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Week 1 - Sac State at South Dakota State

3-20 Final. Hornets get dominated in the trenches but hold up on the defensive side as the Go Go offense will wait another week to make an appearance.

Defensively the Hornets held their own. Some redzone stops in the first half and a tightening of the screws in the 2nd half kept this one from being a total laugher. The defense finished with 1 redzone forced turnover, 7 sacks and 11 TFLs. There are still things to clean up as there were too many procedural penalties early on and the contain and tackling struggled on the night. Derek Houston (14 tak, 1 sac, 1 TFL) led the Hornet defense with six others getting at least a share of a sack. All in all a pretty respectable performance considering that they were on the field for over 41 minutes.

Offense was a total no show. Coach Richardson did not have the offensive line ready for this game as they got embarrassed up front. 131 total yards is abysmal as the execution was just not there tonight. Jaden Rashada (11/27, 107 yds, 1 INT) did not look comfortable with the exception of a couple of drives. He struggled with his down the field throws and would constantly stare down receivers. He's fortunate he doesn't have a few more interceptions on the night. The receivers did him no favors as Jordan Williams had a drop on the opening drive that would have gotten the Hornets out of the shadow of their own endzone and Tim Conerly (1 rec, 10 yds) dropped a touchdown pass midway through the 4th quarter that would have made things interesting in the final minutes of the game. Jordan Anderson (4 rec, 49 yds) was the leading receiver for the Hornets. There were a few plays where it looked like the receivers just quit on their routes. Lots to work out in the passing game. The running backs got a lot of touches but none of them did anything notable.

Special teams was respectable as kicker Grant Meadors (1/1 FG) nailed a 36 yard field goal that ended up being the only Hornet points of the game. These points were set up by the special teams that pounced on a muffed punt by SDSU.

On to the next one.

Stingers Up!
 
We knew the team would take some time to gel. Was hoping there was enough talent to overcome that.

To be honest, a couple of dropped catches that should have been made and a few completely blown passes that should have been easy completions may have been the difference. The defense held on as long as they could waiting for the offense to find a rhythm.

Hopefully next game. I'm not sold on Rashada yet though.
 
We definitely jab at each other now and then, but maybe it took a Portland State fan to remind us to chill out a bit 😅. Gotta say though, Sting always brings some good perspective.
 
Lots of dooming and calling for heads/lineup changes on Hornet twitter (after 1 game, lol). A few key things to note for the doomers:
  • SDSU is ranked 3rd in FCS for a reason. A perennial title contender doesn't fall off in one offseason with some coaching and roster changes. We saw that first hand when folks were dooming during our offseason between '22 and '23. We stll ran it back for a road playoff win even with the coaching/roster turnover. It should surprise no one that SDSU is still one of the best in FCS.
  • SDSU is undoubtedly our toughest game on the schedule and it was on the road in the most hostile environment this team will see all regular season. For the most part, the schedule only gets easier from here on out.
  • Prior to this game, Rashada hadn't played since November of 2023. Yes we were all hoping he would crush it from the jump but that obviously didn't happen. All is not lost and we'll see how far this passing game improves with one game under their belt.
  • For those calling for a new QB: no, a different QB doesn't mean the result would have been different. Every QB in camp had the same amount of time to learn the offense and is still learning the offense. Combine that with how badly the OL was dominated and it's quite a stretch to claim that a different QB would have had different result.
Take a deep breath, this team will be fine as they continue to work out the kinks on offense. Nevada is a 50-50 game and even if we take another loss we'll still be in good shape so long as we see improvement on the offensive side.

 
We definitely jab at each other now and then, but maybe it took a Portland State fan to remind us to chill out a bit 😅. Gotta say though, Sting always brings some good perspective.
I like Sting's perspective on things. His crash outs are just added entertainment.

And Sting, stop asking to close your account. Hornet fandom is like Hotel California: you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave.
 

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