UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

[UCABEARS75]

First of all many thanks to the Chain Gang and Jacks Links group who both showed us so much hospitality at their tail gate parties.

I have not attended as many games at as many different stadiums as Cap'n Cat, but I have been to hundreds of college football games in the south.  I thought the atmosthere and tailgating was better than we experienced at Ill. State earlier this year.

The pre-game atmosphere at SDSU last Saturday was the best I have seen at the D-Iaa or D-II level.  Like the Cap'n said very good party atmosphere but inclusive for the kids.

At the game itself the SDSU fans were awsome.  Polite and knowledgable; cheered loud and hard and at appropriate times.

The band was among the best I have seen.  Their half-time performance was not so different from what UCA's might have been but during the game itself is where they distinguished themselves.

As for the game itself, this shows once again that football games are won in the trenches.  I believe the two teams matched up pretty well at most positions with one glaring exception-offensive line.  Your OL was significantly better than our OL.  Our skilll people are pretty good but our QB, who is very good, had virtually no time to operate.

It was a hard fought game and the best team won.

We do lose a significant number of seniors this year.  However, over 40% of our current scholarship allocation is being utilized by true freshmen.  Some of these freshmen are contributing some now but most are being redshirted.  I hope that as we continue through our transition process (we are 2 years behind ya'll) we can do as well as you have.   Should we have another year or two of recruiting like we had last year we should be OK.

So how does it feel to be SLC champions?

Best of luck to the Jacks for the balance of the season.  I look forward to the return trip next year and I sincerely hope we can play often in the future.  You guys are a class act.

p.s.  Regarding the dancing around, etc. by the players before the game, no disrespect intended, it's just a southern thing.

[Jacks02]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

Thanks for the kind words UCABEARS75, great to hear you had a good time!

[Capn_Cat]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

Great to meet ya, too, 75!

[UCABEARS75]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

It is not that far down to Conway, I make the drive to Northfield, MN once or twice per year.

Ya'll come on down next year, you too Cap'n, maybe it will be 105 or so.

[Jacks99]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

First of all many thanks to the Chain Gang and Jacks Links group who both showed us so much hospitality at their tail gate parties.

I have not attended as many games at as many different stadiums as Cap'n Cat, but I have been to hundreds of college football games in the south.  I thought the atmosthere and tailgating was better than we experienced at Ill. State earlier this year.

The pre-game atmosphere at SDSU last Saturday was the best I have seen at the D-Iaa or D-II level.  Like the Cap'n said very good party atmosphere but inclusive for the kids.

At the game itself the SDSU fans were awsome.  Polite and knowledgable; cheered loud and hard and at appropriate times.
The band was among the best I have seen. Their half-time performance was not so different from what UCA's might have been but during the game itself is where they distinguished themselves.

As for the game itself, this shows once again that football games are won in the trenches.  I believe the two teams matched up pretty well at most positions with one glaring exception-offensive line.  Your OL was significantly better than our OL.  Our skilll people are pretty good but our QB, who is very good, had virtually no time to operate.

It was a hard fought game and the best team won.

We do lose a significant number of seniors this year.  However, over 40% of our current scholarship allocation is being utilized by true freshmen.  Some of these freshmen are contributing some now but most are being redshirted.  I hope that as we continue through our transition process (we are 2 years behind ya'll) we can do as well as you have.   Should we have another year or two of recruiting like we had last year we should be OK.

So how does it feel to be SLC champions?

Best of luck to the Jacks for the balance of the season.  I look forward to the return trip next year and I sincerely hope we can play often in the future.  You guys are a class act.

p.s.  Regarding the dancing around, etc. by the players before the game, no disrespect intended, it's just a southern thing.

Surprising comments???

[Capn_Cat]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

[quote author=UCABEARS75 link=1160488435/0#0 date=1160488435]First of all many thanks to the Chain Gang and Jacks Links group who both showed us so much hospitality at their tail gate parties.

I have not attended as many games at as many different stadiums as Cap'n Cat, but I have been to hundreds of college football games in the south.  I thought the atmosthere and tailgating was better than we experienced at Ill. State earlier this year.

The pre-game atmosphere at SDSU last Saturday was the best I have seen at the D-Iaa or D-II level.  Like the Cap'n said very good party atmosphere but inclusive for the kids.

At the game itself the SDSU fans were awsome.  Polite and knowledgable; cheered loud and hard and at appropriate times.
The band was among the best I have seen. Their half-time performance was not so different from what UCA's might have been but during the game itself is where they distinguished themselves.

As for the game itself, this shows once again that football games are won in the trenches.  I believe the two teams matched up pretty well at most positions with one glaring exception-offensive line.  Your OL was significantly better than our OL.  Our skilll people are pretty good but our QB, who is very good, had virtually no time to operate.

It was a hard fought game and the best team won.

We do lose a significant number of seniors this year.  However, over 40% of our current scholarship allocation is being utilized by true freshmen.  Some of these freshmen are contributing some now but most are being redshirted.  I hope that as we continue through our transition process (we are 2 years behind ya'll) we can do as well as you have.   Should we have another year or two of recruiting like we had last year we should be OK.

So how does it feel to be SLC champions?

Best of luck to the Jacks for the balance of the season.  I look forward to the return trip next year and I sincerely hope we can play often in the future.  You guys are a class act.

p.s.  Regarding the dancing around, etc. by the players before the game, no disrespect intended, it's just a southern thing.

 Surprising comments???
[/quote]


Ya know, 99, the only thing that concerned me was the rather "unkempt" nature of the tailgating area north of Coughlin. Sheeit, I almost broke my ankle in those petrified tire ruts! Suggestion to SDSU Grounds, for the future - blacktop that entire area, take out the woods, flatten the rock and dirt piles and mow down some of them trees and weeds! They're hazards and breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other critters.

Still, a terrific weekend with terrific people!

;D

[GoJacks]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

So how does it feel to be SLC champions?

No disrespect intended to the teams we have played from the Southland Conference, The only CHAMPIONSHIP the matters to me it the Great West Conference championship!! Time to strap it up and go get it.

You guys are a class act.

We have always heard that our teams are very respectful and polite during away games.  I have heard positive comments from the hotel staff in Missoula and if memory serves me correctly an article was written about it when we visited Georgia Southern.  It is nice to know we are at home, too.  It is the main reason I back ($$)  the Jacks.

[UCABEARS75]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

Just congratulating you on your 3-0 sweep of SLC and SLC to be teams.

[MilwaukeeJacksAlum]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

I just wanted to throw out a congrats and a thank you to UCA for beating USD so handily. I am absolutely not throwing salt in the wound here, but the win over UCA was doubly exciting because of the obvious implications about who had the best football team in SD. I, for one, hope UCA wins the rest of their games this season. Good luck the rest of the way.

[jackmd]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

Attended a dinner party last night. About equal numbers of USD supporters and SDSU supporters. USD guys and gals all confident that USD is equal to or better than SDSU athletically. Many of them quoting the loss to UW-L. We, the SDSU contingent, just kind of shook our heads and laughed it off.

A couple of them were commenting on the tailgating experience at USD and just how great it was. They had no idea that USD was only following in our footsteps. Talk about clueless. I wanted to equate it to the move up to DI, but realized any logical argument would be fruitless.

I see UW-L is 4-0 this year. McNeese and Nichols had nice wins this week and UNI and Montana are solid, ranked teams. I think our portfolio is just fine. Best of luck to UCA the remainder of this year.

[UCABEARS75]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

I certainly do not want to get involved in the USD vs. SDSU "competition" or whatever you want to call it.

Both schools have great traditions at D-II, just as we do. This year is showing us two things; (1) we can succeed in the move to D-Iaa and (2) where we need to improve the most/quickest to compete even better, i.e. offensive linemen who are bigger and stronger.

It is extremely difficult to do the comparing scores thing or who played well against whom and then you factor in the who traveled and who was at home and it gets even more difficult.

To be totally honest I see us as a 15-20 points better than USD on a day-in day-out basis because we have more overall team speed. On a day-in day-out basis I see SDSU 7-14 points better than us due to the O-line thing I mentioned previously.

What this means is that USD is a very solid team in their division and I wish them the best the balance of the year. SDSU is a very solid, up and coming D-Iaa transitional team that is moving through their transitional phase very nicely and I hope ya'll win out. UCA is a first year transitional team that is off to a good start and who needs to continue and build upon the first year recruiting class we had last year.

Should USD move up it will indeed be interesting up there and should be good for both programs. One of the few negative things about our move was losing some traditional rivals that we have been playing for decades. I hope we can continue to play teams from you region for years to come because it is fun and because it gives us a chance to see the type and quality of football played in other regions.

Our team was built the past 7 or 8 years or so with the type athletes we needed to compete with UNA and Valdosta, which emphasized speed and the skill positions. To get better at the D-Iaa level we have to add size and strength while maintaining our speed.

Best of luck to all of ya'll, you are nice people and have a great thing going at SDSU.

[Haldersham]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

UCABEAR75:

I believe SDSU is on your schedule for next year. Maybe it would be enlightening to tell us some about the Conway area of Arkansas. I have been wanting to reach for the Rand McNally and find out for myself where it is located in terms of Little Rock and other cities in Arkanasas. As the title of the school indicates, it would appear Conway is near the center of the state. Beyond that I am lost.

I would be interested in knowing how the 63 scholarships were funded in the first year of D1AA. Do you have some corporate sponsors or is it the result of generous alums who strongly supported the idea.

I might consider a trip down that for next year's game. Sorry I did not get to met you.

[UCABEARS75]

Re: UCABEAR75 TRIP TO BROOKINGS

UCABEAR75:

I believe SDSU is on your schedule for next year. Maybe it would be enlightening to tell us some about the Conway area of Arkansas. I have been wanting to reach for the Rand McNally and find out for myself where it is located in terms of Little Rock and other cities in Arkanasas. As the title of the school indicates, it would appear Conway is near the center of the state. Beyond that I am lost.

I would be interested in knowing how the 63 scholarships were funded in the first year of D1AA.  Do you have some corporate sponsors or is it the result of generous alums who strongly supported the idea.

I might consider a trip down that for next year's game. Sorry I did not get to met you.

You are correct, Conway Arkansas is pretty much in the center of the state. It is about 25-30 miles northwest of Little Rock right on I-40. I drove up there last week and it is not a bad drive, about 800 miles virtually all interstate. The portion of Arkansas you will drive through is the NW part of the state which is hilly and very scenic, the colors should be nice next November as our color change is several weeks behind yours. By the way, I see on the weather channel ya'll are experiencing quite a change from last Saturday.

We have a very progressive/aggressive administration at UCA. When we made the decision to go D-I there was a very strong committment by the administration, alumni, students, and the community to go as close to full scholarships from the beginning. We added track and cross country a year ago in anticipation of the move to become D-I as far as number of sports is concerned.

The move to 63, or close, scholarhips this year was accomplished by (1) rewarding some returning players with increased scholarhip aid, (2) giving some aid to some of this year's redshirt freshmen who walked on last year and were deserving, and (3) having a very big incoming freshmen class, many of whom are redshirting.

Next year we will have room for a full, or near full, freshmen class again due to the number of seniors who are graduating. While we are graduating a large number of seniors this year who have been good players for us, we will also be returning a great number of lettermen who are contributing greatly this year. This fact, combined with the large number we are redshirting this year, should make us pretty strong in 2-4 years, assuming we have a good recruiting class again next year. How good we will be in 2007 is anybody's guess but our QB, all RB's and most of our receivers will be back as will a few interior linemen on both sides of the ball.

Our biggest needs to fill will be DE, OL, linebackers, and secondary.