Man, it's been a crazy couple of days. The men's basketball season starts tomorrow and, as the guy in athletic communications who handles the sport, I thought I'd do some blogging throughout the year on the team. We're currently on a bus headed to the airport to fly the rest of the way to Washington, D.C. for tomorrow night's game. I think there's a lot of anticipation (at least for me) about what this team is capable of. But before I get to that, I thought I'd quickly comment on last night's football game.
As a statistician, last night's game was a nightmare with the fog. In 12 years in this profession, I've never had a situation like last night in trying to stat a game. It was unbelievable. I've just got to throw some kudos out to the cast we have in the pressbox for the work they did in making sure the stats were accurate. Scott Swegan handles the actual inputting on the computer and he has the final say on all stats -- so he's got to confirm with his own eyes what he's told by others around him. Nate Doolin calls out the action on the field and spent half the game trying to decipher what happened through binoculars and half the game trying to figure it out while watching the ESPN telecast. Brad Meyer is our defensive stats guy, mostly handling tackles. Like Nate, he spent half the game with binoculars plastered to his face and half the game trying to confirm what he saw through the binoculars on the foggy ESPN telecast. Everett Fitzhugh and Kyle Wilbur spent much of the second half braving the weather on each sideline with cell phone in hand in case we needed a closer set of eyes to distinguish whether a #6 caught the ball or a #8. Reid Linder was helping with the ESPN telecast on headphones, but he helped us out to figure out the puzzle that was trying to make heads or tails of what happened. It was truly a team effort to get accurate stats completed last night.
Despite the final score, it's always fun to be involved with a team all dedicated on the same goal -- in this case figuring out what actually happened on the field when we couldn't see what was going on. And those guys did an excellent job. For the better part of two hours, we did nothing more than work as a collective unit to put together the detailed account of what was happening on the field. It may seem trivial, but it's probably the closest we get in our profession to actually being on a team. I've also got to give credit to my assistant and the football SID Dave Meyer. When we left the pressbox and walked back to our cars at 1:30 this morning, we realized we had just finished up an 18-hour day. And for Dave, an ESPN game like this one involves a whole lot of long days leading up to the game. We couldn't get the publicity and national attention we get without his tireless efforts.
Now -- onto men's basketball. For me, this is a pretty exciting time of the year. Two years ago, I started at BGSU three days before the men's basketball season started. I hit the road with the team to Minnesota for three games without knowing any of the players, coaches, or staff who I was on the road with. I had no idea what kind of team we'd have or even who our starting point guard was. Of course, I did my best to cover up those facts but as the season rolled along, I learned more. That season was such a blur that the fact that they won a MAC Championship almost snuck up on me.
As for this year, I'm really interested to see how this season develops. From a talent perspective, I don't see this team missing anything that would be needed to win a MAC title. But as those close to the conference know, the talent level in the MAC is so evenly distributed that there are a lot of intangibles that determine the best teams from the worst. There's very little talent discrepancy in this league. What this team achieves could be determined by how the individual pieces come together, chemistry, experience, and leadership. All the pieces are here but we're yet to see how the six newcomers fit with the eight returners. Will all those pieces fit together for a MAC Championship? Starting tomorrow night at Howard, we'll begin to find out that answer. So stay tuned!
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Showing posts with label football. Show all posts
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Mike Cihon's Big Day, Part Deux
The fun continues at Perry Stadium -- when last we spoke, I had just enjoyed lunch and a quick check of some football action from around the nation. So much has happened since then, I don't even know where to start. OK, I have a rough idea of where to start.
I made a quick trip over to the press box with BGSU athletic communications guru Dave Meyer. While over there, I snapped a quick photo of the Falcon Marching Band. The FMB, obviously, is a huge part of Falcon football fun, and they work just as hard as the football team to ensure that everything goes well on game day (or, in today's case, game night)...
From there, it was out to Tailgateville to get a sense of the mood of Falcon Nation. In one word or less, the mood is 'festive.' This photo may not accurately depict all of the awesome festiveness that was taking place, but just trust me -- it's a fun atmosphere, and this photo was taken nearly six hours prior to kickoff...
Back inside the stadium, the FMB was still going at it. They will be joined by a large number of high-school bands from around the region this afternoon/evening as well...
And, some of those H.S. bands started to arrive at The Doyt at around 2:00 p.m. ...
... and joined the MFB on the field ...
At this point, I need to step away from the computer for a while to get ready for tonight's game. Until I'm able to post again, Roll Along!
I made a quick trip over to the press box with BGSU athletic communications guru Dave Meyer. While over there, I snapped a quick photo of the Falcon Marching Band. The FMB, obviously, is a huge part of Falcon football fun, and they work just as hard as the football team to ensure that everything goes well on game day (or, in today's case, game night)...
From there, it was out to Tailgateville to get a sense of the mood of Falcon Nation. In one word or less, the mood is 'festive.' This photo may not accurately depict all of the awesome festiveness that was taking place, but just trust me -- it's a fun atmosphere, and this photo was taken nearly six hours prior to kickoff...
Back inside the stadium, the FMB was still going at it. They will be joined by a large number of high-school bands from around the region this afternoon/evening as well...
And, some of those H.S. bands started to arrive at The Doyt at around 2:00 p.m. ...
... and joined the MFB on the field ...
At this point, I need to step away from the computer for a while to get ready for tonight's game. Until I'm able to post again, Roll Along!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
News and Notes Leading Into The Home Opener
It's really turning into an exciting day around the BGSU Athletics Department today. Even though the football home opener is still two days away, there is so much buzz and activity going on around here. Sure, there's a lot of stress to put our best foot forward for our fans, but it also makes it really fun. At heart, we're all fans around here too and these types of weekends are what attracts us to our jobs. Just thought I'd drop a few notes leading into Saturday:
* If you haven't heard, the game is being picked up by ESPN3.com and ESPN Game Plan. Really, we want to have our fans in the stands but if you can't be here, there should be plenty of opportunity for you to follow the game. If you have an internet subscriber that doesn't allow you to watch ESPN3.com, we will also have the video stream available for purchase through American One at BGSUFalcons.com.
* Attendance seems to be tracking pretty well. It's unlikely to be a sell out but I would expect an announced attendance number much higher than last year's 14,514 for the home opener against Troy.
* If you haven't been there yet, be sure to check out the Gameday Central page. We're posting as much info on there as we can and should be an invaluable tool for both fans who are coming to the game and those who will be following at home. You can access it at: http://bgsufalcons.com/sports/2010/9/14/FB_0914105719.aspx?id=218
* Just a reminder that we'll be having a fireworks show as soon as the game is over Saturday night as well. Hang around for those postgame festivities.
* If you haven't heard, the game is being picked up by ESPN3.com and ESPN Game Plan. Really, we want to have our fans in the stands but if you can't be here, there should be plenty of opportunity for you to follow the game. If you have an internet subscriber that doesn't allow you to watch ESPN3.com, we will also have the video stream available for purchase through American One at BGSUFalcons.com.
* Attendance seems to be tracking pretty well. It's unlikely to be a sell out but I would expect an announced attendance number much higher than last year's 14,514 for the home opener against Troy.
* If you haven't been there yet, be sure to check out the Gameday Central page. We're posting as much info on there as we can and should be an invaluable tool for both fans who are coming to the game and those who will be following at home. You can access it at: http://bgsufalcons.com/sports/2010/9/14/FB_0914105719.aspx?id=218
* Just a reminder that we'll be having a fireworks show as soon as the game is over Saturday night as well. Hang around for those postgame festivities.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Todd Walker Shows Us What He Does
Todd Walker showed us how he prepares to announce a BGSU football game as he gets ready for the BG/Troy game this evening.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Heading To Alabama
Posted at 4:51 pm Friday -- Well the plane landed in Alabama and the team headed to Troy for walk through. Those of us who didn't need to go to practice went back to the hotel (mainly those on bus 3 with busses 1 and 2 being player/coach busses). Those of us in athletic communications went to Jim 'N Nick's BBQ for some good southern food. For myself, I spent the plane ride re-reading through Troy's game notes. A few things that I found noteworthy:
*Troy has won 23 consecutive home openers dating back to 1986 (when I was in 6th grade).
*Troy has never won a game over a MAC team (0-3 all-time).
*What does Oklahoma, USC, Ohio State, Florida and Troy have in common? Since 2001, they have been the five toughest teams to beat on their home field.
*Here's a cool little note -- Troy's Tyler Clark will wear #54 Saturday (normally he wears #58) to honor his best friend and former high school teammate Cody Dean, who was killed in a construction accident this summer.
Posted at 1:27 pm Friday -- Video from Todd Walker and John Gibson on the bus headed to the airport for Troy:
Follow us all weekend here on the BGSU Athletics Blog as the football team heads to Alabama to play Troy Saturday night at 7 pm EST. We'll provide as much of a behind-the-scenes view of the trip as we can, posting some videos and our thoughts as the Athletics Communications team. We leave at 9:30 this morning and the plane is scheduled to land in Alabama around noon CST. Here's a few links to keep you busy in the meantime:
BGSU Game Notes
The Weekly BGSU Press Conference
Gameday Central
Results From Around The MAC (The league went 4-1 Thursday night)
On another note, for those BGSU fans unable to be in Alabama, you can watch the game live on your computer at ESPN3.com.
*Troy has won 23 consecutive home openers dating back to 1986 (when I was in 6th grade).
*Troy has never won a game over a MAC team (0-3 all-time).
*What does Oklahoma, USC, Ohio State, Florida and Troy have in common? Since 2001, they have been the five toughest teams to beat on their home field.
*Here's a cool little note -- Troy's Tyler Clark will wear #54 Saturday (normally he wears #58) to honor his best friend and former high school teammate Cody Dean, who was killed in a construction accident this summer.
Posted at 1:27 pm Friday -- Video from Todd Walker and John Gibson on the bus headed to the airport for Troy:
Follow us all weekend here on the BGSU Athletics Blog as the football team heads to Alabama to play Troy Saturday night at 7 pm EST. We'll provide as much of a behind-the-scenes view of the trip as we can, posting some videos and our thoughts as the Athletics Communications team. We leave at 9:30 this morning and the plane is scheduled to land in Alabama around noon CST. Here's a few links to keep you busy in the meantime:
BGSU Game Notes
The Weekly BGSU Press Conference
Gameday Central
Results From Around The MAC (The league went 4-1 Thursday night)
On another note, for those BGSU fans unable to be in Alabama, you can watch the game live on your computer at ESPN3.com.
Friday, July 30, 2010
MAC Football Media Day in Detroit
9:25 a.m. -- You are looking live at Ford Field in downtown Detroit. After a number of technical difficulties, I (Mike Cihon, athletic communications) have finally been able to get internet access here in the Ford Field press box. Several of us athletic communications types are here, along with head coach Dave Clawson, linebacker Champ Fells and running back Willie Geter.
Coach Clawson, Fells and Geter are in the midst of BGSU's electronic media portion of the festivities. Each of the three has already done multiple radio and television interviews. The East Division schools are in the electronic media area until 10 a.m. At that time, the print media folks will get their chance to speak to the BGSU contingent.
Even though it took me seemingly forever to get onto the web this morning, Assistant AD Jason Knavel has been hard at work sending out some updates on Twitter and posting video links. You might have seen his tweet from last night, which contained the link to a sneak preview of the new football commercial. I'm biased, but I think the commercial is great. You can view it here. I won't spill the beans re: who did the voiceover, because I think Jason will be sharing that info sometime later today. I will say, however, that I believe it was the first-ever voiceover work for the mystery voice, which rules out Tim Conway. Back in a few...
9:40 a.m. -- And, as I check the BGAthletics twitter feed, I see that Jason Knavel has announced the identity of the mystery voiceover man. It is none other than our own Champ Fells. Nice job, Champ! By the way, if you're not already following BGAthletics on Twitter, you should do so immediately.
10:15 a.m. -- The electronic media portion of the morning has ended for the MAC East schools, and the BGSU group has headed over to meet with the print media. A lot of NW Ohio media members are on hand, and Coach Clawson, Champ and Willie each did a ton of TV and radio interviews. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that most, if not all, of the Toledo TV stations will have interviews on their sportscasts tonight.
10:28 a.m. -- Let's try to upload a few of the videos from this morning, shall we? Apologies in advance, because the voiceover guy on these videos is nowhere near the caliber of Champ Fells. Here are two brief videos from BGSU's electronic media portion of the morning festivities ...
10:41 a.m. -- A few other things going on here in Detroit ... the MAC announced a regional television agreement with SportsTime Ohio. In the first year of the agreement, the MAC will have a few football games, but will have a minimum of 33 basketball games aired on STO. You can read the release at the MAC site here.
Additionally, the MAC and ESPN Regional Television have announced a regionally syndicated football package that will air in 24 television markets. The package will consist of six weeks of MAC conference and non-conference matchups, beginning Saturday, Sept. 18.
BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock and ESPN's Desmond Howard are on hand here in Detroit, and have done their share of interviews as well.
10:51 a.m. -- Here's the latest in the award-winning (??) series of expertly-shot, but poorly-narrated videos ...
10:53 a.m. -- I don't know about you, but this morning's events have me ready for some Falcon football! Here's some information from the "Things You Already Know" file: the 2010 season begins on Saturday, Sept. 4, at Troy. After a game at Tulsa the following Saturday evening (Sept. 11), the Brown and Orange open the home portion of the schedule against Marshall on Saturday, Sept. 18. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at Doyt Perry Stadium, but you already knew that.
11:00 a.m. -- As you probably already read at BGSUFalcons.com, the Falcons were picked to finish fourth in the East Division by the league's media members. In some other preseason polls, BGSU was picked to place anywhere from second through sixth. The Falcons were picked to finish second in the East by the Sporting News, third by USA Today, fourth by Lindy's, fifth by Phil Steele's and sixth by Athlon. Temple has been the consensus choice to win the East, while Northern Illinois is atop the West Division in the bulk of the polls.
11:43 a.m. -- Things are wrapping up here in Detroit, as the players and coaches are conducting a few final interviews prior to the luncheon. At some point later today, we will post a few videos of Champ and Willie interviewing each other. It'll be well worth your time to check back sometime in the near future.
1:15 p.m. -- And, here are those videos ... we've got Willie interviewing Champ ...
... and Champ interviewing Willie.
Thanks for reading, and Roll Along!
Coach Clawson, Fells and Geter are in the midst of BGSU's electronic media portion of the festivities. Each of the three has already done multiple radio and television interviews. The East Division schools are in the electronic media area until 10 a.m. At that time, the print media folks will get their chance to speak to the BGSU contingent.
Even though it took me seemingly forever to get onto the web this morning, Assistant AD Jason Knavel has been hard at work sending out some updates on Twitter and posting video links. You might have seen his tweet from last night, which contained the link to a sneak preview of the new football commercial. I'm biased, but I think the commercial is great. You can view it here. I won't spill the beans re: who did the voiceover, because I think Jason will be sharing that info sometime later today. I will say, however, that I believe it was the first-ever voiceover work for the mystery voice, which rules out Tim Conway. Back in a few...
9:40 a.m. -- And, as I check the BGAthletics twitter feed, I see that Jason Knavel has announced the identity of the mystery voiceover man. It is none other than our own Champ Fells. Nice job, Champ! By the way, if you're not already following BGAthletics on Twitter, you should do so immediately.
10:15 a.m. -- The electronic media portion of the morning has ended for the MAC East schools, and the BGSU group has headed over to meet with the print media. A lot of NW Ohio media members are on hand, and Coach Clawson, Champ and Willie each did a ton of TV and radio interviews. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that most, if not all, of the Toledo TV stations will have interviews on their sportscasts tonight.
10:28 a.m. -- Let's try to upload a few of the videos from this morning, shall we? Apologies in advance, because the voiceover guy on these videos is nowhere near the caliber of Champ Fells. Here are two brief videos from BGSU's electronic media portion of the morning festivities ...
10:41 a.m. -- A few other things going on here in Detroit ... the MAC announced a regional television agreement with SportsTime Ohio. In the first year of the agreement, the MAC will have a few football games, but will have a minimum of 33 basketball games aired on STO. You can read the release at the MAC site here.
Additionally, the MAC and ESPN Regional Television have announced a regionally syndicated football package that will air in 24 television markets. The package will consist of six weeks of MAC conference and non-conference matchups, beginning Saturday, Sept. 18.
BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock and ESPN's Desmond Howard are on hand here in Detroit, and have done their share of interviews as well.
10:51 a.m. -- Here's the latest in the award-winning (??) series of expertly-shot, but poorly-narrated videos ...
10:53 a.m. -- I don't know about you, but this morning's events have me ready for some Falcon football! Here's some information from the "Things You Already Know" file: the 2010 season begins on Saturday, Sept. 4, at Troy. After a game at Tulsa the following Saturday evening (Sept. 11), the Brown and Orange open the home portion of the schedule against Marshall on Saturday, Sept. 18. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at Doyt Perry Stadium, but you already knew that.
11:00 a.m. -- As you probably already read at BGSUFalcons.com, the Falcons were picked to finish fourth in the East Division by the league's media members. In some other preseason polls, BGSU was picked to place anywhere from second through sixth. The Falcons were picked to finish second in the East by the Sporting News, third by USA Today, fourth by Lindy's, fifth by Phil Steele's and sixth by Athlon. Temple has been the consensus choice to win the East, while Northern Illinois is atop the West Division in the bulk of the polls.
11:43 a.m. -- Things are wrapping up here in Detroit, as the players and coaches are conducting a few final interviews prior to the luncheon. At some point later today, we will post a few videos of Champ and Willie interviewing each other. It'll be well worth your time to check back sometime in the near future.
1:15 p.m. -- And, here are those videos ... we've got Willie interviewing Champ ...
... and Champ interviewing Willie.
Thanks for reading, and Roll Along!
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