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Printer-Friendly ModeNorthwood option offense to present problems to Cards
August 25, 2005 —
Defending a style of football that is extremely tough to prepare for is never an easy thing to do. But that is exactly what the SVSU Cardinals will be trying to do in their first game of the season this Saturday in the Axe Bowl at Northwood, ranked ninth in the nation.
"After you go through two or three weeks of preseason camp, you always want to win your first game," says head coach Randy Awrey. "Unfortunately, we have to open up against one of the best teams in the country."
Awrey must know how teams felt preparing for his recent Cardinals squads, especially the 2003 GLIAC champions. He could not stop emphasizing how good the Timberwolves are this year.
"Northwood is, I think, by far the best team in our conference," he continues. "I think they could be one of the top couple of teams in the country right now. I have no idea why they weren't picked number one in the conference, because they should have been."
The 'Wolves return almost their entire offense, backups included, to an offense that was third in the nation in rushing offense, fifth in scoring offense and 20th in total offense. Featuring a ball-control option attack, Northwood had three runners run for over 750 yards. Leading the team was quarterback Kyle Kolbe, who will return for his junior year.
"They are loaded on offense," Awrey says. "They know how to handle the football, they know how to hang onto it, and they know how to control the clock. Those are all things that work against you. When you don't get the ball back in your hands, you can't score, and if you can't get it out of their hands, they're going to hold onto it for a long time."
In a 24-21 victory at SVSU last year, Northwood racked up 275 yards on the ground and held the ball for over 33 minutes, compared to SVSU's nearly 27.
"The few opportunities that we are going to get Saturday, we'll have to make the best of them," Awrey adds. "We have to hang onto the football. Looking back at the rivalry, the team that has made the least mistakes is the team that wins the game. You have go out there and play error-free football if you want to win."
Error-free football will include disciplined football, especially on the defensive side, Awrey says. Practicing for the option attack is always hard no matter whom the opponent is, and it gets even harder when a team runs it as effectively as Northwood.
"Our team has to understand against that option that they have to play disciplined defense," Awrey explains. "Every play, you have to stop the dive, the quarterback, and the pitch. You mess up on one thing, one time, and it's six points. Every play they run, we have to be perfect on defense."
The most difficult aspect of preparing for the option, Awrey says, is to find someone on the practice squad to actually run it.
"That has really been our biggest difficulty," he says. "Each year we have to go find a player that may have played some option football. Two years ago we used a defensive back to run the scout team offense, because we try to find someone with speed."
Even finding someone fast enough does not translate to being completely prepared. In the same way the University of Michigan was unable to hold Texas' Vince Young in check during the Rose Bowl and NFL teams have a hard time preparing for Atlanta's Michael Vick, there is just no such thing as the real thing.
"It's hard to duplicate the abilities of Northwood, because they are so fast," Awrey says. "It's hard to duplicate the speed at which Kolbe can do the reads. He's very fast at what he does, and he's very good at what he does. It has always been difficult to get ready for a team like Northwood. But that's one of their advantages. Because what they do is different, teams have a hard time preparing for them.
Northwood will return six starters to a defense that ranked third in the conference in total defense and allowed 19.5 points per game last season. Among those not returning, however, are two All-Americans and two others who were All-GLIAC performers.
While the Timberwolves' defense may not be the strongest of its two sides of the ball, SVSU's offense, with new quarterback sophomore Chris Dougherty, will most likely struggle some as well. With an improved Cardinals defense most likely able to keep the game close, Awrey believes special teams will play a factor.
The Cardinals return senior punter Dustin Esslin and sophomore kicker Bobby Belmonte this season to make their special teams unit a strong point. Esslin was First Team All-GLIAC in 2003 and named Honorable Mention last year.
The punting and place kicking will be relied on to make Northwood's drive longer than they would like.
"Field position is going to be huge," Awrey says. "Controlling where the ball is on the field, the longer they have to go. The longer drives they have to have, the better opportunity we have of getting the ball back to our offense. We don't want to give them a short field."
Regardless of the matchups, Awrey believes the game will still be hard-fought.
"It's always been a slugfest," he says. "It's always been two real good teams going at each other, and that's the excitement of the rivalry."