The Battle For The Paddle

Hats hung low as the Bobcats boarded the jet back from Tempe, Arizona, last week. Walking away with a 15 - 34 thumping, the dream of an undefeated season had come and gone.

This week, the Bobcats will have a chance to impress in what should be a get-right game for the team in front of a sold-out home crowd.

With a 2-1 record, the Bobcats sit second in the Sun Belt Conference West division. The team currently trails Southern Miss, who beat the Appalachian State Mountaineers 38 - 22 last week.

This week on the show, Andrew and I reconnected with the former Sports Editor of The University Star, Claire Partain, and “talked about the matchup.”

I used quotes there because that show had little to no analysis. I am predicting a huge offensive output for the Bobcats. I would be surprised if we did not 50-ball the colonels to prove we can.

Hell, the UTRGV Vaqueros are blanking teams and putting up 80 points, why not us?

Nichols is actually a good team. They had a shock-the-world moment when they beat up on one of the darlings of the Southland Conference, UIW, in week one. The Colonels held the Cardinals to a pair of field goals.

In week two, the Colonel headed out to Troy, Alabama, where they got a taste of what it meant to be Sun Belt strong, falling to the Trojans 20 - 38.

And in week three, the proud Colonels fell to West Georgia University 10 - 34. That’s a school with a total student population of 14k+ and whose mascot doesn’t appear automatically when I checked out the schedule.

So, when the Colonels fly in from Thibodaux, Louisiana, they’re going to be in for some turbulence by way of Texas State’s air-raid offense! Haha! See what I did there?

In his last outing, Nicholls’ Deuce Hogan put up 114 yards in the air and a single touchdown. His longest completion went for 44 yards.

In kind of a stinker of a game against Arizona State, our guy with like five different nicknames, Brad Jackson, was 25 for 36 with 184 yards in the air and a single touchdown. His longest completion went for 19 yards.

Arizona State looked insane last week. Much different than the team the Bobcats played a year ago. Upfront, they were relentless and physical; their defense gave us fits all night, especially when they took away the first read from Brad. They also made us pretty one-dimensional when five Bobcat rushers combined for 170 yards on the night. Brad also ran in Texas State’s lone touchdown.

I expect our offense to outclass Nicholls all night. We’re going to have quick drives down the field as Kinne and his staff look to push the tempo and score of the game to build confidence in what they can do down the stretch of the season.

This is also a huge opportunity to build some confidence in the defense. All off-season long, we heard the same quote about executing perfectly on third down and creating turnovers. It’s time to turn those quotes into headlines as the team dives into the conference slate next week, beginning with Arkansas State.

Just today, the Sun Belt pushed out a graphic about Bryan London II and it made me miss what was a staple of our defense for so long, tremendous linebacker play. Seen in Kinne’s first year with Brian Holloway, but missing in the second year and now, feels almost absent in year three.

We’re looking to see the team tighten the screws as they gear up for the next phase of the season with every goal still in front of them. And they’ll have a great atmosphere to make it a special night in San Marcos too.

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