Wow

Well, I was half right. It was windy, but that didn't stop the Devils' offense. 56 points and very impressive. The Blue Devils mixed the run with some well-timed passing to have an awesome attack.
I think, if Jeff McInerney were to draw up his perfect scenario, today would be how he'd like the offense to look. Those who are wishing Central would open up the offense to a significant degree shouldn't hold their breath: the Blue Devils are never going to look like the Colts.
But what they can do is set up passes by lulling teams into waiting for the run. The ball Ryan Holmes threw today was a perfect example. The whole defense bit up the middle, waiting for him to charge, and he dumped it ahead into the vacated middle of the field. Perfectly done. Between that and Aubrey Norris showing off both aspects of his game, you saw how the CCSU offense can work at its finest.
The defense did not have its best game today, but with the game such a rout, it's hard to judge.
The special teams were brilliant on everything but kick return coverage. It sounds like nitpicking, but letting a team start close to midfield is never helpful.
Anyway, if you get a chance, please check out my full breakdown in the paper Sunday. You know what happened, but hopefully I gave you some little tidbits in there that you either didn't catch or didn't think about (like the fact that CCSU never punted on Saturday).
We'll have a notebook later in the week, too. That will focus on Alondre Rush's excellent adventure the last two weeks, Jo Jo Freeman showing what he learned from a certain other back, and a couple of other nuggets.
Over 4,000 in the building on Saturday, great to see. Thanks as always for reading. Keep the suggestions coming, I'm learning when it comes to the blogging part (and some would say the writing part).

Packed house

I'm writing this about eight minutes from kickoff... place appears to be jammed (tough to gauge noise or excitement level from the box here at Arute, which is closed off, but walking in it was wild.) There was a band (besides the school band) in the parking lot, some tailgaiting, and there appeared to be a ton of students here.
I didn't notice many SCSU fans on my way upstairs, but I'm sure they're here.
Let's do this.

Wind a factor?

Just saw that it's going to be windy Saturday, which could play havoc on offense and make the kicking game that much more important.
Instinct says that helps SCSU with Toles, but Central can run the ball, too. It should help the fans for sure. Games where both teams want to run tend to have two traits. They tend to be close, which will make it exciting, and they tend to go fast.
Personally, I enjoy defensive battles and low-scoring games where one adjustment or one play call can be the difference. This strikes me as one of those games.
Have fun, be safe. I'll definitely blog after the game (don't forget to read the Herald Sunday for the full breakdown) and I'll do it before the game if there's anything worth mentioning.

The first batch of questions

Already have a couple of questions sent in. Really appreciate the response, hope this works out to be informative for you guys and fun for me.
I'll do this first set of a couple as kind of an open-ended bit. Translation: I got these questions tonight and am posting what I know. As I get more info in later weeks, we'll revisit these topics, so don't be afraid to ask the same question again. Eventually I'll be able to give you a better answer.
One bit of a disclaimer before we begin. This won't happen often, maybe only a couple of times a season per sport, but there are times when I get told things that are what we call "off the record" That means I know it, but can't say it. For the purposes of these questions, I'll try and avoid those topics if the need arises. It doesn't happen often. I'll never EVER intentionally give you a wrong answer in these Q and A's, but if I have more details a few days after I answer your question, don't yell at me. Remember that I have to keep sources happy in order to get you more info down the line.
With that said, here's the first quick batch. Since I haven't yet checked on some of the answers and am going off what I know, they're more observations than answers. But the more you ask, the more I know what questions you guys want answered, which helps us both.
1) I'd be surprised if CCSU and SCSU kept this series going for very long, as the game doesn't seem to do much for either school. It draws a big crowd though, so if the Blue Devils continue to play a "lower level" team, SCSU might be it. There's nothing official yet, and the last I checked the '08 schedule wasn't near completion. I'll check again soon, though.
By the way, speaking of Saturday, here's a preview of the preview story for Saturday's paper. Southern is good, better than you may even think. This won't be easy.
2) Could the Blue Devils play at the Rent? I bet they would take the game. In fact, I'm pretty darn sure they would. Will they? My take is that would be up to the school up north. Again, this is just an opinion, but I think a lot could come from this Western Michigan game in terms of future scheduling. The Blue Devils have shown the willingness to play anyone, but the game has to make sense for them to be worth it, unless they get a huge guarantee. In other words, if the Devils get killed, it might be awhile before they make another leap that big. If they play well, they might try to get more games along those lines.
I think I covered it all for now, and this is getting long. Thanks again for the support. This thing won't work without you making it worth while. So keep the questions coming, or I'll just start telling you how my day was and what I had for dinner.

Scheduling conflicts

Very rarely does one team get to be David and Goliath in the same season, let alone in a seven-day stretch, but that's what happens to CCSU's football team over the next week. Saturday, it plays the role of Goliath against SCSU. Then it's out to Kalamazoo for the Blue Devils' first game against a FBS team (I think the NCAA will let us go back to 1 and 1-AA soon, at least I hope so).
No matter what the outcomes are, the Blue Devils certainly can't be accused of ducking anyone. They took on Towson, they're playing a tough game against a very good team this week in SCSU despite the risks of "playing down" and then are going to meet Western Michigan.
By the way, no truth to the rumor that the Devils tried to play Michigan instead, I checked.
I'm kidding of course, but the plight of the Wolverines does shed light upon the task facing Central this week. Win, and you did your job. Lose and, while it's not on the level of App. St. in the Big House, it's certainly going to make some waves around these parts.
But this is what growing programs like the Blue Devils have to do to make their mark. The Devils have made it clear that they'll play anyone, anywhere, up, down or even. The only problem is, if they do too well as David, they might have a hard time finding more Goliaths until they're ready to be one. After all, I don't think Georgia Southern or Michigan will be asking for rematches anytime soon.

An intro and ideas

First of all, welcome to Blog Central. My name is Matt Straub, your CCSU beatwriter for the Herald and now a blogger. We've been eager to get this up and running for some time, and I hope this will serve several purposes.

I'm looking forward to giving you extra news and notes that don't make the paper, some thoughts that don't necessarily fit into the confines of the weekly notebook and some of the atmosphere from my road trips with various teams. Hopefully I'll be able to provide you not only with the 'what happened and why' that I try to get to in the paper, but with some sense of what it was like to be there.

But I don't want this to be about me. I'll tell you as much as I can, but I'd like this to be a way for you, the Blue Devil fans, to get better informed. Have a story idea? Let me know. Have a question? I'll give it my best shot. If I get enough good questions I can either answer or ask someone for you, we can post mailbags and the like. It will also help us shape our coverage going forward. I'm here to serve you all, remember. So if you have a question, send it to mstraubblog@hotmail.com. (I'll try and get something catchier and easier to remember set up as we go.)

I'm new to this format, so help me out with these blogs as well. If you like something or hate something, let me know.

See you all at Arute on Saturday. Come early, word is that it's going to be packed.

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