Scouting: Murray State

Murray State

Record: 0-2 (0-1)
2009 Record: 3-8 (2-6)
Mascot: Racers
Conference: Ohio Valley (OVC)
Head Coach: Chris Hatcher, 1st season, 0-2
Located: Murray, Kentucky
Enrollment: 10,022

Last Year: The four-year Matt Griffin era came to and end following the school’s fifth-straight losing season. It started out well with a 66-point blowout of D2 Kentucky Wesleyan. After that game, the Racers averaged just 13.4 ppg and gave up an average of 33.5 ppg.

Last Week: The Racers hosted conference foe Southeast Missouri. The Racers held a 17-13 third quarter lead, but SEMO scored 17 straight to win it 30-17. QB Jeff Ehrhardt completed 38-of-54 but only for 245 yards. The Murray State defense was run over to the tune of 291 yards. Even with that, MSU only gave up three touchdowns, but SEMO was also a perfect 3-for-3 on field goals.

Players to Watch

• Jeff Ehrhardt (QB, #18, 6-4/220) – The senior started the first four games last year before (apparently) getting hurt. This year he’s completing 67% of his passes and averaging 251 ypg. Ehrhardt has been sacked six times already and is a major factor in his team’s negative rushing total on the season.
• Dexter Barnett (RB, 5-10/175) – Barnett leads the team in carries (16), but he’s second on the team in negative yardage (-9).
• Daniel Ard (WR, 6-5/228) – Ard has been Ehrhardt’s go-to guy this season. He already has 19 catches through two games. He’s also averaging 95 ypg.
• Arthur Brackett (WR, 6-0/180) – While Ard has catch more passes, Brackett is the only receiver to catch any touchdown passes. His 11 catches for 144 yards puts him just behind Ard in both categories.
• Marcus Harris (WR, 6-1/185) – Harris returns as the leading receiver from 2009. He was looked to often in the Kent State game before leaving with a knee injury and sitting out the SEMO game last week. If he’s back this week, he’ll be certainly be one to watch.
• Nathan Brinkley (CB, 5-10/175) – Brinkley led the Racers last season with four interceptions (just two) and already has added another this season. He’s also one of their leading tacklers.
• Erik Fennell (DB, 6-0/182) – Fennell is is the leading returning tackler from a year ago from his free safety position.
• Joe Gamsky (DT, 6-1/245) – If Gamsky does play tackle at just 245, he’s been very effective at making tackles behind the line of scrimmage. He’s got one sack and 3.5 tfl. LB Harry McCall and DE Arlester McKinnon also have 3 tfl each.

Required Reading

• Football Travels to Face Central Arkansas
• McCollum’s Column: Cross-connections provide playful banter between old rivals
  

  During the OVC teleconference earlier this week, Hatcher playfully dodged my question about how much time Faulkner has spent this week with the Racers’ defensive staff.“Coach Conque probably put you up to that question, so I’m not going to answer it,” Hatcher said with a laugh. “We’ve both been fortunate to have Buster on our staffs. We will use every resource to try to be successful. Make sure you tell Conque that.”

• Unfortunately, the Paducah Sun articles are only available to subscribers.

Other Notes

• Defensive end, Austen Lane, was selected 10 picks after Larry Hart by Jacksonville Jaguars.
• While the defense may have given up tons of yards, they have totaled three sacks and 23 tackles for loss.
• Hatcher’s high-powered offense from Valdosta hasn’t made it to Murray State yet. The Racers average just 243 ypg and 13.5 ppg.
• Coach Conque’s teams were 0-6 versus those Valdosta teams coached by Hatcher.

Recap (Sortof): Eastern Illinois

I don’t want to sound ungrateful for a not-even-close 37-7 win over a ranked team, but I was really disappointed that we didn’t build a huge lead after all those early blunders by the Panthers. We had a chance to be up 21-0 (or more) after starting on their side of the field on four straight possessions. Instead, we were only up 10-0 which quickly turned to 10-7. Thankfully we scored after the interception to start pulling away.

Listening on the radio, it certainly didn’t sound like Nathan Dick was having as good a game as the stats might show. I never would have guessed he completed 73% of his passes. I sometimes get frustrated with the lack of 10+ yard pass attempts. And, yes, I understand that the quick pass/screen game is often viewed as an extension of the run game… Dick also fumbled a couple times (even though he completed a pass after the first one) and threw the pick inside the redzone. Is it possible to inefficiently efficient? I’m probably being to picky here. Those might be the plays he’s being given. It’s not like I was able to see the game or am some football genius anyway…

I can’t wait for the coach’s show to be able to see Wynrick Smothers’ runs. They sounded explosive and exciting.  Without his carries, the rushing numbers certainly wouldn’t have been very stellar. Which leads me to the still lingering question of how good is our offensive line? Is it that they aren’t opening the holes? Or are our running backs just not being explosive enough? I think we’re trying to be very balanced (38 passes, 38 rushes), it’s just not working out that way right now in terms of effectiveness.

The defense though has been very impressive through two weeks other than three big plays. I’m getting worried with all the injuries that they’ve suffered lately. Hopefully we’ll get an update on that soon. Their offense had one big play but other than that was dominated by our guys. The QB completed under 50% and threw two picks. They had just 6 first downs in the game!

Special teams had some more issues. His punting seemed pretty good, but Eddie Carmona missed another field goal. And it was hard to tell what exactly happened on the muffed punt, but that’s obviously not good whatever it was.

Their defense had four guys with double-digit tackles. I wish we had a guy named Nick Nasti on our team – even more so if he has 15 tackles! Wow. Just had to take another opportunity to point out how awesome that name is.

Scouting: Eastern Illinois

Eastern Illinois

Record: 0-1 (0-0)
2009 Record: 8-4 (6-2)
Mascot: Panthers
Conference: Ohio Valley (OVC)
Head Coach: Bob Spoo, 23rd season, 148-114-1
Located: Charleston, Illinois
Enrollment: 11,966

Last Year: Eastern Illinois won the OVC for the fifth time since 2001, advancing to the playoffs and finished ranked #15. It was the 7th time this decade that EIU reached the playoffs. Spoo was OVC Coach of the Year.

Last Week: EIU went to Iowa and lost 37-7. There’s not much else to say. Iowa is good. I watched a replay of the game. It’s difficult to come away with any real thoughts. Things weren’t going EIU’s way from the start. Already down 14-0, they blocked an Iowa punt. Good news right? Except that the punter picked it up and ran 42 yards for a touchdown. Iowa went up 21-0 and not much happened after that. Oh, Iowa did get a safety in the second half.

Players to Watch

• Brandon Large (QB, #10, 6-4/204) - Made his first start last week and was 13-for-20 for 92 yrd and 1 td.
• Lorence Ricks (WR/KR, #3, 6-1/174) – Big-play threat at receiver and kick returner. He didn’t return kicks last week and was held to two catches for -1 yard. He averaged 20.1 ypc last season, and led the team with 381 total receiving yards.
• Jimmy Potempa (RB, #2, 5-7/179) – Appears to be the go-to guy this year at tailback. He was the go-to guy last year as a receiver, leading the team with 32 receptions. Senior Mon Williams led the Panthers last year at RB, but he’s expected to sit out again this week with a knee injury.
• Kenny Whittaker (WR, #4, 5-10/181) – Had four catches last week for 18 yards. With Potempa in the backfield, Whittaker becomes the leading receiver. He had 29 catches in 2009 for 358 yards.
• CJ James (CB, #21, 5-8/182) – Had five interceptions last season, returning two for touchdowns. Also had 44 tackles, 3.5 for loss and two sacks.
• Nick Nasti (LB, #56, 6-1/232) – Clearly the winner of the best name ever award. Nasti led the team last season with 83 tackles. The next closest guy had 63. He had 3.5 tfl but zero sacks.
• Perry Burge (DE, #98, 6-2/234) – The man to keep out of the backfield. Burge finished with 5 sacks and 7 tfl. With the loss of start DT Trevor Frericks who had 16 tfl, Burge will be depended on to pick up the slack.

Required Reading

• A bitter battle of conferences
  

  According to Spoo, Central Arkansas is from a conference (Southland) that has been more respected than the Ohio Valley Conference.

  “Our goal is to beat this team so that at the end of the season people will be saying, ‘Oh, Eastern beat a team from the Southland Conference’,” Spoo said.

• Scottie Pippen U has football contender, good passing game
  

  [Nathan Dick's] older brother Casey Dick was an Arkansas quarterback when EIU offensive coordinator Roy Wittke was the quarterbacks coach for the Razorbacks.

  “I had Nathan at camp,” Wittke said. “He comes from an outstanding family and outstanding high school football program at Allen, Texas.

  “It will be great to say hello to his mom and dad. I’m not sure I’m looking forward to watching Nathan on the field playing against us.”
  . . .
  “They always have good athletes,” [EIU defensive coordinator Roc] Bellantoni said. “We’re also concerned about the no-huddle and fast pace. We haven’t seen a no-huddle since last year against Southern (Illinois in the FBS playoffs.”

Other Notes

• Sean Payton, head coach of the New Orleans Saints, will have his jersey retired at halftime of Saturday’s game.
• EIU dropped to 23/22 in the polls this week.
• EIU returns just two starters on the offensive line and starts two redshirt freshman.
• The Panthers commited zero turnovers in the game last week – for the first time since 2008.

Recap: ECSU

So, let’s get it out of the way – the bad news.

1. What the heck was going on with the kicking game. Someone look it up for us, when was the last time we missed two extra points in a game? And add a missed 31-yard field goal? That’s obviously got to get cleaned up, whatever it was that was happening.
2. The defense only gave up 380 yards of offense. Not too bad, but not great. Take away the two HUGE plays (75 yd run and 82 yd reception), and you’re left with just 223 yards. We looked really bad on defense in the first quarter and found ourselves down 14-7 as it ended. Coach Eliano gave some folks a “pep talk,” and things got a lot better after that.
3. Nine penalties – which was supposed to be something we were working to improve on. I think we even had back-to-back false starts. ECSU also had a play that was apparently an irresistible hard count from the qb that cause our line to jump offsides (twice), and the qb attempted to just throw the ball up for grabs to a receiver streaking down the field.

The not-so-good news:

1. The punt/kick-return defense was pretty hit or miss. There was a 1-yard punt return – good. And there was a 33-yard punt return – bad. We also leaked out a kick return of 35 yards – no so good. Eddie Carmona kicked the first two kickoffs for touchbacks – good.
2. It didn’t look like we had a lot of injuries – good. The only one I know of is that Larry Duvall appeared to break two fingers on his left hand – bad.
3. We dropped a pretty easy interception and ended the game with zero turnovers forced.

Now moving on to the good news.

1. Kenneth Robey was a man out there today. He ran a perfect stop-and-go route for the 63-yard touchdown. That play was very patiently set up by previous playcalling. I’m not very patient as a fan and wanted more downfield passes, but it was worth the wait I guess. If you looked at the returning roster after the end of last season, Robey might not have been on the THREE-deep of most fans. He made his move in the fall and clearly showed he has the skill to be an impact player this season.
2. Nathan Dick was very efficient. The live stats show that he finished with a QB rating of 186. We had a quarterback a couple years ago that put up similar numbers in games. It was fun to watch Nathan out there. He looked good and in control.
3. The offense had 585 total yards, a whopping 407 in the first half. We only had 27 points at the half, but that’s some pretty good ball movement up-and-down the field.
4. Nine players caught passes.
5. The defense allowed just 141 yards in the second half, and in the game was brilliant on 3rd down (2-of-12) and perfect on 4th.
6. The defense seemed to be almost constantly rotating people in and out. Lots of people got playing time. It should have given the coaches a pretty good idea who can and can’t do what.
7. I don’t know what the live stats looked like live, but they are pretty sweet now after the game is over! I’m loving that.

It’s now time for bed.

Gameday: ECSU

Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010, has finally arrived. It’s been 278 days since a disappointing 17-16 loss to North Dakota to end last season. There’s only seven more hours until kickoff now though, and the Bears and their fans are looking for improvement over last year’s 5-7 season.

Winning game one is obviously crucial to that goal. Elizabeth City State University is a D2 school. I think many FCS schools don’t have the same respect for D2 schools like most of us do, having just been there five years ago. However, I think some UCA fans aren’t expecting much of a contest tonight either. We saw last year that if the team doesn’t come out and play well, even “lower-level competition” can keep things close for far longer than you’d like.

Enough editorializing. Everyone should be able to see things for themselves starting tonight at 7 p.m. Yes, that even means people who live an hour away and get off at 5 p.m. You should be there too.

Here’s some previews for our game and some that include a look at the SLC matchups for the weekend. If you’ve found other stories online, please let me know or add them in the comments.:

• Huge challenge for Vikings
  

  Elizabeth City State faces its toughest test in years tonight when it takes on Central Arkansas. Not only will the Vikings be far away from home, they will be playing on just four days rest, fresh off a 15 1/2-hour bus ride and facing a Football Championship Subdivision opponent for the first time since 2005.

  Despite encountering long odds versus a team with nearly three times the amount of scholarship players, the Vikings (1-0) have goals heading into the game that are far beyond just getting a pay check for being willing to play there and coming home healthy.

• Bears on prowl for game action (subscription link)
• Guarantee games on docket for most SLC teams