Just a few quick game notes.
Going into the 4th it was 35-21. They kept their first team in until 3 minutes left in the game while we started rotating in our 2nd teamers (in the 4Q.) I am not saying we were better than them but I think our coach was the better man for not keeping all our 1's in. I had been told that the TCU coach would pull his players and not run up a score. Found out that's complete bullshit.
It gave these guys some good game time and we used Hawkins more than I'd expected. This is also great for him as he will be our QB next year and we'll be back at AGC.
The last team to score 21 on TCU was OU at Norman.
Our receivers, though they seemed to impress alot of TCU fans and even some of ours, were not in sync with George. They went inside when the route was outside. They went outside when the routes were inside. George overthrew a few times...mainly long. Some just out of reach. So, even racking up the passing yardage we did it should have been a whole lot more. Our running game was pretty much shut down but they kept at it. They never wavered or stopped trying. TCU's D is huge. When we get Bush back and hit SLC play it will be awesome. One aspect will open up the other and we'll kick some SLC butt.
Our Special Teams improvement in 2 weeks was, well, WOW
. Still needs a bit of tweaking and we put new guys back there that did so much better than I expected. Reddic did a good job for someone who has never returned kicks (that kid is going to be awesome the next 4 years) and Alexander did ok after that flub that cost us. Jitters I guess. He's new at it too.
Our O line held their own. Folks over at BCF that
weren't even there have become critical of the line but BG had time to do what he needed to do. He wasn't hurried any more than he would be in any game against another good FCS team. In fact I think he exceded my expectations. Maybe I had last year's game in the back of my mind but it didn't happen. The pick was his worst play and I was frustrated by that as you could see
bad play unfolding from the get-go. He should have eaten it and taken a FG. The O couldn't open up the holes for our runners but I think this will come. (really missing Bush) We just had the OU transfer take over at RG (he beat out our starter for the job so no longer competing for rotating C) But they kept Hughes and company away from the QB's (for most part) and opened up that passing game.
Our D wasn't as bad as predicted. Not as good as they will be down the line but improved from week 1. I know the numbers don't say that but it was the 4th where they rolled up the numbers (see above about that one)
The Ugly here was the MWC officiating crew. One of TCU's drives was totally penalty oriented. I would almost bet they didn't get more than 10 yards on one drive that wasn't gained by mysterious penalties by the bobcats. Even the PAT was rekicked due to one. I'm not saying we didn't commit penalties but they committed penalties they got away with. Not ones that were judgement calls either. All 3 sacks Hughes had his hand on George's face mask. George ran out out bounds one one broken play and 2 of their guys hit him from behind (3-4 feet out) which caused him to flip over their bench.(no call) Pass Int was not called on them. They held all over the place and...nadda. It was truly horrendous.
None penalty plays....
Canady ran in a short yardage TD, clearly over the line. The back judge put his hands up but TCU challenged it. It took nearly 5 minutes on the review and they decided it wasn't a TD. We got to do it over.
Their player was down (knee) on the 1 but they allowed the play to continue until he got into the ez.
So the officiating sucked and it was nothing new. We have faced this before. We know, playing the teams we do down here, we have the officials to contend with as well. We had to play a perfect game and did the first half. We had the upper hand on turnovers (2) but we gave them 2 back in the 3rd Q that cost us dearly.
We went into this game being tagged "wannabes," DII slackers, buffoons. We would have Hughes all over our QB, our offense wouldn't get as much yardage as UVA and we wouldn't ever score. The entire game I was impressed by the teams tenacity and never say die play. I was never upset or down during this game and came away ready to say "SLC - bring it on."
