Wait... we open with UNT? Maybe I should rethink this promotion
I’m not really sure where to even begin. First and foremost, the better team tonight won. I can’t blame it on officiating. I can’t blame it on freaky fluke luck. I won’t be like a certain national columnist and pin the blame on a university president who didn’t keep our former coach. It’s all excuses, irrelevant, and frankly, the simplest answer is usually the correct one… North Texas just played a better 60 minutes of football tonight.
As I sit here and try to contemplate who to blame for the loss, ultimately, there is a nice little helping for most everyone. There were questionable coaching calls, like giving the ball to Quale only 15 times. There were questionable defensive plans or execution with large cushions to the receivers seemingly every time down the field. The defense couldn’t stop the ball, and the offense couldn’t move the ball. All in all, just a totally lackluster uninspired performance all around. Perhaps the most shameful thing in my mind was the booing of the team from the student section at halftime. Totally disgraceful and hopefully nowhere near as bad as it seemed. I understand it’s frustrating, disappointing, insert adjective here. But the simple fact of the matter is this is a team that probably has a very fragile psyche right now… a student section full of boobirds does nothing to advance that mindset past negative.
In the end it was simply one game. One shit game… but one game all the same. If, and it’s a big if, this team and this staff can use this game and this loss as motivation, then it will be a loss worth the heartache and angst that is welling up in all of us. However, if this team and this staff uses this game as a negative momentum builder for the rest of the season, then it’s going to be a long year. The good news that all should take from this game is that North Texas was significantly better than most thought, and this BSU team was a team comprised of a lack of experience and playing time. That sort of thing changes and advances as the year goes on.
It’s a starting point, not an ending point. We’ll be back with more tomorrow like the Cardinal wrap up, but for now, the positivity of our opening football weekend rests squarely with Kentucky on Saturday.
Filed under: Ball State, MAC, Sun Belt |
Over The Pylon 
Very disappointing performance from the defense tonight more or less sums everything up.
The offense’s performance wasn’t all that surprising and should be expected for the next few weeks. The defense has no excuse, however.
As bad as a debut as this was for Stan Parrish, at least Miquale didn’t punch out a NT player after the game. If I’m Doug Graber and the defense continues to perform this badly, I’ve got to be nervous about my job security around week 6, especially with a good defensive coordinator already on staff in Jay Hood.
It was the kind of game I thought that we would play where we ran the ball. I thought our RBs and O-line looked great.
I am sorry about the actions of some of our fans, its hard to learn how to be a gracious winner when you’ve only won 8 games in 5 years. I thought you handled yourself with class. Thanks for the visit.
I was in the student section at halftime. It was my understanding that we were booing North Texas coming back onto the field at the end of halftime. If my student section was in fact booing the very team we show up to support, I offer all of the apologies I can to the football team and home field supporters across the field.