3 Worst Things We Saw In The G5 In Week 11

College football has now reached the twelfth week of the 2023 season. The results of the season for some programs are now very clear. 

Boise State did fire their coach after this weekend after winning a game, but that's not the subject of the worst things we saw this week. In some ways, that move might be a relief for some fans. However, the things below are just frustrating from several different perspectives. 

Feel free to disagree, as this is an opinion.

This Ref in the Georgia Southern-Marshall Game

A pet peeve of mine, when it comes to football, is refs who don't have the physical and spatial awareness to realize they're in the way. We saw an example of that in Marshall's win over Georgia Southern. 

I'm not going to say this play is the reason that Georgia Southern lost. That would be a gross oversimplification. However, I think you can make the argument that every small mishap feels more important, in hindsight, when you lose a one-possession game. Marshall beat Georgia Southern on Saturday 38-33.

Errant Flag in Memphis-Charlotte

This next one is a bit less serious. It's just unfortunate, but I guess has a happy ending. 

Memphis wide receiver Joseph Scates took a penalty flag, thrown by the officials to signal pass interference on Charlotte in the first quarter, directly to the crotch. 

To clarify, Scates was not seriously hurt. Memphis also won the game, for what that's worth. 

It was clearly an accident, but again, unfortunate.

Sonny Cumbie Kicks Out A Journalist

Ben Carlisle is the publisher of BleedTechBlue, which covers Louisiana Tech sports on the Rivals network. I don't agree with every opinion he's shared about the Bulldogs, but he's objectively good at his job. 

If you read the embedded X/Twitter post above, you'll get the gist of an incident that took place where Louisiana Tech head football coach told Carlisle to leave practice, and openly criticized Carlisle because he wasn't "supportive" enough. 

LA Tech lost this weekend to a Sam Houston team that, with the victory, earns a 2-8 record and their first FBS win of the season. The Bulldogs are 3-8 and will miss the postseason for a third straight year. They have one game yet to be played this season against 7-3 Jacksonville State. Last year in Cumbie's first season at the helm, the Bulldogs went 3-9. 

My opinion on this is pretty simple and one that, based on LA Tech message boards and other social media platforms, I think most will agree with. However, it's just that: an opinion. 

I don't personally think you can look this season by Louisiana Tech and say they haven't made _some improvements from last season, or at the very least, that they haven't been in position to have a better record than they currently do. However, I get why fans of this program are frustrated with another losing season. 

All this being said, to lose your temper and go out of your way to humiliate a member of the media in a public setting like this is childish. It's an odd lesson in leadership for Cumbie's team, that watched this transpire, that you can pull the coach equivalent of creating a bad Yelp review and your fortunes will automatically change.

The media is just that: the media. They're not cheerleaders or members of your staff. I understand that this is Cumbie's first FBS head coaching job, but he should know better already. Hopefully he learns from it.

Frankly, Matt Bellinson, who covers the Bulldogs for the Ruston Leader had a better assessment of the situation than I think I can personally give. A recent video of his is below. This becomes the topic at the four-minute mark.