I’ll admit that I had some hopes for this year’s squad after the performances vs Clemson and Rice. I almost thought that Todd Dodge had a chance to save his job. Games like this make me wonder if he could have, in fact, done so.
If we played the “Coming into this season, if I told you” game we would be proud of a close game against Troy.
I said that I’d like to see them open up the passing game some. They did that. Riles had 269 yards and three scores including a nice fade pattern to the corner of the endzone to Tyler Stradford.*
*Which reminds me — that pass was to the back of the endzone. So that is somewhere in the vicinity of a 34 yard pass. That isn’t going to impress anyone, but it is enough to stretch the field. Me likes.
What was I talking about? Right. Todd. I almost feel bad for the dude. Almost. If he made these changes to the staff earlier in his career (like, oh, day one) he might be getting the credit for the improved play.
As it is, in another close loss that we got tired of hearing Todd defend, we are going to pat Canales on the back and talk about improvement and the future. Maybe we just need someone else to say it. I don’t know. I always said that if we had to lose, I’d rather the losses be entertaining and get close to a semblance of competition. Outside of the Army game we have done so this season. I just don’t know who to give the credit to.
I do know that I feel better after this loss than any other one we have had recently. Probably because it is the first of this new era and not the 30th.
gmg
