From the desk of....... A Newark Bulldog blog

[Matt]

From the desk of Matt......
President
Newark Bulldogs Football Operations

Continuity has been a staple of what the Newark Bulldogs have done to try and be competitive year in and year out.
It’s under those same circumstances that the Bulldogs will follow with into the 2020 season.

With so many long time Bulldogs leaving following the heartbreaking Imperial bowl loss, new doors should open with new faces.....right?
Sort of.

RETIREMENTS

Offseason	S Don Ellard
Offseason	CB Teddy Fields
Offseason	S T.J. Hanks
Offseason	OLB Russell Hennessy
Offseason	DE Arnold Lantz
Offseason	T Kennedy Marsh

Fields, Hanks, Hennessy, Lantz, and Marsh are all long time Bulldogs that played their roles on the team.
Replacing them will be...
Fields – role was already being assumed by Alvin Gordon
Hanks – 6^th yr vet and drafted Bulldog Sean Hitchcock will assume this role
Hennessy – role was already being assumed by Eric Sewick
Lantz – role was already being assumed by Stephen Brigham.
Marsh – 5^th yr vet and drafted Bulldog Shane Brush will assume the role full time.

The key here is that all of these roles will be assumed by existing Bulldogs already in the system. The problem is that each of the current Bulldog starters are aging. The house is going to crumble at some point in the near future, however we will keep riding our guys until they’re gone.

The offense will remain unchanged for the most part. Losing Marsh hurts a little as I found that we had good success running the ball with him in there as opposed to Brush. I’m hoping another year together in our system will help us out there. All the usual suspects will be on offense, with the exception of newly acquired RB Darnell Castillo. I felt we got Castillo at a good value for us for a number of reasons. We are built to win now. Two or three years away isn’t going to help me today. Castillo is a solid stud RB. To be honest, I’ve been enquiring about Castillo’s availability for a number of years.....as in atleast 5. Pairing him with Jamison allows me to have an extreme comfort level should either of these guys get hurt. It also allows me to not have a dropoff between the 2. I’d love it if I could get both guys 1000yds and 10 TDs. I won’t be surprised if Castillo has more rushing TDs than Jamison this year. Jamison is the heart and soul of the offense. He’s the guy that made the impact matched with Burger and co. Once we got a reliable RB, we were poised for success. The odd man out in this situation is Brian Campbell. Campbell has been solid in his career thus far. His problem arose last year when he acquired a fumble problem. I felt I needed to do something this year to rectify that as I just didn’t trust him anymore. He’ll ride pine unless someone gets hurt, or I get blown away with a trade offer.
Our wideouts are a year older. Frank Togiai’s aging will impact us the most as he’s our “slot” guy. Mitchell Brown was brought in from Oakland to compete for a slot type receiver. He’ll need to beat out Togiai, 13 yr vet Jamie Williams, and 6^th yr up and coming Jeremy Satre. Satre had a tremendous season last year. He caught 75% of the passes thrown to him for 490yds rec, 23.33 ypc, and 17.5YPT. Huge production from him. He may play a bigger role in the Bulldog offense this year. Our starters remain the same (Hoover and Lucas), and we expect Burger to throw the ball around to whomever is open. This includes 2 of the top TE’s in the IFL . No one dominant WR over the course of the year, but a more effective passing game all together. This system has worked for many seasons. Last season Burger led the league in YPC by over 2 yds from the next QB, and YPA by over 1.4yds from the next QB. Not too shabby for an old guy who was 24^th in the league in attempts! He also led the league in QB rating.
Projected Starting offense
*indicates was drafted by Newark

Years with team QB Dwight Burger 14th RB Gary Jamison 5th FB Roger Sherman 4th * TE Casey Lofton 2nd WR Jose Hoover 7th * WR Jessie Lucas 6th * LT Jesse German 3rd * LG Kurt Bensen 4th * C Norman Enright 5th * RG Amos Bailey 11th * RT Shane Brush 5th *

The defense is where I was having the most problems dealing with age and retirements. The front 7 continue to age to the point where my starters are well onto the twilights of their respective careers. I’m hoping that the cohesiveness of the unit will help me out more than their talent. Zach Reed, last yrs 1^st rnd pick, is the young brightspot in the front 7. He was amazing last season while backing up the longtime Bulldog vets. He racked up 6.5 sacks while gaining almost a 10% tackle %. That’s huge for DT. With Roman Troutman’s ratings taking a hit, I might just put Reed in there. I will just need to observe how much of a cohesion hit I will take. Stephen Brigham, the 6’8 300lb DE had sort of a breakout year last year starting all 16 games for us. Entering his 4^th season we’re hoping that he can find a way to surpass 10 sacks. On the other side, our all time sack leader Chad Banks should continue to have some success rushing the passer while Steven Birney waits his turn for a full time gig here in Newark. 7 years and counting for this poor sap. Mack Edwards leads the LB’s. We don’t really have any dominant LB’s, so I’m hoping the cohesion of the unit helps out here. We’ll also likely play the LB’s strategically to their strengths. Depending on how things go, Eric Sewick could be starting over former DPOY Juilio Wheeler. Nicky Doyle is a beast. Last year DPOY top candidate was unstoppable. the question is now, who will play the other side? With Tito Wooden taking a ratings hit, and Alvin Gordon progressing I’m leaning on putting Gordon opposite Doyle. I drafted 2 safety’s hoping something might stick. I also brought in some FA’s with really only Mickey Bernstein being in my eye. Not sure what I’m gonna do with my FS position, but I think Craig Hampton gets this position despite his ratings. He did pick off 5 passes while being on the field for only 300ish pass plays. If he can give me 80% + pd % I will be happy.
All in all, I’m just “ok” with my defense. If I can upgrade something at the expense of a future pick, I probably would....within reason.

Projected Starting Defense
*indicates was drafted by Newark

			Years with team
DE	Stephen Brigham		4th	*
DT	Dwayne Ayodele		8th	*
DT	Roman Troutman		9th	*
DE	Chad Banks		11th
SLB	Julio Wheeler		4th
MLB	Mack Edwards		12th	*
WLB	Drew Sullivan		6th	*
CB	Nicky Doyle		2nd
CB	Alvin Gordon		5th	*
SS	Sean Hitchcock		6th	*
FS	Craig Hampton		11th	*

[DDT]

Nice job! I prefer this style to fake media releases. Although anytime anyone takes the time write something I appreciate it.

I guess a glimpse into someone else's strategy is just more interesting to me than graphics. Need to do something with the Toads soon, I think.

[JesterBlaze]

Nice memo!


Satre is a pain in my ass.

[Matt]

Well, I guess the regular season has come to an end. Before the season started I thought we would win the division in a dog fight with Lawrence. If we hadn’t, I knew we’d be in the hunt for a wildcard and based on how the team was made up I figured we’d be ok. The season allows us some reflection on what we did to shape ourselves and how we put ourselves in the right position for success. There were 2 big moves we made. First was to bring in RB Darnell Castillo. The second was our midseason pickup of DE Antoine Nece. Both moves were somewhat controversial, but as of the end of the regular season both have worked out in our favor. Castillo was big for us. He was everything I had hoped for .

I’d love it if I could get both guys 1000yds and 10 TDs. I won’t be surprised if Castillo has more rushing TDs than Jamison this year

Not a bad prognosticator!!!!
With Jamison and Castillo we went on to have an amazing season running the ball as a team. As a team we ran for over 180 ypg. The next closest team was 30 yards behind us. I’m pretty proud of what we did there. A big part of a team running game is having 2 solid players.
The next big move came when we finally worked something out to bring over Nece. UKPatfan and I had been having conversations for a period of time regarding Nece. Our time came up and we finally agreed on a deal. I gave up tulsa’s 1^st rnd pick next year for him. Tulsa was undefeated at the time and my expectations for this pick weren’t fantastic. It was expendable to me since getting it years ago when Marlon Gilette was traded. I love Nece. He’s a great DE. His problem was that he was playing in Wichita. When you’re playing from behind, you’re playing run defense. Hard to get sacks that way. I figured he would be a perfect fit, despite his age. Our window is now. As long as Burger is around, I have to commit to winning. Nece was the best DE in league this year. Most of the damage came when he played with us. 9.9 PR% and 9.2 tackle %. Not bad for a DE.
I was unsure how we would do after we found ourselves at 1-2 after 3 games. Our week 1 loss on the last play of the game really stung. Vermont was all over us and our defense sucked. What made matters worse is that we lost on our home turf. Something I detest doing. In week 2 we squeeked by Wichita with our offense only score 13 points. After our 41-17 ass whooping by Tulsa, I was ready to pack it in. We weren’t playing well at all. Our running game wasn’t what I expected at all. Our defense was brutal in 2 of the 3 games. I was actually thinking that we had just gotten old. This was it. With a game against Oakland upcoming, we could easily be 1-3 and be done. Needless to say, that win against Oakland was a huge turning point in our season. Looking forward to the offseason. Looking at potential playoff opponents and each one offers something special/unique. I really hope this is our year to finally get over the hump. Can’t think of anything I would want more in the FOF world.

[Matt]

jester's thread made me think of this.
Ironically I think I won the imperial bowl the season after I did this.....or maybe this season. either way, fun to loook back

[JesterBlaze]

I think it was the season you typed this. Castillo came aboard and got an instant ring I think.