Rants and Raves: YSU

Another Hobo Day is in the books and SDSU earned it's fourth victory of the season.  To be 100% truthful, I didn't get to watch much of the game live.  I was there for the entire first half and long enough in the 3rd quarter to see CJ Wilson's big touchdown run.  My kids had a blast at tailgating and at the game but they definitely consumed plenty of my attention.  Luckily, I was able to rewatch the game on ESPN+.  So here are my rants and raves from Saturday.

Rants & Raves
Rave: Ryan Earith and Logan Backhuas had phenomenal first halves.  They both were flying around and shutting down the outside runs of YSU. Eartith finished with a sack and 2 tackles for loss and Backhaus finished with a tackle for loss and a huge field goal block.  Backhaus had to drop out right before halftime so lets hope that he is okay and can hopefully make it back this season.

Rave: Last week Evan Greeneway was featured in a Matt Zimmer article  and he followed it up with maybe his best performance as a Jackrabbit.  He completely erased the YSU defensive ends in the passing game while also teaming with Tiano to create plenty of running room.  Taryn's fourth quarter touchdown run featured a pull from the left side that created a lane that you could have driven a semi through.

Rant: The Jackrabbit defense again had some troubles on 3rd down early in the game.  The blocked field goal, YSU quarterback accuracy issues, and a dropped pass masked some of the issues that again took place on the backend.  Again, I have no idea what they play calls were but it just didn't seem quite right early in the game.  Things turned around midway through the second quarter and the Jacks played stifling defense in the second half.

Rant/Rave: Eddie Miller and Eagan Lickiss had an up and down day on Saturday.  The sophomore duo can play really really well.  On CJ Wilson's 48 yard touchdown scamper, Lickiss did a great job of getting to the second level and getting enough of Armand Dellovade to spring Wilson free.  Miller for much of the game did a great job with the snaps but there were a few fast balls that sailed and disrupted the timing of the offense.  These two have  such a bright future and it was great to see them bounce back when they did make a mistake.  Sticking with the offensive theme, I thought Jack Domandle, Aron Johnson, and Jon Gruetzmacher played good enough throughout the game.  On Mikey's TD run, Gruetz completely eliminated the defensive end creating a large hole for him to run through.  It wasn't always pretty but for the most part they did a good job of stepping up when their number was called.  The Jacks finished with 253 yards rushing and didn't allow a sack.  Hard to ask for much more out of group missing two starters. 

Rave: I write about him every week but I am so glad Adam Anderson is a Jackrabbit.  His downfield blocking on Saturday was phenomenal.  Saturday was not a great day to pass the ball so he only had 2 catches for 14 yards but he still impacted the game with his blocking.  I've just been really really impressed with him this season.

Rave:  The success of the jet sweep early in the season really is having an affect on opposing defenses.  Really pay attention to the opponents safties when the Jacks fake this action.  If the conditions had been a little bit better on Saturday for passing it would have gotten ugly on the scoreboard. 

Rant:  I'm disappointed in the crowd overall on Saturday.  I don't know what else to say to convince people to show up.  I do know that those who do show up are really engaged and create a really fun atmosphere.

Rave: Preston Tetzlaff is just having an awesome year on special teams.  A year after suffering a season ending injury, Tetzlaff has become my new favorite special teams player much like Dalton Cox used to be.  I also love how he sprints to the sideline once the play is done.

Rant: Marshon Harris was flagged for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the second half on a fairly weak call.  However, I think it was an accumulation of jawing after every special teams play.  I despise this type of stuff.  Let your play do the talking.  This is something I critique on the Jackrabbit opponents and I hope that this garbage ends now that he has been flagged for it.

Rave: Zy Mosley just keeps making plays.  After missing a game with injury, Zy was back making another interception in the end zone.  He's enjoying a bit of a breakout junior season after some early career inconsistencies.  Great job, Zy!     

Rave: Outside of a 27 yard QB scramble and one Tevin McCaster 27 yard run, the Jackrabbits did a great job shutting down the YSU run game.  They finished with 136 total rushing yards and held McCaster to 2.7 ypc avg and 60 total yards.  It was a tremendous effort by a Jackrabbit run defense that was skewered for 293 yards the week before.

Rave/Rant: Football just isn't fair.  Isaac Wallace has bought in to the Jackrabbit football program and has waited to be the feature back only to suffer a possible season ending injury his senior season.  I'm thankful for everything he has sacrificed for the team and wish him nothing but the best if Saturday was indeed his last game for the Jacks.

The Jacks have a ton of injuries but have two very physical games coming up.  UNI this week and Illinois State next week, both on the road, will truly test this team's depth.  Jackrabbit recruiting and development has been really good the last few years and that depth will now be tested as I would expect multiple game one starters to be out on Saturday when the Jacks travel to UNI.

Game Balls
Offense: CJ Wilson (16 attempts for 119 yards and 1 TD)
CJ has been turning heads since arrived on campus in January.  The initial chatter last spring is that he might redshirt but that quickly shifted to "oh yes, he will play."  Obviously, his quickness and speed is what makes him such a fun back to watch but its the little things like patience, vision, and the ability to always fall forward that make him different.

Defense: Ryan Earith (7 tackles, 1 sack, 2 TFLs)
I already talked about Ryan but he was really really good on Saturday.  YSU came out trying to run a lot of off tackle stuff.  Ryan shut this down and also applied plenty of pressure on passing downs.  I'm hoping that at the end of the year Ryan finally gets the recognition he deserves.

Special Teams: Brady Hale (7 punts, 42.6 avg with 2 inside the 20)
Not only did he do a great job punting but he also did a good job on kickoffs with 3 touchbacks on 7 attempts with the other 4 attempts being held to just a 18.7 yard per return avg.

Go Jacks and I hope you had a great Hobo Day!
Matt