Regardless of the circumstances of their spot on our schedule, I never would have expected to be this nervous about Saturday's game. This is not the Samford team of the past few years. They are coming off of two respectable wins against Furman and Elon, they're rockin' a sweet new, Auburn-style offense and they boast the same overall record as App State (4-2). It's not just that Cam Newton left Auburn as the number one draft pick and the school just tossed their offensive strategies to their little in-state neighbors in Birmingham. These pups have the athletes to run it. Their every-man Truss ran for 191 yards and three touchdowns against Elon last weekend. This guy leads the conference in kick/punt return yards as well.
Yup, these guys are bona fide! And it couldn't have come at a better time. With the defense gutted with key injuries and possible suspensions for mysterious off-the-field happenings, we just moved Walter Payton second runner up and SoCon offensive player of the year Deandre Presley from QB to corner. Of course he is, at least physically, perfectly suited for the position. 5'11" and very fast is a text book defensive back. You also have to take into account his experience running an offense and recognizing receiver routes and formations. But for the most part, it seems like an act of desperation. Jamill Lott, a promising young receiver, has also been moved to the backfield for the Apps on D. It was clear last week that we were just running out of players.
After running up the score on another bulldog school in Charleston, the ASU defense let the Citadel come back from 49-14 to 49-42 before taking a knee in victory formation. Of course two key App fumbles gave the Citadel a short field, they ran back a blocked punt and relied on a lot of trickery in the first half to get their first 14, but it's hard to not be concerned after such an outrageous comeback. Coach Moore attributed their stellar resurgence to just running out of players on defense. Hopefully the new offensive transfers will help this depth problem or we will be in for a long season watching every school run the score up in the fourth quarter because we have players in that have no business being out there.
Don't fret though, last week also showcased an offensive spark unseen the entire season. Jamal Jackson has arrived. If the offensive line performs as well this week against a defense that blitzes, that it did last week against one that didn't at all, it should bode very well for the remainder of our season and our ability to operate offensively regardless of a defense's style. Steven Miller had a career day as ASU ran for 318 yards. We seemed to be back to our old ways last Saturday. Now it's time to test it again.
Let's not forget what Lil Sammy is walking into on Saturday. The homecoming crowd will be over 30 thousand. That's a few more than the modest crowd that watched Samford beat Elon last week. During the UTC game, Coleman had to check down and tell each lineman individually what play was coming next and it is very likely that the botched field goal snap that we ran back for the game winning touchdown was a direct result of confusion generated by the Rock. Kidd Brewer is a hard play to win if you're the visitor. Only four have done it over the past eight years.
Prediction: With Sammy coming into the Rock, I don't see us losing. We're not a bad team this year and a lot of uncontrollable tribulations are the main thing that's making this season more difficult than years past. With our offense back on track, I expect the Apps to light up the score board/Samford defense. It may get close at times and when we start to run out of defensive personnel towards the end of the game, it will be a barn burner.
42-34 App
*Photo from expatads.com
