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Saturday October 25th, 2008
10:35amAg Football Preview: Iowa State
Our Aggies are going to make their third road trip of the season with hopes of turning a 1-1 record into a winning one.
A couple of years ago I took a look at some of the top defensive coordinators and Gene Chizik was one of the guys that I looked at. I pumped him for a big head coaching gig and even after ISU hired him I made a mention that I thought he would have received a bigger job.
Two years into the Gene Chizik era and ISU fans are probably wondering what on earth I was talking about. Chizik's Cyclones are a combined 5-14 with a 2-9 Big 12 record (with wins last year over CU & KSU). The defensive mastermind hasn't had the success he had at Auburn & texas, most likely because he has NO WHERE CLOSE to the defensive talent.
National Rankings Pre-GC Since-GC 2006 2007 2008 ==== ========== RushD 89 44 95 PassD 101 91 90 TotD 102 65 98 ScorD 105 93 90You see that there was improvement in Chizik's first year from the previous staff but they have taken a huge step backwards and are one of the worst defenses in the country. We need to hope that our patched together offensive line can be enough to take advantage of that. We're also unsure of Mike Goodson's presence following his sprained ACL he suffered last week. I imagine we'll see a healthy dose of Cyrus Gray and hopefully some Bradley Stephens and J-Train.
2008 KU BU NEB ========= ======= ======= ======= RushD 176 (95) 117 147 220 PassD 234 (90) 319 288 328 TotD 410 (98) 436 435 548 ScorD 29.1 (90) 35 38 35ISU's offense is led by their sophomore QB Austin Arnaud who has thrown for 1,200 yards and 8 TDs for a 59.6%age and only 4 INTs (171.4 passing ypg). He can run if he has to but it isn't something that he has done all that much except inside the redzone (averaging 3 ypc, 22.4 ypg, and a team high 4 rushing TDs).
The rushing game is led by senior RB, Alexander Robinson, who is just managing 52.8 ypg.
2008 KU BU NEB ========= ======= ======= ======= RushO 128 (79) 97 81 105 PassO 191 (86) 268 176 113 TotO 319 (94) 365 257 218 ScorO 25.4 (63) 33 10 7Their top wideout is RJ Sumrall who has 33 receptions for 64 ypg and 5 TDs and he is the only receiver with more than 22 catches. Signing day Aggie de-commit, Sedrick Johnson, has 9 receptions for 91 yards and 2 TDs.
They are incredibly balanced with an exact 50/50 split on running and passing plays (total of 447 snaps).
The kick-off is at 6pm and the game will be televised on FCS (Fox College Sports), which I do not have. I'm hoping that my folks get that channel, otherwise I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
This is a game that we really need to win. We've shown improvement in each of our games thus far but it hasn't all come together yet, and it's bound to at some point. This is one of our remaining games where it wouldn't be a huge upset if we pull out the victory and we need to pick up all the wins we can. It'll be good for the team to win and it will be good for the fan base.
Gig'em & BTHO ISU! WHOOP!
Wednesday October 22nd, 2008
10:17amBenjamin Kyle
I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2031.
Benjamin Kyle was born last night at 8 lbs 13 oz. & is 21" long. He is healthy as a horse and my beautiful wife, Jennifer, is doing well with her recovery.
We're already looking for a left-handed t-ball glove. We decided that our family isn't tall enough to have a chance for a scholarship as a right handed pitcher so we're not going to let him know any different. Coach Childress likes his lefties.
GIG'EM & WHOOP!
Sunday October 19th, 2008
9:26pmAgs Can't Quite Hang On, 42-25
There are 24 seconds left in the game and tech has a 2nd & goal from the 1 yard line with a 36-23 lead. Mike Leach calls a timeout to challenge the previous play, he thought it was a touchdown, and then out of the timeout he goes for another TD instead of taking the knee. The reasons I hate tech are not unfounded in the slightest.
Regardless, we lost the game but I felt like it was our best performance of the season. Really, the first half was our best 30 minutes of football but it was good enough to make the entire game feel not so bad.
We went into the locker room with a 23-20 lead after owning the time of possession and forcing a few tech errors. The biggest problem was that we were unable to fully cash in on those errors and settled for FGs instead of TDs, which you cannot do against tech. We were forced to kick FGs from the 11 and from the 3 yard line. We have to find a way to punch those in.
The offense looked great in the first half and we were able to move the ball fairly well, however in the second half it was horrific. We had 32 yards of offense after the break (15 of which came on our last play of the game in complete garbage time).
The biggest reason for that was the lack of an offensive line. Our OLine isn't very good to start with but on top of that, injuries have us completely gashed. We had to play the entire game with only the 5 players who had to start without being forced to pull redshirts off freshmen. You have to tip your cap to those guys who are in there for gutting out their injuries. I'm not mad about it, just frustrated. The line really hurt the running game and contributed to JJ having to run like a gazelle in a herd of lions. The fact that JJ was able to get out of as many sacks as he did was pretty impressive.
Speaking of injuries, Mike Goodson came out of the game just at the start of the second half with a leg injury (the Eagle is reporting a sprained knee). It didn't help matters any with our #1 play maker in the trainer's room for the second half.
Another big factor was dropped passes. We had 5 on the game and all 5 would have been first down conversions. We really needed to keeps tech's offense off the field and it give ourselves better scoring opportunities.
Ryan Tannehill followed up last week's record week with another incredible performance (minus one dropped 3rd down conversion). He had an amazing 44 yard diving catch and then had one of the best catch and runs we've seen in a while where he spun out of a tackle and stiff-armed a guy coming up on him from behind for a gain of 40. He is fun to watch and to think he is only a freshman. We're going to have a hard time moving him back to QB. He is on pace to break our single season receiving yard record before Thanksgiving. And he didn't even play in the Miami game.
Speaking of Tannehill, he was on the receiving end of a 3 yard Stephen McGee bullet TD pass while JJ was on the sidelines following a late hit that shook him up. I hate to see someone like McGee sitting on the sidelines after all he has given to the university, but honestly, Johnson has done a very good job in his first 5 starts. The nice thing about McGee is that he is a team player. He is one of the first guys off the sidelines to congratulate our players.
Jeff Fuller had an incredible game pulled out from underneath him. He finished the day with 4 receptions for 21 yards but had a fifth that went 78 yards for a TD when he broke free out of coverage and JJ hit him in-stride. Kyle Field erupted. Until it was called back for on a holding call, that I have yet to locate on the replay. That play completely turned the game around. Instead of us going up 23-20 we ended up punting. And here's your shocker....the flag was called by t-sip official John Bible, who seems to strike way too often. I still don't understand how the Big 12 can allow him to continue to officiate games against texas's rivals.
We might have found a more solid solution in the kicking game. After a so-so debut against KSU (made a FG but missed a PAT) true freshman Randy Bullock was 3-for-3 in the FG department and nailed down a 46 yard FG, which is about the longest one I can recall seeing us make in years.
During half-time Sean made mention that tech's band reminded him of the Hamburgler.
I think he's pretty much spot-on.
I thought the defense played pretty well. I was legitimately concerned that tech would come out and beat us by 70 or 80 but the guys played very well overall.
I'm not sure how they did it, but tech's offensive line did not have a single hold called all game. That's pretty impressive.
Coach Kines has changed some personnel up on the field over the last few weeks and we're seeing a lot more of freshmen....Trent Hunter, Terrence Fredricks and Tony Eddie all started yesterday. The tackling has improved and it seems we're making big hits more quickly. One thing that still completely baffled me is what happened to senior Devin Gregg. He's been a solid player for us for three years and now he's getting time on special teams but is rarely sniffing an opportunity to take a snap on defense.
After watching tech the last two weekends (they beat Nebraska in OT at home last week) I've concluded that tech is a really good team but they're going to lose 3 games from here out.
As bad as this season has been there are some positives and the largest of those is that I feel like we're seeing improvement from week to week. That was what I asked for and that is what we're getting. I know that this season is frustrating but we're seeing good things coming as opposed to things going badly and us looking terrible. It's going to take a couple of years for the offensive line to strengthen up, but Coach Sherman, of all people, is the man I want to be constructing an OL. The rest of the offense will fall into place. The defense is still concerning but we just have to continue to recruit and develop players. The development part is where we saw a lacking from the previous staff.
This weekend we have a road game scheduled at Iowa State. This is a game that we really need to win, not because it will be a huge boost for the program but because it is one of the games that we have remaining on the schedule that we have a good opportunity to win. Our remaining schedule has us at ISU, home for CU, home for OU, at Baylor, and at texas. We'll be the favorite in only one or two of those games.
Gig'em!