Meaningless thoughts after rewatching the NWST game

The good

1: I know it’s an FCS opponent, but we couldn’t consistently block Nicholls State or ULaLa last year. Our OL did what they should do against a team like this: Dominate. Erik McCoy is an animal and maybe the best run-blocking center in CFB. Dude had 1-2 pancakes per drive. Also, snaps are much better.

2: Kellen Mond looks like a different player. He’s form and delivery have improved tremendously. He tends to stare down receivers but then his first read was usually open against this team. His TD pass that was dropped by Buckley was a throw even many NFL QBs can’t make. I will say his mobility is overrated, he has straight line speed but he goes down pretty easily under pressure.

3: Jhamon Ausbon catches everything and runs really good short and intermediate routes. Reminds me a lot of Jeff Fuller.

4: Sternberger runs NFL caliber routes. Dude got open whenever he wanted and could have easily had 1-2 more TDs if Mond had spotted him on seam routes where he ditched the linebacker with ease.

5: Starting front 7 on defense is the best we’ve had since at least 2012. Again it’s NWST, but the starting DL blew the OL up every play and had they ran a more conventional spread passing attack instead of getting out in 0.5 seconds every time there would have been numerous sacks.

6: We lack elite RB talent but we have a bunch of solid to good players. Trayveon could run for 1500 yards if we spam him against the other OOC pushovers and OM/Kentucky/Arkansas like we did on Thursday. He’s a guy who needs to get to the second level untouched to really be effective but he can GO once he gets there. He doesn’t have elite speed but he manages to rarely get caught.

The bad

1: Our secondary is SLOW. Teams with speed at wideout will give us fits. Even these FCS receivers were running by us with ease, thankfully they rarely had time to take shots.

2: Our receivers outside of Ausbon concern me. They struggled getting separation against an FCS secondary and we lack vertical speed.

3: Our backup (aka walk on) linebackers are not good at football. It didn’t pop out at first glance but watching them in the second half was like watching a 2A HS game as far as linebacker play. They would hit the wrong gap and then get blown up by a 250 pound OL.

4: We HAVE to have a better PR option than Paul