I hate that I missed this game for a plethora of reasons but long story short, I got there and had not been feeling well the entire day. I got to tailgate around 2 and was there for about an hour before I realized I had bad case of hay fever. So back home I went but made it back with more than enough time to watch and analyze everything. Im still not totally over it but Im feeling better, but I have had my share of these things since High School so lets get to the game.

1. Zadock Dinklemann-His stat line was incredibly good, but the fact that this guy only did what he did in one half of play really stands out. He has a strong arm, good pocket presence and knows what he wants to do with the ball pre-snap. It is likely Eric Rodriguez comes back to QB1 in two weeks when we face Southeastern Louisiana, so I have no idea if Z goes back to tight end or if he stays as QB2, but I do know that he is very capable of leading this group and I am very interested to see what he does in the future.
2. Andrew Armstrong-I am going to defer to one of the greatest Lion Wideouts to ever done the Blue and Gold, Billy Minor, two time all LSC, top ten all time statistical in yards in program history, and former professional football players regarding this guy; “His playmaking ability goes without saying. But his ability to adjust to passes to position himself where the defender has to go thru him is next level. Not many receivers have a knack for those type adjustments and can actually catch the ball too. I like the kid!” That is high praise coming from one of the best Lion Receivers ever.
3. Defense-I do not know what to say other than our defense is VERY, VERY, VERY good. They have been great all year long. We have playmakers on all positions on this side of the ball and are very deep. The playmaking ability is stellar and if we can get the offense rolling again, we are going to be tough to beat. This unit is as good as most we have had in the past. Darius Williams…..wow, what a hitter and sound defensive player. He embodies the Blue Gang mentality.
4. Playbook-Billy Reibock really opened up his playbook and once again showed that when he attacked the middle of the field, that was the most productive. I loved his playcalling. I also heard he was not upstairs but was calling plays from the sidelines. I love that idea. I saw him do that during the spring game and thought it was very productive. Hat tip to our OC on this one.
5. JT Smith-I am so glad that this guy finally got to show what he can easily do. This guy is a flash of lightening in a bottle. He has a speed you cannot coach and I think if you get him more carries and find a way to get him the ball, he will be very dangerous and going forward, you can bet the coaches of the Southland Conference will be concerned about him. If he takes two guys to cover him, that will open up other guys to get the ball.
6. Kickers-We have a really great group of special teams guys. Aidan Martin, Emmanuel Adadgon, and Mitchell McGarry are all very good at what they do are getting better at it. These guys are who can keep you in games when things are not going very well, but they all showed their skills off last night and have all season long.
7. Underclassman-I loved seeing Tyson Oliver come in and play some snaps at Quarterback. He basically played the entire second half I love how he played like he had been there before, but he was a successful High School Quarterback who was coached very well in Royse City. Other players like BJ Phillips found paydirt as well.
8. Going forward-This was a great game to see where we were at after 2 losses. I feel like this team is growing and overall is in the right direction on just about everything. Something I have to say about HC Bailiff is that he is taking this all in stride and talks about coaching accountability and that says a lot about his character as a coach and as a person. When we sadly say one of our players get ejected for throwing a punch, I had never seen Bailiff as upset as he was, because he knows that reflects on him and the program he runs and the fact he will have none of that and has no problem making examples of people shows me he is dead serious about doing things the right way. We head into a bye week, knowing we should be 3-1 and could be 4-0, but this is a great time to look back at what went wrong and what went right and head into Southland conference play, because that is what counts from here on out.

David Bailiff Post Game-

Game Highlights-