The journey to Texas has 11 pre-scheduled stops with only one break between now & late November. There will be twists, turns & trouble along the route but through it all the Herd will progress. Following each game that progress will be analyzed. As great as the destination is, enjoy the weekly pit stops along the way!
Today marked the end of the mapped journey, now we wait for the bracket to be announced. These familiar foes did not let the regular season pass into the past quietly but lead by Cam Miller had one more show for the state!
It was a once-in-a-quarter-century performance by the junior quarterback that in addition to securing the victory and a high seed in the field gave every upcoming opponent one more thing that they will have to game plan for. It had become predictable that Cole Payton would run when he is sent out but Miller's 16 totes are a career high and significantly more than he had carried in any of the previous 10 games. With the effort the door is open for more variation, perhaps having both quarterbacks on the field at the same time to do a double-pass or a pass back that turns into a run. They could go as far with it as Matt Entz will allow. In essence they added a wildcard to their deck.
Miller is the headline and his performance will be the talk of the state for years to come but the defense acquitted itself very well against an offense that was going on two months since the last time they scored less than 28 points. It wasn't flashy as they finished with just two INTs & didn't close on any of the chances that Tommy Schuster served up but substance beats flash. Another bit of the substance was that in addition to their success in keeping the Birds out of the end zone, Code Green caged them to just over 300 total yards resulting in six punts.
It was fundamental, complimentary football with the offense coming through to the tune of an 11-minute time-of-possession advantage. To get there Kobe Johnson & TaMerik Williams joined Miller in the 85+ yard club, with all of them getting more touches than the total number of receptions.
Which was still enough opportunity for DJ Hart to show his game-breaking potential yet again.
No doubt the friendly-confines made a difference and not having to deal with any sort of weather pattern is always a plus, this is the team they will need to be to advance through the rounds of 16, 8 & 4. That last one may well come one state down or in a different time zone. Either way, they will need to continue showing today's quality to get to that point in the tournament, let alone make it all the way back to Texas.
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