The first two games of the Kirby Moore era felt like studying for a midterm and walking in to find the exam was in a language you'd never seen. The effort was there, but the execution was scrambled. That's why Saturday's win against Duquesne matters more than the final score suggests. It wasn't just a "get the monkey off the back" moment. It was the first time this team looked like the group Moore has been describing since spring ball. The offense stopped shooting itself in the foot. The defense got stops when it mattered. Special teams didn't give away hidden yardage. For the first time all season, the Cougars played a complete game, and for a young team trying to figure out its identity, that's the real prize.
Here's the thing about floundering starts: they either break a team's spirit or they sharpen its focus. We saw the latter. Moore didn't panic, the players didn't splinter, and the result was a performance that felt more like a foundation than a finish. It's the same energy as figuring out your schedule for the semester. The first week is chaos, you're lost on campus, you forget a book, you're tired by 3 p.m. But by week three, you know the shortcut to the library, you've found your coffee spot, and you're locked in. This team just found its coffee spot. And that's a very practical thing, because it means the basics are starting to become automatic, which frees them up to actually make plays instead of just trying to survive.
For us watching, there's a lesson in the timing. It's easy to get loud about a win after two losses, but the more useful move is to look at what changed. They simplified. They ran the ball with intention. They trusted the process over the highlight. That's a recipe that travels. It's also a reminder that you don't have to be perfect to be solid, you just have to be more consistent than the other guy. Plenty of Cougs know that feeling from group projects. You can't control who else is in the group, but you can control showing up prepared. This team did that. If you're planning your weekend around the next game, or figuring out where to watch with friends, keep an eye on whether they build on this or slip back into old habits. That's the real test, and it's one they finally look ready to pass. The takeaway to quote: "A complete game doesn't mean a perfect one, it means a reliable one, and reliability is what this team needed most." Keep an eye on how they handle the next practice week, because that's where the real progress gets made.
