Thoughts and state of the program

We are not a very good team right now.

QB - We have a redshirt freshman who threw a critical INT early, missed a pass on another opportunity in the red zone that could have put us at the 2 yard line, and failed to get us in the endzone all night. The kind of things you expect from a guy starting his first college game. On the flip side, he appears to have what you need to win once he gets some more experience. Tough, gamer, accurate passer, and enough athleticism to make a defense respect him on draws, qb keepers, etc. Bottom line, I believe we can win with White, just not last night - he wasn't quite ready.

Oline - Very good run blockers, below average in pass protection. This isn't on the players. This is on how they are prepared in practice. We were a true running team the past two years. We have a center calling protection who is playing center for the first time. Just too many mistakes in pass protection, especially in picking up blitzes. Plenty of talent and they can be good pass protectors and really good all the way around, but like I said in the preseason, my concern is they aren't experienced as a unit. I think they will get better, not overly concerned.

Skill positions - Get Duke the ball and Duke needs to get over being frustrated (understandably so) and make plays. Otherwise skill players are doing their job well.

Defensive line - Decent last night, no pass rush without Lawson, broken record here.

Linebackers - Just a very average group though Trey showed some promise. Cass plays hard. So sick of seeing Frost not make plays against the pass. He seems to always play it safe and just make the (relatively) sure tackle after the ball is caught and is poor in run support up the middle, but decent sideline to sideline because he can run. Again, just an average group.

Secondary - Frankly, the bright spot on the team. A younger and thin group that has played well, especially considering how many tackles they have to make at that level.

TL/DR:

We have the talent to be a good team. We are staring into the abyss though because we haven't gotten what we need from critical areas (QB, Dline, LB, pass protection).

San Jose State, Kentucky, Arky up next. Three winnable games with an open date thrown in. The team either fights its arse off and gets better each week, wins those three and sets up a game at home against a really good Piss team, or if we lose one of those, we may not even be competitive and may be embarrassed a lot down the stretch.