Nicholls Recap

Late defensive stand lifts Bears past Colonels

from DailyComet.com

Central Arkansas’ Seth Allison (12) celebrates as Nicholls State’s Nick Scelfo (85) is knocked out of bounds by Jestin Love to seal the Bears’ 37-31 win during Saturday’s Southland Conference game at John L. Guidry Stadium in Thibodaux.

Nathan’s 3 touchdowns helps Central Arkansas rally and beat Nicholls State 37-31

Dick finished with 306 yards through the air, completing 25-of-33 passes. He added 35 yards rushing, while Croom caught five passes for 82 yards

Staggering Bears rally, survive Colonel attack by inches for SLC road victory

“I put our defense in a bad position,” Conque said. “I wanted to win the game on offense, but it was bad coaching decision. Fortunately, the defense made good at the end.”

…

A key was that a more attacking UCA defense held Washington, who rushed for 95 yards on 12 carries in helping run the UCA defense ragged the first half, was held to 6 yards the second half.

Klann shows his stuff for Nicholls
The most interesting newspaper comment of the weekend:

However, Conque said he was rooting for the Bears over the Colonels on Saturday.

Nicholls State Preview

It hasn’t been a pretty season for Nicholls State so far. After winning their last two games of 2010 and finishing with three conference wins, they’ve started 2011 with a 1-4, 0-1 record. The lone win coming against NAIA Evangel University.

The next two weeks were a clear step up in competition as they faced FBS schools Western Michigan and Louisiana-Lafayette. They even played pretty well against ULL defensively. They held them to just 280 yards of offense. The problem was that they gave up special teams and defensive touchdowns and left with a 21-38 loss. All in all, nothing terrible. Like many other FCS schools who’d played two FBS schools, they were 1-2 heading into conference play.

That’s when things really fell apart. Northwestern State came to Thibodaux and routed the Colonels – 34-0. The offense was stifled, committing three turnovers and finishing 0-for-3 in the red-zone changes. The defense gave up nearly 400 yards. The offense relied heavily on junior quarterback LaQuinton Caston. Caston threw a season-high 20 passes and led the team in carries as well.

Throughout the season, redshirt freshman backup Beaux Hebert has seen time. After Caston was sacked to end the half just 1-for-9 and with a 24-6 deficit last week to Texas State, Hebert had the second half all to himself. He did complete 10-of-19 passes, but for just 94 yards and threw an interception.

The Colonels and second-year head coach Charlie Stubbs are looking for answers.

• Take away the game against the NAIA school, and they are averaging just 10 points per game. The defense is giving up 36 per game to FCS competition.
• The offense has given up a whopping 25 sacks this season. This from a team that doesn’t sling it around much.
• They are last in the SLC in scoring offense, total offense, passing offense, pass efficiency, field goal percentage, sacks against, 3rd-down conversions, opponents 4th-down conversions, and red-zone offense.
• They have a playmaker in undersized linebacker Jordan Piper. Piper leads the team in tackles (43), and he stands just 5-9.
• Two seniors in the secondary, Chika Madu and Bobby Felder, both have two interceptions on the season.
• Madu and Felder are also the playmakers on special teams. Felder is the usual punt returner, and Madu returns the kickoffs and leads the team in all-purpose yards… as a defensive player.