Volunteers Drop Falcons....First thoughts

So.  To answer your question...yes, this was different from last year's opener.  That debacle was against WKU, a team that went 8-5 in C-USA, and this one was against a ranked opponent from the SEC.

More to come tomorrow, but for now, a few thoughts....

I thought BG did some good things tonight.  I thought the offense was good most of the time and the defense was good some of the time.

Yes, BG gave up a lot of running yards, but they made some stops when the game was close and the defense was given a lot of short fields due to AWFUL kick coverage by the Falcons.  Just awful.

There were at least 3 big kick returns as well as Robbie Rhodes running OB at the 4.  There was also a missed FG and a KO that went OB as well.  The Falcons did made things harder for the defense at every turn.

Not that the defense was great.  We expected them to struggle and I think it is possible they struggled less than we might have expected.

I thought the offense looked pretty good.  Not much running got going, but the Vols are a good up front.  Johnson made some nice throws and we saw the difference with him vs. Knapke on those deep balls.

Anyway, more to come.  But for now, keep this is mind.  Rather than losing to WKU--and thinking we were going to play a lot of better teams--BG lost to Tennessee, and that is by far the best team we will play this year.  Things are far from certain but I take positives and negatives from this game.

Oh, and let's keep our fingers crossed for Travis Greene to be able to return this year.  Besides the fact that he helps the team, I'd hate to see him lose his senior year for all he has contributed to this program.

Honestly, I think we can beat Maryland if we can have the normal game 1 to game 2 improvement.

More tomorrow.