97and03

Seems our student newspaper has better sports writers - it’s Kemon Hall and Nate Brooks, not a fusion of the two names.

Box score showed Zach Williams doing kick offs

I was surprised since the punt return game took off once Darden took over last year.

I think we can all agree the running game was...well, in a word, bad. We had only two runs over 10 yards, and one of those was by Shanbour (the other was Smith, 17 yards). Only 68 net yards, 87 if you exclude the sack yardage. That simply will not do in more competitive games. I think we can also agree that most of the struggles were likely more on the line than the backs, who are fairly talented. I was very surprised to see Easly get the start and so many carries. I am curious of everyone's thoughts on that. Is he the best back we have? Best pass blocker? I also noticed that they had Evan Johnson out there on 3rd down. Seemed like a pretty good role for him and he caught three passes. Torrey obviously has some skills based upon his KO return - and good speed as well apparently. Smith still might be the best of the bunch. So what are everyone's thoughts on the running backs? Who should start and/or get the lion's share of carries? Do we need more screens or swing passes in the game plan if we can't run effectively?

Normal sized Butkus?

Agreed. The Defense really came out firing on all cylinders last night and carried the team for much of the first half. At first I was bothered that the 2nd team gave up the points, but they gained valuable experience and so it is worth it, especially since it was against SMUt's starters.

I feel like he was slightly sharper in the 2nd half.

I think it is 8

I am not sure I understand your mission to disprove the attendance number, @KingDL1. What does it matter? We know two things: 1) Attendance figures do not reflect butts in seats. 2) Our announced attendance figures are the second most accurate in the conference at 69% (butts in seats/announced). Watching this on TV, which is how most people that saw this game would have seen it, the crowd looked AMAZING (especially the tail/wing) and sounded loud. Not 100% sure on whether or not this was the biggest crowd in our history (sure seemed like it), but it seemed to be the BEST crowd ever, especially since it was almost all NT fans and we were not relying on visiting fans to fill it up.

Was there a single rushing play in that? I can't recall one.

Agreed

Did Faison play? I had a hard time keeping up with who was in late in the game.

Second half only ?

Why are we poo-pooing a record crowd?

No. F’em

I mean... Nah, not really

I know I advocated for the backups to get lots of time, but wow that was bad

What a run back!!

The three Hedlund FGs are big. Could mean his confidence is back, which is everything for a kicker

The inability to run is concerning. But loving this game

I also want to see the backup LBs. And CBs are both seniors so need the backups to get reps.

I would advocate all starters out at this point. They need the reps for sure especially the second OL.

I think I just saw fat Axel Rose in an SMU uniform with a clipboard.

Let’s take out Fine please

I loved the 2 point conversion call.