Another lightning delay can’t stop us.
Game Recap in Three Sentences
Tech came firing on all cylinders right out of the gate, scoring TDs on their first three drives.
It was not a dominant defensive performance but it was good enough to keep a safe margin.
There was no time wasted; most of Tech’s scoring drives were only around two minutes long and Temple even ended up dominating TOP.
Above The Line of the Week
- Running backs. In his first 100-yard game of the season, Jamal Haynes reminded us why he’s probably going to play on Sundays. Malachi Hosley powered his way to 2 TDs on 12 yards per carry. Daylon Gordon made the most of his single carry by taking it for a 47 yard TD. JP Powell nearly one-upped him by taking his single carry for 61 yards (and almost scoring).
- Blueberry cobbler.
- Marshall Nichols. Lost in the fun offensive stats of this week is a 51.3 yard average on four punts for Nichols. He actually doesn’t show up on ESPN’s punting rankings pages because “to qualify, a player must have at least 2.5 punts per game played” and we’ve only punted nine times in our four games. Were he to qualify, his 48.1 yard average would be good for 11th in the country.
Unformed Thought of the Week
What the heck happened in the waning moments of this game? With under a minute to play in a road blowout, Temple was taking timeouts to earnestly try
to score. The closing sequence was bizarre:
- A really questionable DPI was called in the endzone with 0:08 on the clock.
- A TD pass was stupidly given up with 0:03 on the clock.
- The Tech returner downed the ensuing squib kick immediately, leaving one second on the clock instead of taking it to zero.
- We ran an actual play with 0:01 on the clock, a rush that went for 61 yards (and nearly scored).
I mean…what? Why was Temple trying so hard to score with 30 seconds left? Did Key call a play because he was mad about the timeouts? Was downing the kick on purpose so we’d get to run that play or was it an earnest mistake from the returner? This all was made weirder by the fact that the broadcast spent the entirety of Temple’s last drive gushing about KC Keeler, referencing the fact that Key specifically said he was excited to meet him and talk to him.
5 Star (7 Star, 5 Star) Developmental Program Haiku of the Week
Lightning storms, long runs
Summer fades as the wins grow
Hoot hoots get the boot
Playing With Your Food
As everyone knows, playing with your food is a bad thing. However… surely there’s something to be said for the fact that you can play with your food in the first place right? It certainly beats being the food being played with, and it’s not a position we’ve been in very often recently. It’s refreshing to realize that you can mess around and try out some new stuff without worrying about the overall result. It’s particularly refreshing to see that we can put up 45 points without Haynes King needing to bash himself into oblivion. I’m glad we got to work on and showcase a well-rounded offense because we’re gonna need it throughout the season.
A college football schedule is grueling; well-timed bye weeks and easy games like this can be an incredible boon for teams like us that need to maximize everything they can. Getting to breeze through this one means we can be fully healthy and focused to give 100% against Wake before our first bye week.
Something I also don’t want to get lost here: we’re 4-0 for the first time since 2014. We’ve won four straight games for the first time since 2018. This was our first win as a ranked team since 2015 (lol). We’re officially in uncharted territory and it’s only gonna get weirder from here; ESPN FPI currently gives us at least a 60% win probability in every remaining game until UGA. I’m still waiting for the inevitable slip-up, but there’s a very real (and simultaneously very scary) possibility that we go into that game as an 11-0 top 10 team. At bare minimum I think it’s pretty reasonable to say that we’ll probably finish the regular reason with a ranking unless disaster strikes. Let’s take a moment and appreciate how far we’ve come; just six years ago we were losing to Temple (right after losing to [REDACTED]), and it was only three years ago that we were celebrating winning two games in a row for the first time in years. Now we’re standing on the terrifying precipice of eight or nine wins being a letdown and I don’t ever want to take that for granted.
Look Ahead
Up next is Wake Forest (9/27, noon). We’re heavy favorites, but I think this is a sneaky test. Sure they somehow only managed to beat Kennesaw 10-9 (God bless anyone that watched a game with that scoreline), but they’ve got a dangerous RB and a QB that can run as well. This is exactly the type of game that we need to prove we can comfortably win by two scores instead of squeaking something out in a stressful shootout. I want to see us sell out to stop the run and score at least 35 points after getting up early. Let’s look the part of a top 20 team beating a middling conference opponent.
Programming note: I was out of town this weekend instead of on the sidelines so there will be no film from Saturday to post this week. Virginia Tech will be the next game that gets the 35mm treatment!
