Lenoir Rhyne vs Bowie State

[BearFan1]

I would think that most LR fans should be fairly happy with the Saturday win. I know I was.
Having said that I think there are a couple of thinks we also saw/know/recognize.

1. QB Ferguson and RB Turner-Knox are really good.
2. Receiving core is good and will get better.
3. OL and DL are good but not great, yet. (with exception of Andre Jefferson who is just outstanding.)

4. Depth is a real problem. After the first 13 to 14 offensive and 13 to14 defensive players, things get real shallow real quick. Now as players get repres and new recruits get to know the system that could help. Bowie State showed how much difference their is between the starters and the 2nd teams. Coaching staff was forced to reinsert 1st team D to lock down the win.

All in all, I think Socha and staff are to be congratulated on having the team ready to play, especially considering what we lost to graduation and portal and the number of players coming in.

A special note to the AD and Admin Staff, despite problems with new Bears Club Membership and Ticketing System that they worked real hard to solve the first year hicks ups.
The improvements to the Bears Club layout and additional layout was, in my opinion, really first class. A BIG THUMBS UP to them.

[87Bear]

I tend to agree with all of your points, one I might add is PK, I believe this was the same kid as last year and I wasn't sold on him then and I am still not. I know he hit a 39 yard field goal but he missed a shorter FG and an extra point, and if I remember correctly he had some issues last year as well. I sure as heck don't trust him for over 40 yards. I cannot believe that the coaching staff could not locate another kicker. I thought I saw they had recruited a kicker during the summer, maybe he did not end up coming or maybe it was for next year or maybe I just dreamed it. I'm hoping FG misses don't cost them a game or two this year.

One other issue is they need to work on cutting down on the penalties on big plays, I can think of at least two Saturday that brought back some big plays, I thought the refs were terrible, but LR was not without fault and they will need to clean those things up going forward.

[BEARS]

Overall I feel fine about the first game. It’s a new cast/crew so we can’t expect perfection right off the bat. A big criticism that many of us had of the Jacob regime was that the offense was way too vanilla and predictable. This was not the case today, even though IMO they had every right to be not fully up to speed given the massive turnover from last year. I thought the offense looked more complex and they spread the ball out which I appreciated. But for a few mistakes and penalties the offense could have absolutely gone for 50+.

The defense looked really solid and didn’t give up meaningful points all game. After the first couple of drives, Bowie was unable to move the ball whatsoever and the defense forced the QB into having a horrendous game. I think we’ll get a better lay of the land after facing the Tiffin offense next week but all things considered, there isn’t an offense in the SAC that this D isn’t capable of outplaying.

Also yes, yes, yes and yes to the kicker situation.

[BearFan1]

I agree with the points made above and I purposefully did not mention the kicker. But I can tell you, for an absolute fact, they were given the opportunity to get an Allstate performer that was being recruited by Duke until the coaching change and was on track to going to Harvard but his high school 4.0 GPA weighted out 0.1 below Harvard's standard. I was told by the Recruiting Coordinator they had no money to offer him.

I guess being a two time Allstate, Defensive Player of the 2022 State Championship game, and main stay/ never come off the field player on the 2023 State Championship team was not "qualifying" enough to get the Recruiting Coordinator's attention.

Everything I hear about all other coaches is very good and positive.

My feeling then, as it is now, they did not have an excuse good enough to not find a way to get this kid.