Talk about offense can get pretty defensive

By the time John Garrett said, “There’s a lot of if’s and but’s there” at Tuesday’s media luncheon, he obviously knew he was treading on shaky ground.

But that didn’t stop him from pressing on.

Garrett has a way of making chicken salad out of just about anything he can find in the ‘fridge. A second straight game with no touchdowns wasn’t about to turn him around.

 I couldn’t get it all in the midweek print-edition story, but I thought he should have his say.

“Offensively, we were really close,” he said.

All of us at the media table pretty much knew what was going to follow.

“Early in game, there was a holding on a third-down conversion. so that’s us (not) maintaining a drive; then the next series, we miss a 75-yard touchdown untouched when Nick Pearson misses inches from his fingertips; and later on in the game, when it was still in the balance, we miss a post pattern to Quinn where the safety takes a wrong angle, and if we catch it that’s 60-yards, or if they catch you ( Garrett says while looking at wide receiver Quinn Revere). If you get those two plays and you don’t drop the punt, you’re talking 14-14 and it becomes a whole different game.

“There’s a lot of if’s and but’s there, and certainly, it comes down to how we execute, and we didn’t on those plays. But I saw a team that is really close to breaking out with some explosive plays … You don’t know when those impactful plays are coming. That’s why you have to play every play as if this is the play. And you have to stockpile good plays on top of good plays on top of good plays and that’s how you sustain drives. It’s not a sometime thing. It’s an every-play thing. We had some good execution, but we have to be more consistent as a unit. It’s inches away from big plays, explosive plays, continuing drives.” 

This week, maybe?  They may need a bunch of them against Monmouth.

THE QUARTERBACKS

Every discussion of offense starts at quarterback. Coach Garrett has taken a different approach to that position this season. A year ago, he put all his trust in then freshman Sean O’Malley, who quarterbacked all but one offensive series – at the end of a 59-0 thrashing by Villanova, backup Cole Northrup was inserted. And, that couldn’t possibly have been because the coaches thought it would make a difference.

O’Malley has started every game this season, too, but Northrup’s role has increased to the point where he can be part of any discussion about the position.

Coach Garrett was asked how he felt about the progression of the two sophomores.

Garrett said that he was looking initially for more consistency from O’Malley. “There are times where he’s reading (the defense) the right way and the ball’s (thrown) a little high. Or, he didn’t see the safety and should have been on the other side. Those ae just things that happen; we have to reduce the (number of) times it happens”

Then he brought Northrup into the discussion.

“Both (O’Malley and Northrup) have command of the offense; they know the system and their assignments. It’s just an accumulation of experience and gathering and reacting to all those situations that you can’t always simulate in practice. Every play against every look, you can’t duplicate that is practice, so there is a feel or instinct that has to occur sometimes. And so, they’re going to continue to get better and better with accumulated reps. That’s where are.”   

He called the competition between the two players “a week to week thing. They both earned the right to play. Cole being in there is a 100 percent reflection of his ability from spring and performance from camp, not a reflection of Sean.

“Sean continues to play and improve and be a guy who deserves to start; but this day and age, it’s real important to train two quarterbacks because there are an increased number of times where the quarterback runs the ball. And, when you have increased times where they run the ball, they get tackled more often, which increases the chance of being injured, so we don’t want to be left with a quarterback situation where a guy hasn’t played. To his credit, Cole has proved he can do it and run the offense and has earned the confidence of his teammates, and if both continue to play at a starter level, they’ll continue to get reps.”

MEET LOGAN GRIESER – Grieser (6-3, 275, Arlington, Ohio) is the only senior on the offensive line until Kevin Zataveski returns from his injury. This is a big year for Grieser, who told me he hasn’t yet decided if he will apply for a fifth year. No one would deserve it more than Logan, who suffered a “pretty severe” concussion before he ever played a game as a freshman and missed that entire season, who missed a couple of games of a sophomore year in which he was a starter for nine games, was injured in the fourth game of 2017 and needed ankle surgery after starting four games. He’s looking forward to playing against two of the teams on the Leopards’ schedule – Fordham and Lehigh. He’s missed them all three of his previous years. Grieser has trimmed down from 310 pounds of 2017 to 275 this year and has been happy with the result. He sees consistent execution as the one thing keeping the Leopards out of the end zone this season. “We’ve had just a few mistakes here and there on potentially big plays and that has put us behind the chains, second-and-long, things that alter the plays you want to call. If one guy does it wrong and doesn’t execute correctly, that can be the difference between three yards and 50 yards.” He is glad to have some depth on the offensive line for the first time in his career, and he said of the four freshmen recruits, “It’s nice to see how far they have come in just two games. We’ve never been this deep, and in practice we can spread out the older guys to guide the younger ones.”

MEET MALIK HAMM – Hamm (6-3, 240, Baltimore, Md.) probably should be in his senior year of high school right now because he celebrated his 18^th birthday on Aug. 26. – just four days before Grieser celebrated his 22^nd. Hamm may have the shortest bio in the football media guide, but the thing that stood out for me is the fact that in addition to football, where he was a defensive end and an offensive tackle, he was an attacker on the lacrosse team. He was team captain in both sports. “This was the biggest school that was recruiting me,” he said of Lafayette, but Lafayette went at him hard – he named four different coaches, two of whom are no longer at Lafayette, who were involved in the recruiting process. He didn’t visit until December, but he, his mother and his little brother were won over immediately. He came to the team that lost four veteran d-linemen and he wasted no time adjusting. He spent all eight weeks of summer training in Easton, and in preseason camp, he said, “the upperclassmen pushed me and passed on their knowledge, which I appreciated.” When Andrew Chuma was unable to play against Delaware, Hamm got his first start. He stripped the Blue Hen quarterback of the ball on one play, then scooped up the ball and ran 22 yards. He has six tackles (2 sacks, 3.5 TFLs), and Coach Garrett said, “He has taken pride in becoming a well-rounded player and not just a pass-rusher, and he’ll just continue to develop because of his work ethic.”

MEET QUINN REVERE – Revere (6-1, 180, McKinney, Tex.) graduate from a high school that had only 49 students in the senior class, proof that colleges go pretty deep into the woods to find a potential jewel. He admitted that he “kind of struggled” during his freshman year, finding the Lafayette offense complicated at first but “simple once you start buying in.” He played only on special teams in his rookie season and said, “I’m thankful that the Lord humbled me.” A bunch of talented receivers graduated, opening a lot of door. Quinn said spring practice enabled him to learn the offense and he credited new wide receivers’ coach Tiquan Underwood and Coach Garrett for believing in him and giving him the chance to play. “It’s been a group effort, not a solo success,” he said. He came in to Lafayette at “about 175 pounds, but now I’m pushing 190.” But, he added, the biggest different between last season and this one is in his speed. He said the strength and conditioning program under Brad Potts helped make him heavier and quicker. “I’m heavier, but I feel lighter,” he said. He has four catches in the first two games.    

EXTRA POINTS 

Tre Nelson, a senior from Palmerton, will be starting at middle linebacker for Monmouth on Saturday. He’s 6-1, 225 pounds, and he is one of the Hawks’ leading tacklers with 10 in two games. Zach Talley, a fifth-year senior from Quakertown, is a backup defensive lineman; Terrance Mainor of Eastopn (Wilson High) is a sophomore defensive lineman, and Oliver Jervis is a freshman offensive lineman from Sellersville … Coach Garrett is not forthcoming when it comes to injured players under any circumstance. On Tuesday, he said that coming out of the loss to Delaware, his team had “bumps and bruises that we will monitor during the week. Nobody we can declare out right now.” In the team’s final full practice of the week on Thursday, the Leopards reportedly had only nine offensive linemen in uniform. Also, only 31 defensive players practiced, and four of them were in “blue”, meaning they did not participate in hitting. The offense reportedly had 39 players dressed, two of them “blue.” … In last year’s game against Monmouth, Lafayette wound up with minus-1 yard rushing. The Leopards’ two touchdowns were on passes to Matt Mrazek (before the mysterious fall from grace) and Nick Franzese. Mrazek had nine receptions in that game – and only 19 for the other 10 games. It still hurts to think about that … Speaking of Mrazek, I was told by someone who should know that Mrazek had a chance to play football in Germany and another to attend a mini-camp with the Arizona Cardinals. He declined both. The “old” Matt would have jumped at it, but he has totally moved on and is loving law school. It’s about time he is loving something!