Well, well well. What have we here?
Everything we do is a first. This was our first road loss. There will be two weeks until we get another chance to grab a first road win, though.
It was an interesting game to be sure. Not only on the field -- in front of all 8,683 in attendance -- but for all of us watching on that weird SUU feed. Thanks to the director who didn’t see fit to cut off the mics for the internet stream. We were treated to a UTSA schedule breakdown and insights on what a broadcast is like during commercial breaks (boring). Recap: Brooks Hansen thinks SUU might be the best team UTSA faces this season. He meant that as a complement, I think. We sure gave them a good game.
No, the scoreboard doesn’t show that we put up much of a fight. We did, though. There was lots of fight and lots of never-give-up-ness. We made rookie mistakes and the veteran team full of solid Mormons (presumably) handled their business.
That’s that. We have our very own (first) homecoming next week and we will have wrapped up September. How are we feeling, guys? Three weeks into the season with two home games and one away, where do we stand as a program?
We have learned these things:
• We are young.
The two losses featured heavy doses of Young Team Mistakes. Soza looked rattled --as evidenced by his poor decision and subsequent pick six yesterday. The team came out flat against McMurray and in the second half against Northeastern. Veteran teams are generally more composed. Also, we are turning the ball over (and fumbling in general). Although this is more of a discipline problem, it certainly can be attributed to youthful mistakes. I mean, generally young guys are poor on ball handling technique, often getting away with Deionin’ in High School when they were always bigger, faster and stronger. In college, when the tackles aren’t last ditch dives at your ankles but are instead bone-jarring gang-ups you have to take care of the ball better.
• We are talented (and fast)
Mychal Clanton (play-by-play) and Brooks Hansen (color commentary) mentioned how fast we got to the edge. Even though we did that against the Riverhawks and McMurray, this Southern Utah team is arguably more talented. We still got the edge on some runs and flat out-ran some guys. It is a beautiful thing. Speed kills, you know. It is nice to have a deadly skill as we enter the WAC next season (and deal with the rest of this one). Soza, despite having to run for his life the last two games, is still a gamer. He’s young (see above) and so still has room to improve. We can win some games with him back there if we can protect him a little. Add Ryan Polite to the equation and we can say we are pretty solid at the QB position for at least a while.
• The defense can hit (but maybe not defend the pass)
Nick Johnson is practically a lock for our yet-to-be-announced Big Hitter Award. The guy is out there knocking the crap out of dudes. The rest of the defense? Well they are getting lit up on Must Stop Downs. The game-losing drive vs McMurray and the multiple conversions allowed vs Sorenson and the T-Birds were yoooge (huge). We can play the youth card again here if we want to be nice. It is a difficult proposition being young and facing the Father of the Air Raid and Big Brad Sorenson in the first three weeks of your college football life. Still, it is a concern and something that needs improving.
• The fans (us) are still here and still Rowdy.
Not only did we show up to the first game, we put up a good attendance figure for the second. The 44,189 average thus far is best in the FCS and WAC and good for 48th in the FBS in total. Not bad. The Longhorn Network, that bane of Aggies and ‘Braskins and Sooners, is going to make Road Runner football available to more than just the 30K+ that show up to the Bird Dome (<--what do you think?) every Saturday. That is hella huge. There are tons of FBS schools that don’t have that kind of reach.
I’ll pause while you make a LHN joke.
Done? Okay.
Fact is that it will at least be available. Looking at the longterm this is crazy awesome. I made a point about this on MGN. Having your product available in people’s homes is advertising the program and building awareness. That kid you're recruiting doesn’t have to visit the dome to see your squad. He can see them on TV, check out the fan base (chicks), see the uniform and watch the offense/defense in action. Not to mention that his parents and relatives are going to love the chance to see their kid on TV.
• Bush is creative and smart
There haven’t been a whole lot of qualms with Bush’s playcalling. He got an A+ for his first game even though he was helped by the Surprise element. He puts the ball in his playmaker’s hands for the most part and any mistakes have obviously been player errors. We’ll see what he has as the season progresses and how they improve going into next year. The test will be how he coaches and drills the mistakes out of them.
There is still a long way to go. If we can glean anything with reasonable accuracy from these three weeks it is this: It will be fun.
Go Runners.
