad, the conference schedule is weak-sauce and I will have to hope the game helps me out, SEC-style.
We faced a soft UTSA squad, but this game always likes to make everyone better for my benefit. Their RB is one I recruited, and he has ridiculous break-tackle ability. Coincidently, despite my defense being very good they are pretty average in the tackling department. Also, our man-coverage is suspect at the safety spot and so I have to call more zones. That means I have guys in space needing to absolutely come down and make tackles. It is hit-or-miss. I’ve given up a lot of long scores this way. It is very Jackson-in-the-First Responder Bowl like stuff. We still are a good defense, but I had to adjust from my normal playstyle of going man-to-man and bringing pressure to sitting back and also mixing in some fire-zones.
This game doesn’t let you do a lot of stunts and shifts or stems and so you can’t really get a whole lot of simulated pressures or just good four-man pressure without bringing some actual blitzes. That’s fine, and we have adjusted. Still, next recruiting cycle I will spend some time finding tacklers. It kind of sucks that you can’t spend some experience points specifically on your staff to improve that or something. That would be more fun — compared to the weird coaching tree thing. Like, give me an option to spend practice time coaching up tackling, etc. Also, let me fill out my staff to balance all that out. So I can be an Eric Morris who is a QB guru and can do all kinds of offense stuff but I need to find a good DC to coach up that side of the ball.
The Game
First quarter? 7-0 good guys. We walk down the field, and I’m killing things with my new formations. I added a couple of true-five wide things the weeks previous, but also a Trips HB Wk before this week. I got rid of the Trips Y-Iso mostly because I didn’t like the TE split wide, and it hasn’t been a Mike Leach thing for a long time. Drew Piscopo, an Air Raid guy and the dude who helped with the Air Raid playbook for the game said he didn’t like it either. Satisfied that I wasn’t the only one, I dropped it. Anyway, we walk down the field with some of those plays I added and practiced. RZ Dusty, RZ Cross Dub, Return Sail were all money. I also just used some normal Air Raid staples (617) to score.
2nd Quarter? We throw two terrible INTs. One because I led the WR the wrong way on a stick route. The second was just like the bowl game where I threw the WR screen badly. We also had a TOD because of drops. Yes, another six drops in this one for the good guys. UTSA scores 20, we score another 7. No big deal as we are controlling the game and if it weren’t for missed tackles (9 broken tackles for their backs on 11 carries) and the turnovers we would be winning.
We go down and score to start the third. They score again but miss the two-pointer. We get our own turnover after scoring before this to make it 29 (got a two-pointer) —>
Yes, that is my transfer from UTSA getting a sack/fumble. We score again to make it 36 and they get a last-second, lipstick-on-a-pig score to make it 36-33.
Recruiting
Somehow UTSA is at the top of the recruiting standings by getting 10 3-star dudes. I have only six commits, but one is a five-star and four are 4-stars. I am rebuilding my defense - -focussing on DEs. I need some secondary guys and have only three-star guys available to me at corner, but I’m trying to get some four-star free safeties that I can convert. It is mostly about adding depth in the right spots. I’m mostly excited about the receiving running backs I have lined up.
Future
Army (sucks, I won’t make too much mention of them unless something amazing happens), Temple (solid in this game at 7-3), and ECU (bad). Round out my schedule. I’m 5-0 in the league and it would take a ridiculous couple of losses to be out of the AAC title game at this point. Another win and I should be good.
Fake coach quote:
I’m proud of our guys. We haven’t done anything yet, our goals are still in front of us and we have to keep this same attitude and focus to accomplish what we want. The season obviously didn’t start the way we wanted but I’m proud of our guys for stepping up and being focused and taking care of business. We have to keep that going.