Over The Pylon

It’s Friday, we’re late for the Roundtable. Big deal. Wanna fight about it? This week’s host is Fire Up Chips, the always insightful Central Michigan blog who surprisingly hasn’t committed seppuku after the last few weeks, and numbers using roman numerals for the win. Off we go…

I. Northern Illinois has maintained steam from the primordial ooze of preseason rankings, while the Ohio Bobcat are building steam and look like they could make a return trip to Detroit. With only a handful of games left, which teams do you foresee playing in Detroit?
I think Temple beats Ohio in their Tuesday night showdown, which is a de facto MAC East title game. NIU plays Toledo in another Tuesday title game, this time for the MAC West, and I’ll go with Temple-NIU for all the marbles in Detroit. And those marbles will promptly be stolen when the teams walk into the Detroit evening. You know, because it’s Detroit. And there’s crime. Dots… connected. BOOM.

II. Since it is my turn this week, I would like to bring my fellow knights a problem which has vexed both peasant and gentry class alike in Mt. Pleasant. “Dust thou thinkest that Sir. Dan Enos should be banished from the goodly folk of Mt. Pleasant for his blackguard performance and 2 – 7 record thus far? There is much talk in all reaches of the Central Michigan Kingdom that he has squandered our season with a playbook so bad it must be from France! What say you!”
I’m a firm believer that coaches, especially MAC coaches, shouldn’t be canned after one year. Especially  after your QB stud leaves. That sounds eerily familar…. oh that’s right! It’s exactly what happened at BSU last season. The long and the short of it is Enos came into a completely not so great situation. Success was far from guaranteed, and the chickens have come home to roost in terms of talent leaving and relying on unproven untested young players. It didn’t matter whether you had Enos or Vince Lombardi, there was going to be some drop off.

III. If you accept the premise that the playing field in completely level in the MAC, then shouldn’t long time coaches like Bill Cubit at Western Michigan and Herb Martin at Kent State have to win a championship within 10 years or risk being fired?
Anyone that assumes the playing field at the MAC is equal is not paying attention. The MAC isn’t necessarily equal year in and year out. There are certain teams better than others for stretches. While I wouldn’t call it equal, I would call it cyclical. The inability for the conference as a whole or any of its members to maintain any sort of long term success means that if you’re not winning now, you probably will win as soon as you get a QB and some good offensive linemen (See: Ball State, CMU) but you had best enjoy it until they graduate.

IV. Who is your front runner for MAC Coach of The Year?
The easy answer is Solich or Kill, just because their propensity to win the MAC, but wasn’t that expected of both those teams? I’ll go with a darkhorse candidate and someone that really coached their team up… Toledo’s Tim Beckman.

V. What is your favorite Michael J. Fox movie from his golden era of film making 1984 – 1986?
The correct answer is Back to the Future, and anyone who says otherwise should be tied to a stake and burned to death. The irony is that wouldn’t harm them because they clearly are not human. Non-BTF fans= witches. A close second is Teen Wolf, but only for the van surfing. Seriously, that’s it.

VI. Rank em’ from FIRST to WORST
1.) NIU
2.) Temple
3.) Ohio
4.) Toledo
5.) Miami
6.) Kent
7.) Western Michigan
8.) Bowling Green
9.) Buffalo
10.) Eastern Michigan
11.) Ball State
12.) Central Michigan
13.) Akron

Filed under: MAC Roundtable |