After a one-week absence for my wedding and honeymoon, The Gale is back in full effect. And there is quite a bit to talk about. Following a punishing loss to the Blue Hens of Delaware, The College finds itself at 3-3 and needing to win four out of its last five games, at a minimum, to have a fighting chance at a playoff berth. Although Saturday’s performance did not provide opportunity for many, here are the Top 5 Takeaways from the loss to Delaware:

W & M football is struggling now, but all could change with a home win over first place UNH.

1. 3-3

There are a couple of ways to look at this. One, after surveying the Tribe’s 2011 schedule in August and deciding what their record would probably be, The Gale had them finishing 8-3 with losses to UVA, Delaware and either Richmond or JMU. As it stands now, the Tribe has three losses to those opponents. So, it could be said, the Green & Gold is sitting right where it seemed they would be in August.
Note: taking this viewpoint intimates failure to see the Tribe play one time this season.
The second way to look at this 3-3 start is to, with palm on forehead, ponder – Will they finish .500? After being shutout on Saturday, The College has the worst scoring offense and the second-worst rushing offense in the CAA. Ranking ninth out of 11 teams in pass offense, they only average .1 yards better per outing than Villanova, and 60 yards better per game than a Madison College offense that throws the ball half as many times per game (13 att/gm) as William & Mary (26 att/gm).

The remaining slate includes games against CAA-leading Towson and New Hampshire, second place Old Dominion, and fellow bottom dwellers Rhode Island and Richmond.

Unfortunately, The Gale takes the second stance. With the lack of consistency from the quarterback position and the corresponding offensive problems that go along with that, it is hard to see where the Tribe will find wins. Stating the obvious, you can’t win games if you don’t score any points.

As unbelievable as it is to say this about a Jimmye Laycock-coached team, the 2011 edition of Tribe football is utterly anemic offensively. Unless that changes, The College is destined to watch the playoffs from home.

2. 3rd Down Troubles

On both sides of the football, William & Mary dreads seeing the down marker click from two to three. A constant struggle throughout the season, these issues continued to be backbreakers for the Tribe against Delaware. Not surprisingly, The College’s offensive unit ranks ninth out of 11 teams in third down efficiency, converting on only 35.6 % of its chances (32 conversions on 90 attempts).

And while the offense struggles to stay on the field, Gang Green cannot seem to get off of it. Like their offensive counterparts, Gang Green ranks ninth in the 11-team CAA in third down efficiency, allowing opponents to convert 44.1 % of the time (41 conversions in 91 attempts).

As a result of their collective struggles on third down, the Tribe ranks 10th in the league in time of possession per game, holding the ball for 28:35 per game. In the loss to Delaware, these trends continued. The College converted on third down once – ONCE!- in 13 attempts, while Gang Green allowed the Blue Hens to convert nine of their 16 third down tries.

As a result, Delaware controlled the football for 35:34 while William & Mary held it for 25:25. As Friends of the Feather, you are obviously adept at doing simple math – that means the Blue Hens held the ball over nine minutes longer than the Tribe! Until these numbers change, the Tribe is going to have a hard time finding the win column.

3. Jabrel “Claymore” Mines

In Top 5 tradition, the #3 Takeaway is always reserved for a nickname. The reward of a nickname is not always due to performance, although it is a large consideration. Instead, the nicknames are rooted in inspiration.

And no Tribe player has been more inspiring over the first six games than linebacker Jabrel Mines. Through the first six games, Mines leads The College in total tackles and sacks, and is second on the team in tackles for loss, trailing only fellow T5T nicknamee George “The Animal” Beerhalter. In a word, Mines’ play has been explosive.

And as such, The Gale sees no more fitting nickname for #10 than Jabrel “Claymore” Mines. “Claymore” is a defensive weapon, clad in green, wreaking havoc on each opponent he faces, and inflicting the most damage behind enemy lines – in the backfield. As is customary, Jabrel will now be known around The Gale as “Claymore,” “Claymore Mines,” “M10,” or any variation that seems fitting.

4. and 5. Where’s The Attitude?

It is no secret that The Gale loves professional wrestling. After watching the Delaware game, I couldn’t help but think about the WWF (The Gale refuses to call it the WWE; when millions of people around the world pay the World Wildlife Foundation to watch whatever it is they do, then maybe I’ll reconsider). Now, bear with me for a minute while I explain the parallels.
From 1995 until 2001, the World Wrestling Federation (“WWF”) and World Championship Wrestling (“WCW”) were engaged in a bitter television ratings battle. Each Monday night, WWF’s Monday Night Raw faced off against WCW’s Monday Nitro.

Vincent Kennedy McMahon, the head of the WWF, did not just want to win the ratings battle, he wanted to annihilate the WCW. McMahon felt that the best way to accomplish that was to increase viewership in the 18-25 age demographic. So, the WWF shifted from content that was more family friendly, to content that was edgier and more controversial than its traditional storylines.

The seminal moment in this transition came in 1996 at the pay-per-view event King of the Ring. From 1986-1992, one of the WWF’s biggest stars was Jake “The Snake” Roberts. For those of you unfamiliar with Rasslin’, Jake “The Snake” may or may not have invented a signature wrestling move – the DDT – and he also used to bring a canvas bag to the ring containing a python named Damien (although other snakes were used, notably, a de-venomized Cobra which bit the Macho Man Randy Savage in a famous match).

During his run, Jake was much more a heel (a bad guy) than a babyface (a good guy). In ’92, Roberts left the WWF for the WCW. When Jake “The Snake” returned to the WWF in 1996, his storyline revolved around him beating alcoholism and part of his routine in-ring was to preach Bible verse. He even changed the name of his snake from Damien, son of Lucifer, to Revelations. This storyline made Jake “The Snake” one of the WWF’s most popular babyfaces, and as such, he was the favorite to be the 1996 King of the Ring.

At the same time, a journeyman wrestler named Steve Austin was re-branding himself in the WWF. At the ’96 King of the Ring, Austin defeated the favorite, Jake “The Snake.” After doing so, Austin mocked Roberts’ routine of citing John 3:16 by saying, “You sit there, and you thump your Bible, and you say your prayers, and it didn’t get you anywhere.

Talk about your Psalms, talk about your John 3:16. Well, Austin 3:16 says I just whipped your ass!” And with that simple twist, The Attitude Era in the WWF was born. Led by Stone Cold Steve Austin, the era also included The Montreal Screwjob with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, the formation of anti-establishment group Degeneration X, and the introduction of one of the WWF’s greatest superstars of all time – The Rock. By 2001, the WWF enjoyed so much popularity and success that they literally ran the WCW out of business, acquiring their longtime rivals that same year.

For this humble blogger, it was the greatest era in all of wrestling. But, like all good things, it came to an end. The World Wildlife Foundation sued and the WWF had to change its name to the WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment. With no competition from WCW, WWE no longer had to fight for market share. The ideas went stale and the characters just weren’t the same anymore. Most importantly, the “attitude” that was essential to The Attitude Era was gone.
So, what does any of that nonsense have to do with William & Mary football? Maybe nothing, but there do seem to be some parallels. By my own admission, I am biased, because I was an undergrad in 2004 during the run to the national semifinals and Lang Cambell’s Payton Award-winning season.

For The Gale, 2004 was the beginning of The College’s Attitude Era, with Lang Campbell playing the part of the transcendent superstar Stone Cold Steve Austin. On a team that barely played any defense, Campbell led an offensive juggernaut that jolted up and down the field.

In the six years following that semifinal run, the Tribe found itself in the playoffs twice more, with a near-miss in 2008. Led by the more subdued Jonathan Grimes and a record-setting defensive unit masterminded by Bob Shoop, the teams from ’08-’10 resemble the star-packed final years of WWF’s Attitude Era, which included The Rock, Triple H-led DX, and The Corporation.

Much like the pay-per-view success of the Attitude Era, the Tribe’s playoff appearances in ’04, ’09 and ’10 produced two national semifinals appearances and a CAA Championship.; in the same period, William & Mary’s success on the gridiron was matched by its fundraising success off of it.

Record donations led to the installation of permanent lights, FieldTurf and a video board at Zable Stadium. The influx of funding also enabled the program to build the crown jewel of its facilities, the Jimmye Laycock Football Center.

William & Mary went from a school perennially known for academics, to a football program repeatedly ranked in national polls. This 2011 squad, ranked in the Top 5 in multiple preseason polls, seems to lack the swagger and confidence that was so evident in previous years. Hopefully, this season is just a blip on the radar, kind of like the story arc that had The Rock and Mankind as tag team partners.

At the end of the day, The Gale just wants the Attitude Era of William & Mary football to last ten times as long as its counterpart in the WWF.

HARK