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The Citadel Football 2023: the season moves into October

Posted on October 4, 2023 by Sandlapper Spike

The Citadel at Furman, to be played at Paladin Stadium in Greenville, South Carolina, with kickoff at 2:00 pm ET on October 7, 2023.

The game will be streamed on ESPN+. Brock Bowling will handle play-by-play, while Cole Neely supplies the analysis. The sideline reporter is Anna Witte.

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

– Furman game notes

– The Citadel game notes

– Maurice Drayton’s Monday press conference

– Season statistics for The Citadel (five games)

– Box score for Western Carolina-The Citadel

– Furman Football Weekly with Clay Hendrix

– Furman builds program the “old-fashioned way”

– Box score for Tennessee Tech-Furman (Furman won, 45-10)

– Box score for Furman-South Carolina (Furman lost, 47-21)

– Box score for Furman-Kennesaw State (a road win for the Paladins, 31-28)

– Box score for Mercer-Furman (Furman won, 38-14)

– Season statistics for Furman (four games)

– The New York Knicks are practicing at McAlister Field House; Julius Randle can’t wait to eat at Halls Chophouse

– Speaking of hoops, The Citadel released its 2023-2024 schedule

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Roster review:

– Of the 110 players on The Citadel’s online roster, 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.

– Furman has 129 players on its online roster. Of those, 29 are from Georgia. Other states represented: Tennessee (19 players), North Carolina (18), Florida (17), Virginia (10), Texas (9), South Carolina (7), Ohio (4), Alabama (3), California (2), Kentucky (2), and one each from Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Offensive lineman Gerrik Vollmer is originally from Hamburg, Germany, where he played club football. He also played high school football in West Virginia and Connecticut before beginning his college career at Virginia (with a subsequent season at Old Dominion).

– The seven Palmetto State players on the Paladins’ squad attended six different high schools (one was home schooled). The six South Carolina high schools represented on Furman’s roster are Brookland-Cayce, Byrnes, Dutch Fork, Gaffney, St. Joseph’s, and Trinity Collegiate.

There has been occasional discussion in certain quarters about the makeup of Furman’s roster. I’m not going to get into that here, but it is striking to see an in-state school with more players on its squad from Texas than from South Carolina.

– Ten members of the Paladins’ roster originally began their respective college careers at other four-year institutions. Among those schools from which players have matriculated to Furman: Colorado State, East Tennessee State, James Madison, Lehigh, Michigan State, Northern Colorado, and Presbyterian.

Eight of those ten transfers are graduate students.

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Odds and ends:

– The weather forecast for Saturday in Greenville, per the National Weather Service, mostly sunny, with a projected high of 73°. The low temperature that evening is 46°.

– As I’ve mentioned in other posts, for this season FCS lines and odds posted prior to Saturday have been hard to come by.

– Massey Ratings: Furman is ranked 13th in FCS, a drop of one spot from last week (when the Paladins were idle). The Citadel is 113th (a 4-place decline).

Massey projects Furman to win the game by a predicted score of 41-10. The Citadel is given a 2% chance of winning.

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Meanwhile, SP+ ranks Furman 11th (19th on offense, 21st on defense) and The Citadel 126th (127th on offense, 113th on D).

A selected list of SP+ FCS rankings entering Week 6 (I have to say there were some weird moves this week):

South Dakota State (1st)
Montana State (2nd)
North Dakota State (3rd) [lost in Fargo to South Dakota (on Homecoming!) but only dropped one spot]
William and Mary (8th)
Austin Peay (12th) [a 25-spot jump after beating Lindenwood (?!)]
Chattanooga (27th) [fell 11 spots after a win at Wofford]
Campbell (34th)
Jackson State (36th)
Eastern Kentucky (37th) [up 15 places after beating North Alabama]
Western Carolina (45th) [a four-spot decline despite a 35-point road victory]
Mercer (47th)
Samford (54th)
Kennesaw State (56th)
Davidson (64th)
East Tennessee State (79th)
Charleston Southern (85th)
South Carolina State (94th)
Wofford (98th)
Bucknell (109th)
VMI (112th) [fell 20 places after losing to Mercer, which seems harsh]
Morehead State (124th)
Presbyterian (127th)
Wagner (128th and last)

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In other FCS ratings systems, The Citadel ranks 127th in the Congrove Computer Rankings (a drop of 5 spots), 127th in the Laz Index (a decline of 2 places), and 120th in the DCI (unchanged from last week).

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

Saturday at 1:30 pm ET: Samford at Wofford [Samford 30.8, Wofford 19.0]
Saturday at 2:00 pm ET: The Citadel at Furman [Furman 45.7, The Citadel 3.4]
Saturday at 3:30 pm ET: Mercer at East Tennessee State [Mercer 32.4, ETSU 24.9]
Saturday at 6:00 pm ET: Western Carolina at Chattanooga [UTC 30.4, WCU 23.4]

VMI is off this week, the second consecutive week in which The Citadel’s next opponent has a bye before playing the Bulldogs.

– Among Furman’s notable alumni: Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, physicist Charles Townes, and journalist Eleanor Beardsley.

– The Citadel has an all-time record of 9-6-1 for games played on October 7. The Bulldogs are 3-3-1 on the road on that date, and are 4-5 in league play.

Somewhat surprisingly, despite the fact that Furman and The Citadel have met 55 previous times in the month of October, Saturday will mark the first time the game has been played on October 7.

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Maurice Drayton, when asked about putting more defensive pressure on the quarterback (specifically, blitzing):

Sometimes in football you have to pick your poison…if you look at what [defensive coordinator Raleigh] Jackson’s defenses have done in the past, he is a ‘pressure’ guy — but this is what we need to understand, too. Some of the things we are running into here in Year 1 — you ever heard of the saying “skill versus will”? Well, we have will, but we’re going to have to do things that our skill allows us to do.

…We’re determined to find a way to get after the quarterback…the bottom line is to get a ‘W’ in the win column, so we are looking at all angles of what we do, all the way down to the practice structure, to where we stand during timeouts, to how we [hydrate], to weight training, to our mess hall…we’re looking at the totality of everything to get this thing right. The only way that I know to keep working is to keep swinging that axe, and that tree is going to fall at some point.

The latter part of that is more about the program in general, of course, but what Drayton is essentially saying is that The Citadel lacks the personnel to employ a more aggressive defense.

The result is a bend-but-don’t-break style of D, and I think most fans understand that concept. The problem is the Bulldogs haven’t really been able to produce a high rate of turnovers or at least hold opponents to field goal attempts when reaching the red zone.

Opposing quarterbacks have had plenty of time to find open receivers, no matter how good the coverage, which has resulted in The Citadel allowing a completion percentage of 76.3%, which is the worst in FCS. The Bulldogs are allowing 9.65 yards per attempt, which is 123rd nationally (out of 128 teams).

(Note: these numbers are per the NCAA’s statistical site. There is a very slight variance between that package and the stats profile found on The Citadel’s own site.)

That lack of pressure can be seen in the defense’s sack rate. The Citadel has registered three sacks through five games, for a sack rate of 124th in FCS (one sack per every 52 opposing pass attempts). The Bulldogs also do not fare well when considering sacks per TD pass allowed or sacks per passing yardage allowed (ranking 126th nationally in both of those categories).

While not directly related to QB pressure, the Bulldogs’ tackling woes have also been a major problem, as anyone who watched the game against WCU can attest. All too often, The Citadel had a defender in position to make a play — sometimes a consequential stop — but the ballcarrier escaped the would-be tackler and picked up significant yardage.

Curiously, the lack of pressure on opposing QBs might be a league-wide trend, because most of the other SoCon programs are not really putting up gaudy sack rates either. The exception is Chattanooga, which ranks in the top 20 in FCS in most of those categories.

For the record, Furman’s defense ranks 87th nationally in sacks per pass attempt, 97th in yardage allowed per sack, and 103rd in TDs allowed per sack. To be fair, the Paladins’ statistical issues on pass defense can be attributed in no small part to Spencer Rattler and South Carolina (463 yards and 5 TDs against one sack).

The other consideration is that Furman’s defense has nine takeaways in its first four games (including five interceptions), part of an overall turnover margin of +6 for the Paladins.

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Last week, FBSchedules.com reported that a contract agreement between The Citadel and Clemson to play during the 2028 season had been completed.

That contract was signed on May 17 of this year and is the most recently finalized non-conference game contract involving The Citadel. Two weeks before, the school had agreed to a two-game series with North Dakota State for contests in 2025 and 2027, the first of which will take place in Charleston.

The Citadel will receive $500,000 for the game at Clemson and will be allotted 2,500 complimentary tickets, with most of those presumably to be sold by the military college. Cheerleaders, mascots, and the band receive free admission (although tickets for the band, if it makes an appearance, will count against the allotted ticket total).

I know some folks are interested in some of the ancillary details, so I’ll add that in terms of credentials, The Citadel will receive 60 team bench area passes, 16 all-access passes, 8 coaches’ booth passes, and 6 team/coach video passes.

As for the North Dakota State matchups, each school will be provided 200 complimentary tickets for their respective visits. There are no ticketing provisions for bands, cheerleaders, or mascots. Also, each school will pay the other $50,000 after hosting, which I thought was a bit odd.

North Dakota State also received permission for the game in Charleston to be broadcast to its home media market (ABC North Dakota). It would still be available for streaming on ESPN+.

For the Clemson game and for both NDSU contests, game officials will be assigned by the home team (or as stated in the Clemson contract, “the assigning agency of the host institution”).

There are two other provisions, one in each contract, that are worth noting.

– In the Clemson contract: “Moreover, if either party’s governing conference reduces the number of nonconference games or if due to conference realignment nonconference games are eliminated or reduced, then either party, upon written notice, may cancel the Game without penalty or the payment of liquidated damages.”

That clause was not in the 2017 game contract between the two schools that set up the 2020 and 2024 contests.

– In the NDSU contract: “This agreement may be voided by either party, without penalty or damages, if either is reclassified to a different NCAA membership division after the contract has been executed.”

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I wrote about future non-conference schedules for the Bulldogs late last year. With the Clemson game and the two NDSU matchups now included as well, here is an updated list of such games for The Citadel:

2024: at Charleston Southern (8/31), South Carolina State (9/7), North Greenville (9/14), at Clemson (11/23)

2025: North Dakota State (8/30), at Mississippi (9/6), at Gardner-Webb (9/13)

2026: at Charlotte (9/5), Charleston Southern (9/19)

2027: at Navy (9/4), at North Dakota State (9/18)

2028: Gardner-Webb (9/2), at Clemson (9/16)

2029: at Army (10/6)

2033: at Army (11/19)

As a reminder, the 2024 and 2025 seasons are both years in which an FCS team can play 12 regular-season contests, so The Citadel could potentially play four non-conference games in those seasons. It will definitely do so in 2024, as the school has already finalized a full slate.

As for the 2025 season, a non-conference home game is still needed (unless The Citadel were to play seven road games that year, which would not be a good idea).

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Speaking of non-conference schedules, Furman recently added some games. The Paladins currently have on tap for the future the following matchups:

2024: at Mississippi (8/31), Charleston Southern (9/7), Stetson (9/14), at William and Mary (9/21)

2025: Presbyterian (8/30), William and Mary (9/6), at North Carolina A&T (9/13), at Clemson (11/22)

2026: Tennessee (9/15), South Carolina State, at Richmond

2027: Richmond, at South Carolina State

The dates for Furman’s games against Richmond and SCSU have not yet been announced, to the best of my knowledge.

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I would anticipate a good crowd will be on hand at Paladin Stadium this Saturday, what with an in-state matchup, and Furman having a good season thus far (and one that was expected). It is also Family Weekend, which is Furman’s version of Parents’ Weekend.

As I mentioned last week, and will continue to mention in other previews, the goal for The Citadel is improvement. I thought last week the Bulldogs did show some positive development, just not nearly enough to produce a win or even a particularly close game.

I do wonder what would have happened if not for the horrific officiating call that took away the Bulldogs’ kickoff return TD — momentum does matter — but the bottom line is that it would be incredibly myopic to ignore how the rest of the game went.

If the team continues to get better, and does so on both sides of the ball, then eventually that will lead to an opportunity to put a ‘W’ in the win column, as Maurice Drayton might say. In all honesty, that possibility is not likely this Saturday.

On the other hand, that’s why they play the games.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Clay Hendrix, Clemson, Furman, Maurice Drayton, North Dakota State, SoCon, The Citadel | Leave a comment »

The Citadel Football: Parents’ Weekend 2023

Posted on September 28, 2023 by Sandlapper Spike

Western Carolina at The Citadel, to be played at historic Johnson Hagood Stadium in Charleston, South Carolina, with kickoff at 2:00 pm ET on September 30, 2023.

The game will be streamed on ESPN+. Dave Weinstein will handle play-by-play, while Jason Kempf supplies the analysis. The sideline reporter is Taylor Wall.

Brian Giffin will call the action alongside analyst Lee Glaze.

“Live Stats” for the game

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Before starting with the nuts and bolts of this preview, I need to briefly note the obvious, which is that the last couple of days have been very difficult ones for many people associated with The Citadel, and the football program in particular.

The sudden passing of Stanley Myers on Wednesday has cast a pall over this weekend’s events on campus. I have little to add to what has already been said, and will continue to be said, about Myers’ exemplary life. I’ll just include a few quotes about him here.

Deon Jackson:

[Stanley Myers] is everything you think about when you think about a Citadel graduate. He represents the best of all of us. We lost one of our great leaders.

Jack Douglas:

The best way I can define Stan is a quintessential Citadel man. He fought for our country, became one of the top defense lawyers in the country and a judge advocate general. He just ticked off accomplishment after accomplishment after accomplishment. And he exuded Citadel excellence.

Jason Barley:

It’s a sad day for Citadel football. QB1 was the best. He represented the best of what cadet student-athletes at The Citadel are all about. He was the epitome of a Citadel alum on and off the field and in life. Everyone looked up to Stanley.

Stanley Myers was 47 years old. Condolences to his family.

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Links of interest:

– SoCon weekly release

– Western Carolina game notes and depth chart

– The Citadel game notes [when available]

– Maurice Drayton’s Monday press conference

– Season statistics for The Citadel (four games)

– Box score for The Citadel-South Carolina State

– Catamount Football Weekly with Kerwin Bell

– Box score for Western Carolina-Arkansas (WCU lost, 56-13)

– Box score for Samford-Western Carolina (the Catamounts won, 30-7)

– Box score for Western Carolina-Eastern Kentucky (a road win for WCU, 27-24)

– Box score for Charleston Southern-Western Carolina (WCU won, 77-21)

– Season statistics for Western Carolina (four games)

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Roster review:

– Western Carolina has 123 players on its online roster. Of those, 44 are from North Carolina and 43 are from Florida. Other states represented: Georgia (13 players), South Carolina (13), Alabama (3), Tennessee (3), Texas (2), and one each from Nebraska and Virginia.

– WCU has 30 redshirt freshmen and 29 “true” freshmen. Of those two groups, 27 are from Florida, including 17 from the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area.

– There are 13 Palmetto State products on the Catamounts’ roster, representing 11 different South Carolina high schools: Lakewood (2 players), Northwestern (2 players), A.C. Flora, Byrnes, Clover, Fairfield Central, Fox Creek, Hartsville, Hillcrest, Seneca, and Thomas Heyward Academy.

As sharp-eyed readers will immediately notice, there are no graduates of Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School on WCU’s squad. The failure to recruit any stalwarts of the famed maroon and orange is a sad blot on Kerwin Bell’s record. Ronnie Carr, who made history in Cullowhee, cannot be pleased.

– Seven of the Catamounts are junior college transfers, while 24 members of the roster originally began their respective college careers at other four-year institutions. Among those FBS schools from which players have matriculated to WCU: Akron, Alabama, Coastal Carolina, Massachusetts, North Carolina, South Florida, Toledo, UAB, and Virginia Tech.

According to Western Carolina’s game notes, 12 of those transfers are new to the program this season.

Redshirt junior defensive lineman C.J. Fann, Jr. started his intercollegiate career at Florida State before transferring to Akron. He is now in his first season at Western Carolina.

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Odds and ends:

– The weather forecast for Saturday in Charleston, per the National Weather Service, includes a 20% chance of showers after kickoff. The projected high is 81°, with a low that night of 65°.

– As I’ve previous mentioned, it is highly unlikely that a line for this game will be posted anywhere before Saturday morning.

– Massey Ratings: Western Carolina is ranked 26th in FCS, up one spot from last week. The Citadel is 109th (a 13-place drop).

Massey projects Western Carolina to win the game by a predicted score of 35-19. The Citadel is given a 17% chance of winning.

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Meanwhile, SP+ ranks Western Carolina 41st (32nd on offense, 57th on defense) and The Citadel 119th (125th on offense, 88th on D).

A selected list of SP+ FCS rankings entering Week 5:

South Dakota State (1st)
North Dakota State (2nd)
Montana State (3rd)
William and Mary (6th)
Furman (8th)
Chattanooga (16th)
Jackson State (28th)
Campbell (33rd)
Austin Peay (37th)
Mercer (42nd)
Samford (46th)
Kennesaw State (51st)
Eastern Kentucky (52nd)
Davidson (53rd)
East Tennessee State (81st)
Wofford (87th)
VMI (92nd)
Charleston Southern (95th)
Bucknell (107th)
Morehead State (123rd)
Presbyterian (126th)
Drake (128th and last)

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In other FCS ratings systems, The Citadel ranks 122nd in the Congrove Computer Rankings (a drop of 5 spots), 125th in the Laz Index (a decline of 4 places), and 120th in the DCI (down 9 spots).

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

Saturday at 1:00 pm ET: East Tennessee State at Samford [Samford 35.0, ETSU 20.9]
Saturday at 2:00 pm ET: Western Carolina at The Citadel [WCU 36.1, The Citadel 14.4]
Saturday at 4:00 pm ET: VMI at Mercer [Mercer 31.7, VMI 12.6]
Saturday at 6:00 pm ET: Chattanooga at Wofford [UTC 34.2, Wofford 13.2]

Furman is off this week.

– Among Western Carolina’s notable alumni: actor Sean Bridgers, composer Sarah Hutchings, and former major league infielder Wayne Tolleson.

– The Citadel has an all-time record of 6-6 for games played on September 30. The Bulldogs are 4-0 at home on that date, and 2-2 in league play.

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Maurice Drayton, asked about how The Citadel can improve on third down:

You have to win first down. You have to win second down, so that your third downs are manageable…in order to stay on the field (after) third down, we have to win on first and second down.

I decided to take a quick statistical look at The Citadel’s results on both first down and third down this season.

On first down, the Bulldogs are averaging 4.74 yards per play. While an individual first-down gain of 4 or 5 yards is generally excellent, an average in that range is definitely not. For comparison, the 2016 team averaged 6.21 yards per play on first down.

The average would be considerably worse without the Bulldogs’ 75-yard touchdown pass against Campbell; without that, the mean would be 3.83 yards per play.

Now, that play does count — big plays are part of succeeding on first down, after all — but the bottom line is that far too often, the Bulldogs are not gaining enough yardage on first down to make eventual third down plays more manageable. In fact, exactly one-third of The Citadel’s first-down plays have resulted in a gain of less than two yards.

On third downs, the average distance the Bulldogs have needed to pick up a first down is 7.53 yards (the 2016 squad’s comparable number was 5.68, an enormous difference). For 31.9% of its third down plays this season, The Citadel has needed to gain at least 10 yards, which is obviously not conducive to sustaining long drives.

Perhaps even more frustrating is that the Bulldogs have not been adept at picking up first downs even in their limited short-yardage opportunities; on 3rd-and-1 and 3rd-and-2, The Citadel has only successfully converted on four of nine attempts.

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Since 1953, The Citadel has a record of 37-32 on Parents’ Day. The college actually started hosting a celebration weekend for parents in 1934, but records are a bit scanty for the games played prior to 1953 (and they aren’t absolutely perfect post-1953, either).

One of my goals is to compile a complete record for Parents’ Day contests, much as I did for Homecoming games. I hope to do that sometime next year.

The Citadel is 3-0 when Western Carolina is the opponent on Parents’ Day.

Incidentally, the Catamounts have never been the visiting team on Homecoming at The Citadel, despite the two schools meeting on the gridiron 47 times. No other Bulldog opponent has played the military college as often without being a Homecoming guest at least once.

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There is always hope for the Bulldogs, but this Saturday that commodity might not be as readily available. On the other hand, Western Carolina arrives in Charleston with a great deal of well-deserved confidence.

Its emphatic victory over Samford established WCU as a serious contender in the SoCon. Following that up with a solid road victory over Eastern Kentucky and last week’s demolition of Charleston Southern only enhanced the team’s overall profile, which is why the Catamounts are now ranked in both major FCS polls.

Starting quarterback Cole Gonzales was named the league’s offensive player of the week after throwing five touchdown passes against Charleston Southern. Nine different Catamounts scored touchdowns in that contest.

Also, I wouldn’t expect WCU to be looking past The Citadel, even with a high-stakes game at Chattanooga next week. Kerwin Bell will make sure of that.

During his coach’s show, the WCU boss expressed frustration over losing last year’s meeting between the two schools:

They ruined our Saturday, man, one of the worst games I’ve ever been in as a head coach, to see us get beat by them at home…

…We weren’t ready…we didn’t get them off the field…they had six plays that I remember that were 3rd and long, and that ain’t their cup of tea, we should have been off the field — they got all six. A lot of it was busted assignments, it’s not being well coached. That is our fault. That one still hurts me, probably of all the losses I’ve ever had as a head coach, because you shouldn’t lose to that.

The Citadel didn’t really convert six 3rd-and-long plays in that game, but what Bell is probably remembering is the first half, when the Bulldogs successfully converted third down plays of 7, 8, and 6 yards via the pass, and were 8 for 10 overall on 3rd down conversion attempts in the half (including a 32-yard TD toss to go up 24-0). For the game, The Citadel controlled the ball for 42 minutes and 49 seconds.

That type of statistical dominance for the Bulldogs is not likely this Saturday. Western Carolina is a better football team this season, and The Citadel is still finding its way on both sides of the ball.

The goal remains continued improvement. That will be the goal on every Saturday for the rest of this year. A victory would be a most welcome result of that improvement, no matter which Saturday.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Kerwin Bell, Maurice Drayton, SoCon, The Citadel, Western Carolina | Leave a comment »

Football at The Citadel: Charleston’s only D1 football team gets ready for its home opener

Posted on September 7, 2023 by Sandlapper Spike

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.

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:

	The Citadel	Campbell
Field Position	25.33	39.22
Success Rate	32.08%	45.00%
Big plays (20+ yards)	2	3*
Finishing drives (average points)	3.33	4.14
Turnovers	3	1
Expected turnovers	1.94	0.72
Possessions	9	9
Points per possession	1.1	3.2
Offensive Plays	53	60
Yards/rush (sacks taken out)	4.04	5.53
Yards/pass attempt (including sacks)	5.33	7.41
Yards/play	4.19	6.22
3rd down conversions	4 of 13	6 of 13
4th down conversions	2 of 3	3 of 3
Red Zone TD%	50.0%	50.0%
Net punting	31.3	28.5
Time of possession	32:34	27:26
TOP/offensive play	36.87 sec	27.43 sec
Penalties	9 for 83 yards	9 for 85 yards
1st down passing	1-1, 19 yards, TD**	4-8, 36 yards, 1 sack against
3rd and long passing	1-2, 5 yards, 1 INT, 1 sack against	3-5, 42 yards, TD
4th down passing	1-1, 11 yards	2-2, 38 yards
1st down yards/play	5.11	5.32
3rd down average yards to go	7.31	8.31
Defensive 3-and-outs+	1	4

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

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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.

—

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.

—

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.

—

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.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: CAA, Campbell, Georgia Southern, Maurice Drayton, Mike Minter, SoCon, The Citadel | Leave a comment »

The Citadel opens its 2023 football campaign

Posted on August 31, 2023 by Sandlapper Spike

FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL

—

The Citadel at Georgia Southern, to be played at Allen E. Paulson Stadium in Statesboro, Georgia, with kickoff at 6:00 pm ET on September 2, 2023.

The game will be streamed on ESPN+. Danny Waugh will handle play-by-play, while David Hulvey supplies the analysis. The sideline reporter is LeeAnna Gaye.

Brian Giffin will call the action alongside analyst Lee Glaze. This will be Giffin’s first game on play-by-play for the Bulldogs; he has previously called football games for Butler and Kennesaw State.

“Live Stats” for the game

—

Links of interest:

– SoCon weekly release

– Georgia Southern game notes

– The Citadel game notes

– Maurice Drayton’s Monday press conference, definitely not your typical opening-game presser

– Nobody knows who The Citadel’s starting QB will be — well, Maurice Drayton probably does, but he’s not saying

– The search for a “big back” at The Citadel, although how “big” is defined is up to the individual

– Teaching, fasting, playing linebacker in a new scheme — all in a day’s work

– Clay Helton’s press conference

– Georgia Southern’s coach’s show

– Georgia Southern is ready to get the season started

– Clay Helton is focused “on going 1-0 this week”, which is probably better than going 0-1 or 0-0-1

– Future road trip of note for Georgia Southern: in 2025, the Eagles will open the season with back-to-back games at Fresno State and at Southern California

– Not football, but I thought this was interesting: Georgia Southern recently received approval for a $10 million baseball facility; the proposal includes the demolition of the current facility and replacing it with a 16,000 square foot “multi-use” building, and will be privately financed

– Volleyball player Sadie Gomez of The Citadel is training to be part of the U.S. Space Force; don’t mention UFOs to her, though

—

Roster review:

– Of the 110 players on The Citadel’s online roster as of August 29, 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.

– Georgia Southern has 129 players on its online roster. Of those, 83 are from Georgia. Other states represented on the Eagles’ squad: Florida (16 players), North Carolina (7), South Carolina (7), Texas (3), California (2), Tennessee (2), and one each from Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Alex Smith is a freshman punter from Melbourne, Australia. Incidentally, Smith was a professional tennis player before switching to punting. He is a left-footed punter.

– The Eagles have seven players who hail from the Palmetto State, but none of them graduated from legendary gridiron powerhouse Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School. This demonstrates a serious hole in Clay Helton’s recruitment strategy, one that will inevitably keep Georgia Southern in the lower echelon of FBS programs for some time to come.

– Georgia Southern has six junior college transfers and 37 players who arrived via other four-year institutions, including tight end Dylan Snyder, a redshirt sophomore from Florence, SC who began his college career at The Citadel.

– Per Georgia Southern’s game notes package, “approximately” 25 of the Eagles are 22 years of age or older, including eight 23-year-olds. Offensive tackle Brian Miller is a seventh-year player who turned 24 in February. Eleven other players are sixth-year seniors.

—

This season, The Citadel is transitioning to a new type of offense. I can’t tell you exactly what type, because that’s still a bit of a secret, but it will presumably feature more passing than in previous years. The pure triple option days are over, thanks mainly to changes in the rules that seem to have been specifically designed to wipe the triple option off the map.

As it happens, Saturday’s opponent for the Bulldogs moved on from the triple option last season, with Clay Helton’s arrival in Statesboro. How did Helton make the change, and how did it work out in 2022? Well, I’ll let ESPN’s Bill Connelly tell the tale:

Helton brought in Buffalo quarterback Kyle Vantrease and Houston receiver Jeremy Singleton, and poof, Georgia Southern had a passing game. Vantrease threw for 4,253 yards and 27 touchdowns and torched Nebraska for 409 yards and 45 points, the Eagles leaped from 121st to 40th in offensive SP+, and after slumping to 3-9 in Chad Lunsford’s last year in charge, they bowled in 2022.

Vantrease’s college career is over; he is now the Eagles’ radio sideline reporter. As a result, Georgia Southern dipped back into the transfer portal and came up with former Tulsa QB Davis Brin (22 career starts and 37 TD passes with the Golden Hurricane).

The Eagles also brought in receivers from Pittsburgh, Syracuse, and Kentucky. In addition, Georgia Southern picked up Bryson Broadway, a left tackle who started 22 games for Georgia State over the last two seasons.

Defensively, the Eagles have a lot of new faces as well, including a new defensive coordinator. Brandon Bailey was the DC at Buffalo last year, and he has work to do, if last season was any indication. As Connelly points out:

The Eagles were 124th in defensive SP+ and lost three games in which the offense scored 30-plus points…nine of 12 defenders (and all six defensive backs) who saw 300-plus snaps last year [are gone].

Buffalo’s defense created 28 turnovers last year (which included recovering 15 fumbles), so that will undoubtedly be a point of emphasis for the Eagles in 2023.

Several transfers will see significant time for Georgia Southern on defense. On Monday, Clay Helton specifically mentioned safety T.J. Smith, a redshirt junior who played for Kansas State the last three seasons, as someone expected to be a major contributor.

—

Odds and ends:

– The weather forecast for Saturday in Statesboro, per the National Weather Service: sunny, with a high near 83 degrees.

–Per one source that deals in such matters, Georgia Southern is a 28-point favorite over The Citadel. The over/under is 52.

Over the last five seasons, The Citadel is 22-32 against the spread overall, 14-15 on the road.

Other lines involving SoCon teams playing FBS opponents: Arkansas is a 35-point favorite over Western Carolina; Jacksonville State is a 17-point favorite over ETSU; Mississippi is a 31½-point favorite over Mercer; Pittsburgh is a 39½-point favorite over Wofford.

– Massey Ratings: Georgia Southern is ranked 98th in Division I. The Citadel is 187th (54th among FCS squads).

Massey projects the Bulldogs to have a 6% chance of winning, with a predicted final score of Georgia Southern 38, The Citadel 13.

– SP+ FCS rankings: The Citadel is 65th out of 128 teams entering Week 1 of the season. The Bulldogs are ranked 101st in offensive SP+, and 34th in defensive SP+.

A selected list of SP+ FCS rankings:

South Dakota State (1st)
North Dakota State (2nd)
William and Mary (7th)
Furman (10th)
Samford (12th)
Mercer (17th) [dropped 2 spots after its win over North Alabama last Saturday]
Chattanooga (20th)
East Tennessee State (48th)
Kennesaw State (53rd) [transitioning to FBS next season]
Western Carolina (55th)
Wofford (66th)
Davidson (72nd)
Charleston Southern (86th)
South Carolina State (116th) [dropped 18 spots after its loss to Jackson State last Saturday]
VMI (102nd)
Presbyterian (128th and last)

– In other FCS preseason polls/rankings, The Citadel ranks 69th in the Congrove Computer Rankings, 56th in the Laz Index, and 76th in the DCI.

The Bulldogs were picked to finish 8th in the SoCon in the coaches’ poll and 7th in the media poll.

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

Thursday at 7:00 pm ET: Tennessee Tech at Furman [Furman 39, Tenn. Tech 12]
Thursday at 7:00 pm ET: Shorter at Samford [no projection]

At one major U.S. sportsbook, Furman opened as a 28-point favorite (with an over/under of 48).

Saturday at 1:30 pm ET: Davidson at VMI [Davidson 28, VMI 25]
Saturday at 2:00 pm ET: Mercer at Mississippi [Mississippi 38, Mercer 8]
Saturday at 2:00 pm ET: ETSU at Jacksonville State [Jax State 29, ETSU 25]
Saturday at 3:30 pm ET: Wofford at Pittsburgh [Pittsburgh 46, Wofford 6]
Saturday at 4:00 pm ET: Western Carolina at Arkansas [Arkansas 48, WCU 12]
Saturday at 6:00 pm ET: Chattanooga at North Alabama [UTC 33, UNA 14]
Saturday at 6:00 pm ET: The Citadel at Georgia Southern [Ga. Southern 34, The Citadel 18]

SP+ gives The Citadel a slightly better chance (13%) of pulling off the upset than Massey does.

– Other games involving upcoming opponents [projected score per SP+ in brackets]:

Thursday at 7:00 pm ET: William and Mary at Campbell [W&M 33, Campbell 22]
Saturday at 6:00 pm ET: South Carolina State at Charlotte [Charlotte 34, S.C. State 15]

Depending on what sportsbook you patronize, William and Mary is either a 14½-point or 16½-point favorite over the Camels. The over/under is 52½.

– Among Georgia Southern’s notable alumni: musician Luke Bryan, former major league pitcher John Tudor, and current Presbyterian director of athletics Dee Nichols.

– Former “Voice of the Bulldogs” Danny Reed is the radio play-by-play announcer for Georgia Southern, a position he has held since 2015.

– The Citadel has an all-time record of 2-3 for games played on September 2. The Bulldogs are 0-3 on the road on that date.

– One thing the two schools have in common is that there is no microphone for press conference questions, so those questions cannot be heard by anyone watching the stream.

– Depth charts for both teams were not available earlier in the week. Georgia Southern is expected to release its two-deep on Friday.

– Paulson Stadium will feature a newly installed turf field on Saturday.

—

I have no idea what to expect from The Citadel on Saturday. It was not exactly encouraging to hear Maurice Drayton say in his Monday presser that the Bulldogs “are a poor football team at the moment. We’re not playing very well. We’re not happy with our progress at this moment in time…everybody wants to know the truth until you tell it, and I’m telling the truth. We have some work to do. We’re not in a good place as a football team…we are a poor football team right now.”

The clip of the press conference that featured those comments went viral on social media, with Drayton almost universally commended for being brutally honest, which was seen as something of a novelty.

I also appreciated the honesty. I just wish he could honestly say that the team looked good.

This transition is going to take time, and there will be growing pains, not for the first time as far as fans of the Bulldogs are concerned.

I remember sitting in the stands at Johnson Hagood Stadium one October day back in 2010 against this same opponent, and watching the Bulldogs commit nine turnovers — in only 47 plays from scrimmage.

That was the season in which Kevin Higgins switched to the triple option after running a spread attack, and it took a while before the offense became consistently productive.

Now, The Citadel is essentially reversing the process, moving away from the triple option to an offense that (probably) will involve more spread concepts.

Patience will be a requirement. The hope is that eventually there will be a payoff. When will that payoff happen? I don’t know, and nobody else does either.

In the meantime, it’s better to have football than not have football. Positive thoughts are always welcome. Perhaps the Bulldogs will surprise some folks this season.

I’ll be watching.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Brian Giffin, Clay Helton, Danny Reed, Georgia Southern, Maurice Drayton, SoCon, The Citadel | Leave a comment »

Attendance at Johnson Hagood Stadium, 1964-2022: the not-so-annual review (along with some SoCon info as a bonus)

Posted on July 22, 2023 by Sandlapper Spike

This post is about home attendance at The Citadel, which is a subject I’ve written about many times over the years. I used to write about it every year, but then 2020 happened and, well…

Anyway, what follows is partly a cut-and-paste job from previous editions of this review along with a decent amount of new and updated information. It isn’t exactly groundbreaking, to be sure, but since I’ve updated the spreadsheet I figured I would post about it.

—

Ah, yes, the spreadsheet:

Annual attendance at Johnson Hagood Stadium, 1964-2022

The above link is to a spreadsheet that tracks attendance for The Citadel’s home football games, and which has now been updated to include the 2022 season. The spreadsheet lists year-by-year totals and average game attendance, and the win/loss record for the Bulldogs in each season. There is also a category ranking the years by average attendance.

I have also included the home win/loss records for each season.

The 2020 season includes the four games played in the fall of 2020 and the eight contests played in the spring of 2021. The games included in the 2021 campaign are only those played in the fall (I guess technically some of them took place in late summer, but you know what I mean).

Other columns refer to the program’s winning percentage over a two-year, three-year, five-year, and ten-year period, with the “current” season being the final year in each category. For example, the three-year winning percentage for 1970 (54.84%) is made up of the 1968, 1969, and 1970 seasons.

I include those categories mainly to see what impact, if any, constant winning (or losing) has on long-term attendance trends.

I have also compared average attendance for the first two games of a season to the last two contests of the same campaign. There are inherent sample-size issues when making such a comparison (weather, opponent fan base, etc.), but it doesn’t hurt to see how things have shaken out. The fall 2020/spring 2021 sort-of-season is not included.

2011 [4-7 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 12,756; final two home games, average attendance of 12,387 (including Homecoming)
2012 [7-4 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 13,281; final two home games, average attendance of 13,715 (including Homecoming)
2013 [5-7 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 13,370; final two home games, average attendance of 12,948 (including Homecoming)
2014 [5-7 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 9,700; final two home games, average attendance of 9,563 (including Homecoming)
2015 [9-4 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 8,356; final two home games, average attendance of 12,465 (including Homecoming)
2016 [10-2 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 13,299; final two home games, average attendance of 13,996 (including Homecoming)
2017 [5-6 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 8,718; final two home games, average attendance of 9,496 (including Homecoming)
2018 [5-6 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 9,559; final two home games, average attendance of 9,511 (including Homecoming and a rescheduled game)
2019 [6-6 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 8,517; final two home games, average attendance of 9,141 (including Homecoming)
2021 [4-7 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 9,503; final two home games, average attendance of 10,189 (including Homecoming)
2022 [4-7 overall record]: First two home games, average attendance of 10,339 (including Parents’ Day); final two home games, average attendance of 10,022 (including Homecoming and a game against a non-NCAA/NAIA opponent)

Since 1964, the Bulldogs’ record at Johnson Hagood Stadium is 198-130 (60.4%). The average home attendance over that time period is 13,590. However, there has not been a season in which home attendance averaged more than 13,590 since 2007.

The current stadium capacity is less than 12,000, due to the demolition of the East stands in the spring of 2017, so The Citadel cannot expect to see an increase in attendance to the levels of the early part of this century anytime in the near future. The higher attendance figures for the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s are even further out of sight.

Last year’s average home attendance of 9,865 ranked 53rd out of the 59 seasons included in this survey. Seven of the eight lowest season averages have occurred since 2014.

As always, it is worth noting that the cutoff for accuracy in attendance numbers means years like 1959 (eight wins), 1960 (Tangerine Bowl victory), and 1961 (SoCon title) cannot be included for comparison in this review, not to mention any of the other years from 1948, when the most recent iteration of Johnson Hagood Stadium opened, through the 1963 season. I do not have a high degree of confidence in any “public” season attendance figures prior to 1964. (It could be suggested that I shouldn’t be particularly confident of the attendance numbers that followed, either.)

It is generally accepted that the largest home attendance for The Citadel at any pre-1964 contest was for the Homecoming game against Clemson in 1948, when an estimated 16,000 fans were present for the dedication of the “new” Johnson Hagood Stadium.

In case anyone was wondering, here are the top average attendance marks over two-year, three-year, five-year, and ten-year periods:

Two years: 1975-76 (18,250). Rest of the top five: 1991-92, 1979-80, 1990-91, 1989-90
Three years: 1990-92 (17,457). Rest of the top five: 1989-91, 1978-80, 1991-93, 1975-77
Five years: 1988-92 (17,126). Rest of the top five: 1989-93, 1975-79, 1976-80, 1990-94
Ten years: 1975-84 (16,250). Rest of the top five: 1983-92, 1974-83, 1976-85, 1984-93

Average attendance by decade:

1964-69: 11,998
1970-79: 15,053
1980-89: 15,398
1990-99: 14,955
2000-09: 13,850
2010-19: 11,179
2020-22: 7,763 (average attendance for the past two seasons is 9,929)

—

Here is a spreadsheet that lists the attendance numbers for all SoCon games (conference matchups only) in 2022:

2022 SoCon attendance

(Apologies for the less-than-stellar formatting, but I think it is readable enough.)

Last season, Chattanooga was the top overall road draw in league play, which was something of a surprise — to me, anyway. In four road games, the Mocs played before crowds averaging 10,291.50. Of course, those numbers were definitely buoyed by the location of those four contests, with the host schools being The Citadel, Furman, ETSU, and Western Carolina. Those four ranked 2-3-4-5 in home attendance for conference games.

Conversely, Mercer (which had the highest home attendance average for league contests) ranked last as a road draw, with an average of 6086.25 fans, thanks almost entirely to playing away from home against Chattanooga, VMI, Samford, and Wofford, the four schools that made up the bottom half of the league in conference home attendance (with the Terriers bringing up the rear with an average of 4,905.75 fans per league matchup).

Incidentally, the highest attended home game for Wofford in 2022 was against ETSU (5,849). This was the first time in even-numbered years since 2006 that a home game versus The Citadel was not Wofford’s highest-attended regular-season contest. (In 2006, the Terriers’ highest-attended home game was against South Carolina State.)

—

Next up, I’ll be posting a fairly extensive breakdown of FCS attendance since 2012.

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

College football on a Saturday, as sweet and clear as moonlight through the pines

Posted on September 15, 2022 by Sandlapper Spike

This week, The Citadel’s football team travels to Macon, Georgia, for a matchup with Mercer.

For a brief period of time, I lived in Georgia. With all due respect to the great Ray Charles, my memories of the state invariably involve an overflowing Flint River…

—

– The Citadel plays another ranked team on Saturday, this time on the road

– Colby Kintner is the SoCon Special Teams Player of the Week

– The Citadel’s game notes

– The Citadel’s Monday press conference

– Brent Thompson’s radio show (with video breakdown)

– Mercer’s game notes

– Mercer’s press conference

– Mercer head football coach Drew Cronic’s radio show

– SoCon weekly release

– SoCon statistics

– Streaming: ESPN3, with Pete Yanity on play-by-play and Jared Singleton handling analysis

[ Edit: an alert reader has pointed out that the game is listed by Mercer, the SoCon, and ESPN’s own website as streaming on ESPN3, as opposed to ESPN+.

If you’re confused (and you should be), this explainer might be of assistance: Link ]

– Radio: Luke Mauro and Lee Glaze call the game online and also on three radio stations statewide: WQNT (102.1-FM/1450-AM) in Charleston, WQXL (100.7-FM/1470-AM) in Columbia, and WDXY (105.9-FM/1240-AM) in Sumter.

– Live stats

—

Weather forecast: per the National Weather Service, it should be sunny on Saturday afternoon in Macon, with the high temperature approaching 87°.

—

The Citadel is 3-5 all-time in games played on September 17; four of those eight matchups were shutouts (two for the Bulldogs, two for the opposition).

The most recent game played by the program on that date was a 31-24 victory at Gardner-Webb in 2016, a contest in which the Bulldogs only completed one pass. There will have to be a few more receptions by The Citadel’s pass-catchers this week if the Bulldogs are to come home from Macon with a win.

—

Computer ratings:

– SP+ ranks Mercer 37th in FCS, while The Citadel is 82nd. Projected score: Mercer 33.3, The Citadel 16.1.

– Massey ranks Mercer 31st in FCS, with The Citadel 52nd. Projected score: Mercer 31, The Citadel 21, with the Bulldogs given a 27% chance of pulling the upset.

– Congrove ranks Mercer 22nd, and The Citadel 79th. Congrove doesn’t project a score, but favors Mercer by 14.78 points (with a 3-point bump for home field).

– Laz Index ranks Mercer 17th in the subdivision, with The Citadel 59th. There is no score projection here either, but the Bears have a 10.07-point edge in Laz’s power rating.

– DCI ranks Mercer 27th, and The Citadel 74th. Projected score: Mercer 37.14, The Citadel 19.88.

—

FCS Rankings:

– FCS Coaches’ Poll: Mercer 20th, The Citadel unranked [no votes]

– Stats Perform FCS Top 25: Mercer 20th, The Citadel unranked but receiving votes [would be 32nd]

– FCS Nation Top 25: Mercer 14th, The Citadel 24th

I’m including the FCS Nation Top 25 on the roundup this week, not as much because The Citadel is ranked in that particular poll, but by virtue of Mercer using it as part of its ticket sales push:

As kickoff approaches on Saturday night at Five Star Stadium, #20/#23 Mercer will be coming off a bye week while the Bears’ opponent, The Citadel, got the attention of everyone in the Southern Conference upsetting the defending SoCon champion and #8 ETSU, 20-17, on a walk-off field goal. As a result, the Bulldogs moved into the Top 25 in the FCS Nation Radio rankings…

In addition to the Bears playing their first SoCon game of the 2022 season on Saturday at 6 p.m., an outstanding lineup of performers is set to hit the stage in Toby Town for the Ford Concert Series. For those who have not nabbed their ticket for the game, here is one more opportunity.

…A 24-hour flash sale will be held from 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 13 until 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 14. One ticket purchased for $10.01 will grant admission into the Mitchell Tenpenny pregame concert as well as the Mercer vs. The Citadel football game.

(I believe that release by Mercer came out just before this week’s FCS Coaches’ Poll was released. The Bears are 20th in that poll, not 23rd as stated in the quoted section.)

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Other games involving SoCon teams:

– Wofford at Virginia Tech (11 am ET kickoff; Terriers have yet to score this season)
– Cornell at VMI (an important game for the SoCon; we’re all fans of the Keydets this week)
– Presbyterian at Western Carolina (Catamounts should win handily; PC only beat VUL by eight points last week)
– North Alabama at Chattanooga (another non-conference contest of note; the league could use a Mocs victory)
– Samford at Tennessee Tech (road games can be tricky, but SU is the better team)
– Furman at East Tennessee State (the week’s other league matchup)

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A few other FCS games worth mentioning:

– Holy Cross at Yale (Ivy League starts play this week)
– Colgate at Penn
– Gardner-Webb at Elon (Runnin’ Bulldogs gave Coastal Carolina all it wanted last week)
– Incarnate Word at Prairie View A&M
– North Dakota at Northern Arizona
– Sacramento State at Northern Iowa
– Delaware at Rhode Island
– North Dakota State at Arizona (yes, NDSU is favored)
– Montana State at Oregon State (Beavers are good but still only 13½-point favorites)
– Tennessee State at Middle Tennessee State (Hmm…)
– Missouri State at Arkansas (Bobby Petrino Bowl)
– Stony Brook at Massachusetts (Stony Brook is favored in a couple of places)

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Stats of note through The Citadel’s first two games of the season:

Average (2 gms)	Opponents	The Citadel
Field Position	38.50	24.26
Success Rate	47.7%	39.8%
Big plays (20+ yards)	3.5/gm	2.5/gm
Finishing drives (average points)	3.25	4.29
Turnovers	1.0/gm	1.5/gm
Expected turnovers	0.47/gm	1.08/gm
Possessions	9.0/gm	9.5/gm
Points per possession	2.56	1.58
Offensive Plays	55.5/gm	61.5/gm
Yards/rush (sacks taken out)	6.31	4.08
Yards/pass attempt (including sacks)	6.81	6.33
Yards/play	6.52	4.41
3rd down conversions	38.1%	33.3%
4th down conversions	75.0%	75.0%
Red Zone TD%	40.0%	60.0%
Net punting	27.33	32.13
Starting FP after KO	27.43	23.60
Time of possession	24:05/gm	35:55/gm
TOP/offensive play	26.04	35.04
Penalties/P-yds	9.0/82.5 yds	10.5/77.0 yds
1st down passing	64.7%, 8.72 yds/pa	60.0%, 7.20 yds/pa
3rd and long passing	40.0%, 5.10 yds/pa	33.3%, 1.25 yds/pa
4th down passing	100.0%, 11.00 yds/pa	66.7%, 12.67 yds/pa
Passing on “passing downs”	50.0%, 7.41 yds/pa	50.0%, 5.56 yds/pa
1st down yards/play	6.73	5.23
3rd down average yards to go	8.71	7.22
Defensive 3-and-outs+	3.0/gm	1.0/gm

– ‘Finishing drives’ is a category for all drives that feature a first down inside the opponent’s 40-yard line. It is a natural (and sometimes more illuminating) extension of the ‘Red Zone’ concept. The Citadel’s defense has done a good job in its own territory so far, with more “bending” than “breaking”.

– This week, I am adding the numbers for “passing downs”, which are defined as follows: 2nd-and-8+ yards, 3rd-and-5+ yards, and 4th-and-5+ yards.

– The Citadel has a negative field position differential of over 14 yards, which is a problem. The Bulldogs are at almost -4 yards on kickoff differential, but the net punting has (somehow) been in the military college’s favor, at +4.8. That is due mainly to no opposing punt return yards for Bulldog opponents, combined with Dominick Poole’s 50-yard scamper versus ETSU.

The real culprit when it comes to The Citadel’s field position woes? Arguably, that would be the six 3-and-out+ drives the Bulldogs’ offense has had through two games (31.5% of all possessions). Conversely, opposing offenses have only had two such drives (11.1%).

It is crucial that The Citadel’s offense begins converting 3rd down attempts at a higher rate. A few more big plays wouldn’t hurt, either.

– The Bulldogs also need to fix their early-season penalty problems (although opponents have been flagged at a high rate as well).

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Participation report:

The Citadel had 43 players compete on the field against East Tennessee State last Saturday. Two of them were “true” freshmen — offensive lineman Sawyer Whitman, who made his first career start, and holder Jack McCall (somewhat curiously listed as a long snapper on the online roster). Whitman and McCall also saw action versus Campbell.

Both are South Carolina natives. Whitman went to Gaffney High School, while McCall is a product of Hammond School (located in Columbia).

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As we all know, there are certain college football media members who frequently advocate for the elimination of FBS vs. FCS games. This same group tends to also cheerlead for anything that gets the sport closer to the Superleague.

In the past, however, there haven’t really been many high-profile FBS coaches or administrators who have gone on record emphatically defending those contests, with the notable exception of Jimbo Fisher.

That has changed recently. First, Georgia head coach Kirby Smart had this to say prior to his team’s game against Samford last week:

“High schools are our feeder programs, just like we are for the NFL. And if you’re going to have good high school programs, you got to have kids getting opportunities to play at all levels. Because there’s a lot more kids playing at a non-Power 5 level than at the Power 5 level. So if you’re a supplier of talent and the growth of the game comes from your youth sports and your high school sports, you’re going to diminish that as these programs fade away.”

There was a similar article in The Athletic on Smart’s comments that also mentioned some of the other benefits of the cross-subdivision games, including the frequently-overlooked fact that an FCS matchup is often a chance to attend a game at a lower cost, which can be very important to families (and is an outcome that many college administrators want, as it broadens the fan base).

This week, the Lexington Herald-Leader posted a story on Kentucky’s upcoming game against Youngstown State, with quotes from Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart and head football coach Mark Stoops.

Barnhart:

“It’s important to support FCS football because I want people participating in college football. I think sometimes we forget about thinking about the end game, making sure everybody is still playing. If there’s opportunities that go away and there’s not kids that want to play the game of football, the game of football suffers. We’ve got to make sure we do things that ensure the game of football and people want to play the game. Keeping FCS football alive is very, very important to that end. We like playing one of those games. That’s important to us.”

Stoops was also supportive, stating that FCS teams “compete and depend on these games as well. I like supporting them in that area.”

It appears the SEC schools will continue playing FCS opponents (with the exception of South Carolina playing The Citadel, of course). That will remain the case even after that conference inevitably moves to a 9-game league slate, which I anticipate happening once Texas and Oklahoma start playing an SEC schedule. This is good news.

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Mercer’s online roster includes 80 players from Georgia. Other states represented: Florida (6 players), North Carolina (6), South Carolina (5), Alabama (4), Tennessee (3), Pennsylvania (2), and one each from California, Nebraska, New York, and Ohio. Redshirt freshman defensive lineman Emil Hovde is a native of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Fourteen of the Bears began their college careers at other four-year institutions (eight of them enrolled at Mercer this summer). The schools represented on that list: Alabama A&M, Coastal Carolina (3 players), East Carolina, Gardner-Webb, Georgia, Georgia State, Jacksonville State, James Madison, Lenoir-Rhyne, Morehouse, South Alabama, and South Carolina.

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Mercer is 1-1 so far this season; this game will mark its SoCon opener. The Bears previously defeated Morehead State, 63-13, and lost at Auburn, 42-16.

MU was off last week, so the Bears have had two weeks to prepare for Saturday’s contest.

Mercer will go on the road next week to face Gardner-Webb, its final non-conference regular-season game in 2022. Future non-conference opponents for the Bears include Mississippi, Morehead State, and Yale (all in 2023, the latter two matchups at home) and a 2024 contest at Alabama.

A few Mercer players to watch:

– Senior quarterback Fred Payton (6’2″, 220 lbs.) is in his second year as MU’s starting signal-caller after beginning his college career at Coastal Carolina. In 12 games at Mercer, Payton has completed 58.1% of his passes, averaging 8.49 yards per attempt (not counting sacks against), with 18 touchdowns and 10 interceptions.

– Right tackle John Thomas (6’3″, 300 lbs.) was a preseason first-team All-SoCon pick. The junior is one of three returning starters for the Bears on the o-line; the new faces up front are the left guard and right guard (a sophomore and redshirt freshman, respectively).

Mercer’s projected starters on the offensive line average 6’2″, 276 lbs.

– MU had ten different players run the football against Morehead State, which was not particularly unusual; the Bears had eight players carry the pigskin versus The Citadel last fall.

Austin Douglas (6’0″, 208 lbs.), a transfer from James Madison, has led Mercer in rushing in both of its games this season. Against Morehead State, he rushed for 140 yards.

– Wide receiver Ty James (6’2″, 200 lbs.) was named the FCS national offensive player of the week (for the games of Week 0) after a scintillating performance versus Morehead State. James, who spent one year at UGA before moving south to Macon, had five receptions for 192 yards and 3 TDs in that contest.

Another wideout, Devron Harper (5’9″, 168 lbs.), had two TD catches against Auburn.

Tight end Drake Starks (6’3″, 240 lbs.) had a 75-yard touchdown reception on the first play from scrimmage in the spring 2021 game between Mercer and The Citadel.

– Seven MU players who started last November’s game against The Citadel return this year, including first-team all-SoCon safety Lance Wise (5’9″, 195 lbs.). Wise led Mercer in tackles in both games versus the Bulldogs in 2021, and also returned a fumble for a TD in the 2019 contest (a game eventually won by The Citadel).

– Linebacker Isaac Dowling (5’10, 225 lbs.) was a preseason second-team all-conference selection. He had nine tackles against the Bulldogs last fall.

– Another preseason second-team all-league choice on the Bears’ defense is Solomon Zubairu (6’1″, 255 lbs.). The weird thing about that is Zubairu was actually a first-team All-SoCon pick by both the coaches and media after the fall 2021 campaign, during which he had five sacks. I’m not sure what he did wrong during the offseason.

– Punter Trey Turk (6’2″, 195 lbs.) was also a preseason second-team all-SoCon selection, based mostly on making the league’s all-freshman team last year, but possibly in part because “Trey Turk” is a cool name for a punter.

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It is hard to get a sense of how good Mercer is this season based on its first two games, which were against a non-scholarship D1 squad and an SEC team. However, the Bears have a lot of returning production from last season, a campaign in which MU won 7 games (6 in the SoCon) and probably merited an at-large bid to the FCS playoffs.

One of those wins came against The Citadel, a 34-7 result in Johnson Hagood Stadium. In that contest, Mercer ran on 71.9% of its offensive plays from scrimmage, averaging 6.3 yards per carry (one of which was a 72-TD run by Tayshaun Shipp, one of only five rushing attempts he had all season).

Defensively, Mercer forced three turnovers and held the Bulldogs to 4.0 yards per play. The Citadel did not score after the first quarter.

It also doesn’t hurt the Bears that they have had an extra week to prepare for the triple option.

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Another week, another ranked opponent. That is life in the SoCon, where there are no gimmies.

The challenge for the Bulldogs is to maintain their excellent play last week in Charleston (particularly on defense), but to do it in a road setting.

While a difficult task, it isn’t an impossible one. Many of the players on this year’s squad know the feeling of beating a good team on the road, because that’s just what The Citadel did in the final game of 2021 when the Bulldogs won at Chattanooga.

It might come as a little bit of a surprise to some that The Citadel has actually won three consecutive league games, dating back to last season. Two of them have been against programs in the upper echelon of the conference.

This isn’t a “little engine that could” situation. The Bulldogs should play with confidence and a fair amount of aggression. It would also help to get off to a good start.

I’m looking forward to Saturday.

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

A pleasant surprise on a Saturday afternoon

Posted on September 11, 2022 by Sandlapper Spike

What a nice day in Charleston (even if it was hot).

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– Game story in The Post and Courier

– AP game story

– WCSC-TV report (video)

– Colby Kintner’s immediate postgame reaction (from a tweet by WCIV-TV’s Scott Eisberg)

– Box score

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I won’t be able to immediately review too many contests this season, but I figured this game was worth a post…

	East Tennessee State	The Citadel
Field Position	37.8	23.3
Success Rate	50.98%	44.93%
Big plays (20+ yards)	4	3
Finishing drives (average points)	2.0	5.0
Turnovers	1	0
Expected turnovers	0.22	0.22
Possessions	9	10
Points per possession	1.89	2.00
Offensive Plays	51	70
Yards/rush (sacks taken out)	7.46	4.10
Yards/pass attempt (including sacks)	6.28	6.83
Yards/play	6.88	4.57
3rd down conversions	2 of 8	5 of 14
4th down conversions	0 of 1	1 of 1
Red Zone TD%	25.00%	66.67%
Net punting	21.8	32.6
Time of possession	20:44	39:16
TOP/offensive play	24.88 sec/play	33.18 sec/play
Penalties	8 for 80 yards	12 for 71 yards
1st down passing	7-9, 121 yards	2-4, 17 yards
3rd and long passing	1-5, 9 yards	0-1
4th down passing	0-1	0-0
1st down yards/play	8.21	5.32
3rd down average yards to go	9.33	7.15
Defensive 3-and-outs+	2	1

Random thoughts on the action:

Sometimes, someone will offer the opinion that The Citadel runs the B-back up the middle too often. Then, Logan Billings breaks two 30+ yard runs on the game’s final drive, and someone has an epiphany.
B-backs carried the ball on 55% of the Bulldogs’ rushes against ETSU, while QB Peyton Derrick rushed on 29% of the ground attempts. That left just eight carries for the A-backs; Nkem Njoku’s sole rush was his 5-yard touchdown.
One of the issues with getting the A-backs more involved is clearly the new perimeter blocking rules. That was noticeable on a couple of plays during the game, particularly one where Cooper Wallace looked to have an potential open field with a blocker and just one defender in front of him, but the blocker couldn’t cut the ETSU player’s legs, and the end result was a tackle for loss. I think in past years that play normally would have gone for about 20 yards.
The Citadel generally did a good job of getting into manageable third-down situations; in the table above, you can see the average yards-to-go on third down was 7.15 yards, but if you take out a 3rd-and-30 early in the fourth quarter, the average was 5.25 yards (including three 3rd-and-1 plays).
Billings’ two late runs were two of the only three offensive plays for the Bulldogs that gained 20+ yards. (The other was a 31-yard run by Jay Graves-Billips on the game’s opening drive.)
Another potential play of 20+ yards, Ben Brockington’s would-be reception, was wiped away by a holding penalty. I’m guessing Brockington will have another opportunity or two this season to make an impact in the passing game; I look forward to seeing #97 rumble down the field.
ETSU’s offense had four plays of 20+ yards, three of them runs/receptions by the impressive Jacob Saylors. He more than justified his preseason SoCon offensive player of the year selection.
That said, the Bulldogs had a very good day on defense. The early goal line stand, the key interception by Destin Mack, holding ETSU to a field goal in the 4th quarter when the Bucs had a first down on The Citadel’s 13-yard line…lots of excellent work all the way around.
ETSU had five possessions (out of nine) in which the Bucs had a first down inside the Bulldogs’ 40-yard line. Points on those drives: 0, 7, 0, 0, 3.
Conversely, The Citadel’s offense had the ball four times inside ETSU’s 40. Points on those drives: 3, 7, 7, 3. That was arguably the difference in the game.
Thanks to Dominick Poole’s 50-yard punt return (which set up the first TD), The Citadel actually had the edge in net punting. However, that is clearly an area in which the Bulldogs need to improve (and don’t forget about the multiple formation penalties).
Melvin Ravenel took out two ETSU players on that punt return.
The Citadel held the ball for almost two-thirds of game time (39:16), including five possessions of more than four minutes in duration. That limited the number of total possessions for each team (East Tennessee State had nine drives in the game, with just three in the first half).
I mentioned this on Twitter, but I’ll state it here as well. There is no good reason that a game not on national television, one in which the two teams involved combined for just 36 pass attempts (and only 121 total plays, a fairly low total), should take 3 hours and 16 minutes to complete. That was partly due to game administration by the officials, but the ridiculous number of TV breaks were also a factor.

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Off the field (mostly):

I enjoyed the contest in which a cadet had to play “Deal or No Deal”. He correctly chose to deal, but made the classic mistake of choosing the ‘B’ bag — for Band Company, he said — and wound up with an ear of corn. (He should have chosen the ‘A’ bag for Alpha Company.)
I’m not going to write a angry 1500-word screed about the uniforms, because we won, etc., but The Citadel should wear light blue jerseys with white pants at home. Always. (Also, the dark blue pants/light blue tops combination is aesthetically displeasing.)
The scoreboard operator(s) appeared to have an issue with the statistical totals for much of the third quarter, but it eventually got fixed.
I didn’t see any problems with the cadets’ move to the other side of the West stands.
Suggestion: someone in the department of athletics should make a courtesy call to the City of Charleston, requesting that the numerous and large potholes in the B and C parking lots be filled in before Parents’ Weekend.
The crowd was reasonably lively. It helped that the team got off to a good start.

—

Next week: at Mercer. That will not be easy.

I might have another post later in the week. Or I might not. It’s going to be one of those weeks.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: Ben Brockington, Colby Kintner, Cooper Wallace, Destin Mack, Dominick Poole, East Tennessee State, Jacob Saylors, Jay Graves-Billips, Logan Billings, Melvin Ravenel, Nkem Njoku, Peyton Derrick, SoCon, The Citadel | Leave a comment »

Football’s 2022 debut in Charleston — a/k/a The Citadel’s home opener

Posted on September 8, 2022 by Sandlapper Spike

That’s right, sports fans. The Citadel will begin its home campaign on Saturday at Johnson Hagood Stadium, as East Tennessee State comes to town. Will the Bulldogs improve after a less-than-stellar showing in Buies Creek last week?

The offense needs to generate big plays and lots of points. The defense must force turnovers and get off the field on third down. The corps has to be loud and enthusiastic. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

I don’t really have much to say about this game, as you can probably tell. ETSU is the defending SoCon champion, is projected to be quite good again this season (currently ranked 8th and 9th in two of the major FCS polls), defeated The Citadel 48-21 last year in Johnson City, and pulverized Mars Hill 44-7 last week.

I’ll just riff on a variety of topics, some not directly related to pigskin activity but of potential interest.

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Did you know The Citadel will soon have a presence on Times Square in New York City? At least, that appears to be the plan, based on a sole source justification recently posted on the school’s procurement website:

The school intends to allocate $39,950.00 to provide “impression-based marketing for The Citadel with the ability to adjust the messaging weekly. This [digital] billboard will provide 4,495,055 impressions per day to over 1,500,000 daily visitors to Times Square.”

The campaign will last for three months and feature a “fifteen second airtime package looping a minimum of four times per hour, airing 20 hours per day, from 6am to 2am…The 1500 Broadway Spectacular [the name of the billboard] is located in Times Square, New York City and has a 56′ wide x 29′ high, two-sided HD LED screen for a total 1,624 square feet of viewing space.”

You can see a photo of the billboard at this link, or you could make the trip to NYC and see it in person. Consider it an added bonus tourist attraction, to go along with the Statue of Liberty and Hamilton.

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One thing you probably won’t see in the foreseeable future is The Citadel Independent Sports Network. The longtime message board that focused on Bulldog athletics went offline earlier this week after a two-decade run on the internet.

Per a highly placed source, the operator of the site finally decided to pull the plug earlier this summer (because of prepaid maintenance fees, the board remained online for a couple more months).

That bane of message boards past and present, relentless negativity, was the reason for its demise.

There are many Bulldog fans out there, more than one might expect for a small school with sports programs that traditionally have enjoyed relatively modest success. It can be a pleasure to discuss sports in a message board format with supporters like those — intelligent, committed, and deeply loyal fans who avidly follow varsity athletics.

However, in recent years the site operator grew frustrated with the fact that sports discussion had often given way to almost nonstop complaining about coaches. That particular brand of antagonism had also driven away many of the longtime posters.

I have never run a message board, and I never will. Doing so requires time, money, a great deal of patience, some technical ability, and the responsibility of maintaining what is essentially a public-facing entity, one for which you do not completely control the content.

I would have shut it down too.

—

East Tennessee State has three non-conference games this season — Mars Hill last week, Robert Morris on September 24, and at Mississippi State on November 19 (the traditional SEC-SoCon Showdown Saturday).

Future non-conference opponents for ETSU include at Liberty (in 2023 and 2025), at Appalachian State (2024), North Dakota State (at home in 2024 and on the road in 2026), UVA Wise (2024 and 2027), and at North Carolina (2026).

—

The Citadel’s volleyball team defeated Clemson last Saturday (September 4). That was part of a 2-1 weekend which led to the Bulldogs garnering SoCon honors for both Defensive Player of the Week (Jaelynn Elgert) and Setter of the Week (Belle Hogan).

This was the Bulldogs’ first win in volleyball over Clemson (the two teams had met once before, in 2004). Furthermore, it was the program’s first victory over an ACC school — or any Power 5 conference opponent, for that matter.

It was also, from what I can tell, the first win for the Bulldogs over the Tigers in a team sport since 1999, when the baseball team defeated Clemson 18-15. That game was also The Citadel’s biggest comeback on the diamond in school history, as the Bulldogs had trailed 15-4 before scoring 14 unanswered runs.

Last win over Clemson in basketball: 1979 (58-56, at McAlister Field House)
Last win over Clemson in tennis: 1961
Last win over Clemson in football: 1931 (6-0 in Florence, a result that led directly to the formation of IPTAY, and thus probably the most influential college football game in Palmetto State history)

It should be noted that Clemson and The Citadel haven’t met all that regularly in any sport, at least not in the last few decades.

—

Last week, I wrote about The Citadel’s retention (and attrition) for its signing classes. As a follow-up, here is a breakdown of the last seven signing classes for the Bulldogs by state (136 players; there was also one signee from outside the country):

South Carolina – 51
Georgia – 33
Florida – 15
North Carolina – 11
Texas – 6
Virginia – 5
Alabama – 3
Ohio – 3
Tennessee – 3
New York – 2
Pennsylvania – 2
Louisiana – 1
Oregon – 1

—

In the Massey Ratings, East Tennessee State is ranked 30th in FCS, while The Citadel is 77th. ETSU is projected to win 28-21, with the Bulldogs given a 34% chance of pulling the upset.

When the line for the game is released later this week, I would anticipate the spread being more than 7 points, despite The Citadel playing at home. I’m basing that in part on the quick movement for the Campbell game soon after its opening line was set, a 6½-point jump in less than three hours.

[Edit: ETSU is favored by 16 points, with the over/under at 51½.]

—

Those that attend Saturday’s contest will notice one significant change in the stands:

One of the most noticeable changes will be the relocation of the South Carolina Corps of Cadets (SCCC) to the North end of the stadium in Sections K,L,M.

For anyone unfamiliar with the setup at Johnson Hagood Stadium, in past years the corps usually was ensconced in the West stands (the home side), on the end near the Altman Center. This season, the student section will be on the home side next to the scoreboard.

This was done in order to make room for a VIP seating area. I don’t have a problem with the move, but it will be different.

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Weather forecast for Saturday in Charleston: showers and possibly a thunderstorm (uh-oh), with a high of 84°. Chance of precipitation: 80%.

—

Let’s hope the actual weather is a little better than that, and let’s also hope the concessions for the home opener are better organized than was the case at East Carolina last Saturday:

…there were several issues with concession lines, product availability, and other fan experience items when a record crowd of 51,711 showed up for [East Carolina’s] 21-20 loss to NC State in the season opener this past Saturday.

Despite temperatures in the mid-80s, fans online said there were multiple sections that ran out of bottled water well before the end of the game. Lines to get food or beverage items took 45 minutes or more in some cases, and the options were limited when fans finally got to the front.

Combined with the way that game ended, Saturday was a tough day to be a Pirate, whether you were Mike Houston or the executive associate athletics director for internal operations.

ECU wasn’t the only school that had some off-field gameday snafus; for example, Arkansas had fans waiting in the turnstiles to enter the stadium well past kickoff.

—

On Wednesday, The Citadel posted an advertisement for the position of Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance.

The potential importance of this position was arguably highlighted in the past couple of weeks by the travails of Florida A&M. Partly because of significant compliance problems, FAMU had more than two dozen players with unresolved eligibility issues; at one point, its opening game against North Carolina was in doubt.

—

– The Citadel’s game notes

– The Citadel’s Monday press conference

– Brent Thompson’s radio show (with video breakdown!)

– East Tennessee State’s game notes [when available]

– ETSU’s press conference

– SoCon weekly release

– Streaming: ESPN+, with Pete Yanity on play-by-play and Jared Singleton handling analysis

– Live Stats

—

ETSU should bring an excellent squad to town. Quarterback Tyler Riddell and running back Jacob Saylors are two of the seven Buccaneers named to the preseason first-team All-SoCon squad, with Saylors the conference’s preseason Player of the Year.

The unknowns for East Tennessee State mainly revolve around a new head coach (George Quarles, recently the offensive coordinator at Furman), as Randy Sanders retired after last season. However, ETSU has already had one game to help get over any transition-related hiccups.

—

Of note, Quarles was asked about the new blocking rules that were seemingly enacted by the NCAA in an effort to eradicate the triple option:

There weren’t many times [against Campbell] where I saw [The Citadel] trying to cut out on the perimeter. I think it has a pretty big effect on that style of offense. I watched a little bit of Navy [on] Saturday – they run the same thing. I watched a little bit of Army. Those guys, it’s just different for them when you can’t throw at people’s legs on the perimeter, I think it changes that style of offense just a little bit. Now, it still comes down to how well you block them inside and those sorts of things, but your perimeter runs are a little bit different now since you can’t cut…[defenders on the outside] are probably a little bit more comfortable that, hey, nobody’s coming to take out my legs out from under me…

Brent Thompson also referenced the rule changes during his coach’s show on Wednesday night while discussing Peyton Derrick’s QB play, observing that “…we’ve had a lot of new formations [put] in. The new blocking rules, the new blocking-below-the-waist rule, or the lack of cut blocking rules, has forced us to change our offense just a little bit. It’s forced us to do some things a little bit differently, and it’s going to create a little bit more motions and shifts and probably a little more misdirection in the offense than has been in it before…”

Later, Thompson said that he had watched the Army-Coastal Carolina game, and that Army had done “very little perimeter running. That’s where it really hurts you, the perimeter running. [The new rules] put such tight constraints on that…all these teams that have ‘traditional’ offenses, very few of them have as much extensive cut blocking as we have had, so it has definitely hurt us. We have had to rethink and reimagine our offense. I spent a lot of the spring and the summertime watching a lot of different teams and trying to figure out where it was going to impact us the most…that’s where we spent a lot of our time, trying to reformulate our offense…”

Thompson also stated that The Citadel needed to “do a little bit more in the play-action pass game” in response to the new rules.

—

I linked to it above, but I wanted to reference Brent Thompson’s radio show again. Starting around the 42-minute mark, he does a “coach’s clips”-style video breakdown for the game that lasts more than 15 minutes, including plays from 2021’s contest (The Citadel’s offense vs. ETSU’s defense) and last week’s ETSU game vs. Mars Hill (the Bucs’ offense vs. Mars Hill’s D).

It is very interesting, especially for all the football geeks out there (and you know who you are). I highly recommend it. This is one of the better segments I’ve seen on a coach’s show — any coach’s show.

The coach’s show takes place on Wednesday nights, something to remember going forward, especially if you’re like me and you thought it was held on Thursdays…

—

I hope there is a decent crowd for this game, especially given that it is The Citadel’s sole home matchup until October 8. In addition, the Bulldogs only play once at Johnson Hagood Stadium between Saturday’s contest and October 29, another aspect of one of the odder home schedules for The Citadel that I can remember.

It is also desirable that the team makes a marked improvement from Week 1. If it doesn’t, Saturday will be a long day for the Bulldogs (even if there are no lightning delays).

We shall see. I’ll be there, regardless.

Filed under: Football, The Citadel | Tagged: East Tennessee State, SoCon, The Citadel | 4 Comments »

The Citadel begins its 2022 football campaign

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Sandlapper Spike

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

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

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

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

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

—

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

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

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

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

—

Okay, I’ve got that out of the way.

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

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

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

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

—

I’m going to start with something positive.

2022 Threads!#FireThoseCannons pic.twitter.com/PpjtwT7AL8
— The Citadel Football (@CitadelFootball) July 27, 2022

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

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

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

—

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

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

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

—

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

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

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

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

—

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

—

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

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

—

Baseball notes for The Citadel as the 2022 season begins

Posted on February 11, 2022 by Sandlapper Spike

This is just a post in which I throw out a bunch of numbers, etc. Please excuse the scattershot nature of the information…

—

The Citadel is scheduled to play 34 non-conference games in 2022 — 26 at home, and 8 on the road. Three of the road games are against Creighton, while the other five are much shorter trips (Charleston Southern twice, College of Charleston, Winthrop, and North Florida).

Below is a list of The Citadel’s 2002 non-conference opponents, with last season’s record, RPI, and games versus the Bulldogs this year in parenthesis. For example, Fairleigh Dickinson was 8-29 last season and finished with an RPI of 284 (there are 293 teams in D-1); The Citadel is slated to face FDU at Riley Park in the first three games of the 2022 campaign.

Fairleigh Dickinson: 9-28, 284 (3)
Villanova: 21-14, 98 (3)
Northern Kentucky: 17-31, 257 (3)
Charleston Southern: 18-26, 247 (4)
USC-Upstate: 37-16, 51 (1)
Siena: 15-24, 259 (3)
St. Peter’s: 4-24, 279 (3)
George Mason: 14-29, 267 (3)
North Florida: 22-23, 117 (2)
Creighton: 24-15, 115 (3)
College of Charleston: 27-25, 158 (2)
Winthrop: 19-27, 238 (2)
South Carolina: 34-23, 20 (1)
Texas: 50-17, 4 (1)

The Citadel finished 12-39 last season, with an RPI of 266.

—

SoCon preseason polls:

Preseason Coaches Poll
Team (First-Place Votes) Points
1. Wofford (6) 48
2. Mercer (1) 40
3. Western Carolina (1) 39
4. ETSU 28
5. UNCG 25
6. Samford 19
7. VMI 16
8. The Citadel 9

Preseason Media Poll
Team (First-Place Votes) Points
1. Wofford (8) 127
2. Mercer (3) 113
3. Samford (4) 100
4. Western Carolina (2) 87
5. ETSU 74
6. UNCG 54
7. VMI 37
8. The Citadel 20

—

This season, SoCon teams are scheduled to play 21 conference matchups, 3 against each team (last season’s COVID-affected slate featured divisional play). The Citadel has 3 home series in league action, and 4 series on the road.

I don’t have updated park factors for the 2021 season, though that year might be of somewhat limited forecasting utility anyway, given the COVID-related factors surrounding it. The 2019 numbers suggest that the SoCon has four teams which play home games in average to very slightly above average parks for offense (The Citadel, Samford, Wofford, and ETSU), one that plays in an above average park for offense (UNC Greensboro), and three that compete in parks well above average for offense (Mercer, VMI, and Western Carolina).

In the SoCon, the name of the game is putting runs on the board. In 2021, league teams averaged 6.57 runs per game (3rd-most among the 31 Division I conferences). That came as a result of compiling a collective .277 batting average (5th-best), maintaining an on base percentage of .375 (4th-highest), slugging .428 as a group (9th-highest), totaling an OPS of .803 (8th-best), and averaging 0.971 homers per game (10th-most).

The Citadel will avoid making the journey to Cullowhee and Western Carolina’s Hennon Stadium, which was in the top 15 of park factors (in terms of D1 offense) as of 2019, but the Bulldogs do travel to Mercer and VMI.

—

Pitching statistics of note for SoCon teams, 2021 (all games, not just conference action):

Team	G	K/9	BB/9	WHIP	2B-A	3B-A	HR-A
Wofford	57	8.86	2.95	1.34	134	9	58
ETSU	49	9.13	3.57	1.40	86	12	34
Mercer	57	8.95	3.80	1.51	65	8	72
Samford	59	9.34	4.03	1.53	106	11	74
UNCG	52	7.80	4.15	1.49	84	9	39
WCU	49	8.57	4.28	1.58	99	14	44
The Citadel	51	7.86	5.42	1.76	106	16	49
VMI	47	6.66	5.50	1.87	106	4	59

–

Team	BAA	OBP ag	SLG ag	OPS ag	WP	HB	Bk	GB/FB
Wofford	0.259	0.334	0.426	0.760	55	64	0	0.768
ETSU	0.259	0.347	0.389	0.736	58	60	4	1.277
Mercer	0.279	0.363	0.434	0.797	44	55	5	0.910
Samford	0.275	0.363	0.449	0.812	68	60	5	0.941
UNCG	0.266	0.358	0.392	0.750	63	55	6	0.805
WCU	0.279	0.376	0.434	0.810	76	67	9	1.062
The Citadel	0.289	0.395	0.451	0.846	50	64	8	0.833
VMI	0.309	0.415	0.492	0.907	67	68	1	0.786

—

Offensive statistics of note for SoCon teams, 2021 (all games, not just conference action):

Team	G	BA	OBP	R	R/Gm	AB	H	2B	3B	TB	TB/Gm	HR	HR/Gm
Mercer	57	0.287	0.390	428	7.51	1,927	553	119	7	962	16.88	92	1.61
WCU	49	0.306	0.413	408	8.33	1,725	528	103	10	816	16.65	55	1.12
Samford	59	0.284	0.383	431	7.31	2,011	571	97	11	900	15.25	70	1.19
Wofford	57	0.292	0.402	404	7.09	1,883	549	117	11	772	13.54	28	0.49
UNCG	52	0.263	0.366	346	6.65	1,739	458	84	14	705	13.56	45	0.87
ETSU	49	0.246	0.341	264	5.39	1,615	397	102	2	668	13.63	55	1.12
VMI	47	0.266	0.367	256	5.45	1,529	406	51	13	573	12.19	30	0.64
The Citadel	51	0.265	0.327	229	4.49	1,715	455	77	9	652	12.78	34	0.67

–

Team	SLG	OPS	RBI	BB	BB/Gm	HBP	K/Gm	SF	SH
Mercer	0.499	0.889	386	256	4.49	80	8.02	19	42
WCU	0.473	0.886	366	241	4.92	87	8.41	19	13
Samford	0.448	0.831	393	266	4.51	71	8.32	21	25
Wofford	0.410	0.812	347	301	5.28	68	7.09	31	54
UNCG	0.405	0.771	315	236	4.54	63	8.23	31	16
ETSU	0.414	0.755	249	202	4.12	38	8.80	14	33
VMI	0.375	0.742	230	197	4.19	57	9.00	13	22
The Citadel	0.380	0.707	199	129	2.53	36	7.80	15	29

–

Team	SB	SB/Gm	CS	SB%	Picked off	CS-Pk /Gm	IBB	Opp DP
Mercer	50	0.88	15	71.4%	5	0.351	15	29
WCU	58	1.18	15	75.3%	4	0.388	5	39
Samford	48	0.81	16	65.8%	9	0.424	7	45
Wofford	132	2.32	34	73.7%	13	0.825	7	40
UNCG	65	1.25	23	68.4%	7	0.577	5	19
ETSU	39	0.80	12	66.1%	8	0.408	11	23
VMI	60	1.28	23	65.2%	9	0.681	7	38
The Citadel	45	0.88	15	64.3%	10	0.490	5	35

—

Defensive statistics of note for SoCon teams, 2021 (all games, not just conference action):

Team	G	PO	A	TC	E	Fld rate	PB	SBA	CSB	SBa%	Infield DP	Def Eff
ETSU	49	1,277	483	1,816	56	0.969	7	36	11	69.4%	34	67.74%
Mercer	57	1,476	511	2,028	41	0.980	8	74	24	67.6%	30	66.98%
Samford	59	1,521	505	2,103	77	0.963	12	67	26	61.2%	41	67.13%
The Citadel	51	1,316	437	1,833	80	0.956	15	68	16	76.5%	28	66.98%
UNCG	52	1,353	462	1,875	60	0.968	10	64	21	67.2%	30	68.77%
VMI	47	1,168	410	1,643	65	0.960	19	58	14	75.9%	23	66.64%
WCU	49	1,267	459	1,779	53	0.970	14	52	12	76.9%	47	66.45%
Wofford	57	1,499	478	2,044	67	0.967	8	41	19	53.7%	18	69.24%

—

If you’re reading this, I probably don’t need to tell you that The Citadel didn’t fare well statistically last season in just about any category, but those tables spell it out in stark terms. It was a tough year.

There are a lot of ways to play winning baseball. Historically, though, The Citadel’s success on the diamond has usually included strong starting pitching with an emphasis on strikeouts (the Bulldogs’ best pitching staffs have had very high K/9 rates), good but not necessarily great defense, and a tough, aggressive, OBP-focused lineup featuring at least three power hitters (often with two of them also good at getting on base).

Unfortunately, last year didn’t come close to producing anything resembling that time-tested formula.

—

At first glance, a 7.86 K/9 rate doesn’t look that bad. After all, it is almost a strikeout per inning. However, that was only 6th-best among SoCon teams, and it was combined with a terrible BB/9 rate (5.42, second-worst in the league). The opponents’ slugging rate was also too high, particularly when considering The Citadel’s home park.

The Bulldogs’ offense mirrored the pitching. The Citadel’s OBP was the worst in the league and must substantially improve in 2022. The batting average wasn’t really the problem; no, the real issue was the Bulldogs’ inability to draw bases on balls.

The Citadel averaged only 2.53 walks per game in 2021; every other league squad averaged at least 4 free passes per contest. That is an enormous difference, and goes a long way to explaining why the Bulldogs averaged just 4.49 runs per game, almost a full run lower than ETSU, which was next-to-last in the conference.

Defensively, The Citadel might have been a little better than its fielding rate suggested, though still slightly below average in the SoCon. However, the Bulldogs allowed too many stolen bases, with opponents swiping over a bag per game (1.33), and with a 76.5% success rate. There was also an excessive number of passed balls, and The Citadel’s infield DP numbers arguably aren’t as high as they should be, given the number of opposing baserunners over the course of the season.

—

All that said, there are positives as the 2022 season begins. For one thing, the team will look good. I also think that as society in general (and college sports in particular) moves closer to a (hopefully) mostly COVID-free existence, The Citadel’s varsity sports teams will be major beneficiaries.

It is hard enough to balance academics, athletics, and military training. The restrictions brought on by COVID-19 have surely made that lifestyle exponentially more difficult. However, it hasn’t been completely impossible; just look at what the volleyball team did.

(Still amazed by that, to be honest.)

I’m more than ready for this season to start. I’m also looking forward to making occasional appearances at Riley Park, something I haven’t been able to do in quite some time.

Play ball!

Filed under: Baseball, The Citadel | Tagged: Riley Park, SoCon, The Citadel | 1 Comment »

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