4 Hard Downs: Targeting Talk, Struggle Bus, Miracle at Mizzou & Fresno State Having Fun

Ejections getting egregious, fast paced 3 & outs are bad plus building a rivalry on transfers

THANK YOU TO THE BASED GOD HARRISON MEVIS!!!

We stan a king.

Thanks SEC Network

61 yards to save your boy from overtime and to secure the bag for the Tigers in CoMo on Saturday. Oh and by the way, they beat the #15 team in the country, K-State, and are now 3-0 heading into the game against Memphis in St. Louis. Luther Burden III is the truth so, I am very excited about this.

Honestly, probably the best showing of an unassuming SEC team that isn’t Florida. Georgia and LSU, yes, good job, but no one expected much from Mizzou or Florida in these respective games.

I loved to see that kick.

A thing I will say that I’m not sure I love or hate or just, honestly, don’t understand is how rivalries work with a roster full of transfers. Like, you’re not from here, you never went here or largely even wanted to go here until you got here; so why do you hate this other team?

Obviously, I am referencing Colorado-Colorado State and the pre-game dust up and the in-game personal fouls. If we had to talk Top 20 rivalries in CFB, it wouldn’t be on most folks not from Colorado’s radar. So do kids transfer in and Deion is preaching this rivalry? Do they just hate every team? Does being a part of the student body fuel this a month just gestating hatred?

I understand UNC vs NC State. I understand Michigan vs Ohio State and Michigan State vs Michigan. UVA and VT. Florida vs Florida State vs Miami. I get most of that. Same with all the big state rivalries, except when your roster is made up of guys who didn’t grow up as part of the big state rivalry.

Thanks ESPN

Colorado has 20 home state players. Only 3 of them are clickable on CFB Stats. One is the back-up kicker, one is a reserve RB with 11 yards and the other has 2 QB hurries.

Let me be clear, this is not bad, I just am curious as to how it works. Usually your roster is mostly kids from there, scholly and walk-ons with big feelings. I can’t imagine a kid from Lumberton, Apex or Spencer, all NC towns, grew up with a Buffs vs Rams lean.

I love the fire, it was a very entertaining game, looking forward to conference play for Colorado and hoping they keep it going.

Maybe it was the preseason low expectations. Maybe it is, like the Matt Rhule standing on their logo situation. It is just an interesting thing to watch from players and coaches who had never been to Boulder before in their lives.

I’ve got a feeling this might be a long 4 Hard Downs, so buckle up.

Tennessee’s offense let them down, but in the words of Leon Black, Florida got in that ass, too. They spray painted, “Florida Was Here,” and left loose paper and then walked out of of the #11 team’s ass leaving it wide open. Sure, we can talk penalties for Tennessee, 10 for 79, is bad. But, damn, I’d rather talk about Florida finding an identity in Trevor Etienne and just deciding, “we play downhill or we can’t win, baby,” on Saturday.

I’ve talked about being wrong, I love to see it when a team bows their neck and stands up to achieve a thing I didn’t think they could. I will hold the L because those young men got together with the staff and figured some stuff out.

Honestly as it stands now, I’m not worried about speed and space, because the Vols got their behind whooped; however it is still time to….SPOT THE BALL!!!

1st Down: Struggling but Surviving

Team don’t look that good. Team don’t look that good. Who have they beat. They didn’t win by a lot. There is no icing on that cake.

That shit is way better than not having any cake at all.

You can put the icing on later, but you gotta have cake to ice.

Florida State, Alabama and even Texas keep the cake intact, despite struggling. Hell, Colorado as well had to struggle but they kept the cake.

Oklahoma State struggled and didn’t survive. No, that’s not right, they got demolished.

South Alabama, a game that I did watch and was amazed at how easy it came to the Jaguars who just lived in the backfield of the Pokes. Sacks, TFL at the best times for the Jags and worst time for Oklahoma State was the name of the game.

Noted OAN man, Mike Gundy, proving he is a real patriot, giving it up to USA on Saturday night.

As for the schools that did survive? Here are my quick thoughts:

-Texas was an issue of styles making a fight; Wyoming going slow and controlling and it took 46 minutes for Texas to figure it out and get the win.

-Florida State was up 31-10, thinking, “they will lay down,” and absolutely not, especially at the Red Bandana Game at BC, they stormed back and capitalized on mistakes from the Noles and FSU is lucky to still be undefeated.

-I don’t know if not seeing Jalen Milroe was Nick Saban saying to fans/media calling for other guys that they need to shut up because he knows better than them OR him showing Milroe you have to be better because these guys have no juice. They won, but man, ulcer city for Nick, including a rain delay that probably made for good yelling time.

2nd Down: Thriving & Riding

Washington and Ohio State did not struggle and survive. They got the job done.

Low Key, Washington is a monster. Michael Penix Jr is absolutely a frontrunner for the Heisman and this team does not care who is on the field, they are going to score, score and score some more. We will get another test against Cal a team that works on defense since their offense ain’t hitting on much.

Ohio State is a team learning who they are and it is working. They were riding. 9.37 yards per play against WKU, that’s a number a lot of teams don’t get over air, let alone an opponent. In fact, the only team over that is Washington over the course of the year. The Buckeyes are figuring it out and getting better. Kyle McCord seems to be the guy and the run game looks legit.

Washington and Ohio State, right now, shit throw Oregon State in there, are teams that no one would sign up to play. Offenses are nightmares and defense is enough to get the ball back to the nightmare.

3rd Down: It Just Ain’t Fair, My Targeting Takes

Jayden Daniels “draws” a targeting against Shawn Preston:

I don’t get it.

Wait, that is a lie.

I do get it. He’s a quarterback. So, despite that big ass sideline being right there to protect him, someone putting their face in his chest, delivering a rising blow, wrapping up and running through contact to drive him backward and into the ground. You know, how you teach it, it is too rough.

Again, sideline is right there. Use it.

Great job by Preston, head behind football, face in the chest as Daniels, for some reason, jumps and then gets destroyed. As he should. Yet, Preston gets sent to the proverbial showers.

In the words of “Men on Film” hated it.

Now, to the Colorado game.

Don’t even want to get into the Mohamed Kamara ejection. Not only did I not think it was a late hit, thought it was a one step face in chest good play.

But for this “illegal block” it was wild as Rams score.

I couldn’t find it so I drew it:

Hope that helps. Credit me. Thanks me.

I couldn’t find the plays, both in OT so I drew them in a flipbook, you’re welcome.

In my own words in real time:

He just gave him a shoulder. A shoulder that he should have seen coming as the QB ran away from him to get to the endzone. Really rough one for Colorado State.

Also, this is not me saying the fix is in. This is me saying the penalty and its enforcement is bad across the board. For all teams.

4th Down: Bulldogs For Life!!

No, not those Bulldogs. We already said UGA won as expected.

We are talking Fresno State.

For those who don’t know, I am a huge Jeff Tedford fan. That guy is probably a Top 5 coach in my eyes after having spent time with him during the Elite 11 when he was out of CFB for a bit and helping young QBs get better. In a few sessions he changed how I looked at defense because my mind was always geared to “how we stop you” and he introduced “we know how they want to stop us, so do something different.”

Truly a magical moment as I watched him draw up Cover-1, Cover-2, Cover-3, Cover-4 and showing how the defense works and then attacking them in another way. Just good stuff.

(I also have a very healthy appreciation for Charlie Frye for similar reasons, that man can run a chalkboard)

So to see Fresno State 3-0 with wins over Purdue and Arizona State is great. They smoked Sparky; a team that lost to Oklahoma State who we just talked about losing to South Alabama. Basically not a great team but a great win in terms of winning a second game against a major league.

Mikey Keene and Erik Brooks are getting it done.

They’ve got a middling defense but heading into Mountain West play, that’s all they need to be playing for a league title.

Y’all I got super worked up on targeting writing this so I wanted to end with something positive. Had to, because, in the words of my parents, “You’re always so negative.” So there, a very cool thing that reminds me of getting to spend more time with players and coaches and seeing those guys go be successful is great.

Very dope. Tomorrow we will hit some play tracking, which should be easier because I am just adding to existing numbers not running through averaging last year and all that jazz. As I said on the podcast, I was in the middle of a run and it was hurting and then I realized I had to go do math and write; running is the thing I am better at compared to those two things.

Basically running 4 miles, compared to math and writing, is the easiest part of my everyday life. It isn’t the most enjoyable, that is the car ride to school for drop-off and cooking dinner, but being alone running the road is definitely easier than parenting, cheffing and certainly mathing and writing.

Cheers!!