We prepare this week for the Red Devils from Dickinson College. They travel to Steel field for a game this Saturday.
In the realm of “Small World” – My neighbor in Rochester Hills, Michigan – Martha, she actually attended and played basketball at Dickinson.
The Devils are currently 2-6 with one more victory than we have. But our guys continue to stay sharp and work to improve each day.
The weight room remains full – the guys continue to work hard in the classroom. No stepping back here. All oars remain in the water and the guys are putting their back into each stroke.
Coaches keep working hard and teaching the guys…no backing down here. We have watched our roster continue to change due to injuries – yet the coaching continues. Lucky to be around this talented group of guys. Each of our guys are committed to getting the job done. They work countless hours in the office watching film….studying tendencies and also learning new techniques.
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Under first year coach Brad Fordyce Dickinson has also faced some injuries. Early in the season their quarterback Billy Burger (#8) went down with the injury and although he played a little bit two weeks ago he did not play last week.
No way to find out what has happened at their QB situation at Dickinson. Hey I get it, theDickinson coaches don’t want us to know who their QB is going to be. But in general you can’t find out anything about a CC team unless you do the research yourself.
Like most things in the Centennial Conference all information is shrouded in secrecy. Trying to get up to date information from the sports information people at any school is nearly impossible – most of these guys (girls too I suppose) must be preparing for jobs in the secret service.
It’s amazing how difficult it is to get an accurate 2-deep depth chart from these people. They are generally late in giving the information and many times they are inaccurate.
Most of these people would be amazed what a real PR department is like in Division I or professional sports. Sometimes you have to get up off your ass and do some work.
Burger (#8) has been replaced by Freshman Robert Geuss. Except that Robert Geiss is not a Freshman he is a FY…..(Fancy Dan schools now refer to Freshman as FY or First year people….god forbid you refer to them as FreshMEN – the word MEN on the end of fresh must offend some people …let’s get politically correct!)
Geiss (#7) has played well since entering the lineup and appears to be a passer first and runner second. He has completed 51.3% of his passes hitting 80-156 for 779 yards and is 10th among the Centennial Conference signal callers. His favorite target has been Daniel Salmone (#21) who has 37 catches for 270 yards which is 8th in the CC.
Interestingly enough Salomone (#21) only averages 7.3 yards per catch which shows that he is an underneath receiver. Most of his catches have been in ball control situations as the coaching staff is trying to make sure their young QB has manageable throws.
Their offensive line has been improving as the season moves along. They have allowed sophomore Jeremy Walsh (#9) to get loose for 473 yards and a 3.5 yards per carry average.
Last weekend Sam Peck (#14) a sophomore ran for 121 yards in the loss to Juniata. Walsh (#9) also ran for over 100 yards to build a productive running game.
Defensively the Devils are similar to us. They have spent a lot of time on the field and rank as one of the lower teams statistically.
Finding consistency has been a problem plaguing Dickinson throughout the year. Having a youthful roster and new coaching systems is often trouble on game day. This has been apparent in most of their games to date.
Defensively the Devils have had trouble creating big plays and their tackling has been spotty at times. But one thing about Dickinson they always play hard and show great effort in getting to the ball.
Dickinson has trio of very solid defenders. Sophomore linebacker James Turner (#26) has 10.5 tackles for losses on the season and is one of their top defenders. He is joined by Thomas Nocka (#55) who has 4.5 sacks and one of their best overall players in Tyler Heisey (#33).
The Devils have one of the best facilities in the Centennial Conference and it is a fantastic school.
Their new stadium locker facilities are excellent and the additions they have made to their athletic complex have mad the school one of the most attractive schools in Eastern Pennsylvania.
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I am really looking forward to watching our guys play this weekend. They have prepared hard and are really finding their groove. I especially like the way our young defensive line is continuing to make progress every day.
We are lucky to have seniors like Connor Rooney, Fouad Haddad and Vinnie Caporrino for leadership in that room. Really big contributors, but even better young men. These guys are all going to be an impact wherever they land after graduating.
Love these guys and everything they have done at Moravian over the last four years. Can’t find better people!
The defense continues to create turnovers, but we have to play better on third down and get off of the field. Like Dickinson we have found it hard to play consistently on every play. Yet there is continued improvement and it is visible as we practice.
Defensively we have to “win” on first down….in other words hold the opponent to less than four yards. This puts the offensive team into a second and long situation and it allows you to be more flexible with your defensive calls. When you get to third down we have to find a way to get off the field – players have to make stops….knock down passes at the line – break up throws – create turnovers etc.
Sounds easy when you say it that way….but obviously it is not easy to do. But we will keep working to get it right.
Again….nice to see how supportive family and friends are of this team. It is great to see how much backing all of our guys have. Between this support group and former players coming back to Steel Field and lending their help it is obvious that it is only a matter of time until we get our program back on track.