|
| William Deemer is one of
five receivers with between 96 and 148 yards through the air for
Wilkes in the early going. Wilkes athletics photo |
On one of the walls in Trey Brown's office there hangs a rather unique item -- a 200-mph speed limit sign.
Of course, if you're familiar with Brown, now in his first season as the head coach at Wilkes, the road marker more suitable for NASCAR seems less out of place.
Brown likes his football team to move fast. Very fast.
Two weekends ago, in a 54-35 loss to MAC rival Delaware Valley, the Wilkes offense ran 113 plays. That set a new Division III regulation record, and was one short of the overall record of 114, set Sept. 13 in Rose-Hulman's 74-68 triple-overtime win against Illinois College.
"You need a couple things to happen, and they're both bad things," Brown said. "You need to be behind, and you need to have your defense either getting them off the field fast, which would be nice, or quick drives that they're giving up, which hurts you."
"It was wild," Brown added. "I'll be the first to admit it was crazy."
Two of the main weekly goals for the Wilkes offense are to run at least 80 plays and snap the ball between 10-12 seconds after the last play. To accomplish that, the no-huddle offense has been built around minimal substitutions and more simplistic play-call relay from the sideline.
"When you're a tempo guy, it's not even so much the tempo when you're building the whole offense," Brown said. "It's the procedure to get the play in as fast as possible and as clean as possible."
Rather than have one coach on the sideline signal a formation, another signal the specific play, and yet a third carry out a "dummy" call to throw off opposing teams, Brown has simplified things. Each play in the Colonels' playbook has its own word attached to it.
One word, one play.
"I don't think you need to signal 'far double wing right 360 Y stick X shallow,'" Brown said. "I think there's systems where you need to do that, but I think you could call that 'bananas' and the kids would learn it as 'bananas.'"
Brown, 44, began dabbling in the up-tempo style at Muhlenberg, where he spent the last four years as the Mules' quarterbacks coach and special teams coordinator. And it was quite successful -- Muhlenberg went a combined 30-13 from 2010-13.
When he accepted the job at Wilkes, he knew he would carry over the quick pace. But the key was implementing the one-word play-call process.
Brown said his fascination with the up-tempo approach began while watching Mike Leach's run at Texas Tech. He also cited West Virginia's Dana Holgorsen, Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly, Baylor's Art Briles and Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin as other coaches he's studied and picked up ideas from.
"There's guys doing it at the D-III level probably as well as those guys are doing it," Brown added. "The benefit of Chip Kelly, Art Briles and Kevin Sumlin is they're on TV every week."
Brown said he often kicks around no-huddle ideas and concepts with Lehigh wide receivers coach Scott Brisson, Villanova wide receivers coach Brian Flinn and Muhlenberg offensive coordinator Tom Perkovich. Brown coached with Brisson at Lehigh, and more recently with Perkovich at Muhlenberg.
The up-tempo approach isn't solely an offensive mantra. Brown has pushed to instill the same mentality in Wilkes' defense and special teams. And while the results on the field so far have been mixed, there are positive signs.
The Colonels have run 61, 57, 113 and 72 offensive plays in their first four games, three of which have been losses. The defense has had its moments, in particular when it nearly shut out Misericordia in the team's lone victory and, just this past weekend, when they forced three turnovers to keep Wilkes close against Lycoming. Brown said they're even working on new wrinkles in the kicking and punting phases of the game.
"That's how I want to practice," Brown said. "That's how I want to not only play offense, I want to play defense that way, I want the kick game to go that way. It's something we really believe in and preach."
Brown likened building up a football program to building a house. Without a solid foundation, no house would stand a chance.
Wilkes has its foundation in place, and with talented but raw players like sophomore quarterback Ryan Dailey and sophomore wide receiver Storm Deemer already playing crucial roles, the team is learning on the fly.
Just the speed Brown prefers.
Stevenson, Utica off to surprising starts
Consider these numbers, for a moment -- as we enter October, Utica and Stevenson are a combined 8-0. Meanwhile, annual contenders Rowan, Cortland State and Lebanon Valley are a combined 1-9.
This is why they play the games.
How unlikely are the two 4-0 starts by Stevenson and Utica? Well, in Utica's case, the Pioneers have already surpassed their three-win total from last season. Stevenson has matched their win total from a year ago, and in just the program's fourth year, appears headed toward a winning season.
Utica opened the season with wins against Misericordia, Union and Frostburg State, but its latest win, a 42-28 victory against Empire 8 newcomer Brockport State, is certainly its most impressive. The Connor Butkiewicz-to-Anthony Acevedo combination was in full effect. Butkiewicz completed 15 of his 28 passes for 247 yards and a touchdown. Acevedo caught 12 of those passes for 199 yards. On the ground, Jordan Baldassare and J'Von Evans combined for 235 yards and four touchdowns.
Likewise, Stevenson is coming off back-to-back wins over Lebanon Valley and Albright, two teams that usually find themselves in the top half of the MAC. The Mustangs' defense dominated in its 13-6 win against Albright, forcing three interceptions and four sacks while holding the Lions out of the end zone.
RPI defeats rival WPI
Three wins after the first four games of the season is nice. Exacting a little revenge on a rival in the process is just an extra bonus.
RPI defeated WPI, 27-6, almost one year to the day of a 27-14 loss with the Transit Trophy on the line.
This time around, RPI's defense hounded WPI's offense, forcing five turnovers, including four interceptions (two by Philip Lanieri III). RPI also dominated in the trenches, rushing for 235 yards (led by Mike Tivinis' 61 yards and two TDs) while holding WPI to just 26 yards on the ground.
Standout kicker Andrew Franks hit all three of his extra point attempts and both his field goal attempts, including a 51-yarder that broke his own school record.
So far this season, RPI has wins over Norwich, Castleton State and WPI, along with a three-point loss to Alfred. If the Engineers win three of their final six games, they will post a winning record for the first time since 2010.
Quick hits
Tyler Fenti passed for 204 yards and three touchdowns, and Chris Smith rushed for three TDs in St. John Fisher's 48-7 rout of Frostburg State. ... Alex Furtado rushed for 98 yards and two touchdowns, and Conner Hartigan rushed for 90 yards and a pair of TDs as Hobart piled up 404 yards on the ground in a 42-7 win over Merchant Marine. ... Tom Dempsey tossed a pair of TDs to Vito Boffoli and the Ithaca defense held Alfred to just six points in a 17-6 win. The Bombers intercepted Tyler Johnson twice and sacked him three times. ... Stacey Sunnerville had three sacks, Seth Klein and Anthony Davis both threw touchdown passes and Widener rolled past FDU-Florham, 30-0. ... Rich Pete scored on a 2-yard TD run late in the fourth quarter, his fourth of the game, to lift Buffalo State to a 32-28 win over Salisbury. Pete finished with 140 yards as the Bengals rallied two separate 11-point deficits. ... Lemar Johnson passed for 244 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for an additional 140 yards in Morrisville State's 38-31 win against Cortland State. Dylan Peebles rushed for 124 yards for the Red Dragons, who dropped to 0-3 on the season. ... Jonathan Marrero ran for 190 yards and two touchdowns, Keith Rodman piled up 164 yards and three TDs, and Springfield finished with 532 yards on 68 rushes in a lopsided 63-27 win over Rochester. ... Aaron Wilmer passed for 383 yards and four scores -- all four to Rasheed Bailey -- and rushed for another 63 yards and two TDs in Delaware Valley's 59-41 shootout win against Lebanon Valley. Brian Murphy passed for 264 yards and a trio of touchdowns in the loss. ... Mike Lefflbine threw for 326 yards and four touchdowns and the St. Lawrence defense piled up eight sacks and two interceptions in a 28-20 victory against Union. ... Tyler Hartranft passed for 163 yards and two touchdowns as King's knocked off Misericordia, 36-29.
Top 25: Hobart, Ithaca move up
Hobart and Ithaca both climbed two spots in this week's D3football.com Top 25 poll.
The Statesmen moved up to No. 9, while the Bombers checked in at No. 15. St. John Fisher, the top-ranked East region team, held steady at No. 7.
MAC contenders Widener and Lycoming were ranked No. 21 and No. 25, respectively.
Rowan and Delaware Valley both received votes in this week's poll.
Looking ahead
Salisbury (1-2, 0-1) at No. 7 St. John Fisher (3-0, 2-0), noon, Saturday: St. John Fisher, at least based upon both teams' performances so far this season, should be a heavy favorite here. But it would be unwise to look past a talented, if underachieving Salisbury squad.
Utica (4-0, 2-0) at No. 15 Ithaca (3-0, 2-0), 1 p.m., Saturday: Utica is off to an impressive start, no doubt. But a road win over the Bombers would put them into legitimate top 25 consideration.
Stevenson (4-0, 3-0) at No. 25 Lycoming (4-0, 3-0), 1 p.m., Saturday: Stevenson, another upstart program off to an unexpected 4-0 start, would also draw top 25 consideration if it defeated Lycoming on the road.
Other games of note: Rowan (1-2, 0-0) at Cortland State (0-3, 0-1), 1 p.m., Saturday; Montclair State (2-1, 0-0) at William Paterson (2-1, 0-0), 1 p.m., Saturday
Contact me
I'm always happy to hear from you, whether its questions, feedback or story ideas. Please reach out to me by email at andrew.lovell@d3sports.com and follow me on Twitter (@andrew_lovell).
