This doubles as my season prediction and the Keys to Victory for this week’s game against Florida A&M in Little Rock. This is all based on speed:
There is ONLY ONE key to victory… NO bus wrecks on the way to LR!!! are they busing or flying?
Clay,
As always I enjoyed your keys to the game article. And as always I agree with your keys, but I would put them in a different order.
While the FAMU game appears to be a gimme, I think most fans still need to see with their own eyes that true improvements have been made it the main areas of failure last season. It does not matter who they are playing, if I see busts in any of the failure areas of last year then there will be much proving to do moving on.
To me the number one key thing I want to see is safety play. I see the same three names on the depth chart that have failed the last two seasons. I hear and read they are much better. In my mind the play of the safeties made the defense the failed effort it has been. They are my first key.
Second and third are their running mates at CB and LB for all the same reasons, although Pulley and Greenlaw have earned the benefit of the doubt. Tolliver has been the picture of inconsistency and offers hope.
Fourth is the OL. They are the key to the running game. The backs have been fine, but you can only make something out of nothing every now and then. You need holes and AA needs protection.
Fifth is one you did not mention, special teams. With the lone exceptions of punter and Skipper blocking field goal attempts, special teams have not been special the last two seasons. Coverage, returns and field goal kicking have all been sub par. Too many of the failed dbs and lbs have also been missing tackles and been out of place on special teams as well. And the returners have been more catchers than returners.
I will stop right there. I believe the rest of this team will be good. It is the above five keys that, as with the last two seasons, will make or break this team. If they want to be believed by fans like me, they need to crush each of these areas against FAMU. And I think that is fair.
There are often 15-20 keys this early in the season. I stopped at 10. Sometimes I don’t. Special teams are 33 percent of the game. That’s one of the reasons Frank Broyles teams were generally top notch. His teams concentrate on special teams. Hopefully, putting a JFB decal on the helmets is something that tells everyone to work on special teams, because he did.
The key that starts the season’s engine begins in less than 24 hours. The hogs need to not only win, but concentrate and focus really hard on not having any momentary mental break downs… the most improvement comes in between games 1 and 2. Meaning if we dominate like we should, we should go into the rest of the season with great momentum. Hogs need to get this season’s ball rolling early.
Predictions for this Little Rock game in the Rain.
We see 4 different players punch it in from the backfield include Austin Allen, as well as 2 passing TDs… and a 3rd quarter ending field goal. As well as a defensive TD
FAMU gets an early lead with a field goal then it’s all hogs… early 3rd qtr passing td.
Bad field position throughout the game, as well as a speed driven, stingy Razorbacks defense equals a bad night for the visiting team…
Final Score
Hogs 51 FAMU 10
WPS 