catdaddyp

Solely pass blocking: Blanchard = 2nd best OT Morris = 5th best IOL Seymore = 8th best IOL

Last season’s highlights vs Ohio.

WEEK 4 Starters for new team: WR - Anthony Williams (Alcorn State) = 5 snaps. 1 reception for 3 yards. IOL - Tony Georges (Kent State) = 47 snaps. OT - Jordan Daniels (Western Carolina) = 66 snaps. RT - Xavior Gray (Liberty) = 69 snaps. RT - Nate Williams (San Diego State) = BYE DE - Curtis Fann (Western Carolina) = 59 snaps. 5 Tackles and 0.5 Sack. LB - Luke Bauer (Morehead State) = 44 snaps. 1 Tackle. CB - Tyson Durant (Washington State) = 66. 5 Tackles. S - Corey Thomas (Virginia) = 46 snaps. 2 Tackles. S - Jaden Woods (East Tennessee State) = 46 snaps. 3 Tackles and 1 Fumble Recovery. Backups for new team: QB - Dijon Jennings (Weber State) = 3 snaps. WR - Oran Singleton (Eastern Michigan) = 30 snaps. 7 receptions for 81 yards. WR - Jasaiah Gathings (UCONN) = 36 snaps. 1 reception for 5 yards. TE - Caleb Anderson (Alcorn State) = 22 snaps. 1 reception for 7 yards. RT - Ronan Chambers (Auburn) = N/A DE - Ryan Johnson (Southern Miss) = 23 snaps. 4 Tackles. LB - Jaharon Griffin (Alcorn State) = 5 snaps. 1 Tackle. S - KJ Martin (NC State) = N/A DNP: QB - Ryan Jankowski (UMASS) QB - Steele Wasel (Oklahoma) RB - CJ Price (Jackson State) OL - Ka’Marii Landers (Baylor) OL - Alex Robarge (Southern Illinois) LB - Andrew Behm (Southern Illinois) DB - Rishad Hence (Eastern Kentucky)

Agreed. I’d also forgotten we were up 14-3 at the half last year.

ESPN Bottom 10 If Zips win Saturday, its likely the last time listed. Last two matchups vs Ohio: 2022: 55-34 Ohio win. Rourke torched us for 427 yards and 3 TDs. Bangura rushed for 90 yards and 3 TDs. 2023: 25-14 Ohio win. Rourke passed for 208 yards and a TD. Bangura rushed for 121 yards and a TD. We’’ll find out if Navarro/Poulos and Tyus are as good as Rourke and Bangura.

Johnson was named a team captain last year too. My guess is that things haven’t panned out quite the way he thought they would at Southern Miss. Losing Johnson hurt from a pass rush perspective, but in the end it allowed Adler to get the developmental snaps he needed. Amankwaa leaving in 2022 hurt when we were in desperate need of a consistent cornerback. I’d be surprised if we lost many this year as almost everyone on the roster was recruited by Moorhead. Only 9 remain from the previous staff and that includes walk-ons.

Below are players that have seen significant action during one or multiple games this season. I also labeled if they committed from the portal (TP) or JUCO. I’ll be curious to see how soon some of the more inexperienced players see the field against Ohio. We were rolling guys out there as early as the 2nd quarter against South Carolina. I think Spriggs may have also gotten a few snaps in the first quarter when McCoy briefly came out the game. QB: Finley (R. Jr. - TP Bullock (R. Jr. - TP) RB: Simmons (R. Jr. - TP) Kellom (R. So.) WR: Walker (R. Jr.) Rush (R. Jr. - JUCO) Golden (Jr.) Granger (Jr. - TP) Norton (So.) Polk (R.Fr. - TP) Davis (R. Fr.) TE: Newell (R. So. - TP) OL: Blanchard (R. Sr. - TP) Thomas (R. Sr. - TP) Seymore (R. Jr. - TP) Shor (R. Jr. - TP) Burrell (Jr. - JUCO) Davis (R. So.) Williams (R. So.) Morris (So.) James (R. Fr.) DE: Nunnally (Sr. - JUCO) Adler (Sr.) Richards (R. Sr - JUCO) Dall (R. Fr.) Cheatom (R. Fr.) DT: Kapongo (R. Sr. - TP) Lavea (R. Sr. - TP) Moore (So.) Murphy (R. So.) LB: Cooper (R. Sr. - TP) Fish (Sr. - JUCO) McCoy (Jr.) Spriggs (R. Fr.) Benenge (Fr.) CB: Golden-Nelson (R. Jr. - TP) Hunter (R. Jr. - (TP) DeWalt (R. Jr. - JUCO) Jarmon (R. Jr. - JUCO) Reed (R. So - TP) White (R. Fr.) S/NB: P. Lewis (Sr. - TP) D. Lewis (R. Jr.) Greenwood (R. Jr. - TP) David (R. Jr. - TP) Anderson (R. Jr. - JUCO) Johnson (R. Jr.) Roach (R. Jr.) R. Hunter (Fr.) K: Smith (R. Jr. - TP) P: Book (Sr. - TP) KO: Jackson (R. Sr. - JUCO)

Moorhead said Finley was fine and wanted to give Bullock some reps at that point in the game. Finley definitely took his share of hits though.

Moorhead basically did the same as Sanders, except over a 2 year period. He brought in 35 players in Year One and 41 players in Year Two. To your point about QB, it’s been misfires. Undercuffler and Jennings in Year One. Bullock and Wasel in Year Two. It seems like Year 3 finally hit the mark with Finley and Roggow. Irons was already here and became an All-MAC QB in 2022, but the injuries completely derailed him the following season. Turning play-calling over last year didn’t help either.

Game thread and Ohio Preview QB: Ohio will play either Parker Navarro (68.5%, 547 yards passing, 2 TDs vs 4 INTs) or JUCO signee Nick Poulos (43.5%, 135 yards passing, 0 TDs vs 1 INT). Navarro was held out last week against UK, so Poulos got the start. Both are dual-threat QBs as Navarro has 107 yards rushing and 2 TDs. Poulos has 62 yards rushing. RB: Northwestern transfer Anthony Tyus leads the MAC in rushing with 391 yards and 4 TDs. He is averaging 6.9 yards per carry. 2023 signee Ricky Hunt is the backup (I thought he was the 2nd best RB in the 2023 MAC class). Hunt currently has 138 yards rushing, 1 touchdown, and averages 4.2 yards per carry. WR: Northern Arizona transfer Coleman Owen is 2nd in the MAC receiving with 25 receptions for 336 yards. 2023 signee Chase Hendricks is second on the team with 10 receptions for 131 yards and a touchdown (I thought Hendricks was the best WR in the 2023 MAC class). TE: 2023 signee Mason Williams is the starter at tight end. Ohio has not utilized the tight ends as much as Akron in the passing game, but Williams does have 6 receptions for 59 yards. OL: It looks like the offensive line has started all 4 games together this season, so Ohio seems to have some consistency up front. LT - Carson Heidecker (R. Sr.) LG - Davion Witherspoon (R. Jr.) C - Parker Titsworth (Gr.) RG - Christophe Atkinson (Gr.) RT - Jacob Dennison (R. Sr.) DL: Nevada transfer Marcel Walker-Burgess (19 Tackles, 1 Sack, 1 INT, 2 FF) started against UK. North Dakota transfer Ben McNaboe (17 Tackles, 0.5 Sack) was another starter. Kaden Schmitz is another edge to watch as he already has 2.5 sacks on the season. On the interior is Cincinnati transfer CJ Doggette (9 Tackles) and Bralen Henderson (7 Tackles). LB: Bucknell transfer Blake Leake leads the team in tackles with 29. Shay Taylor has started 3 games and collected 14 tackles. DB: Tank Pearson (14 Tackles and 1 INT) and Roman Parodie (12 Tackles) are the starters at CB. 2023 signee DJ Walker (17 Tackles) has played mostly NB. Northern Colorado transfer Dustin Johnson (26 Tackles) has been one starter at safety, while Austin Brawley (28 Tackles) has been the other. K: 2023 signee Gianni Spetic has been perfect on field goals and extra points going 5 for 5 and 7 for 7, respectively. P: Jack Wilson is averaging 43 yards per punt with a long of 56 yards. KR: Tank Pearson is averaging 20 yards per return with a long of 31 yards. Breakdown: Offense - Ohio wants to run the ball and have the personnel to do so. Despite having one of the top reception leaders in the MAC, Ohio has not been overly impressive throwing the football. The offense has also turned the ball over a total of 8 times. Defense - The Bobcat defense has struggled to create turnovers and are similar to Akron in terms of pass rush. Ohio’s 6 sacks puts both teams near the bottom of the MAC going into Week 5. Ohio is also statistically near the bottom of the MAC against the pass. What does that Mean? Ohio’s strength is running the football, whereas Akron’s weakness has been stopping the run. Akron’s strength has been throwing the football, as Ohio’s weakness has been stopping the pass. This game will probably come down to turnovers, field position, and special teams play, as the two teams seem far more evenly matched going into this game than in 2022 or 2023.

- EMU has had a manageable schedule this year. I’d guess most of the MAC (minus Kent) would have a good shot at being 3-1 against that schedule. - To me, UB is one QB injury away from becoming 2023 Akron. Lembo is getting the most out of his team, but I suspect they will not sustain this pace through the entire season. I will say I thought they would be the worst team in the MAC this year and I’ve clearly been proven wrong there. - BGSU certainly seems to be upper tier of MAC. 2 strong showings against P4s and a win against an 0-4 FCS. Still makes them 1-2 overall though. We’ll see what they do in MAC play.

Regardless of their perceived standing this year, neither Rutgers or South Carolina have lost to a G5 team under their current head coaches. Yes, there have been some close games, but no losses. Keep in mind, the same “mid-tier” South Carolina program walloped #5 Tennessee just two years ago. That was the same year Tennessee beat us 63-6. Like I’ve said before, losing creates apathy. To some the “eyeball test” is important and we clearly have not met the eyeball test for a full 4 quarters against anyone on our schedule this year. It’s interesting that some are quick to point to close losses by other teams and infer they are competitive, yet when this program loses 10 one score games in two years, it’s nothing more than losses and the program isn’t competitive. Perhaps this team doesn’t win much more, or maybe, they come out and surprise everyone in conference play? I don’t know, but we won’t find out until the games are played. We’re 1-3, which is right where this team should be regardless of the eyeball test. We’ll find out Saturday if the winds have finally turned.

Which teams were we supposed to beat to not have this thread pop up 4 games in?

Bump for update. Forgot to update last week.

QB - Finley was a different player after being hit by #17 & #44. I don’t think he completed more than two passes after that. His immediate two throws after the hit were badly off. At one point, Finley came off the field and it looked like Moorhead said “what the **** was that?” RB - Simmons and Kellom did fine with their opportunities. Not much to say here. WR - Norton was really the only one that did much. Our receivers had a really tough time blocking Carolina’s DBs. TE - Newell again collected all the meaningful snaps. Cravaack caught two passes for a handful of yards. OL - Moorhead tried to limit Carolina’s pass rush with a number of quick passes and screens. For the most part it worked, but that’s no way to sustain a meaningful drive. James actually played well. In my opinion, RT should be his spot to lose at this point. Morris once again came off the bench and played really well. Blanchard and Seymore were fine at LT and LG, respectively. DL - We didn’t get much of a pass rush from our DTs this week, which is not surprising considering the strength of Carolina’s OL is on the interior. However, our DEs won their fair share of battles against Carolina’s OTs. Kapongo had his best game..again. Nunnally and Adler had sacks. Richards, Cheatom, and Dall were all very active. LB - There were alot of missed tackles from the LBs and the secondary. Fish and McCoy battled, but despite the high amount of tackles they collected, there were still plenty left out there. Benenge and Spriggs played significant snaps and were in by the 2nd quarter. CB - Carolina’s speed at WR hurt us and so did all the misdirection. Some of the players with a lesser amount of experience like Reed and R. Hunter (S) got fooled on some of the misdirection “eye candy.” S - Anderson got the start after not playing last week. I thought he did enough to deserve another shot at starting next week. R. Hunter also saw significant snaps. That said, defensive back play, in general, was not up to par. There were coverage busts along with poor angles when coming up to tackle. ST - Overall, special teams continued to play well. Coaching - We weren’t aggressive offensively and there were too many players that looked lost on defense. This almost looked like an OOC game where the staff just wanted to see what we have. There was a point in the 2nd quarter where Cheatom, Richards, Benenge, White, R. Hunter, and D. Jonson were all in together. Of course, Carolina ended up scoring. I honestly don’t have an issue with that if the goal was to get as many players as much significant experience as possible. Except, I don’t know if that was actually the goal. Thankfully, all the pay day games are over. Just so happens the P4s we played are probably the best teams each school has had under their current coaches. Now we head to conference play and finally get to see how this team fares against a similar talent level. For those that missed it, UK beat Ohio 41-6. QB: Finley Bullock RB: Simmons Kellom WR: Norton Campbell WR: Polk P. Davis WR: Golden Walker Rush TE: Newell Cravaack LT: Blanchard Shor LG: Seymore Morris George C T. Williams Morris RG: Davis Burrell RT: James Thomas DE: Nunnally Cheatom Richards DT: Kapongo Murphy DT: Lavea Moore Proffitt DE: Adler Ball LB: McCoy Spriggs LB: Fish Benenge Summers NB: D. Lewis Greenwood CB: Hunter White DeWalt CB: Golden-Nelson Reed Jarmon S: P. Lewis R. Hunter S: Anderson D. Johnson Roach Top Offensive Players (25 or more snaps) WR - Norton RT - James TE - Newell OG - Morris RB - Kellom Top Defensive Players (25 or more snaps) DT - Kapongo DE - Adler CB - Golden-Nelson DE - Nunnally DE - Richards Special Teams TBA

True to form, NIU followed up its biggest win in school history with a loss to an inferior opponent. Gotta give credit to Lembo though, he’s getting the most out of what he has.

USA certainly looks good tonight. Ohio may have been fortunate to catch USA sans the starting QB.

Some Gamecock info and players to watch: OFFENSE: Carolina has struggled to consistently pass the ball in 2024. Redshirt freshman LaNorris Sellers has a canon for an arm, but is still working on accuracy. However, he is a dynamic runner and was clocked at 20 mph this past weekend. Sellers has been dealing with an ankle injury, so his availability may be limited. Rocket Sanders is currently 4th in the SEC in rushing yards and was clocked at 21 mph against LSU. Carolina wants to run the ball. WR Nyck Harbor has created some buzz thanks to the NCAA video game, although do not expect video game like numbers from him as he still has plenty of developing to do. The TEs are heavily utilized and are a threat in the passing game. The OL is solid on the interior and still developing at the tackle spots. DEFENSE: The Gamecocks have one of the best (if not the best) pass rushing defensive fronts in the SEC. DE Kyle Kennard is tied #1 nationally in sacks. On the opposite end is one of the most impressive freshmen edge rushers I’ve seen in former 5 star Dylan Stewart. Carolina is deep at DT as well. The linebackers are fast and explosive. That said, they had some unusual tackling issues against LSU. The secondary has a ton of length and are excellent in run support. The safeties tend to struggle against receiving corps that have a lot of speed. This is a very physical defense. SPECIAL TEAMS: Beamer ball. The Gamecocks have not missed a beat without Pete Lembo. They’ve blocked more punts in Beamer’s tenure than any other program during that span.

I think @LZIp meant average this season? Most Ohio fans would say 6-7 wins would be a good season in 2024. I don’t know if anyone knows what Ohio or EMU are just yet. Ohio did beat USA and FCS Morgan State. But how good are either of those wins? USA lost to North Texas and Ohio. They then beat a terrible Northwestern State team. Morgan State looks a lot like the Morgan State from last year with two close games against other FCS opponents. So the Syracuse game in Week 1, when everyone is figuring out what that they have, is probably their best showing so far. EMU beat an 0-3 UMASS and an 0-3 Jax State in OT. Depending on the point of view it could be said they performed well against Washington in that loss. What does that tell us? I don’t know. I think at this point it’s anyone’s guess what most MAC teams are outside of the top tier. At least the MAC is winning their fair share of OOC games.

WEEK 3 Starters for new team: WR - Oran Singleton (Eastern Michigan) = 48 snaps. 8 receptions for 89 yards. RG - Tony Georges (Kent State) = 48 snaps. RT - Jordan Daniels (Western Carolina) = 76 snaps. RT - Nate Williams (San Diego State) = 69 snaps. DE - Curtis Fann (Western Carolina) = 49 snaps. 2 Tackles. LB - Luke Bauer (Morehead State) = TBA. CB - Tyson Durant (Washington State) = 52 snaps. 2 Tackles. S - Corey Thomas (Virginia) = 78 snaps. 2 Tackles and 1 Pass Defended. S - Jaden Woods (East Tennessee State) = 83 snaps. 9 Tackles. 1 Pass Defended. Backups for new team: WR - Jasaiah Gathings (UCONN) = 33 snaps. 1 reception for 15 yards. WR - Anthony Williams (Alcorn State) = TBA TE - Caleb Anderson (Alcorn State) = TBA RT - Xavior Gray (Liberty) = 40 snaps. RT - Ronan Chambers (Auburn) = 9 snaps. DE - Ryan Johnson (Southern Miss) = 37 snaps. 4 Tackles and a Sack. LB - Jaharon Griffin (Alcorn State) = TBA S - KJ Martin (NC State) = 2 snaps. 1 Tackle. DNP: QB - Ryan Jankowski (UMASS) QB - Dijon Jennings (Weber State) QB - Steele Wasel (Oklahoma) RB - CJ Price (Jackson State) OL - Ka’Marii Landers (Baylor) OL - Alex Robarge (Southern Illinois) LB - Andrew Behm (Southern Illinois) DB - Rishad Hence (Eastern Kentucky)