Hello, hello, hello!

Our first post as proud members of the Fans First family. A great time to reintroduce ourselves as well. The team will be posting these key player articles while also reintroducing what they do and who they are.

I will go first; my name is Michael Macon, and I am your friendly Managing Editor of the Cotton Club Crew. You can just call me Macon, pretty much everyone does. I watch any and all Tech sports I can find, and I started with the Viva the Matadors team (RIP to the brand) back in 2018. I handle a lot of our main live tweeting duties, much to the dismay of some, and I specialize in football related content but you will see me doing a little of everything. Not much else to say about me personally, same role with a new fancier title. Now on to the important stuff.

This series of articles is a chance for the staff to all pick one player, a player who they think will have a huge impact on the season. Starting with myself, and the most obvious, let’s talk about the gunslinger in charge Tyler Shough.

Shough has had some injury issues, to say the least about that, but when he has been healthy the easiest thing to say is he just wins. As a starter last year after returning from injury, Shough rattled off four straight victories. His final two games in particular were as impressive as any could be from a Red Raider QB. 31/50 for 436 yards and 2 touchdowns against Oklahoma. Following up that high flying performance against Ole Miss, he would only throw an efficient 242 yards against Ole Miss but added an unholy 111 yards on the ground.

The arm has improved with every start, as has Shough’s confidence running the offense. I do not love how much Kittley calls his number on the ground, but Shough has proven to be deceptively elusive. What I like the most about the kid is he is just in command. The offense feeds off his confidence and that go win demeanor, and after staring down a mountain of adversity in his career this will be the year he gets to where he has always wanted to be. Do not be surprised at all to hear his name called in the upcoming NFL draft after a season with some video game numbers.

Shough won the starting job over the very talented Behren Morton in the Spring, which was the obvious outcome. The dude just wins, and in his ultimate and final season as a Red Raider a healthy Tyler Shough looks to lead the most dynamic Tech offense since Kingsbury’s departure.