Millsaps puts up Major numbers
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I’m Wes Anderson, and I’ll be your pilot for the remainder of this flight. We hope you’ve enjoyed the ride to this point. The flight attendants will be around with drinks and pretzels shortly. We’ll do our best to have you at your destination (Salem, Va.) as soon as possible.
The next six weeks or so may involve some turbulence, so I’ve illuminated the "Fasten Seat Belts" sign for the remainder of this flight. Let’s get underway, shall we?
Do the Early-Season SCAC Shuffle!
It’s like the Ickey Shuffle with better dancing.
What was billed as an early season clash between a pair of early-season SCAC favorites lived up to the billing for three quarters or so. Millsaps and a vastly improved DePauw squad, played a 14-3 game through three quarters. Millsaps ran away with it in the fourth quarter to cruise to a 35-17 win as quarterback Juan Joseph continued his exceptional play.
“He’s able to get to the second and third reads sometimes and makes some big plays for us,” Millsaps coach Mike DuBose said. “He reads defenses as well as any quarterback I’ve ever been around.”
 Juan Joseph's play over the past season and a half has been a large part of Millsaps' rise. Photo by Josh Bowerman, D3sports.com |
DePauw was missing its entire starting backfield. All-time leading rusher Jeremiah Marks missed a second consecutive week with a knee injury, and his blocking back Brett Claxton missed Saturday’s game as well. The Majors defense held DePauw’s rushing offense to the tune of 53 yards on 30 carries. That’s the lowest total on the ground in nearly five years, since the 2002 Monon Bell game vs. Wabash, 22 yards on 20 carries in a 35-7 loss.
“We were taken out of our game plan,” DePauw coach Matt Walker said in his postgame interview with WGRE-FM. “We had to. We couldn’t establish our run game at all. It was up front. (The offensive line) has been so good all year. (Millsaps’ defensive front) gave us problems.”
Give a call to the Millsaps defense. With all the talk centering around Joseph, Raymece Savage and the Major offense, I’d recommend not skimming over what the Major defense has done. They’ve been just as good, ranked 27th nationally in total defense entering last weekend.
“We went into it knowing they were an outstanding football team running the football,” said DuBose. “If we could force them into third-and-long situations and get some pressure on the quarterback, we knew we could be successful. I was very pleased with our rush defense.”
With Marks, DePauw put up 47 points in the opener at Anderson, and 38 at home against Centre with an average of more than 240 yards on the ground. Without him, they squeaked out a 14-10 win at Sewanee in Week 4 with just 144 yards on the ground, followed by only the 53 yards on Saturday.
“No question (missing Marks and Claxton) makes a difference,” DuBose added. “When they are out of the game, it affects what you can do offensively. It’s hard when you play the kind of football that they play. I’m sure it had a huge effect on them.”
I personally thought Saturday’s match-up between Joseph (the irresistible force, 30th nationally in QB rating at 151.7) and the DePauw defense (immovable object, second nationally in defensive pass efficiency at 56.1 and interceptions with 12), would be an excellent back-and-forth battle. However, that was not correct. Far from it, my friends. DePauw’s offense couldn’t stay on the field on Saturday (only five drives longer than three plays). That meant the DePauw defense was staying on the field.
“We never got going,” said Walker. “Offensively, we put the defense in so many bad situations all day. We had more three-and-outs today than I can ever remember a football team having. Eventually, no matter how good you are on defense, no matter how good you’re playing against a team the caliber of their offense, you’re going to break at some point if you keep putting the defense in the situations we did.”
The fourth quarter proved to be that breaking point. Millsaps was able to open up some big gainers through the air in the second half, throwing for TD’s of 22, 32, and 62 yards. DuBose says a few tweaks in the locker room created the recipe for success:
“(DePauw’s pass defense) is very good. At halftime, we made some adjustments and came out and made some big plays.”
Millsaps ran a very impressive 86 plays on Saturday, with Joseph tallying a remarkable 32-for-56 day through the air for 475 yards and five scores. “He’s does a lot of things for us. He has played extremely well,” said DuBose. “We’ve got some good players around him. We have good wide receivers to throw to and a good offensive line. He throws the ball well and reads well. He gets the ball to the right spot most of the time.”
So we’re through Week 5, and Millsaps has the first big-time notch in their SCAC belt. DuBose says he’s not paying attention to what that means for the Majors, or anybody else in the polls.
“If it were not a playoff system, we probably would (pay more attention). Getting to the playoffs is what our focus is. In the SCAC, I think you have to win it outright. There’s never been a team to get an at-large bid in our conference. The only way to get in is to win the conference.”
How much does DuBose like his team down the stretch and into the playoffs?
“If we play like we’re capable, we can go a long way. There are probably 25 or 30 teams in the country that can say that same thing. If we can stay healthy, and make plays, we’re one of those teams.”
DePauw feels like it is in the same boat with one loss.
“All we can control now is the next football game,” said Walker. You never know what’s going to happen … There are a lot of good teams in this league, but our goal is 9-1.”
So the stage is set for a potential champion being crowned (for all intents and purposes) on October 27th when Trinity travels to Jackson. Before that, Trinity must also travel to Greencastle on October 13th. If DePauw can get Jeremiah Marks back in two weeks, the Trinity/DePauw game may just be another Pier Six Donnybrook in what has lately become an increasingly closer and more heated series. A DePauw win against Trinity and a Trinity win against Millsaps would make things very, very muddy.
Looking at the Trinity/Millsaps match-up, Trinity should come in 7-0 or 6-1 if DePauw can finally beat them. Millsaps should come in 6-1. Could we potentially have a three way tie at the top of the SCAC when this is all done? Stay tuned for that potential tiebreak. This was that turbulence issue I was referring to. It’s going to get bumpy.
Choctaw/Cowboy conundrum in Clinton
Quite the exciting night that Hardin-Simmons and Mississippi College had in Clinton this past weekend. It took a 22 yard field goal from Cowboy kicker Colt Williamson with five seconds left to give Hardin-Simmons a 45-42 win. The Cowboys traded scores with the Choctaws for the entirety of the first half before heading to the locker room tied at 21. HSU led by as much as 42-28 with thirteen minutes left before the Choctaws rallied. A big pass play from MC QB Adam Shaffer to Marcus Terry led to a Shaffer TD pass to pull MC within 7. Fast forward to under four minutes to go when MC head coach Norman Joseph dupes the Cowboys with a gusty fake punt call on 4th and 6th inside his own 30. Six plays later, Shaffer found Terry in the end zone for the third time to knot it up at 42 with 2 minutes to go. However, a big Cowboy kick return set up the Williamson kick for the win.
I’ll say this: I don’t know whether this makes the impending UMHB/HSU showdown in Abilene this weekend any less interesting. You never know what may happen, and after the murderer’s row that Hardin-Simmons opened the season with (UW-La Crosse and Linfield), the Cowboys ought to be quite familiar with playing quality opponents.
It seems as though the problem does not stem from familiarity, however. They’ve got to find a way to keep somebody out of the end zone. I wasn’t particularly surprised to see UW-La Crosse and Linfield roll up a big number on the Cowboys, but now that Louisiana College and Mississippi College have followed, it’s awfully hard to ignore the developing pattern: 43.8 PPG allowed, 571 total yards allowed per game, and finally, an alarming 450 passing yards allowed per game.
The good news may be that the Cru isn’t likely to throw it all over the joint on Saturday, tossing it up just seventy times in four games. The bad news is that Mary Hardin-Baylor is the second best rushing team in the country at 324 yards per game. They’ve been so successful at running the football (6.1 yds/carry), that they aren’t even winning the time of possession! Yes, you read that correctly. A team that averages fifty rushes per game and is 4-0 isn’t winning T.O.P.. That may be one of the more remarkable stats I have seen about a team’s success on the ground. On a side note, we’ll see what Justin Feaster can do throwing the football against the Purple Crush defense, which is 13th ranked nationally in QB rating against.
It will certainly be a tall task for the Cowboys to keep UMHB from posting a big number on the scoreboard in Abilene. It is also likely to be the last chance for anybody not named Mary Hardin-Baylor to have a shot at the ASC this season, as well. Not that that’s a sudden change of events in that conference.
As far as the Choctaws are concerned, they’re going to need to upset UMHB to have a playoff chance. This does make the Millsaps loss in the opener look a little better to me, however. Unfortunately, that and a dollar won’t get you much more than a Sunday paper.
Games Worthy of Opening That Extra Live Stat/Audio/Video Feed
1 p.m. CT: Centre at Millsaps
I hope voters from both polls pay attention here. As difficult as it has been for a second SCAC team to get recognition in the Top 25 due to the SCAC’s poor performance in the playoffs, Millsaps can only help themselves by continuing to beat opponents by wide margins. Millsaps should roll big and may continue to gain steam in the others receiving votes category in the D3football.com Top 25, where they currently have five votes.
On the other side of the coin, Centre lost a ton of votes in the AFCA poll this week. They were the second team out last week. Now they are all the way down to four votes, tied with Millsaps. Two-loss Centre has the same number of votes as Millsaps. If two-loss Centre made in the AFCA poll, it is hard telling what I would have done. It likely involved my forehead and a load-bearing wall, with a blood pressure medication chaser.
1 p.m. CT: No. 12 Trinity at Rhodes
The Black Flag reared its ugly head again. Last week’s victim was Birmingham-Southern. They have yet to allow an opponent to score 15 points in 2007. It’s likely that Rhodes won’t get there, either. They have only 10 points combined in the three games since their opening day win against LaGrange. The question will be whether or not we will see the Rhodes defense from 2006 and from the first two weeks of 2007, or the defense that got torched by Millsaps and allowed 24 to Wash U last weekend. If you see the former, maybe Rhodes can hang around and make it interesting. If not, then it’s a repeat of last season: Trinity in a rout TU enabled the cruise control feature for the second half as they won 41-7 after racking up 31 in the first half.
2 p.m. CT: No. 2 Mary Hardin-Baylor at No. 21 Hardin-Simmons
Abilene hosts the game of the South region this weekend. This is, as always, the most exciting annual affair in the ASC. It is also year-in and year-out the toughest in-conference test for UMHB. See above for more in-depth analysis regarding this game.
6 p.m. CT: Mississippi College at Louisiana College
I think Pineville, Louisiana might have the best game played in the South this week. It features a couple of teams who are good for around 30 points a game. The loss to HSU hurt MC, who must now beat UMHB to have Pool C chances, despite that nice win over Millsaps in the opener. Both teams played Hardin-Simmons fairly close within the last couple of weeks. I’m looking forward to what looks like a close one on paper.
Best of the Week
I’ll be using this section to highlight exceptional individual accomplishments from the previous week. It’s probably a good idea to start with Juan Joseph. As I mentioned earlier, Joseph went 32-56 for 475 with five TD’s and a pick against DePauw. That’s against what had previously been an elite pass defense, friends. Justin Feaster was just as impressive: 495 yards through the air on 30-for-45 passing with five touchdowns and zero interceptions.
I’m told that I’ll be frequently mentioning members of the Cru in this space, and this week’s honors go to the duo of Jarvis Thrasher and Quincy Daniels. They combined for 237 yards on just 26 carries with two scores. The Austin Kangaroos were also making hay while the sun shined this weekend. The triple-headed monster of running backs Ryan Crowley and Ross Hasten and quarterback Kent Bell went for 355 of AC’s 440 rushing yards with four touchdowns on a combined 55 carries in their 35-30 win over Colorado College in Sherman.
My ATR Top 5
The fog is beginning to lift a little bit here, friends. I think we’re getting a good idea of what we have to work with here in the ASC and the SCAC.
1. Mary Hardin-Baylor (4-0, at No. 21 Hardin-Simmons)
2. Trinity (4-0, at Rhodes)
3. Millsaps (3-1, vs. Centre)
4. Hardin-Simmons (2-2, vs. Mary Hardin-Baylor)
5. Mississippi College (3-1, at Louisiana College)
I think 1-3 are pretty clear cut. I suppose I would be willing to listen to an argument for ranking Millsaps two and Trinity three. I do think the two are very even on paper. However, my theory is that Trinity is undefeated and Millsaps is not. Seemed like pretty simple logic to me. I think before I consider any move in that direction, I’ll have to see Trinity play in Greencastle next week.
Hardin-Simmons could potentially be a three loss team by Saturday evening. They’d be the best three loss team in the country by far. They could probably still beat any team in the ASC or SCAC that isn’t ranked ahead of them in the Top 5 listed above. I stay with them at four for this week.
I like Mississippi at #5 because of the Millsaps win (regardless of the circumstances) and playing HSU to the wire. They’ve still got a couple of weeks to prepare for UMHB. I nearly put DePauw there, because I think they make that Millsaps result look a lot better with a healthy backfield. They may not win it, but they probably make it closer. However, Mississippi College’s impressive outing against Hardin-Simmons Saturday evening makes me lean the Choctaws way.
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