Coach Clark's Key to the Game: Washington and Lee

Post-100th Victory Update

Saturday was a great day to be a fan or an offensive coach in our 38-34 victory at Emory and Henry. As I know, people are well aware it marked the 100th win that we have shared in my time here at BC. I have tried to state all along that the wrong pronoun is used when describing this event. It is not “my” or “his” but rather “we” or “ours”. The real value in those games is that they are shared events that will have great value to a lot of individuals on a lot of levels. On a personal note I would like to thank all of the players, coaches, and support people who have helped along the way. It has been a great ride, and it was a good milestone to hit in the final year of Dr. Stone’s leadership as it was Dr. Stone had the vision that excellence in football was possible for Bridgewater College. Personally, my brother was at the game and he and my father attended our initial victory against Western Maryland in September of 1996. My Dad passed on in 1999, and Joe D would have kept travelling to Virginia from Cincinnati over the next month if necessary to share the event, but I am grateful that the 09’ squad made a second trip for him and his wife unnecessary. When I returned home from church on Sunday morning my two daughters were there from Northern Virginia to celebrate a late breakfast before I left for work. All of my family have been great fans and donors to BC football, and I guess maybe I have turned in a small way into my Dad who had a family rally around his seasons.

The win will cost my wife and I a $1,000.00 and I am proud to contribute to the “Sharing 100” Campaign. I cannot put a dollar value on the return this program and the people in it have given to me. Although the real value is not just in the winning, I hope those who enjoyed it, will give back to jump-start the next generation of football players to help get us back to the national level. We are going to put together a gathering around the last home game on November 14th versus Catholic University to pull former players and coaches back to campus to celebrate this event. Watch the web-site for details, and from the bottom of my heart thanks to the players, former coaches, support people, and fans who have shared and have equal claim to these wins. Go BC.

Coach Clark

P.S. – I grade every call that the officials make on Saturday’s and 75% of them were accurate. The call on Tyler Beiler going out of bounds was the correct call as well as the contact on the punt return at the end of the game. They might miss a few calls here and there, but they are human beings and a most of the crucial calls were correct.

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Coach Clark's Key to the Game: Emory & Henry

Post-Guilford Update

We picked up a quality win at Homecoming that showed an effort that will need to be repeated under tougher conditions on the road versus Emory & Henry. The David Arguad story is a great one and to see him apply importance to his football career and this team is really inspiring. In the mud, Teley Tate is a tough match-up, but the offensive linemen, TEs, and FBs who open those holes never get enough credit.

As a team we have to take the approach that every week we have a major point to prove. Without an edge, we become average real quick. This is easy to talk about, but takes real discipline to apply it every week. There is not a team on schedule we cannot beat, but there is not an opponent out there where BC’s “B” game would be sufficient. It was good to turn off the turnover spigot, and we will push the emphasis on our defense to work to get turnovers which have been in short supply.

In every game we have won this year we have had a special teams score and we are a team that needs these extras. Thanks to the fans who braved tough conditions on Saturday, but when you gather at the bell at the game’s end, I do think we are keeping alive a great tradition.

Although our focus is week to week I will address the ODAC results which put BC in the play-off picture to clear disinformation from DNR. I believe that RMC will show up in November at 6-2 and 4-0 in ODAC. We will need to beat RMC, they will need to beat HSD at home in week 10 and there will be three 5-1 teams on top of the ODAC at season’s end who are all Tri-Champions. In the three way tie-breaker BC goes by the “Rose Bowl rule” (team with most distant Play-off opportunity- 2005). The only thing we control in this scenario is Winning Out. The focus in house here is day to day. We are facing an angry team in Emory on Saturday who did not recover from their difficult loss against HSD two weeks ago. They too, will be having a point to prove on Saturday.

Coach Clark's Key to the Game: Guilford

Post-Bye Week Update

After a weekend away from football it was good to get back on Monday with the 68 players in the Gold group who we asked to come back early from fall break. I have always found the open date at mid-year to be well timed. There gets to be a point where, both for the kids and coaches, a little distance is not a bad thing for a couple of days. I turned down invites to games, and got away from football if you don't count the Coed Flag football game I attended to see my daughters play in DC on Saturday. A 33-12 loss for the Clark/Velez clan, but it was good to watch a game where 10 minutes after people forgot the results.

I must say, I was scanning the internet to get game updates and we did not get the immediate help we needed, particularly with the Emory and Henry - Hampden-Sydney game. In talking with kids today, I told them I wouldn't do that to myself again on a Saturday. Our group needs to focus on what we can control, and on a week to week basis add quality wins and see where it takes us. We always influence Saturday with choices we make during the week.

On Tuesday we get an unfettered day of football preparation and we need to make great progress. Guilford will bring big challenges with their defense, and after trying a couple of post Josh Vogelbach offenses early in the season, they have settled into one that produced 48 points in their last win. With two weeks to prepare for us we will need to bring our 'A' game to win.

Unfortunately I was disappointed that some of the injury issues we are dealing with are still lingering despite the weekend off. Our training staff will have to do good work to get our group game ready by Saturday as rest was not the only answer.

-MC

Mid-Season Update

I have always felt the mid-season open date we get is perfectly scheduled; although after a difficult loss I have a team and coaching staff that would want to play tomorrow if we could. The HSC game was one of missed opportunities on the offensive side of the ball and I know at the QB position there are three Red Zone decisions that we would like to take back. In the big games when you get a chance to make a play you need to make it, and we were not able to do it last Saturday. The bad throwing choices, dropped balls, an ill timed holding penalty (that was accurate) that negated a TD, or a poor kick all kept points off the board for us in a game against a very good football team. I felt our defense gave us a chance to win that game, and I bet at year’s end those offensive numbers for HSC will be season lows.

The step I have talked to this group about making is becoming a unit that forces turnovers themselves. Through five games we have only intercepted five passes and recovered one fumble. In the off week this will become a point of emphasis because I have always felt good defenses can go on offense themselves if they have to.

On offense, we will be more secure with the football at the QB position. Although the team will practice hard on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the QBs are going to work on Tuesday and Friday morning by themselves. We are going to not let one performance define us, because I do believe we are a better football team than we were a year ago and high expectations despite the injury bug that hit us hard are still here and not unreasonable. By Guilford we should get Rudy Jackson back at WR, Nate Jackson at RB, and Joel Francis and Dylan Higley on the defensive side of the ball. In the next two weeks we hope to define for David Arguad, who has chosen to delay his surgery and play with a braced knee, a contributing role for him. We are also going to do the extras with our two young place-kickers who a year ago let the in-house competition make them better. Both have had a sophomore slump in 2009. These are talented kids who, based on last year’s freshmen work, we chose not to even recruit another kicker this year. Kickers are like golfers who have to find their swing again, and the off week is well timed for TK and Will.

Guilford, who has the open date to match ours is always a dangerous team after an open date. Athletic and aggressive on defense, they will try to rattle our QB early and they are diverse on offense and have played a couple of variations of offense with two different QBs. We hope their 48 point performance against Southern Virginia last week might have settled them into a system. Homecoming is always a big game here and I expect the same second half improvement from our team we saw a year ago. There are five teams on our schedule we are capable of beating but they are all capable of returning the favor to us. I believe an 8-2 team with a 5-1 ODAC record will be in position to reach all of our goals.

We had our second JV game on Sunday night vs. Shenandoah and lost a close 24-20 game. If you ever want to see sports at its’ purest go to a JV football game. Everybody gets to play, plays hard to win; but shakes hands at the end and 10 minutes later nobody remembers the score. They are fun to coach and always give you a reason to hope because you get see a lot of future talent out there that just is quite ready for the Saturday spotlight.

Coach Clark's Key to the Game: Hampden-Sydney