Quick thoughts on The Citadel’s first football game of 2022

Posted on September 5, 2022 by Sandlapper Spike

Well, my first quick thought is that I was glad when the game ended…

Stats of interest:

The Citadel Campbell
Field Position 25.33 39.22
Success Rate 32.08% 45.00%
Big plays (20+ yards) 2 3*
Finishing drives (average points) 3.33 4.14
Turnovers 3 1
Expected turnovers 1.94 0.72
Possessions 9 9
Points per possession 1.1 3.2
Offensive Plays 53 60
Yards/rush (sacks taken out) 4.04 5.53
Yards/pass attempt (including sacks) 5.33 7.41
Yards/play 4.19 6.22
3rd down conversions 4 of 13 6 of 13
4th down conversions 2 of 3 3 of 3
Red Zone TD% 50.00% 50.00%
Net punting 31.3 28.5
Time of possession 32:34 27:26
TOP/offensive play 36.87 sec 27.43 sec
Penalties 9 for 83 yards 9 for 85 yards
1st down passing 1-1, 19 yards, TD** 4-8, 36 yards, 1 sack against
3rd and long passing 1-2, 5 yards, 1 INT, 1 sack against 3-5, 42 yards, TD
4th down passing 1-1, 11 yards 2-2, 38 yards
1st down yards/play 5.11 5.32
3rd down average yards to go 7.31 8.31
Defensive 3-and-outs+ 1 4

*Not included: a 21-yard run for a would-be TD partly negated by a downfield holding penalty; the net gain on the play for the Camels was 11 yards
** An additional first down completion for 10 yards in the 2nd quarter for The Citadel was wiped out by a holding penalty

—

I believe the time of possession listed in the above table is correct. An error in the official scorebook originally credited The Citadel with over 14 minutes of possession time in the 2nd quarter.

[Edit: this has now been officially corrected.]

—

A few observations:

  • The Citadel gained 2 or fewer yards on 42.1% of its first down plays.
  • In the 3rd quarter, The Citadel ran 14 offensive plays. Only one of them would statistically be considered “successful”. The shuffling of the o-line after starting center Mike Bartilucci was injured might have been a factor.
  • Sawyer Whitman, a freshman OL from Gaffney, made his first career appearance for the Bulldogs.
  • Almost half (26) of The Citadel’s 53 offensive plays came on the Bulldogs’ first two drives. The Citadel only scored 3 points on those possessions.
  • The Citadel’s nine possessions ended as follows: TD (1), FG (1), punt (3), interception (2), lost fumble (1), and turnover on downs (1).
  • On seven of its nine possessions, Campbell had a first down inside the Bulldogs’ 40-yard line. Considering that two of those drives began inside the 40, and a third one started right at The Citadel’s 40, the Bulldogs’ defense did a good job mostly keeping the Camels out of the end zone after Campbell’s first two possessions.
  • Campbell’s nine possessions ended as follows: TD (3), FG (3), punt (2), end of half (1). (The Camels’ one turnover came on special teams.)
  • The scorebook participation list (which is not official) lists 48 Bulldogs as having played in Thursday night’s game. I tend to think the actual number was 46, but I can’t be sure.
  • Campbell’s participation list included 62 players.
  • The Bulldogs have to do better than average 31 net punting yards, although if one-third of all punts are muffed by the opponents, that would be an acceptable trade-off.
  • James Platte is the first Bulldog to appear in a game this season who doesn’t have a biographical writeup on the school website.
  • It appears that Ben Brockington (now #97) and John Hewlett (#73) have traded jersey numbers.
  • As of September 5, Alex Ramsey, the graduate transfer from VMI, is no longer listed on The Citadel’s online roster.
  • The Citadel committed far too many penalties (9 for 83 yards). The false starts and holds can be (and were) drive-killers, but the personal foul/unnecessary roughness/unsportsmanlike conduct infractions simply made me shake my head. Those are completely unacceptable.
  • During his Monday afternoon press conference, Brent Thompson confirmed that starting strong safety Wilson Hendricks III is out for the season. That will be a tough blow for the defense. Hendricks, a sophomore from Travelers Rest, led the team in tackles last season (and had seven stops against Campbell).

—

The Citadel must be a lot better on Saturday in its home opener against East Tennessee State. In their first game, the Buccaneers did exactly what a good team would be expected to do against an overmatched opponent, blasting Mars Hill 44-7.

I might have more to say later in the week.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

The Citadel begins its 2022 football campaign

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Sandlapper Spike

After a long, long offseason, it’s time for pigskin activity!

This is a joyful time of year for college football fans. I’m very mindful of that essential happiness, and I would never want to detract from it in any way.

A few years ago, I was sitting in front of my TV, preparing to enjoy the first night of college basketball for that season. On ESPN, the studio host (I forget who it was) turned to Jay Bilas and asked him a perfunctory question about what Bilas would like to see on the court.

Bilas, one of the most earnest killjoys in the entire media landscape, immediately stated that he wished two-thirds of the teams in Division I would be eliminated. If you were watching and a fan of one of the 240 or so schools Bilas wanted to evict from D-1, his commentary really wasn’t what you wanted to hear on opening night. 

I don’t want to be that kind of wet blanket.

—

With that in mind, while I don’t want to bury college football just as the season is starting, I’m not inclined to praise it right now, either. The off-season machinations have taken a toll. The constant realignment (and realignment discussion, which might be worse), the incessant focus on NIL, the sense that college athletics are no longer about schools and teams but rather “brands” and “products”…it’s all been a bit much.

The light at the end of the tunnel for the college sports industrial complex might be an oncoming train. It is likely in the not-too-distant future that there will be 30-odd schools which license their school logos for the benefit of minor league football teams, keeping all of the seductive TV money (as opposed to just taking most of the cash, as is the case now), and relegating the other schools to an alternative reality, one that ultimately might not include scholarships — basically what D-3 is now. 

(The basketball tournament will eventually suffer the same fate, though that situation is slightly more complicated. I am convinced separation there is inevitable as well, however. Jay Bilas would probably approve.)

What all that will mean for college sports in general, including the varsity teams at The Citadel, is TBD. I don’t think the odds are good that it will be positive, though.

—

Okay, I’ve got that out of the way.

Another issue, in terms of how I’ve operated this blog in past years, is that I no longer have the time or (frankly) enthusiasm to produce weekly preview posts during the gridiron season. That would be true even if I were more hopeful about the current state of college sports. It would also be the case regardless of The Citadel’s season outlook.

I’ll still have things to say, but perhaps not weekly, and not about specific games. I had basically run my game preview format into the ground, anyway.

For this post, I am just going to hit a few topics surrounding the program, some more important than others.

This week, I’ll also throw in some of the usual stuff about the upcoming opponent for the Bulldogs, the Campbell University Fighting Camels. 

—

I’m going to start with something positive.

I have written extensively about The Citadel’s uniforms over the years (usually, I have been greatly annoyed).

I’m pleased with these uniforms, though. This is much more in line with what I have always wanted to see.

Is it exactly what I would want? Maybe not, but that doesn’t matter. All in all, these togs are more than satisfactory.

—

A brief comment on the status of the East Stands at Johnson Hagood Stadium:

Simply put, I am ready to hear an announcement and see work being done. I have been ready for a couple of years now.

The delay on the rebuild has been too long, even taking the pandemic into consideration. I don’t think that is a controversial opinion; at this point, actually, I’m not sure it’s an opinion as much as objective fact.

—

The Citadel’s FBS opponent this season is Appalachian State. Future FBS opponents for the Bulldogs currently include Georgia Southern (2023), Clemson (2024), Mississippi (2025), and Charlotte (2026). 

Counting last season and this one, that means The Citadel will only face two P5 teams over a six-year period. I think a fair amount of supporters are somewhat disappointed in this, even if the net revenue from those matchups isn’t much different than that gained from playing G5 programs.

There is something to be said for playing “big-time” schools with instant name recognition. Also, given the more-than-decent chance that in less than a decade, schools like The Citadel might not have the chance to play P5 squads, loading up on them in the 2027-2032 time period might not be a bad idea. Those games should be scheduled while they are still an option.

I should note that The Citadel does not always immediately release future scheduling information, particularly for games to be played several years down the road. Perhaps it is time for another FOIA request…

—

With the perspective of time, there is a good chance that maintaining the corps of cadets over the course of the entire 2020-21 school year will be considered one of the great achievements in The Citadel’s history. The administration should receive a lot of credit for that accomplishment.

That isn’t to say the pandemic didn’t have a long-lasting effect on the status of the corps. It certainly did. The Citadel had higher-than-normal attrition rates (as did many other schools), and that is reflected in the very large freshman class which reported earlier this month.  

That effect can also be observed by perusing The Citadel’s football roster (and, for that matter, the rosters of almost every other college football program).

With COVID-19, the “free year” granted by the NCAA because of COVID-19, the change in transfer rules — well, these are unusual times in college football (and everywhere else). The only period in NCAA history that can even compare is the era following World War II, when there were significantly relaxed eligibility standards.

Because of all this tumult, I am more tolerant than I ordinarily would be for the influx of graduate transfers on The Citadel’s roster. 

The Citadel currently has 13 grad transfers on the football team — not 11 or 12, as you might have seen reported elsewhere. Overall, there are 114 players on the squad as of August 28.

That number of grad transfers wouldn’t be seen as enormous in a lot of places, but it is a true eye-opener at the military college. From going over past rosters, it appears that over the 12 years prior to this season The Citadel had a total of 13 graduate transfers.

With the outsized attrition caused by COVID-19 (among other things), I can understand this season being something of a one-off. 

I do not want it to become a trend, however. On this issue, I know that I am regarded by some as an out-of-touch fuddy-duddy who doesn’t understand “what we need to do to win”, and that I need to “get with the times!”

I don’t mind an occasional grad transfer; after all, The Citadel has excellent graduate programs and there is nothing wrong with publicizing them. I’m not on board with bringing in a dozen or so every year, though. I believe it is ultimately counter-productive on the field, and it isn’t in keeping with the school’s primary mission.

The Citadel’s core strength in recruiting varsity athletes should be its ability to find and develop high school talent. As far as grad transfers are concerned, the college is unlikely to be consistently successful by doing what every other school is doing. I think recruiting (almost) exclusively at the high school level is a perfect way to zig when the competition is zagging.

Having said all that, I will naturally be rooting hard for anyone wearing the light blue and white, regardless of where they played last year. 

—

I mentioned above that there are 114 Bulldogs on the current roster. As best as I can determine by looking over previous seasons, 89 of them have three or four years of college eligibility remaining (including the upcoming campaign).

From what I can tell, eight of the graduate transfers have multiple years of eligibility remaining; one of them actually has three.

—

More on retention/attrition:

I went through the lists of signing classes from 2017 through 2022 for The Citadel. That is six years’ worth of signees. It is possible for a player from a 2015 (or even 2014) signing class to still be an active college player, but that would obviously be somewhat unusual, even in the COVID-19 “free year” era.

I believe the only 2017 signee for The Citadel still playing college football is Sean-Thomas Faulkner, who played three years for the Bulldogs, graduated, and is currently in his second season with North Texas. 

Faulkner, the pride of Easley, SC, was an excellent player for The Citadel who now starts at safety for the Mean Green. (Irrelevant but personal note: I think he is also the only gridder to play for the alma maters of both my father and my mother.)

Another player who began his football career at The Citadel in the fall of 2017 is Brian Horn, who while not a listed signee at the time has nevertheless enjoyed a fine career for the Bulldogs, including a stint as last season’s military captain. Horn will start at linebacker for The Citadel on Thursday.

There are six players on the Bulldogs’ roster who were part of the 18-member signing class from 2018 — Chris Beverly, Marquise Blount, Caleb Deveaux, Kyler Estes, Destin Mack, and Nkem Njoku. Ideally, there would be a few more players from this class still on the team. 

Two other players who started their respective careers at The Citadel in 2018 also remain on the roster — defensive lineman Jay Smith and running back Sam Llewellyn. Both have made an impact on the field.

Of the 26 signees from 2019, only ten are still on The Citadel’s squad, a painfully obvious problem when it comes to program continuity and roster construction. This group would now mostly consist of fourth-year players with either two or three years of eligibility remaining (depending on if they redshirted).

From 2020, 14 of 16 signees are still Bulldogs, as are 15 of the 21 signees from 2021 (the latter being a bit concerning). The most recent signing class, from 2022, featured 17 signees, 16 of whom are currently on the roster.

For the last five signing classes, there were 98 signees. Of those, 61 are still in the program.

—

Stats interlude

For anyone interested (and I’m not sure anybody should be), here is a spreadsheet that includes various offensive statistics for the 2021 SoCon season and the 2021 FCS season as a whole. Categories include my infamous “go rate” statistic, points per possession, points per play, etc.

I was going to post about them (and include defensive stats too), but never got around to doing so, and it’s too late now. 

2021 offensive stats, SoCon-only and FCS

—

How excited is Campbell to leave the Big South and join the CAA for the 2022-23 school year? Well, listen to the perspective from the school’s sports announcers, including these comments:

I consider it a trade-up in many factors, right? College of Charleston, ten times better than Charleston Southern. You add Elon over High Point, [Elon] is a much more stable campus. You add William and Mary over a school like Longwood — nothing against them, just an upgrade there…UNCW is a huge upgrade over ‘insert any team’ in the Big South…there are so many ways to build tradition here in the Carolinas [with the move to the CAA].

You’re not going to be up there every weekend, but you’re in Boston, you’re in Philadelphia, you’re in Long Island, you’re in the DC metro area. It’s going to do something, not only for the athletic department and in expanding recruiting, but it’s going to do something for this university too, and that was a big reason [for joining the CAA]. It’s academics and athletics that really facilitated this move.

Campbell’s motto is “the private university of choice in North Carolina”, and the way to expand on that is become the private university of choice in the Carolinas, into Virginia, into DC…let’s face it, there is pride in this state in being a Campbell alum. That’s not necessarily the case all over the country, so I think [joining the CAA] will help tremendously.

I will say that the northern reach of the CAA would not appear at first glance to be of great appeal to Campbell, which traditionally has been a stay-closer-to-home type of school. More than 80% of its on-campus undergraduate students are from North Carolina, in contrast to Elon (only 17%) and High Point (21%).

—

Thursday will be the first gridiron meeting between The Citadel and Campbell (the two schools will play again in 2023, at Johnson Hagood Stadium). In other sports, The Citadel’s record against Campbell is as follows:

  • Basketball: 2-7
  • Baseball: 14-2-1
  • Wrestling: 24-17
  • Tennis: 10-5
  • Volleyball: 0-3

—

Campbell has no fewer than six non-conference games this season (perhaps another reason CU is happy to join the CAA). Those matchups are: The Citadel, at William and Mary, at East Carolina, North Carolina Central, at Jackson State, and at Delaware State.

Future FBS opponents for the Fighting Camels include North Carolina in 2023, Liberty in 2024, North Carolina State in 2025 and 2028, and Florida in 2026.

—

As of August 28, Campbell had 124 players on its online football roster. Four of them do not have a hometown (or high school) listed. Of the remaining 120 players, 47 are from North Carolina. Other states represented: Florida (21 players), Virginia (13), Georgia (11), South Carolina (8), Texas (3), Alabama (2), Michigan (2), New York (2), Ohio (2), and one each from California, Delaware, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.

Freshman linebacker Marquis Roberts is from Washington, DC, while graduate student punter Corey Petersen is a native of Traralgon, Australia.

Petersen is one of several Camels who began their collegiate careers at other institutions. Petersen is in his second year as Campbell’s punter; his first D-1 school was Austin Peay.

Other four-year colleges and universities from which current Camels previously matriculated include Army, Bowling Green, Coastal Carolina, East Carolina, East Tennessee State, Eastern Michigan, Iowa State, McNeese State, Mercer, Minnesota, Monmouth, Old Dominion, Southern Illinois, UCF, Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest (two players), and Western Carolina.

—

The Citadel’s roster includes 55 players from South Carolina. Other states represented by Bulldogs: Georgia (17 players), Florida (15), North Carolina (8), Virginia (7), Ohio (3), New York (2), and one each from Alabama, California, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.

—

Campbell landed the #1 recruiting class in FCS this spring, according to both 247Sports [89th overall] and Rivals.

…the Camels are welcoming in 11 signees with three- or four-star designations, per the major services.

Another ranking has Campbell with three of the top 11 FCS signees, four of the top 26 and five of the division’s top 37.

I think the first thing was, the Transfer Portal,” says [Campbell head football coach Mike Minter]…“You look at that and say and this is going to really affect college football. When I saw Alabama getting into the Portal, getting guys, I said if Alabama is doing it, this is about to turn into free agency for real. I said high school kids aren’t going to have as many homes, and we’re going to be very aggressive going after three-, four-, five-stars.

“We went after kids two years ago where people would say you don’t have a shot at them. Those kids are looking to be recruited, and wanted opportunity, and had been told and promised a lotta things. My biggest deal is be honest and authentic.”

—

In an interview last week, Mike Minter sounded confident about this season. He was quick to praise quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams, saying that the redshirt junior from Atlanta is “magical with the football in his hand”. 

Williams, a dual-threat QB, only played in four games last season due to injury, but is the preseason first-team All-Big South quarterback (one of three first-team offensive selections for the Camels).

Minter also called his offensive line “the biggest in FCS football”. CU’s projected starters on the o-line average 6’5″, 331 lbs.

Campbell will have a largely new offensive coaching staff this season. Minter invoked the old Oakland Raiders (“Al Davis, man — go deep!”) when describing how he would like his offense to operate.

Campbell was a fairly aggressive team in 2021, with 32 fourth down conversion attempts, tied for 12th nationally (The Citadel, with 41 attempts, was 3rd). That is reflected in the Camels’ “go rate” of 36.36%, which ranked 12th nationally (the Bulldogs were 5th, at 44.09%).

CU passed (or attempted to pass) on 54.4% of its offensive plays last season.

Campbell has a star on defense in Brevin Allen, the reigning Big South Defensive Player of the Year. The redshirt senior from Greensboro had 17½ tackles for loss last season, including 9½ sacks. 

Last year, the Camels were good at creating takeaways (25) and converting them into big plays (4 defensive touchdowns). The Bulldogs will need to be “strong with the ball” on Thursday night.

—

Quick hitters:

  • The game against Campbell will be streamed on ESPN+; announcers are Chris Hemeyer (play-by-play) and Peter Montemuro (analyst).
  • Luke Mauro and Lee Glaze return in 2022 as The Citadel’s radio team. They can be heard online and also on three radio stations statewide: WQNT (102.1-FM/1450-AM) in Charleston, WQXL (100.7-FM/1470-AM) in Columbia, and WDXY (105.9-FM/1240-AM) in Sumter.
  • Brent Thompson lost some weight this off-season. 
  • The Philadelphia 76ers will be in Charleston in September, which wasn’t a huge surprise — but I think some folks in the media world were caught off guard by the news that Doc Rivers and company will be holding training camp at McAlister Field House.
  • The weather forecast for Thursday night in Buies Creek, per the National Weather Service: partly cloudy, with a low of 66°.
  • Campbell’s online preview has been posted, as have CU’s game notes.
  • According to one source that deals in such matters, Campbell is a 3-point favorite over The Citadel (over/under of 55½). That is not surprising, and is generally in line with various preseason computer ratings (which for the two teams are quite similar). The Camels are getting the standard “home field advantage” spread bump. [Edit: well, that line moved quickly; in three hours, it jumped to Campbell -9½.]
  • The Citadel’s game notes are out; initially, the depth chart featured a 278-lb. wide receiver and a punter not on the current roster. That was quickly corrected.
  • Hey, it’s the first week of the season for Athletic Communications, too. As we all know, there are no preseason games in college football. Next week’s press conference needs to be streamed, however.
  • Personally, I would prefer less gamesmanship when it comes to naming the starting quarterback, but then again I’m not a coach.
  • At least The Citadel has a depth chart, which is more than you can say for Texas.

—

I have no idea what to expect on Thursday night. I hope the Bulldogs are as upbeat and confident as Mike Minter, who clearly has high expectations for his squad this season. Of course, he’s not the only former Nebraska player coaching a team with big hopes for 2022 despite winning only 3 games last year.

(I’ll assume Minter wasn’t celebrating any vomiting by his offensive linemen in fall practice.)

I think it is important for The Citadel to get off to a good start. That is always true, but it is particularly the case for a team that in 2021 had a tendency to fall behind early (often via big plays by the opposing offense).

The Bulldogs did finish last season with consecutive victories, including an unexpected triumph at Chattanooga. That is something to build upon.

We shall see what the opening game (and the season to come) has in store. 

Go Dogs!

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

College Football, Week 8: Tuesday notes and observations

Posted on October 19, 2021 by Sandlapper Spike

– Brent Thompson’s Monday press conference

—

Starting around the 17:00 mark of Brent Thompson’s Monday presser, there is an interesting question-and-answer discussion of recruiting, focusing on the impact the “free COVID year” has had. Over about five minutes, Thompson goes over a lot of the aspects involved, and not just from The Citadel’s perspective.

According to Thompson, his staff has offered about 80% fewer players this year than in a typical year. Considering that, as the coach notes, The Citadel is a “high school recruiting program”, it looks like this will be another very difficult year for prep prospects.

—

Time to talk about future non-conference schedules…

In a normal year, The Citadel has three non-conference games. One is always a “money” game against FBS opposition. At least one of the other matchups must be played at Johnson Hagood Stadium, because otherwise there would only be four home contests in a season.

During the 2024 season, FCS teams have the option to play 12 regular-season games because of the way the calendar falls, and The Citadel will indeed fulfill that quota. How, you ask? We’ll get there in a moment.

–

First, the 2022 campaign. The Bulldogs will open the season in Buies Creek, North Carolina, playing at Campbell on September 3.

The next non-conference tilt is also in the state of North Carolina, in Boone against Appalachian State. That matchup was originally supposed to take place on September 24, but was moved forward one week, to October 1. That change was apparently requested by App, and as a result The Citadel’s payout was for the game was increased, from $325,000 to $350,000.

The final out-of-league game of the 2022 season will be a home game for the Bulldogs, and it will be very late in the year – November 12, to be exact. The Citadel’s opponent will be Virginia University of Lynchburg (VUL), which is not a D2 school or even in the NAIA. Rather, VUL is a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA).

VUL, an HBCU with about 500 undergraduate students, has five FCS schools on its schedule this season. It has played three of them so far. Combined score of those three games: 154-27. The winless Dragons have also played Mars Hill and Erskine, among others.

I am honestly not sure of the last time The Citadel played a program that was not in the NCAA or the NAIA. It is possible that it hasn’t happened since before World War II.

The fact the game is on November 12 is also odd. I can only assume The Citadel had difficulty finding a home opponent to fill out its slate. VUL will receive $40,000 to make the trip to Charleston.

–

In 2023, The Citadel will again play only five home games. The FBS opponent that season will be Georgia Southern, and it will be the season opener (September 2). The payout for that contest is $320,000.

The following week (September 9), Campbell will play the Bulldogs in Johnson Hagood Stadium, completing a two-game agreement.

Two weeks later, on September 23, The Citadel will travel to Orangeburg to play another set of Bulldogs – South Carolina State. That will be the first of a two-game series between the two schools; the return matchup will be held in Charleston in 2024.

–

As mentioned earlier, 2024 is a 12-game regular season. The home game against South Carolina State will be on September 7. The following week, on September 14, The Citadel will host North Greenville. The Crusaders will receive $40,000 for their appearance (matching the VUL payout, so that appears to be the going rate for such games).

The other two non-conference contests will be road games for The Citadel. The first is the season opener, on August 31, at Charleston Southern. I am on record as saying that scheduling this contest is a serious mistake that does not reflect well on The Citadel’s department of athletics. This is the first of a two-game agreement (more on that later).

On November 23, The Citadel will play at Clemson, completing a contract that included the 2020 matchup between the two schools. The payout for the contest is $475,000, plus an additional consideration – besides the standard 300 complimentary tickets, the military college has the option to request an additional 2,000 tickets for sale.

–

The Citadel has only one scheduled non-conference game so far for the 2025 season. That is a matchup with Mississippi, now scheduled for September 6. The payout is $500,000.

–

In 2026, the return matchup for the two-game contract with Charleston Southern will take place in Charleston on September 19.

That contest was originally supposed to be played on September 5, but CSU apparently asked for the game to be moved (presumably to pick up an FBS opponent). Charleston Southern agreed to pay The Citadel $20,000 to change the game date. The contract addendum making the adjustment was completed on May 5 of this year.

Less than three weeks later, The Citadel signed an agreement to play at Charlotte on September 5, for a payout of $305,000; The Citadel will also receive 600 tickets for sale.

—

I’ll post my normal stats breakdown either later today or perhaps on Wednesday…

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Conference realignment, SoCon style: a look at the varsity sports portfolios of candidate schools

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Sandlapper Spike

As a follow-up to my most recent post on conference realignment, including the SoCon, this is just a quick post on what sports various schools offer, etc…

—

The SoCon sponsors 19 sports (counting indoor and outdoor track separately). Ideally, a school joining the league would field teams in most of them. A rundown of the offerings for some of the schools that have been mentioned for membership:

Mercer

Mercer has teams in 14 of the SoCon’s 19 sports. The exceptions: football, men’s track and field (both indoor and outdoor), and wrestling.

It also has teams (or will soon have teams) in several sports not sponsored by the SoCon, including men’s and women’s lacrosse and sand volleyball. Mercer will begin playing football (non-scholarship) this year.

VMI

VMI has teams in 11 of the SoCon’s 19 sports. Exceptions: women’s hoops, softball, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, and women’s volleyball.

It also fields teams in men’s lacrosse, women’s water polo, men’s and women’s swimming, and rifle.

If VMI were to re-join the SoCon, it may have to add at least one women’s sport that is sponsored by the league.

East Tennessee State

ETSU has teams in 17 of the SoCon’s sponsored sports. It does not have teams in football and wrestling. Of course, ETSU is expected to re-start football in time for the 2015 season.

Kennesaw State

Kennesaw State fields teams in 16 of the SoCon’s 19 sports. There are no KSU teams in football, men’s soccer, and wrestling. Kennesaw State will begin playing football in 2015.

William & Mary

William & Mary has a fairly diverse sports portfolio. It fields teams in 17 SoCon-sponsored sports. W&M doesn’t have a softball team or wrestling squad. It does have men’s and women’s gymnastics, men’s and women’s swimming, women’s lacrosse, and women’s field hockey.

Belmont

I don’t really think Belmont is a serious candidate for the SoCon, but I decided to take a look at its offerings anyway. Belmont does not have a football team or a wrestling squad, but fields teams in every other SoCon-sponsored sport.

Coastal Carolina

Coastal Carolina competes in 18 of the 19 sports sponsored by the SoCon. The exception is wrestling. CCU also fields a women’s lacrosse team.

Richmond

Though I think Richmond is really only an SoCon option for football, I’ll include a rundown of its sports too. For the 2013-14 school year, it will compete in 13 of the 19 sports sponsored by the Southern Conference. Somewhat controversially, Richmond’s administration has decided to drop men’s soccer and men’s track and field while adding men’s lacrosse.

Besides men’s soccer and men’s track and field (indoor and outdoor), UR does not field teams in wrestling, softball, and women’s volleyball. In addition to men’s lacrosse, Richmond has or will have women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s swimming, and women’s field hockey.

Delaware

Like Richmond, Delaware would almost certainly be a football-only candidate for the SoCon (and even that would be a longshot). It has teams in 15 SoCon-sponsored sports, not having teams for men’s track and field (indoor and outdoor), men’s cross-country, and wrestling. Delaware also fields squads in women’s field hockey, women’s rowing, men’s and women’s swimming, and men’s and women’s lacrosse.

James Madison

If JMU decides against a possible invitation to the Sun Belt Conference and remains in FCS, it may become a target for the SoCon. Like Delaware, James Madison competes in 15 of the 19 SoCon-sponsored sports. It does not have teams in men’s cross country, men’s track and field (indoor and outdoor), and wrestling. JMU has three women’s teams in sports not sponsored by the Southern Conference: field hockey, swimming, and lacrosse.

UNC-Wilmington

UNCW competes in every SoCon-sponsored sport except football and wrestling. It also has men’s and women’s swimming.

Jacksonville

JU fields teams in 13 of the SoCon’s 19 sports. It does not have men’s track and field (indoor and outdoor), men’s and women’s tennis, and wrestling, and its football team is non-scholarship. Jacksonville does have men’s and women’s rowing teams, men’s and women’s lacrosse, and also sponsors women’s sand volleyball (which is an “emerging” NCAA sport; in February, South Carolina became the 31st school to sponsor the sport at the varsity level).

Campbell

Campbell’s football team is non-scholarship. It competes in every other SoCon-sponsored sport, and also has women’s lacrosse and women’s swimming.

—

After reviewing these schools and a few others, I came to the conclusion that the Southern Conference is likely to sponsor at least two more sports in the not-too-distant future, namely men’s and women’s lacrosse. Some of the schools in the SoCon’s general geographic footprint that have or will soon have lacrosse for either men or women or both: Mercer, VMI, Kennesaw State, William & Mary, Richmond, James Madison, Furman, Elon, Presbyterian, Campbell, Jacksonville, Howard, Coastal Carolina, Stetson, Delaware, and Winthrop.

—

More realignment excitement will be coming our way soon, I’m sure…

Filed under: Special Topics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Conference realignment, SoCon style: it is definitely nitty-gritty time now

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Sandlapper Spike

On Wednesday, Georgia Southern and Appalachian State are expected to announce that they have each accepted an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference. Both schools have been desperately trying to wangle an invite from an FBS league; it looks like it is finally going to happen.

I wrote about this possibility a few weeks ago. Now that it has come to pass, I want to revisit what it means for the Southern Conference and what schools are candidates to join the SoCon as replacements — and also what schools, if any, are candidates to leave the league.

Conference realignment analysis is complicated, to say the least. A move on one side of the country can cause repercussions on the other. No one really has a handle on the hopes and dreams of every single school out there. The difficulties in trying to see what leagues and schools will do can best be encapsulated by this quote from an AD at a Missouri Valley Conference school:

We’re just sitting here wondering if Creighton goes [to the Big East], which of the 26 schools in our footprint that make some sense should we be pursuing.

That’s right. To replace Creighton, there are more than two dozen reasonable candidates, and whichever one is chosen will set off a chain reaction all over the nation — but each different school may set off a different chain reaction. It makes long-range predictions more or less futile (as does the entire process of musical chairs in general).

Despite that, I’ll muddle through this post anyway…

—

With Appalachian State and Georgia Southern leaving, the SoCon will look like this:

The Citadel
Furman
Wofford
Elon
Western Carolina
Chattanooga
Samford
Davidson*
UNC-Greensboro*

* no scholarship football program

First, let’s discuss the current league schools rumored to be candidates to leave for another conference. That would be all of them.

Seriously, every school in the league has been the focus of various rumors, some with solid sourcing, some just made up. The internet is a wild and crazy place.

The most realistic contender to jump may be Davidson, which has a good hoops program with no scholarship football. If Davidson were a person, however, he would be a very cautious accountant who happens to love basketball (and not much else). This is a school that isn’t changing leagues unless it knows it’s the right decision. It’s not going to jump into a lake like the College of Charleston did and find out the level of the water has dropped eighteen feet overnight.

Elon is the league wild card, as I’ve noted before. At this point I would be surprised if it decided to move to the CAA, but who knows. Chattanooga has (somewhat curiously) been mentioned as a potential Sun Belt candidate, which I think even most of its fan base finds puzzling.

That is what the SoCon has right now. What is going on in the rest of the land that may impact the league? A brief review follows.

—

– Big East (newly minted version)

The new league formerly known as the Catholic 7 is adding three schools. Butler and Xavier are joining from the A-10, and Creighton is moving from the Missouri Valley. For at least one year, the number of league schools will stay at 10. It is widely believed that the new Big East will add two more schools in time for the 2014-15 season, and that both additions are likely to come from the A-10. One will probably be St. Louis, and the other will come from a group that includes Dayton, Richmond, and VCU, with the Flyers being a slight favorite.

The MVC will replace Creighton, but that won’t affect the SoCon. The A-10, however, has already moved forward, will undoubtedly continue to do so, and those decisions will have a trickle-down effect that will be watched by SoCon observers.

– Atlantic 10 (which actually had 16 schools this past season)

The A-10 was already losing two schools, Charlotte (which is starting a football program and moving to CUSA) and Temple.

The Owls are moving to the “old” Big East for all sports, and to avoid confusion I’m going to call that conference the Metro, which is surely a better league name than the “America 12”.

With Xavier and Butler gone (Butler having been in the league for about an hour), the A-10 decided 12 schools weren’t enough and added George Mason on Monday. It is quite possible the A-10 will add another school in the near future. Davidson has been mentioned as a candidate for this spot, but there is a catch, as there are reports that Davidson would like a fellow southern school to go with it for travel reasons. The school most often named as pairing up with Davidson is the College of Charleston.

However, Davidson is not the leading contender to be the next A-10 pickup, according to Jon Rothstein of CBS Sports. That would be Siena. Another school reportedly in the mix is Iona.

My fearless (and meaningless) prognostication: Siena joins the A-10, and Davidson becomes a more serious candidate when the A-10 loses St. Louis and one of the Dayton/Richmond/VCU trio next year.

– Metro

Tulsa is expected to join this league any week now, leaving CUSA. This would lead to Western Kentucky leaving the Sun Belt and taking Tulsa’s place. Massachusetts may eventually wind up in this conference (though that is far from certain), which would presumably open up another spot in the A-10 in hoops (UMass currently competes in the MAC in football).

– Sun Belt

League commissioner Karl Benson wants a conference championship game in football, and he is apparently going to get it. Georgia Southern and Appalachian State will become football members 9 and 10, so the conference needs two more schools to stage a title matchup. According to Dennis Dodd at CBS Sports, New Mexico State and Idaho are going to be added as football-only members.

Idaho has to get permission from its State Board of Education to make the move, which is probably a formality. Not everyone thinks adding New Mexico State and Idaho to the Sun Belt (even for just football) is a good idea.

However, if WKU leaves as expected, the Sun Belt would actually need one more football-playing school to get to 12, and would have to look further into the FCS ranks to find it. From the SoCon’s perspective, the most interesting candidate for that spot (other than longshot Chattanooga) is James Madison of the CAA, which has been left behind in that league by all of its fellow Virginia schools except William & Mary. Losing JMU would be a very tough blow for the CAA. Liberty is also a Sun Belt hopeful, as are a couple of Southland Conference schools (Lamar and Sam Houston State) and Jacksonville State.

– CAA

Before delving into the CAA situation, I wanted to mention the press release issued by its commissioner after George Mason decided to join the A-10:

As a result of the George Mason University Board’s decision to withdraw from CAA membership…and in accordance with conference bylaws:

-George Mason’s teams in seven spring sports…will become ineligible for CAA spring 2013 championships.

-George Mason will forfeit its projected 2013 conference distribution of approximately $330,000 and future distributions (through 2017 totaling an additional $1.32 million). George Mason will also pay a minimum liquidated damages fee of at least $1,000,000. Total forfeited funds will be no less than $2.65 million…

…We are disappointed by George Mason’s decision to withdraw from the CAA after 30 years as a charter member.  We wish them well as they strive to achieve the same level of competitive success in a new conference. The CAA’s Council of Presidents will continue to aggressively pursue institutions committed to providing the finest academic and athletic opportunities for our student-athletes.

To me, that comes across as incredibly petty, especially considering GMU was (as stated) a charter member of the conference. As was the case for other schools that recently left the CAA, the athletes were punished for their (obviously huge) part in the crime of leaving the league. Imagine being a senior baseball or softball player and finding out halfway through the season that you wouldn’t be competing for the league title.

Here is the current CAA lineup (at least, as of this second):

Hofstra*
Northeastern*
Drexel*
Delaware
Towson
James Madison
William & Mary
UNC-Wilmington*
College of Charleston*
Richmond#
Rhode Island#
Stony Brook#
Albany#
Maine#
New Hampshire#
Villanova#

* no scholarship football program
# football-only member

Eleven schools for football, but only four of them are full-time members. Nine schools for basketball.

This league is a mess. In my opinion, it’s even more of a mess than the SoCon. It resembles two or three conferences unwillingly jammed into one. In addition, I think at least half of the schools in the basketball version of the league would gladly jump to the A-10 at a moment’s notice, given the opportunity. Heck, some might even consider the SoCon.

Would UNCW be able to resist an offer from the SoCon? It has “reaffirmed [its] commitment” to the CAA, but some think it needs to consider all of its options. Is the College of Charleston feeling buyer’s remorse? Supposedly not, though one suspects that any CofC return to the SoCon could only happen if the SoCon leadership were allowed to throw sharp objects at CofC AD Joe Hull.

Then there is William & Mary, which is going to be really out in the cold if JMU leaves. It would be hard for William & Mary or UNCW, though, to give up the significant amount of money currently on the table for the remaining CAA members.

—

I’ve written a couple of times about the possibilities for SoCon additions. A few things have changed since the last time I posted about this subject. My thoughts as of right now on a few of the schools in question, plus some off-the-wall ideas:

– Mercer is probably a lock, with the only issue being that the school has not yet committed to scholarship football. As I’ve said before, though, Mercer’s new facilities are not those of a non-scholarship program, or at least not those of one planning to stay non-scholarship. At any rate, Mercer can fill the spot left by the College of Charleston for the immediate future, with a hoops program at least as good and a fine baseball team as well.

– VMI, from a historical perspective, should be in the Southern Conference. Instinctively, VMI should be in the SoCon. However, VMI has issues, and I am not as confident in its chances of rejoining the league as I would have been a couple of months ago. A perceived lack of institutional commitment to varsity athletics may doom the hopes of those hoping to see the Keydets back in the SoCon. I’m not counting VMI out, though.

– William & Mary is possibly more of a sleeper candidate than it was before, thanks to the CAA’s crumbling edifice. I’m still not quite buying the Tribe to the SoCon, but I could be persuaded to rent.

– Richmond would be a football-only pick, and while I’m not crazy about a football-only SoCon member, the idea of grabbing UR for football in order to further attract William & Mary to join in all sports may have merit.

– If the SoCon wanted to be really aggressive and try to fully dismantle the CAA before the CAA tried to destroy the SoCon, it might consider approaching Delaware as a football-only member.

– If James Madison doesn’t wind up in the Sun Belt (or the MAC), the SoCon ought to seriously consider approaching the folks in Harrisburg, too. They might be willing to listen.

– Kennesaw State is starting a football program, and just hired its first coach. The Owls’ first season on the gridiron will be 2015. There has been marginally more chatter about KSU to the SoCon in recent weeks, although I am still a touch dubious about that. If Kennesaw State did join the league, it would help the SoCon maintain its quota of triple option teams, as new coach Brian Bohannon has worked for Paul Johnson at both Navy and Georgia Tech over the past 17 years, coaching quarterbacks and B-backs.

– East Tennessee State is also likely to start (or rather, re-start) its football program in 2015. ETSU may have to make a decision about what league it wants to join, if it has options (the OVC possibly being one of them). It won’t be in any league without a new football facility, though. (Nobody is going to play football at the Mini-Dome.)

It’s possible that ETSU may wind up in the SoCon at the expense of VMI. I wouldn’t be shocked if neither got in, though.

– Coastal Carolina, if anything, is less likely to wind up in the SoCon than before — and it wasn’t going to get in then, either. If I were in the CCU administration, I would fax an application to the CAA every day. It’s probably their best shot at moving out of the Big South.

– Campbell has been suggested as a potential candidate. Like Mercer, it’s one of several southeastern schools (including Jacksonville and Stetson) that have started or are about to start non-scholarship football programs. I’m not really sure what Campbell could bring to the table that the SoCon would want, though. Jacksonville and Stetson would add new markets but are not in the league’s geographic footprint, which I suspect will be a major factor in determining what schools are added.

– Other schools mentioned here and there that I don’t think are serious candidates for the SoCon (but you never know): Presbyterian, Winthrop, Tennessee Tech, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, West Georgia, Gardner-Webb, High Point, South Carolina State, and USC Upstate.

USC Upstate was suggested on Twitter by Gene Sapakoff, a columnist for The Post and Courier, who was throwing out the idea of a proposed Atlantic Sun-SoCon merger. Uh, no.

—

SoCon commissioner John Iamarino has preached patience and a waiting game. I haven’t had a major problem with that. It was inevitable that Appalachian State and Georgia Southern would leave, but there wasn’t anything wrong in letting a few other things shake out nationally before making a move. The league had time.

It doesn’t really have time now. Once Appalachian State and Georgia Southern are officially out, the SoCon has to act, and with decisiveness. I hope the conference has been preparing to do just that. I realize that Iamarino may be hamstrung a bit by a disparate membership, but he has to put together a consensus. He has to add new members that will improve the league.

It’s nitty-gritty time.

Filed under: Special Topics, The Citadel | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

2011 Football, Game 1: The Citadel vs. Jacksonville

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Sandlapper Spike

The Citadel vs. Jacksonville, to be played at historic Johnson Hagood Stadium, with kickoff at 6:00 pm ET on Saturday, September 3.  The game will not be televised, although it will be webcast on Bulldog Insider (subscription service) and can be heard on radio via The Citadel Sports Network, with new “Voice of the Bulldogs” Danny Reed calling the action.

—

It’s that time of year! College football has arrived and not a moment too soon.  I’m tired of reading about the Summer of Ponzi and all the other scandals that have beset the sport in the off-season, and while I enjoy discussing realignment as much as anybody, the Texas A&M two-step with the SEC is starting to get old.  I’m ready to see some activity on the playing field.

This is an important season for The Citadel’s football program.  I wrote about the program’s status last November; nothing has happened since then to make me think that the 2011 campaign will be anything other than a defining one for Kevin Higgins and his coaching staff.  I’m far from the only person who thinks that success of some sort this season is paramount.   The intensity in the crowd at the recent open scrimmage was palpable.

One thing is certain:  if there ever were a year for the football team to “sneak up” on people, this is the one.  Southern Conference media members picked The Citadel to finish last.  Only one player (Tolu Akindele) made either the preseason all-conference first or second teams.  The SoCon coaches’ vote had The Citadel in next-to-last place, ahead of only Western Carolina; that’s the same verdict rendered by The Sports Network.

Last season, the Bulldogs played three non-conference games before beginning league play.  This year, though, The Citadel will play six of its first seven games against SoCon opposition.  The Bulldogs will have a good idea of where they stand before the fall harvest.

The only non-league game in that group of seven contests is the first one, and it is far from the “gimme game” that the home opener has been in recent years.  Instead of scheduling a glorified scrimmage against the likes of Webber International or Chowan, The Citadel is playing Jacksonville, which went 10-1 last season and shared the Pioneer League title (with Dayton).  The Dolphins, favored to win the PL again, will be a formidable challenge.

—

Jacksonville University is not to be confused with Jacksonville State University, which is located in Alabama and has a football team coached by Jack Crowe, the man who was on the wrong side of one of The Citadel’s more notable gridiron triumphs. Jacksonville University is located in Jacksonville, Florida, and its football team is coached by Kerwin Bell.  (More on him later.)

Jacksonville began in 1934 as a junior college named “William J. Porter University” after its founder; in 1958 it became a four-year school after merging with the Jacksonville School of Music.  As of today it’s a private, liberal-arts university with roughly 3,500 undergraduate students (60% of whom are women).

JU’s “Timeline” feature on its website includes a lot of concerts in the 1970s and early 1980s, perhaps an indication of the importance of the music school in relation to the rest of the university at that time.  Performers who made their way to Swisher Gym included Dionne Warwick, Neil Diamond, Duke Ellington, John Denver, and Billy Joel; K.C. and the Sunshine Band recorded a live album there.

Jacksonville awarded honorary doctorates to Bob Hope and Jack Benny on the same day in 1972.  Another same-day honorary doctorate duo for JU:  Charlton Heston and Ann Landers (who received hers less than a year after writing that Jacksonville U. was one of “the four top colleges in the nation”).

It’s also worth noting that Jacksonville University has the second-largest NROTC program in the country.

—

Jacksonville has twenty-one varsity sports.  Its nickname, the Dolphins, came to be in 1947 following a student contest (the original contest winner was “Green Dolphins”; another possibility had been the “Juggernauts”).  The official school mascot is an actual dolphin — 58-year-old Nellie, a Marineland mainstay.

The most famous of all JU athletes is, without a doubt, basketball Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore.  Second place on the school’s famous athlete list is probably occupied by Donnie Hammond.  (Like I said, there is no doubt about #1.)

Gilmore played two seasons at Jacksonville (he started his career at Gardner-Webb, then a junior college) and averaged more than 20 points and 20 rebounds per game, which I think can be best described as “awesome”.  In his junior season, he led the Dolphins to the NCAA title game.

Yes, you read that right.  Jacksonville played in the Final Four in 1970, just twelve years after becoming a four-year school.  We’re not talking Division II, either.  The high-scoring Dolphins beat Western Kentucky, Iowa, and No. 1 Kentucky to win the Mideast Regional.  Jacksonville averaged over 106 points per game in those three contests.

– Tangent #1:  What a weird Final Four that was.  There was nothing strange about UCLA being there (and the Bruins would beat Jacksonville in the final, 80-69), but the other three teams were Jacksonville, St. Bonaventure, and New Mexico State.  The Dolphins and the Bonnies were at the time the two smallest schools to ever make it that far, and they played each other in the semifinals.  Alas, it was a mismatch, as St. Bonaventure star Bob Lanier had injured his knee in the regional final and could not play in the Final Four.  Thus, the spectators at Cole Field House were denied the opportunity to watch two future Hall of Fame centers face each other.

After that season, Dolphins coach Joe Williams left JU and took the job at Furman.

– Tangent #2:  Artis Gilmore and his wife have been married for 39 years.  Her name is Enola Gay.  I thought that was worth mentioning.

—

Okay, it’s time to talk about JU football…

Jacksonville started its football program in 1998, winning its first-ever game 19-14 over Davidson.  The school’s media guide also lists Davidson as being the first ranked team (at No. 3!) the Dolphins ever played, in a 2001 contest won 45-3 by JU, but I have to seriously question that.  What poll would this have been?  Maybe it was a poll only including Southern Conference schools that don’t play scholarship football.

JU plays its home games at Milne Field, a 5,000-seat facility built specifically for the football program, which averaged 3,761 fans per game last season.  The Dolphins have won nine straight home games, but the real eye-popping numbers are from their road games — not necessarily the results on the field, but the travel involved. Jacksonville has six road games this year.  JU will bus to The Citadel for Saturday’s game.  Later in the year the Dolphins will also take the bus to Campbell, assuming the bus driver can find his way to Buies Creek.

However, the Dolphins will make four road trips by air, flying to the University of San Diego, Drake (which is in Iowa), Marist (New York), and Western Illinois (travelling to WIU on the day of the game).  That is a total of 5,575 miles in the air.

Having multiple long airplane flights is a consequence of playing in the Pioneer League, a non-scholarship FCS conference with ten members.  Jacksonville is the southernmost school in the league, which has three members in the southeast (JU, Davidson, Campbell), five in or around the midwest (Drake, Valparaiso, Dayton, Butler, Morehead State), one west coast entry (USD) and one northeastern school (Marist).

One reason for having such a far-flung league is that all of those schools choose to play football at the non-scholarship level while maintaining a NCAA Division I athletics program.  Since 1993, institutions have had to play football at the same level as their other sports, which affected schools like Dayton (a D-3 power in football during the 1980s) in particular.  There aren’t a lot of D-1 schools that offer non-scholarship football but provide schollies in other sports (which distinguishes these institutions from those in the Ivy League, for example).

Jacksonville is not likely to become a scholarship football program in the near future. That possibility was suggested to the president of the university, who responded:

[It] costs too much for us to do it right now. For us to move into scholarship football because of the rules for gender equity, we would not only have to be able to fund the scholarship program year in and year out, we would also have to fund a similar amount for women’s athletics.

And we simply can’t afford it right now. If we had some major donors that came forward and helped us, then something like that could be possible. It’s simply economics. We need a stadium, our stadium is quaint. We would need a stadium where the fan base would generate revenue.

The revenue we get right now is diminutive. With a stadium, you could start getting money back into the program. There are some positives to it, but it’s simply too expensive right now.

In 2013, two new football programs will join the Pioneer League — Stetson and Mercer.  That should help alleviate Jacksonville’s travel burden to a certain extent.

—

Kerwin Bell played his high school ball in the small town of Mayo, Florida, where he was known as “The Throwin’ Mayoan”.  Arriving at the University of Florida as a walk-on, in one year he managed to climb the ladder from eighth-string to starter.  In 1984, Bell and the Gators would win the SEC title, winning eight straight games to close out the season.  The SEC title was short-lived, however, as the conference rescinded it the following year due to UF being on probation.  In 1985 Florida would go 9-1-1 for a second straight season, and again was not awarded the league crown (and again could not go to a bowl game) because of NCAA violations.

Two years later Bell began his pro career, which featured multiple stops in the CFL (including a stint in the Canadian outpost of Sacramento), a tour of duty with the Orlando Thunder of the Arena Football League, and a two-year stay with the Indianapolis Colts.  Bell got into one game with the Colts, mopping up in a 1996 contest against the Philadelphia Eagles.  In that game, he threw five passes, completing all five for 75 yards and a touchdown (to Marvin Harrison).  Bell finished with a perfect 158.3 passer rating.  Contained within his Wikipedia entry is this astute observation:

[Kerwin Bell] has the highest career passer rating of any quarterback in NFL history, higher than current and future Hall of Fame members Joe Namath, Steve Young, Joe Montana, Warren Moon, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino and Brett Favre.

Bell’s coaching career actually started in 1990.  While recovering from an ACL injury he worked for one year as a graduate assistant coach for Steve Spurrier, who had taken over the Florida program.  His next coaching job came with the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, where he served as offensive coordinator (while still playing quarterback).

He then spent six years as head coach of a new football program at Trinity High School in Ocala, Florida.   He has been the head coach at JU for the last four seasons (with the upcoming campaign being his fifth).  Bell is 29-17 overall at Jacksonville, with records of 3-8, 9-4, 7-4, and 10-1. In two of the last three campaigns JU has won outright or shared the Pioneer League title, with the 2008 season documented by a “JUDolphins.com best seller”.

It seems reasonable to speculate about whether Bell is striving to follow a career path similar to that of Jim Harbaugh, who started his head coaching career at a Pioneer League school (San Diego) before moving up to Stanford, and who now is in charge of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.  Bell said last season that he is not “the kind of guy who needs to be on TV“, but if he continues his successful run at JU, he is likely going to get an opportunity to take a higher-profile job.

Bell’s staff at Jacksonville includes three assistant coaches who played in the NFL. Ernie Logan spent nine seasons in the league as a defensive lineman.  Not surprisingly, he is the Dolphins’ DL coach.

Ernie Mills was a wide receiver who also spent nine years in the NFL, mostly with Pittsburgh.  He caught eight TD passes in 1995, a year in which the Steelers advanced to the Super Bowl.

Jerry Crafts (aka “The Condo”) appeared in two Super Bowls for the Buffalo Bills, one of five NFL teams for which he played, along with three CFL teams, four AFL outfits, two WLAF franchises, and (inevitably) one XFL team (the Los Angeles Xtreme).  He also made an appearance on Howard Stern’s radio program.

Like Bell, Mills also played his college ball at Florida, with their careers in Gainesville overlapping slightly, along with that of Dolphins defensive coordinator Jerry Odom, the only coach the JU athletics website lists as being on Twitter.  He doesn’t appear to take full advantage of the service.

Staff meetings at JU must get confusing at times, what with two coaches named “Ernie”, two named “Jerry”, another named “Kerry” (running backs coach Kerry Webb), and a head coach called “Kerwin”.

—

The Dolphins have 100 players listed on their active roster.  All but six of them are from Florida.  A couple of notable names on the list who may or may not see action against The Citadel are freshman quarterback Kade Bell, son of the head coach, and freshman WR/TE Andrew Robustelli.  If Robustelli’s name sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because his grandfather was a Hall of Fame defensive end for the New York Giants in the 1950s.

Jacksonville runs a pro-style offense, and while the Dolphins like to pass, the offense is reasonably balanced.  Last season JU rushed 387 times while throwing 348 passes.  I would still describe it as a “pass-first” setup, mainly because I’m guessing a lot of the rushing attempts came at the end of blowouts.

Ah yes, blowouts.  The Dolphins had a lot of those in 2010, with an 86-7 demolition of poor Valparaiso being the biggest (check out that 38-point second quarter).  JU also pummeled Webber International (41-0), Marist (56-14), Davidson (42-15), and Morehead State (61-17).

As you can see, JU likes to put up crooked numbers.  The Dolphins lit up the scoreboard to the tune of 42.2 points per game, just one of several gaudy team offensive statistics.  Jacksonville averaged 486 yards of total offense per game (7.3 yards per play).  JU also averaged an outstanding 9.3 yards per pass attempt, with 35 of its 217 completed throws going for touchdowns (against only seven interceptions).

Leading that offense this year, as he has for the previous three, is 6’2″, 210-lb. senior quarterback Josh McGregor, who has more career passing yards than any returning QB in the nation (8,186).  He has thrown 87 touchdown passes in his 35-game run as the JU signal-caller.  McGregor threw for 300 yards or more seven times last season and is on the Payton Watch List.  A highlight package featuring some of McGregor’s 2010 exploits has been uploaded to YouTube.

His top target is senior wideout Josh Philpart, who has 29 career touchdown receptions.  Philpart averaged 16.7 yards per catch last year.  Another receiver, Larry Thompson, was only a half-step behind Philpart in most statistical categories, other than TDs.  Jacksonville likes to spread things around, as six different players caught at least 18 passes last season (including two running backs).

Incidentally, Philpart did not have a reception in the game last season against Appalachian State.  I’m guessing that the Dolphins will try to get him involved in the game early against The Citadel in order to avoid having him become a non-factor.

Jacksonville’s all-time rushing leader, Rudell Small, has graduated, but the Dolphins have a more than adequate replacement in J.J. Laster, who rushed for 830 yards last season in backup duty (8.5 yards per carry).  Laster rushed for 177 yards in the game against Marist.

JU lost both its starting left tackle and left guard off the offensive line.  Last year’s right tackle, Chad Cypher, is moving to left tackle to protect McGregor’s “blind side”; at 6’6″, 310 lbs., Cypher at least looks the part.  He has drawn some pre-season accolades.

Kevin Higgins briefly discussed Jacksonville’s offense with Jeff Hartsell after a weeknight practice:

They have a multiple offense, a little bit like we were the first couple of years. They will spread you out, the QB is a really smart player who can check at the line of scrimmage. They try to create space on the field, and the QB is experienced and one of the tops in I-AA. And the line is very experienced as well.

As for the Dolphins’ defense, Higgins stated he had no idea how Jacksonville would line up against The Citadel, as JU didn’t face an option team last season (the Dolphins normally feature a 4-3 scheme).

Jacksonville’s defensive line is relatively experienced.  It is also small.  Nose tackle Mike Mayoral weighs 210 pounds.  Defensive end Rolando Fines is a little bigger (245 lbs.) and is expected to lead the group.

As far as JU’s linebacking corps is concerned, Kerwin Bell is quoted in JU’s media guide as saying that “we’re sort of iffy there.”  Layne McCombs is a senior who would be Jacksonville’s top defensive player, except he has a knee problem (torn ACL from last season).  Whether he plays or not is apparently open to question.  The Dolphins are probably going to play some of their younger players in this unit and hope for the best.

Jacksonville is in better shape in the defensive secondary, with three starters returning and a decent amount of depth.  One concern for JU is that none of its DBs are particularly tall.

Jacksonville had an excellent punt return squad last season, averaging a sizzling 11.1 yards per return in 2010, but its top return man graduated.  Its kick return numbers were mediocre at best.  JU did a fairly good job holding down its opponents’ return yardage.

The Dolphins will have a new punter and a new placekicker this season, which could be problematic in a season opener.

—

The Citadel’s total offense numbers in the eight Southern Conference games in 2010 were as follows:  359, 304, 263, 197, 160, 143, 300, 203.  Those are listed in order of the games as they were played — in other words, the 359 total yards of offense came in the Bulldogs’ first league game (against Furman).  The offense continued to put up fewer yards of offense each week until “breaking through” with 300 yards against a less-than-stellar Elon defense, and then regressed back to 203 yards against a solid Samford D in the season’s final game (which The Citadel managed to win anyway).

On the bright side, the offense only committed one turnover in the final two games (combined), which was obviously a vast improvement from, say, the Georgia Southern debacle (nine turnovers).  The Citadel turned the ball over 32 times in all, which included 23 lost fumbles.  The Bulldogs actually had 44 total fumbles in eleven games, and also had an inordinate number of ball-possession miscues that did not quite result in fumbles but had the effect of ending a play before it really got started.

The lack of yardage can be directly tied to The Citadel’s ball-control woes.  Those issues must be fixed if the Bulldogs are to have a respectable 2011 campaign.  The offense’s ineptitude also had a negative impact on the defense, which had to defend a short field too many times.  Kevin Higgins admitted as much during his radio interview with Phil Kornblut on August 25 (Kornblut also talked to Tolu Akindele and Terrell Dallas).  The head coach didn’t mince words:

We really played, I think, much better defense than people give us credit for, and the reason is because our offense was so bad, the defense was on the field so much, that there was a lot of pressure on them…it was the first year with the option, the ball was on the ground…I remember going home at this time last year and going, ooh.

Fans going home after watching the Bulldogs offense struggle didn’t all say “ooh”…more like “ugh” (or perhaps something unprintable).

There is optimism among those following the team that the second year in the offense will result in significant improvement.  I sure wouldn’t mind winning four more games this season than last, like the Bulldogs did in 1987-88 running Charlie Taaffe‘s wishbone (going from 4-7 to 8-4).

There are also whispers about a special “edge” the Bulldogs now possess.  This edge is reportedly known in certain circles as The Candeto Factor.  It’s all hush-hush.

Sophomore Ben Dupree will be the starter at quarterback (and a team captain as well, which I thought was interesting), after beginning last season as the starter, moving to second string, then third string, making a cameo appearance as a running back, and then returning to the starting lineup as the quarterback for the final two games of the season.  If making the right reads, Dupree, who has shown signs of being an elusive runner, could be a big-play threat.  He is a bit on the small side and needs to improve his passing.

Dupree will be backed up by Matt Thompson and freshman Aaron Miller, who looked good (at least to me) in the Bulldogs’ last open scrimmage.  There is depth at running back, with at least four different players hoping to make an impact, including the Lazarus of the backfield, Rickey Anderson.  Terrell Dallas is the fullback, and he’s a good one.  Against Jacksonville’s smallish defensive line, he may be called upon to do some power running.  His understudy is Darien Robinson, who isn’t afraid to move a pile either.

Mike Sellers, thrown into the line of fire as the starting center as a freshman, is bigger and better.  That should be the case for the offensive line in general (including the imposing Neal Strange), although injured guard Jameson Bryant will not play in the opener.  Keith Carter moves from defense to offense to add athleticism to the o-line.  (I keep wanting to call him Kenny Carter.  Getting old is tough.)

While most triple option offenses don’t throw the ball too often, this isn’t any ordinary triple option offense — it’s the Triple O’Higgins!  Higgins told Kornblut that the ideal number of passes in the TO’H is 10-12 per game.

Several of those pass attempts will undoubtedly be thrown in the general direction of Domonic Jones, the Bulldogs’ leading receiver last season.  At 6’5″, he could prove to be a tough matchup for the short Jacksonville defensive backs.  Actually, he should prove to be a tough matchup for almost any defensive secondary he faces.  One of The Citadel’s other receivers, Luke Caldwell, may be the best passer on the team, if the Samford game last season and the recent scrimmage are any indication.

As mentioned above, the Bulldog D was solid in 2010 for the most part.  I think the only time I was really disappointed in the unit’s play was against Elon.  The defense had trouble getting off the field in that game, and also fared poorly in the “red zone”. Stopping opponents from scoring when inside the 20 should be a point of emphasis this year, as that is an area in which the Bulldogs need to do better (allowing a 64% TD rate last season).

Against Jacksonville, which converted on third down 49% of the time in 2010, it will be even more important to prevent long drives and turn the ball back over to the offense. To do that, The Citadel needs to improve incrementally in defensive statistical categories such as average per pass attempt (7.6 last year) and average per rush (4.3).

The Bulldogs also need to grab more than their fair share of turnovers.  The Citadel finished last in the Southern Conference in interceptions in 2010.  The squad needs to grab a few more and also force more fumbles.

To paraphrase Akindele in his interview with Phil Kornblut, the Bulldogs D needs its playmakers to make more big plays.  Akindele himself is one of those playmakers, having led the team in tackles last season.

He’s joined by a solid group of linemen and linebackers, including Derek Douglas, Chris Billingslea, and Rod Harland, who judging from the recent scrimmage has been ready to lace ’em up again since last season ended.  He was bringing the heat, as the kids say.  (They do say that, right?)

The defense as a whole has a lot of depth (a priority for the coaches), particularly on the line, but also in the secondary, making it easier to absorb the loss of Cortez Allen, now of the Pittsburgh Steelers.  The Bulldogs seem to be in solid shape at cornerback, which is a good thing, as Jacksonville’s group of talented receivers will provide a stern test.

Cass Couey returns for the third straight year as the Bulldogs’ dependable punter. The Citadel in general was okay in most phases of the return game.  Keith Gamble, besides starting at cornerback, is a threat to go the distance as a kick returner (he had an 87-yarder against Elon last year).  He averaged 25 yards per return in 2010.

Ryan Sellers will be the starting placekicker for The Citadel this season.  The kickoff specialist shared PK duties last year, making five of nine, including a 47-yarder against Chattanooga, the season long for a Bulldog kicker by eight yards.  As you would expect of a kicker, he wears a kicker’s number — #99.

—

The matchup between the Bulldogs and the Dolphins will be a big one for both teams, even though it is only the first game of the season.  In the long run, it may actually mean more to Jacksonville than it does to The Citadel, though.

JU missed out on a bid to the FCS playoffs by a narrow margin last season.  While the Dolphins were 10-1, the schedule strength just wasn’t there to justify Jacksonville receiving a berth in the postseason.  Jacksonville only played two scholarship programs, one of which (Old Dominion) had only re-started its football program the year before.  The other, of course, was Appalachian State, which throttled the Dolphins (not that there was any shame in that).

In fact, Jacksonville has only defeated three scholarship programs in its history — Old Dominion last season, Coastal Carolina (in the Chanticleers’ first season of football in 2003), and Savannah State (in 2008).  In 2011, the Dolphins will have three opportunities to beat scholarship programs, as JU will open the season against The Citadel, Western Illinois, and Charleston Southern (with the CSU game played at Milne Field).

To make its case for an at-large bid (the Pioneer League is not an automatic qualifying conference), Jacksonville needs to win at least two (if not all three) of those games.  Beating up Valparaiso and Marist isn’t going to be enough.  Moreover, if JU cannot beat a team picked to finish last in the SoCon, its case for a bid may completely dissolve.

For The Citadel, getting off to a good start this season is critically important.  The Bulldogs badly need to gain confidence in their offensive system and establish some momentum prior to a run of six consecutive Southern Conference games.  It’s also a home game, and the team must show its supporters that there is reason to believe in the upcoming campaign.

Fans gave the team some leeway last season as the new offense was installed.  It was understood that there would be trying times on occasion in 2010, although some of those times were more trying than anyone would have liked.  Now there has been a year for the coaches and players to get comfortable with the system.  There won’t be any more metaphorical mulligans handed out.

The Citadel has only had one winning season since 1997.  The game against Jacksonville could go a long way in determining whether that trend will continue, or if the Bulldogs can begin to dream of success — for this season, and for future seasons as well.

I’m looking forward to late Saturday afternoon at Johnson Hagood Stadium.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »