CSUN NOTEBOOK: MATADORS NEED DISCIPLINE, TOUGHNESS AND DEDICATION.Byline: Chris Branam Staff Writer Since ``Being John Malkovich'' is a critical hit at the box office, let's go Let's Go may refer to: Television
Kearin just finished the college football season as the interim head football coach at Cal State Northridge. In August, he took the job knowing he would have to re-apply immediately after the Matadors' final game. Of course Kearin wants to stay, and since the season was not a disaster, he'll probably shed the interim label in December. So let's say Kearin becomes CSUN's fourth full-time head coach since 1995. What are the tasks ahead? Despite losing their head coach and offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator typically refers to the coach on a football team in the National Football League or College football who is in charge of the offense. This position aids the head coach by designing and scripting plays, delegating work to offensive position coaches during six weeks before the season began, the Matadors finished 5-6. They were 4-4 and fifth in the Big Sky Conference; CSUN CSUN California State University Northridge beat every team behind it in the standings and lost against every team ahead. Was this weekend's 30-10 loss to Northern Arizona Northern Arizona is dominated by the Colorado Plateau, the southern border of which in Arizona is called the Mogollon Rim. In the West lies the Grand Canyon, which was cut by the flow of the Colorado River while the land slowly rose around it. at North Campus Stadium, Northridge's first loss at home this season, an ominous sign of the future? Let's pretend to be Kearin for a moment, go inside his brain and offer our view of a few critical changes crying to be made. Better discipline. With the changeover in staff, part-time secondary coach Brent Huff Brent Huff (Born 1961), is an actor, writer, director, and acting teacher. Brent's works as an actor include The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak, I Spy Returns was the only coach this season who had the same title in 1998; the players sometimes took advantage. The school-record 121 penalties, for losses of 1,095 yards, were the barometer for the players' lack of concentration. There was an increasing need for the Matadors to intimidate their opponents outside the rules. Fortunately for the coaches, most of the players who had the warped sense that a 15-yard personal-foul penalty was a badge of honor were seniors who finished their eligibility as the clock ran out against Northern Arizona. Get tougher. It seems ironic to criticize the Matadors for excessive penalties, then ask them to become more aggressive. But it can be done - within the rules. Kearin should trash the idea of making CSUN practices light on hitting, which he attempted to do this season, and let the players cleanly go after each other. If a defensive guy can't make a hit all week in practice, he's going to be antsy ant·sy adj. ant·si·er, ant·si·est Slang 1. Restless or impatient; fidgety: The long wait made the children antsy. 2. to make a mark in the game. Sure, the running backs and receivers don't look forward to contact from their teammates, but don't turn them into wimps. Controlled aggression is the key. The Matadors were rattled this year by teams which excelled at intimidation: Montana, Portland State and Northern Arizona. That wouldn't happen if the CSUN players were seasoned by contact. Dedication to the program. Early in the season, Kearin promised to suspend any players who wore hats or T-shirts displaying other colleges; just watching the players enter and leave the locker room was like seeing a sports-apparel catalog in 3-D. All the schools were represented: Notre Dame Notre Dame IPA: [nɔtʁ dam] is French for Our Lady, referring to the Virgin Mary. In the United States of America, Notre Dame , UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX , USC An abbreviation for U.S. Code. , Nebraska. . . This would be fine in the student union. But CSUN's locker room? We're offering the same advice we offered Kearin in September: Take some money out of the shoestring budget, order two sets of T-shirts and hats with the Northridge name and force the players to wear them. Sometimes a minor detail - a starting offensive lineman or linebacker wearing the hat of another football team - indicates a big-picture problem. So there you have it, Jeff. Good luck. CSUN STATUS REPORT GAME: 11 RESULT: Northern Arizona 30, CSUN 10 RECORD: 5-6, 4-4 THIS WEEK'S GPA GPA abbr. grade point average Noun 1. GPA - a measure of a student's academic achievement at a college or university; calculated by dividing the total number of grade points received by the total number attempted : 2.62 CUMULATIVE GPA: 2.59 QUARTERBACKS Marcus Brady Marcus Brady (Born September 24, 1979) is a quarterback for the Montreal Alouettes of the CFL. College career He attended Cal State Northridge as a business major, where he started 43 straight games. threw more bad passes in this game than he had all season. He took responsibility for his three second-half INTs, the first of which ended a drive inside the NAU (1) (Network Access Unit) An interface card that adapts a computer to a local area network. (2) (Network Addressable Unit) An SNA component that can be referenced by name and address, which includes the SSCP, LU and PU. 20; the last was returned for a TD. C- RUNNING BACKS A career-best performance for Jaumal Bradley (170 yards) in his final CSUN game. He averaged 8.1 yards per carry and scored Matadors' only TD. As usual, not much from anyone else. A RECEIVERS Most telling stat: Bradley was CSUN's top receiver, with six catches. Too many dropped passes and bad routes. Only one guy (Terrence Jones) with more than 50 yards receiving. That's bad. D OFFENSIVE LINE The future appears bright for unit with only one graduating senior. Helped Bradley to career day and allowed Brady adequate time to see the field. Let's hope for better depth in 2000. A DEFENSIVE LINE Pushed around by NAU's O-line, which is among the best in the Big Sky. Managed just two sacks on QB Travis Brown Travis Brown is a common name shared by multiple people. Some of the more notable Travis Browns include:
C+ LINEBACKERS A combined 22 tackles from Lewis Blanton (eight), Jack Heaslet (seven) and Cos Abercrombie (seven) is a pretty good total; they should have done it all year. Abercrombie (one sack) played well. A good sign for next year for the sophomore? B+ DEFENSIVE BACKS Relatively mistake-free - until NAU WR Francis St. Paul's
B SPECIAL TEAMS Let's give P Ethan Beck credit: The kid can kick. He had a 55-yarder Saturday. K Derek Brown showed strong leg on 39-yard attempt but missed it. Terrence Jones' punt returning was awful, again. C COACHING A gaffe: relied on a game plan with TE Nate Davenport, who's had a bad shoulder this season. Davenport was hurt on second play and didn't return. School-record 121 penalties is an embarrassing total. C+ CAPTION(S): photo, box PHOTO The Matadors need to show more aggressiveness, as they demonstrated here in taking down Northern Arizona's Marcus King. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News BOX: CSUN status report (see text) |
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