There will be no cohesion here. This will be messy and hard to read. It’s after 1 a.m., I’m still cold and I just saw my team lose at home to our mortal enemy for only the third time in the last 25 years.

Here goes nothing. And I’m not spell or syntax checking this. It’s my blog that I bought and am getting $0 for. Deal with it.

Dowell Loggains needs to hire a true Offensive Coordinator. There’s no more doubt that calling the plays from the sideline is a cause of the inconsistent play. But will the man who called his employer’s own radio crew “outsiders” humble himself? Will the man who said these players don’t know how to win realize this setup makes him a losing coach? Will the man who treats minor injuries like state secrets and point-blank refuses to talk about them in press conferences to the people who could write good words about you realize that hiring grad assistants to be position coaches to supplement 93 combined years of NFL experience realize that the football of those 93 years is not the football of 2025 and beyond? And those 2024 grad assistants aren’t lighting the world on fire either.

The defense did admirable to an extent, minus that opening drive where they were lost. It bugs me to see flats and certain routes wide open, but the defense buckles down in the red zone somehow and did what they could. It’s like 15% their fault. And 13% of that is certain secondary players going for hits rather than tackling on certain plays.

The man hired to usher App State boastfully into this Ever-Changing Landscape Of College Football is flailing nine games in. Three losses in a row, all to East Division foes, puts the team in a situation where the season could realistically end before December, once again.

Before Old Dominion, J.J. Kohl was the rightful App State QB1. He wasn’t as explosive as A.J. Swann, who had a knee injury in late September, but he took care of the ball. Swann’s turnovers had been costly against Southern Miss and Boise State.

In the second half of Coastal, Kohl started to look worse. This was partially due to being down two starting OLs and a sure-touchdown drop that wasn’t his fault, but most of that second half, he couldn’t move the ball downfield when it mattered.

Against Old Dominion, Kohl’s floor bottomed out. Two first-half interceptions killed the offense. Then in the third quarter, the offense couldn’t move at all.

Then, starting out versus Georgia Southern, Swann looked anemic. Heck, the whole offense looked awful. Kicking a field goal for the only points of the first half going into halftime, at home, versus The Enemy, is mind-boggling. But right when Swann’s usefulness looked to be at an end, there were glimpses of what could be.

Usually, it’s been a hot start followed by a fizzle. The last two games, it’s been a terrible offense, regardless of the QB, with a late charge in the end falling short. Regardless, the team now hasn’t led in a game since Coastal. That weighs on a team.

Dowell was hired specifically to win two games, both at home this season, and lost both. He’s keeping mediocre coaches employed at App State’s rivals because he treats Lindenwood and Georgia Southern the same. The “1-0 this week” mentality in college football is a cancer. It’s a mentality that every win means the same when college football was never about that. Some wins are more equal than others. College football is a momentum game that preys on human emotion. Not everything is looking at your play sheet. And now you’ve lost two home games that mean more than others.

Those two losses will hurt App State Football in ways we don’t fully grasp. The enemy of love isn’t hate, it’s apathy. When people stop caring because the product seems to stop caring about them, they will stop paying $40 to $50 to park, stop buying $35 t-shirts, stop buying expensive grill sets, $150-plus tents, buying a freaking Pepsi for $4 in a cramped stadium and decide they can watch or listen at home. App State fans are some of the financially exploited in the Group of Five leagues in terms of ticket prices, parking prices and everything prices and it only works when there’s winning. Then people will only be slightly annoyed by seeing three Pepsi logos in the halftime drone show.

When you’re numb after seeing your team lose at home, seeing 30 players run to the locker room ASAP instead of shaking hands like adults, waiting for the line to thin out, listen to the band play the Tennessee Waltz and sing the alma mater, deal with security telling you to leave the stands, deal with even more security barking instructions on a bull horn, deal with police telling you where to go, stop here and walk on that sidewalk, you get even number. You wonder why you show up and endure.

Can this team win two of its last three and salvage a bowl out of this? They can. Will they? Who knows. JMU will be very tough, but it was tough the last two years and the team rallied for wins. Marshall and Arkansas State will be dependent on how they do the next two weeks. Both are at home, and by gosh, losing a third home game would be the absolute worst. Hope Dowell realizes these 1-0’s means more.

BTW, the students were great. They showed up for a team that isn’t that good and some stayed to the bitter end. Miller Hill was full in the first quarter, which is incredible on a Thursday night for a 4-4 team. It should never be taken for granted how strong this student support remains, at least for now.