Post Game Reactions
Nathan: Bowl games go in. Bowl wins come out. You can’t explain that.
Evan: The streak continues! Man, this game was weird and fun. The first half was ho hum. Tech was moving the ball well, but those three turnovers really killed the momentum. The second half at times felt like the Frisco Bowl from last year. It just seemed that Tech could do no wrong. But I also had the sense of foreboding that can only come from watching your team blow a 34-7 lead in 1.23 quarters of action. Thankfully, the Dogs didn’t collapse this time. What can you say about our defense? What a fantastic show they put on. Between Ferguson’s half/not half sack, the “face mask” that negated another whole sack, Willie Baker’s FOUR sacks, and Mele AMIKimaka with the two picks to seal it in the second half, the defense’s performance was outstanding. They held Hawaii–who normally puts up 32 points and well over 400 yards of total offense–to 14 points and 226 yards. Pure insanity.
Daniel A: Bowl Game Skip Holtz is the greatest tactician to ever live.
Josh: So, uh, much like last year’s bowl game, this one both surprised and confused the hell out of me. The first half was another frustrating performance by the offense and I was certain that our inability to score points and get TDs instead of FGs in the red zone was going to kill us. Thankfully, the defense came to play all game and gave the offense time to get into some sort of rhythm and start putting up points. Ferguson and Baker were absolute terrors in Hawaii’s backfield and Amik did let a single pass get completed to his receiver while adding two INTs. J’Mar didn’t have a monster game, but he was able to get it done and lead the offense down the field when he needed to and gave us some much needed offensive momentum with is legs at key moments. Once again, Skip proves that he can beat damn near anybody given enough prep time. I also may have gotten very drunk during the course of the game since it was after midnight, so I was a nervous mess at times, but FIVE IN A ROW BABY. CAN’T BEAT THOSE DOGS IN LATE DECEMBER.
Did Tech Die?
Nathan: No, but Tech apparently ruined Hawaii’s Christmas spirit.
Evan: I may have died a little bit from staying up too late, but Tech gave me life.
Daniel A: Tech did not but Hawaii’s offensive tackles sure did.
Josh: No, Tech did not, but you may want to check on both of Hawaii’s Quarterbacks.
Player of the Game
Nathan: Willie Baker. It’s hard to upstage Ferguson’s record breaking night, but Baker’s five tackles-for-loss (four of which were sacks) were hard to look past. And it’s nice to know that even though this was #SackDaddy’s final game, we still have a #SackSon in Ruston.
Evan: Ferguson. No wait, Amik–Nah, it’s Ferg. Who are we kidding here. What a send off for the big guy. Please don’t hurt [insert NFL QB of your team] next year in the NFL.
Josh: Ferguson? Baker? Amik? The whole defense? Yes, the whole damn defense. But it’s still gotta be Ferguson for breaking the NCAA sack record and throwing the Hawaii QBs around like a bunch of toys.
Contest Recap
Here it is folks, what we’ve all been waiting for–the final installment of the weekly contest updates!
There were a lot of story lines going into this final edition of the 2018 gtpdd Contest. Would Daniel Adams make a comeback and win his third straight gtpdd Contest crown? Could JC jump up and snatch the crown from SteveyTI? Would a surprise contestant take advantage of the final contest’s 35 possible points and move up the leaderboard at the last second?
The answer to all of those questions (except 1) is no. You’ll have to keep reading to find out which one! Here’s a reminder of what the top 10 looked like before this week:
Before I jump into the questions and answers, I’d like to welcome the 7 newcomers we had this week. We had 31 players this week, our most since the first half of the season. Remember that each week’s winner gets a prize (something that I’m 100% carrying over into next year!), so newcomers have a chance to win every week!
Okay, now on to the questions:
Questions 1&2: Who will win, and by how much?
Answer: Tech! By 17! Only 4 people didn’t pick Tech to win here. One of them was #1 SteveyTI, though. Hopefully these two points (with a potential for up to 7) don’t haunt him! Oh, and one person got the point spread exactly right: #44 JacobH!
Question 3: Predict the total number of passing yards in the game.
Answer: 453. Tech’s defense really dominated this game, holding Hawaii’s potent passing attack to 168 yards. J’Mar and the gang put up 285. The total was significantly lower than most projected it to be. Our closest answer was 435, from #14 Jonathan Ruppel.
Question 4: Who will receive the opening kickoff of the second half?
Answer: Unlike the last time Tech and Hawaii met on the field, each team received an opening kickoff this year. In the second half, it was Tech. 61% got this right.
Question 5: How many penalties will occur in the game?
Answer: Hoo boy. The correct answer here should’ve been “A LOT OF F%^&$* PENALTIES.” But since I only accept answers in the form of numbers, the correct answer was a whopping 21 penalties. The closest guess was 19, worth 4 points for #13 Phillip J. Robertson.
Question 6: True or False: Jaylon Ferguson will have at least one sack.
Answer:
Question 7: True or False: A player born outside of the states of Louisiana or Hawaii will score first in the game.
Answer: True. Bailey Hale, Tech’s kicker put up the first points in the game. He’s from the confusingly named, but definitely not in LA or HI, Iowa Park, Texas. 65% got this right.
Question 8: Predict the time of possession for Louisiana Tech in the game.
Answer: 30 minutes and 37 seconds. Only one player scored 5 points here by being within 10 seconds of the actual time: newcomer Kymari Young.
Question 9: True or False: J’Mar’s rushing yards per carry will be higher than his current season average (1.7 ypc).
Answer: True. With the long 25 yard run J’Mar had in the 3rd quarter, he broke through and averaged 3 yards per carry in the game. 68% got this one right and added 1 point to their total.
Question 10: What will happen on the third play from scrimmage of the fourth quarter?
Answer: Tech RB Israel Tucker ran for 5 yards. Only 35% got this one right by selecting “A running play.” #2 JC was the only player in the top 3 to get it right.
Bonus: Ruston and Honolulu are 4038 miles apart. Let’s imagine that Tech and Hawaii’s players on stranded at sea at the geographic midpoint between the two home cities. That midpoint is in the Pacific Ocean. To make the boat travel, players must score points. The boat travels at a rate of (players’ jersey number)x(points scored)=miles traveled toward Honolulu for Hawaii players and Ruston for Tech players. At the end of the game, will the boat be closer to Honolulu or Ruston?
Answer: Tech scored a lot more points, so you’d think they would move the boat further. But let’s look at the jersey numbers and points scored by Tech players:
- Hale (#34) scored 7
- Dancy (#23), Tucker (#22), McKnight (#15), and J’Mar (#8) each scored 6
- Tech moved the boat 646 miles towards Ruston
And now, Hawaii players:
- Meskell (#46) with 2 points
- #89 and #85 each scored 6
- Hawaii moved the boat a total of 1136 miles towards Honolulu.
I think it’s safe to assume that Tech’s players just secretly wanted more time in Hawaii after the game. 48% of all players got this right.
The aftermath
Going into the contest, SteveyTI had 135, JC had 133, Daniel Adams had 131, and Dom Brown had 126 points. Here’s how the top 4 answered the contest:
Through Question 6 (I messed up the numbering, don’t worry about it), Daniel had made up his difference with JC. Both were at 137, trailing SteveyTI by 1 point. There are two glaring errors that top players don’t usually make: SteveyTI picked against Tech, and JC didn’t answer question 4!
Here’s the final 6 questions:
Here we can see that SteveyTI and Daniel were both farther from the right answer on the number of penalties. JC moved into a tie for first with SteveyTI, but then quickly fell back to second after Bailey Hale became the first scorer in the game. What really hurt SteveyTI here was totally whiffing on the time of possession for Tech in the game. By scoring 3 points on the ToP, Daniel Adams moved into first for the first time all season. The final three questions did nothing to change the final outcome of the contest. The players traded correct answers on the two pointers and everyone got the one pointer correct. Daniel stole the lead on the fourth-to-last question of the year and didn’t relinquish it. So–
CONGRATS TO DANIEL ADAMS, 2018 GTPDD CONTEST CHAMPION!
(we’ll get you next year…. maybe?)
(from Daniel: hi haters!)
One more bit of housekeeping. This week actually had a four-way tie for first place. New #1 Daniel Adams, #4 Dom Brown, #19 Taylor Y, and newcomer JacobH each scored 16 points, throwing us to a tiebreaker. This week’s tiebreaker was, “Please predict the sum of all jersey numbers of players to record a tackle for loss in the game.” Tech and Hawaii had a combined 13 players record a TFL, with jersey numbers totalling 582. #4 Dom Brown came closest with 310, so he’s our Week 13 winner! I’ll mail his sticker out (as well as the stickers for the last few weeks of the regular season and Contest Playoffs) ASAP.
Be on the lookout for a survey that tells me what you liked and didn’t like about the contest this year, as well as gives me ideas for next year. As of now I don’t think I like the Contest Playoffs. Do you think otherwise? Got any other ideas? Hit me up! @gotechplsdntdie or @EvanRSpencer on Twitter. The survey will be out at some point.
Here’s the final leaderboard for the 2018 gtpdd Contest!
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