Unfair scheduling for Egg Bowl

[60sdog]

I'm wondering why the powers that be allowed the schedules to be set up this year where we have a game the Saturday before Thanksgiving Egg Bowl, while UNM gets to be off the Saturday before the EB. Therefore, they will have 12 days to focus on us, while we will only have 5 days. Seems to me this is a huge disadvantage for us, esp. since the game is on Thursday instead of Saturday. I checked back on past schedules, and this hasn't ever happened before, at least since 1972, which is when I started checking. Something similar happened only once before- in 1988- but at least, that year, we had 7 days to prepare, against 14 for UNM. Of course, we lost that game, one of the worst losses to UNM (33-6) in that entire 48-year period, even though UNM was only 4-6 going into the game.

We've never had this advantage given to us in the EB. How did this happen? It's a particulalrly big advantage considering it is a short week for us.

 

[The Situation]

Good question. All this time I thought they had LSU the week before us.

 

[MSUDC11]

Is Abilene Christian that much different from having a bye week? Maybe you can say we have a greater risk of someone getting injured, but you can get hurt in practice too. We usually play a conference game that week.

I just don’t feel like it’s that big of a deal. If we were playing a conference game that would be one thing. But we’re playing a team we should beat by 40+, I expect we will still preparing for Ole Miss most of that week.

 

[Cousin Jeffrey]

No one to blame but ourselves, I'm afraid.

No one forced us to schedule a non-SEC opponent that week. We could have scheduled a game this week, for example, and taken our second bye week the week prior to the Egg Bowl.

 

[IBleedMaroonDawg]

I'm wondering why the powers that be allowed the schedules to be set up this year where we have a game the Saturday before Thanksgiving Egg Bowl, while UNM gets to be off the Saturday before the EB. Therefore, they will have 12 days to focus on us, while we will only have 5 days. Seems to me this is a huge disadvantage for us, esp. since the game is on Thursday instead of Saturday. I checked back on past schedules, and this hasn't ever happened before, at least since 1972, which is when I started checking. Something similar happened only once before- in 1988- but at least, that year, we had 7 days to prepare, against 14 for UNM. Of course, we lost that game, one of the worst losses to UNM (33-6) in that entire 48-year period, even though UNM was only 4-6 going into the game.

We've never had this advantage given to us in the EB. How did this happen? It's a particulalrly big advantage considering it is a short week for us.

Despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth, we will use the Abilene Christian game as a scrimmage and be very vanilla on offense and defense.

You will see us use all of our bench.

 

[patdog]

Not unfair. We both got the SEC to give us an open week before the Thursday Egg Bowl. We chose to use ours to play a I-AA school, while they kept it open. Really doesn't matter much either way. It would be different if we had a conference game that Saturday. The real issue is, we need to insist the Egg Bowl be moved back to Saturday. If the SEC insists on having a game on Thursday, let it rotate among all the schools

 

[WutheringDawg]

This. We can gameplan for Ole Miss for 12 days, run base offense and roll 500 yards on Abaline Christian.

 

[Maroonthirteen]

It crossed my mind.... what is better? Having a easy live scrimmage prior to the Egg bowl to get live reps or having a practice?

You can bet..... with a short week.... We will be game planning for OM beginning the Sunday after Bama.

 

[fishwater99]

No one to blame but ourselves, I'm afraid.

No one forced us to schedule a non-SEC opponent that week. We could have scheduled a game this week, for example, and taken our second bye week the week prior to the Egg Bowl.

Thanks Cohen...

 

[johnson86-1]

Despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth, we will use the Abilene Christian game as a scrimmage and be very vanilla on offense and defense.

You will see us use all of our bench.

Yea, if it were a normal saturday game, I would prefer a FCS game. With it being a quick turnaround to Thursday, I'd probably rather have a bye, but it still doens't seem like a big deal. You're probably losing a day of prep time compared to having a bye week. With us having a 6:30 game, we also get the benefit of limiting the amount of trouble our players can get into on the Saturday night before the egg bowl. That shouldn't be a big issue, but with this team, maybe it is. With our luck, if we had a bye week, we'd have a starter caught doing 110 mph in a 50mph zone while in possession of the Introduction to Shoe Laces Test being given next week and with a bag full of 3/4 starved kittens tied up in the trunk.

 

[60sdog]

The thing is, we can’t just completely forget about AC. We will have to spend certain amount of time preparing for them. Would definitely be better to have the Saturday off.

 

[RocketDawg]

Sounds a little like Saban complaining a couple of years ago about the opposing team having the week off before playing them.

I don't think us playing on the Saturday before the Egg Bowl is an issue. I haven't checked the history of wins and losses after a bye week, but we always seem to come out rusty after a week off. Having a game might even help us.

 

[Lawdawg.sixpack]

We can game plan for the Egg Bowl for the next 24 days...

 

[RPOdawg]

We can game plan for the Egg Bowl for the next 24 days...

This is what we honestly should do.

 

[AlCoDog]

Considering the way we’ve looked coming out of previous bye weeks, this is better.

 

[maroonmania]

Don't know, I still don't know why in the heck we are playing the Egg Bowl on a major holiday with a short week to begin with? Puts a terrible burden on the fans going to the game that don't live in the Golden Triangle (which is most fans). And to top it off our game is opposite the Bill/Cowboys and then the Saints/Falcons game so probably not a lot watching outside of the 2 school's fanbases. Back in the 90s when there was no NFL game on Thanksgiving night at least it made a little more sense.

 

[shotgunDawg]

Considering the way we’ve looked coming out of previous bye weeks, this is better.

This & it goes for all teams.

Most teams are rusty after bye weeks. The narrative that teams play better after bye weeks is untrue. I'd rather play & stay as sharp as this team can

 

[BingleCocktail]

EGG BOWL 2019: "If the turkey don't put you to sleep, this certainly will"

 

[Maroonthirteen]

Don't know, I still don't know why in the heck we are playing the Egg Bowl on a major holiday with a short week to begin with. nse.

Farewell gift from Loafers.

 

[dogmatic]

Tryptophan river, take my mind ...

You're all I've got to fatten me.

 

[Cap'n Geech]

I'd rather play an FCS team five days before the Egg Bowl than have an open date. It should be a live scrimmage that can keep us sharp and give us a tune-up before the Egg Bowl. Plus, Ole Miss getting their second bye week after their 11th game reduces the benefit of the second bye week.

 

[Dawgbite]

I would run every trick play I could dream up against AC. Make OM practice and prepare for all kinds of crap that we will never run.