Red Raider Ravioli: Goodbye to the Sun

Out the sky it came
Darkened my sun, crippling my light
Eclipsed my day, created my night
Black holes swallow everything in sight
My heart included.

(Crystal Sherriff)

Buongiorno a tutti! (it’s always “hi everyone” in Italian)

Second column and second consecutive loss. Is there something wrong? If we want to take this loss with a smile -and that’s a thing that we all should do-, in 2016 Iowa State won with a 56-point margin, yesterday the Red Raiders were only outscored by 18. I’m joking, I’m only joking.

After this game, there’s a point that needs to be remarked: the Red Raiders lost against a very good Iowa State team. Ok, Texas Tech struggled in execution and coach Kingsbury couldn’t handle the Cyclones’ 8-man cover defense (we’ll come to this), but the Cardinal and Gold are for real.

Recent and less recent history of college football is plenty of teams that resuscitated in a season. The first example that comes to my mind is the Colorado Buffaloes, the Pac-12 laughing stock, as they didn’t have a winning season since 2005 and exploded to 10 wins and played the conference Championship game in 2016.

Sometimes, it just happens. You just need a strong core of seniors, a hungry coach and a good help by the fate. Today it’s me, tomorrow it’s you.

And now, let’s talk about Texas Tech. It’s sure that Kingsbury was by far outcoached by Matt Campbell. What really bothered me was his incapacity to find a “B” plan when screens and runs didn't work, no deep balls until the game was almost gone. Here, we’d say he was “stubborn like a mule”.

Does he deserve to be fired after this season? That’s the million-dollar-question, as he wasn’t a genius after five games and he isn’t a complete idiot after seven. He showed he’s a complete coach in 2017, and coach Gibbs is doing a good work with the defense, but I’m not sure he has the ability to take the team away from this mediocrity.

As usual, I’ll be happy to hear your thoughts and have a discussion, with respect and education.

Ciao!

TODAY, ON VIVA THE MATADORS

Offense grades: Iowa State

AP Top 25: Take a breath

Instant Reaction: Texas Tech vs. Iowa State