The Sports Arsenal

Campbell at The Citadel, to be played at historic Johnson Hagood Stadium in Charleston, South Carolina, with kickoff at 3:00 pm ET on September 9, 2023.

The game will be streamed on ESPN+. Kendall Lewis will handle play-by-play, while Jack Delongchamps supplies the analysis. The sideline reporter is Taylor Wall.

The contest can be heard on radio via The Citadel Sports Network. WQNT-1450 AM [audio link], originating in Charleston, will be the flagship station. Other stations carrying the game include WQXL in Columbia (100.7 FM/1470 AM) and WDXY in Sumter (105.9 FM/1240 AM).

Brian Giffin will call the action alongside analyst Lee Glaze. 

• “Live Stats” for the game

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Links of interest:

– SoCon weekly release

– Campbell game notes

– The Citadel game notes

– Maurice Drayton’s Monday press conference

– Underwood to remain The Citadel’s starting QB

– ‘Camel Call’ with Mike Minter

– Box score for The Citadel-Georgia Southern

– Box score for William and Mary-Campbell

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Quick hitters on the Bulldogs’ opening-game loss to Georgia Southern:

• Your guess is as good as mine as to how many Bulldogs appeared in the game; one source lists 66 players, another 70, and both include at least one player who didn’t actually see action.
• The Citadel was called for only 4 penalties, two on offense and two on D. One of the two offensive penalties was a delay of game to give the punter more room on a 4th-and-long in Eagles territory; the other was a false start.
• Finishing drives was an issue. The Citadel did not score despite having moving the ball four times inside the Georgia Southern 40-yard line (on 11 possessions). One of those was the final drive of the game, but the other three ended in a lost fumble and two short punts (one near the end of the first half).
• The Bulldogs’ offense averaged 4.16 yards per play. The Citadel averaged 5.41 yards per rush and 0.67 yards per pass attempt (those numbers are sack-adjusted). Georgia Southern’s defense had 6 tackles for loss and a havoc rate of 19.6%.
• The Citadel had 4 plays from scrimmage of 20+ yards, all rushes. 
• Six of the Bulldogs’ eleven possessions resulted in 3-and-outs.
• The Citadel’s defense allowed 6.39 yards per play, 6.53 yards per rush and 6.29 yards per pass attempt (sack-adjusted). The Bulldogs had 5 tackles for loss, part of a havoc rate of 12.2%.
• Georgia Southern had 3 plays from scrimmage of 20+ yards, all pass receptions. The Eagles’ longest rush of the day was 17 yards.
• Not counting a one-play possession at the end of the first half, the Eagles had 10 possessions, two of which were 3-and-outs (technically one of those was a 2-play drive that ended in an interception).

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For reference, statistics of note from last season’s game in Buies Creek against Campbell, won by the Camels 29-10:

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

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For Campbell, five of the players on offense who started against The Citadel last season were in the Camels’ starting lineup this past Saturday against William and Mary. They included fifth-year senior quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams, Ezeriah Anderson (CU’s leading receiver against the Bulldogs last year), and three of five offensive linemen.

One of the two linemen who didn’t start against The Citadel in 2022 actually started the final seven games of last season for Campbell. The other is a grad transfer from UCLA.

Those five o-line starters average 6’5″, 336 lbs.

One player who didn’t start but is worth monitoring is redshirt freshman wideout/kick returner V.J. Wilkins, who possesses outstanding speed. He had 4 receptions against William and Mary.

On defense, Campbell only returns two starters from the 2022 squad, though one is linebacker C.J. Tillman, the leading tackler from last year. Tillman, who had 11 tackles, a forced fumble, and a recovered fumble against The Citadel in last season’s matchup, opened his campaign this year with 19 tackles versus William and Mary.

Of the new starters on D for the Camels, six transferred in this year from other four-year schools, including Georgia State, Central Connecticut State, Colorado State, Florida State, Harvard, and Illinois. 

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Roster review:

– Of the 110 players on The Citadel’s online roster as of September 7, 58 are from South Carolina. Other states represented: Florida (14 players), Georgia (11), North Carolina (11), Virginia (5), Alabama (2), Ohio (2), New York (2), Texas (2), and one each from Maryland, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

– Campbell has 111 players on its online roster. Of those, 40 are from North Carolina. Other states represented on the Camels’ squad: Florida (19 players), California (12), Virginia (9), Georgia (6), South Carolina (5), Louisiana (2), New Jersey (2), New York (2), Pennsylvania (2), and one each from Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, and Wisconsin.

– The Camels have five players who hail from the Palmetto State, as noted above, from the following high schools: First Baptist, Fort Dorchester, Carolina Forest, Catawba Ridge, and Strom Thurmond.

There are no Campbell players who competed for the famed maroon and orange of Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School, clearly a setback for Mike Minter’s recruiting operation. However, it should be noted that two of Minter’s assistants, Arturo Freeman and Deveron Harper, are O-W graduates, and thus have a stronger educational background than most coaches. That is particularly the case for Freeman, an alumnus of Marshall Elementary School.

– Campbell has two players who transferred in directly from junior colleges and 34 players who arrived via other four-year institutions, including two each from Charlotte, North Carolina State, and Virginia Tech. Other FBS originating schools for various Camels: Appalachian State, Bowling Green, Colorado State, Florida, Florida State, Georgia State, Illinois, Iowa State, LSU, Miami (OH), Old Dominion, Penn State, South Florida, Tennessee, UCLA, ULM, Wake Forest, and Western Michigan.

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Odds and ends:

– The weather forecast for Saturday in Charleston, per the National Weather Service: a 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms; partly sunny, with a high near 85°.

Yuck. I don’t need any lightning delays in my life.

– If I get a line on the game before noon on Saturday, I’ll post it here. However, it looks like FCS odds and lines might be hard to come by this season, at least before gameday.

– Massey Ratings: Campbell is ranked 69th in FCS, a drop of 12 spots from last week. The Citadel is 66th (also a 12-place fall).

Despite those rankings, Massey projects Campbell to win the game by a predicted score of 28-27. 

– SP+ FCS rankings: The Citadel is 70th out of 128 teams. The Bulldogs are ranked 98th in offensive SP+, and 40th in defensive SP+.

Campbell is 52nd in SP+ among FCS squads, 33rd on offense and 79th on D.

A selected list of SP+ FCS rankings entering Week 2:

• South Dakota State (1st)
• Montana State (2nd)
• North Dakota State (3rd)
• UC Davis (4th)
• Furman (5th)
• William and Mary (10th)
• Samford (14th)
• Mercer (29th)
• Chattanooga (35th)
• Kennesaw State (47th)
• East Tennessee State (53rd)
• Western Carolina (58th)
• Wofford (76th)
• Davidson (79th)
• Charleston Southern (86th)
• VMI (89th)
• South Carolina State (113th)
• Bucknell (115th)
• Morehead State (122nd)
• Presbyterian (128th and last)

Incidentally, among D2 schools, Newberry ranks 30th in SP+ while North Greenville is 68th. Those two schools meet this Saturday.

– In other FCS preseason polls/rankings, The Citadel ranks 79th in the Congrove Computer Rankings (a drop of 10 spots), 78th in the Laz Index (a decline of 22 places), and 86th in the DCI (down 10 spots).

– Games involving SoCon teams this week [projected score per SP+ in brackets]:

• Saturday at 2:30 pm ET: Samford at Western Carolina [Samford 37.4, WCU 22.5]
• Saturday at 3:00 pm ET: Campbell at The Citadel [Campbell 27.2, The Citadel 23.6]
• Saturday at 5:30 pm ET: Carson-Newman at ETSU [no projection]
• Saturday at 6:00 pm ET: Kennesaw State at Chattanooga [UTC 31.7, Kenn. State 26.1]
• Saturday at 6:00 pm ET: VMI at Bucknell [VMI 20.3, Bucknell 14.6]
• Saturday at 6:00 pm ET: Wofford at William and Mary [W&M 38.9, Wofford 12.7]
• Saturday at 7:00 pm ET: Morehead State at Mercer [Mercer 41.6, Morehead St. 8.3]
• Saturday at 7:30 pm ET: Furman at South Carolina [South Carolina 32, Furman 23]

Furman’s win probability against the Gamecocks, according to SP+, is 31%. There are actually seven FCS-FBS matchups this week in which the FCS school has a higher win probability than that, including five at 50% or greater.

There were no FCS upsets of FBS teams in Week 1. I would be a bit surprised if there isn’t at least one in Week 2.

– South Carolina State is at Georgia Tech this week. The Yellow Jackets have a 98% win probability, per SP+, with a projected score of 44-7.

– Among Campbell’s notable alumni: Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Gaylord Perry, playwright Paul Green, and songwriter John D. Loudermilk.

– This is Campbell’s first season as a member of the CAA. Until recently, ‘CAA’ stood for Colonial Athletic Association. However, on July 20 the league formally changed its name to the Coastal Athletic Association.

– This is Hall of Fame weekend at The Citadel. The six new inductees are David Beckley, Jesse Jackson, Scooter Johnson, Sonny Meade, Demetrius Nelson, and Bill Ogburn.

– The Citadel has an all-time record of 4-3 for games played on September 9. The Bulldogs are 3-1 at home on that date. 

The most recent game played by The Citadel on September 9 was a 48-7 victory at Presbyterian in 2017, a game moved from Charleston to Clinton due to the threat of Hurricane Irma.

– This week’s presser for Maurice Drayton featured a microphone setup which enabled those watching to hear the questions fielded by the head coach. That was much appreciated.

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For Saturday’s matchup, I am concerned about Campbell’s size and overall athleticism. That giant offensive line could be a problem, especially with an experienced quarterback operating behind it.

Campbell got off to a good start last week against William and Mary (a top 5 team in the FCS polls), but couldn’t sustain that momentum. The difference in the game was arguably a sequence in the second quarter, when Campbell fumbled inside the Tribe 10-yard line, and then muffed a punt deep in its own territory following the ensuing William and Mary possession.

Without those turnovers, the Camels could easily have won the game.

As for The Citadel, I expect to see significant improvement this Saturday, particularly on offense. The defense played better in the second half against Georgia Southern, and did succeed in preventing many “chunk” plays. That was a good sign.

What I don’t know (among the many things I don’t know) is whether or not The Citadel held back some of its offensive playbook last week. I tend to doubt that, but it’s not completely out of the question.

If the thunderstorms stay away, it should be a great day for football at Johnson Hagood Stadium. I’m looking forward to being on hand to watch the action. 

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