if anyone paid attention to our coaching staff throughout the season, there was never any ounce of panic. I feel like they knew their personnel and what they could accomplish. The youth arguments from coach earlier in the season probably carried a lot more weight than one would like to admit.
Also, I love what appears to be such a business-trip attitude about our players now. We're not seeing as much excessive celebration and antics after simple tackles and touchdowns. They are taking care of business and going home (at least more than they have in a long time). I've never seen a team grow up so much throughout the course of a season.
watch out for this team the next few years....smart play calling and decisions. Get rid of the false starts and special teams issues and we have a really good thing going
our guys look pretty composed and you can tell they are coached well...in the right spots on the court. Lawson needs to play smarter. He's the only athlete on the court that is anywhere near as athletic as the Ohio guys.
can watch via Ohio stream... WAY more ball movement than last few years. Good job rebounding and being in position....need to make more shots, need Obacha and Tab to play (no idea why Tab is out today)
and Jaylan Barbour, who started from day one this year is not even playing. Is he out for the season?
I feel like we're looking at being a pretty strong Sun Belt team in 2-3 years. Who knows, we might knock someone off on the road in the next couple of weeks...formidable challenges, but not impossible with the plays Satterfield has been calling lately. We might throw some teams off with the variety of possibilities with our offense. D has been stepping up big time. Nate Woody needs some shout outs. It seems like Satt never credits him in interviews.
Ole Miss and LSU are not on par with UNC academically. Alabama might be a little closer. I know 3 people who went to LSU years ago and one of them told me in person that LSU was nowhere close to UNC as far as admissions or academic rep after I asked if it was the UNC of Louisiana.
Students still attend Rice for strong academic programs and/or because they can afford the price tag. Kids in NC will still attend Appalachian because it is a get-away school for the piedmont, the many outdoor offerings, and/or because they didn't get accepted at UNC. Let's face it, most of our students come from NC, and will continue to attend ASU for the same reasons. Also, just because US News or a another major publication has a school at a certain national ranking doesn't mean you get a better education there. My brother in law says that my wife and I got a better education than he did at UNC...says he felt like he was just a #. My wife turned down UNC to attend App. National-research institution does not mean better education....not that you ever implied that. I just wanted to make that point. I would think that ASU's location alone would somewhat prevent us from becoming a "national research institution". Maybe I'm wrong.
Again, I don't disagree with you at all. But, I think we tried to go for C-USA, which includes Rice, and did include Tulsa, Tulane and other excellent schools. But, all of those schools are in or near major media markets,, hence the apparent reasoning behind why they did not want us, unless you believe the theory that Cobb blew it, was too late, etc. I don't think that Rice has a diminished academic rep based on having being associated with ECU, UAB, Southern Miss, etc. Most of the schools in other FBS conferences seem to be national, research type schools. The Sun Belt has "regional" schools in not-so major media markets per-se. I doubt the Sun Belt was a super long-term goal for us. But, I don't know much about the inside workings of the decision. I too would like for Appalachian to be associated with better academic institutions. I just don't where we fit in, currently.
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