Did anybody see Louisiana Tech's win over Mississippi St. on TV last night? I've been calling La. Tech a sleeper in the WAC since they played the Aggies last year in Ruston. That game showed me all I needed to know about Derrick Dooley's team. They don't play afraid and they go right after the other team for four quarters. Solid defense, check that, the defense was outstanding on Friday. Good special teams - their kicker made a booming field goal last night to make the score 22-14 Tech in the 4th (They won the game by that score). He made three in the game. They won by eight.
A few things about Tech that do cause reason for pause. First off, their D was ridiculous, but Miss. St. just doesn't move the ball, period. I love Sylvester Croom, but he's a defensive guy, bottom line. MSU is pretty unimaginative on offense. La. Tech will be similar this year. They have a good ground game but the passing attack is a work in progress. In the end though, I said at the beginning of the year, when La. Tech comes to Las Cruces in late November, that game will mean something for both teams. After Friday, I have no reason to change that viewpoint.
Kyle Reed came in and led a San Jose State comeback in the 4th quarter and an eventual 13-10 win. Yes, it was against UC Davis, but Reed is a player to keep an eye on. He's a transfer from Cal and was highly touted coming out of high school. He led the team late on Friday and was clutch. Who knows what he'll do throughout the entire season, but my gut tells me he'll be fine in the WAC.
I voted for Chris Williams to win offensive player of the year in the WAC in my preseason media poll. If I had to select somebody else, it would have been Nevada QB Colin Kaepernick. He is dangerous, mainly because he can run. He's going to account for a ton of TDs in Chris Ault's "Pistol" offense.
Idaho lost 70-0 to Arizona on Friday. Yikes. And Hawaii got hammered. The shocking thing was that I'm not too surprised about either outcomes. Except for Idaho. That's just a really big blowout.
2 comments:
Another thing that might be worth talking about is our chances of beating both UNM and UTEP. UNM faces A&M, Arizona and Tulsa before they place us and I doubt there confidence will be very high. Rivalry games are rivalry games but their next three games are very tough. Arizona beat up Idaho, Tulsa did the same and A&M lost and will be looking for someone to take out their frustration on.
UTEP got their tails whipped against Buffalo and will more than likely face the same outcome against Texas this week. I think that we for once in a long time we have a chance to win both rivalry games and that would be huge for the rest of the year.
GS
La Tech got a BIG win! The others did as I thought they would. Can't wait to see how Fresno did. I'll give Fresno and Hawaii some credit because they didn't play cupcakes at home, that's for sure.
I feel bad for our guys, having to go thru this situation with Nichols State, having to get fired up now for a new opponent and for having to go open up at Nebraska. I just want our main weapons to come back from Nebraska - HEALTHY!
Nebraska is trying to get back to the Black Shirt defense and they are out to prove they are on track. They will be after Chase all day.
As for UNM and UTEP; we always see crazy things in rivalry games. UNM looked HORRIBLE at home against TCU. Did they play a back up QB? I thought their main guy was an older guy, I can't remember his name. Was he hurt? I don't think UTEP is going to be very good, but we do go to their place. If we're healthy we will beat them both.
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