Highs, lows and I don't knows - Football, 11/8

Watch me crank that soulja boy and Superman these hoes!

The highs:

Adam Kennedy - I'm thinking AFK's halftime pep talk from the coaches went about like this...

BALDWIN: "Hey, so we know you could count your passing attempts on the season without having to take your socks off and with a mitten on one of your hands, but Chuckie is done for the game. Would you mind coming in and leading us to a win at a place we haven't won at since Coach A was in diapers?"

AFK: "Do you know who the hell I am?"

In all seriousness though, that was a performance for the ages. Was there a single hole in Kennedy's game? I say nay. His throws were on the mark, he knew when to cut loose and scramble, he... well... He just got it done. No two ways about it. There's a reason why he and Chuckie were neck-and-neck for the starting job in camp. If anyone took the time to watch AFK's highlights from junior college, the thing that stands out most is how noticeably he improved his game from his freshman to sophomore year. In other words, he may be slow to catch on, but once he does, he catches on strong.

Seeing as how Chuckie will probably have some missed reps in practice this week, and maybe even for overall safety's sake, Kennedy deserves the start Saturday. I know I want an encore performance, and I'm pretty confident that AFK is capable of delivering.

The entire second half at Hawaii - Going into halftime Saturday, things could not have possibly looked worse for Utah State. They'd already pissed away two straight games prior to traveling to the island, and through the whole first half the team looked overmatched, out-coached and overall like a team playing without a purpose.

That all changed at halftime. Trailing 28-7, the offense came out aggressive, taking shots down field and capitalizing on essentially every opportunity put in front of them. Maybe more importantly, the defense completely took over the game. The cornerbacks were lockdown, the linebackers were like a roided up version of their regular selves and most importantly, the defensive line completely dominated the line of scrimmage. Just days after finding themselves in the inaugural "lows" of this weekly segment, the D-line was out of this world. One can only hope that level of play wasn't a fluke, because I think they're capable of doing that more, especially with the remaining schedule.


The lows:


The entire first half at Hawaii - While this was already touched on in describing how great the second half was, the first half was bad enough that it's worth mention. They seem like their drive had just been ripped away from them. Like the team's hearts were getting taken out of the game once things went a little bit badly. It was another example of the Jekyll and Hyde aspects that Gary Andersen's teams have shown throughout his tenure so far. If those demons can get exorcised, the sky is the limit, as Saturday's second half indicated.

Aaron Brown - There's not much else bad that can be said about USU, but for Hawaii, that's not so much the case. Like I said yesterday, he probably only deserves a stern talking to as punishment for what he was doing after the Keeton injury. That guy just sucks as a person for that. He's no Brandon Ogletree, but who is?


The I don't knows:

Dave Baldwin  - Kudos to Baldwin for putting together a stellar second half Saturday. the play calling was aggressive, effective and essentially unstoppable. It was definitely refreshing to see Baldwin get things done in the clutch, which is something he's done only one other time at USU (@Idaho '09).

What I'm curious to know though is why Kennedy got the play calls to take shots down field with regularity like he did. Keeton hasn't exactly been bad throwing the ball downfield this season, but his chances to take those shots have been so few and far between that he hasn't really had chances to stretch the field and open up the running game like Kennedy had Saturday. Now, that's not to say Keeton would play every game and complete long passing plays with the consistency that Kennedy did against Hawaii, but that's why what Kennedy did was special.

In other words, I suppose the same plea to Baldwin that we've had all season still stands. Open it up and let the QB's take their shots. The receivers have clearly shown they're capable of making big plays, they just need that chance.