Hard to believe that in under a week, Lion football kicks off, and facing the second FBS school in the history of the program on live TV is pretty exciting. I will say this, Russ was awesome at this and knew how to break down film and stats so much better than I ever could, so my Pre-Snaps reads are going to be more condensed, so just bear with me.

Let’s start with the obvious, the Lion offense was south of atrocious last season. It was probably the worst I have seen with the exception of 2011 and we all know how bad it was. The good news is that over the off season several good things happened to improve the Lion offensive unit. An improved offensive line, a much deeper group at Quarterback, Running Back, and Receivers, not to mention a Head Coach who is calling the plays and is responsible for the offensive production and performance. When The Lions hired Clint Dolezel I was thrilled for an offensive minded coach that would focus on putting points on the board first, last, and always.

That to say, last season we saw just a total lack of personnel. The Lion offensive line starts up front and it has to be able to protect whoever is the signal caller, whether that be Eric Rodriguez or Ron Peace. I have been told Rodriguez is the guy who will probably trot out there. As far as what he will be facing is a team that finished 97th in total defense in the NCAA FBS last season. The Aztecs allowed an average of 407 yards per game and 6 yards per play to teams last season. For comparison, the Aztecs allowed 28 points to a 3-8 Idaho State team out of the Big Sky Conference last season. SDSU allowed 165 yards on the ground which was good for 93rd in the country while allowing 242 yards through the air which was also good enough for 93rd. This looks like a team that can have the ball moved on them in more ways that one.

The question now becomes will the new “quick strike ball control through the air” offense for The Lions work out? Make no mistake about it, the Aztecs see the Lions as a simpering opponent having only scored more than 20 on two occasions. I remember when Eric Rodriguez got onto campus in 2021 many of us were told that if Miklo Smalls, the hero of the 2019 season were to go down, Rodriguez could take the reigns with no problem. Rodriguez was a guy that I honestly wrote off as doing anything great but he got us off to our best start since 2019 with a 5-2 start in 2022 and now that he is healthy, it just seems that only rust is the factor for Rodriguez.

Overall what you have are two teams that are facing the weaker spots in the in their armor. The Aztecs have an unimpressive defense while the Lion offense, while better than last year from what we have seen so far, still has a lot to prove. There are some big ifs. If Dolezel’s new playcalling system works. If Eric Rodriguez stays healthy. If the O-Line is better than last year. If we have a deeper group of backs and receivers. If’s and buts.

However we might just have enough of those around to make this game interesting. After all in the words of the great Cowboys Quarterback and Monday Night Football Color Analyst Don Meredith, “If ifs and buts were candy nuts, we would always have a Merry Christmas.”

And The Lions might just have enough.