Yesterday's storyline is that the Pirates left too many red zone points on the field in the first half; HA's absence was the difference. MG played as you might expect for a freshman, skittishly, too quick to give up on pocket protection when it was there, but he also showed flashes of promise. The OL, Harris and the d on the whole were definite bright spots; now they just need to get the dubs. This false positive Celebrity Virus testing problem is total b. s.; Houston & co. work WAY too hard to be done in by what absolutely should be an entirely avoidable outside, arbitrary, erroneous factor. OK, so we've agreed as a society to let the Celebrity Virus run our lives, effectively treating everyone like they're equally vulnerable (and yes, I know it's as much about the contagion factor as the actual virus, but still...); are there no allowances in the protocols for the not uncommon false positives?!! ...cannot imagine what it was like to be in in HA's shoes watching the proceedings yesterday.

Extremely happy for ECU's first win. I knew we had a chance too beat SFU, but had no idea that the game would go as well as it did. Feel really sick that I was unable to see the game and had to get details on Sunday morning.

Anybody know about Keziah Everett D lineman? Is he hurt, sick? Just wondering, he is a big Un and like to see him out there plugging up middle.

O line most important position on the field and one that requires much experience to master. Beamer at Va.Tech started winning big when he had all red shirt seniors on the O line. We have the right Man just got to be patient as hard as that is to do, we got to trust him. He will put in the work. Recruiting is the difference in being a successful Head coach and one that moves around blaming others, in D1.

Really not about Wins and Losses anymore.. just being competitive is the new benchmark for this program.. hard to find a parallel for how inept the last 5 years have been.

Agree, Mo took us to the bottom. Hang in there, Houston knows what he is doing. It takes time - recruiting and developing players. He had no O or D line when arriving. Athlers can't do it from running for his life and getting off the ground all day. Keep fighting fellas, it's gonna get better!!! Support for Houston 100%.

Deja vu all over again. We're going through the same process as we did two decades ago when we fired another good head coach and brought in an incompetent mess. It took Skip three good years to recruit and develop linemen on both sides of the ball. It will take Houston at least the same, since the BOT gave Moe another year than JT got to ruin the program further. One can only hope the administration and fanbase can learn from two huge mistakes that have almost killed the program.

Nothing will change while the Pirates continue to be dominated at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Georgia State didn't even HAVE football until a mere 10 years ago!

I was super excited at the start and during the first half of the game. I knew it would take a miracle for us to win, but but I was hoping that we could put the fear of God in them. I was really hoping for some drastic improvement at the line and running game. I believe I did - now I just hope I can see some major improvement in our next game. From what I have seen of Georgia state, they are a solid team. GGGOOO....PIRATES.

I was super excited at the start and during the first half o fthe game. I knew it would take a miracle for us to win, but but I was hoping that we could put the fear of God in them. I was really hoping for some drastic improvement at the line and running game. I believe I did - now I just hope I can see some major improvement in our next game. From what I have seen of Georgia state, they are a solid team. GGGOOO....PIRATES.

Thanks Danny. I am sure that plenty of other fans also believe the AAC's composition is a mess, but it appears that none of the schools will take the necessary steps to turn things around because they fear potentially losing assets which they already have, such as NCAA automatic bids or TV contract values. The conference is too spread out geographically and that means different segments of the membership have too many diverging priorities that prevent the league from being as cohesive as it needs to be. And as I posted last week, I don't see how a 12-team conference consisting of UConn, UMass, Temple, Cincinnati, James Madison, Old Dominion, ECU, Charlotte, Memphis, Georgia State, USF, and UCF would be any worse than the current AAC. I believe the losses of Tulane, Houston, SMU, Tulsa, and Wichita State would almost be a wash due to getting rid of the excess travel (UConn could be replaced by Buffalo since they won't come back, while Navy should be a scheduling and bowl partner, but not an actual member). Right now the AAC is basically what CUSA was before the huge realignment of 2003 to 2005 with football-only members (Navy instead of Army and ECU), as well as non-football members (Wichita State instead of Charlotte, St. Louis, DePaul, and Marquette), and schools that are spread all over the map. I guess this makes sense when you consider that Mike Aresco was the guy who negotiatiated some of CUSA's old media deals when he was a TV executive and is fully invested in such a view of league construction. That mention of Aresco brings up another issue. Why should programs like ECU and Temple, or even USF and UCF, be in a conference that moves its headquarters to Dallas? And of course constantly sending multiple teams to Texas has been an issue since the CUSA days as well. I just wish one of the school Presidents or ADs would take the initiative to lead ECU, Temple, Cincinnati, Memphis, USF, and UCF in forming a new breakaway league based mostly in the East and inviting the five schools that I referenced above. Schools from the East have never been able to get their collective act together, which is why they are now divided among so many different conferences. At least somebody doing what I map out would bring the majority of the top remaining non-P5 programs from the East under one umbrella. There are quite a few administrators who would love to run a G5 league and can negotiate TV contracts or deal with the NCAA just as well as, if not better than, Aresco. It would set these schools up better for the long haul.

Hang in there Coach, you are the right man for the job, it's coming. Can't build a dynasty in one day.

Leagual Planner, that is a very well thought out take on what could have been and what might be. Hmm... — Danny Whitford, Editor

I don't understand why many of the schools mentioned in this discussion have been mentioned at all. Some people seem to be throwing names at a wall without considering the AAC's needs or how UConn fit into the conference before deciding to leave. UConn is an Eastern school and played football in the East Division, as well as a full member, so it would not make sense to replace a full member with a football-only member (especially when there is no chance of Army giving up their independence). Any school not in the Eastern Time Zone should be ruled out immediately. The six schools in the AAC West Division are Navy (since Wichita State doesn't have football), Tulsa, SMU, Houston, Tulane, and Memphis. The five remaining teams in the AAC East Division are Cincinnati, Temple, East Carolina, USF, and UCF. Any replacement for UConn, in my opinion, should bridge the gap between Cincinnati, Temple, and East Carolina, or go slightly further South to bridge the gap towards the two Florida schools. Such a school should have a decent basketball program, and be in a large or mid-sized media market, as the only AAC member which isn't is East Carolina. In consideration of all that, the top-tier options for the AAC if they don't want to stay at 11/11 should be one of Old Dominion, Georgia State, or UNC Charlotte, as they have the best combination of what the AAC looks for in members. The next-tier options should be Buffalo, UMass, and Coastal Carolina. Schools like Marshall and Appalachian State don't fill the bill because even though they are good at football, they are almost always bad at basketball, and have no media market. James Madison needs to move up to CUSA or the Sun Belt first if they hope to one day join the AAC. The biggest problem the AAC has, however, is that it's a media market conference held together by little other than TV contracts. It's basically four CUSA West escapees (Tulsa, SMU, Houston, Tulane) plus Memphis and the Navy + Wichita State combo ... along with a decent base for an Eastern conference (Cincinnati, Temple, East Carolina, USF, UCF) ... but no real similarities or long-term vision between the two sides other than to not get left behind in the race for bigger facilities and TV contracts after being thrown into the same life raft during the expansion madness of 2010. Imagine if, instead of quitting and possibly harming their football program to the point of never being able to join a P5 conference in the event of a future shake-up, such as Notre Dame deciding to go all-in on the ACC, which would then mean they need a 16th member, UConn had done something bold! What if UConn had tried to win the other Eastern schools over to their point of view? Imagine if UConn, Temple, Cincinnati, ECU, Memphis, USF, and UCF had instead decided to form a new East-centric league inviting UMass, JMU, ODU, Charlotte, and Georgia State to get to 12. The dumping of Tulane, Houston, SMU, and Tulsa could then serve as a catalyst to spark the much-discussed CUSA and Sun Belt reorganization. Navy would return to independence in football. Wichita State could seize the initiative to assemble a mostly-Southern non-football conference with teams like Oral Roberts, UALR, New Orleans, TAMU Corpus Christi, UTRGV, UT-Arlington, Dallas Baptist (up from D2), New Mexico State, and Denver. That would get those schools out of football-focused leagues and create a reasonable geographic footprint for their Olympic sports.

...would be interesting to know how many who "have it" are actually sick. (Yes, I can hear it now: "That's not the point!", though I'm not so sure I agree with that sentiment.) The bottom line is that it certainly appears at this point that Pirates Nation football 2020 is a mere pipedream.