Mail time!

I love these, please keep the questions coming. Post them here or at mstraublog@Hotmail.com

Let's get right to it. I'll paraphrase slightly when necessary on the questions, as sometimes they're not written in straight question form. This is in order I got them, so we'll jump around a bit from sport to sport:

Q: Can you speculate on Ken Horton's injury?
A: I try hard not to do that, as speculation is an dangerous thing. But here's what I can piece together: I don't want to speak too much about the conversation I had with him, not because we talked about anything substantial but because it wasn't an on the record interview and I try to be careful about that, but I'll say that I left our chat at the run thinking he'd be fine. Also Howie, while his quote was understandably scary, didn't give the impression he thought it was very bad, either. Just that they'll check him again in 2 weeks. I think they'll be cautious, too. They don't need him in October. In theory, they really don't need him until December.

Q: It's so refreshing to see a CCSU hoops article, as many of us are chomping at the bit. One question though: Is there a reason Jonathan Tull was never mentioned? Is he considered a "project", more of a swingman/Aaron Hall type player? All the articles I read about him seemed to be so positive...he was one of the top rated Canadian players.

A: 1) I don't always use every quote I get for a story, so I might have skipped over something I didn't think was interesting at the time.
2) Howie might have just forgotten him, he was listing players off the top of his head, his remarks weren't prepared. It also doesn't mean that, if he's not ready now, that he won't be a factor later. Sometimes Howie likes to reserve talking about a guy until he feels he deserves it. Tull was at the run, so it's not like he was gone.

Q: Coach Mac sends confusing signals to the fans in his Open Mac spots. He (and CCSU) seem to be suffering an identity crises when it comes to his Open Mac's and first half vs second half performance.
A: I cut out a part of this question for length, but it was a good one. The edited parts mentioned quotes where Mac said he was going to open up the offense, the famous Florida trip, etc.
Quite frankly, I think Mac believes everything he says at the time he says it. I think he's working on expanding the passing game, which statistically he has. CCSU averaged 18.3 passes a game last year and is at 20.8 this year. But I think fans tend to extrapolate what he says into their own wishful thinking. Opening up the passing game doesn't mean being a pass-first offense.
And to be fair, they do run some of the Florida stuff. There's a bit of a misperception that Florida is a passing team. In fact, the two teams are remarkably similar. UF has run it 269 times and passed 141. CCSU is 300/125. Percentage wise, Central runs 70 percent of the time and Florida runs it 66 percent of the time.
But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is this: I believe that Mac, in his heart, is always going to be a smashmouth football kind of guy. Defense and running the ball will be what matters to him. He'll say those things about the passing game and means them at the time, but when he gets on the field his instincts take over. He is always going to try and grind the other team down by running the ball, then, when the defense is drawn to the line, pop a couple of big pass plays. That's what he means by passing more. That's not ever going to change. The old strategy was run until the defense is tired then run some more. So that's progress, right?
And you know what? Say what you want about its predictability, but it's worked for the most part.

Q: Does Mac take the play calling away from coach Likens when we pass the ball?
A: No. Mac does occasionally call plays, but head coaches generally leave those things to the cooordinators. That's their job. The head coach is more of an overseer. They all work together to form a game plan, then the coordinators run that plan and pick the plays to execute it.

Q: Why doesn't Central throw to its tight ends more?
Here's the one I was talking about yesterday. Mac had literally less than 5 minutes to talk yesterday, so I didn't get the chance to ask as many followups as I'd have liked, but here's what I did get. And I promise to ask it again when I get a chance.
Here's Mac's quotes.:
My question was about opening things up by getting more people involved, especially the tight ends. His response:
"I think it's about moving the football. We want to get more weapons and more people involved. For us to win championships we had to be more multiple. If we had been one dimensional Saturday (at DU) we'd have gotten beat. And for us to ever win an NEC championship that's what we have to do."
I kind of rephrased it and he added:
"We are spacing it out more. Some of it is quarterback reads."
So basically, he says he's trying to get it to everyone and sometimes the TEs (and Nick) have been open and missed. Which isn't a shot at the QBs, it happens to everyone.
Anyway, I hope this has been informative, and I'd love to do more, so please keep the questions coming.