What to Watch: MSU


I'm excited for 2pm Saturday.  With all the "what-ifs" from the NDSU game, the College GameDay wrap-up hype, and the injury to J'Bore I just want to see this team play football.  Luckily, I don't have to wait too much longer.

1. I'm really interested to see the intensity that the Jackrabbits bring to the field.  They had the Bison beat but didn't come away with the "W."  There is always a "hangover" after the Jacks and Bison play both physically and emotionally.  However, this team has lost their starting quarterback and some folks are already writing this season off.  The TEAM should be motivated by this and ready to prove these folks wrong.  Absolutely CRUSHING a bad Missouri State team would go a long way in returning confidence in them as a title contender.  I want to see this Jackrabbit team get out to a big lead and annihilate the Bears in all phases.

2. As I said in the podcast, I really am excited to see the Jackrabbit skill players on this fast field.  CJ Wilson, Pierre Strong, Cade Johnson, and Deyon Campbell would make one heck of a 4x100 team and this surface should allow them to use that speed.

3. The Jackrabbit defense gets another crack at a mobile quarterback in Peyton Huslig.  I'd like to see the defense keep him in check.  NDSU and UNI were able to sack him 3 and 5 times.  I'd like the Jacks to get somewhere in that range.

4. I'm interested to see how much of the playbook Coach Eck opens up for true freshman quarterback Keaton Heidi.  His high school HUDL tape shows that he can make all the throws and that the athleticism we saw on display on his touchdown run wasn't a fluke.  He has the ability to run. 

5. I want our special teams to put together a complete game.  We haven't had a complete game since early in the season.  Let's win in all phases of the game on Saturday.

Increasing my score prediction...
Jacks- 42
Bears- 0

Go Jacks!
Matt   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jackrabbit Football All-Decade Team

Image
Yes, we are well into the new year/decade but our debate has been fierce in creating an All-Decade Jackrabbit football team.  The challenges of creating this team were what to do with the players at the beginning and the end of the decade who may only have a year or two of stats to go on or what do we do with those players who only splashed for one year?  Further complicating matters was the consistent improvement of the Jackrabbit team as a whole and the level of competition they are facing week in and week out.  So with all of those factors, the Splitting Hares Podcast team of Ben Pierson, Brendan Luedtke, Kyle Sheehan, and Dallas Clarksean created our list of who the team should be.  All are welcome to their opinions!  Special thanks to Mitchell McLain who keeps an unbelievable database of Jackrabbit football statistics and information.  Offense Quarterback Taryn Christion (2015-2018) 44 games started, 59.70% completion rate, 11,535 yar...
Read more

What's Cookin': Dessert

Image
Alright, another year of Jackrabbit football is upon us. We are celebrating at Jackrabbit Illustrated, this our 5th season covering the team.  The players who we first covered as freshmen are now redshirt seniors. We hope you are as excited as us for this upcoming season. Chef Tim, a culinary instructor at Mitchell Tech and contributing writer, has some fun recipes for you this season.  He has committed to doing one a week. I have nothing but faith that he will get them turned in! We start the season celebrating with celebrations. Here are some fun baked goods that will lead to the healthy start to the season; Cherry-Chocolate Chunk Cookies ½ Cup All-Purpose Flour ¼ Cup Quick-Cooking Oats ½ Teaspoon baking Soda Pinch of Salt 2 tbs butter, melted and cooled 1/3 cup brown sugar 1 large egg 1 tsp vanilla Extract 2 oz semisweet chocolate 1/3 cup dried cherries 1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray large baking sheet with nonstick spray. 2) Combine Flour, Oats, baking soda, and s...
Read more

Rants & Raves: LIU

Image
The Jacks won 38-3 on a cold and damp September evening.  The Jacks dominated statistically in nearly every area but it didn't feel like a fully satisfying victory.  How spoiled have we become as Jackrabbit fans? Rave: How about that defense?  The argument could be made that they have only surrendered 17 points in 2 games.  Pretty impressive.  For most of the night Saturday LIU was completely overwhelmed by the size and speed of the Jackrabbit defense.  LIU managed only 123 yards of total offense.  The performance was phenominal, even against a transitioning FCS opponent. I'll highlight some of the invidual performances later. Rant: Adult fans... enough said.  This writer is tired of the apathy and excuses. Rave: Students!  Great job showing up, being loud, and impacting the game.  That was great! Rave: The true freshmen really showed out.  Quinton Hicks impacted the game from his first snap.  Diamond Evans played w...
Read more