By Nick Deriso, the News-StarGRAMBLING — A bye week, even in the best of times, gives football coaches a time to reflect. Grambling coach Rod Broadway, fresh off a gut-wrenching loss to Pittsburgh, wasn't happy with what he found.
He's looked at the tape. Given extra time, he's examined it both forwards and backwards.
"We had an extra week to go through it," Broadway said. "Usually, you watch it on Sunday, maybe a little on Monday, then you put it away."
Four times, his new team had the ball in Pittsburgh's red zone, with three drives inside the 10-yard line. But Grambling was held scoreless in the second half, eventually falling 34-10 in non-conference action.
Grambling also committed 14 penalties for 108 yards, converted only 6 of 17 third downs, and saw two mishaps on special teams lead to Pitt scores.
Even the defense, in an otherwise solid performance, saw two seniors gave up a pair of huge plays that accounted for more than 100 yards of offense by the Panthers.
"We got burned up with turnovers, with four of them," Broadway said, during a Monday morning news conference on campus. "That will kill you in any league. You're not going to win too many games with that many turnovers."
Evaluation involved not just player execution but also things like play selection.
"We've got to come up with a better plan to get the ball in the hands of guys that can make plays for us," Broadway said.
His hope is that film work, and additional time to prepare, will help Grambling clean up some of these basic errors.
"Mentally, I think the guys are buying into what we are trying to do," Broadway said. "The coaches are getting a better understanding of exactly how we want to do things."
This young season reaches a critical crossroads with Saturday's home opener against Alabama A&M, the Southwestern Athletic Conference's reigning champion. The game, set for kickoff at 6 p.m. at Robinson Stadium, will be broadcast nationally on ESPNU.
Broadway, who called the contest an important measuring stick, admits that the team and coaches are still meshing. He said he learned as much from the win over Alcorn State in Week 1 as he did in the stumble at Pittsburgh.
Lessons from both should help Grambling improve, he said.
"One of the things that we are dealing with, going into this season, is going through this transitional period," Broadway said. "It's new to them; it's new to us. We're still trying to get a feel for them; they're still trying to get a feel for us. The only cure for that is time."
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