Congrats to the Trojans for a hard fought win. A couple of notes for teams traveling to play them. First the positives: The Trojans are loaded with great athletes. We had access to the locker room in plenty of time. The weather was fantastic. After worrying about officials prior to the game, the crew did a great job overall and kept the "cheap" plays to a minimum. Now the negatives: The field was rock hard and in pretty bad shape (used to playing in Treasure Valley so no biggie ha). They charged $10 for fans and there was no scoreboard or announcer. The Trojans are loaded with great athletes and they like to tell you about it...every play! lol Also, the game started over an hour late due to a scheduling issue. Overall, great trip down and look forward to seeing them again!
Interesting first week. Heres some of my thoughts:
1. It appears there is more parity in the league, the addition of the Vegas teams and the Wildcats will make the league more interesting.
2. On first glance it appears there were 2 big upsets, but since it is the first week with several new teams in the league I'm not sure we can call them upsets. I think the biggest "upset" would have to be the Sting beating the Lionz. The game must have been a defensive battle, it doesn't appear the QB change for the Lionz worked. Will Misi be back full time next week? I hear the Sting only completed a couple of passes. It must have been a turnover fest, but a win is a win. A lot of improvement occurs between week 1 and week 2. I expect both teams to play better next week.
3. Rev got beat by the Trojans, if you read Facebook you can tell the Trojans have a chip on their shoulder, apparently they felt disrespected because a couple of people predicted the reigning Champions would beat them by a TD or less. That seems like a lot of respect for a team that no one is Utah knew much about. But I guess you use what you can to get ready for a game. It sounds like the game itself was pretty sloppy. Lots of penalties for the Trojans and lots of dropped balls by the Rev. I hear the Rev did find another great receiver, as if Mapson and Eteuati were not enough.
4. Shock beat the Raiders by 30. Are the Shock that much improved or is it a case of the Raiders being new. Its probably some of both. I hear the Shock offense moved the ball at will. IK Ubani may be the happiest player in the league because of his move to the Shock. Lots of carries, lots of yards. Wissler was a good pick up, hes efficient and if he has a running game to go with Thomas, Graham and the missing Hooper, the Offense may be tough to stop. The Defense had a shutout, not much to say there.
5. I haven't heard much about the Wildcat/Hawks game, but it looks like it was competitive. Wildcats showed they can travel and win. Being able to travel well is a big part of winning in the RMFL.
6. The league should be proud of itself, it appears the new teams have helped provide balance. The Lionz won't be at a disadvantage this year because of travel. The SLC area teams all traveled well which is always a concern, we still have to see how the Southern teams travel, but I expect they will be fine. It sounds like the hosts did a good job with facilities, although not having a scoreboard is a concern. I like the idea of playing two games on the same field one after the other, as a traveling spectator I get to see more football.
Drage: That field was pretty sad and no scoreboard was lame.
Footballr:
3) I'm surprised by the chip on the shoulder, too. Not much disrespect beforehand. The game was crazy sloppy. Both sides probably think they only lost/kept it close because of mistakes. I'd expect a different game, should the 2 meet again.
4) Look, the Raiders have to be the smallest (stature) team I've ever seen play in this league. They didn't have a DL over 220, I bet. Any team is going to be able to just run them over. No disrepect to the Shock, they have better #s (bodies, their jersey numbers are still all over the place with like 10 different colors) this game than most I saw of them last year and looked pretty good but the Raiders could stop most HS teams from running the ball right down the middle. They will struggle this year.
5) I've seen Wildcats credited wih the win and Hawks given the W in different places. Which one is it?
6) I'll be worried about the Vegas teams traveling towards the end of the year if they aren't competitive. That's common in this league, already. Players on non-competitive teams tend not to want to drive a long way to get their butts beat.
The scoreboard thing has me wondering about the league rules. We passed on a great field opportunity because of no scoreboard availability. If it's not necessary, I'd like to call them back.
We're not basing anything off of the game against the Raiders. 30-0 and we still saw things that need work, especially against teams with strong Offensive and Defensive lines. Shout out to Raiders LG and LT... they talked it up (mainly the tackle) and held their own. Center to RT might hate their own backfield though. Those guys were running for their lives.
That field owes me some skin.
Jersey issues will be resolved moving forward... our shipment didn't arrive until today. And it was 2 different but similar styles... jerk (fattycoug). This is actually the reason I'm not pressing the scoreboard thing... can't complain about rules when we weren't 100% compliant.
From what I saw of the Trojans/Rev game, if everyone would've shut up and played their game, it would've been even closer or gone the other way. Lots of yakkity-yak. I was actually kind of disappointed in the Rev because y'all usually let the pads and the scoreboard do the talking. Granted, the scoreboard was pretty quiet on the matter but you get the idea. Y'all let Trojans get in your heads.
My key takeaway this weekend was asking myself how we can start charging $10/head and not get laughed out of town. Good on Vegas if the fan base supports it.
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Darrell Baranowski
Utah Shock #51
Player... just a player. Hallelujah, I'M ONLY A PLAYER!!
I just get freaked out by your 2 colored jerseys, even when they are all the same. It confuses my tiny brain, which is probably what you are trying to do.
vegas fans DIDN'T support it the $10/head price, though. There was more Utah fans down there. Trap the out-of-towners with a big gate fee.
For what it's worth, after the fact; we've reached out to the Trojans about the scoreboard and they realize it's a league requirement. They have assured me the scoreboard will work going forward. I know that doesn't make up for the lack of it on Saturday, but they have corrected it going forward.
Still no score board at the Trojans and Hawks game and also none for vipers vs raider game. Not only that, our game time was originally 4 then moved to 7 and then the Monday before our game it was moved back to 4. The. When we got there, the Trojans and Hawks were playing before us and our game didn't start till after 5. Mix that in with the coach of the high school coming onto the field mid game and him yelling at the refs and trying to have them cancel the game and calling the cops to remove the teams from the field was a little ridiculous. Vegas is a mess..
Is this what is to be expected from the Trojans again this week? Since we are schedule to play at Coronado High School again? S M H How did the Raiders secure a nicer field to use then the Trojans? I don't get it.
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Plus's from this past weekend in Vegas: Scoreboard was functional.
Minuses:
1- The field was about as hard as an old dirt track. How the hell do you have a good team like the Trojans playing on such a garbage field. I heard the Raiders field was Super nice.... Atleast they got that going for them.
2- Shady reffing. I am not usually one to bitch about reffing, as I know it goes both ways and you're never suppose to leave it in the ref's hands...Plus I am use to playing in StG. (oh snap) BUT.....this was ridiculous. The ref's couldn't seem to get on the same page, often times when they made a call against the Trojans, they let the Trojans sit there in a huddle around them jaw jacking and persuading calls. Also, Often times you had whistles being blown and calls being discussed THEN changed frequently. There was atleast two incidents (that I recall),the ref from their sideline made a call ALL THE WAY across the field LOOKING STRAIGHT into the sun, IN FAVOR of the Trojans. Both of which I sat there completely baffled how that guy could see it....and the TWO refs (center and our sideline) did not especially when they weren't even looking directly into the sun. Still baffled actually.
3- Locker rooms locked after the game. Had to basically change on the sideline or wear your **** back to the hotel. This is minuscule but still sucked.
4- They had sicker helmets. I don't know where they got em painted but they are pretty bad ass. hahahahaha
Anyways that's my two cents.
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Any incorrect grammar, spelling, or inproper use of verbiage, shall be blamed on my iPhone not me!
