Jackrabbit Illustrated

Wow! My voice is scratchy, I’m tired, and I feel a cold coming on but I couldn’t be any happier right now! What a performance by the Jackrabbits in their 59-0 defeat of the Great Danes. We have seen some truly great play by this group over the past few years but this may have been the best. It was a big and loud crowd that was engaged for the entire game, even when it got out of hand. What a night!

Rants & Raves

Rave: We have to start with the #605Hogs and their dominant performance against a very talented UAlbany defensive line. As has been shared repeatedly last week, UAlbany came in leading the nation in sacks and in rushing yards yards allowed. The Jacks held them to ZERO sacks (and it felt like zero hurries) and they rolled up 220 rushing yards.

Rave: The “No Name Defense” that the Jacks keep trotting out just keeps stifling good offenses. The disrespect from some of these All-American lists is really something and Phil Steele’s list that came out yesterday was maybe the worst one yet. They had ZERO Jackrabbits on any of their 4 All-American teams. Get out of her with that!

Rant: Blocked field goal (as Jimmy pointed out in his post game presser). I really wanted to see Dustman nail a 50+ yarder with a national audience. He deserves that.

Rave: The crowd. We always say that playoff crowds are the best crowds and yesterday may have been the best. The energy in the stadium at kickoff was truly something. Tanner Castora tweeted out that he was upping his score prediction based on it and he was right. Truly electric!

Rave: Tucker Large is just phenomenal with the ball in his hands. It is just hard to believe he was a walk-on. The guy just makes plays and he ended the day with a big INT and a 79 yard return.

Rant: The officiating crew was having some communication errors with one another. It took a long time to make some basic calls.

Rave: Quinton Hicks has had a phenomenal run the last half of the season and in the playoffs. He seems to have found the fountain of youth and ended with a sack and a half last night.

Rave: Jadon Janke have a day! 6 receptions for 151 yards and 1 TD

Rave: GFW made up for an early drop and showed off his speed on his 71 yard TD catch. The kid is going to be special next season and him and Grahm Goering are going to be a pretty solid 1-2 punch.

Rave: It was a good day for the “Get the ball to Zach Heins” crowd. The big man hauled in 4 for passes for 50 yards and it was punctuated by an awesome TD catch as captured in the photo/tweet below.

Rave: Credit to my podcasting partners Chad, Brendan, and Ben for creating such a fun and welcoming tailgate experience for Jackrabbit nation. Our friend Jace fried up some really delicious chislic and appetizers and Brendan smoked a mouth watering pork loin. It was truly terrific to meet so many of you that stopped by before the game. Having Sam Herder and Mike from College Football Campus Tour stop by and hang out was again really cool.

Rant: There were a lot of Jackrabbits that were dinged up in the game. It didn’t look like any were super severe but there were a number of guys limping or with casts on their hands. Hopefully the next three-ish weeks allow them to heal up.

Rave: DyShawn Gales and Dalys Beanum continue to lock down All-American level receivers. They do not get nearly the recognition they deserve for how good they are. DyShawn’s Willie May’s style interception was one of the best INTs I have seen in person.

Rave: Mark was Mark. What more is there to say? He’s a leader and he simply makes plays with the ball in his hands. 265 passing yards and 3 TD along with 50 more rushing yards. Just phenomenal.

Rave: Same with Playoff Zay. 107 rushing yards (7.1 ypc average) and 2 TDs. Ridiculous!

Announcement: The JI team has some big things happening in Frisco that we are already working on. Announcement will be made Sunday night on the live show. Tune in!

Game Balls

Offense: #605Hogs

Defense: Jason Freeman, the man was everywhere!

Special Teams: Tucker Large

Go Jacks!

Matt