joannes3000

LMAO!!! I love how it takes exactly 3 seconds for Berman to drop the first bomb (GD variety). I didn't even have a chance to prepare myself for the tirade that followed.

As mentioned in my Rockne thread: I've got a very interesting change coming this offseason to report. Having had much success with using the Pro set, I have decided to go full tilt with a balanced offensive attack and will be implementing the I form as well. I have been consulting with a HOF coach and over the span of two days that we spoke, he won a NC with a team running a balanced attack. With Temple still very well in rebuild mode, now is a perfect time to install an offense this radically different.

Game 10 has us on the road against West Virginia. We were a 15.5 point dog and showed why. We ran for 40/0 and passed for 416/1/1. Our offense put up 456 yards and our defense allowed 632. 20-52 L We traveled further up north and got beaten even worse by a UCONN team that is headed to the NC game for the 3rd time in 4 years! We ran for 58/0 and passed for 183/1/1. Our offense put up 241 yards and our defense allowed 549. 10-63 L We headed home after one beatdown and caught another; this time by the other powerhouse in the division - Syracuse. We ran for 81/0 and passed for 226/1/1. Our offense put up 307 yards and our defense allowed 668. 63-10 L Our final game of the season (mercifully) was against a motivated Rutgers team trying to improve their bowl bid. Our late-season tailspin aided that cause. We ran for 80/2 and passed for 253/1/0. Our offense put up 333 yards and our defense allowed 537. 49-21 L ----------- Mission accomplished for season one of the rebuild. We notched one win; ensuring that my job security doesn't go down since we "improved" from last season's winless campaign. I had 12 losses over the past 4 seasons prior to Temple, and I managed to match that loss total in one season here. Ouch. I've got a very interesting change coming this offseason to report. Having had much success with using the Pro set, I have decided to go full tilt with a balanced offensive attack and will be implementing the I form as well. I have been consulting with a HOF coach and over the span of two days that we spoke, he won a NC with a team running a balanced attack. With Temple still very well in rebuild mode, now is a perfect time to install an offense this radically different. In fact, I'll be switching to the same offense at Duke! ------------ Season 2 of this rebuild should fare a little better. I've got a much softer OOC slate, having scheduled 4 currently sim-coached teams and one human-coached team. Our conference schedule will always be brutal, and we can all but count on 2 losses at the hands of division powers UCONN and Syracuse for the foreseeable future. I'd like to think that we can at least tack on 2 additional wins next season, based on having another recruiting class on board. With a half-assembled squad, I could've beaten Kansas and SMU this season - teams I lost to by 1 score. My early prediction for next season's win total will be a conservative 3 wins, given the fact that we will be installing a relatively new offense.

Our conference slate tips off on the road against Louisville, which will likely be our only win of the season. We ran for 424/5 and passed for 98/1/0. Our offense put up 522 yards and our defense allowed 271. It was nice to know we can still dominate teams we're supposed to. 45-17 W South Florida comes calling next, and we're back to our (expected) losing ways. We ran for 50/0 and passed for 195/1/1. Our offense put up 245 yards and our defense allowed 502. 45-10 L Our next home game against Colorado State was a good indicator of our team's makeup. We played tough for one half (17-21), but didn't have the depth to stay competitive in the 2nd half. We ran for 93/0 and passed for 326/2/1. Our offense put up 419 yards and our defense allowed 440. 48-23 L Pittsburgh is first on our divisional slate, and they had no problem beating us. We ran for 79/1 and passed for 258/1/1. Our offense put up 337 yards and our defense allowed 541. 45-20 L ------------ Well, we managed to meet year one's expectations with a win against Louisville. The remaining games will likely be one-sided defeats, which I expected as well. It's going to be a long time waiting until next season... ------------ 1/28/08 at West Virginia 1/29/08 at #3 Connecticut 1/30/08 #16 Syracuse 1/31/08 Rutgers

And it was painful to watch us literally melt down going into the 4th quarter. Just before the 3rd quarter started I told my wife that we'd be lucky to go into the 4th with a 10 point lead since we have a tendency to forget to play the 2nd half. Sure enough, we limped into the 4th quarter with a 10 point lead and I started having an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Right around the time Law got extended minutes at the point, you could see the team slowing down and I could see the game getting out of hand. We looked completely bored out there, settling into what I guess you could call our halfcourt offense, which consisted of poor spacing around the perimeter, missed passes that could've lead to easy backdoor buckets, and generally uninspired basketball. It wasn't until the Blazers had gotten a full head of steam, and by that time it was too late, did we put our starting 5 back in. I'll give the Blazers a lot of credit, because they played the way we should be able to play. Even out of their halfcourt sets, there was a lot of movement and it seemed like somebody was always popping open on the perimeter for an uncontested 3. Which brings up another trend I saw during the game - our lack of defensive pressure. It was disheartening watching Roy get to the basket at will. We definitely helped make his claim to be an all-star, because we looked helpless trying to defend him. And not only was our on-the-ball defense bad, but we didn't seem to care much to provide some help defense when the inevitable happened - Roy crosses over his defender, drives to the bucket, and lays in an easy deuce. Over and over and over and over and over again. Name the player and Roy abused him. Lastly, I don't know how clear it was on TV, but the foul call that sent Roy to the freethrow line for the eventual game-winner was a complete joke. Everybody in our section heard me screaming about the phantom call, and nobody could say anything in response. EVERYBODY knew it was a blown call. Roy schooled his defender like he had been doing the entire quarter, but when he pulled up for the shot, there was NO contact whatsoever. Even the replay showed as much. -------- Things to do: Get another ball-handler capable of keeping the tempo going when AJ isn't on the court. Find a way to stop the dribble penetration that Roy exploited all night long.

Quote: Given the huge talent imbalance it looks like you are putting a scare into some people. Hopefully with another competitive recruiting class next year you will be in positition to pull a few of those off next season. The seniors you will be losing can't be much of a loss. You're absolutely correct. It will be addition by subtraction as players graduate. Keep an eye on Duke, for example. After this recruiting period, 3/4 of the team will be my own guys and I expect us to make a quantum leap in terms of how competitive we are.

I forgot to mention that I got paid a very nice compliment by a fellow Big East coach. huskerbob, the coach at Syracuse, does a Big East commentary during the season and he had this to say after our near-upset against SMU: Quote: 463 total yards can't be ignored. Owls are more competitive than maybe their talent should be. Progress. I also just read this little gem in his Syracuse thread: Quote: Week 12 at Temple The Owls are a huge rebuild job but coach joannes has a track record to suggest it won't take long. While I appreciate these comments coming from a good coach, it's blowing my disguise as an average coach!

Our season opener had us traveling to my old stomping grounds, and the reality of my move set in as we got beat all over the field by Toledo. We ran for 91/1 and passed for 261/1/1. Our offense put up 352 yards and our defense allowed 488. 14-38 L We return home for our opener against a strong Wisconsin team. The game was actually close at halftime (down 14-21), but our complete lack of depth showed down the stretch in the 2nd half. We ran for 94/1 and passed for 278/3/1. Our offense put up 372 yards and our defense allowed 397. Two key giveaways by us could have made the difference in this game. 42-28 L Back on the road, this time in Lawrence to face Kansas. Kansas is in year 3 of a rebuild and this was an opportunity for an upset that we let get away. We tied the game with just over 3 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, only for our defense to give up the game-winning 40 yard FG as time expired. We ran for 138/1 and passed for 284/3/0. Our offense put up 422 yards and our defense allowed 506. 31-34 L We headed south to face SMU in game 4. My game planning skills were showcased here, as we nearly pulled an upset where we had no business even keeping the game close from a talent standpoint. We ran for 163/0 and passed for 300/5/0. Our offense put up 463 yards and our defense allowed 481. 37-45 L We wrapped up our OOC slate with a long trip to Hawaii. We played a fairly complete game, but it's painfully obvious just how little talent I have to work with at this point. We ran for 125/2 and passed for 408/1/0. Our offense put up 533 yards and our defense allowed 496. 24-35 L ----------- With the first 5 games in the books, all losses, I think I'm buckled up for what will easily be the longest season of my coaching career. I haven't had a losing season (in Rockne) since I left DIII Puget Sound 11 seasons ago, but from the looks of it we will struggle to win 2 games. That will be the lowest win total I've posted in my coaching career, with the current low being 3 wins in my very first season of GD. The signs are obvious, too. Just look at the rushing yards I put up each game. Typically, the only time I pass for more yards than I rush for are games where I'm outmatched in terms of player talent. One thing I will get a chance to do this season, however, is refine my passing attack. I'm going to put more of a focus on the passing game and try to make my running game a very complimentary part of our offense. We have a little talent at RB, but clearly we can't run it like I prefer to. ----------- 1/24/08 at Louisville 1/25/08 #11 South Florida 1/26/08 Colorado State 1/27/08 Pittsburgh

Quote: Why did you jump to such an extreme fixer-upper? Is that what was available or just the biggest challenge/upside? [*]Being at a BCS school gives me a slight advantage over non-BCS schools when it comes to recruiting. If two exactly equal schools get into a recruiting battle and put forth the exact same amount of effort, the pecking order goes: non-BCS, BCS, elite. [*]I hadn't recruited from the NE yet, but I've heard it's an extremly nice area in terms of both recruit quality and quantity. This year's recruiting class went a long way of verifying those rumors to be true. [*]While there are two wildly successful schools within my own division (Connecticut, Syracuse), I think I will become a far better coach by playing better coaches and teams. I chose Duke because it was an opportunity to match up against some extremely good coaches and I think I will learn a lot from them. [*]For all the success that Connecticut and Syracuse have had, they are not elites (in terms of recruiting advantages). In fact, the Big East is the only BCS conference that has ZERO elites. Compare that to the Pac-10 where USC is the ONLY elite not only in the conference, but on the entire west coast. The Big East provides a fair chance for everyone to succeed. The longer you survive, the closer to the top you get. [*]I do like the challenge of rebuilding a scrapheap of a team. Again, it's like my newfound desire to match wits with great coaches and teams. My two seasons at Duke have been more fun than my more successful seasons at other schools. And as long as I don't get fired first, it will be extremely rewarding to truly build a team from scratch.

From: John Baxter To: Coach joannes3000 Subject: A bump in the road... Sent: 1/21/08 3:00PM Coach, I know you'll be interested to hear what I just stumbled upon -- Firejoannes3000.com! Just so you know, I think they're overreacting. Of course, a good season next year won't hurt anyone. I'm looking forward to a good year. John Baxter Athletics Director -------- Wow, I guess our two seasons of decent football have awoken the competitive spirits at Duke! My job security has amazingly dropped one notch from Very Secure to Secure, after guiding Duke to their first winning record in 16 seasons. If nothing else, this will serve as motivation for us to not only continue our success but to also take the next step forward, which is a bowl invitation.

Our inaugural season at Temple is going to be similar to what we faced at Duke. This is a team that has some talent in place, but overall is dwarfed by even the also-rans within the conference. Our inherited OOC slate gives very few chances at a win, as we are simply outmatched. In fact, before I resigned at Toledo I scheduled a game against Temple just so I could gauge what kind of mess I've gotten myself into this time. Year one predictions? I'll be happy with one win and will be thrilled with 2. We have one sim team on our slate; a conference game at Louisville. The remaining games are against human coaches and let's face it, even the greatest game plans need some talent to work. ----------- 1/19/08 at Toledo 1/20/08 Wisconsin 1/21/08 at Kansas 1/22/08 at Southern Methodist 1/23/08 at Hawaii

So we would swap JJ for a player 4 years older because?

Quote: Does "work ethic" roughly translate into "potential for improvement"? It's half of the equation. The other half is an actual potential "rating" you get from scouting trips. I don't pay attention to potential at DIA, however, since most DIA-caliber players are likely to hit their ceiling by the time they graduate or declare for the draft; given that they have decent work ethic. I figure a player that grades average will reach their ceiling before they leave, with grades of above average or excellent reaching it MAYBE half a season sooner. Potential is something much more critical at DII and DIAA, where there players still have relatively high ceilings to reach and where teams have enough flexibility with their recruiting budgets to actually take the time (and expense) to scout players that you aren't immediately pursuing.

Just noticed it as I was checking on my teams: If you haven't played Hoops Dynasty before, here's your chance! If you have, get your friends involved now! The first season of HD is now free for new coaches! To get your free season use promocode FREEHD. *Promocode valid for first time HD users only.

To say that I'm pleased with our recruiting this year is an understatement. Being a first-year coach at an abysmal school, we still managed to pull in a terrific class. And while some of it can be attributed to my recruiting ability, I was extremely surprised at just how good recruiting is in the Northeast, both in terms of quantity and quality. --------------- Offense RB Herbert Fink has excellent hands and elusiveness; above average stamina; average speed, work ethic, strength, and technique; and below average athleticism. He should grow into part of a dynamic tandem at RB. RB Miguel Munoz will be the other half of that tandem. He has excellent speed, work ethic, and stamina; above average hands and elusiveness; average technique; and below average athleticism and strength. Munoz could turn into something special with his work ethic. WR Robert McDonald has average speed, work ethic, stamina, elusiveness, and technique; and below average athleticism and hands. WR Robert Galindo is a converted RB with above average speed and stamina; average technique; and below average athleticism, work ethic, hands, and elusiveness. TE Edward Walker has excellent athleticism; average stamina, blocking, and elusiveness; and below average speed, work ethic, strength, hands, and technique. OL George Jones has excellent athleticism, work ethic, and stamina; above average blocking; average strength and game instinct; and below average technique. OL Willie Mitchell has excellent athleticism and stamina; above average game instinct; average strength, blocking, and technique; and below average work ethic. Defense DL Arthur Cole has above average strength; average work ethic, stamina, tackling, game instinct, and technique; and below average athleticism. DL Kevin Stevens has above average stamina and tackling; average athleticism and strength; and below average work ethic, game instinct, and technique. LB Robert James has above average speed and stamina; average strength and tackling; and below average athleticism, work ethic, game instinct, and technique. DB Robert Britt has above average work ethic, stamina, and elusiveness; average speed; and below average athleticism, hands, game instinct, and technique. DB Gary Cantu has average speed, work ethic, stamina, hands, and elusiveness; and below average athleticism, game instinct, and technique. ------------ I only overspent (more than the allotted 15k per scholarship) on two recruits, one of which signed with me. I had about 45k in dead money, which is pretty good considering I was the new coach on the block. In the end, I managed to bank a little over 45k while signing an average class while operating in below average conditions. Recruit rankings pegged our class as the 42nd best in the country. Our class was the best in the division and the 6th best in the conference. Here are the recruit rankings for this season: Syracuse - 9 Connecticut - 28 West Virginia - 32 Pittsburgh - 51 Rutgers - 14 Temple - 42 South Florida - 30 Marquette - 37 Cincinnati - 69 Colorado State - 87 Depaul (sim) - 108 Louisville (sim) - 102

Game 10 brings Georgia Tech to town, and they were kind enough to bring a beatdown as a gift. We ran for 62/0 and passed for 308/1/0. Our offense put up 370 yards and our defense allowed 591. 52-10 L Our next game put us on the road against sim-coached North Carolina and it was business as usual. We ran for 542/6 and passed for 96/2/0. Our offense put up 638 and our defense allowed 221. 58-10 W Game 11 was a home affair against Virginia Tech, our last chance at a win for the season. We were fortunate to win the game, as we literally tried to fumble the game away. We had 3 fumbles and lost all 3 of them. We opened the 4th quarter by fumbling at midfield, and VaTech capitalized with a TD to pull within 8 points. Our next drive was killed by another fumble, this time just past the 50. Our defense saved the day, however, forcing a critical 3-and-out. We ran for 292/3 and passed for 124/1/0. Our offense put up 416 yards and our defense allowed 358. 20-28 W Our final game of the season has us on the road against defending NC Virginia. The results were ugly as usual. We ran for 66/0 and passed for 218/1/1. Our offense put up 284 yards and our defense allowed 592 yards all on the ground again. 10-66 L --------- Our 7-6 season qualified us for a bowl berth, but our weak SOS denied us of a bid. I can't say we were looked over, given the fact that we had zero quality wins. VaTech wound up ranked #73 and they were our biggest win of the season. With our 2nd season now complete at Duke, I like the direction of our program thus far. We've increased our win total for two consecutive years and we've achieved a winning record relatively quickly. In fact, our win total over the past two seasons (11) matches Duke's win total over the past 3 seasons before I arrived. That said, we still have a long way to go. We won't be competing against the likes of Virginia, Boston College, Florida State, or Miami any time soon. I would like to start making strides against Clemson and Georgia Tech, as well as staying ahead of Virginia Tech and any other sim teams that get occupied by human coaches. We have at least 14 more sim players graduating (and I doubt any leave early for the draft), so next season should be a very good indicator of where we stand. We will have a roster that is comprised of close to 75% of my own players, meaning we will finally start having some depth!

Injury update: I forgot to mention that we had some significant injuries during OOC play. OL James Smith suffered a mild injury against Wisconsin and missed 3 games. OL Danny Welsh suffered a serious injury against Air Force and he will be out for the remainder of the season. Like most long-term injuries, it happened too late into the season for him to receive a medical RS. ---------- Our conference slate kicks off against Florida State. In typical fashion, we got dispatched by a vasty more talented team. We ran for 55/1 and passed for 310/1/2. Our offense put up 365 yards and our defense allowed 515. 20-56 L Clemson came to town for our 2nd conference game and the result was similar to the first game. We ran for 102/2 and passed for 224/0/0. Our offense put up 326 yards and our defense allowed 431. Injury update: TE Clarence Holmes suffered a minor injury and while he won't miss any games, he will definitely be limited for the next few games. 38-17 L Game 3 provided a break, with sim-coached Wake Forest coming to town. We ran for 498/5 and passed for 91/2/0. Our offense put up 589 yards and our defense allowed 293. Injury update: DB Wayne Powell suffered a mild injury and will be out until at least the 13th. He likely won't play this season unless we get to a bowl game. 13-49 W Back to reality against Miami... We ran for 63/0 and passed for 246/1/0. Our offense put up 309 yards and our defense allowed 596 - all on the ground. 55-10 L ----------- With our win against Wake Forest, we have matched our win total from last season. We have one more gimme game against North Carolina and I still feel confident about our chances against Virginia Tech. A bowl bid is in sight! ----------- 1/12/08 Georgia Tech 1/13/08 at North Carolina 1/14/08 Virginia Tech 1/15/08 at #4 Virginia

Our first game was against a downtrodden Ole Miss team that hasn't had a human coach in 15 seasons. We ran for 325/4 and passed for 217/3/0. Our offense put up 542 yards and our defense allowed 259. 49-21 W Our second game was against a sim-coached Baylor, who also hasn't had a human coach in 15 seasons. I forgot to set my game plan correctly though, and we didn't put the game away until we scored the final TD with 3 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. We ran for 433/4 and passed for 10/0/0. Our offense put up 443 yards and our defense allowed 311. 28-21 W Our third game was against another sim-coached team in Western Michigan. We ran for 383/5 and passed for 178/3/0. Our offense put up 561 yards and our defense allowed 446. 38-55 W Our fourth game was against yet another sim-coached team; this time Air Force. We ran for 382/4 and passed for 130/2/0. Our offense put up 512 yards and our defense allowed 213. 45-11 W Our final OOC game was against Wisconsin, quite the difference from our first 4 games. They are superior in talent and also coached by a HOFer. We ran for a paltry 64/0 and passed for 241/1/2. Our offense put up 305 yards and our defense allowed 514. 9-38 L ----------- Well, we accomplished what I had set out to do with our OOC schedule. We racked up 4 relatively easy wins, other than against Baylor where I forgot to set the correct game plan until the 2nd half. We're only halfway through ridding the roster of sim-recruited players and we will continue to schedule cupcakes until we are competitive. And come to think of it, we probably won't ever take on a difficult OOC schedule, given that we have 2 elites and another powerhouse (Boston College) within the conference to help with SOS. The 4 wins during OOC play puts us one game behind our win total from last season. With two more sim games during conference play (Wake Forest, North Carolina), we should easily get to 6 wins. And even though Virginia Tech is now human-coached, their lack of overall talent should give us a chance at a winning season and a bowl bid this year. ----------- 1/8/08 at #16 Florida State 1/9/08 Clemson 1/10/08 Wake Forest 1/11/08 #6 Miami (FL)

Quote: joannes3000 wrote: If Carroll were one of 5 options, then I'd think it was more likely that we were making a serious run at him. As it stands, however, there are plenty more than 5 candidates at either position (HC/GM) that we have either already interviewed or are seeking to interview. HC candidates: Jason Garrett - DAL (interviewed) Jim Caldwell - IND (interviewed) Tony Sparano - DAL (interviewed) Mike Smith - JAX (interview pending) Jim Schwartz - TEN (interview pending) Rex Ryan - formerly of BAL (interview pending) Steve Spagnuolo - NYG (interview pending) GM candidates: Tom Heckert - PHI (interviewed) Mike McKenzie - GB (interviewed) John Schneider - GB (interviewed) Gene Smith - JAX (interviewed) Chris Mara - NYG (interviewed) Thomas Dimitroff - NE (interviewed) --------- With a list of possibilities like that, somebody tell me that Pete Carroll is the front runner for both the GM and HC position. I'm not saying, I'm just saying...

Thumbs up for having Heat and American Psycho - easily two of my favorite movies.

I'll quickly list the noteworthy players on our team that is full of sim recruits. SR QB Joseph Bailey is going to be a starter. He has excellent elusiveness; above average athleticism and technique; average work ethic, stamina, and game instinct; and below average strength. SR QB Andrew Billings is an extremely capable backup and I wish he was a year younger so I could have two years of steady QB play. I'd RS him, but that would likely cause him to leave early next year any way. He has excellent stamina; above average athleticism; average work ethic, game instinct, and technique. SR WR John Jones will be one of our primary receivers. He has phenomenal elusiveness; excellent speed, work ethic, and stamina; above average hands, average athleticism and game instinct; and below average technique. SR TE Ron Ward will be our other primary receiver and will be an excellent run-blocker as well. He has phenomenal strength; excellent athleticism, work ethic, blocking, hands, elusiveness, and technique; and average speed, stamina, and game instinct. SR OL Raymond Moody will help anchor our OL. He has above average athleticism, stamina, strength, and blocking; average work ethic; and below average game instinct and technique. SR OL William Dupree has excellent work ethic; above average athleticism, stamina, and strength; average blocking and technique; and below average game instinct. JR OL Francis Hudson has above average athleticism, stamina, strength, and game instinct; average work ethic and blocking; and below average technique. SO OL Scott Melton has excellent work ethic and stamina; above average athleticism, and strength; average game instinct and technique; and below average blocking. SR DL James Barton is the lone bright spot on a horrendous DL. He has excellent athleticism, stamina, and strength; above average game instinct; average tackling and technique; and below average work ethic. ---------- As you can see, our offense should be ok, although I wish we had a decent RB to run behind what is a surprisingly good OL. I will concentrate on landing a RB with this recruiting class but won't break the bank in doing so. Our passing game will likely be the most effective facet of our offense. Defensively, we are going to get destroyed. Even with James Barton, our DL core average looks like a good DII team. We have no noteworthy LBs either, with the unit's core average being below average for a DII team. That said, teams will run all over us. If offenses choose to pass, they should have no problems either, with no good DBs on the roster. Our DB unit's core average would be average for a DII team. Yuck. ---------- With 12 open scholarships (chose not to rescind any), here is the game plan for my first season of recruiting: *2 RBs - hopefully we can get a decent starter this season, but I will settle for backup-types to start saving money. *2 WRs - looking for one starter to tandem with John Jones, but again I will look to save money. *1 TE - looking for a run-blocker. *2 OL - looking for a couple of decent OL, and I'll settle for players that have one average core. *2 DL - looking for talent. Anything will be an upgrade over what we currently have. *1 LB - again, looking for talent, because we don't have any at this position. *2 DB - see LBs. Obviously, the primary concern in year one of the rebuild will be to save as much money as possible during recruiting. We won't be competitive in recruiting for at least two seasons because of the lack of success Temple has had over the years. Better to bankroll money now, so when we can reasonably battle for recruits, we'll have some cash to spend. Our classes are extremely unbalanced, with 3 SR QBs, 4 SR DL, 4 SR DBS, and 4 SR K/Ps. Next season will be a ridiculous recruiting class, as that is a class of 15. We will also have gaping holes at DL and DB. We'll have a little more wiggle room next season during recruiting, with 3 extra scholarships since we will only have 1 K/P compared to the 4 we currently have. DL and DB will be terribly unbalanced for a few seasons until I can get classes balanced out a little bit with some creative RSing. In fact, I think I'm going to RS 2 DBs and 1 DL this year to start the balancing process. I run the risk of the SRs not staying around next year for their RS season, but they will leave regardless if I don't RS them. Might as well try! The only real impact will be that I will run lean at DL and DB this year, but we won't be competing this year any way.

From: Loyd Poole To: Coach joannes3000 Subject: Congratulations, Coach! Sent: 1/3/08 3:22AM Welcome to Temple, Coach! We are thrilled to have you leading our program and we are sure that you can lead us to great success. Loyd Poole President Temple University Timothy Patel Athletic Director Temple University ------------ I don't think anyone was surprised by me moving on. In fact, I was so disgusted with our loss to Baylor that I put in my application for the Temple job opening the day after our bowl loss. I could've stayed at Toledo and reloaded for another bowl run, which would've been helped tremendously by RS QB Douglas Morris and RS TE Juan Barton. Those guys will terrorize opposing defenses until they leave for the NFL. In moving to Temple, I have resigned myself to take on another rebuild of enormous proportions. Temple has not had a human coach for 13 seasons. In that span of time Temple hasn't achieved a winning record or gone to a bowl game, with the best season being a 6-7 campaign. This team will follow the rebuilding process that I have taken with Duke, and hopefully we can get this thing turned around before I get fired.

Not only are we returning 17 starters and getting the likes of Caleb King and Israel Troupe on offense alone after RSing, but we're also looking at having the #2 ranked recruiting class. And while I don't place a whole lot of faith in recruit rankings, I think it will go a long way toward us getting a top 3 ranking.

Our OOC schedule features plenty of winnable games at the expense of SOS, which is what I intended. We accepted one human request and loaded up the remaining 4 games against sim teams, one of which was picked up by a human coach during the offseason. Our first 4 games should be very winnable and we will likely go into conference play with a 4-1 record. In-conference play brings two more sim teams, and Virginia Tech is being coached by a human for the first time in 10 seasons. If we can win those 3 games that will give us a winning season; the first Duke has seen since season 18. The remaining conference games will likely be losses, as they were last season, but a 7-6 record and an outside chance at a bowl game will be considered a success for us in only my 2nd season here. From this point forward, the bar will be set at 7 wins and at least a low-level bowl invite. ----------- 1/3/08 at Ole Miss 1/4/08 at Baylor 1/5/08 Western Michigan 1/6/08 at Air Force 1/7/08 at #15 Wisconsin

Season two at Duke was much more successful than season one for several reasons. First, our very modest 5 win season was tied for the highest win mark in 15 seasons. Secondly, we had ~60k extra recruiting cash after bowl season. Still being a bottom-feeder school we were conservative with the majority of our recruiting efforts, although I did recruit a few players much earlier than usual. After the first few cycles, I targeted a small handful of players that remained undecided and got them considering only me. Luckily, nobody went after those recruits, so we were able to land that handful of recruits for less than 3k each. We recruited aggressively in some cases where the main competition was a DIAA school. I was able to land a few nice recruits that were being courted heavily by successful DIAA programs but no DIA programs, which goes to show how crappy our recruit vision is at this point and how short on talent we are. --------- Offense We landed an average DIA QB that was overlooked due to his low STR. William Sullivan has above average game instinct, athleticism, speed, and elusiveness; average stamina; and below average technique, strength, and work ethic. RB Melvin Gardner has above average stamina and work ethic; average elusiveness, strength, and speed; and below average athleticism. With his high work ethic, Gardner could pan out to be an above average RB in a few seasons. We landed an average WR class this season, with no slouches like last season. Gary Evans was a RB in high school but he will play WR for us. He has above average speed; average stamina, athleticism, hands, and elusiveness; and below average work ethic and technique. WR William King has above average hands and elusiveness; average speed and stamina; and below average athleticism, work ethic, and technique. Our lone TE recruit was Ralph Price. He has above average elusiveness; average athleticism, work ethic, stamina, strength, blocking, hands, and technique; and below average speed. Given our team's lack of prestige, I think our OL class was excellent. Terry Kyle has above average athleticism, work ethic, stamina, blocking, and technique; average strength and game instinct. His line mate, James Smith has above average strength and blocking; average work ethic, stamina, game instinct, and technique; and below average athleticism. Defense Much like our OL recruits, our DL recruits exceeded expectations. Jacob Lewis has above average stamina and strength; average work ethic, tackling, game instinct, and technique; and below average athleticism. Angel Torres has above average work ethic, strength, and tackling; average technique; and below average athleticism, stamina, and game instinct. I did some planning for the future by recruiting a pair of LBs, fully intending to RS both of them. I'm hoping that with an extra year of growth, they will make for nice anchors in our base 4-4 defense once they start getting playing time. William Hansen has excellent tackling; above average stamina and strength; average athleticism and work ethic; and below average speed, game instinct, and technique. Dennis Osborn has above average game instinct; average speed, strength, and tackling; and below average athleticism, work ethic, stamina, and technique. I ditched my original plan of trying to level out my DB classes and recruited two DBs this season. This will give us a total of 4 FR on the roster including the two DBs that were RS'd last season. Now that we have a full compliment of DBs, I can focus on balancing out my classes in upcoming seasons without having to worry about getting lit up against opposing passing offenses. Michael Gary has excellent elusiveness; above average work ethic and stamina, average athleticism, speed, and technique; and below average hands and game instinct. Timothy Lancaster has excellent elusiveness; average speed, work ethic, game instinct, and technique; and below average athleticism, stamina, and hands. --------- I felt pretty good about this recruiting class and felt that it was a nice step up from last season's inaugural group. Recruit rankings pegged our class as the 43rd best in the country, which is up 14 spots from last season. Our class was the 5th best in the conference and the 3rd best in the conference. Here are the recruit rankings for this season: Virginia - 6 Miami - 10 Clemson - 25 Boston College - 39 Duke - 43 Georgia Tech - 45 Florida State - 56 Virginia Tech - 84 Wake Forest (sim) - 92 Maryland (sim) - 93 North Carolina State (sim) - 95 North Carolina (sim) - 103 Our 4 year win/loss record is now 16-36. We also managed to bankroll a little more cash this season, and our total before any bowl money this season is 100k. My coach reputation also rose to an A and my loyalty remained at A+.