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Cardinals lead 35-14 late first half.

Long way to go but I wondered about Lamar when Baylor had trouble stopping their offense. I'm actually watching this game on TV while I'm watching McNeese State at SFA on ESPN3. Lamar's offense looks very, very good so far. They have a back, number 8, that I've noticed in previous years that is extremely good. But that's not the only thing. I mean they they really look good on offense.

Obviously their defense is doing a good job in this game too. But the thing that really jumps out is that Sam Houston State looks completely helpless against their offense.

Ok so Sam Houston State goes down but I also think Lamar is probably bad news for the rest of the Southland. That back I mentioned...#8 Kade Harrington...rushed for 230 yards on only 24 carries and another 83 yards on 2 receptions. He had a 77 yard TD reception and added a clutch 73 yard TD run after Sam Houston State came back from a big deficit to draw within 3 points.

Lamar had 551 yards of offense and averaged 8.0 yards per attempt while rushing for 328 yards. And it was clear that they could throw the ball when they needed to. Sam Houston State did outgain them by a little with 560 total yards of its own. But Lamar averaged 8.3 yards per play to Sam Houston State's 6.1. Lamar had the more "explosive" offense during that game.

Unless last night was a total fluke watch out for these guys.

Nice job, Lamar!

Lamar highlights below if you're interested. Harrington's long TD run is the last play of the video. If you're not paying close attention it looks like it was just a pop clean sprint where he didn't have to do anything. But if you do look closely you can see that #10 for Sam Houston State appeared to have him dead to rights in the hole but he just gave a little move and made #10 whiff. Then the sprint.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43Zo3M00X68[/youtube]

Things I gathered from that highlight.

1. Lamar is really fast - or SHSU is slow
2. SHSU has no idea how to tackle or use pursuit angles
3. I'm not sure SHSU knows how to cover a WR
4. SHSU has some fat DTs. Not big...fat. They also don't hold rush lanes very well
5. SHSU defenders give up on plays really, really, quickly if they don't make the initial hit/there's no group tackling/mob mentality
6. SHSU, like every year, has the worst uniforms in the FCS

clenz wrote:2. SHSU has no idea how to tackle or use pursuit angles

This was the first thing I noticed when watching it last night. That rollout screen was particularly atrocious.

Mvemjsunpx wrote:

clenz wrote:2. SHSU has no idea how to tackle or use pursuit angles

This was the first thing I noticed when watching it last night. That rollout screen was particularly atrocious.

Give me a defense like UNI or NDSU that might not be fast but would rather have 9 guys attacking the ball carrier, wrapping and driving through the ground over the fast/athletic guys like SHSU is loaded with that only look for the big hit and can't read angles.

It was astonishing how often a SHSU defender would simply stop running the second a ball carrier got more than arms length away from them.

It was like watching a Big Sky defense

clenz wrote:

Mvemjsunpx wrote:
This was the first thing I noticed when watching it last night. That rollout screen was particularly atrocious.

Give me a defense like UNI or NDSU that might not be fast but would rather have 9 guys attacking the ball carrier, wrapping and driving through the ground over the fast/athletic guys like SHSU is loaded with that only look for the big hit and can't read angles.

It was astonishing how often a SHSU defender would simply stop running the second a ball carrier got more than arms length away from them.

It was like watching a Big Sky defense other than Montana's

FIFY

That Harrington kid is the real deal.

clenz wrote:Things I gathered from that highlight.

1. Lamar is really fast - or SHSU is slow
2. SHSU has no idea how to tackle or use pursuit angles
3. I'm not sure SHSU knows how to cover a WR
4. SHSU has some fat DTs. Not big...fat. They also don't hold rush lanes very well
5. SHSU defenders give up on plays really, really, quickly if they don't make the initial hit/there's no group tackling/mob mentality
6. SHSU, like every year, has the worst uniforms in the FCS

I actually kind of like SHSU's uniforms now. They look a lot better than they have historically.

But I gotta tell ya, I almost posted something about how fast Lamar looked on offense. I think SHSU is a fast FCS team. Like last year I remember watching the SHSU/Villanova playoff game and the announcers were talking about how they asked Villanova's head coach if they'd seen the kind of speed SHSU has in the CAA and he said "no." But Lamar actually looked like it had too much speed on offense for SHSU's defense.

I liked seeing SHSU get beat but I'm REALLY worried about Lamar now.

JohnStOnge wrote:

clenz wrote:Things I gathered from that highlight.

1. Lamar is really fast - or SHSU is slow
2. SHSU has no idea how to tackle or use pursuit angles
3. I'm not sure SHSU knows how to cover a WR
4. SHSU has some fat DTs. Not big...fat. They also don't hold rush lanes very well
5. SHSU defenders give up on plays really, really, quickly if they don't make the initial hit/there's no group tackling/mob mentality
6. SHSU, like every year, has the worst uniforms in the FCS

I actually kind of like SHSU's uniforms now. They look a lot better than they have historically.

But I gotta tell ya, I almost posted something about how fast Lamar looked on offense. I think SHSU is a fast FCS team. Like last year I remember watching the SHSU/Villanova playoff game and the announcers were talking about how they asked Villanova's head coach if they'd seen the kind of speed SHSU has in the CAA and he said "no." But Lamar actually looked like it had too much speed on offense for SHSU's defense.

I liked seeing SHSU get beat but I'm REALLY worried about Lamar now.

2nd half was a different story. If they played again, SHSU would win.

I looked up that Harrington guy and he was first team All State Texas 5A running back in 2012. I realize that being All State doesn't necessarily mean you are the best back or among the two best backs in the State, etc. But we're talking about Texas. You have to be pretty damned good to end up being 5A All State running back in Texas. And he rushed for 1,944 while playing in only 9 games. That's a 216 yards per game average playing Texas 5A football in the Houston area. I am wondering why he wasn't more highly recruited. He is a bit small at 5'9" 190 lbs. and I can tell by looking at his high school highlights that he was significantly lighter/thinner as a senior in high school than he is now. But still.

I'm telling you you don't see FCS teams sign first team Texas 5A All State running backs right out of high school very often.