Thoughts the Next Morning

I slept on it, sobered up, and came to a couple significant conclusions:

1 - We lost to a good team. ECU should have (I know, woulda, coulda shoulda... but still) beaten Sakerlina last week. The same Sakerlina that just took down UGA. They're good. They'll probably be ranked by the end of the year. Losing by 7 to a team like ECU the week after an emotional win over OSU is not that bad, nor should it look bad.

2 - We came back to tie the game after being down by 21 in the first quarter. That takes a lot of guts, determination, grit and toughness. This team could have rolled over and died after that first quarter. They could have hung their heads and given in. Instead, the pulled their shit together and played hard for 45 more minutes and came one defensive stop short of forcing OT. The defense held ECU scoreless for 44 minutes. That's impressive.

3 - Our young guys can straight up ball. Isaiah Ford is the real deal. Have you ever seen a true freshman WR look that good? And Bucky really is the manimal we all thought he was. I'm super excited about this staff's recruiting and development. Having said that...

3b - We are a young team, particularly on offense. When you have true freshman and underclassmen all as your leading pass-catchers, and your QB has only been in town for a month, you're going to have bouts of inconsistency. I don't care how talented the new guys are (and ours are quite talented, btw) - it's just something that happens from game to game, or even quarter to quarter. But this will pay dividends down the road this season and next year as these guys mature. We are a year away from being really really good.

4 - A loss like this could actually be beneficial for a young team. Look at the lessons they get out of this - you can't overlook anyone, because even a Conference USA team is dangerous. You can't take even one quarter off. Always show up prepared, because a good team can do a lot of damage in one quarter. And finally, you're never out of it - even if you're down 21 in the first quarter. There's a lot of teaching Beams and company can do after this game, and I expect them to do it.

5 - All of our goals at the start of the year are still on the table. Nobody really expected us to make an undefeated run to the playoffs, right? I know yesterday sucked, but we can still ball out in the ACC. This wasn't an ACC game - the Coastal is still ours for the taking. The sky isn't falling, everybody. We're right on schedule, so lets fucking go beat the tar out of some Bumblebees.