⚡ CFB Dashboard

Many have compared last night’s game and our coaches to more recent memories, For me, the evening was very reminiscent of Bill Lewis’s last first game on the flats. On Thursday night we opened at home with a highly regarded Arizona team. Hopes were high for both teams. We were starting a new transfer quarterback, Tom Luginbill. On a night where we started well we soon experienced lots of frustration on both sides of the ball. We missed two FG’s, one blocked by Teddy Bruschi. We led until the final minute when Schmidtke ran for a TD with 29 seconds to go. We lost 19-14. It was a long, exhausting opening night that really deflated the fans and team alike. That team never recovered. Lewis was fired after game 8 and O’Leary took over a team that was 1-7 and. 0-6 in the conference. They lost the final three that season. I am not predicting a similar outcome to our season, but the games were very similar to me. Opening Thursday, national TV audience, sputtering offense, decent defense that collapsed on the final drive, new qb shows ability but does not get enough points on the board, kicking breakdowns, frustrating conservative playcalling, and bad game and clock management. I do believe Arizona was a better team than last night’s Colorado squad. These Thursday night openers are fun if you win, but pretty devastating when you lose in the last minute when you had every chance to put the game away earlier. The next year we played another Thursday opener but put in Tucson and lost 20-19. Scheduling Arizona was a nail in the coffin for Lewis and did O’Leary no favor the next year.