Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Unpredictability of College Football

How's this one for you? Some things about college football blow my mind. It is an utterly unpredictable sport. What if I'd told you in August these basic facts?

Through 6 games:
-Drew Butler will be the best punter in America, averaging right at 50 yards per punt
-Blair Walsh will be having an All-SEC caliber season, leading the SEC in touchbacks, 8-9 on FGs (including 3 50+ yarders) and perfect on PATs.
-We will not redshirt Washaun Ealey
-Brandon Boykin will have 2 100+ yard KO return TDs, and they come against South Carolina and UT
-We march the opening drive 80 yards in Stillwater and take a 7-0 lead before OSU ever touches the ball and both Branden Smith and Logan Gray see action in that series.

That tells me that we practiced special teams (just like we promised!), we put young players in positions to excel, we come out guns blazing and no holds barred.

When you see those things (and if you'd seen them in August), there's no way you'd guess we're 3-3. Such is the nature of college football.

But there's really 4 simple explanations:
1. Our defense has forgotten that 3 and outs are actually still legal in collegiate football.
2. We can't cover a kickoff to save our life.
3. We turn the ball over like it's covered in H1N1.
4. We commit the dumbest penalties you'll ever see in your life.

It's really pretty simple. Of course, there are a myriad of other factors, including our decision to not run block for the 2009 campaign, but fixing those 4 sure would go a long way to making sure that we don't go 3-3 in our next 6.

No comments:

Post a Comment