Probing for Poise/Our MU fball story for Monday
By TONY GRAHAM
STAFF WRITER
Monmouth University football coach Kevin Callahan had no problem lauding Delaware's ability.
""Delaware is extremely talented,'' said Callahan of the No. 12 Blue Hens in the wake of the 42-7 Delaware victory Saturday night.
""In a lot of positions they had more team speed than we did,'' he said
But what mostly concerned Callahan after Saturday was not a talent issue but a poise issue.
""I don't think we competed with poise in an adverse environment and that's something we've got to be able to do,'' said Callahan. ""I'm not sure we were able to maintain the poise in the moment of competition the way you need to do to win football games and be a good football team. ""That's something we need to learn to do.''
And how does Monmouth do that?
""We need to continue to play these type of games against this caliber of competition,'' he said. """By doing that you learn how to play that way. The fact we have several first year starters who have not been in that situation before, I think that fact was magnified in this game.''
Callahan noted Delaware has been playing well all season, not just Saturday. ""The outcome of our game was no different than any of the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) games they've played so far,'' he said.
Delaware has rolled past three CAA opponents by an average margin of 22.3 points.
""But there are certain situations where I would have hoped we would have been able to compete with poise as I call it and not come unraveled a little bit,'' Callhan said. ""I think early on wedid that and that was just what we knew we couldn't do in this game.
""When we had everybody covered we couldn't get to the quarterback,'' said Callahan. ""We had a couple of drives on offense where we couldn't finish them off.
""I would just hope we learn from this, move on, and we keep working to become a better football team.''
Monmouth senior wide out Adam San Miguel said Monmouth has been more competitive than its record. The Hawks dropped their first three games by a total of 16 points.
""Aside from Delaware it's not like we were out of the games,'' he said. ""We're right there, on the verge of being a typical Monmouth team like last year and before. It's been little things here and there.''
NOTES...Monmouth reserve defensive tackle Jeff King (Raritan), a sophomore, left the game with what Callahan described as sprained knee. He said King's status for Saturday's game at Sacred Heart (2-3) is undetermined... Sophomore quarterback Andrew Mandeville (Raritan) went five-for-five for 43 yards in a fourth-quarter relief role...David Sinisi has scored five of Monmouth's seven TD this season.
STAFF WRITER
Monmouth University football coach Kevin Callahan had no problem lauding Delaware's ability.
""Delaware is extremely talented,'' said Callahan of the No. 12 Blue Hens in the wake of the 42-7 Delaware victory Saturday night.
""In a lot of positions they had more team speed than we did,'' he said
But what mostly concerned Callahan after Saturday was not a talent issue but a poise issue.
""I don't think we competed with poise in an adverse environment and that's something we've got to be able to do,'' said Callahan. ""I'm not sure we were able to maintain the poise in the moment of competition the way you need to do to win football games and be a good football team. ""That's something we need to learn to do.''
And how does Monmouth do that?
""We need to continue to play these type of games against this caliber of competition,'' he said. """By doing that you learn how to play that way. The fact we have several first year starters who have not been in that situation before, I think that fact was magnified in this game.''
Callahan noted Delaware has been playing well all season, not just Saturday. ""The outcome of our game was no different than any of the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) games they've played so far,'' he said.
Delaware has rolled past three CAA opponents by an average margin of 22.3 points.
""But there are certain situations where I would have hoped we would have been able to compete with poise as I call it and not come unraveled a little bit,'' Callhan said. ""I think early on wedid that and that was just what we knew we couldn't do in this game.
""When we had everybody covered we couldn't get to the quarterback,'' said Callahan. ""We had a couple of drives on offense where we couldn't finish them off.
""I would just hope we learn from this, move on, and we keep working to become a better football team.''
Monmouth senior wide out Adam San Miguel said Monmouth has been more competitive than its record. The Hawks dropped their first three games by a total of 16 points.
""Aside from Delaware it's not like we were out of the games,'' he said. ""We're right there, on the verge of being a typical Monmouth team like last year and before. It's been little things here and there.''
NOTES...Monmouth reserve defensive tackle Jeff King (Raritan), a sophomore, left the game with what Callahan described as sprained knee. He said King's status for Saturday's game at Sacred Heart (2-3) is undetermined... Sophomore quarterback Andrew Mandeville (Raritan) went five-for-five for 43 yards in a fourth-quarter relief role...David Sinisi has scored five of Monmouth's seven TD this season.
posted by Tony Graham at 5:57 PM
13 Comments:
I flew in to BWI and was at the game saturday night. I will tell you surounded by UD fans they were all impressed with #30 and only had respectable comments about the entire team. Those are some great fans!!
WHAT!?!?!? Great fans?!?!?! We we not at the same game. There were fights, police involvement heckling of our band. Are you kidding me great fans. I wish I was sitting where you were! It was one of the worst experiences of my time at college football games. They made all Hawk fans sit at one small corner section of the stands. Not hospitable at all or supportive.
Monmouth had a band there?
Trust me..I would have rather been in the corner of the stands than in that pressbox!!
Tony,
The anonymous poster was correct. UD had some real obnoxious fans. The UD fans would taunt MU fans consistently as they were sitting all around us in that corner; even in the second half! UD had all the MU fans at one corner, opposite from where you were, to your left. Trust me, you were more confortable than we were.
MU had a small "band", the same one you see at the home games.
Yeah the poor little pep band got seriously harassed by some blue hen fans. Speaking of bands, what an amazing show dels band put on. Maybe one day MU will have one? It adds such depth to the stadium/crowd.
Anothet thing about Raymond Stadium..somewhat similar to RU..if you must climb to the top of the stands you need a mountain goat and some oxygen...geez, what a climb..
My legs are still sore...we know I'm not Charles Atlas but that was still some haul...
A band for MU? Hmmmmmm..I gotta ask Marilyn about that...sort of intruiging.
Anyone have any thoughts????
Wasn't there for the game but could hear the UD band.
Would like to see MU have a marching band. It would add to the MU spirit. Just look at Penn State, FAMU, or Virginia Tech for school bands with great spirit.
MU can have the same noise with fewer members.
Tony, next time visiting the campus, check and see if MU still has the pep band as a direct donation on the Blue/White form.
We have the scholarship players, now let's get some more school spirit.
Regarding UD fans, a lot of them are Philadelphia sports fans, so you are going to get some poor behavior. Those folks often think that rude behavior is a home field advantage.
Visitors have been moved this year from the opposite end of the same side. That, I assume, to move them away from the student section.
Tony, yes, the stands are very steep, which makes for great viewing. But, really, you need to get a gym membership!
Re: Phila fans. My pals!
Re: Gym membership. No doubt. But at UD they could also use an elevator!@
I could never understand why MU doesn't have a marching band. Surely there must be college kids who want to continue from their HS marching band days on a higher level? I have to be honest with you, we come from a town with a HS who has an AWESOME marching band and it really adds to the atomosphere. I miss that tremendously and there should be one at the college level.
Another suggestion... why not send out interest letters to the HS's throughout NJ and try to set up some halftime shows for all MU home games?
As for the UD fans. Aside from that little mishap with the pep band, I have nothing but respect and great things to say about them. So many of them who saw us walking with Monmouth shirts stopped to say "Welcome to our Stadium" or "good luck to you" and when we got our butts kicked, they gave us their condolences and cheered us up with "you'll be ok. We were in your shoes last year, don't worry, it'll come." Quiet honestly, i thought the UD fans to be great fans!
Tony-
Sounds like too many of us Monmouth fans have never been to another stadium. I wish we had some more rowdy fans at MU. I get disguisted when we are on defense and you can almost hear a pin drop at Kessler and at other times when we are on offense people are jumping around and yelling... only to find out it was for a free sub sandwich. I also would like to have a bigger band but Monmouth I think only has 5k students right now, a far cry from the 20k at Delaware. If we only brought the same 7 kids who I saw at the Robert MOrris game, i dont blame the UD fans for mocking us. Thats not to say those 7 kids dont try hard and could be very good musicians for all i know, but come on!
Prediction for this weekend MU 24-Pioneers 10.
20k or 5k.. that really shouldn't matter. Heck, group I highschools have marching bands and they have a whole lot less students than that!! I find it hard to believe that out of 5 thousand kids we can't find a hundred or so who were in their marching bands in HS and would be interested in continuing? I'm sure there wouldn't be much of a problem finding color guard. I think it is an avenue which MU should actively try and persue to drum up school spirit. While at the last home game, a friend of mine who attended the game with me mentioned that she noticed more senior citizens at the games instead of students. I used the excuse that most kids live locally and probably go home for the weekend. I realized that was not so when I dropped by my sons dorm and saw there was not a parking space to be had. The place seemed to be jumping as there was a band in the courtyard and a bar-b-que with kids playing volleyball etc. I thought to myself..."this is very sad that they can't get these students to come out and support their football team." I think that if the school had night games, it might help but fat chance that happening with the surrounding town "criers".
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