Spartans Survive Florida Atlantic - Biggest Takeaways From First Game

The WORST of It so first game under Jonathan Smith is in the books Let's talk about it what went right what went wrong listen I know Spartan Nation had a collective panic attack when the first play of the game from our new leading quarterback Aiden Charles was an interception all right but look at it this way let's give him credit for his bounceback any other quarterback with that little experience at his age would have completely Fallen apart wouldn't have stayed competitive so let's give him credit for that that's something that Jonathan Smith mentioned as well in the press conference postgame last night he really appreciated Aiden's ability to stay competitive have a short memory and keep pushing in the game in high pressure situations that's something that will be very valuable don't worry there's an entire segment in this episode about Aiden's performance a little bit later but I want to talk about the worst of it outside of that what I would call an unlucky pass in the beginning because a lot of that was good defensive coverage let's just call it for what it is fa's Defenders they handled their business in our previews and predictions we did make that known Florida Atlantic although not a Powerhouse they are not a pushover and that's exactly what we saw last night guys like Jackson Ambush kazir Brown Philip Dunham they made it difficult for us to move down the field something else that was a problem last night tonight we lost the battle on first down we only recorded 15 and if we keep an average like that we won't get a lot of production throughout the season so that's definitely something that needs to be worked on I have faith that it will overall though the type of performance that we saw last night it's not going to carry weight against a team like Maryland we'll talk a little bit more about that in a second something else I was concerned with montor Foster couldn't find a rhythm neither did Nate cter and Nick Marsh was only targeted once so how much of that came from the rotations just trying to fill out see which players performed the best or was that them trying to prioritize the ball to different receivers because aiah Jackson got him a nice little reception 11 yard reception as well that looked like a pretty good connection and a little bit later when we talk about really the good side the connections to the tight end they were Flawless all game so that's something we got to lean more into now penalties man 12 for 140 now a lot of that came from the fact that cam faner just likes to slide uh at the wrong time he was putting himself in the way he was doing that intentionally like that needs to change not only you know from protecting himself but for Florida Atlantic going forward you guys need to check into that he can't play like that that's not safe for him at the same time it cost us those penalties that we got last night a lot of them were not self-inflicted however we still don't want to start the season on that foot all right we were over a 100 yards in penalties in the first game last season we averaged about the same amount per game so not a good place to start from that perspective and then there was a fourth down situation where we were up by nine and it was like fourth and three we were in field goal position yet Jonathan Smith chose to go for it now in the pr game he says that's not a typical thing it was a in-game situation reaction he trusted his guys that tends to happen so I don't fault them for that we shouldn't have to worry about them getting too crazy on fourth down overall the performance in this game could have been a lot better however I'm glad from I'm glad to see what I saw out of the guys in their very first at at bat here their very first at bat so you can only you can take so much from this game like the Red Zone efficiency there were a couple turnovers in the Red Zone the picks that Aiden threw that was on him they occurred in the Red Zone we can't have that happening against teams even like Maryland we're not even discussing the big four all right we already know who the big four are going to be we're not going to discuss that if we're playing teams at this tier this type of performance that we saw last night that's not going to cut it all right now with all of that there was some promise last night there was a lot The BEST Of it of good things that I did see like I mentioned earlier the tight end connection all of the passes that he made to his tight ends they were completions as a matter of fact Mike munis had two for uh 29 yards Al together last evening so when we play Maryland I'm hoping that we lean more into that tight end connection because it seems to be pretty good our receivers at times we we we'll place the blame 50/50 here at times Aiden was off time was inaccurate with his throw other times though like that deep ball in the first quarter to monor Foster that should have been a catch I'm sorry that should have been a catch every angle that I saw he had the ability if he would have just you know got hands on the ball in my opinion so they need to work that timing out and once they do I believe child's accuracy will maintain because he was pretty accurate and again we'll say I'll save that for the child segment now we put up 293 total yards which is decent we held FAU to 248 which is okay but again we need to see better performance against teams that are technically not even in our league that's the biggest takeaway from this game I was impressed I am satisfied with what I saw but it has to improve before we go to Maryland all right now to that point defense did show up big in this one just Defense Showed UP to run some numbers by you the guy that recorded that sack that was one of our uh not the sack but the safety that was one of our transfers out of Georgia Tech to Quan Deuce so with that type of performance I'm expecting him to continue the same type of production 68 tackles three and a half sacks that he had at Georgia Tech and again let's shout out nikai Martinez this is guy I told you transfer from UCF leader in interception return yards last year as a matter of fact as it stands uh at time of recording he is currently six amongst defensive players of the week in interception return yards so again same story for do say I expect ncai's performance and production to continue and then we also have to shout out Angelo gry which right now as of recording he's the leading tackler in all of college football nine total tackles all right well nine solo tackles 12 in total from Mr gross so defensive side of the ball we definitely showed up and showed out there's nothing to be disappointed about and we can't forget about Mr Jordan Turner he was one of many players who recorded a sack tackle for loss he was back there at least he he recorded five solo tackles on his own we had seven sacks in that game that put us second this week so far we got a large slew of games this Saturday so these statistics these weekly statistics may or may not hold but it's still good to see that our performance put us in these top categories Across the Nation now outside of that ladies and Gentlemen Aidan Will Be Exciting To Watch let's talk about Mr Aiden Charles because like I said being able to bounce back after throwing an interception on your very first pass as a leader in a new program knowing how much anticipation was on you how much excitement was on you he completely forgot it all and that's impressive ladies and gentlemen on top of that he's a gunslinger have did you see the arcs on these balls that he was throwing they looked beautiful in my opinion I I know it's too early to make comparisons but I was feeling Michael pennick I really was I was seeing a little bit of Michael penx and Aiden Charles I know previously I made comparisons to DJ but I saw a little bit of Michael penx just in the sense of how comfortable in the pocket that he was and with his ability to when the pocket collapse get outside and find the number one guy or go to the checkdown find the running back or even the tight end he was able to do that and he was also able to control the floow of traffic while in motion the kid is very comfortable where he is and that's going to serve in his favor down the road throughout this season again not going to bring up how he'll perform against the big four but I like the fact that he's comfortable I like the fact that he will not hesitate to stretch the field like I said this guy's a gunslinger and that deep ball to monor Foster had he caught that this score would have been completely different would have been a completely different game and yeah we all would have caught the over Aiden not going to talk about that guys I think this game should be taken with a grain of salt like I said we won we got the W congratulations but the performance especially on paper should have been a lot better against a team who isn't in our league simply put guys so I like the game I like what we have right now again my expectations are not Skyhigh they never were do I still feel we can hit eight and four it'll all depend on how we perform against Maryland I'll tell you that so if you're not busy later today don't forget about the fundraising event for amoreon Smith and his family it's going to take place at the address that I have right here on the screen I'll make my way there around 300 p.m. so if you guys want to come through kick it uh show love and support to the family don't hesitate with that thanks for tuning in my name is Wade as always go green go white and I'll see you in the next one said they were SP saider at the 20 he's at the 15 at the 10 he's into the nzo touchdown MSU