The Sports Arsenal

The advanced stats from South Carolina State-The Citadel:

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Housekeeping regarding the above stats:

• These statistics do not include South Carolina State’s last two drives of each half (three plays in all). The second-half omission is obvious (one play, a kneel-down). I also elected not to include the two plays SCSU ran following the interception late in the first half, because only 12 seconds remained and South Carolina State was in what you could call “desperation mode” in terms of trying to score points (and thus the two-play sequence was not part of the regular course of action). As far as that statistical decision is concerned, your mileage may vary.
• That means one of South Carolina State’s ‘big plays’ (those of 20 yards or more) is not included in the totals, either (a 21-yard pass reception to end the first half).
• There was an error in the statistical play-by-play for the game which affected several categories. The problem arose during SCSU’s first drive of the second half. I think I’ve corrected everything in terms of the stats breakdown. (Among other things, this explains a discrepancy involving South Carolina State’s third-down and fourth-down conversion numbers.)
• Stats-can-be-deceiving dept.: you might notice The Citadel averaged a quite respectable 6.94 yards on first down. Keep in mind that two long pass plays in the second half greatly affected that statistic. In the first half, on the other hand, The Citadel averaged 1.71 yards per play on first down.

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Random observations about the game and the atmosphere surrounding it:

– I was a little surprised at the attendance. I thought there would be more fans on hand (from both sides, to be honest). While the listed attendance of 10,579 was notable, I wasn’t completely sure that reflected the actual number of people at the game.

I have my doubts that noon kickoffs are the way to go at The Citadel in the long term, but I suppose this year is a bit of a trial run.

– The Marching 101 is a great band, and I enjoyed its halftime performance. I have to wonder, though, at the band’s repeated playing at the start of (and during) plays. I was half-expecting the referee to give a warning, but that never happened.

The really unfortunate thing that occurred was the Marching 101 playing throughout the special tribute to Willie Jeffries in the break between the first and second quarters. I suspect officials from both schools were not particularly happy about that.

– I will add that I thought the folks running the sound system also veered very close to the edge when it came to musical cues and the start of on-field action.

– It was nice to see Jan Taaffe honored as well as Jeffries. I think Maurice Drayton’s commitment to acknowledging the past history of The Citadel’s football program (and that of the Palmetto State in general) is refreshing.

– I also liked that this year, the Hall of Fame honorees were presented to the crowd at halftime so that they faced the West stands, instead of facing the scoreboard (which, if memory serves, had been the case in previous years). Now everyone just needs to make sure all the honorees are in alphabetical order when the announcements start being made.

– Dumb question alert: where was the U.S. flag?

[Edit: I have now been informed (thanks!) that the flagpole has an internal issue with the pulley system that is preventing the flag from being locked in the ‘up’ position or lowered. Repairs are expected soon. For Saturday’s game, the color guard was used to present colors.]

– I would have preferred white pants to go with The Citadel’s light blue jerseys. The light blue pants didn’t look bad, though.

– Perhaps this has been the case before and I just didn’t notice, but the ‘red hat guy’ for the game was a member of the Corps of Cadets. He industriously trotted out with the media timeout countdown clock for every stoppage of play.

– I think all of the free t-shirts were size extra-large. They were free, though.

– I’m glad the rain mostly held off, though it led to occasionally steamy conditions with the cloud cover and temperature.

– Johnathan Bennett only threw one first-down pass in the first half (the interception at the end of it). In the second half, he was 4 for 5 passing on first down for 88 yards, including two big plays. The offensive playcalling arguably needs to be more varied at the start of games.

– The Citadel kicked off from midfield after its last touchdown, following a 15-yard penalty on South Carolina State. I was hoping that Maurice Drayton might try an onside kick in that situation, because the team really doesn’t lose too much in the way of field position even if unsuccessful — and if does recover the kick, it gets a free possession in great field position.

– The fourth-down run for 33 yards on what I’ll call the “bunch” formation was a great call, and very well executed. It was set up by a similar formation on a fourth down play earlier in the game, one that resulted in SCSU jumping offsides.

– The Citadel had false start penalties at the start of both of its first two drives. That should not happen.

– South Carolina State was a well-coached team. Deondra Duehart is a quality running back, and I thought Eric Phoenix did a nice job running the show. He was also a better runner than his prior stats had indicated. SCSU’s line play on offense and defense was generally solid.

I’m guessing that improving its offensive red zone production will be a point of emphasis for SCSU once conference play rolls around.

– For the second week in a row, the Bulldogs had the edge in special teams play. This time, it wasn’t quite enough to pull out a victory.

There is something to be said about having a chance to win a game despite losing the turnover battle (1-0) and having the opponent run a higher percentage of successful plays from scrimmage by almost a 2-1 margin. Going forward, though, The Citadel has to get better on both sides of the ball. The offense has to be more dynamic throughout the game, and the defense needs to be considerably more disruptive.

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This recent spate of blogging by yours truly will now come to a crashing halt. I won’t be around much (or at all) until the end of September/beginning of October.

Next week’s game is against a North Greenville squad that lost its home opener last Thursday night by the exact same score as The Citadel (23-20). NGU’s loss came in overtime to the defending NAIA champions, so the Trailblazers are likely a good-to-very good D2 squad. The Bulldogs better be ready for that one.

The Citadel then opens conference play at Mercer, a playoff team last season which is currently 2-0, winning those two games by a combined score of 94-12. The following week will be a Parents’ Day affair against East Tennessee State, a completely revamped squad that won on Saturday by a score of 61-0.

In other words, more challenges are ahead.

Go Dogs!

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Deondra Duehart, Eric Phoenix, Johnathan Bennett, Maurice Drayton, South Carolina State, The Citadel | Leave a comment »