FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[rmc1982]

Well it was nice that W&L won their opener for the first time in close to a decade. I can't, for the life of me, understand W&L scheduling. 

You are an option team, mostly. The whole point is that it's a gimmick that teams don't get to practice against. 1) Scheduling another option team, Salisbury, defeats the whole purpose.

2) You know the hardest games will be those with teams with extra practice time. You can't do anything about when teams have bye weeks, but for the love of all that is holy, schedule a genuinely bad team for week 1. Because they get a ton of extra practice before the game, it's brutally hard for the gimmick to work.

I don't care about SOS. You have to make the playoffs for that to matter, and starting 0-1 in the ODAC is a tough mountain to climb. Either win the conference at that point, or you are basically done with 2 losses anyway.

The dumbest of all? Let's combine both issues. Until this year we opened 3 straight years with Salisbury who is both very good, and a team whose defense plays against the option every day in practice. It is one of the most consistently idiotic things I've seen the athletic department do.

This year we eeked past a Wittenberg team that was not good last year and probably won't be great this year. But with lots of practice they had no problems throttling our offense.

We just need to be smarter. Schedule someone soft week 1. And drop Salisbury from the schedule! Hopefully this 4th game is the last in a series we've lost by 3 scores each of the last 3 years.

While I agree that for you guys its not the smartest thing in the world to schedule another option team early I disagree that it would be better to schedule "cupcakes" that pad your schedule early just to get wins. Non conference games should be as challenging as possible to toughen your team for the upcoming conference schedule-PLUS they are good at the end of the season should you make the playoffs. It may determine whether or not you get sent to a North Central or a Johns Hopkins to start the playoffs, provided you don't get beaten too badly. We at RMC could end up 0-3 at the end of the first three weeks but we will be much better off having played Dickinson, Johns Hopkins, and Maryville to start our season before ODAC conference play starts instead of beating three "cupcakes" and not proving anything, really, except you beat three teams you should have beaten anyway. The PLUS side of this is just MAYBE we'll make a better showing of ourselves this weekend vs the Blue Jays and maybe beat Maryville and come out of this battle hardened but 1-2. Should we be fortunate enough to make the playoffs then we will get sent on the road but maybe not to one of those top tier schools to start off with. The problem with our conference is that, in the minds of the NCAA committee and alot of the commentators on here especially is that we don't play a tougher non conference schedule as a whole and it hurts us nationally. If we want to gain respectability on a National level we need to play tougher non conference teams. In W&L's case it may make more sense NOT to schedule Triple Option teams, however!

[jknezek]

While I agree that for you guys its not the smartest thing in the world to schedule another option team early I disagree that it would be better to schedule "cupcakes" that pad your schedule early just to get wins. Non conference games should be as challenging as possible to toughen your team for the upcoming conference schedule-PLUS they are good at the end of the season should you make the playoffs. It may determine whether or not you get sent to a North Central or a Johns Hopkins to start the playoffs, provided you don't get beaten too badly. We at RMC could end up 0-3 at the end of the first three weeks but we will be much better off having played Dickinson, Johns Hopkins, and Maryville to start our season before ODAC conference play starts instead of beating three "cupcakes" and not proving anything, really, except you beat three teams you should have beaten anyway. The PLUS side of this is just MAYBE we'll make a better showing of ourselves this weekend vs the Blue Jays and maybe beat Maryville and come out of this battle hardened but 1-2. Should we be fortunate enough to make the playoffs then we will get sent on the road but maybe not to one of those top tier schools to start off with. The problem with our conference is that, in the minds of the NCAA committee and alot of the commentators on here especially is that we don't play a tougher non conference schedule as a whole and it hurts us nationally. If we want to gain respectability on a National level we need to play tougher non conference teams. In W&L's case it may make more sense NOT to schedule Triple Option teams, however!

I agree and disagree. I have a problem with a week 1 "tough" team. It just doesn't work with an option team. Too much practice takes away the "great leveling" effect of an odd scheme. Just schedule the ok or worse team. It doesn't have to be a complete cupcake. Doesn't have to be bottom of the USASAC type team, just someone relatively unremarkable. Week 2 or 3? Knock yourself out and play a tough team if you think it will help, but not another option team.

I'm fine with Wittenberg as the opener. They aren't all that good, or at least they weren't last year and they didn't look that good last weekend. But they had no problem stuffing W&L's offense. That level of competition week 1? That's fine. You'll win some, lose some. My problem with the schedule this year is we are in our 4th year with Salisbury, and I'm praying it's the end. If it was a 4 year contract then fine. It was what it was when we desperately needed to find an OOC opponent because the ODAC was/is in flux. But learn from it and don't do it again if it can be avoided. I do realize finding 3 OOC games is a challenge, and I am happy whenever Apprentice is not on the schedule.

And I guess I'll take back my Week 1 comment for Salisbury. If you have to play them, you might as well Week 1. It's not like they are going to get less practice against the option as the season goes on, and then you get teams where the option is a shock in weeks 2 and 3. Didn't help against Witt last year, but that was also on the road.

We will see how Gettysburg goes. Honestly, I refuse to pay for Flo, so I have no idea if W&L is better or worse than they've been the last few years. Senior QB helps, defense is strong. No idea about the rest. But I'm hopeful for a 2-0 start and another competitive ODAC run.

I have no idea if Gettysburg is any good. Seemed like an easy win last weekend, but Juniata hasn't been any good in forever. On the other hand, the Bullets have been putrid for more than a decade, as they haven't won more than 2 games in a season since 2017. Be nice for W&L to get an OOC road win. Last one of those came back in 2023 if you don't count the Bowl games.

The Jackets have held up the top end of the conference with a great run. The consistent quality has been impressive. But I feel like this might be the year someone gets them for the first time in a long time.

[y_jack_lok]

^^^ If all you are really interested in is football, then paying for Flo isn't worth it. I bit the bullet last year because I've always been a dedicated RMC hoops fan as well as having gotten into football a decade or so ago, plus I will tune in to some women's volleyball matches, some softball and baseball, and an occasional soccer game and men's volleyball.

As for the Jackets on the gridiron this season, I think we will have a better idea after the Maryville game on 9/19. It will be hard to judge based on the result vs Johns Hopkins this Saturday as it is likely to be a lopsided win for Hopkins. If not, then either RMC got better fast, or Hopkins is over-rated. And we'll have pay attention to the other ODAC teams to see how much they've closed the gap. It's surely worth keeping an eye on Roanoke, H-SC, and Shenandoah. Bridgewater's shutout loss last Saturday was a surprise. Gotta wonder what the cause of that was.

[rmc1982]

I think we all agree that this is the year for someone else to step up but never ever count Pedro out!! My 94 year old 2nd cousin "Bunky" Keeton '58 in better shape than I ever will be, and he owns an 8 acre ponderosa over in Montpelier,Va about 6 miles from the COTU AND WAS A football AND  baseball star at RMC in the 50's told me yesterday when I spoke with him about coming by my tailgate/ going up to YJ Club...."Pedro hates to LOSE worse than he loves to WIN, and that's a BIG THING! he'll have em more ready in Ashland Saturday" Coming from a former head coach in the Richmond area for the better part of 20 -30 years I'd say that was a fair assessment. Now we very well may get out A**es kicked but I bet we play better than we did last week.... Like my friend says, next week vs Maryville may be a better indicator going into conference play!

[Ralph Turner]

Do any ODAC followers want to participate in the South Region Fan Poll?

PM me if you wish to submit a ballot with your top 7 schools.