I'm pretty sure that today was the worst game of SBU football I have ever seen in my 15 years of watching.
We botched the end of the first half by wasting a ton of time before calling a timeout after stopping them on third down. Either because Chuck didn't realize the clock was running, or he didn't want to run a 2 minute drill. As a result, 30 seconds ran off the clock before he called a timeout (so we lost the time AND the timeout, which was pretty much the dumbest option available).
We botched the end of the 4Q. Down 14, 5 minutes to go, and we still kept trying to establish the run. The only passes we threw were within 7 yds of the line of scrimmage.
Chuck was on the sidelines, and for most of the game there were no players within 10 yards of him. During timeouts, the coordinators spoke with the players, while he did virtually no communicating. That is a REALLY bad sign that the team and the coach are basically done with each other.
The play-calling came from the sidelines (coordinators, not Chuck), with the coaches making sight-adjustments on each play. The problem was that Elon didn't disguise ANYTHING (in fairness, they didn't need to). I don't know what adjustments or reads they were making, since each play Elon ran a basic 4-3 defense with DB's all within 10 yds of the LOS. We'd go to the line, the coaches would then check to one of three running plays (none of which were designed to stretch outside the TE), we'd get stopped, and the process would repeat.
There were a ton of dropped passes, and there was zero running game. I don't know if ANY quarterback would be able to succeed in those circumstances. He also made things worse by missing some reads and missing some throws. Two of the interceptions were on the WR's (one was a drop that turned into a pick, one the WR just gave up on his route and gifted it to the DB). One was a great catch by a DB, and one was entirely on Carbone. Overall it was a poor game all around.
The star of the game for me? One of SBU's athletic trainers. Beverette banged up his ankle, and she got it taped up really nicely, and pretty quickly.
I'm intrigued to see what happens with attendance the next two games. It was pretty bad today, and I wouldn't be shocked if it gets worse. There couldn't have been more than 25 students at the game, and the rest of the stands were pretty empty.
Realistically, we could end up 2-9 on the season. Maybe we can get Jim Gush to come back to SBU? He's at Baylor now...