Transcript
Speaker: Alright ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the 700 Pelham Road Podcast. Your one-stop shop for all things Jacksonville State sports. ah This is the official podcast for JSU of Sideline Sports and the College Huddle.
Speaker: It's good to be back. Thanks for tuning in. It's been a long time since we have recorded an episode, but we are hopefully back for good. oh It's been a little over a year since I have been sitting here in front of the camera talking to you lovely people.
Speaker: um And the plan is that we're going be doing it every week going forward. um
Speaker: There's really only one way to get into this episode and that's just to jump right into what we're going to talk about, which is the UCF game and the Liberty game. So first off, recapping the UCF game. I thought the guys played really well.
Speaker: thought they played hard. um
Speaker: UCF's a tough place to play. The bounce house is a loud stadium with loud fans. And UCF's, I think, a decent football team. um I think they're well-coached. Scott Frost is obviously a very good coach, very good offensive mind.
Speaker: He's very explosive in the way that he wants to coach. And we saw that from the first play. They took a deep shot and nearly broke the game wide open on the first play from scrimmage.
Speaker: um I thought, Coaching staff did a good job adjusting throughout the game, um getting the guys in good position to win. Obviously, would have been nice to actually get the win, but i like where things stand as we move into week two.
Speaker: Offensively, Gavin Wim sat at quarterback. um Wasn't his best performance, but he wasn't bad by any means, and he wasn't why we didn't win that game.
Speaker: oh Little inconsistent accuracy-wise, when it came to throwing the football. Had the one not great pick at the of the game. oh Made some interesting decisions in the and the zone read game.
Speaker: ah But you know what, as far as I know, far as I can tell, it's growing pains. And that's that's what I'm going to treat it as until I i can be proved otherwise. oh You know, first game in a new system.
Speaker: um on the road with a new team, it's not easy. um i wouldn't I wouldn't expect for Gavin to come out and just light it up. oh But again, it wasn't his best performance, and he knows that.
Speaker: I'm sure he'll be in the lab working hard oh this week as we get ready for the Liberty game on Saturday. The running backs were phenomenal. Cam Cook and Andrew Paul are both the real deal.
Speaker: We had a good idea about both of them, but I didn't think I was gonna see that kind of play from either of them. Cam Cook, obviously, not just a great running back. He really showcased his pass-catching ability.
Speaker: Andrew Paul, obviously, kind of the more physical back. oh
Speaker: Cam Cook, kind of the one-cut, get-up-field type player.
Speaker: But I thought they both really, really played well. um it's It's clear the focal point of this Tricket offense is going to be the run. Having two running backs like that plus a dual-threat quarterback in Gavin Wimsatt, I think that's really going to help um and really let Coach Tricket do what he wants to do offensively.
Speaker: The wide receivers, didn't really get to see much from them. um Saw a little bit of DeAndre Johnson with his vertical ability. um Saw some Brock Recksteiner.
Speaker: um saw um you know Obviously, without Michael Pettway, who is your starting slot receiver, it's really tough to kind of know exactly what the offense is going to look like.
Speaker: um Obviously, he is back this week against Liberty, which will be really big. oh
Speaker: That way being he's very elusive player out of the slot, oh I really think that having him back this week is going to be a big deal.
Speaker: um
Speaker: The tight ends, again, didn't really get to see much from them either. um I thought they did pretty well in the run blocking ah game, but didn't really get to see much of them out in the pattern, which I'm sure is not by design. I'm sure Coach Triget's going to want to get the tight ends involved, similar to how Coach Rich Rodriguez did with Sean Brown the last two seasons.
Speaker: oh
Speaker: But, you know, week one, you know, going into week two against a team that didn't look that great defensively in Liberty, I think well we'll get to see a little bit more ah of these weapons and really what they're capable of.
Speaker: Offensive line, run game looked good. They blocked the run game really nicely. There wasn't a whole lot of, you know, variance in what Coach Trickett called. It was a lot of inside zone, some outside zone.
Speaker: Saw some counter toss reads, very similar to what you know we did with Tyler Hough last year. um So the run game honestly didn't look all that different.
Speaker: oh you know It was a lot of the same stuff that we did last year. oh I'd like to see it you know read out a little bit better by Gavin, but I thought the blocking was really good. I thought the holes were there.
Speaker: um know Gavin and the running backs maybe need do a little bit better job of just you know reading you know reading their gaps and and knowing where the ball needs to go. other than that, you know I thought the run game and especially the offensive line play part of it was really good. Pass protection was decent. Gavin did take some hits. oh And you know part of that is you know just learning new protections.
Speaker: um You know, from Coach Rodriguez to Coach Trickett, the protections are are different. Obviously, you still have Coach Rick Trickett, who is ah Clint Trickett's dad. He's still coaching the offensive line, but he's coaching, um you know, he's he's coaching a different protection now instead of, you know, knowing Coach Rodriguez's, you know, verbiage and – um You know in the techniques they want to use who he has worked for for so long now he's working with his son Who is not a rich rod guy?
Speaker: This is a guy who has worked under Lane Kiffin at Fort Atlantic ah This is a guy who worked under ah Ryan Applin at Georgia Southern who runs a system very similar to that of hu Freeze at Auburn.
Speaker: So, you know, the protections are very different. um But as a whole, I mean, they didn't do awful. And again, you know, just like Gavin, the offensive line is not the reason we didn't win this football game. um Going into week two, i know I really like where we stand. I think we've got a chance to really be improved this week.
Speaker: oh Defensively, I thought the front seven did a good job. They stopped the run pretty well. oh Got a couple sacks. um you know Really did a good job of getting after Cam Fancher. Of course, he got obviously knocked out of the game there in the first half, um which I'll get to in a second.
Speaker: But the front seven as a whole, I thought they played pretty well. I thought there was good tackling. I thought they fit the run really well.
Speaker: um against a UCF squad that I think is going to be really effective you know throughout the season. I think they're be run the football, so to see our guys do a good job of stopping the run was encouraging.
Speaker: um On the back end and the secondary, um again, I thought you know they had some coverage busts on the back end, kind of more of the same that we saw last year.
Speaker: you know if If teams were going to take take their chances deep, they were going to have chances to hit big plays. And, I mean, from the first snap, we saw it. Scott Frost dialed up a shot play, and Cam Vancher just overthrew it.
Speaker: Otherwise, that's a touchdown on the first play of the game. oh Now, with that being said, um did have some some interesting targeting calls um on a couple guys, and, oh you know, that really affected the game. Yeah.
Speaker: And one of them is going to affect this week as well because Trevor Woods is going to have to sit the first half with you know um due to being ejected in the second half of the UCF game.
Speaker: And we had a touchdown wiped off the board because of it.
Speaker: um because Traquan Fagans was ejected after review for targeting on what looked on TV to be pretty clean, big hit on Camp Ancher, what should have been a scoop and score, and they come back after review, ruled it targeting.
Speaker: So we wiped the touchdown off the board, lost one of our starting corners, and UCF got 15 free yards. It was a really tough play.
Speaker: um But, you know, at the end of the day, I still think the secondary played pretty well. You know, again, those couple covers bust aside, they they contain the passing game.
Speaker: That's really all you can ask in week one on the road. So now getting into previewing Liberty themselves. Now, you know, as we move on to week two.
Speaker: um Offensively, this is the same Jamie Chadwell offense that we have seen since he was at Coastal Carolina. um You know, that spread out version of the triple option offense.
Speaker: um You know, last two years it's been Caden Salter at quarterback. This year it's not. Now it's Ethan Vasco, um who many of us remember was the starting quarterback at Coastal Carolina last season when they ah came over here and, well, it's just they blew us out.
Speaker: Yeah. And, you know, his addition to that team seems to be a better fit in the locker room than Caden Salter was. He's a little bit better, I think, of a passer than Salter is.
Speaker: um I think he's a good fit within Chadwell's offense. And so far, you know, week one, you know, he looked decent. He led Liberty in carries and yards.
Speaker: Didn't have the greatest day throwing the football, but he was good enough. Um, Liberty's got some good weapons on the outside. Um, and you know, one of the, one second, I'll pull up the death chart for Liberty real quick.
Speaker: oh
Speaker: um You know Liberty last week played Maine, and and offensively they were okay. First three quarters were really bad, though.
Speaker: i And I think a lot of it, you know, breaking a new quarterback in Ethan Vasco, he's got to get his rhythm. He didn't have his rhythm last week. um And, you know, that yeah, that is a problem for Liberty, but the last quarter of play, they played really well.
Speaker: Um, and I think that's, uh, you know, that's something that we're gonna have to keep an eye on as we move into, um, as we move into week two.
Speaker: Now, looking at, um, as we look at the depth chart, um, obviously, you know, Elijah Canyon, uh, former Auburn wide receiver, really good player,
Speaker: um Dante Lee, again, also a really good player. Jamari Person, very good player. They've got weapons on the outside. um
Speaker: But we did see some inconsistency moving the football last week, and I think that plays into the hands of our defense. Defensively, um
Speaker: there have been some disagreements amongst JSU fans and Liberty fans on whether this defense is actually good or not.
Speaker: um From what I saw, they're not a very good run-stop defense. um The running backs for Maine had 194 yards on their own, which is not very good.
Speaker: That was on almost nine yards a carry as well. um and you know one of the disagreements was we'll take away the 77-yard run, and what do you get? Well, those running backs still had 21 carries for over 5.5 yards per carry.
Speaker: um So you know this is not a team that stopped the run very well. This was an issue they had last year. um Trey Stewart and Tyler Huff combined for over 350 rushing yards against this team last year.
Speaker: um So, you know, this Liberty team, albeit a different roster than last year, is still not, to me, a very good run defense. Now, in the secondary, they look pretty good. They really limited Maine in what they could do and through the air.
Speaker: ah home Really did a good job of getting after the quarterback in the pass game and pressuring him and then sealing off, you know, space on the back end.
Speaker: um I think all things being considered, i think their defensive strengths and weaknesses play into our hand. We're not going to try to sling the ball around 50 times a game. We're going to try and run it down teams' throats.
Speaker: um I think Liberty, you know, being a better pass defense and not as great a run defense, I think i we're going have a chance to really have a good game on the ground this this Saturday.
Speaker: With that being said, um you know i think it's going great game. I think we've got a chance to be really, really good. um I think we've got a chance to have a great game on Saturday. If everyone executes, I fully expect for us to win the football game.
Speaker: Moving on, um many of you saw on the sidelines page today that I ah posted a new blog. The blog is active. It is called the Roost Report.
Speaker: um It is the official blog of Sidelines Jack State. um i post there handful of times a week starting now. I've started rewriting my blogs.
Speaker: um Shameless plug, we do have paid subscriptions as well as free subscriptions. um with the pay subscription, you you're able to support us oh as we you know try to cover JSU as best we can.
Speaker: um So we offer monthly annual memberships and we also offer what's called founders the ah Founders Club. i think it's called the Gamecock Club, it's called like the gameco club um which is an extra premium subscription ah that, again, just allows you to support us as as ah as a podcast and as as a Twitter account that covers the program.
Speaker: ah So go go check out the blog. Go read some articles. They're going to be coming out very regularly you know throughout the football season and basketball season. um Hopefully you enjoy it.
Speaker: With that being said, look out for the recap episode to come out on Monday, hopefully. um Hopefully we're recapping a win for the Gamecocks and getting ready to preview the another non-conference game that we will hopefully win.
Speaker: So short episode this week. Hopefully once we get Jalen on, maybe some other guests, episodes will extend out a little bit longer. We'll have a little bit more to talk about. But with that, I'm signing off, and we'll see you guys Saturday at Amherst Stadium. Go Cocks!
