2020 Football, Game 2: The Citadel vs. Clemson

Posted on September 17, 2020 by Sandlapper Spike

The Citadel at Clemson, to be played on Frank Howard Field at Clemson Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina, with kickoff at 4:00 pm ET on September 19, 2020. 

The game will be televised on the ACC Network. Anish Shroff will handle play-by-play, while Tom Luginbill supplies the analysis and Eric Wood roams the sidelines.

The contest can be heard on radio via the various affiliates of The Citadel Sports Network. WQNT-1450 AM [audio link], originating in Charleston, will be the flagship station. 

Luke Mauro (the “Voice of the Bulldogs”) calls the action alongside analyst Lee Glaze. 

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The Citadel Sports Network — 2020 radio affiliates

Charleston: WQNT 1450 AM/92.1 FM/102.1 FM (Flagship)
Columbia: WQXL 1470 AM/100.7 FM
Sumter: WDXY 1240 AM/105.9 FM

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Links of interest:

– Preview from The Post and Courier [link when available]

– Game notes from The Citadel and Clemson

– Saturday’s game is a potential showcase for The Citadel’s players

– The Citadel is used to playing teams ranked #1

– The Citadel is also used to being #1

– The SoCon isn’t playing football this fall

– ACC weekly release

– Preview on The Citadel’s website

– Brent Thompson’s 9/15 press conference

– The Brent Thompson Show (9/16)

– The Citadel Football: Season Opener

– There will be pods in the stands at Johnson Hagood Stadium on September 26. Yes, pods.

– Dabo Swinney’s 9/15 press conference

– Swinney speaks after the Tigers’ 9/16 practice

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I didn’t write a lot this summer about football, in part because I didn’t really think there would be football in the fall. Hey, call me skeptical.

However, I did delve into a couple of topics:

– Football attendance at The Citadel (and elsewhere); my annual review

– When the Bulldogs weren’t the Bulldogs, but were (at least technically) the Light Brigade

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First things first: The Citadel’s media guide is now available online. I believe this is the first time one has been produced (online or otherwise) by the military college since 2011.

This is huge news for all you media guide aficionados out there (and you know who you are).

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I’ll write more about the Bulldogs’ game at South Florida later, probably when I preview The Citadel’s matchup with Eastern Kentucky. As far as a review is concerned, I thought it was more appropriate to consider the USF and Clemson games in tandem (including from a statistical perspective). That may seem unusual, but what about this year isn’t?

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The fan experience at Clemson Memorial Stadium on Saturday is going to be different, to say the least.

Attendance, which typically exceeds 80,000, will be limited to roughly 19,000 masked and socially distanced fans.

“We think that people are looking at Clemson as an example for how stadiums can operate, should operate and could operate,” [Clemson associate athletic director Jeff Kallin] said.

…Mobile ticketing is making its debut at Clemson, so be prepared.

“The fan experience starts before you leave the house,” Kallin said. “What we’re asking fans to do before they even leave the house is download their ticket and parking pass. And if you have (COVID-19) symptoms, please don’t come.”

Parking lots won’t open until 1 pm. Tailgating in large groups is a no-no. Each fan will have a “suggested time of entry” into the stadium. Only prepackaged foods will be available (and no drinking fountains will be).

There will be hundreds of hand sanitizer stations positioned throughout the stadium and every 15 minutes employees will be cleaning and disinfecting high-touch areas such as handrails, doors, bathrooms, counters and even the hand sanitizer units. Touch-free sinks have been installed in bathrooms.

Clemson’s band and cheerleaders will be on the Hill (socially distanced, naturally). “Supplemental noise” will be employed during the game.

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The Citadel and Clemson have played 38 times. Two of those matchups have been of significant consequence. As it happens, both of them were won by the Bulldogs.

– 1928: It was Homecoming at The Citadel, and approximately 3,000 spectators (one-third of which were Tiger supporters) jammed the original Johnson Hagood Stadium to watch the clash between Carl Prause’s youthful Bulldogs and a team labeled “the greatest Clemson team in years”.

The contest is mostly remembered for the story of Thomas Howie, whose appearance in this game is the stuff of legend. Howie is now immortalized as “The Major of St. Lo”, of course, but in 1928 he was a key cog in the Bulldogs’ offense and an all-around team sparkplug. His presence on the field was important.

Earlier in the day, the senior running back had taken an examination for the Rhodes Scholarship. However, the exam took place in Columbia, and it didn’t end until 12:30 pm. The game in Charleston was scheduled to begin at 2:00 pm.

Assistant coach Ephraim Seabrook drove Howie back to Charleston (in a brand-new Studebaker), and the two somehow managed to arrive at the stadium just before kickoff. On the first play from scrimmage, Howie broke loose on a 32-yard run, giving his teammates a great deal of confidence.

Clemson, led by stars like O.K. Pressley, Covington “Goat” McMillan, Johnny Justis, and Bob McCarley, would control the football for much of the game, building up a 296-to-107 edge in total yards, but five times the Tigers (a/k/a the “Yellow Peril”) were stopped inside The Citadel’s 15-yard line without scoring. The Citadel’s interior line — led by Sam “Stonewall” Wideman, Walter Oglesby, and Polk Skelton — held Clemson at bay each time.

Meanwhile, The Citadel took a surprising lead in the second quarter after Wideman blocked a punt. From two yards out, Howie scored the game’s first touchdown.

The Bulldogs added to their advantage in the fourth quarter. A bad snap on a Clemson punt attempt rolled into the end zone. Justis and The Citadel’s John Carlisle scrambled for the football, and essentially canceled each other out, resulting in Bruce “Red” Johnson recovering the pigskin for a touchdown.

Clemson scored late in the game on a pass from McMillan to O.D. Padgett, but it wasn’t enough. The final whistle blew and The Citadel had prevailed 12-7, earning what is generally considered to be the greatest Homecoming upset in school history.

– 1931: Unlike the 1928 matchup, this game was won rather convincingly, despite the fact the final score was only The Citadel 6, Clemson 0. The contest was played in Florence, at the Pee Dee Fair, and a crowd of 4,000 fans watched as the Bulldogs’ rushing attack regularly put pressure on a Clemson team referred to by reporter Henry Cauthen as “beleaguered”.

Cauthen, writing for The News and Courier, also stated that the Tigers “were so much putty in the hands of a Citadel team that had a great day, a day on which everything clicked”.

The game’s only touchdown was scored by the Bulldogs’ Edwin McIntosh, a senior playing in his hometown of Florence. McIntosh and Larkin Jennings (“The Columbia Comet”) each ran the ball effectively. The Citadel had 223 total yards of offense, while Clemson only had 118.

Defensively, the key performer for the Bulldogs was Delmar Rivers, nicknamed ‘Big Boy’ and described as a “man-mountain, gargantuan”. Rivers apparently weighed 300 lbs., which would have certainly made him an enormous player in that era — one source at the time called him “probably the South’s biggest football player”.

Other facts from this game that might have upset Clemson partisans:

  • Clemson only ran 46 offensive plays. The lack of offensive snaps was partly due to the Tigers’ tendency to “quick kick”. Clemson punted on third down 6 times, punted on second down 3 times, and punted on first down once.
  • Clemson only picked up three first downs during the game (which is not surprisingly, given all that punting), not getting its initial first down until the fourth quarter.
  • The Citadel probably should have scored two or three more touchdowns, having one called back by a penalty and fumbling away two or three other great chances.

All of that led to a famous meeting in an automobile:

After the game, Captain Frank J. Jervey, Head Coach Jess Neely, assistant coach Joe Davis and Captain Pete Heffner of the university military staff met in a car outside the stadium to discuss ways Clemson could help its football program get back on track. The meeting started the ball rolling towards the establishment of the IPTAY Foundation.

Almost everyone knows about IPTAY and the impact it had on Clemson athletics, and college football in general. Not everyone knows its origins, though.

The Citadel’s 1931 victory over Clemson is almost certainly the most influential football game ever played in South Carolina.

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Let’s circle back to 2020…

Clemson has several fine players on its squad. I have chosen to highlight two of them for anyone unfamiliar with the Tigers’ roster.

Trevor Lawrence (6’6″, 220 lbs.) is a junior from Cartersville, Georgia. A quarterback, Lawrence has started 27 consecutive games for the Tigers. For his career, he has completed 65.99% of his passes, averaging an impressive 8.77 yards per attempt, with 67 touchdowns against just 12 interceptions.

Lawrence is also fairly mobile for a quarterback of his size, demonstrating that most notably in a contest last season against Ohio State, in which he dashed 67 yards for a score. It was a big play in the Tigers’ victory, though it must be pointed out that the Buckeyes have historically struggled against Palmetto State opposition on the gridiron (having never defeated Clemson, The Citadel, South Carolina, or any other team from the state).

The QB is usually joined in the Clemson backfield by senior running back Travis Etienne (5’10”, 205 lbs.). A native of Jennings, Louisiana, Etienne has averaged 7.74 yards per rush during his time with the Tigers, scoring 57 touchdowns on the ground.

He is also a capable pass-catcher, having caught 37 passes last season. Etienne is known for being quite fast; it will be interesting to see how that compares with the frequently mentioned “SoCon speed” of his opponents, a description used by college football commentators so often that it is probably ripe for parody.

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Odds and ends:

– The weather forecast for Saturday in Clemson, per the National Weather Service: a 20% chance of showers, with a high of 70 degrees.

Hopefully, the remnants of Hurricane Sally will have cleared out by gametime.

– The Citadel has defeated Clemson on the gridiron in no fewer than five South Carolina towns. It’s probable that no other opponent has lost to the Bulldogs at so many different locations.

The military college has wins over Clemson in Clemson (when the town was called “Calhoun”), Charleston (at the original Johnson Hagood Stadium), Anderson, Orangeburg, and Florence.

– Per one source that deals in such matters, The Citadel is a 45-point underdog at Clemson. The over/under is 57½.

– Other lines of note this week (as of September 16): Coastal Carolina is a 26½-point favorite over Campbell; Tulane is a 7-point favorite over Navy; Appalachian State is a 5-point favorite at Marshall; Notre Dame is a 25½-point favorite over USF; Georgia Southern is a 1½-point favorite over Florida Atlantic; UCF is a 7½-point favorite at Georgia Tech; North Carolina is a 29-point favorite over Charlotte; SMU is a 14-point favorite at North Texas; Louisville is a 2½-point favorite over Miami; and North Carolina State is a 2-point favorite over Wake Forest.

Eastern Kentucky is off this week; the Colonels, of course, will be The Citadel’s opponent next Saturday at Johnson Hagood Stadium. Army is also not playing this weekend, after its game versus BYU was called off due to COVID-19 issues within the Cougars’ program.

– Massey Ratings

Massey projects a predicted final score of Clemson 45, The Citadel 3.

Of the 127 schools in FCS, fifteen will play at least one game in the fall. Massey’s rankings (in FCS) for each of them, as of September 16:

North Dakota State (1st), Central Arkansas (24th), Missouri State (40th), The Citadel (47th, down one spot from last week), Austin Peay (51st), Chattanooga (52nd), Abilene Christian (53rd), Jacksonville State (55th), Mercer (64th), Houston Baptist (69th, moving up 12 places), Stephen F. Austin (70th), Eastern Kentucky (72nd), Western Carolina (76th), North Alabama (86th), Campbell (92nd, up 12 spots).

– Massey’s FBS rankings (as of September 16) for some of the teams actually playing this fall (now including the Big 10): LSU (1st), Ohio State (2nd), Clemson (3rd), Alabama (4th), Georgia (5th), Auburn (6th), Oklahoma (9th), Penn State (10th), Florida (11th), Notre Dame (12th), Texas (13th), Texas A&M (17th), Minnesota (18th), Kentucky (22nd), North Carolina (26th), South Carolina (28th), Tennessee (30th), BYU (32nd), UCF (34th), Nebraska (37th), Northwestern (40th), Louisiana-Lafayette (44th), Georgia Tech (45th), Louisville (48th), Wake Forest (54th), Army (58th), Appalachian State (66th), Florida State (79th), Navy (81st), Rutgers (86th), Coastal Carolina (89th), USF (90th), Kansas (103rd), Georgia Southern (108th), North Texas (114th), Charlotte (118th), Liberty (121st), UTEP (130th).

There are 130 FBS teams.

– Clemson’s notable alumni include longtime diplomat Kristie Kenney, TV host Nancy O’Dell, and Lt. Col. Jimmie Dyess, a Medal of Honor recipient.

– In his post-practice wrap on September 16 (linked above), Dabo Swinney spent several minutes talking about senior walkon Regan Upshaw, a graduate student who had never played football before arriving on Clemson’s campus (he had played high-level rugby instead). You may recognize the name, as his father played for nine years in the NFL. It is a rather interesting story, and his story is worth a listen (starting at the 8:41 mark).

– Clemson’s roster (as of September 16) includes 41 players from South Carolina. Other states represented: Georgia (21 players), Florida (12), Alabama (9), North Carolina (8), Tennessee (6), Virginia (4), California (2), Connecticut (2), Maryland (2), Missouri (2), Ohio (2), Texas (2), and one each from Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.

The Tigers also have two players with international connections: wide receiver Ajou Ajou is a native of Alberta, Canada, while defensive lineman Ruke Orhorhoro is from Lagos, Nigeria. Both of them attended high school in the United States.

Shockingly, no Tiger is an alumnus of the Palmetto State’s most celebrated gridiron factory, Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School. This is simply unfathomable and unconscionable for Clemson, a school that once recruited the likes of Mike O’Cain and Woodrow Dantzler. The absence of players who have worn the famed maroon and orange will, without question, lead to the inevitable decline of Dabo Swinney’s vaunted program, a fall for which there will likely be no return.

– The Citadel’s geographic roster breakdown (per the school’s website) is as follows: South Carolina (59 players), Georgia (19), Florida (10), North Carolina (7), Virginia (4), Texas (3), Alabama (2), Oklahoma (2), Tennessee (2), Pennsylvania (2), and one each from Kentucky, Ohio, Nebraska, and New York.

Defensive lineman Hayden Williamson played his high school football in Okinawa, Japan.

– Here are the guarantees The Citadel will be receiving from FBS schools over the next few years:

  • 2020: South Florida — $275,000
  • 2020: Clemson — $450,000
  • 2020: Army — $225,000
  • 2021: Coastal Carolina — $315,000
  • 2023: Georgia Southern — $320,000
  • 2024: Clemson — $300,000
  • 2025: Mississippi — $500,000

The guarantee amounts listed above for this season’s games are from a Jeff Hartsell article in The Post and Courier: Link

– The Citadel has an all-time record of 6-5 for games played on September 12. The Bulldogs are 1-4 in road contests held on that date. Among the highlights:

  • 1936: In The Citadel’s first game as a member of the Southern Conference, the Bulldogs shut out Newberry, 33-0. Kooksie Robinson and Chet Smith both scored two touchdowns for the Cadets, while John Keith (145 rushing yards) added a TD for The Citadel. Defensively, the Bulldogs allowed just 21 yards of total offense and forced six Newberry turnovers, including two fumbles recovered by Andy Sabados. The game was played under a “blazing sun” in 90-degree weather in muggy Charleston; at the time, it was the earliest date on the calendar The Citadel had ever begun a season.
  • 1959: The Bulldogs routed Newberry, 48-0, in front of 16,125 spectators at Johnson Hagood Stadium. The Citadel scored five times via the air, with Jerry Nettles tossing three touchdown passes to Paul Maguire, and Bill Whaley throwing two more TD strikes (to Bill Gilgo and Mike Gambrell, respectively). This game also featured a 100-yard pass interception return for a touchdown by “Broadway” Billy Hughes (which was actually 102 yards; however, NCAA statistics do not recognize return yardage from beyond the goal line).
  • 1981: Before 18,950 fans at Johnson Hagood Stadium, The Citadel slipped past Western Carolina, 12-3. Gerald Toney and Eric Manson both scored touchdowns for the Bulldogs, while Wilford Alston rushed for 104 yards. The defense held WCU to 86 rushing yards, as the Catamounts were unable to find the end zone.
  • 1987: On a rainy evening in Charleston, The Citadel defeated Presbyterian 27-12. Kenny Carter recovered a PC fumble; on the ensuing drive, he ran for 11 yards on a fake punt to set up a Tommy Burriss TD run (the Bulldogs’ QB finished with 108 rushing yards). Roger Witherspoon had two touchdowns on the ground, while J.D. Cauthen intercepted two wayward Blue Hose throws.
  • 1992: The Citadel did not complete a pass against East Tennessee State, but there was no need to do so, as the Bulldogs rushed for 570 yards (still a school record) in a 28-7 victory over the Buccaneers. A crowd of 16,231 at Johnson Hagood Stadium looked on as Everette Sands and Jack Douglas both scored two touchdowns. Sands had 192 yards on the ground, while Douglas added 178. The Citadel averaged 7.7 yards per carry. Defensively, the Bulldogs had four sacks, and Detric Cummings intercepted a pass.
  • 2009: The Citadel won at Princeton, 38-7. I was there and filed a report. Terrell Dallas scored twice, the second TD coming after an 86-yard interception return by Jonathan Glaspie (who was, somewhat agonizingly, stopped on the 2-yard line). Van Dyke Jones also rushed for a touchdown, and Alex Sellars caught a 12-yard pass from Bart Blanchard for another score. No wind instruments were injured during the contest, much to everyone’s relief.

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The Citadel’s task on Saturday will be very difficult. While the Bulldogs have succeeded before against favored opponents (including the 1928 Tigers squad referenced earlier), this Clemson team is incredibly talented at practically every position on the field. The Tigers also enjoy a depth advantage larger than perhaps any team in the country. Dabo Swinney’s penchant for using almost his entire roster in many of Clemson’s games has surely contributed to that.

The Bulldogs did not perform at their best against USF, and must markedly improve just to keep up with the Tigers. I think they will; at the very least, some of the younger players (particularly the running backs) received valuable experience in Tampa. That will help this week.

On offense, The Citadel needs to avoid turnovers and control the clock. Brent Thompson should go for it on 4th down whenever possible. In this game, possession is considerably more important than field position. (That is true for most games, actually, but is especially true when facing an opposing offense, like that of Clemson, with a predilection for explosiveness.)

Defensively, the Bulldogs need to tackle better. Also, it would be extremely helpful to force a turnover or six. A short field would really be beneficial for The Citadel’s offense.

If Clemson is able to drive the ball down the field and score, that’s one thing. What I don’t want to see is a series of errors leading to easy scores for the Tigers. The Bulldogs are better than that.

Obviously, The Citadel had some problems on special teams last week (though the placekicking was quite acceptable). Those issues need to be ironed out.

I’m hoping for a competitive game at Clemson on Saturday — and while this may be a minority opinion, I think it will be.

Go Dogs!

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2011 Football Game 9: The Citadel vs. Georgia Southern

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Sandlapper Spike

The Citadel at Georgia Southern, to be played at Paulson Stadium, with kickoff at 2:00 pm ET on Saturday, November 5.  The game will not be televised. The game can be heard on radio via The Citadel Sports Network, with “Voice of the Bulldogs” Danny Reed calling the action alongside analyst Walt Nadzak.   Bulldog Insider will also provide free audio; the only video available for this game is being provided by Georgia Southern as part of a subscription service.

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I’ve already written about The Citadel’s victory over VMI. There isn’t much to add to that, except I did want to briefly mention VMI’s fans.  The Keydets brought more supporters to Johnson Hagood Stadium than Wofford did, and weren’t too far behind Furman in the “travel” category. That’s very impressive, given that A) it’s a long trip, and B) VMI hasn’t had a winning season in 30 years.  Full credit to VMI’s fans, a group that surely deserves better results on the gridiron.

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Now the Bulldogs face what could be their biggest challenge of the season to date, a road game against Georgia Southern, which until last week was unbeaten and ranked #1 in the country in both FCS polls. The Eagles saw their perfect season go by the boards in a 24-17 loss in Boone to Appalachian State, and are likely to be a rather surly bunch right now, just in time for Homecoming in Statesboro. Beautiful Eagle Creek may seem a little less beautiful right now.

One thing Georgia Southern can’t really afford to do at this point in the season is lose to The Citadel, because it would put the Eagles in a rather difficult position. Right now GSU is 7-1 with three games remaining. After hosting the Bulldogs, Georgia Southern finishes the regular season with two road games. One of those is in Spartanburg against fellow SoCon title contender Wofford, while the finale is a matchup with BCS title contender Alabama.

If Georgia Southern were to lose all three games, it would finish at 7-4, and would have a borderline case for a postseason bid. The record wouldn’t be great, and GSU would have finished the campaign with four straight defeats. Even more problematic would be the fact that the Eagles would have only six victories against Division I teams, as one of GSU’s wins came against Division II Tusculum.

Technically, an FCS playoff at-large team doesn’t need seven D-1 wins, but historically it has been a de facto rule that at-large candidates should have at least seven such victories. (That may change if there is more postseason expansion.)

GSU definitely needs to win one of its next two games to ensure a playoff bid, and probably needs to win both to garner a national seed.

Although the odds of Georgia Southern getting left out of the FCS postseason are low, it’s important not to overlook the problem of scheduling both a “money” game and a matchup against a non-D1 squad. While a team that closes a season with four straight losses isn’t likely to get an at-large berth anyway, what if Georgia Southern had lost earlier in the season (say, to Chattanooga, a one-point victory for the Eagles), and then finished the year with a win over The Citadel but a tough loss at Wofford, and then the expected defeat to the Crimson Tide?

A SoCon team with 7 wins and a loss to Alabama would normally be at worst a marginal at-large contender, but GSU would only have six D-1 victories and would presumably be out of the running.

That’s why it is better, when looking for a no-return home game, that ADs at schools with playoff aspirations try to schedule D-1 schools rather than D-2 or NAIA teams. It’s not that easy to find FCS schools willing to make a one-way trip, at least not cheaply, but it’s something that needs to be done. Of course, there is the additional risk that the school in question may be good enough to actually win the game.

For The Citadel, Jacksonville was an excellent season-opening opponent in this respect. Presbyterian would also be a good candidate, and of course there is a long tradition of games between the Bulldogs and the Blue Hose. Newberry, on the other hand, is probably not an option, since it is still D-2.

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For some fans of the Eagles, the playoffs aren’t enough. There is still a significant group of Georgia Southern supporters who believe that it is time for GSU to make the move to the land of FBS. The school published a study on the issue two years ago. At the time I wrote about whether GSU should make the leap, the latest round of conference-jumping wasn’t even on the horizon, much less a staple of hourly news reports.

I think it is even more of a risk to move to FBS now than it was two years ago, because there is major uncertainty about what that division will become in the next few years. Georgia Southern (and Appalachian State) supporters hoping to become part of the FBS club are dreaming of a chance to join a league like the Sun Belt or, in a best-case scenario, Conference USA.

Even if that were to happen, though, in the current climate there is a possibility it would amount to jumping on a treadmill. If the much-theorized breakaway by the major programs to form super-conferences comes to pass, Sun Belt and C-USA schools are not likely to be part of the chosen few. They are more likely to wind up in a larger FCS.

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The Citadel has won two straight games, reason for optimism in the continuing story that is Triple O’Higgins. However, I think there is still reason to be cautious. While I’m not one to complain about any victory, Western Carolina and VMI are not exactly the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers when it comes to football prowess. While the Bulldog D has generally been excellent this season, The Citadel’s triple option attack is still very much a work in progress.

That isn’t to say that strides haven’t been made, because they have. It’s just that the Bulldogs haven’t really had that “eureka” moment, or game, at least not yet. It may be that it won’t happen this season.

Was there such a defining game in 1988, the second year of Charlie Taaffe’s wishbone attack? Was there a specific game when everyone realized that the Bulldogs were no longer learning how to run the offense, but were instead refining it?

Well, I’m not sure. Looking back at the seven-game winning streak in 1988, there wasn’t a true breakout game in terms of rushing yardage. It was more of a gradual increase, from 290 yards rushing (Navy) to 322 (Western Carolina), then a blip downwards (187 vs. Chattanooga), then the two games started by Tommy Burriss (278 yards rushing against Boston University and 301 vs. East Tennessee State).

Tangent: as it happens, the two games Burriss started in 1988 both came against schools that in the next few years would drop their respective football programs. I don’t think this can be blamed on Burriss, however.

The contest against ETSU could qualify as the game that truly established the offense as a force, as in addition to the rushing yardage the Bulldogs threw for 199 yards, with the 500 yards of total offense being the most in a game for the cadets since 1980. The Citadel scored 48 points against ETSU (31 in the second quarter).

The game against the Buccaneers was the eighth of the 1988 campaign. In the ninth game, Gene Brown would return from injury and lead the Bulldogs to one of their more celebrated victories, a 20-3 Homecoming triumph over #1 Marshall.

It would be nice to have a similar result in the ninth game of this season…

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It won’t be easy, though, as the Eagles rank first in the SoCon in scoring defense and rush defense. One big reason why is Georgia Southern nosetackle Brent Russell, who Kevin Higgins called “the best defensive lineman in the country at our level.” It’s hard to argue the point. In last week’s loss to Appalachian State, the redshirt junior registered a career-high ten tackles.

One of the more notable performances in Russell’s career came last season against Navy, when he completely dominated the line of scrimmage, a major reason why Navy was held to 193 total yards (109 rushing). The Midshipmen managed to win the game despite Russell’s efforts, 13-7.

I found it interesting that in his weekly SoCon teleconference, GSU coach Jeff Monken was quick to praise Mike Sellers, the Bulldogs’ sophomore center. When The Citadel’s offense faces Georgia Southern’s defense, the critical matchup could be between the two players who line up closest to the ball.

Incidentally (or maybe not so incidentally), Georgia Southern’s defense has forced a punt on their opponents’ opening possession six times. Presbyterian’s opening drive against the Eagles resulted in a field goal attempt that was blocked. The only time the opposition scored on its initial possession against Georgia Southern was last week, when Appalachian State’s first drive resulted in a touchdown. Obviously, that’s also the only game GSU has lost.

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Jaybo Shaw, GSU’s quarterback, was injured early in the contest last season at Johnson Hagood Stadium, so (presuming he stays healthy) this will be the first time The Citadel has seen him in extended game action. The Bulldogs will get their fill of quarterbacks named Shaw, however, as they will face Jaybo’s brother Connor in the game at South Carolina. Two Shaws in three weeks is probably a record.

Shaw’s passing numbers are reasonably solid, if modest by comparison to “normal” offenses. He has completed 54% of his throws for five touchdowns, against two interceptions. More importantly, he is averaging 11.2 yards per attempt, as the Eagles are third nationally (second in the SoCon) in pass efficiency. Shaw has rushed for 261 yards and seven touchdowns.

He has distributed the ball well in GSU’s triple option attack, with a bevy of running backs featuring for the Eagles. Robert Brown, the starting B-back, is the leading ground-gainer on the season for GSU. Included in his totals are 178 yards versus Chattanooga, 140 yards against Samford, and 116 yards versus Elon. He is averaging nearly seven yards per carry.

Georgia Southern’s offensive line has included the same five starters in every game except for last week’s contest, with the two-deep released by the school indicating the standard five-man group will return for the game against The Citadel. Three of the five are seniors.

GSU leads the nation in scoring offense (41.1 points per game) and is second in rushing offense.

The Eagles are also dangerous on special teams. Laron Scott averages 35. 5 yards per kick return, tops in FCS. As for punt returner Darreion Robinson, statistics don’t tell the whole story. This effort against Appalachian State does: Link

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Saturday’s game against Georgia Southern will be a challenge, but that’s all right. The players won’t be dreading the trip to Statesboro; rather, they will be relishing it. It’s an opportunity to see how far the Bulldogs have come, and how far they still need to go.

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Football, Game 9: The Citadel vs. Wofford

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Sandlapper Spike

I wrote about the series between Wofford and The Citadel during the preview for last season’s matchup between the two schools.  I’m not going to re-hash the history in this post; if anyone is interested, the link will serve to give some background.

This will be the third consecutive meeting between the Terriers and Bulldogs to be featured on SportSouth, which may be the first time The Citadel has played on TV against the same opponent three years in a row.  Tom Werme and Sam Wyche will again call the action from the booth.

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When sporting events began to be regularly broadcast (first over radio, then television), some of the individuals running sports clubs feared that broadcasting games would lead to attendance declines, because people could just stay at home and listen to the radio, or watch on TV.  This notion was largely debunked by Hall of Fame baseball executive Larry MacPhail (in the 1930s and early 1940s).

Tangent:  this type of thinking had gone on for decades, beginning with clubs trying to deny telegraph operators the right to give scoring updates for baseball games.  In 1876, the first year of the National League’s existence, Hartford owner Morgan Bulkeley (one of the three most undeserving members of the Hall of Fame) attempted to bar representatives of the local telegraph company from buying tickets.

However, the question has to be asked:  if a game is on TV, why would someone choose to see it in person, rather than watch it on the tube?  Going to a game can be very inconvenient and expensive.  Instead, you could choose to not leave your house and watch the game (preferably in HD) while lying on your couch, with all the comforts of home, including a refrigerator, bathroom, and an HVAC system.

A lot of people go to the games anyway, as evidenced by the large crowds that see many different kinds of sporting events.  Even when it is noted that there are empty seats at an arena or stadium (like Doak Campbell Stadium for the North Carolina State-Florida State game last Saturday, the bottom line is that there were still a lot of people who went to the game (in that case, over 50,000).

Why do they go?  Well, tradition, I suppose, along with camaraderie — tailgating, seeing old friends in the same seats every year, that type of thing.  They go for the atmosphere.  Sometimes, that atmosphere isn’t so great.  However, occasionally there is a day to remember, a day when the electricity in the stadium isn’t just being provided by the power company.

It’s the kind of thing that gets people off their couches and in their cars and headed to the game, just for the chance to be a part of a high-voltage event, to be swept along in a moment of nirvana.  Maybe it won’t happen too often, but when it does, it makes up for all the times it didn’t.

Such an occurrence happened at Johnson Hagood Stadium in 1988.  Since this Saturday is Homecoming, I’m going to write briefly about the most memorable Homecoming game in the history of the stadium, which had the most electric atmosphere of any game I’ve ever seen at JHS.

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***November 5, 1988 — Marshall (#1) vs. The Citadel (#19)***

It was a bright, sunny day when the Thundering Herd and the Bulldogs met on the gridiron.  Marshall had played in the I-AA title game the year before, losing 43-42 to Northeast Louisiana.  After that setback, the Thundering Herd hit the ground running in 1988.  By the time Marshall ventured to Charleston, it was 8-0 and ranked #1 in I-AA football.

The Thundering Herd featured a high-octane offense averaging 32.6 points per game.  Starting quarterback John Gregory threw for 3,127 yards and 21 touchdowns in 1988.  Many of Gregory’s throws went to Mike Barber, Marshall’s All-American wide receiver, who would be named I-AA player of the year in 1988 by the American Football Coaches Association.  Barber had caught 106 passes in 1987 and followed that up with “only” 79 catches in 1988.

When Gregory wasn’t throwing passes to Barber, he was tossing them to Sean Doctor, the Herd tight end, who in just two years in Huntington would accumulate 2,100 receiving yards.  Marshall could run the ball, too, as halfback Ron Darby gained 1,282 yards in 1988 and scored 16 touchdowns.

That was the juggernaut facing The Citadel, although the Bulldogs did not lack for confidence.  The Citadel came into the game 6-2, having won five straight games, including a 42-35 victory over Navy.  That triumph had been led by quarterback Gene Brown.  However, Brown was injured two weeks later against UT-Chattanooga.

Tommy Burriss had ably filled in at quarterback (no surprise, as he was the former starter) to lead the Bulldogs to victories over Boston University (yes, BU still played football back then) and East Tennessee State.  Brown’s return to the field was highly anticipated, though, as he was a truly gifted director of Charlie Taaffe’s wishbone attack.

A crowd of 20,011 showed up to see the matchup, the second time that season more than 20,000 people had attended a football game at Johnson Hagood Stadium.

After a scoreless first quarter, The Citadel would strike first, with Adrian Johnson scoring on a one-yard touchdown run.  Marshall would respond with a short field goal, but the score was only 6-3 at halftime (the Bulldogs having missed the PAT).

However, The Citadel’s offense began to control the game, dominating the time of possession.  Brown entered the game in the second quarter and the rushing yardage started to pile up.  Johnson rushed for 106 yards and Raymond Mazyck added 79 (on just 10 carries).  The Bulldogs as a team rushed for 359 yards, and perhaps more importantly ran 83 plays and kept Marshall’s high-powered offense off the field.

Even when Marshall had the ball, the Herd struggled.  In one sequence, the Herd would run eight consecutive plays inside the Bulldog 5-yard line without scoring a TD.  For the game, Marshall only managed 247 yards of total offense.

The crowd went into a frenzy when Phillip Florence took an end-around 33 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter, and when Johnson scored his second touchdown of the day in the fourth period, it was all over.  20-3, The Citadel.

Well, almost over.  As the game ended, the field was invaded by the corps of cadets, a number of whom headed straight for the goalpost in the south endzone.  The uprights were then torn down…okay, maybe not quite torn down.  The cadets were unable to rip the uprights away from the crossbar, and the crossbar remained attached to the stanchion.  It was the Cardinal Richelieu of goalposts.

It didn’t matter, though, as it was the thought that counted.  The administration didn’t seem to mind having to shell out some cash for a new goalpost, either, which may be the best indication of how amazing the atmosphere at the game really was.

Tangent:  the next week, Marshall’s Darby rushed for 262 yards against Western Carolina, which would have been a Southern Conference record — but on the same day, Brown rushed for 286 yards against VMI (on only 13 carries!) to shatter the mark.  Talk about bad timing for Darby.

Now that was a game worth attending.  What about Saturday’s game?  Will it be worth attending for Bulldog fans?

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Wofford had enjoyed seven consecutive winning seasons before this year’s campaign.  The Terriers are 2-6, although it should be noted that Wofford played not one but two FBS schools this year, losing to both South Florida and Wisconsin.

However, eyebrows were raised around the conference when the Terriers (picked in the preseason to finish in the league’s top 3) lost 38-9 at UT-Chattanooga.  The Mocs have proven to be the most improved team in the league, but that loss clearly showed that Wofford had some unexpected issues.  The two main themes for the Terriers this year have been injuries and turnovers. 

Wofford entered the season with a fairly inexperienced squad (only nine returning starters), and that inexperience has been compounded by a rash of serious injuries, many of them season-ending.  Only ten players have started every game for the Terriers; in all, 34 different players have made at least one start. 

Many of the losses have been on defense (including pre-season All-SoCon pick Mitch Clark, who has only played one game this year).  The Terriers also suffered the loss of starting fullback Eric Breitenstein (who rushed for 121 yards against South Florida).  Wofford was already missing halfback Jeremy Marshall, who tore an ACL last season against Appalachian State; in this season’s matchup with the Mountaineers, another Terrier halfback, Derek Boyce, tore his ACL.

The Terriers run an option attack known as the “wingbone”, with the emphasis on run.  Wofford, with all its problems, still leads FCS in rushing, averaging 258 yards per game.  However, the Terriers are last in the division in passing, averaging only 70.5 yards per contest.

Quarterback Mitch Allen is completing just 45.2% of his passes.  That’s not a huge problem – after all, he doesn’t attempt that many – but while Allen has thrown five touchdown passes, he’s also thrown five interceptions (in just 62 attempts). 

Wofford as a team has thrown six picks, and has also fumbled 19 times, losing 13.  Losing two-thirds of their fumbles is a bit of bad luck, to be sure, but the Terriers are at heart a possession-oriented team.  Committing nineteen turnovers over eight games is not typical of a Wofford outfit.  The Terriers have committed 3+ turnovers in four games this season, losing all four.

The Terriers are still a dangerous offensive team, even with the turnover bugaboo, but have been inconsistent.  Wofford rolled up 537 yards of total offense against Appalachian State and another 426 against Western Carolina.  Unlike The Citadel’s last opponent, Samford, the Terriers are more than capable of creating big plays (Wofford has had five plays from the line of scrimmage of over 60 yards).

On the other hand, Wofford only had 170 yards of total offense against Elon (The Citadel can relate) and just 151 against UT-Chattanooga.  Part of the inconsistency can be traced to the Terriers’ third down conversion rate, which is just 38.3%. 

For the style of offense Wofford employs, that isn’t good enough.  The problems converting third down have led to Wofford averaging less than 29 minutes per game in time of possession, definitely not what an all-out running team like the Terriers wants.

When Wofford scores first, it is 2-0; when it doesn’t, 0-6.  Wofford is 0-5 when trailing after three quarters and 0-4 when scoring less than 20 points. 

Terrier opponents are averaging 387 yards per game in total offense.  Wofford has forced twelve turnovers in eight games, including five interceptions.  Much like its offense, the Terrier D has not had a lot of luck in the fumble department, forcing twenty but recovering only seven.  That’s the kind of statistic that will eventually turn in Wofford’s favor; let’s hope it doesn’t happen this week.

Wofford’s opponents have been in the “red zone” 36 times this season, and have scored touchdowns on 26 of those occasions.

The Terriers have a solid kick return game, led by running back Mike Rucker.   Wofford has a net punting average of 35.9, which is quite good.  The Terriers have only attempted four field goals all season, making two (both against Elon).

In last year’s game, The Citadel did a good job offensively but couldn’t stop the Terriers, as Wofford had 409 yards of total offense, including 279 yards rushing.  Andre Roberts had a huge game (14 receptions, 190 yards, 3 TDs) but it wasn’t enough, as Wofford stayed one step ahead of the Bulldogs the whole way, committing no turnovers and converting all three of its fourth-down attempts.

You can bet that Roberts will be priority #1 for the Wofford defense, but you can say that about any defense that faces The Citadel.  Who winds up throwing the ball in Roberts’ direction is anybody’s guess. 

What I hope happens is that if both Bart Blanchard and Miguel Starks are healthy, the coaches rotate them by series instead of by play.  If one of them is moving the team down the field, then that’s the guy that needs to stay in the game.  I’m not forgetting about Tommy Edwards, either.  He got the job done against Samford, and he’ll get the call if need be against the Terriers. 

I would like to see more of the type of playcalling used in the game against Furman, which seemed to suit the offensive line.  Speaking of the o-line, that unit will need to contain Wofford defensive end Ameet Pall, a Montreal native who is having a fine season for the Terriers.  Kevin Higgins was quick to note Pall’s abilities during his press conference on Monday.

It’s been too long since The Citadel won in this series.  Hopes are high that the Bulldogs will end that streak on Saturday, in front of an appreciative Homecoming crowd.  I am not so sure, to be honest, but I’ll be there cheering them on regardless.

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