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Bulldog hoops: the most disappointing season

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Sandlapper Spike

The Citadel’s last victory on the hardwood came at Davidson, on January 26. As this post is going up on February 20, that is a problem. The Bulldogs have lost seven straight games, with two regular season road games remaining before the Southern Conference tournament.

It is not out of the question that The Citadel could finish the season on a ten-game losing streak. The last time the Bulldogs ended a season with a double-digit losing streak was 2005, when Pat Dennis’ team started 12-5 before losing its last eleven contests.

This is not what most people were expecting when the season began. The Citadel returned many experienced players, including three mainstays (Cameron Wells, Zach Urbanus, and Austin Dahn) in its rotation. While picked to finish fourth in the South Division of the SoCon in the preseason, many people expected at the very least a winning campaign, and possibly something more than that.

I was one of those people, as I thought The Citadel could win 17 or 18 games. The Pomeroy Ratings also projected the Bulldogs to win 18 games.

It has been a tough season for new coach Chuck Driesell. After a four-game winning streak pushed the Bulldogs to a still-not-great 9-13 record, the bottom seemed to fall out of the campaign. Five of the seven losses in the recent run were at home. Two of the defeats were particularly awful (Savannah State and the recent loss at Georgia Southern).

Driesell hasn’t had a lot go his way, but I think his decision to shorten his rotation to just seven players, which initially resulted in some impressive victories, ultimately torpedoed the season.

The Citadel has traditionally struggled at the end of basketball seasons, a phenomenon Jeff Hartsell of The Post and Courier recently called “getting heavy-legged” while speaking on the ‘Citadel Grayline’ radio program. These end-of-year collapses are generally ascribed to the difficulties of competing in a long sport season while fulfilling the duties associated with being a cadet.

The historical numbers for the Bulldogs bear out the fact that it has been a problem. Just look at the last six years before this one, for example:

— 2010: finished 16-16 after losing four of their last five games

— 2009: finished 20-13 after losing three of their last four games (following an 11-game winning streak)

— 2008: lost 18 of their last 19 games (of course, that team only won six games all year)

— 2007: lost 12 of their last 13 games (a seven-win team)

— 2006: lost 18 of their last 22 games (a ten-win team)

— 2005: as mentioned above, lost 11 straight to finish 12-16

You can find more years like those, even when concentrating on some of the more respectable teams (like 1998, when the Bulldogs lost six of eight to finish 15-13). The best evidence of “tired legs”, of course, is The Citadel’s stupefying lack of success in the Southern Conference tournament; even though the Bulldogs haven’t had that many good teams over the years, you would have thought The Citadel would have gotten lucky in the league tourney once or twice. Nope.

Wells, Urbanus, and Dahn have combined to play over 82% of the minutes available to them over the last four years, which is amazing. What’s not amazing is the rough finishes the team has had, perhaps as a consequence of that. The trend has continued this season.

In conference play Urbanus has averaged over 38.5 minutes per game, tied for first in the league. Wells is fourth in the league in minutes, with 36.5 per contest, while Dahn is 14th (32 mpg). Early foul trouble in a couple of games is the only reason Wells and Dahn haven’t played even more (Urbanus, on the other hand, is one of two players in the entire country averaging less than one foul per forty minutes of play).

Driesell has tried expanding his rotation as the losing streak has continued, although he’s been hamstrung by Cosmo Morabbi’s injury and the general ineffectiveness of the two transfers he brought in for this season (Morakinyo Williams and Mike Dejworek).

I wish that Driesell had decided to wait a year before fully implementing his system. The current roster is obviously built for Ed Conroy’s slower-tempo style of play. It has been frustrating to watch a team struggle so when it features seniors like the school’s alltime leading scorer and assist man (Wells), career three-point shooting leader (Urbanus), along with a versatile four-year starter (Dahn) and a handy post defender/offensive garbageman (Bryan Streeter).

Then you have the emergence of sophomore Mike Groselle, who has been a revelation in terms of offensive efficiency. Yet with all that, the team is 9-20, and not by a fluke, either. No, this is a team that has never put it together on either side of the court, save for that one four-game run in the middle of the season.

For most of the year, The Citadel has lacked an offensive identity and has been poor defensively. I suspect the offensive problems have contributed to the defensive woes; that is the nature of the game.

I feel badly for the team’s seniors, who I think deserved to go out on a much better note, but at least they will always have memories of the 2009 season, one of the finest in school history. I am glad they chose to come to The Citadel; it’s one of the best hoops classes the military college has ever had, if not the best.

—

As for Chuck Driesell, I certainly haven’t given up on him. He’s got some work to do, however. Next year’s recruiting class is supposed to be quite good, and Driesell has a well-deserved reputation as a solid talent evaluator. Now he has to put that talent together (and keep it, never an easy thing at The Citadel).

Driesell seems to prefer outstanding athletes, which is fine, but he must also find room in his system for players like Groselle, whose eFG% in conference games is currently second in the league. Groselle has a 66.9 FG% in SoCon play and a 3.7 GPA in Civil Engineering; The Citadel needs as many players like that as it can get, whether they can jump or not.

—

Regardless, this season has to go down as the most disappointing season in the modern history of The Citadel’s basketball program. Admittedly, that’s in part because it was the rare season where expectations were fairly high. That doesn’t make it any less deflating, though.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Austin Dahn, Bryan Streeter, Cameron Wells, Chuck Driesell, Cosmo Morabbi, Davidson, Ed Conroy, Georgia Southern, Jeff Hartsell, Mike Groselle, Pat Dennis, Pomeroy Ratings, Savannah State, Southern Conference, The Citadel, Zach Urbanus | Leave a comment »

SoCon hoops season begins for The Citadel

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

On Thursday, The Citadel begins play in the Southern Conference with a home game against Georgia Southern. Before discussing that game and the two matchups that follow, I want to take a look back at the first five games of the season.

I figured that at worst The Citadel would be 2-3 after five games. There was only one game (Richmond) that I did not think The Citadel had a good chance of winning, and even there I thought the senior-laden Bulldogs would be competitive.

As it happens, The Citadel was blown out by Richmond in an embarrassing fashion (79-37). The Bulldogs then lost at Charleston Southern (a very disappointing result) and dropped their home opener to James Madison (which I would have rated as a tossup game). Chuck Driesell finally got his first career win against High Point, an “expected” win, but then The Citadel blew a second-half lead and lost at Coastal Carolina.

—

The Bulldogs have had serious issues on the defensive end, especially in the second half. The Citadel led at the half against Charleston Southern, James Madison, and Coastal Carolina, and lost all three games. The Bulldogs are allowing opponents to shoot exactly 50% from the field, which is the bottom 20 nationally.

Breaking it down a little further, The Citadel’s opponents are shooting 54.4% from 2-point range (bottom 40 nationally). That suggests a lack of presence on the inside, which is borne out by below-average rebounding numbers and the fact the Bulldogs have blocked a grand total of two shots in five games.

In the second half, the defensive FG% numbers are beyond terrible. In The Citadel’s four losses, opponents are shooting 62% from the field after the halftime break, which is a good reason why the Bulldogs lost those leads. For example, a five-point halftime lead over JMU dissolved when the Dukes shot 71% in the second half. The three-point shooting numbers for opponents haven’t been that bad (not great, but reasonable), but The Citadel has just been abused in the paint.

—

On offense, the Bulldogs are also struggling, with an eFG of 42.1%, which is 306th out of 347 Division I teams. Zach Urbanus, a mainstay for The Citadel for four years, is shooting just 30.9% from the field and 29.6% from 3-land (last year those numbers for Urbanus were 38.9% and 40.0%, respectively). Cameron Wells and Austin Dahn are near their 2009-10 numbers, with Wells starting to get going (enough to be the latest SoCon Player of the Week).

Those three have scored 204 of The Citadel’s 300 points, which is 68% of the Bulldogs’ scoring offense. Last season, they accounted for 57% of The Citadel’s points, so a little extra offensive help for them would be nice. However, getting the defensive deficiencies straightened out has to come first.

One issue is that the “big three” are playing a lot of minutes. They always have, but it’s even more pronounced this season. Urbanus is averaging 38.6 mpg, an increase over his workload of 36.1 mpg last season. Wells is averaging 35.2 mpg (34.9 in 2009-10), and Dahn 32 mpg (26.1 last season).

I believe that for The Citadel to have a successful season, those numbers have to go down a bit. I was hoping, actually, that they wouldn’t be so high so early in the season, but Driesell’s rotation has been fairly tight so far. Only eight players have seen action in all five games. Going forward, the Bulldogs need to get quality minutes out of some other backcourt performers.

The Citadel also needs to get increased productivity from its big men, on both ends of the court. So far the only frontcourt player getting the job done is Bryan Streeter, who has been basically all you could ask of an undersized “4”, except for the fact he can’t shoot free throws at all. Being so foul from the foul line has been problematic at times, and obviously down the stretch of close games is a real liability, but aside from that he has been solid — arguably the second-best player on the team after Wells.

Streeter has had to be solid, because he hasn’t had a lot of help down low. In particular, the much-discussed 7-foot transfers, Morakinyo Williams and Mike Dejworek, have yet to make an impact.

Dejworek did not play in the last two games, and in the games he has appeared has averaged fewer than two rebounds per contest. He has scored two points in 32 minutes of play. Williams is shooting only 26.3% from the field, which is remarkably poor for someone who plays so close to the basket. He is a decent defensive rebounder, but has not shown an affinity for the offensive glass (a Streeter specialty). Williams also has more turnovers in 68 minutes of play than Wells does in 176 minutes of action.

—

Chuck Driesell promised a more up-tempo style this season. The Citadel is averaging 7.6 more possessions per game so far, but seems to still be searching for an offensive identity. The defense would be a problem regardless of the game’s pace.

While being interviewed postgame on the radio after the loss to Coastal Carolina, Driesell openly wondered if fatigue was affecting the team’s defensive play. He may have a point, and it’s just another reason to watch individual players’ minutes, but I think post play is a bigger factor (although that doesn’t completely explain opponents’ second-half success). I’m not watching the practices, so I’m not going to advocate for individual players to get more time, but I have to admit there are two or three players who I would like to see on the court more often.

—

I am a little worried this is going to turn into a true “transition” season, one in which a new coach establishes his style of play at the expense of wins and losses. I hope that doesn’t happen, for two reasons. The first is that this is as good a senior class as The Citadel has had in many, many years, and I want to see them succeed. I think they have a chance to build upon the previous two seasons and win a lot of games.

The other reason is that I believe, based on what has happened so far this season, that the SoCon is there to be had. This is not going to be a vintage year for the league (not that any year ever is). The league has gone 21-44 in non-conference action (through November play).

That includes a 3-20 mark against major conference opponents, with the three wins coming against BCS bottom-feeders Auburn, DePaul, and Nebraska. The league’s best OOC victory is probably Appalachian State’s 89-86 win over Tulsa. It could be argued the SoCon’s best performance came in a loss — Wofford’s 3OT defeat at Xavier.

There is an opportunity for The Citadel to make some noise in the league. That needs to start on Thursday.

—

Georgia Southern is struggling. The Eagles’ record is 2-5, and the two wins are both over non-Division I teams. GSU has lost consecutive neutral-site games to Chicago State and Mississippi Valley State; the other losses were drubbings by Notre Dame, South Florida, and Texas Tech.

It should be pointed out that none of GSU’s five losses came at home, but the statistics indicate that the Eagles greatly resemble last season’s squad, one that went 9-23 and played terrible defense. That 9-23 mark included a split with The Citadel, with the Bulldogs hammering the Eagles at McAlister Field House in the first game, and then blowing a 21-point second half lead and losing the second.

Willie Powers scored 19 points to lead GSU in that matchup, but unfortunately won’t be playing this season. The star-crossed Powers has been a fine player when healthy, but he suffered his second major knee injury in August and is out for the year.

Without him, the Eagles appear to be a similar outfit to last year’s edition. GSU averages 77.6 possessions per game, has a turnover rate among the bottom 40 nationally and shoots poorly from beyond the arc (28.1%). It’s hard to play racehorse basketball without the horses.

—

Davidson was 16-15 last year in Year 1 A.C. (After Curry). I think the Wildcats could be a sleeper pick to win the league this year, assuming Davidson can ever be a sleeper pick in the SoCon. I’m not sure the Wildcats were completely prepared to play without Stephen Curry last season, but this year should be a different story.

Davidson is 3-3. None of the losses are bad, and the Wildcats do have a win over a major conference team (Big XII caboose Nebraska). Davidson has four players averaging double figures in scoring, including center Jake Cohen, who as a freshman scored 39 combined points in two games against The Citadel last season. Cohen will again be a difficult matchup for the Bulldogs.

The Wildcats are not yet locked in from beyond the arc (28.8%), but that was true last year as well until Davidson made 15 three-pointers at McAlister Field House. The Wildcats are holding opponents to 40.4% shooting from the field, which includes excellent interior defense (at least statistically). Davidson does foul a lot, averaging 23 per contest.

Before playing The Citadel, Davidson will travel to the College of Charleston. It’s the second year in a row the Wildcats have opened SoCon play by making the Low Country swing.

—

The Citadel’s third game in five days (and last before an 11-day break for exams) is a non-conference matchup with St. Mary’s. That’s not the St. Mary’s in California that made last year’s Sweet 16; no, this St. Mary’s is a Division III school in Maryland.

Some fast facts about the school, for those unfamiliar with St. Mary’s:

— Like The Citadel, St. Mary’s has about 2000 undergraduates, was founded in the 1840s (1840 for St. Mary’s, 1842 for The Citadel), is a public school that is often mistaken for a private institution, and is big on history.

— The “big on history” thing is a little different, though. St. Mary’s is located in St. Mary’s City (hence the name of the school), which was once the capital of Maryland. There is a significant archaeological site in the area; actually, the town is basically the school and that site.

St. Mary’s City was the fourth British settlement in North America, and founded as something of a test case for religious tolerance.

— St. Mary’s was a junior college for most of its existence; it has been a four-year college since 1966.

— Notable alums include professional wrestler Scott Hall (also known as Razor Ramon, and an original member of the New World Order!) and trailblazing female baseball player Julie Croteau.

— The Seahawks play in Division III and are members of the Capital Athletic Conference.

One of St. Mary’s fellow CAC schools is Marymount, which was once coached by…Chuck Driesell. That may go a long way towards explaining how this game with St. Mary’s came to be. Of course, it may have nothing to do with it, for all I know.

One thing Driesell will be sure to tell his players is that they can’t take St. Mary’s lightly. This is a solid Division III program. The Seahawks were 26-4 last season and made the D-3 Sweet 16. They are a cut above The Citadel’s normal non-Division I fare and should be respected as such.

St. Mary’s has won four of its first five games this season to date (and will play another game, against Stevenson, before facing The Citadel). The Seahawks are led by 6’1″ guard Alex Franz, a two-time All-CAC selection who is averaging 15.5 points per game. Statistically, St. Mary’s doesn’t have any extraordinary numbers, although the three-point differential is curious — the Seahawks are shooting 38.4% from beyond the arc, while their opponents are shooting just 22.9% from 3-land.

—

To get off to a good start in the league, The Citadel must improve defensively and needs contributions from a wider variety of players on its roster. I will be disappointed if the Bulldogs do not win at least two of the three upcoming games. Winning all three would make up for the slow start.

Filed under: Basketball, The Citadel | Tagged: Appalachian State, Austin Dahn, Cameron Wells, Charleston Southern, Chuck Driesell, Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, Davidson, Georgia Southern, High Point, Jake Cohen, James Madison, McAlister Field House, Mike Dejworek, Morakinyo Williams, Nebraska, Richmond, Southern Conference, St. Mary's, The Citadel, Tulsa, Willie Powers, Wofford, Xavier, Zach Urbanus | Leave a comment »

Review: Samford

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

The Citadel 13, Samford 12.

Victory!

—

It wasn’t a dominating performance, to say the least, but a win is a win, especially after losing seven straight games. Almost all the numbers favored Samford except the ones on the scoreboard that actually count.

That’s why I wouldn’t put this game down as a triumph for The Citadel’s triple option offense. In truth, Samford’s defense did a good job handling the option attack, much as it had in games against Georgia Southern and Wofford. The Citadel was held to 119 yards rushing, and just 203 total yards.

Samford outgained The Citadel by more than two to one, had almost twice as many first downs, and did not turn the ball over. Neither team fared well on third down (The Citadel converted just one of eleven third-down opportunities).

The Citadel won the game thanks to winning the special teams battle (courtesy of a blocked punt by Milford Scott, who you knew was going to get one eventually), and by outstanding red zone defense. Going into the game, The Citadel’s opponents were scoring touchdowns 71% of the time when in the red zone, but in this game Samford did not get a TD, as The Citadel’s defense held the Birmingham Bulldogs to just three field goals on four trips inside the 20.

Even with the great defense and Scott’s big play, The Citadel still trailed late in the game when Kevin Higgins called for some “trickeration”. The circle of the season was completed when Luke Caldwell, who served as quarterback for the spring game before moving back to receiver, threw a pass to Rickey Anderson for 55 yards. Both players deserved that moment.

One play later, Ben Dupree was in the end zone, and after some anxious moments late, the Cadets had their much-needed win.

—

This was the last game of a trying season, one with very little to cheer about, and that makes it all the more impressive that the team was focused and motivated on Saturday. Now, I’m on record as stating that the team should always be ready to play — after all, there are only eleven games in a season — but it would be understandable if the concentration level had not been particularly high for an end-of-season road game against a largely faceless opponent, following a bye week, and leading to the Thanksgiving break.

Instead, the defense held on and did not break, despite allowing Samford to march down the field on multiple occasions, and forced the home side to settle for those field goals. The offense struggled, but did not give the game away, and grabbed the win when presented with the chance.

—

To the surprise of almost nobody, Larry Leckonby confirmed on Monday that Kevin Higgins would be back. I am fine with this, having outlined my reasons in a prior post.

“I don’t think I would say I was satisfied (with the season),” said Leckonby, who was hired in June 2008, after The Citadel had agreed to a five-year extension for Higgins. “I had hoped the outcome would have been a little better in terms of wins and losses, and some of our performances were marred by multiple turnovers.

“I would not say I was satisfied, but I think we did improve from start to finish with the triple option, and that we’ve got a base to build on for next year.”

Leckonby’s statement that he thought the team “did improve from start to finish with the triple option” is debatable. The lack of turnovers in the final two games (just one in those two contests) was the biggest improvement in the offense. However, the point production and total yardage really was not much different than from the Bulldogs’ first two league games. Of course, after the nightmarish game against Georgia Southern, anything would be an improvement.

That isn’t to say that the second season of Triple O’Higgins won’t be a smashing success. It’s just that there aren’t any obvious markers from this year that would lead one to conclude that a breakthrough is coming.

I hope it happens, of course. For Higgins’ sake, it needs to happen, because next year it will be now or never. It won’t be easy, either.

The non-league slate is tougher, with Jacksonville and VMI coming to Johnson Hagood Stadium and the Bulldogs making the trip up I-26 to face the Gamecocks. There are no Chowans in that group (and I suspect that Jacksonville will be much better than some fans of The Citadel might anticipate). The SoCon will be tough, like it always is.

Of course, it’s never easy at The Citadel. That’s why it is important to be patient. Patience is a virtue.

Winning is a better virtue.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Ben Dupree, Chowan, Georgia Southern, Jacksonville, Johnson Hagood Stadium, Kevin Higgins, Larry Leckonby, Luke Caldwell, Milford Scott, Rickey Anderson, Samford, South Carolina, Southern Conference, The Citadel, VMI, Wofford | Leave a comment »

Football, Game 11: The Citadel vs. Samford

Posted on November 18, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

Factoids:

— Gametime/location: 2:30 pm ET/Seibert Stadium, Birmingham, Alabama

— Both teams are known as the Bulldogs. Really, one of the requirements for Samford to join the Southern Conference should have been for the school to change its nickname.

— Samford is 4-6, 2-5 in the SoCon; The Citadel is 2-8, 0-7.

The Citadel’s game notes

Samford’s game notes

—

I wrote this in my preview of the first game of the season (the game against Chowan):

While I am looking forward to the season, this year I am a bit apprehensive about what lies ahead for the Bulldogs on the gridiron. The Citadel is going to the triple option on offense, with a head coach who has never run the offense (or any similar offense) before, and with players who were mostly recruited for a very different kind of system.

The players who were recruited with the triple option in mind, of course, are all true freshmen. The quarterback position will likely be manned by one (or more) of those true freshmen. The “knob”-starting quarterback double is a rare one, and for a reason. It’s an exceedingly difficult combination.

The Southern Conference media and coaches agree that this season could be a long one for The Citadel, just as the last two seasons have been. The media picked the Bulldogs to finish last in the league. The coaches ranked The Citadel eighth out of nine teams, ahead of only Western Carolina.

So I guessed I called this one…

—

The Citadel is hoping to go out with a bang after a whimper of a season.

“Next season starts this week,” was Higgins’ message Monday at his final weekly news conference of the season, as The Citadel prepares for Saturday’s season-ender at Samford.

“We need to keep building on some of the things we’ve done and see if we can get next season off to a great start on Saturday,” Higgins said.

Higgins is using the bye week to make the Samford game the football equivalent of MayMester, which isn’t a bad idea. Motivation is presumably an issue for both The Citadel and Samford, neither of which have a chance at a winning season, or a winning league campaign.

I would be cautious about making too much of the offense’s improvement against Elon. I’m not sure what it says about the unit’s progress when just being able to successfully complete the center/QB exchange is considered a breakthrough. (That said, I do think Mike Sellers shows considerable promise.)

—

Samford and The Citadel match up statistically in a lot of areas, including red zone offense and defense, third-down conversions, scoring defense, and rush defense. The Citadel has a better passing defense (by about 40 yards per game), but Samford is much more balanced on offense. Of course, most teams are more balanced offensively than The Citadel. In this case the result is Samford averaging about 80 yards more in total offense.

That said, Samford hasn’t really lit up the scoreboard in SoCon play much more than The Citadel. While Samford hasn’t been shut out twice like the Cadets, it has only scored 20 or more points in two league games, not coincidentally the two games in the conference Samford has won. One of those was a 38-7 rout of Western Carolina, while the other was a 20-13 upset of Georgia Southern. Both of those games, interestingly, were on the road. At home, Samford is averaging just 10 points per game.

The lack of point production comes despite the presence of Alabama’s all-time leading rusher. That would be the State of Alabama’s all-time leading rusher, to be more specific. Chris Evans will probably cross the 4,500-yard mark in Saturday’s game, which is more career rushing yards than Bo Jackson, Shaun Alexander, Mark Ingram, Sherman Williams, Johnny Musso, William Andrews, James Brooks, Lionel James, Cadillac Williams, Ronnie Brown, Major Ogilvie…etc.

That’s not bad (and a cheat of a trivia question, too).

Two years ago Evans rushed for 174 yards against The Citadel and scored two touchdowns as Samford won easily at Seibert Stadium, 28-10. Samford’s huge offensive line dominated the line of scrimmage in that game, and Evans took full advantage. That’s something Pat Sullivan’s crew will try to do again on Saturday, and he’s bringing another sizable o-line to the proceedings. Samford’s offensive line starters average a meatball over 298 lbs.

Last year, though, that plan of attack didn’t work out, as The Citadel beat Samford 28-16, and the defense limited Evans to 52 yards rushing. That game featured a freshman starting quarterback named Tommy Edwards.

Tangent: If you want to impress your friends, ask them to name the three quarterbacks to start against Samford for The Citadel. The three QBs in question are Edwards, Jack Douglas (in the 1989 contest that marked The Citadel’s first game back at Johnson Hagood Stadium after Hurricane Hugo) and Cam Turner.

There will be another freshman starter for The Citadel this Saturday, as Ben Dupree will make his second consecutive start (and third overall). Dupree didn’t turn the ball over against Elon, which was probably more than enough for him to get the starting nod again.

—

I don’t have any idea how the game on Saturday will go. Samford is not a particularly good team, but it is better than Western Carolina, and it is good enough to have beaten Georgia Southern. Samford will be playing at home, which should give it an edge, although that hasn’t been born out in its league results.

A win at Samford would be a nice way to close out the season for The Citadel, and would give its players and fans some positive vibes for 2011. Let’s hope for the best.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Alabama, Ben Dupree, Bo Jackson, Cam Turner, Chowan, Chris Evans, Elon, Georgia Southern, Jack Douglas, Johnny Musso, Johnson Hagood Stadium, Kevin Higgins, Lionel James, Mark Ingram, Mike Sellers, Samford, Seibert Stadium, Southern Conference, The Citadel, Tommy Edwards, Western Carolina | Leave a comment »

The Citadel: Status of the Football Program

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

Judging from some posts at TCISN over the last few weeks (and from some non-message board discussions I have heard), there is sentiment in some circles that it’s time to make a coaching change at The Citadel. This is, in my opinion, definitely a minority viewpoint, but it’s out there.

It’s a position that reached its zenith in popularity following the offensive debacle against Georgia Southern, and I have to say it would be hard to blame anyone for having a knee-jerk reaction after sitting through that game. It was embarrassing. The improved performance against Elon last Saturday seems to have muted some of the “we need a new coach” talk, though.

That said, I seriously doubt there is going to be a coaching change after this season. Actually, I would be really, really surprised if Kevin Higgins weren’t retained.

Higgins is currently under contract through the 2013 football season. In this economic climate, there aren’t many schools that are prepared to let a coach go with three years left on his deal, and The Citadel doesn’t have a history of doing that, anyway. Just the opposite, in fact. The Citadel has honored the full contracts of “lame-duck” coaches like Don Powers in football and Randy Nesbit in basketball, just to name two.

Another thing to consider is that after last season, his second straight losing campaign (and fourth in five years), Higgins decided to completely scrap his spread offense and move to the triple option. That doesn’t strike me as the move of a man worried about job security, because he had to know when he made that decision that the 2010 season was probably going to be difficult. Maybe he didn’t think it was going to be as difficult as it has turned out, perhaps, but he knew the potential pitfalls.

I don’t know, but I would guess that before deciding to employ a new offense Higgins had a chat with AD Larry Leckonby about the move, just to make sure his position was safe for at least a couple of years. That also was likely the message Leckonby delivered to prospective assistant coaching candidates (Higgins brought in seven new assistants).

Tommy Laurendine, for example, was in a presumably “safe” job at his alma mater, Lenoir-Rhyne. I doubt he would have taken the job at The Citadel if he thought there was a chance that it would only be for one year. The same is true for Josh Conklin and Bob Bodine, among others.

Assuming Higgins is back for at least one more season, then, where does the program stand in relation to historical norms? Is keeping a coach with his overall and league record a good idea, regardless of contract status? What factors besides on-field performance need to be considered?

—

First, let’s look at some numbers (keep in mind that at the time of this post, The Citadel has yet to play its final game of the 2010 season, which is at Samford).

Kevin Higgins is 26-40 overall, 14-30 in the Southern Conference. He has been the Bulldogs’ head coach for six full seasons.

Twenty-three men have served as head coach of The Citadel. Eight of them coached prior to the school joining the Southern Conference. Tatum Gressette is the transitional coach in this respect, with the last four years of his eight-year tenure marking the first four SoCon campaigns for The Citadel.

Counting Gressette, then, let’s take a look at how Higgins compares to those fifteen coaches who competed in the Southern Conference.

— Overall record: Higgins ranks 10th out of 15 in winning percentage

— SoCon record: Higgins ranks 8th out of 15 in winning percentage

There is more to this than just those placements, though. Higgins may only be 10th alltime in overall winning percentage, but of the five coaches behind him, three of them were his immediate predecessors at The Citadel. The other two, Quinn Decker and John McMillan, were the first two coaches at The Citadel following the program’s post-World War II restart.

As for the SoCon record, Higgins has a better conference winning percentage than Ellis Johnson and John Zernhelt (but not Don Powers, interestingly), and also has a better mark than Tom Moore, along with John Rowland, Gressette, Decker, and McMillan.

Starting with John Sauer, who only coached at The Citadel for two seasons, every coach who was at The Citadel between 1955 to 2000 has a better league record than Higgins, except Moore. That includes Eddie Teague, who succeeded Sauer as head coach, and three men then-AD Teague later hired (Red Parker, Bobby Ross, and Art Baker). Moore’s successor, Charlie Taaffe, also has a better SoCon record than Higgins.

Comparing Higgins’ SoCon record to the Gressette/Rowland/Decker/McMillan group is probably pointless, though. For example, Gressette was 4-14 in league play over four seasons, but seven of his fourteen conference losses were to schools currently in the ACC or SEC.

Decker was 8-25-1 in conference action, which included playing either South Carolina or Clemson every season — as conference games. (His 1950 squad was 2-3 in the league; one of the two wins came against the Gamecocks, at Johnson Hagood Stadium.)

That doesn’t even take into account the difficulties Decker (and later McMillan) had in trying to bring the program back up to the level it had been prior to the war. It must have been hard, for the first nine seasons following the program’s return were losing campaigns. Neither Decker nor McMillan ever had a winning season at The Citadel.

—

One thing to consider when evaluating a coach’s record at The Citadel would be, simply, how successful has the school been historically in football? What should expectations be?

The Citadel has basically been a .500 program through most of its history. At the time it joined the Southern Conference, the school’s overall football record was 115-112-24. It had never had more than four consecutive winning seasons, or more than three straight losing campaigns.

The ten years leading up to league membership were fairly typical: 7-3, 3-6-1, 6-3-1, 4-5-1, 4-5-2, 5-4-1, 4-5, 3-5-1, 3-5-1, 4-3-1. Even after joining the SoCon, the overall records (as opposed to conference play) continued in a similar vein.

As I mentioned, though, in the post-WWII era the football program at The Citadel struggled. That included league play, despite the move of many of the SoCon’s bigger schools to a new confederation called the Atlantic Coast Conference. Things finally changed with the arrival, not of a coach, but of a general. Mark Clark wasn’t interested in losing.

After a bit of a false start with Sauer (probably best remembered at The Citadel for bringing in a young hotshot of an assistant named Al Davis), Clark’s hiring of Teague finally got the football program on a winning track. In its nineteenth season of league play, The Citadel would finally finish with a winning record in conference action. That was in 1957.

That’s right, it took nineteen seasons for The Citadel to have a winning league record after joining the Southern Conference. Think about that.

Four years later, the school would win its first SoCon title.

—

Earlier I stated that The Citadel has “basically been a .500 program”, but of course the actual overall record is 454-518-32. What I meant, though, is that for most of its history the school’s football program really puttered along at about a .500 clip, with two exceptions.

The first is that nine-year period following World War II. The Citadel was 27-54-1 during that stretch. The football program is 64 games under .500 alltime, and 27 of those 64 games can be accounted for in that near-decade of losing.

That’s arguably not the worst run in the history of the program, however (particularly if you account for the fact the program had been briefly dormant). The longest stretch of consistent losing The Citadel has ever had has been a 13-year period where the cumulative record of the team is 50-93, 43 games under .500, with eleven losing campaigns and only one winning season in that timespan. That includes an ugly 29-70 mark in SoCon play in those thirteen seasons.

Those thirteen years? You guessed it. They are the last thirteen years. The current era is in the discussion for being the low point for the program, at least in terms of on-field competitiveness.

—

Was there one event, a specific turning point, that led to the football program’s slide? I think so. Some people might claim it to be the dismissal of Charlie Taaffe, but that wasn’t the tipping point. No, the die was actually cast on November 23, 1999, two days before Thanksgiving that year.

Don Powers’ team had gone 2-9 that season (after a 5-6 campaign the year before). Powers was essentially a caretaker-type coach, a fill-in for Taaffe, but after four years it was clearly time for fresh blood. Walt Nadzak made the decision to reassign Powers — and then was overruled by the school president, Major General John Grinalds.

I linked Jeff Hartsell’s article about this move above; here it is again. It’s worth linking twice, because I think Grinalds’ decision, “honorable” as he thought it was, started the ball rolling downhill for the football program, and not in a good way. Sure, it was just one year. Sometimes, though, that one year matters. This was one of those times.

Timing is everything in life, and that includes college athletics. In 1999 Nadzak was faced with a football program with a deteriorating on-field performance and a decrepit stadium. He also had to contend with issues over which he had little to no control, from the proliferation of college sports (especially football) on cable television to women at The Citadel.

Nadzak knew he needed a new stadium, and he also knew that with it he needed a competitive team. He didn’t get either (although the stadium would come eventually). In a column written the following week, Ken Burger all but predicted that Grinalds’ move would signal the end of Nadzak’s tenure at The Citadel. He was correct.

Asked if he expects the Bulldogs to have a better season next year, Grinalds said, “Yes, we do.'”

The team went 2-9 for a second straight season…

—

I would suspect (although I can’t say for sure) that the dead-in-the-water aspect to the program had an impact on fundraising, perhaps including the ability of the school to raise money for the new stadium. Things went slowly, too slowly, as the world around the school kept moving faster and faster.

If you run in place, you don’t go anywhere. The Citadel needed a decent team to continue to draw fans, particularly because the stadium was becoming more and more of a problem, whether it was archaeologists digging up gravesites underneath the stadium for reburial, or the fact that you couldn’t turn on the stadium lights and the french fry machines at the same time because it would short out the electrical system, or having so many bricks fall off the facade that eventually they were all removed for safety reasons.

Now the school finally has a quality stadium, and it’s a first-rate facility. What it doesn’t have is a drawing card, a team good enough to bring in new fans (and revive interest from old fans).

Ellis Johnson tried to overcome the program’s malaise in part by featuring transfers and hideous uniforms, and it didn’t work. After three seasons, he was ready to become an FBS defensive coordinator again. John Zernhelt lasted one year, and then moved on, taking big money from the New York Jets. (Hard to blame him.)

—

In the ten years prior to Kevin Higgins taking over as coach, The Citadel had an overall record of 36-74. That’s actually a worse record by percentage than the nine-year period following World War II I referenced earlier. In addition, the school had not had a winning record in conference play since 1992, the year The Citadel won its second (and last) league title.

That’s a lot to overcome. Higgins got off to a good start, but soon found that one year does not establish a trend, or even momentum.

Can he get over the hump? Normally when a coach has his record after six seasons, he doesn’t get an opportunity to find out. However, I think the evidence suggests that Higgins had a higher mountain to climb than most, and that patience may in fact be warranted.

—

There is an elephant in the room, however. I’m talking about home attendance.

The Citadel now has a great facility, and (other than the on-field results) a very good atmosphere for home games, including the cadets, tailgating, etc…and attendance is declining at an alarming rate.

Average attendance at Johnson Hagood since 1997:

1997 — 12,173

1998 — 13,291

1999 — 14,543

2000 — 14,342

2001 — 15,687

2002 — 15,582

2003 — 16,759

2004 — 8,359 (the year of “half a stadium” and thus an aberration)

2005 — 11,674

2006 — 14,599

2007 — 13,757

2008 — 12,261

2009 — 13,029

2010 — 11,445

Ouch. Ouch for the last seven years, really, but particularly for this season.

I wrote extensively about attendance at Johnson Hagood Stadium in July of last year. That post includes my theory on how television impacts attendance at The Citadel’s home games, among other things.

The Citadel cannot afford to have its home attendance continue to erode. It’s not the only school to have concerns in that area, as anyone who has watched ACC games can attest. Ultimately, though, attendance at Johnson Hagood Stadium has to get better.

While baseball is the most successful sport at The Citadel, and basketball is the sport with the most potential for growth, football always has been and remains the bell cow for the department of athletics. It drives the entire department, and also has a significant impact on the school as a whole. Sagging attendance is a major problem, one that should concern everyone.

—

Even if The Citadel has a breakthrough year on the field next season, I would be surprised if there is a dramatic improvement in home attendance. There is often a one-year lag between on-field/on-court success and attendance gains.

Because of that, if the team were to turn the corner, and the triple option to start cranking out games like, say, Navy’s offense did against East Carolina last week, I don’t expect attendance to make a big jump in 2011 (although the home schedule should help, as Furman, Wofford, and VMI are all expected on the JHS slate of games). The 2012 season is when you would see dividends from a positive 2011 campaign.

—

Basically, I’m fine with Kevin Higgins getting another year. I haven’t been completely happy with his tenure at The Citadel, even excepting the wins and losses; there have been issues from the unimportant (my continued frustration with the uniforms) to the all-important (the Rice/Starks episode, which was much, much worse than multiple 0-11 seasons would ever be).

He seems to be popular with the administration, which is good. I thought it was interesting that the Alumni Association made him an “Honorary Life Member”; that news came after consecutive games in which his team didn’t score. I did wonder if someone was trying to make a statement to certain unhappy alums, but I suppose it was just coincidental.

After next season, though, I think Larry Leckonby has to make a move if things don’t work out. At that time Higgins will still have two years remaining on his contract, but if the team does poorly Leckonby won’t be able to afford keeping him. He can’t make the mistake that was made over a decade ago.

That’s the bottom line, even at The Citadel.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: ACC, Al Davis, Art Baker, Bob Bodine, Bobby Ross, Charlie Taaffe, Clemson, Don Powers, Eddie Teague, Ellis Johnson, Elon, Georgia Southern, Jeff Hartsell, John Grinalds, John McMillan, John Rowland, John Sauer, John Zernhelt, Johnson Hagood Stadium, Josh Conklin, Ken Burger, Kevin Higgins, Larry Leckonby, Mark Clark, Quinn Decker, Randy Nesbit, Red Parker, Samford, SEC, South Carolina, Southern Conference, Tatum Gressette, The Citadel, The Citadel Independent Sports Network, Tom Moore, Tommy Laurendine, Walt Nadzak | 2 Comments »

Review: Elon

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

Elon 27, The Citadel 16.

Good news: there were signs of life from the offense, and an absence of navy pants.

Bad news: it was still a loss, and there is still no “The” on the jerseys, regardless of color

—

Obviously the offensive unit performed much better on Saturday than in its previous four games; the 16 points were in fact the most scored by The Citadel in league play all season. There were no turnovers (!) and Ben Dupree was able to execute the offense well enough so that the Bulldogs actually got in a position to pitch the ball on multiple occasions. The Citadel only punted once.

Dupree played the entire game, made some good reads and showed an ability to improvise. The star-crossed Ricky Anderson probably had his best game as a Bulldog. Terrell Dallas demonstrated a couple of times what we already knew, namely that he’s almost an ideal fullback for the triple option offense.

You will excuse me, however, if I point out some things on offense that weren’t so great (besides the loss):

— The Bulldogs did not turn the ball over, but did fumble three times and had several other instances of a less-than-clean center-QB exchange, which generally resulted in lost-yardage or no-yardage plays. This area of execution did get better, but there is still quite a bit of improvement that needs to be made.

— Dupree didn’t make every read correctly, which showed in some plays that were “stuffed”, both on the inside and on the outside.

— The Bulldogs entered the “red zone” five times on Saturday, but only scored 16 points. Elon’s red zone success vs. that of The Citadel was the difference in the game (more on that later).

— Luke Caldwell’s 26-yard pass reception in the third quarter (on a 4th-and-8 play that set up The Citadel’s first touchdown) was the only play the Bulldogs offense had that gained more than eighteen yards. The Citadel now has only nine plays of 20+ yards in its last seven contests.

— When evaluating the offense’s play, another thing to take into consideration is that Elon is not the greatest of defensive teams. The Phoenix are next-to-last in the Southern Conference in total defense and rushing defense, and third-from-last in scoring defense and pass defense. Elon lacks a truly disruptive playmaker on the defensive line like Georgia Southern’s Brent Russell or Wofford’s Ameet Pall — and the Phoenix’s best lineman, Brandon Ward, did not play against The Citadel after being arrested on an assault charge earlier in the week.

All that said, it was an encouraging performance by the offense. I admit I was worried that the Homecoming crowd would be subjected to some brutal moments of ineptitude, but for the most part those were avoided. I wish this was the kind of game we had been getting from the offensive unit in early October rather than early November, but sometimes you have to take what you can get.

—

Unfortunately, after two straight weeks of solid play while getting no help from the offense, the Bulldog defense didn’t quite get it done on Saturday. The Citadel seemed to have caught a break when Phoenix starting quarterback Scott Riddle got injured at Chattanooga, but Elon backup QB Thomas Wilson made no big mistakes and methodically led his team down the field, particularly in the second half.

What the Bulldog D couldn’t do, ultimately, was get off the field, especially in the second half. Elon scored touchdowns on all three of its second-half drives (not counting a one-play drive that was a kneeldown to end the game). The Phoenix consistently converted on third down (9-13 for the game) and did not commit a turnover. Indeed, the two offenses had similar numbers; besides the lack of turnovers, there were very few big plays (Elon had two 20+ yard plays to The Citadel’s one).

The difference was how the two teams did in the red zone. Elon moved inside The Citadel’s 20-yard line on four occasions, and scored touchdowns all four times. That has proven to be the defense’s biggest problem this season, as the Bulldogs are last in the SoCon in red zone defense, having allowed 29 touchdowns in 41 red-zone possessions.

The Citadel got some stops in the second quarter, but other than that Elon efficiently picked up chain-moving yardage on almost every play (The Citadel only had four tackles for loss in the game), converted on third down when necessary and scored when it got its opportunities. The few times Elon faced third-and-long, it managed to pick up the first down via the pass (including critical 19- and 14-yard third down completions late in the third quarter after The Citadel had retaken the lead).

—

While there were no offensive big plays, The Citadel did get an 87-yard kickoff return from Keith Gamble to set up its second TD. Earlier in the game, the Bulldogs also converted a fourth down via a fake field goal that probably would have resulted in a touchdown if it had been a little more smoothly executed. Alas, that first down led to a shorter field goal attempt that was blocked.

—

Okay, time to talk about the uniforms…

Link

I was afraid of a potential red jersey/navy pants combo, but thankfully that did not come to pass. As for the actual jersey and helmet:

— As mentioned earlier, no “THE”; that would have been too difficult, I guess

— I liked the “Big Red” crescent/tree logo on the shoulders; very distinctive

— The color itself wasn’t overly obnoxious (in other words, it wasn’t an “electric” red)

— I don’t like the “side panels”, which are a Nike staple, and they look even worse with this combo

— The numerals were hard to read, which is also true of the navy jerseys

— I think the navy stripes on the helmet should have been red

— The helmet logo should have featured original artwork; as it is, it’s just a redo of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ mark

—

I didn’t have a problem with breaking out the red jerseys for this game. The original Big Red, of course, arrived on campus in March; its disappearance and rediscovery is an interesting tale. Wearing red jerseys for the Homecoming following that development seemed reasonably appropriate (and a good way to push merchandise).

I’m not sure I would want to see them again, however. I certainly don’t want the football team wearing red jerseys to become a yearly event. I think doing that would make it much less special, and also detract from the school’s traditional colors for its sports teams.

Of course, it could be argued that the parade of different football uniform color combinations this season has already devalued the tradition of wearing light blue and white. In ten games, the Bulldogs have worn six different jersey/pant color combos, including four different looks for the six home games.

In fact, I think the fact The Citadel did not have a standard uniform combination this season made the red jerseys seem a little less unusual. Let’s face it, if the Bulldogs had lined up wearing silver or black, nobody would have been all that shocked, so the red jersey wasn’t that much of a departure.

—

Now The Citadel gets a bye week. As bye weeks go, this one can’t be more pointless. Ten straight games, then a bye week, then a road game at Samford to finish the season. I realize this is mostly due to the odd number of teams in the Southern Conference (nine), but it still seems dumb.

I feel a little better about the team after Saturday’s game, but the Bulldogs are still 2-8, with a seven-game losing streak, and winless in the SoCon. It’s a transition year, to be sure, but I would like to start transitioning to victories.

Later in the week (I hope) I’m going to write about Kevin Higgins’ tenure at The Citadel and the status of the program as a whole.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Ameet Pall, Ben Dupree, Big Red, Brandon Ward, Brent Russell, Elon, Georgia Southern, Keith Gamble, Kevin Higgins, Luke Caldwell, Ricky Anderson, Samford, Scott Riddle, Southern Conference, Terrell Dallas, The Citadel, Thomas Wilson, Wofford | Leave a comment »

Football, Game 10: The Citadel vs. Elon

Posted on November 4, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

Time/location: 2:00 pm ET, Johnson Hagood Stadium

Television: None (maybe a good thing)

—

It’s Homecoming at The Citadel. What can alums expect from the Bulldogs’ offense against Elon?

Well, let’s look at the trends in Southern Conference play. The first game was against Furman. The latest was against Wofford. So, in order:

Furman — 359 total yards, 14 points

Western Carolina — 304 total yards, 13 points

Chattanooga — 263 total yards, 10 points

Appalachian State — 197 total yards, 10 points

Georgia Southern — 160 yards, 0 points

Wofford — 143 total yards, 0 points

Now, that’s what I call a trend…

—

The yards per play is very close to the same orderly negative statistical trend, but there was a minor uptick against GSU (masked by nine turnovers). For the record, The Citadel’s yards per play in the SoCon, in order of games played: 4.6, 4.1, 4.0, 3.3, 3.4, 2.3

So, if things continue as they have in the league, The Citadel’s Homecoming will feature an offense that will accumulate less than 140 yards of total offense, average about 2 yards per play, and won’t score.

I don’t think it will be that bad, but it’s hard to find much to be encouraged about, at least offensively (the defense has played fairly well over the last month, certainly well enough for the Bulldogs to have won SoCon games if the offense had been competent).

Turnovers have been the headline problem, of course, but another issue is that the Bulldogs aren’t making big plays in the offense. One reason The Citadel has scored only five touchdowns in six conference games is a lack of long-distance runs or passes. The Bulldogs only have had eight plays of 20+ yards in those six contests; only two of those plays were longer than 30 yards — and one of those two plays was a 33-yard run by punter Cass Couey, obviously not a product of the option offense.

The Bulldogs have had nine drives of greater than 50 yards in league play. Four of those nine came against Furman in the conference opener. None came in the last two games.

Incidentally, of those nine 50+ yard drives, Matt Thompson was the quarterback for five of them, Sam Martin the QB for the other four.

—

I would like to think the Bulldogs will give a spirited performance for the Homecoming crowd. That didn’t happen last season, when The Citadel lost 43-17 to Wofford in a very poor showing that greatly disappointed the alumni.

The year before, the Bulldogs narrowly averted a horrific loss at Homecoming to a terrible Chattanooga team. The Mocs were in the process of mailing in their season under a lame-duck coach, but The Citadel needed last-minute heroics from Andre Roberts to escape with a 24-21 victory.

—

This year’s Homecoming game has been designated as a “Red Out”. There are two reasons for this, in my opinion.

The official reason is to commemorate the return of “Big Red”. The other (and this is just my opinion) is to take advantage of the largest crowd of the season and sell a bunch of “Big Red” merchandise.

That crowd size has to be the only reason the administration would have considered having a “Red Out” for a game in which the opponent is Elon, whose primary school color is…red. At least, I hope that’s the only reason. It still strikes me as not being a wise decision, and I know I’m not the only one.

The effort to promote Big Red apparently will also include red jerseys for the football team, if the rumors are true (and I’m sure they are). There will also be a special Homecoming helmet design (see post #40 on this thread from TCISN), which is basically a remake of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ helmets. Not bad, but not innovative or particularly interesting.

If The Citadel does indeed don red jerseys against Elon, that will mean the Bulldogs would not have worn the traditional home color combo of light blue jerseys/white pants for any home game this season. I guess at this point our traditional colors are now alternate colors, and the alternate uniforms are the “main” uniforms.

Below I’ve listed the color combos for all nine games to date in 2010:

Chowan (home): light blue jerseys, dark blue pants

Arizona (road): white jerseys, white pants

Presbyterian (home): dark blue jerseys, dark blue pants

Furman (road): dark blue jerseys, dark blue pants

Western Carolina (home): light blue jerseys, dark blue pants

Appalachian State (road): white jerseys, white pants

Chattanooga (home): dark blue jerseys, white pants

Georgia Southern (home): dark blue jerseys, dark blue pants

Wofford (road): white jerseys, dark blue pants

One thing I’m unfortunately fairly confident about: if The Citadel does wear red jerseys on Saturday, the jerseys will have “CITADEL” on the front, and not “THE CITADEL”. That, of course, is true for all the other jerseys the Bulldogs have worn this year, regardless of color. I assume it’s a cost-saving issue, as having the “THE” on the jersey would undoubtedly cost the school hundreds of thousands of dollars.

—

This is one of my more cynical and less positive posts, and so the fact it’s also one of my shorter game previews is probably just as well. That said, I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised on Saturday. For one thing, it’s time for a little payback as far as Elon is concerned. The Phoenix’s last visit to Johnson Hagood Stadium (in 2008) was a victory for the visitors, one basically handed to Elon by inept Southern Conference officiating.

Quarterback Scott Riddle may not start for Elon due to injury. You may remember the last time Riddle started something against The Citadel; he ran away before finishing it, though.

Riddle can talk to Fred Jordan about shoulder injuries…

—

I’m not expecting a brawl on Saturday. I do want to see some fight in the Bulldogs, though.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Andre Roberts, Appalachian State, Big Red, Cass Couey, Chattanooga, Chowan, Elon, Furman, Georgia Southern, Matt Thompson, Presbyterian, Sam Martin, Southern Conference, The Citadel, Western Carolina, Wofford | 1 Comment »

The bandwagon makes a stop at WLI Field

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

Last spring my youngest niece began playing soccer in a local league. I went to a few of her games (after all, I am the sports dork in the family).

The games were for the most part conducted in a congenial atmosphere, with families watching their charges at play. Her team was, to be honest, not the most skilled of squads. This wasn’t exactly surprising, as they were all first-graders, and most of them were new to the game.

The basic plan of attack went like this: if the ball rolled in the general vicinity of a player, that player would attempt to kick it, hopefully in the right direction. There was no guarantee that significant contact with the ball would be made.

A goal-scoring opportunity would occur if a player managed to kick the ball hard enough to get it close to the other team’s net; then there would be a meeting at the ball of a number of players on each team, and if the right kick happened at the right time, and the keeper wasn’t up to the task, then a goal might be scored.

Well, maybe the squad was a little better than that. The girls did practice every week, and were instructed in the fundamentals. During the games, the team’s coach would organize his troops. “Stay in position! Stay in position!” he would yell, somewhat mournfully. Staying in position (or perhaps just staying focused) was seemingly a hard thing for them to do.

I watched the team play three times. It won once and lost twice. One of the teams it played had much better players and won 4-0. Clearly that outfit had brought in ringers. The other two opponents were more on their level; the girls lost 2-1 to one team, and beat the other one 2-0. During the spring season, they were basically a .500 outfit.

After the summer break, the team started play again for the fall campaign. I didn’t realize there was a fall season, so I wasn’t prepared for the telephone call I got a few weeks ago from my brother. First he told me that the team had played two games already; then the conversation went something like this:

Him: “They won 8-0 last night.”

Me: “8-0? Did the other team have more than two players?”

Him: “Yeah, they just…well, I can’t explain it. But…our team is real good now.”

Me: “Did they get some ringers like that other team did?”

Him: “No, it’s the same girls as in the spring. It’s just they got good all of a sudden.”

Me: “What was the score in the other game they played?”

Him: “10-0.”

Me: “Did she score?”

Him (and I could see him grinning, even over the telephone): “She scored a goal in the last game.”

They later won a game in which they scored twelve goals, and apparently there is now talk that they are too good for their league and might have to move up an age level, which seems a little unfair to me, kind of like asking Oregon to play in the NFC West (although maybe that’s not such a stretch, come to think of it).

—

I was thinking about my niece’s team as I contemplated the rise of another soccer team, that of my alma mater, which has made an even more improbable leap. I wondered if comparing the two outfits might be instructive, but I thought better of it. Maybe someone could have seen the improvement in my niece’s team coming, but there is no way anyone was expecting the season The Citadel has had in soccer. No one, that is, except perhaps head coach Bob Winch:

[Question] Did you see this coming?

“Yeah, a little bit. Last year, we were successful defensively and we always had a chance in our games. This year, we’ve been able to score some goals and that’s helped us win some games.”

Let’s go over some stats…

Through early October of 2008, The Citadel’s women’s soccer team had an alltime record in Southern Conference play of 0-74-2. No, that’s not a typo. On October 10 of that year, the squad finally won a game in the league, beating Georgia Southern 2-1. The Bulldogs would drop their final six SoCon games that year and finish 1-10 in the conference.

That was two years ago. Last season The Citadel finished with a record of 2-7-2 in SoCon play, beating GSU again (the program’s first league road victory) and also knocking off Chattanooga. The two ties were both scoreless matches played over the same weekend in games at Appalachian State and at Western Carolina.

The team’s noticeable improvement in competitiveness garnered Winch the league’s coach of the year award. It’s not often a COY award is given to someone whose team had a winning percentage of just 27% in league play, but it’s not often a coach doubles his program’s alltime conference win total in one season, either.

This season, of course, has gone beyond that, and then some. The Citadel won 7 of its 11 conference games, including first-ever wins over Wofford, Davidson, Elon, Appalachian State, and Western Carolina. In league action, The Bulldogs were 4-2 on the road and 3-2 at WLI Field (in the regular season).

I don’t know if you can give Winch another coach of the year award for that. Coach of the century, maybe.

—

When I was researching the league-only SoCon stats for women’s soccer, I was struck by how The Citadel had managed to finish third in the league despite not leading, or even being that close to leading, any significant statistical category. There are twelve teams in the conference. The Bulldogs’s rank in official statistical categories is as follows:

Goals – 6th

Assists – 9th

Shots – 7th

Goals allowed – 10th

Saves – 5th

Shutouts – 10th (tie)

Fouls – 5th (tie)

Corner kicks – 6th

Offsides – 11th

Yellow Cards – 5th

You could argue, I suppose, that The Citadel being 11th in offsides calls against is a good thing, although it could also suggest a lack of aggression and/or possession. At any rate, it would appear to be a statistic that has no bearing on a team’s win-loss record, at least in the SoCon.

The Citadel is only in the top 4 in one statistical category (besides wins, of course). The Bulldogs finished in first place in the league…in red cards.

There were two red cards shown in conference play this season, and they were both given to Bulldog players. (In addition, Bob Winch, given a red card in the league tournament game against Furman on Sunday, was apparently the first and only coach to be dismissed from any SoCon game this season.)

The red card stat surprised me. It would be hard to conclude the Bulldogs are a particularly rough outfit, either statistically (a middle-of-the-pack team in fouls and yellow cards) or from watching them play.

Of course, the fact we’re just talking about two cards, and thus two situations, indicates a small sample size, and possibly a fluke. Further investigation was required.

I first viewed the videotape for the second of the two red cards, given to Shanna Couch during the Samford match, easily the team’s worst performance of the season (losing at home 7-0). At the 63-minute mark, the Bulldog keeper came out of the goal during a Samford mini-breakaway. Samford wound up with a shot on goal that would have gone in, except Crouch palmed it away on the goal line.

That was a problem, since Crouch wasn’t the keeper, and she thus got a straight red. Honesty compels me to admit it was deserved. Sorry, Shanna.

The other red card was given to defender (and erstwhile diarist) Leah Hawkins during the Chattanooga match. Hawkins had picked up a yellow card at the 60-minute mark for an overly aggressive tackle. At the 83-minute mark, with The Citadel leading 2-0, she collided with a UTC player while going for the ball, received a second yellow, and was sent off.

When the collision happened, the UTC coach immediately began yelling for the yellow card, which wasn’t the first time he had complained about various calls or non-calls during the game. (He was rather vocal.) I don’t think I would have booked Hawkins if I had been the official — it was clearly neither a “professional” foul nor a dangerous play — but maybe the referee decided to throw the Mocs coach a bone.

Tangent: in all fairness to the UTC coach, he was probably stressed out by that point with his team’s play and with an injury that occurred to one of his players in the first half. Shortly after a rather innocuous clash with a Bulldog player, a Moc midfielder dropped to the ground, right on the sideline next to the UTC bench, and began shrieking in apparent pain. She continued to cry out for several minutes while receiving attention from a Moc trainer.

I have no idea how she had been hurt, or the specifics of the injury, and I suspect I don’t really want to know. She was eventually able to leave the field of play, more or less under her own power.

While that was going on the two teams retreated to the center of the pitch, with each holding an impromptu meeting, seemingly oblivious to what was happening on the sideline. I got the impression the Moc players were talking about how nice the weather was and how lousy the bus trip back to Chattanooga was going to be, while the Bulldogs were comparing notes on an SMI and discussing how their uniforms were so much better than the football team’s duds.

My conclusion is that the two red cards do not necessarily indicate a leaguewide conspiracy. However, I am certain that fans of the Bulldogs will continue to be vigilant in ensuring that the school’s players are fairly treated.

—

Red cards aside, how have the Bulldogs managed an upper-echelon league finish while not placing that highly in the conference statistics? How does a team go 7-4 while being outscored 20-15? The Citadel’s goals for/goals against number of -5 is equal to that of Appalachian State and Western Carolina, two teams that didn’t even make the SoCon tournament, yet the Bulldogs won enough games to host a tourney match.

Well, it helps to limit most of your poor play to just a couple of matches. As mentioned above, The Citadel lost 7-0 to Samford. It also lost two 3-0 games, to league regular season champion UNC-Greensboro and to Furman.

In the other eight regular-season SoCon games it played, though, The Citadel allowed only seven goals. It won seven of those eight contests.

In six of those seven wins (and in a loss to the College of Charleston), The Citadel allowed one goal. The Bulldogs recorded just one shutout, the aforementioned game against Chattanooga, but won five games by a 2-1 scoreline and another 3-1.

That is the type of defense that can keep a team in the game. It’s also the kind of defense that The Citadel played last season, as Winch mentioned in that quote from the link. In fact, last year the Bulldogs only allowed 14 goals in 11 SoCon matches. The problem was that The Citadel only scored five goals in those matches.

The Bulldogs have been able to put a bulge in the auld onion bag this year on a number of occasions, though (as I channel Tommy Smyth, and if you’re still reading this I know you’re groaning). It is the main difference between last year and this year, and what has propelled the program to unprecedented heights. This season the Bulldogs have scored fifteen goals in league play, which while not an overwhelming amount has been just enough.

The Citadel scored two goals in six of its conference wins, and three in the other victory. Give up one, get two — that has been the basic formula, and it has worked.

—

There are just two seniors on this year’s team, Nicole Martinoli (one of five Floridians on the roster) and Dominic Snyder (one of five players hailing from outside the United States). Martinoli stated earlier this season that:

“The program has grown tremendously, and it’s not just because of this year’s team. It’s because of all the effort of the girls on past teams.”

She’s right, of course, and I am sure there are a lot of very proud former players hanging on every kick of this year’s team. Some of the best kicking going on, though, is coming from the boots of some precocious freshmen.

The core of the defense-minded players is primarily made up of upperclassmen like Hawkins, Couch, Hannah Warne, and Angela Foyt, plus the goalkeeping duo of Whitney Nave and Laura Serafino, but the offensive punch has come mostly from first-year players like Mariana Garcia, Nicole Levermann, Jillian Meyer, and Vanessa Aponte. The freshmen have combined to score 13 of The Citadel’s 15 goals in SoCon play (Martinoli, repping the old guard, has the other two) and have all but one of the assists in league games (Lexington High School alum Miranda Johnson has the other).

What do they bring to the table? Well, in the opinion of this non-expert, collectively the freshmen have a nice combination of pace and skill. All of them have good speed, and not just mighty mites like Garcia, Taylor Viana, and Ruth Leiva. The 5’10” Levermann can pick ’em up and put ’em down, too, when she gets going, and when she does she’s hard to stop.

Garcia and Levermann have nine of the fifteen SoCon goals. The opener against Davidson was fairly typical. Garcia ran two Wildcat defenders ragged as she led them on a merry chase to the corner flag. She started to move away from the flag and down the sideline, and then passed the ball to Johnson at the top right corner of the 18-yard box.

Johnson quickly dinked a pass to Levermann, who slipped between two defenders six yards from goal and almost casually flicked the ball past the keeper with her left foot. She would finish the afternoon with a hat trick.

—

Another impressive thing about the Bulldogs is that they have accomplished all this despite losing one of their best players, junior Amy Loughran, after just ten games. Loughran had already scored five goals this season (after an eight-goal outburst last year that included game-winners against Coastal Carolina and Georgia Southern) when she broke two bones in her leg against Appalachian State.

When I wrote about the soccer team last year, one of the things that concerned me was the small roster size. Last season, there were no freshmen on the team, which struck me as unusual, and not optimal. (One freshman who was supposed to be on the squad last year but was injured prior to enrolling at The Citadel, goalkeeper Cassie Palmacci, is on the team this season.)

This year the Bulldogs have eighteen players on their roster, four more than last season, which perhaps makes the loss of Loughran a little more manageable, although still not easy.

—

One thing I worried about was how the team would finish the season. After clinching a tourney home game with its seventh league victory, The Citadel lost its last two games, 3-0 to Furman and 1-0 at the College of Charleston. I was afraid that the outstanding campaign would end with a bit of a whimper, which wouldn’t have been the first time that happened to a team from The Citadel having an unexpectedly great year (examples include the 1989 and 2009 basketball teams, just to name two).

That made the tournament opener (the first conference tournament game in the program’s history) more important, in my view. Making the storyline even more interesting was the opponent, Furman, which had just beaten the Bulldogs at WLI the week before and which had never lost to The Citadel.

For a while, it looked like that streak might continue. The two teams traded goals in regulation, with the Bulldogs missing a great chance to go up 2-0, only to see the Paladins equalize only two minutes later. Then it went to overtime and a “golden goal” scenario, where the first team to score would immediately win the game.

The first OT was scoreless. The two teams were to play up to ten more minutes in a second overtime; if the score remained 1-1 after that, then penalty kicks would decide things. Nobody wants to see a match go to PKs, and fortunately for The Citadel, this one didn’t.

A Furman defender was called for handball, which I thought happened in the box (which would have given The Citadel a penalty kick to win the game). However, a free kick was the call, just outside the box. The Paladins set up their wall, but Aponte curled a kick around the right side of it, past the diving keeper, and into the bottom of the net for the game-winner.

I have noticed that most of the Bulldogs’ goal celebrations are a bit muted (perhaps it’s a league or NCAA rule), but this one was certainly not. It was spontaneous and wild. The good feelings lasted for quite a while after the game; at one point, long after the match’s end, Jaslene Thiara momentarily stopped hugging Levermann long enough to wag a “We’re Number 1!” finger to the camera, whooping it up in style.

—

That might be the team’s last chance to relish a big win this year, and if it is, that would be understandable. Progressing much further in the league tournament will be a tall order. On Friday in the SoCon semifinals, The Citadel will face Samford, which handed the Bulldogs that 7-0 shellacking at WLI referenced earlier in this post, and waiting on the other side of the bracket is UNC-Greensboro, which is currently ranked in the Top 25 and has won twelve straight games. (The Spartans beat The Citadel 3-0 in Greensboro in the regular season.)

The odds aren’t really in the Bulldogs’ favor. On the other hand, Samford needed penalty kicks to get past Davidson in the first round of the league tourney, and UNCG struggled before finally outlasting Wofford, 1-0, in its tourney opener. Now all four teams left will move to a neutral site in Cullowhee (the fourth school remaining, Elon, won at the College of Charleston on Sunday). Maybe there will be a surprise champion, preferably one with a military bent.

—

I hope this is the start of a long, successful run for the women’s soccer program. I think it would be fun to tell my niece that if she were good enough, maybe someday she could go to The Citadel and play soccer on the hallowed grounds of WLI Field, following the great champions of the past. If that happened, she would immediately become the most successful athlete in the history of her family, which admittedly would be faint praise (her eldest uncle in particular being one of the least athletic individuals to ever spend four years at the military college).

It has to be very difficult for a women’s team sport to compete and win at the Division I level at The Citadel. As of this September there were 142 women in the corps of cadets. Eighteen of them are playing soccer. That’s almost 13% of the total number of female cadets. The comparison between other schools is jarring. Georgia Southern has over 9,000 female students; Appalachian State, almost 8,000. Those are just a couple of schools in the Southern Conference.

Technically, though, The Citadel is also competing in Division I with schools like Ohio State, UCLA, and Texas. Think about the enormous difference in total resources, both human and otherwise, between The Citadel and those universities when competing in NCAA athletics. (That’s true for the men’s teams as well, of course; it’s just the difference when comparing the women’s sports is exponentially greater.)

Then you have the military component, which is, to say the least, of some consequence…

Another concern I have, which may or may not be material, is the support (of the non-financial variety) the program gets from the alumni. I’m not talking about people being unaware of the program or simply ignoring it; that goes with the territory of being a “non-revenue” sport at a school where most graduates are not born-and-bred sports fans anyway, and if they are their interest is often exclusively devoted to football, basketball, and/or baseball.

I wonder a little, though, about how it being a women’s sport plays in Peoria (or Pelion). I think it goes without saying that a significant percentage of alums are still uncomfortable with the idea of women attending The Citadel. Some of them are going to be less than crazy about casting their lot with a women’s team (and soccer still has a “foreign” connotation for some, although I think that notion is beginning to disappear).

My personal opinion, which is possibly a touch cynical, is that most alumni will gladly jump on any bandwagon provided by The Citadel, whenever one becomes available. If you’ve got a winner, you’ve got a lot of friends. That makes Bob Winch a popular fellow these days, other than with Southern Conference officials.

Good luck to the team on Friday.

Filed under: Soccer, The Citadel | Tagged: Amy Loughran, Angela Foyt, Appalachian State, Bob Winch, Cassie Palmacci, Chattanooga, Coastal Carolina, College of Charleston, Davidson, Dominic Snyder, Elon, Furman, Georgia Southern, Hannah Warne, Jaslene Thiara, Jillian Meyer, Laura Serafino, Leah Hawkins, Mariana Garcia, Miranda Johnson, Nicole Levermann, Nicole Martinoli, Ruth Leiva, Samford, Shanna Couch, Soccer, Southern Conference, Taylor Viana, The Citadel, UNC-Greensboro, Vanessa Aponte, Western Carolina, Whitney Nave, WLI Field, Wofford | Leave a comment »

Review: Wofford

Posted on October 31, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

During the game, SportSouth played a clip of The Citadel Regimental Band playing at the 2010 Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

It was easily the highlight of the telecast for The Citadel.

—

Sam Wyche struggled trying to come up with a positive for the Bulldogs. At one point, he noted that The Citadel had cut its turnovers in half from the week before. When the best thing that can be said about your offense is that it didn’t commit nine turnovers in consecutive weeks, your offense has issues.

(Wyche also struggled with calling Kevin Higgins by his right name, at least twice referring to “Mike Higgins” before sheepishly correcting himself. I think Wyche is a solid announcer, so I wouldn’t hold it against him. Calling a game like that one can be difficult.)

—

The Citadel has been shut out in consecutive games for the first time in a decade. In case you were wondering, the last time the Bulldogs were shut out three times in a row was 1953, when The Citadel actually suffered four straight shutout losses. I would say that if the Bulldogs can’t put a crooked number on the board against Elon on Homecoming, it’s going to get ugly, but the fact is that it’s already ugly.

Not only have the Bulldogs been shut out twice in succession, in neither game did The Citadel snap the ball in the opponent’s “red zone”. The closest the Bulldogs have come to the opposing end zone in the last two games? In the Georgia Southern game, The Citadel reached the GSU 23-yard line before fumbling. Against Wofford, the deepest penetration was the Terrier 38-yard line, which is where The Citadel was when the game ended.

I didn’t understand why the Bulldogs did not make an effort to run more plays at the game’s end, to be honest. Why not at least try to score? What did they have to lose? I was disappointed in that.

I was disappointed in a lot of things…

—

From Jeff Hartsell’s notes column on the game:

The Bulldogs also put freshman Ben Dupree in at quarterback for the first time since the season opener against Chowan. Dupree, who had been playing at slotback, ran nine times for a net of three yards.

“Just trying to get something to jump-start the offense,” Higgins said. “In practice, when Ben’s in there, he usually breaks one or two for 50-plus yards. He did some things, but also put the ball on the ground, too.”

I’ve got to ask…if he has been breaking “one or two for 50-plus yards” in practice, why wasn’t he put in the game at quarterback in other games? Is there any particular reason a potential big-play threat wouldn’t have been useful against Georgia Southern, or Chattanooga, or Western Carolina?

The quarterback rotation in the game against Wofford was curious. Matt Thompson started, was replaced by Dupree, who was replaced by Thompson, who gave way to Sam Martin.

This might not be exactly right, so I apologize if I’m off by a play or two, but I think the rotation went like this: Thompson for two series (six plays), followed by Dupree for three series (fifteen plays), followed by Thompson for seven series (twenty-five plays), followed by Martin for two series (sixteen plays).

The Citadel managed only 143 yards of total offense. About half of that came during the last two series of the contest; Martin was in the game for both. That’s not to say he was necessarily playing better than the other two quarterbacks (after all, Wofford wasn’t playing many of its starters by that time), but the team did move the ball a little bit when he was in the game.

The defense turned in a respectable performance. It did allow two long scoring drives, but otherwise held up its end of the bargain. It has to be tough to constantly defend on your side of the field. Wofford’s average starting position on its offensive possessions was its own 44-yard line (although that’s better than last week, when GSU’s average drive started on The Citadel’s 40-yard line).

Eric Clanton and Tolu Akindele were noticeably active (Akindele forced two fumbles). Rod Harland led the team with ten tackles.

—

Everyone knew this wasn’t going to be the easiest of seasons, not with the transition to the triple option offense. I think what is most frustrating, though, is that Bulldog fans really haven’t seen that much of the triple option in action.

Instead, they’ve seen constant problems with the exchanges between the quarterback and the center, and the quarterback and the fullback. It’s as if the play never develops, and the result is the quarterback being tackled for a three-yard loss, or a fumble, or both.

In addition, when The Citadel attempts a pass it is more often than not a “cover your eyes” situation.

—

On to Elon. It’s Homecoming. My advice to alums returning for their reunions: concentrate on the tailgating.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Ben Dupree, Chattanooga, Elon, Eric Clanton, Georgia Southern, Jeff Hartsell, Kevin Higgins, Matt Thompson, Rod Harland, Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Sam Martin, Sam Wyche, SportSouth, The Citadel, The Citadel Regimental Band, Tolu Akindele, Western Carolina, Wofford | Leave a comment »

Football, Game 9: The Citadel vs. Wofford

Posted on October 29, 2010 by Sandlapper Spike

Date and time: Saturday, October 30, at 1:30 pm ET

Television: SportSouth and FCS-Central; Tom Werme and Sam Wyche on the call from Spartanburg

—

This, somewhat amazingly, is going to be the fifth year in a row the game between Wofford and The Citadel has been televised. I believe it’s the third consecutive time Werme and Wyche have called the game; in 2006 the game was televised by South Carolina ETV, while the last three (and Saturday’s game) have all been carried by SportSouth.

Tangent: The Citadel doesn’t appear on television that often, which is understandable, but this week there are two Big XII matchups that won’t be televised, which is less understandable. One reason for this is the Big XII has a poor TV contract, and the other is that one of the matchups is a Texas A&M home game.

Aggies AD Bill Byrne is well-known for his aversion to pay-per-view telecasts, or regional broadcasts where the school doesn’t receive a payout. He apparently believes televising home games hurts attendance. He is almost certainly wrong about that, at least in the long term. I actually wrote a little bit about this subject in last year’s Wofford preview.

A school with a tradition as grand as that of Texas A&M should have no trouble with home attendance in the first place. At any rate, television is a great promotional tool for a school’s football program and the university in general, and it’s very surprising that in 2010, there is still someone in a position of authority who doesn’t believe that.

Byrne may be the final holdout, after the 2007 death of longtime Chicago Blackhawks owner “Dollar Bill” Wirtz. As a result, Texas A&M was the last FBS team to appear on TV this season, when it finally had a game against Oklahoma State televised.

—

When I initially started writing this post, my idea was to use the bulk of it to discuss Kevin Higgins’ status as head coach of The Citadel. However, I changed my mind about one-third of the way through it, for a couple of reasons.

One is that I felt I had not had time to thoroughly research a couple of points I wanted to make. I didn’t want to write some hurried screed lacking proper foundation, particularly on this issue. Also, I’m not sure writing about a coach’s tenure immediately after his team commits nine turnovers lends itself to treating things with proper perspective.

It’s just a blog, but I do have some standards…

What I’m going to do, I think, is wait until The Citadel’s bye week, and then in lieu of a normal preview (since there won’t be a game to write about) I’ll post my thoughts on the coaching situation.

Because of the last-minute change in approach, this preview is going to be shorter than normal. That is probably just as well, because to be perfectly honest I’m not quite sure what to say about Saturday’s game against the Terriers, other than the Bulldogs can’t possibly play worse on offense than they did against Georgia Southern. At least, I hope not.

—

Wofford was 3-8 last season, as it struggled with a lot of injuries and what was considered a bad case of fumbleitis, although not as bad as the Bulldogs’ fumbling problems this year. The Citadel has fumbled 33 times, losing 19. Through eight games last season, Wofford had fumbled 19 times, losing 13.

Wofford lost one fumble in its ninth game, against The Citadel, but unfortunately that didn’t keep the Terriers from scoring 43 points.

Last season one of Wofford’s key injuries was to fullback Eric Breitenstein. He’s back this season, and leading the nation in scoring, averaging just over two touchdowns per game (he scored four times against Furman while rushing for 234 yards). Breitenstein has scored at least two touchdowns in his last six games.

Mitch Allen struggled last year for the Terriers, but the quarterback has been much improved this season. Allen had a season-high 178 yards rushing against Western Carolina (one of three Terriers to rush for over 100 yards in that game). He also has a 3.9 GPA in Physics, which a professor at another Southern Conference school once told me would be the equivalent of a 2.9 GPA at The Citadel. (Hey, I’m just reporting the facts here.)

While perusing the statistics, I was surprised to see that Wofford’s opponents actually have had a slight edge in time of possession. Wofford is converting 43% of its third down attempts, which is a little lower than what the Terriers would like but better than last season. Wofford as usual has not shied away from going for it on 4th down, and the Terriers are 8 for 11 in that category.

Mike Niam is a 6’3″, 245 lb. linebacker for Wofford. He played in two games last season for the Terriers, leading the team in tackles both times, before tearing his ACL. He returned for spring practice, then had to have surgery on his knee in the fall, when it was discovered he had torn his ACL again. He missed the first five games of the season, but returned two weeks ago — and has led the team in tackles in both games since returning.

Wofford’s best defensive player, though, is DE Ameet Pall, a Canadian who leads the nation in sacks per game (1.5). He has 10.5 sacks total on the season (3 of those against Furman — boy, that was a tough game for the Paladins, wasn’t it?). Peet has 15 tackles for loss overall. At least one observer rates him ahead of GSU defensive tackle Brent Russell, which is really saying something.

Wofford placekicker Christian Reed is 8-10 on FG attempts but has missed four PATs this season (including a stretch of three misses in a row). The Terriers have only punted 25 times in seven games; just five of those have been returned (although for a 13-yard average that probably concerns Terrier coaches).

Wofford games don’t feature a lot of penalties. The Terriers are being flagged about five times per game. Wofford opponents are only averaging three penalties per contest, which I find a bit curious.

One injury of note for Wofford: center Trey Johnson broke his arm in last week’s game against Elon. He will be replaced by redshirt freshman Jared Singleton, who played most of that contest after Johnson got hurt.

—

Last season’s game against Wofford was one of the more disappointing games I’ve seen at Johnson Hagood Stadium. (Unfortunately, this year I’ve seen two games at JHS that were even more disappointing.) The Bulldogs played poorly in all aspects of the game, and the score reflected that.

Kevin Higgins thinks that the matchup with Wofford on Saturday will be “a great football game“. I’m glad he thinks it will be, since he’s the head coach. Of course, last season he thought the Bulldogs were “going to war“. That wasn’t quite the case.

I just watch the games from a safe distance, and from what I’ve seen, I don’t think it’s going to be a great game. Wofford has confidence, experience, and is at home. The Citadel (at least offensively) lacks confidence, experience, and is on the road. The Bulldogs have lost 11 straight SoCon games away from home, and most of them weren’t close losses.

I would like to be wrong on Saturday. Very wrong.

—

Final note: Jean Marshall, who for many years was the ticket manager for The Citadel’s department of athletics, died last week at the age of 80. I was just one of many people who had the chance to interact with Ms. Marshall over the years. As was stated in The Blue and White (probably by Andy Solomon), “She was a favorite of many and will be missed.” Condolences to her family.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Ameet Pall, Andy Solomon, Big XII, Bill Byrne, Bill Wirtz, Brent Russell, Chicago Blackhawks, Christian Reed, Elon, Eric Breitenstein, FCS-Central, Furman, Georgia Southern, Jared Singleton, Johnson Hagood Stadium, Kevin Higgins, Mike Niam, Mitch Allen, Sam Wyche, SC ETV, Southern Conference, SportSouth, Texas A&M, The Blue and White, The Citadel, Tom Werme, Trey Johnson, Western Carolina, Wofford | Leave a comment »

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