I agree. Early on I poo-pooed this date on the schedule, but it now looks like genius. Tulane will provide a good test without a serious threat for a loss (I hope). Watching them last night I saw a team like Duke of past years. A team with some capable athletes, but not a complete team.
Agree the noon time will absolute kill you if you are over 60 plus...went to NCS few years ago and will never and I repeat never go to a noon game in august.....cold weather yea but not in this heat.Yu are right substituion is very important in this heat.Weather projected way out next Saturday is high of 88 and possible thunderstorms. It should cool down by game time a bit but humidity will be there all night past the end.
The reason I bring up temperature is this last game of our had very limited substitutions in blistering hot conditions. THis has to have taken a big toll on many of our players, especially the OL and DL. They may have lost 15 pounds for some. The big guys had to be dying. It was not only hot; they were sprinting and with their body fat they are well insulated.
As a side note, if not for the game day experience for the fans, CPJ should push for these non-relevant (to TV viewing) games to be in the evening to put less fatigue on the players. The Woffard game took far more out of our starting team than I expected.
(I used to race bikes / triathlons and would go from 158 to 152 in three hour races despite drinking all I could so I sympathize. I would feel the dehydration effects in my body for a few days as a general lethargy. And that was in my 30's and I was in much better cardiovascular shape than the football players.)
There is a coach-speak axiom that teams make their biggest improvement between Game 1 and Game 2. Here's hoping our improvement is greater than Tulane's improvement.If Tulane misses as many tackles and take bad angle like they did against Tulsa, it will be a long day for them. I think our D will step up and I think some of the issues from this past weekend was due to the type of O. Now I know what it is like to watch your d play an option team. I think one of the keys will be to get up early and take the crowd out of the game.
I agree but I think that improvement is more of scheme (Run fits/ pass coverage) more than techniques. Maybe a better way of saying it is you can improve between the ears. I think the only way to improve tackling is to do more of it and I don't think that is going to happen in one week. At least I hope it doesn't.There is a coach-speak axiom that teams make their biggest improvement between Game 1 and Game 2. Here's hoping our improvement is greater than Tulane's improvement.
Agree the noon time will absolute kill you if you are over 60 plus...went to NCS few years ago and will never and I repeat never go to a noon game in august.....cold weather yea but not in this heat.Yu are right substituion is very important in this heat.