Tuesday Thoughts 9/12: Unbothered

I should’ve released this blog two and a half hours late in solidarity.

Game Recap in Three Sentences

Once the storms passed the offense got rolling and put up 48 points on nearly 600 total yards.

The defense struggled with giving up yardage to the option for much of the game but was mostly able to limit scoring.

Swapping to Aidan Birr at K turned out to be the right move as he nailed two FGs, including one from 42.

Above The Line of the Week

1. Not sweating out the FCS game and just being able to watch comfortably.
2. Eric Singleton Jr., we might’ve found the guy here.
3. Two straight games without an immensely stupid special teams mistake. Let’s go for three!

Unformed Thought of the Week

Late in the third quarter the broadcast mentioned that Tech hasn’t had a QB go back to back weeks with 300+ passing yards in something like 20 years. King fell just short at 290 before being taken out (which is totally fine), but the fact remains that we’re in uncharted territory this season. King already has 7 TD passes, just 3 shy of the 10 that we threw all last year. He certainly seems poised to toss more than 20 total this season, something we haven’t done since 2006. Come December we may be discussing how the passing game is our biggest strength and that’s a far cry from where we’ve been in recent years.

5 Star (7 Star, 5 Star) Developmental Program Haiku of the Week

Rain, rain, go away
Step one on path to bowl game
Defense please improve

Unbothered

It feels good to calmly watch us beat an inferior team. Last year we looked awful against a 6-5 FCS team and I was miserable watching it unfold from my hotel room in Salt Lake City. This year we actually did what we were supposed to: jump out to an early lead and never let the end result come into question. Was it perfect? No, far from it. But we dutifully played the role of the P5 program beating up on the little guy early in the season just fine; given how that’s been too much to ask in multiple recent years I’m inclined to take it without too many questions.

I’m continuing to feel pretty good about Haynes King. Obviously we weren’t playing anything close to a stellar defense, but he did exactly what you’d want him to do against a lower tier opponent: look good and come out early. 21/29, 290 yards, 4 TDs, 0 INT in three quarters of snaps is pretty much exactly what you want to see out of your QB in a game like this.

I’m also continuing to feel good about the RBs and WRs. So far this season nearly everyone has been responsible for at least one big play and it feels like there aren’t really any bad options when we spread touches around. Obviously we’ll know more once we get some more games against P5 competition on tape, but early indications are pointing towards a decently explosive group of guys.

One other thing I’d like to point out is that we responded well. Both of SC State’s touchdown drives were followed up by scoring drives of our own, and we also scored touchdowns immediately after both of their turnovers. It feels good not to let things slip away and instead maintain control.

Sure there’s plenty of things that could’ve been done way better (cough cough, defensive tackling, cough cough), but I really just want to take the positives and move on.

Look Ahead

Up next is Ole Miss (9/16, 7:30pm). I don’t think I need to remind anyone of what they did to us last year. This is still a very tough game for us, but there’s good reason to believe we can at least put up a better fight this year. For one, I have much more confidence in our passing game now. So far Haynes King has shown that he can dependably make the right throws and the WR corps has shown that they’ve got a lot of talent to be utilized. I don’t have much faith that the defense will prevent the Rebs from hanging 40+ on us, but I do have faith that our offense won’t be shut out. I think something like 17-45 feels reasonable, and I’m totally okay with that - all I want to see is improvement.