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“THE HOODIE ON TOBACCO ROAD”

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Bill Belichick isn’t very open nor forthcoming with the media.

I guess we should have paid closer attention, read between the lines, or grasped history to know what the legendary New England Patriots head coach was saying.

The man who won 6-Super Bowl rings with Tom Brady, and ran the greatest NFL operations of all time, made the comment at his opening press conference.

“North Carolina will be like the NFLs 33rd-team”.

So here we are with the spotlight on Chapel Hill.

Every dignitary with ties to Carolina colors showed up, from Michael Jordan to Roy Williams and everyone else.  I am sure Dean Smith was there in spirit too.  And of cours the Hoodie’s latest flame, the 24-year old media guru Jordan Hudson, PR-agent, confidante and girlfriend to the 73-year old coach.

Also there was TCU, feeling disrespected, as if the Horned Frogs have never accomplished anything in college football.  The entire week’s building to the game was about UNC, the coach, the history, the storylines.

And from the opening kickoff, it was all Carolina Blue.  An 83-yard TD drive, big runs, big pass plays, cheers, screams, a touchdown, the band, pom poms and accolades.

What a start.  Then what a collapse.

What could have been a Tar Heel blowout win, became a UNC blowout loss of epic proportions.

TCU reeled off 41-straight points in the game, enroute to the 48-14-landslide win in Chapel Hill.

Name a big play, and you saw it, all from the guys wearing Purple and Black.

A 25-yard TD run…a 75-yard scoring burst..a 25-yard pick six…a 37-yard fumble return for another score..and a stat sheet that showed Texas Christian piling up (542Y) in offense and (285Y) running the football.

The Hells couldn’t tackle, got blasted at the line of scrimmage, couldn’t cover receivers nor tight ends.  UNC’s quarterback Gio Lopez, a hot shot transfer, had 5-straight 3-and-out series, got picked off, then got knocked out of the game.

Worst opening loss in Carolina football history.  Most points ever given up too.  And the worst loss ever anywhere Belichick has ever coached.

By the 3rd quarter, the girlfriend was gone from the skybox.  By the start of the 4th quarter, the stadium looked like a Ghost Town, it was empty.  The guest box of celebrities emptied out at halftime.

It only counts as one game, one loss.  But this was Belichick’s hand selected roster of 70-new players, who had never been together before they opened off season workouts.  There was no continuity.  They had never been thru adversity.  All they had was his reputation and his sales pitch.

Belichick was typical coach-speak, saying nothing much about why-how this opening night was so brutal.  In the NFL after a gruesome loss, all he would say was ‘on to Cincinnati’, the next game.  At least he didn’t say ‘on to Charlotte or  Richmond’ ..UNCC and the Spiders being their next opponents.

Social media burned him to the ground.  Imagine at every ACC stopping point, from Charlottesville to Winston-Salem, people were laughing while sharing beers.  Guess to in the State of New England, Patriots fans probably feel ‘I told you so’ about Belichick’s bad drafts year after year.

But the 1-piece of truth the coach said, months back, rang true to me, about this being the NFL’s 33rd team.  He was right.

An NFL-33rd team, would be an expansion team.  And expansion teams are awful.  And North Carolina was awful too.

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“AZTECS FOOTBALL..A START”
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That was a decent start, the SDSU dominant win last week over a weak 1AA-team-Stony Brook.

The maiden voyage of young QB-Jayden Denegal, who got better and better as the night went on.

The emergence of  Lucky Sutton at running back.  The unveiling of a host of young WRs to get open.  A dominant display on defense, holding Stony Brook to all of 95-yards in offense.

All fine and dandy, except we saw the exact same things a year ago in the opening day slaughter of Texas AM-Commerce.  The end result was a (3-9) season that eroded away confidence in what Sean Lewis was going to build.

But the teeth of the schedule lies ahead, starting with the Saturday game at Washington State, followed by the home game with an improving Cal Golden Bears team.

Only time will tell, and Saturday night at Martin Stadium in Pullman will be more of a litmus test-credibility check for SDSU.

Coach Sean Lewis’ comments:
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Great effort kids put forward..1st shutout since 2019
OL did great job…run job was strong
Defense controlled the tempo of the game
Lucky Sutton stepped up
Chris Johnston did great job changing things on defense

Washington State won-even if they did not have strong night
Young QB-led them on game winning drive
They shift-motion alot on offense
They have history with good wideouts
6-transfers came in
22-came from South Dakota State came with the coach
They got stops and got scores when they needed them vs Idaho
QB -Jaxon Potter got better as night went on
Coach Jake Rogers not happy with their run game

Jayden Denegal-great thruout..he is competitive
Did good job knowing when to take hit, not take hit
13-and-15 play scoring drives
Denegal environment at Michigan got him close to what pressure would be like
He approaches each day in practice like it is a game
His advantage is lots of reps vs speed of game he got at Michigan

Versatility of WRs have position flex to do lots of offensive things
We window dress our formations then run them different routes
Guys multi faceted help you be more creative in alignment

Lucky-toughness and burst..earned his hard yards

Schedule…unique setup..start Thursday..then 10-days off..then play
Gave players off Friday and Monday..like a mini bye
Our team is not last year’s team
We have invested 19 million seconds into this team-make it different

We lost our focus in 3rd quarter..addressed it..came back strong 4th quarter
My intensity in that game does not happen very often
First time I have ever done that as a head coach to reflect need to be better
In the moment-right now

We have guys who are sweet guys who flip a switch and play well
Some of my kids have travelled unique journey
Film-profile says one things…getting to know these kids great experience

Make improvement week 1-to-week 2..
Want consistent games thru the year..
My guys are my guys..we are connected
Game day did not change us and that’s important

Martin Stadium-Pullman-hostile place to play
Told Denegal…embrace it…pressure on QB is a privilege-he will get that.
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“THE DAY AFTER THE WEEKEND”
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Throwing deep bombs after the 1st weekend of the college football season:

BILL BELICHICK..Said he would run the North Carolina Tar Heels as if it was the 33rd franchise in the NFL.  We will see what it looks like when they play TCU in Monday Night Football.  Belichick has 70-new players and a wild armed QB to take the field in Chapel Hill.

DEION SANDERS..Biggest question at Colorado..what would life be like after Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter?  Not very good.  The Buffs could not move the ball in the first half with a transfer QB-from Liberty and could not stop Georgia Tech, which piled up (463Y) offense.  Lots of work to do.

DESHAUN FOSTER..A miserable home opener-getting hammered by Utah and its New Mexico transfer QB-Devon Dampier.  The Bruins gave up a whopping (492Y), got slugged-mugged, at one point were outgained (243-23)..UCLA transfer QB-Nico Iamaleava completed only 11-passes and had no help at all.

LINCOLN RILEY…Piled up points (73) and yards (602) in beating Missouri State (who) in the biggest blowout since 1930.  All this from a Trojans program that does not want to play Notre Dame in the future.  What’s next, Fordham?

OHIO STATE..107,000 plus fans wearing Scarlet-Gray and Hate, jolted Texas.  The Buckeyes defense had 4-fourth down stops, including stuffs at the 1-yard line and the 5-in coming from behind to beat Texas.  Arch Manning and Jaylin Sayin were both overwhelmed in the first half, but got better as the game wore on.  But the defenses were something.

CLEMSON..They don’t lose in Death Valley, but they lost at home to LSU as QB-Gerritt Nussmeier got better and better as the. game wore on.

ALABAMA..Have they fallen from the ranks?  No run game.  Not much offense starting a 3rd year QB who was a forever backup.  Pretty bad pasting at the hands of Florida State.  Kalen DeBoer headed for trouble?

MIAMI..Carson Beck, the Georgia transfer, gets to finish his career with Mario Cristobal and his big thick playbook

BOISE STATE..Lost 3-fumbles and could not catch up in getting rocked at South Florida.

MISSOURI..Lost its starting QB early, so backup Beau Pribola comes off the bench to pile up (348Y-4TD) in their win.

NORFOLK STATE..Michael Vick’s debut was a tough slog-beaten by a quality 1AA-Towson State team.

WISCONSIN..The Badgers lost their starting QB early with a leg injury, and ex-Aztec Danny O’Neill came off the bench to go (12-19)120-TD-Int and may be the starter now

PENN STATE..plays Nevada..Really?
MICHIGAN..plays New Mexico..Really?
WEST VIRGINIA..plays Robert Morris..Really?
PITT..plays Duquesne..Really?

AZTECS…Fast-physical-fierce defense.  Jaden Denegal survived hits and nerves in his first start.  Lucky Sutton ran hard.  The defense was everywhere.  But it was Stony Brook.  SDSU outgained (453-95).  But it was a 1AA team.  Next week they play a Pac 12-team.

USD..Rugged start, getting smoked by Cal Poly, who had a transfer QB-from Pitt…Gave up (469Y) to a scholarship program.  Let them get to the Pioneer Conference part of the schedule
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“BIG MONEY-BIG DEAL-BIG D”

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He got his money..they always all get their money.

 

He being the emotional leader of the Dallas Cowboys defense, LB-Micah Parsons, traded late yesterday to the Green Bay Packers.

 

Jerry Jones may own the franchise, but he hasn’t had great success in the last 30-years.  And this was the deal he was forced to make, after he burned all the relationship bridges he had with Parsons.

 

The Packers gave up two first round picks, in 2026-2027 and veteran defensive tackle Kenny Clarke.

 

They then gave Parsons an all time record (4Y-188M) extension, with 130-M of it guaranteed.  Parsons now is the highest non paid QB in the NFL, averaging 47M a season.

 

Higher than Cleveland’s Myles Garrett or Pittsburgh’s JT Watt.  But then again, everytime a star gets a new deal, it’s higher than what the last star got.

 

For Dallas, it leaves a massive hole on a defense that was pretty poor last year.

 

Oh Jerry can run around the Star flashing the fact he got two number one picks, and the fact he now has 4-first round picks over the next  two years.

 

But if Parsons puts the Packers over the top, like steal the NFL North, and go deep in the playoffs, then those Cowboys picks he got will be deep at the end of the first round.

 

Jones always has to have the last word, and the longer he waited to put together this pay the star deal, the higher the price went.  And when he threatened Parsons with the ‘you will owe me 3-years’, meaning play this year and get franchise tagged the next two, the relationship was over.

 

So Dallas gets an aging Clark from the Packers.  They get salary cap relief, but they get a real headache if the season turns bad, like so many other seasons of recent time.

 

Jones has a nightmare either way.  If he had signed Parsons to that mega deal, he would have had 3-players, Dak Prescott, Cee Dee Lamb and Parsons with cap figures of 50-M each.  How do you put 50-other players on the field.

 

He let Lamb run up the price via delays, and the same with Parsons.  And now he has a worse team than last year, and last year was pretty miserable, because of injury after injury and some age too.

 

It’s Jerry’s world, and it’s not very good.  Unlike Green Bay, which looks really good now.

 

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“AZTECS-OPENING NIGHT-AGAIN”
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I was so enthralled at all the things I saw under Sean Lewis’ guidance of the Colorado Buffs offense.  I was pretty impressed when I looked at video of what he ran at Kent State where he took a downtrodden program to record setting offensive heights.

I was so disappointed at what I saw last year at San Diego State.  And so was everyone else, to the point people quit coming to Aztecs games in the wake of a 6-game end of season losing streak, enroute to a (3-9) record.

I knew it would be tough, as they put a raw freshman QB, Danny O’Neill thru a learning curve.  Thought the kid QB played pretty well, pretty consistent, and did not turn the ball over.  Then he left.

He had a record setting Marquez Cooper at running back.  But SDSU had virtually nothing else on offense.

The rotation of wide receivers disintegrated as the season wore on.  Jordan Napier arrived to become a potential star, but virtually everyone else washed out.

The offensive front had injury issues.  The  vibrant defense hung tough, played tough till midseason then caved in from the workload.  It was awful by the time the season ended.

I still flash back to all the games I watched when Lewis was running the Xs-Os for Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter, Jim Horn and a cadre of skill wide receivers at Colorado.

I saw video of the 600-yard games his Kent State Golden Flashes put up.

So my faith is renewed heading into this game against a 1AA team.  Of course I felt the same when they were lining up against Division 1AA-East Texas State-Commerce.

Two new quarterbacks, 3-new untested running backs.  Some WR help for Napier.  The key will be 3-experienced starters upfront and a load of transfers in that offensive line.

So there is hope because there is some continuity.  And the defense returns 9-starters, so there seem more positives than the unknowns of last fall’s opening night.

Lewis believes in his playbook.  his system, his teaching methods, and what returned from last year, as painful as it was.  He did not like my use of the word ‘autopsy’ on last season, but admitted he had to stand infront of the mirror to reevaluate things

The program is (7-19) dating back to the middle of 2023.

That’s a far cry from the (106-48) run we experienced under Rocky Long-Brady Hoke.

He has to win to make the town and alums believe.  The season ticket count, that was (15,973) the first year at Snapdragon Stadium, has cratered to just above (6,600) this year.  The town has to be convinced, and so far they have not

So we see what 2025-brings.  Lewis hits the re-set button.  It’s a clean piece of paper.  The schedule is tougher.  And this is a farewell tour for SDSU in the Mountain West Conference, where they once dominated with Boise State.  But Boise is 25th in the preseason poll heading to the final year in the MWC.

And SDSU is nowhere near Boise State these days in terms of wins-credibility.  And just around the corner, the move to the PAC-`12 Conference, which might be tougher than where SDSU is right now.

Still hoping I see what I saw from Lewis’ time at Colorado and Kent State.

New year, definitely need better results. A different type of opening night at SDSU.

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