A New Hope

First thoughts well those were at 3 am Saturday morning Sept 1^st I’ve decided not to publish those. However upon further review I would first like to say I was very happy with the overall greetings from Sparty fans before during and after the game. I certainly would attend a game there again, however I will not be sitting I the upper deck, not because the view was bad because it wasn’t surprisingly enough the view was awesome it was just impossible to reach either the concessions or bathrooms. Now to what we learned from the game.

Both Defenses play lights out, in fact all things considered I have to give our defense upper grade considering they had to play more than ten minutes on the field then Sparty did, plus they provided 10 points through turnovers. D line was strong despite giving up all those yard to Bell, corners play lights out LB’s will improve. The more I watch the game the more it becomes clear Southwick will be just fine, keep in mind Kellen had a few games to get ready for the Ducks in 2008 Southwick had his feet tossed right into the fire, but he wasn’t the only one many of the young guys found themselves to include OC Coach Prince. We can nitpick here and there the QB Draw on 3^rd and goal, the missed wide open Mitch Burroughs in the end zone on 3^rd and goal the lack of urgency on 3^rd down and the complacency on laterals. All lessons I believe will be corrected.

Leading up to the game I had several players in my 10 reason video who for many reasons were unable to play and their loss was felt. Ajayi, Boldewijn, and Cory. That being said we found some great players in Shane Williams-Rhodes, Demarcus Lawrence , Jeremy Ioane, Greg Grimes and Bryan Douglas, when you combined those guys with D.J. Harper, Moore and Miller, Burroughs and Linehan, Ricky and Bacon, Gavins and Taylor, along with the Oline you have a powerful team. Ricky and Bacon picked up right where Winn and Baker left off without missing a beat no offense to you guys in the NFL now but Ricky and Bacon were a major reason we held MSU to 17 points.  While Lawrence seemed to fill in nicely for Tyrone Crawford the same cannot be said for the left side and the Shea McClellin side of the ball which isn’t to say the play was bad, it’s just hard to replace such an athlete and first round draft pick in Shea McClellin.

The game was won by MSU in the first 20 minutes when Boise State failed to score any TD’s in two trips to the red zone. One cannot emphasizes enough how scoring TD’s instead of 2 field goals and an int in the end zone would have changed the complexity of the game. Going up 21-10 instead of 10-10 even if we only add a field goal on that second to last drive making it 24-10 at half this would have all but taken Bell out of the game putting more and more pressure on Maxwell. The lessons learned and the experience of the moment will greatly benefit this young Bronco team in the very near future.

To beat MSU in East Lansing these young Broncos could not afford to make any mistakes and mistakes were made. I would rather we make these mistakes in the opener losing a close hard fought game against a team that should do very well in the B1G specially after what we all saw on Saturday in other B1G games. MSU certainly looks the class of the B1G. Sure MSU had some of the very same youth and inexperience problems we had shown but like us they will clean it up as they move forward. As we move forward I look for the younger guys to develop a hunger. They should all know by now they should have won this game and that bad taste cannot be sitting well with many of them.  Prince I’m sure will improve his play calling and the Oline will get more time to jell.

Moving forward Miami of Ohio should be the warm up game for BYU, Southern Miss the trap game and Nevada game is the one for the big Bowl. But let’s not go to sleep in Colorado State this year though we get them at home, they sent the Big 12 Buffalo’s packing which is a signal the new coach has them playing. SDSU and Fresno State sit out there and only time will tell what kind of team they have. All in all these next 11 games will be the best kind of experience to prepare this team for the Big East in 2013. While there is plenty of hurdles and possible road blocks out there, the fact is we are in for a very competitive and fun ride as we watch these new Bronco’s with the senior class go forward.

One more thought on the MSU game as the second half grinded away I could not help but think how totally exhausted the defense must have been, certainly I was and I was only watching the game. The feeling came over me that those young men down there on the field of battle, we battling for us Bronco Nation that they were giving their all and then some. There is no way I could possibly be disappointed in the team to travel such a distance, enter such a hostile forum and fight the way they had. I cannot help but be excited for the rest of this season and just what these Bronco’s will bring.