Arizona Postgame Thread

Rewatching the game tonight. I didn’t realize the snap on the two point conversion went directly to Gabe Burkle. And the snap was similar to what you see on a play ground. It didn’t go between the center’s legs, instead it was more of a pitch to the side. Not sure I have seen that before in a game.

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Yep. And it’s okay to realize we will lose some games. And probably some games we shouldn’t. It happens to every single college football team. That doesn’t mean we have reverted back to Cyclone nut cup days.

This program is built different (and better) than it ever has. If you need to emotionally hedge by building up our opponents in case you lose, I guess go for it. We may lose to Cincinnati but it won’t be because ISU has sucked for 100 of the past 105 years.

EXACTLY. We should all have enough confidence in this team and these coaches and this program to not lose our **** when some things go rough for us. But we should also not expect things to go bad.

I say it all the time, but we are in rarefied air. I don't want to look back and realize that I didn't enjoy and appreciate it. The past 9 years and especially the past 2.5 have brought me a LOT of joy and I would hate to have missed it because I was hedging my bets or losing my **** for a loss.
 
Rewatching the game tonight. I didn’t realize the snap on the two point conversion went directly to Gabe Burkle. And the snap was similar to what you see on a play ground. It didn’t go between the center’s legs, instead it was more of a pitch to the side. Not sure I have seen that before in a game.

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I noticed that too. Is that a legal snap? Seems like a good way to keep the defense guessing.
 
I had a similar thought this morning. Our fan base carries too much baggage from the past. At some point we have to realize our program is just flat out better than programs like Arizona and Cincinnati and have confidence in our team.
Iowa State will never have the most resources to compete at the highest level across a broad selection of sports. The entire edifice of college athletics is teetering. While ISU fans do fear the return of our past, a lot of us are more worried about the future. Life is good for ISU fans these days but we don't know how hard it will be to keep it going. I'm just trying to enjoy the ride.
 
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Iowa State will never have the most resources to compete at the highest level across a broad selection of sports. The entire edifice of college athletics is teetering. While ISU fans do fear the return of our past, a lot of us are more worried about the future. Life is good for ISU fans these days but we don't know how hard it will be to keep it going. I'm just trying to enjoy the ride.

The more Brock Purdys, Jaylen Noels, Jayden Higgins, Will McDonalds that have success in the NFL and speak extraordinarily highly of our program the easier it will become especially when the quick payday doesn’t lead to guaranteed success at the next level
 
In addition there were a couple of plays with questionable activity going on that seemed to lead directly to our players' injuries. On one kick off return their #30 seemed to be on top of our guy (deep back up TE, I think) and shoving his forearm into his throat repeatedly. On Big Citrus's second injury it looked like #12, Spivey threw a punch to the neck or something while Orange was down.

I love physical play, but I am not a fan of dirty play. It looked like Spivey in particular was always trying to do something after the whistle to draw a cheap PF penalty.
I didn’t see any of that, and now I’m angry that I missed it. I hate dirty play.
 
I know that Sowell didn’t get a ton of targets until Saturday, but the plays he made tell me he’s WR1. We’ve seen Eskildsen and Overby go deep, but we haven’t seen them do much else or make contested catches. That was a Higgins type game from Sowell. He needs to show he can be consistent, but the talent is there.
 
It’s way too early to say he’s emerging as our #1 WR - the dude averaged 1 catch per game before this breakout. I think there is just as likely as a chance that the WR that pops on any given game will rotate. It was Overby in game 1, Eskildsen in game 2, no one in game 3, Townsend in game 4, and now Sowell in game 5. So they all can do it. Can one or two of them be more consistent?
Sowell caught a few important balls late in the Iowa game too. He's been building momentum for a while. I think he's the real deal. Him and Townsend. The others are nice young players who have the chance to become just as good or better.
 
We’ve seen Eskildsen and Overby go deep, but we haven’t seen them do much else or make contested catches.

You need to review the kstate game. Both Eskildsen and Overby made highly contested catches for their TDs. I will admit outside of those, they haven't shown as much.

It's gotta be super difficult at this point to be a pass catcher on this team. There's too many hands that deserve the ball.
 
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I know that Sowell didn’t get a ton of targets until Saturday, but the plays he made tell me he’s WR1. We’ve seen Eskildsen and Overby go deep, but we haven’t seen them do much else or make contested catches. That was a Higgins type game from Sowell. He needs to show he can be consistent, but the talent is there.
I suspect what we are seeing is Sowell has a much higher level he can get to, vs Eski, Overbee, etc. Those guys knew the system and are good, but Sowell looks like a 'dude' as Woody would say. Just takes some time to get comfy in the system, w Rocco, et al.

So if Sowell is indeed a 'dude', and the other guys are solid as well, thats more than enough at WR for this team to succeed. And thats to say nothing of Townsend, who might also be a dude syill to emerge.
 
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Look anywhere. If a team was once riding high, but is now riding low, their level of cannibalism is unreal. The sad part is they always have the expectations they can return to the glory years. There are a lot of examples out there. It'd really be interesting to see the attendance stats of once successful teams that are now dumpster fires. The 'real' attendance stats; not like Nebraska's inflated ones. And, that's not even touching on their impatience with new coaches.
I hope it doesn't happen here, but if we do have a slide, it will. Just the bad side of human nature.
 
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