When I was a student at Arkansas State, I accidentally found myself engaged in debate about San Francisco 49ers head coach Bill Walsh, who was commonly referred to as “The Genius.” I was of the opinion that Coach Walsh was not a real genius, because I am both a contrarian and a malcontent, two traits that have not served me well.

“How many Super Bowls have you won?” posed my debate adversary, smirk cemented upon his visage.

“Uh…none.”

“Nuff said,” he concluded, his atomic bomb successfully detonated.¹

I think about that exchange often. First of all, you can’t defeat a man who deploys this kind of absolutist argument. In his mind, the case is closed. I haven’t won a Super Bowl, therefore I am not a genius; Bill Walsh has won a Super Bowl, so Bill Walsh is a genius. The logic is as solid as concrete.

But secondly, who am I to question the acumen of Bill Walsh? I’ll be completely transparent with you: I know nothing about football, except I can identify a football from a lineup of balls with reasonable accuracy. So when I question decisions made by the Red Wolves football staff after an embarrassing 28-21 loss to Kennesaw State, understand that I am no genius.

That said, I have concerns. When Arkansas scored four touchdowns on four consecutive possessions against A-State in Week 2, it was dismaying, but we could chalk it up to “SEC speed and size.” When Kennesaw State scores three touchdowns on three consecutive possessions, it’s unacceptable to chalk it up to “CUSA speed and size.” It reminds you that SEMO also scored a touchdown on their first possession. It conjures an uneasy feeling that Arkansas State enters every game completely unprepared for its opponent.

Consider Kennesaw State’s first possession: After three positive plays, the Owls uncork a 54 yard bomb to a wide receiver that simply ran by the Red Wolves cornerback to find himself utterly alone in an ocean of space. How on Earth does a team playing its fourth game of the season allow an opponent’s #1 wide receiver to go completely uncovered? Furthermore, how does a defensive staff allow this to happen and then make no adjustments as the the opponent rumbles in for two more nearly uncontested touchdowns – against a program that was FCS just two years ago?

It’s easy to focus on the deficiencies of the defense, but the offense wasn’t any better. Arkansas State’s first possession was frustratingly typical: run up the middle, negative yardage pass play, incomplete pass to Rucker. The result was a three-and-out and Red Wolves fans coming to the obvious conclusion that Kennesaw State had actually viewed Arkansas State game film.

After Kennesaw State took a 21 to zero lead in the first quarter, one might be tempted to point out that the Red Wolves defense held the Owls to just one score moving forward. However, it was catastrophic mistakes from the Owls offense that bailed the Red Wolves out, with Kennesaw State fumbling three times in Red Wolves territory, including once on the Arkansas State 3 yard line and once on the Arkansas State 25 yard line. On both of those occasions, Kennesaw State was well on its way to more scores. The Owls offense was the most valuable player for the Red Wolves defense.

The most frustrating sequence occurred late in the fourth quarter, when the Red Wolves offense took possession two times to tie the score. The result: a three and out that generated 8 yards, and a six play deck that moved the Red Wolves seven yards. After acquiring nearly 60 minutes of real-time information about the Owls’ defense, the Red Wolves managed to move the ball 15 yards total in the crunchiest of crunch times.

I don’t know football, but I do know that for five years, Coach Butch Jones has worked to increase size and physicality in the trenches, yet it was the Kennesaw Owls that controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, with the Red Wolves being out-rushed 101 yards to 92 yards by the Kennesaw State quarterback. We have regressed back to the days of providing career-high stats to opposing quarterbacks: sophomore Amari Odom looked like Jalen Hurts against a Red Wolves defense who seemed to have never seen a quarterback who could run before.

I’m not a genius, but even a simpleton can see that the Red Wolves are woefully confused in the first quarter, as if the game plan is to see what the opposing team does and then adjust to it. Whoh! Kennesaw State plays quick tempo? I guess we should have been ready for that.

I know, I know. I’ve never coached a game of football in my life. And as Coach Jones is quick to remind us, the team is breaking in 71 new players. But everybody is the G6 is breaking in new players. Why is Kennesaw State ahead of Arkansas State? Why haven’t we fielded a capable defense in nearly a decade? Why is our offense so comically bland? How does a team that played so well against Iowa State come out so flat against Kennesaw State? Why does every touchdown drive look so hard for us and so easy for our opponents?

I’m no Bill Walsh, but it looks to me like the Red Wolves are in a ton of trouble.

IMAGE: AI monstrosity

¹He didn’t actually say “Nuff said.” Nobody really said that back then except Stan Lee. I can’t remember his actual retort. It was a long time ago.