4 Hard Downs: Prime Time, Florida State Turned It On & Being Wrong
I like being wrong because it means someone is out producing my expectations
I was wrong. Two major times on Saturday.
TCU and South Carolina both lost.
No.
Colorado and UNC both won.
That’s the better way to tell this story.
Colorado found a way to gel almost 90 transfers between spring, summer and fall camp and go out and be winners. Shedeur Sanders went for over 500 yards passing, and we will get to Travis Hunter in the proper downs. Deion’s team showed up in a way I did not expect.
They didn’t walk the dog on TCU, but the CFP runners-up woke up and realized they were in a fight way too late to close the door. Glad I was wrong about that because I want Deion to succeed, I just have been touch and go about roster make-up and moving up so quickly.
I was also wrong about UNC.
Not only did they win, Gene Chizik had them dogs out there hunting Spencer Rattler. It was gorgeous to watch this team play behind the line of scrimmage and create pressure from both the interior and off the edge.
16 tackles for loss. 9 sacks.
That is insane, especially for a team that had 17 sacks a season ago.
For the whole season.
I’m glad I was wrong about these two things. I’m skeptical. I don’t believe it until I see it so all my Colorado and Tar Heel friends, get hype, things are looking better than expected on Boulder and Chapel Hill.
Another thing I’m skeptical about is Travis Hunter, you know what, let’s do it…SPOT THE BALL!!!!
1st Down: Travis Hunter’s Sustainability
This man played 129 snaps.
One hundred and twenty-nine. That is, basically, two full games.
In Texas heat in September.
Ain’t no way.
I was gonna say there are two sides to this coin, but in reality, there are three:
-1 he’s the best player on the team and they need him.
-2 is this overuse and abuse, similar to Mark Dantonio and Le’Veon Bell just over working a guy so you get wins?
3-what about his actual future, is it offense or defense and should he focus up so that he is where he needs to be as a 1st round pick at 1 position.
Without him playing WR, they don’t win this football game. Plain and simple. However, that is a lot of snaps for a 20 year old. Especially a 20 year old stepping into the Big 12 from FCS.
And the however, to the however, what is his future because if he’s a defensive guy, focus on that and hone those skills. Does he want or view himself as an offensive guy, then go out and be Odell. A choice has to be made at some point because there ain’t 2-way guys in the NFL to this level.
So the question is: How do you use your best player without overusing him while helping prepare him for the future of his NFL career?
Look at that, got it in one.
2nd Down: New Big 12, Ok ok. Big 12 “Classic” Mid
TCU goes down to future member. Baylor goes down to Texas State. Not great Bob (but great Bobcats). Cincy, UCF knocked it out of the park. Houston was as okay as Oklahoma State, same with BYU against a newly minted FBS program in Sam Houston (they didn’t lose to them like UTEP did Jacksonville State). Kansas, K-State, Oklahoma and Texas understood the assignment and answered the bell no problem.
But whew, TCU and Baylor are looming large as “what happened here” games.
We thought Baylor was going to bounce back. We thought TCU had enough to weather the storm.
Wrong.
We thought Cincinnati was going to struggle with new Florida transfer Emory Jones.
Wrong.
Being wrong is fine, admitting you were wrong is better. Week One in the books and we will go from there.
3rd Down: LSU and Florida State are fine. Not great, they’re very good and fine
Another “wrong” moment was expecting LSU to get the dub. They didn’t. FSU got it.
But my point here is they’re both pretty okay. Flawed and not where they want to be, but closer to the light than they have been in recent years.
Holy shit.
When I started writing this it was 24-17 and then Florida State got in that ass:
45-24 win for the Noles. Wow. They turned a game-long stalemate into a nightmare for LSU and Brian Kelly. Wow. Norvell and his guys poured it on the reigning SEC West Champs.
4th Down: Season Long Tracking Starts Here
That’s my spreadsheet to start, this is a Tuesday thing. Every Tuesday I am going to, on the free feed, update plays per game for those 7 schools and game times. I have to build it out tomorrow but this is a good faith look at following 2 high, 2 low and some in the middle from a season ago. The goal, via HITD Pod, was no new coaching staffs and just seeing how teams adjust to the new time rules.
So, every week, Army, LSU, Miami, Michigan, New Mexico, Texas Tech and WKU updates on Tuesday to figure out how these rules are working.
Shout out to my bud, Drew, from the pool!!! I know you’re reading and I made the run home in 27 minutes, then walked the end of it to cool down.
Cheers!!!