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Georgia Southern Preview
September 02, 2015 11:20 AM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Georgia Southern has been one giant toothache for the West Virginia University football coaches to prepare for this summer.
The Eagles do some unconventional things, especially on offense, requiring Mountaineer defensive coordinator Tony Gibson to spend more time in the film room than Gene Siskel.
What Gibson has been watching is his personal “Nightmare on Elm Street.”
“I told all of the guys (Monday), ‘Get rid of everything Georgia Southern after this game. I don’t ever want to see it again,’” he joked.
What makes Georgia Southern’s offense so unique is they run an option attack out of the shotgun. Unlike Navy or Georgia Tech, which like to chop block the defensive linemen at the line of scrimmage and run the triple-option off that, Georgia Southern wants to get the defensive players moving and run their read-option off the zone downfield.
What Georgia Southern does is really well-conceived, says Gibson.
“They want to open up gaps and get you running one way or the other so they don’t want to chop you and clog up a hole,” he said. “Most (option teams) are under center; it’s double-wing, tailback and they are running it that way. But with them every guy touches it – tailbacks, wide outs, slots … they are all some way tied into this option game. It makes it difficult making sure we’re accounting for all of those guys.”
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Based on how well Georgia Southern performed last year in its inaugural season in the Sun Belt (and FBS), a lot of teams are having trouble getting a handle on what they do. The Eagles ran the table in the conference and finished with a 9-3 record, losing by one at NC State in the opener and by just four at Georgia Tech in week three.
A 52-19 defeat at Navy was Georgia Southern’s worst performance of the year, and probably one of the poorest showings a Willie Fritz-coached team has had in his 23 seasons in the business. Fritz has won 185 career games, 146 in NCAA play, and helped the Eagles become one of only three teams in NCAA history to win a conference title in its first season of FBS play in 2014.
“That speaks volumes of Willie Fritz of how good of a coach he is and the tradition that Georgia Southern possesses,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “These guys have won a bunch.”
West Virginia players and coaches agree that junior running back Matt Breida is Georgia Southern’s best offensive weapon. He ran for nearly 1,500 yards as a sophomore and averaged an FBS-best 8.68 yards per carry.
“You don’t get 1,500 yards and not be a good football player,” said West Virginia senior nose tackle Kyle Rose. “I’ve got to stop the dive – stop the run. When you’ve got a team like Georgia Southern coming in that wants to run the ball 60, 65 times a game that’s our No. 1 goal. For me and (mike linebacker) Jared Barber, it’s eat up the dive and everyone else take care of the rest. If we can take care of the dive then everything else will work itself out.”
Of course, sometimes that’s easier said than done.
“Their main option is when they bring their wideout in motion and use him as their pitch key,” explained Gibson. “The zone is going to their two tailbacks (Breida and L.A. Ramsby), and that’s who they want the ball in their hands.”
Regular quarterback Kevin Ellison is out for the first two games of the season while serving an academic suspension, but Florida International transfer Favian Upshaw has plenty of experience running the Eagle offense. Even No. 3 quarterback Vegas Harley has been effective operating Fritz’s plug-and-play attack.
“They were playing for the Sun Belt championship and their starter went down, and then Upshaw goes down, and they bring in a third guy that we hadn’t seen all year on film and he takes them right down the field and scores two touchdowns to win the game,” noted Gibson.
Upshaw can throw the ball, but his No. 1 objective is to keep it on the ground – either by handing it off to Breida, Ramsby or by carrying it himself.
“Somebody is accounting for him on every snap,” said Gibson. “You guys (media) and everybody in the stands will know, if (Upshaw) breaks loose on a run then somebody screwed up.”
“If he wants to keep the ball he’s going to get hit,” added Rose. “If he wants to pitch the ball that person is going to get hit and if he hands the ball off that person has got to get hit. Anybody who has the ball or is going to get the ball needs to be hit on every play.”
Georgia Southern Statistical Leaders (2014 Stats)
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#13 Favian Upshaw 6-1 | 170 | Jr. | QB Passing: 11-of-40, 385 Yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT |
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#36 Matt Breida 5-10 | 190 | Jr. | RB Rushing: 171 Att., 1485 Yards, 8.7 Avg., 17 TDs |
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#12 BJ Johnson 6-1 | 212 | Jr. | WR Receiving: 23 Rec., 312 Yards, 13.6 Avg., 3 TDs |
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#37 Antwione Williams 6-3 | 245 | Sr. | LB Tackles: 66 Total, 45 Solo, 8.0 Tackles For Loss |
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#7 Matt Dobson 6-2 | 206 | Sr. | S Interceptions: 3, 3 Pass Breakups |
Defensively, the Eagles prefer to use a 4-2-5 alignment and will frequently play quarters in the back end with the safeties coming up to help in run support.
“They are based out of a four-down, but they go multiple with it,” said Holgorsen. “They will get in a three-down front and they will get into a Bear front with two outside guys up on the line of scrimmage.”
Of Georgia Southern’s seven returning starters, Holgorsen said 6-foot-3, 245-pound linebacker Antwione Williams and 5-foot-9, 210-pound linebacker Deshawntee Gallon show up the most on film.
“Their linebackers are really good players,” said Holgorsen. “Most of their D-line is back and their safeties are extremely active. They have new people at corner, but we have new receivers, so that’s probably a wash.”
Maybe, or maybe not.
The West Virginia coaches are anticipating Georgia Southern putting their two corners on an island to account for the Mountaineers’ two new outside guys, Shelton Gibson and Jovon Durante, meaning there should be some one-on-one opportunities for them on Saturday.
“We’ve been known to throw the ball when the situation calls for a run,” noted running backs coach JaJuan Seider.
There will also be ghosts that Georgia Southern will have to prepare for with West Virginia’s unorthodox 3-3 stack defense, said defensive line coach Bruce Tall, a former defensive coordinator at Charlotte who has some experience defending the type of zone option Fritz operates at Georgia Southern.
Tall explained.
“It works both ways,” he said. “I’m sure they’d rather see a four-down or a three-down that is more of a 3-4 style defense. We’ve got guys that can really run well so we want to take advantage of what our strengths are.”
Boiled down, what we are looking at is odd versus odd – Georgia Southern’s unorthodox zone-option offensive attack against West Virginia’s equally unorthodox odd-stack defense.
Anybody who understands football or enjoys watching different styles of play will be interested in Saturday’s game - everyone that is except for Gibson, the guy who has to anticipate what the other guy is going to do.
“I’d rather be sitting in the crowd and watching it, to tell you the truth, but it’s going to be fun to see how they attack us and what they do,” said Gibson. “They don’t really have any film to go on to look at us either. Nobody is doing what we’re doing on defense and we haven’t faced anybody on offense like this. We’ve got to make sure when adjustments are made that we have a good backup plan if what we’re trying to do is not working.”
Putting some early points on the scoreboard never hurts, either.
“My job is to get through to our players that (Georgia Southern) might not have the name recognition of Alabama (last year’s season-opening foe), but within our coaching fraternity they have plenty of name recognition,” said Holgorsen. “(The coaching staff understands) who they are, what they have accomplished and the talent that is in Georgia. I know, because I was once there. I know what kind of players they have, and what kind of players they get.”
Saturday’s game is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff, with the contest be televised nationally on Fox Sports Net (Root Sports locally).
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s pregame coverage begins with the Mountaineer Tailgate Show at 4 p.m. on affiliates throughout the state. Game coverage starts at 6:30 p.m.
Saturday’s game will be Georgia Southern’s first trip to Morgantown.
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