Higgins: Page isn’t hornets’ only weapon
Friday, August 28, 2009
Emporia State coach Garin Higgins might not have meant to ride his running backs as much as he did on Thursday night. If you had told him his offense would rack up 399 rushing yards...
“No,” he quickly interjected. “I can’t believe that.”
So it was tough for Higgins to go away from the running game against Southwestern Oklahoma State, even though the Bulldog defense excelled at stopping the run last year, holding opponents to 100 yards per game.
“Our game plan was to be patient and establish the running game against these guys,” Higgins said. “I think teams have a tendency that if they can’t run the ball early to get impatient and start throwing the ball. That’s not us. I knew going in we needed to be patient.”
That being said, it was an unspectacular night for the ESU passing game.
Andre Sloan El completed just 6-of-11 passes for 57 yards and a touchdown, and backup Zach Rampy was 5-for-8 for 57 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Looking at those numbers, Augustana might be tempted next week to put eight men in the box and take its chances against Emporia State’s passing game. Higgins would welcome the challenge.
“When you have athletes on the offensive side of the football, it makes it easy,” he said. “I think we’ve got more than one weapon. La’Darrian Page, don’t get me wrong, he’s a great football player, but I’m a big believer in having guys around him.
“The guys up front, our receivers, and I’m telling you now, you’re going to see some other guys step up throughout the course of the season. La’Darrian stepped up tonight; I guarantee you we’re going to have more guys step up every week.”
While Sloan El didn’t wow with his numbers, he didn’t make any mistakes with turnovers — a big emphasis for Higgins — and he also did a good job of getting the ball to the ESU backs.
Higgins pulled Sloan El midway through the third quarter, but it wasn’t because of his play.
“I just felt like the score and Zach’s earned the right to play,” Higgins said. “He’s done everything that we’ve asked him to do. I just felt like he earned the right to play, so that’s why we gave him the opportunity, and he did a great job when he was in there.”
The hidden pistol
Some of Emporia State’s players let it slip that they would be running the pistol formation this season — with the quarterback in the shotgun and the running back lined up directly behind him.
But when Higgins was asked about the pistol during training camp, he said he would use it sparingly. Well, the cat is out of the bag.
“We used it a little bit,” Higgins joked.
The Hornets lined up in the pistol on nearly every play, and it worked wonders for the running game, which racked up 399 yards.
“I kind of like the pistol, because it kind of disguises which way we’re going and the defense can’t adjust which side we’re going to,” running back Adrian Abner said.
The Hornets also worked out of their usual no-huddle, quick-paced offense, which was also effective.
“When we have trouble is when we try to slow down,” Higgins said. “There was six minutes left in the game and we tried to milk the clock a little bit and work on that. We call it the turtle offense, and we just didn’t do a very good job. We got out of rhythm. We’re going to have to work on that.”
Final thoughts
This was a great first win for the Hornets. They are still a relatively young football team and they need to build confidence early in the season. They are obviously better. Page is the best player Higgins has had at Emporia State, and the offensive line is also improved. The receivers didn’t show much, but there’s reason to believe they are more talented as well.
The defense also looked improved. The defensive line won the line of scrimmage and allowed the linebackers to go make plays, which they did — the top four tacklers were all linebackers. The one position group that looked shaky at times was the cornerbacks, but they improved as the game went along.
That’s the good news, and it’s hard to find any bad news when breaking down this first win. But it should be mentioned that the Hornets looked good in last year’s 42-0 season-opening win against Western State, and they started the season 3-1 and finished 4-7.
SWOSU was a much better team than Western State, but Western State has won three games in the last two seasons. A better test should come next week at Augustana. Augustana should be looking for payback, because Emporia State won last year’s meeting, and Augustana is a quality team. The Vikings went 8-4 last year and beat Missouri Western 37-16 in the Mineral Water Bowl. If the Hornets go to 2-0, then they might be a team expected to make a move in the MIAA this season.