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Big games for Bears....be nice to welcome another former P5 head coach to The Stripes with a loss...Go Bears!!

I'll admit that I don't know who their coach is...
Help me out.

Coach Rich Rodriguez. He was the head coach at LA. Monroe under Terry Bowden choice. Also head coach at Arizona. The game cocks will be a challenge for the Bears. If we win Saturday, then we win the A-SUN conference. I will expect the Bears to be in the playoffs. If not, we need not play in a half conference. We would need to find another conference or move up to C-USA. Here is 4 teams that I wish the A-SUN would reach out to. Delta state, west Georgia, Ut martin, and Tennessee tech. Any comments on this subject?

I know you can't compare wins, but I feel that Eastern Kentucky game tells a ton about the possible outcome..

He was also head coach at West Virginia and Michigan.

Rich Rod has done pretty well as a coach...about $11 million in payouts from Arizona and West Virgina per Mr Google plus whatever Michigan paid...any payouts from ULM would just be some walking money as they say in east Arkansas....

Win/loss records at WVU, UM and AU was 118-83 overall but only 15-22 at The Big House...more than respectable combined....

As to additions to ASUN.....my understanding is that the intent of the ASUN was to add football and become a top tier FCS conference...those today are Missouri Valley, Big 12, Colonial and Southern....Southland was probably at that level before the debacle....OVC is not, in my opinion, but with revival at SEMO and Lindenwood's arrival to go with UTM, it should get much better....

UCA, APU and EKU make for a solid core...given UNA's tradition I assume they will get to that level as well in a couple years....had not JSU and KSU decided to move to CUSA ASUN still needed 2-3 more....now it needs 4-5...will not be easy...

UTM would be a good addition in football.....SEMO would also....however, why would they leave OVC for a startup ASUN and add greatly to their travel...OVC already has 7 and could use 1-2 more ....UCA certainly makes sense geographically...

Peeling the teams off Southern Conference and OVC that upgrade ASUN will not be easy.....Big South would add even more travel to UCA and to me and does not add much to ASUN football......

The wildcard in D1 football is what the P5 do and how that affects G5 conferences and better FCS teams...well above my paygrade but ...no surprise...it is about money and how it gets split....

TOs and Penalties decide close games....
From HS to the NFL

It’s one thing to get beat by better athletes, quite another to just shoot yourself in the foot. Nathan Brown is not the answer. We are mired in mediocrity. This is not UCA football

Disappointing loss for sure. 4 lost fumbles spell TROUBLE for any team.
Quite a few bright spots emerged from a less than desirable season.

QB seemed to finally get comfortable in the offense.
Another RB has stepped up and is a major threat both running and receiving.
Couple of wide receivers stepped up.
Need a couple more pieces on Defense.

Been a long time since UCA has finished 5-6 in back to back years...
Next season will be a critical year for the BEARS.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING...
GO BEARS

An extremely disappointing year. Two losing seasons in a row is not an acceptable representation of the great Bear Tradition. While I applaud the shared conference championship, I’m not sure how to qualify a 3 way tie with only five eligible teams.

Slow Q1 starts continue to hurt the Bears. Last night Q1 featured two fumbles, a blocked punt, a safety, two personal foul penalties and zero points.
As a famous coach once said, “you are what you’re record says you are!”
Bears are 5-6.

Lots to do in the off season.

Yes, it is time for a change and I hate it. Nathan is a good, solid man.
He is not a head coach. This season was nothing short of disappointing.
A change needs to be made, but I feel certain nothing will be done as long as
Teague is the AD.

FCS Playoff bracket: https://www.ncaa.com/news/football/arti ... el-history

apparently the social media accounts with the university are celebrating a 3-way tie for “first” with 5 other schools. back to back losing seasons and this is what we’re doing. i’m embarrassed

Frustrating game for sure....McElvain had a very good game passing and made some big runs for first downs...he also threw a couple passes over the middle that were blocked or tipped....I cannot imagine he could see beyond the line on those...plus a 61 yard punt....Kylin James was outstanding and Myles Butler and Jarrod Barnes were terrific...Walker was all over the place and the DBs made some terrific breakups...while the o-line had great difficulty run blocking they gave McElvain enough time to get the ball downfield except for a couple sacks....JSU's defensive line was among the best we played this season...the blocked punt must have been a missed block but I could not see....we were lucky not to be hurt much by that as the kickoff after the block put JSU further back than a good punt from the endzone...Hale was obviously not at full speed and it seemed Smith did not play much...the two fumbles on the KO returns were caused by ferocious tackles by JSU which had lots of those last night...I'll give them credit as their LBs and DBs were very good tacklers....plays that we normally get 8-10 yards on went for 2-3 quite often...they were almost begging us to fair catch KOs but we kept trying to run back and paid a price... I think they lead FCS, or near the top, in ST TOs....as for the long QB run up the middle where were the LBs?...the DEs had solid contain which is why he took off up the middle....I suppose the LBs were distracted by some eye candy and had their back to the middle....I was very impressed with the very large JSU lineman who ran behind the QB all the way down the field...the fumble recovery in the endzone was just bad luck as we made a great hit to shake the ball loose at the 2 and came so close to recovering the ball.....even all the mistakes in 2nd half we really slowed down their offense and I thought we were could make it a last possession game...just too many little mistakes that stopped drives.....JSU is pretty good with lots of speed...WR Michael Pettway, a RS freshman, was a difference maker with 3 receptions for 73 yards and each catch seemed to be a big play to get out of trouble....he also recovered the fumble in the endzone.....the two RBs were hard to get down and combined ran for about 140....we have certainly played better passing QBs but he kept us off balance with QB runs.....even though he had more than 130 rushing almost half was in the long run with what had to be a busted defensive play...otherwise he only averaged about 3 yds per run...it will be interesting to see how they do vs CUSA teams when they move on...JSU has a good size fan base in Alabama and a long tradition of winning...it was good to see us try to use the TEs more.....Eldridge caught a short one and they went to him on a medium route plus a long route down the west sidelines....kudos to Hayden Ray from becoming UCA recordholder for made FGs and made PATs...and with ever game on The Stripes I learn a new officiating call......this time an inadvertent whistle that did not stop play.....I find it very hard to believe the replay could tell when the whistle was blown to allow for overturning the official who blew the whistle and called the play a dead ball...and, no surprise, with 3rd and 1+ at about the J31 (directly in front of me), our RB clearly hit the ground just shy of the 30 and the official comes in and moves the ball back to the 31..on 4th and 1 we were stopped short...

Thanks to our seniors for their efforts, dedication and accomplishments on the field and best wishes in the next stage of their lives...

It does not get any easier next year with games at Stillwater and Fargo...hopefully the offense will get off to a better start next year with McElvain well ingrained in the offense now and the RBs and WRs made big progress this season......keep working

GO Bears!!

PS...no marketing department at any athletic department would write the game story as "we were only 5-6" when they could say "we tied for the championship"...just like a corporate press release the audience is not for those who pay attention but rather for those who only read headlines...