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How Lance got his Cool back

I was never fully on the fire Lance train (I was certainly there for one coach who will remain nameless) but that was not because I believed in him or thought he was doing a particularly good job. It was more understanding the costs involved and who were we going to hire for what we could pay? Might as well let it play out and see what happens.

Lance is still no Nick Saban, there are still times I completely disagree with how he manages the game but this year the ugly duckling is growing up. As excite as we are getting, a bowl game this year is still in doubt but running the table is also not impossible.

The first thing I noted was after the total train wreck last year there was no major player defections. To me that was a sign the players were buying into what Lance was selling, even if it was not resulting in wins. Players do not need to love or even like their coach to be a good coach but generally player believe in good coaches.

We are now half way through this season and we are 3-3. The number of wins is not what has impressed me as I think most of us had Colgate and Kent marked off as probable wins at the beginning of the season, even if we were only expecting two wins. FAU was one of those "this will tell us how the season will go" type of games, it was winnableish and at home so not a total surprise it ended up in our favor. What has impressed me is how we have played in the losses.

Minnesota, Army and WMU all went bowling last year with a combined record of 30-10. At no point in any game this year have we been down more than 10 points, and more than 7 for a total of about 15 minutes. Almost all of that against WMU AND we came back to take the lead. We have been competitive and I think it is safe to say no team left on our schedule is looking forward to playing us.

One of the many criticisms of Lance has been half time adjustments. Kind of quietly we have outscored our opponent in the second half (not counting overtime) in each of the last three games. That is a good measure of winning the adjustment game. There have been two big points in these last three games where we could have completely fallen apart but instead the team regrouped and responded. The first was Tyree getting hurt against FAU and the second was WMU taking a 10 point lead in the 3rd quarter and holding into the 4th quarter. These are signs of a team that believes in themselves and you have to give the coach credit for that.

As for the coach who shall remain nameless, Lance’s loyalty to him seemed inexplicable. In the three wins, we ran the ball 44, 57 and 58 times. Against WMU it was a wild west gun slinging offence with three receivers over a hundred yards receiving. I do not know the story with Reed and Theo but by the end of the game we were down to our 4th string RB. Assuming at least one of our top three RBs is back for next week, if you are NIU, what are you expecting from UB’s offense? Both the running and passing games have been impressive. I kind of like our opponents not sure who they want to see coming out to play QB or RB for UB. Again, got to give credit to the coach for that.

Lastly, there are many key players that predate Lance but a significate number are players Lance recruited out of high school or junior college. I have heard a coach needs 3-4 years to make a team their own and it is at that point they should be judged. In this his third year, it may be safe to say it is now Lance’s team and we are now seeing his team coming together.

I have faith there will not be a letdown in the NIU game, that would be out of character for this team. We may not win the game but I fully expect us to be competitive again. Clearly, we need to improve our tackling but unless we run out of RBs or QBs I expect at least three more wins this year.

With all these points, I personally, would like to welcome back LL Cool Coach.

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