Well, we made ESPN. Last night on the SVP show, he does a segment about fluke or last minute plays that flip the betting pay out - Bad Beats. We were favored by 13.5, so he showed every big play that took the lead from 39 points to 13, not covering the spread. Every UNC touchdown, every Aggie blunder...Here is the video with our segment starting about the 2 minute mark. Video
Hopefully the reserves got some experience that they can turn into a positive lesson. I doubt that UNC's covering the spread put a real crimp in the Vegas books.
We still won and the first team wasn’t in. It is what it is. If UNC wants to take some kind of moral victory out of this one they can. I just suggest to them not to “spike the football” on this one because the next time we play, the score may be run up.
How ironic...we just got more ESPN coverage than we ever have and it's about a 7 minute defensive meltdown. I hope movielover is right and the Ags, as a result of this, will come out on highly motivated against ISU, play a WHOLE 60 minutes of good football and make a strong statement that we are the real deal.
It's not great to be featured on Bad Beats, but I am really not bothered at all. I would prefer to have a coach who gives his reserves an opportunity for significant game time and calls off the dogs when we are up 49-10, rather than keep the first team in and run the score up to 70-10. A lot of coaches in the Big Sky do that. Hawkins put the first team back in when it started getting too close for comfort. We're good.
I also like that the reserves weren't pulled the minute the waves started crashing over the side of the boat. Let them stay in, try to deal with it themselves.....hard lesson but valuable experience. One of the reasons for the streak way, way back, was that reserves got a lot of playing time and were ready when their time came to start. Sometimes you trip and fall before you learn to walk.
I agree with getting everyone some playing time if possible. They practice all week long just like the starters and deserve to get in the game when possible. It gives players who have gone unnoticed a chance to shine also and maybe work themselves into more PT. I would, however, liked to have seen Hawk stop the bleeding before it got under a 2 score game. That was a little too close for comfort IMO.
@zytheCorrection - the final score was bad, but that was not a bad game. Building a 49-10 lead with 9 minutes to go is good. We let them get too close in the end, but that was a good game.