Bill is Irked

I enjoy watching college sports.

The kids play for heart, fun and pride. I take wins and losses in stride. After all - it IS just a game - played by kids. I don't get all crazy like the message board nut jobs. I get season tickets and make donations - but - my happiness doesn't depend on a won / loss record. I have a life.

That said - State's loss to ECU yesterday has me steamed.

The Pie Rats of Pitt County Charter School were well coached and well prepared. State's offense was (mostly) well coached and well prepared. State's defense . . . was Not.

In a typical college football game you can give up 2, 3 maybe, just maybe, 4 BIG plays and still win.

State's defense allowed ECU to make the following BIG plays -

Rushing: 28 yard, 27 yards, 13 yards
Pass Completions:  18 yards, 17 yards, 33 yards, 25 yards, 39 yards

Our recruits / athletes are better and more experienced than ECU's. Giving up 8 BIG plays lay directly at the feet of the Defensive Coaching Staff.

Also - I haven't found the stats - it seemed like ECU made a lot of critical third down conversions. Certainly more than our defense should have allowed.

These are the same problems our defense had all of last year.

Defensive Coordinator Huxtable needs to be let go immediately and a member of the staff named interim DC. Coach Doeren's background is defense. He should recognize this and could assist the interim coach for the rest of the season. A new (and better, obviously) DC can be hired after the season ends.

Doing this right now will NOT make our defense worse for the rest of the season. Hell, it may even improve it. It would send the statement that Coach Doeren recognizes a major weakness and won't wait to start correcting it.

We replaced our OC from last year.

Already, our offense has improved to the point that even with the holes the defense put us in - our offense still almost won the game.

The kicking game still has some a lot of work to do. 2 missed field goals, 1 failed 2 point conversion, 1 failed fake field goal on 4th down - that's 7 or 8+ points right there.

State was projected to go a mediocre 6 and 6. We're overrated. Sigh . . . .