FB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[RooBro]

On 4th and 2 AC goes play action pass for a TD

[evacuee]

Report from Jackson:

Trinity is very small.  The biggest guys on the team don't really fill up their jerseys.  Toe to toe at the LOS, the Tigers gave up many pounds and inches to the Majors and that was clearly evident from the sidelines.  The only people that seem to have real size at their positions are Chris Baer and Al Furlow.  Both those guys are good players but just can't do much behind the current O Line. 

Trinity's quarterback situation is pretty spotty.  Both of them did some good things today, but neither seems to really know what he's doing.

Millsaps is not close to being what they were last year.  Graves runs the offense but doesn't seem to be able to get the ball down the field.  Fortunately for him, Metzger and Bowser are great runners after the catch, and they get excellent help from the receivers as blockers.  They still have size and quickness, but I see them as lacking the real quality players to get them deep into the playoffs.  I do, however, think they are the clear favorite for the conference title.  An upset along the way would not surprise me.

After the last two heavyweight bouts that were staged between these two teams in Jackson, this game seemed really small time.  There was a late arriving crowd and at times I could almost hear the officials talking to each other it was so quiet out there.  Looking at the backs of the Trinity benchwarmers, today felt very small time. 

Trinity is going to have to fight for every win it seems because Centre and Austin look ready to challenge the Tigers finally and if DePauw gets on track, TU could end up in the middle of the pack.  That said, a nine win season isn't out of the question, but neither is it for any of the aforementioned teams.  Parity is setting in. 

[Ron Boerger]

Centre up 34-27 and driving inside the AC10.  About two minutes left in the game.

EDIT: Centre misses a 32-yd FG, AC takes over on their 20 with 0:51 left and NO timeouts.

[Ron Boerger]

AC gets to the Centre 44 but the last-gasp pass falls incomplete.  Centre holds on to remain tied with Millsaps for the conference lead. 

[frank_ezelle]

TU2698,

I won't comment on the parts of your report that deal with the Trinity team, but I'll give my observations on your thoughts about the game in general and this year's Millsaps team.  In a lot of ways, I think your observations are accurate.

About the game--You are correct about the crowd being smaller and the atmosphere more subdued and here are a bunch of probable contributing factors:

---Change of schedule.  Hard to build as much excitement for the 2nd SCAC game instead of the SCAC Championship game.
---Lousy weather forecast (fortunately, fairly decent weather)
---Millsaps unranked, Trinity barely in the top-20.
---You may have noticed that Millsaps has banned tailgating at the North end of the field, the end with the hill and pine trees.  They also have cracked down on beer at the South end of the field where the students gather.  That definitely cuts down on the atmosphere and crowd.
---The economy.  I'm sure that cut into the number of fans for both teams.
---The internet option.  It's great to have the games on the internet and with the economy, being able to watch the game might be a reason that some don't come to the games.
---Very little Millsaps support from the community.  One of my pet peeves for years. Millsaps does a great job of getting information out to those who are already interested in the sports programs.  The school, not just the athletic department, has done a very poor job of using sports to get local alums, etc, reconnected with Millsaps.  I no longer bother to argue this point with those in charge at the school, but they are wasting a golden opportunity.

Regarding the Millsaps football team, they remind me a lot of the 2006 Millsaps team except a lot deeper and more talented.  It's a team that will get better as the season progresses.  Some points along those lines:

---Chris Graves gets better with each game.  Keep in mind that the last time he was a starting quarterback was 4 years ago in high school.  It's unrealistic to think he would come in and look like a 3 year starter who was very comfortable with a veteran receiving group.
---The Millsaps defensive backs are a totally new unit.  They have given up some big plays early, just like the 2006, but they will get better.  I suspect the front 7 will continue to improve as a unit also.
---A lot of new receivers to go along with the new starter at QB.  The passing attack will get better.  What seems to be missing is the 8-10 yard completion with yards after the catch.  Give a little more time and I believe that will start clicking.
---I noticed that two freshmen started on the O-line today for the first time, two very big freshmen (Nathan Quick at LG--6'5" and 290 pounds, and Deauntay Payne at C--6'2" and 325 pounds).  If they continue to start, then that unit should improve as they get more experience.

All in all, I see Millsaps as a team that is playing well now and will be playing much better by the last couple of weeks of the season.  The defense will tighten up like it did in 2006 (it looked pretty good today), the offense will continue to get more versitile, and I think this will be a very good NCAA Tournament team if they get a bid.  There's still a lot of work to do in order to win one of those bids.

[frank_ezelle]

BTW, I enjoyed meeting TigerDad and Tex today at the game.  It's always nice to meet people from the bulletin board, and not surprisingly, they always turn out to be nice people.

[DPU3619]

Didn't notice this on my first trip through the DePauw/Sewanee boxscore today: Sewanee had 30 yards today. Thirty.

27 carries for 4 yards. 17 passes for 26 yards.  That's it.  In fact, Sewanee punted 10 times.  The number of punts that Sewanee had was exactly 1/3 of their total yardage. Just a miserable game all around.

[Tex]

Nice to meet you as well Frank.  My wife said "his is bigger than yours".  I hope she was talking about camera lenses!    I've got a nice photo of you stalking the sidelines I'll email to you.

I'm not sure what to say to the TU2698 person above.  Size on the TU o-line isn't a problem.  Blown assignments would be more of a problem.  Their average weight is about 275-290.  Height average for D-3.  5'11 to 6'3.  Good strength across the board as well.  We've got what can be a very good o-line but they've not been able to play 5 guys mistake free for several plays in a row much this year.  They will get there (soon I hope).  

I thought the kickers would be a big factor today and I was wrong.  TU played on their own side of the 50 most of the day.

In the battle of the kick returners, Urban ran one back.  Milsaps guy wasn't much a factor.  TU wasn't kicking to him much (and I thought that was pretty smart).  

The Trinity defense played well enough to win, the offense didn't do their part.  Keeping to 7-0 at half as huge.  Even at 14-0 late in the third, we were still in it.  

On the QB comments, I'm not much of an authority on QB play.  I do like that the TU coaches put both guys out there today.  To me it's like any other position, if you're not getting the job done, put someone else in.  Others would argue that you need continuity.  We had this issue in high school one  year.  Had multiple QB's but no real "go to" guy.  We're only 4 games in.  I'm thinking one of these guys will step up and take the job full time but it needs to happen soon.  We had several receivers open for what would have been big gains and simply could not get the ball to them.  Overthrown or underthrown.  If the o-line gives the QB 5 seconds, the ball needs to be moving out of the pocket by pass or run.  Need to make quicker decisions.  

Our RB's do really well on the west coast flair passes in the flats.  Gets them out in space and they can do what they do.  Running up the middle should have worked today given the front the Milsaps runs, but it did not.  Like I said, too many blown assignments on the line.  I've seen three games in person this year and haven't really seen much if any success running up the middle.  That's on the o-line or the blocking scheme drawn up.  I'm not sure if the RB's are taught to break it outside if the middle is clogged or if they're taught to just bust it up the gut.  So, no opinion on that.  

So, overall, a disappointment today.  I was happy to see what the defense was able to do against a very good team.  That bodes well for the rest of the season.  We just need to figure out what we do well on offense and then run the hell out of those plays.  We'll need to run the table the rest of the season to get a sniff at the playoffs.  We're only a couple of tweaks away from being able to do that.  

That being said you tip your hats to the Milsaps players & coaches and get ready for next week.  I was disappointed the Milsaps fans (some of them at least) were spitting on my son and his teammates.  Yelling of insults, well, you expect that.  But spitting really is classless.  Everyone else in Jackson, from the Milsaps staff to the folks working here at the Courtyard, have really treated my wife and I well this weekend and we look forward to coming back in 2 years.  

Thanks for coming over to meet us Frank.  You are a class act.  keep up the good work.  

P.S.  What a nice stadium set up Milsaps College has.  It seems every stadium we travel to in the SCAC puts the crappy Trinity stadium to shame.  It's really embarrassing and has to be a huge hurdle to overcome in the recruiting wars in TX.  

P.S.S  Go TIGERS! and beat the hell out of Birmingham next week!

[Tex]

Here's Frank!




http://gallery.me.com/scott_f/100455/IMG_2279/web.jpg?ver=12540260200001

[Tex]

Clouds loomed over the horizon all day, but once I pulled out my camera, not a drop of rain.  The blessing of the Tiger Cam comes thru again.


Link for the full size shot...  http://gallery.me.com/scott_f/100462/IMG_2281/web.jpg?ver=12540263630001

[frank_ezelle]

Clouds loomed over the horizon all day, but once I pulled out my camera, not a drop of rain.  The blessing of the Tiger Cam comes thru again.


Link for the full size shot...  http://gallery.me.com/scott_f/100462/IMG_2281/web.jpg?ver=12540263630001

Tex, you may want to take credit for keeping the rain away but I think it was the umbrella monopod that I was using for the game.  Right before halftime we had a few drops of rain so I unstrapped the umbrella and within three minutes we had sun for the halftime show.

Also, I hope the Trinity fans appreciated the fly over by 4 of the Millsaps hawks during the playing of the national anthem.  Maybe by the time you return in 2 years someone will have trained them to do a low pass through the stadium from goal post to goal post.

Here's a link to some photos from last spring of the hawks.  One set from March of a hawk near the tennis courts and another set from April of a hawk, a dead squirrel (he looks dead to me), and some mockingbirds attacking the hawk as he rest on the big backstop behind centerfield of the baseball diamond:

http://gomajors.smugmug.com/MillsapsCollege2008-09/Special-Events-2008-09/Millsaps-Hawk-Spring-2009/7953163_tx5JK#516297250_rsnMS

[MajorDad]

Nice to meet you as well Frank.  My wife said "his is bigger than yours".  I hope she was talking about camera lenses!    I've got a nice photo of you stalking the sidelines I'll email to you.

I'm not sure what to say to the TU2698 person above.  Size on the TU o-line isn't a problem.  Blown assignments would be more of a problem.  Their average weight is about 275-290.  Height average for D-3.  5'11 to 6'3.  Good strength across the board as well.  We've got what can be a very good o-line but they've not been able to play 5 guys mistake free for several plays in a row much this year.  They will get there (soon I hope).  

I thought the kickers would be a big factor today and I was wrong.  TU played on their own side of the 50 most of the day.

In the battle of the kick returners, Urban ran one back.  Milsaps guy wasn't much a factor.  TU wasn't kicking to him much (and I thought that was pretty smart).  

The Trinity defense played well enough to win, the offense didn't do their part.  Keeping to 7-0 at half as huge.  Even at 14-0 late in the third, we were still in it.  

On the QB comments, I'm not much of an authority on QB play.  I do like that the TU coaches put both guys out there today.  To me it's like any other position, if you're not getting the job done, put someone else in.  Others would argue that you need continuity.  We had this issue in high school one  year.  Had multiple QB's but no real "go to" guy.  We're only 4 games in.  I'm thinking one of these guys will step up and take the job full time but it needs to happen soon.  We had several receivers open for what would have been big gains and simply could not get the ball to them.  Overthrown or underthrown.  If the o-line gives the QB 5 seconds, the ball needs to be moving out of the pocket by pass or run.  Need to make quicker decisions.  

Our RB's do really well on the west coast flair passes in the flats.  Gets them out in space and they can do what they do.  Running up the middle should have worked today given the front the Milsaps runs, but it did not.  Like I said, too many blown assignments on the line.  I've seen three games in person this year and haven't really seen much if any success running up the middle.  That's on the o-line or the blocking scheme drawn up.  I'm not sure if the RB's are taught to break it outside if the middle is clogged or if they're taught to just bust it up the gut.  So, no opinion on that.  

So, overall, a disappointment today.  I was happy to see what the defense was able to do against a very good team.  That bodes well for the rest of the season.  We just need to figure out what we do well on offense and then run the hell out of those plays.  We'll need to run the table the rest of the season to get a sniff at the playoffs.  We're only a couple of tweaks away from being able to do that.  

That being said you tip your hats to the Milsaps players & coaches and get ready for next week.  I was disappointed the Milsaps fans (some of them at least) were spitting on my son and his teammates.  Yelling of insults, well, you expect that.  But spitting really is classless.  Everyone else in Jackson, from the Milsaps staff to the folks working here at the Courtyard, have really treated my wife and I well this weekend and we look forward to coming back in 2 years.  

Thanks for coming over to meet us Frank.  You are a class act.  keep up the good work.  

P.S.  What a nice stadium set up Milsaps College has.  It seems every stadium we travel to in the SCAC puts the crappy Trinity stadium to shame.  It's really embarrassing and has to be a huge hurdle to overcome in the recruiting wars in TX.  

P.S.S  Go TIGERS! and beat the hell out of Birmingham next week!

Tex,
Im really sorry to hear about the actions of some of the Millsaps fans. What I wouldnt give to know who they were. I am completely floored by the knowledge that anyone at Millsaps would do such a thing and its sad to hear of such juveniles> While I wasnt at the game, Had I been, I would have seen to it that those in question would have been brought out in the open! Good luck the remainder of the year.
GO MAJORS!

[pbrooks3]

Didn't follow game, but another nice win for Centre. Sounds like they had to hang on again down the stretch.

[RooBro]

Didn't follow game, but another nice win for Centre. Sounds like they had to hang on again down the stretch.

This game has been a dog fight the last 3 years. Another tough loss for the Roo's.

[frank_ezelle]

Since MajorDad made his comment, I guess I'll comment on what Tex said about the fans spitting.  Anything is possible at all SCAC schools when it comes to fan conduct--I've been on the road and seen negative things at most schools and I've seen poor behavior from visiting fans.  I'm sure Millsaps fans have at times shown poor behavior on the road.

At the game yesterday, there were two groups of Millsaps fans who were somewhat close to the Trinity players.  There were the fans in the end zone who are behind a fence that is 8-10 yards from the back of the end zone.  It hardly seems possible that they were guilty of anything even during warmups.  It also seems unlikely that they would do anything with only a 4 foot chain link fence as protection.

The other group was some former Millsaps football players in the stands behind the Trinity bench.  They were mostly up several rows which makes it much easier to see.  I never saw them at the rail looking over at the Trinity players.  I did hear this group cheering for the Millsaps successes and Trinity failures in a way that I don't consider great sportsmanship but no different than what I've heard at each school and what you would hear at a pro sporting event.  

Did they spit on the Trinity players?  There's no way I can say yes or no with complete certainty.  I will say that knowing where they were sitting and knowing some of the players in the group, I would be far more likely to believe that instead of spit the Trinity players were hit by those one or two big drops of rain that fell here and there throughout the game.  The rain drops that make me think about putting up the umbrella but then it turned out to only be a drop or two.  

If I had a bunch of ex-Millsaps players behind me making comments and suddenly something liquid hit me in the back of the head, I might honestly think someone had spit on me.  On the other hand, if I was a Trinity player in front of the Trinity fan section, that same liquid might have been assumed to be a raindrop given the weather conditions of the day.

It's not a point I want to argue, just a very good possibility that I wanted to bring up.  And now I have 15 minutes before the start of a soccer game.