Had a great time at the game last night. Always good when the Herd get close to us so we can make it to games. Had some thoughts on last night after getting to watch in person for the first time this year:
Stadium/Experience:
1. I was really impressed with the facilities. 10 year old stadium, concourses are open and spacious, lots of good food options and beer carts. Clean bathrooms! In the endzone inside the stadium they had a kids area with some inflatables which my son enjoyed at half.
2. Parking was simple, ample places to park near the stadium and tailgate. Ran into some very friendly UNT fans nearby that treated us well. Hard to differentiate with all the Kelly Green!
3. I thought UNT did a good job during the game with music and the band playing to keep the energy high. Unfortunately the crowd was bad to start and it got worse as we whooped up on them. I know we complain about not filling our stadium, but our core fans of ~20k are just so much better than other opponents (I've now been to UNT, LA Tech, and Rice............and ughhhhhhhhh).
Offense:
1. Obviously way better than last week. I thought overall we looked crisp and prepared. I liked getting more of the quick hitter passes early for Grant helped establish a good rhythm, as evidenced by 18 straight completions! It didn't even register for me during the game, but saw the stat on Twitter after.
2. Even though we played well (first half really) it feels like the play calls are just forced. These very long stretches of no runs are head scratchers to me. Even though Grant had it moving, we force ourselves to be so one-sided sometimes. I thought the second half play calling got worse as it went. Hard to complain about 49 pts, but we really didn't do much in the 2nd half.
3. I thought Grant being more willing to pull the ball on the run game was a key difference in our red zone offense this week. He needs to keep being confident in that, and it will make it really hard for defenses to stop either he or Ali.
4. Ali is a beast, that's it.
5. O-line did well overall, especially for being down 2 starters. I wish we could get more movement on our run blocking, but that's been average for a few years now.
Defense:
1. Great effort overall tonight. Outside of the 75 TD run, the 1st team did awesome. I want to rewatch that play, but it appeared as though our safeties got out of position again. I'm not sure how we've given up these random long plays, but we need to seriously consider scrapping whatever defensive call that is we keep getting burned on.
2. DB's are seemingly turning a corner over the past few weeks. I know these aren't the best passing teams around, but we're getting in better position and actually playing the ball now instead of chase and PI. Tougher tests coming, but I like what I see in the improvement here.
3. Eli Neal had a strong game today, he had a few rough weeks so it was good to see him bounce back.
4. Second string guys I saw a huge dropoff...........we were getting run all over with that group in. Need to bring in more depth for next year.
Ecstatic over the win and improvement from last week........let's keep it rolling!
Stadium/Experience:
1. I was really impressed with the facilities. 10 year old stadium, concourses are open and spacious, lots of good food options and beer carts. Clean bathrooms! In the endzone inside the stadium they had a kids area with some inflatables which my son enjoyed at half.
2. Parking was simple, ample places to park near the stadium and tailgate. Ran into some very friendly UNT fans nearby that treated us well. Hard to differentiate with all the Kelly Green!
3. I thought UNT did a good job during the game with music and the band playing to keep the energy high. Unfortunately the crowd was bad to start and it got worse as we whooped up on them. I know we complain about not filling our stadium, but our core fans of ~20k are just so much better than other opponents (I've now been to UNT, LA Tech, and Rice............and ughhhhhhhhh).
Offense:
1. Obviously way better than last week. I thought overall we looked crisp and prepared. I liked getting more of the quick hitter passes early for Grant helped establish a good rhythm, as evidenced by 18 straight completions! It didn't even register for me during the game, but saw the stat on Twitter after.
2. Even though we played well (first half really) it feels like the play calls are just forced. These very long stretches of no runs are head scratchers to me. Even though Grant had it moving, we force ourselves to be so one-sided sometimes. I thought the second half play calling got worse as it went. Hard to complain about 49 pts, but we really didn't do much in the 2nd half.
3. I thought Grant being more willing to pull the ball on the run game was a key difference in our red zone offense this week. He needs to keep being confident in that, and it will make it really hard for defenses to stop either he or Ali.
4. Ali is a beast, that's it.
5. O-line did well overall, especially for being down 2 starters. I wish we could get more movement on our run blocking, but that's been average for a few years now.
Defense:
1. Great effort overall tonight. Outside of the 75 TD run, the 1st team did awesome. I want to rewatch that play, but it appeared as though our safeties got out of position again. I'm not sure how we've given up these random long plays, but we need to seriously consider scrapping whatever defensive call that is we keep getting burned on.
2. DB's are seemingly turning a corner over the past few weeks. I know these aren't the best passing teams around, but we're getting in better position and actually playing the ball now instead of chase and PI. Tougher tests coming, but I like what I see in the improvement here.
3. Eli Neal had a strong game today, he had a few rough weeks so it was good to see him bounce back.
4. Second string guys I saw a huge dropoff...........we were getting run all over with that group in. Need to bring in more depth for next year.
Ecstatic over the win and improvement from last week........let's keep it rolling!
