(My only concern of sorts has to do with, well, our “slow starts”, and whether the actual TIME OF KICKOFF really has anything to do with all that...
Clearly, waiting until 3:30pm (local eastern time) in the Swamp didn’t help us this PAST week: It was not until we were well into the 2nd quarter and down 21-3 (!) that we seemingly “awakened”; the fact that we essentially BEAT the best team in the nation from that point forward (and for damn near the last three quarters of that one) gives little indication of WHEN these games beginning will affect our readiness to play.
Who can SAY how a 7pm start, as per this Saturday, will impact us.
I know that television dictates these things nowadays—that even though “theoretically” (depending on the network contracts) the home team’s athletic dept. might have SOMETHING to say about it, let’s face it: TV RULES now. The idea that it may well be preferable (from a “football/coaching P.O.V.”) to try and keep the TEAM’S schedule as reliably regular as possible takes a (distant) back seat to TV and the potential advertising dollars now. Everyone’s in the same boat, far as THAT goes.
Let’s just HOPE Mullen (who doesn’t miss much) and Co. by now have a plan in that regard—and that it WORKS to somehow help “kick the whole squad in its collective BUTT right from the get-go!
It is the one thing that could throw a wrench into what I anticipate is otherwise an overall advantage for us OVER Tennessee, coming in. The various “media prognosticators” are favoring US this time—and if ANYTHING, that worries me of course: It’s not as if THEY tend to get ANYTHING right, not as a GROUP!
No, at best they are irrelevant. As always, this is in our own hands, that of the players and coaches, their health, preparations and game plan coming in:
Start fast, take control, get in front and STAY there.
That’s the game plan, of course—and THIS time it is DOABLE.
Another raucous home crowd will go along way in helping, too...So we should know pretty early how well we will fare here by the end.
