How many time
have you heard Lafayette football Coach Frank Tavani talk about absolute need
to be able to run the football?
Sometimes it
seems like every week. He said it again after the loss to Holy Cross, in which
the Leopards threw 46 passes, completing 33 for 280 yards and rushed 23 times
for 93 yards.
“Now, do you need
300 yards a game rushing?” he asked rhetorically. “No, but 150 anyway. And
that’s just starting. You need to have that element. The defense has to be kept
on their toes. Now they know what we’re doing. You saw at the end of the game
when they know we have to throw, they just pin their ears back. And we have
some guys up front who are first-year starters and they’re struggling.”
Tavani’s
inference that a running attack that gave his team 150 yards a game would be
good enough for him, got me thinking. When was the last time a Lafayette
team averaged 150 yards per game?
Year Ave. yds/rush Ave. yds/game W-L
2016 2.0 64.6 1-4
2015 2.5 72.3 1-10
2014 3.9 144.6 5-6
2013 3.4 118.6 5-7*
2012 3.5 122.3 5-6
2011 3.0 100.5 4-7
2010 3.1 109.6 2-9
2009 3.7 129.7 8-3
2008 4.2 175.2 7-4
2007 4.1 173.4 7-4
2006 4.6 164.8 6-6*
2005 3.7 150.9 8-4*
2004 4.4 212.8 8-4*
2003 4.0 150.8 5-6
2002 3.6 150.4 7-5
2001 4.0 130.7 2-8
2000 2.6 93.7 2-9
* -- League
champ, I-AA/FCS playoffs.
From what I
can tell, Lafayette has had only two men with the title of offensive line coach
in Coach Tavani’s tenure. Bob Heffner got it in 2001, and when he left
to coach at Northwestern University, Stan Clayton was picked as his successor in 2009.
The Leopards
have had six individual 1,000-yard rushing seasons – three by Joe McCourt, two
by Ross Scheuerman and one by Jonathan Hurt. Three of those 1,000-yard seasons
ended with a Patriot League title (McCourt in 2004, Hurt in 2006 and Scheuerman
in 2013).
Just
something to think about.
QUOTABLE ANDREW BREINER – The Fordham head coach, who has lost of
Lehigh Valley ties and still makes sure he stops for a Jimmy’s Hot Dog whenever
he’s in the area, spoke with the L.V. media via telephone on Tuesday.
On facing
Blake Searfoss instead of Drew Reed at quarterback: “They threw it
a little more against Holy Cross when Blake was in the game. Maybe coach Fein felt
that’s what Blake’s strength was. Those guys are very well coached. We watch them
go through progressions; they don’t just take a three-step drop and play like robots.
Our plan every week is to cause the quarterbacks to hold the football and maybe
not give them that first progression.”
On 10 fumble recoveries by the Rams’ defense: “We preach creating
turnovers. When we have a guy held up, we’re going to rip at the ball. The
other amazing statistic is the number of fumbles (14) and recovered fumbles.
We’ve done a great job of getting on those balls. Those are precious
opportunities when the ball hits the ground
like that … recognizing it and getting on it. There’s a little bit of
luck in it. It’s a football, so you never know how it’s going to bounce, but so
far, it’s bounced towards the Rams and those have been big to help us win or
compete in games.”
On the transition from offensive coordinator to head coach: “I think it’s as seamless as it can
be. It’s a big jump, but the continuity factor, with me being promoted and the
vast majority of the coaches staying the same … while there is a new head
coach, we know the roster, the student-athletes know us and they saw that philosophically,
there wasn’t much that was going to change. I believe in what we did to turn
this program around from a 1-10 team to a top-25 team, so the foundation wasn’t
going to change.”
MEET ERIC
MITCHELL – The freshman from Martinsburg, W.Va., has earned the starting job at
cornerback, wearing the number of and succeeding Matt Smalley. He said that in
his four years at Martinsburg High, the football team lost only “a handful” of
games. Actually, Martinsburg won three straight state titles and lost in the
semifinals of states in the other year. While he’s already experienced that
number of college losses, he said of the transition, “It’s not so tough, it’s
just like motivation. We know how good we are. We haven’t played a full four
quarters yet. Once we do that, it’s going to be hard team to beat.” Mitchell,
who battled with Liberty High grad Izaiah Avent for the starting spot, got his
opportunity when Avent was hurt in the second game of the year. It appears it’s
now going to be hard for anyone to get the job away from him. He had four
tackles in his first start against Princeton and followed that with six against
Villanova and seven against Holy Cross.
Online Betting That is both fun and rich.
ReplyDeleteSbobet It is a web-based online betting service that makes playing bets easier to play by playing over high-speed internet connections that allow players to play casino games. Online No picture or sound stuck.
All players can play all online casino games. All you have to do is go to the casino. Do not waste time just having an internet and a computer can play any online casino games that you want to play. Today, playing online casino games, the player does not have to download the program to play at the end of the day, because the player can play through the Internet, not the joy and excitement of the game. Play free online casino games with no boundaries.
And if anyone is able to join the joy and gamble of online gamble, and if the player is thinking about online casino games, we want the players to choose the service with the site คาสิโน