I realize this has been somewhat of a rough year for our football team.
After getting crushed by Iowa, Auburn and Boston College, it seemed like an appropriate time for everyone to start bashing the program.
We need a new coach.
Our schedule is too hard.
Our football team sucks. We will never be good.
Nobody cares about our football program.
We need to drop down to Division I-AA.
Well, I say that is blasphemous. Our football team has put together two impressive back-to-back wins: a thorough butt-whopping against Northern Illinois and a grind-it-out battle on Saturday against Akron.
Don't look now, but I think we are serious contenders for the Mid-American Conference title next year.
The improvement this team has made between the beginning of the year and now has been quite impressive. I think all the suspensions from the book scandal have had a bigger effect than anyone realized - it's hard to beat just about anybody when we were playing so many freshmen.
Still, you can tell it is starting to pay off. Dante Love and B.J. Hill have played very well, and our freshman offensive linemen are starting to catch up to the speed of Division I-A football.
However, the biggest difference has been with the defense - more specifically, our run defense has been huge. Akron only amassed 84 yards on the ground, and Northern Illinois got a paltry 66 - and going into the Northern Illinois game, we were 117th in the nation in run defense. Don't forget, the week before we played Akron, the Zips beat home team Bowling Green at their own place.
Based on his overall record, some say Coach Brady Hoke has not done a very good job. I vehemently disagree.
Unwritten sports rules state it's a coach's third year with a team when he makes "the leap," so to speak. The three non-conference games aside, I think you could make a solid argument that this has happened.
Yes, we laid an egg against Ohio, but we're 3-3 in the MAC - and that's more than we won last year.
We have two games left, and both are winnable. If we beat the two Michigan schools (Eastern and Central), we will have finished 5-3 and created a huge stepping stone for next year.
Joey Lynch will be a senior, the freshmen will have a year of experience under their belts, and we will return 19 starters - 10 offense, 9 defense. The one starter not returning is Charles Wynn, who will be replaced by Hill in all likelihood.
Another possibility is MiQuale Lewis, the stud running back from Fort Wayne Snider who has committed to our program. He's built like Hill, short and quick - not a bad Friday night for him, either, against Marion in the sectional championship, with 244 yards and four touchdowns on only 17 carries.
The last time we had a Snider graduate playing running back for us - Marcus Merriweather - it worked out pretty well, as I recall.
Our football program has not won an outright MAC championship since 1996, but we are close to changing that.
The "impossible" non-conference schedule will pay huge dividends, if it hasn't already.
All I ask of our students is to be patient and show a little faith in our team and our coaches. It took a few years, but something special is starting to happen with our football program - I just hope everyone stays on for the ride.
Write to Phil at prfriend@bsu.edu
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