Sizing Up Towson

[Sly Fox]

Since I dumped the 'Operation' concept, we've played our two best game of the year. So I won't go down that road again. But here's a quick rundown on this week's visitors to Williams Stadium:



Towson University
Towson, Maryland
Enrollment: 16,000+ (2nd Largest in Maryland)
Conference: A-10
Nickname: Tigers

Towson Official Football Site

Towson Fan Site on CAAZone Boards

2005 Results:

9/1 Beat Morgan State 29-21
9/10 Beat DII Lock Haven 70-0
9/17 Lost to New Hampshire 62-21
9/24 Lost at Northeastern 56-41
10/1 Beat Delaware 35-31
10/8 Won at Rhode Island 23-14



Leading Passer - Sean Schaefer (FR)
120-of-195 for 1587 Yds with 12 TDs & 10 INTs


Leading Rusher - Nick Williams (SO)
560 Yards Rushing & 6 TDs


Leading Receiver - Andrae Brown (JR - Converted QB)
35 Catches for 586 Yards with 7 TDs

Leading Tackler - Jordan Manning (RS FR)
52 Tackles Including 11 for Loss

Obviously, the Tigers aren't using youth as a crutch.

[lufbfan3]

For some reason, reading this made me feel a little sick. Their FR QB looks amazing from his numbers. I didn't know they were any good.

[Sly Fox]

Their run/pass numbers are very balanced. And that victory over Delaware certainly qualifies as a quality win. Their are legitimately good inspite of their youth movement at the skill positions.

[eddantes]

By the same token, these guys have a weak defense -- giving up 31 ppg (largely on the backs of shoot-out losses to New Hampshire and Northeastern). The rush defense is 74th in the nation in I-AA -- better than Chattanooga (who is 116th -- the worst) in that respect. They do have a potent offense -- 11th in the nation in yards per game, 15th in the nation in scoring.

I think it's going to be as true a test of Liberty's ability as any non-conference game we have scheduled, and I think that LU will pull it out on Saturday. Of course, I also said that I thought the Red Sox and the Yankees would be playing in the ALCS (although I was more than pleasantly surprised when the latter was eliminated).

[Sly Fox]

I like your optimism, Ed. There hasn't been much of that sentiment around here this season.

Over on the Towson board, they are reporting that five players will be serving a one-game suspension this week for violating team rules:

www.caazone.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=33161

[Sly Fox]

Here's a little history lesson for youngsters on the board from Towson's Game Notes for Saturday:

TIGERS vs. FLAMES: This is the 10th meeting between the two schools but
the first since 1992, coach Gordy Combs’ first season as Towson’s head coach. The
Tigers were 4-1 at home that year with their only loss the 16-14 defeat at the
hands of the Flames. Towson won the first three games in the series but
Liberty has dominated since 1987, winning the last six. Towson’s last win over
Liberty, 12-10 in 1986, was the 100th career coaching victory for then head
coach Phil Albert, who is now the Tigers’ offensive coordinator. The 1991 game
marked the debut of freshman quarterback Dan Crowley who attempted a school single
game record 56 passes. Crowley went on to throw for 8,900 yards and 81 TD’s in his
career. He later enjoyed a professional career in the Candian Football League. This is
the Tigers’ final non-league game. Earlier in the 2005 year Towson beat Morgan
State and Lock Haven State for a 2-0 record against non-league opponents. The
Tigers have a seven-game winning streak going against non-league opponents.
Towson’s last loss to a non-leaguer was a 62-28 defeat at Yale in 2003 when
the Tigers were members of the Patriot League. Towson is seeking to extend its
overall win streak to three for the first time in four seasons.

THE LAST TIME AGAINST THE FLAMES: Liberty scored all of its
points in the final five minutes of the first quarter and held on to beat the Tigers
16-14. The Flames shut the Tigers out until late in the third period when Tony
Vinson capped a 69-yard, seven play drive with a five-yard run for a touchdown.
In the fourth quarter Liberty stopped the Tigers on downs inside the five-yard line
before quarterback Dan Crowley narrowed the margin to 16-14 with 2:18 remaining
with a nine-yard TD pass to Mark Orlando. The Tigers entered the game fourth
in NCAA Division I-AA in total offense but rolled up a season low 409 yards.

These guys used to be one of our rivals back in the day when Hburg, PAmedic, Scar & I were roaming the mountain.

[bigsmooth]

dont leave me out sly! im part of that crew too. i remember the first game at williams stadium v. towson. and some good hoops battles back in the day.

[bigsmooth]

i know delaware is down, but that is a huge win for towson. the blue hens are a perennial I-AA power. we will hang in their with our new weapon terrell, but lose 45-28.

[ATrain]

Not predicting any scores...but we'll lose.

[eddantes]

Where's Chris Lang? He seems to be the swami around here, almost nailing the Chatty game.

[Chris Lang]

eddantes said:

Where's Chris Lang? He seems to be the swami around here, almost nailing the Chatty game.

Working furiously on tomorrow's Zach Terrell feature. ;D

[eddantes]

Well, I for one appreciate both the quality and the quantity of Chris Lang's reports.

[PAmedic]

SLY, I think your reputation precedes you. (of course, by admitting I read it, I'm outing myself as well)
Saw this from MAT1992 over on the Townson board:

First of all, be careful what you say on this board about Liberty, because they have spies on their other board at:
libertysports.proboards29.com/

Maybe somebody oughta tell them we're FRIENDLY. All in good fun over here- and I don't think anyone could say that we're c0cky at this point.

[Sly Fox]

Uh, I'm not sure what they have to be careful about unless it is bulletin board material. I've never been called a spy before. I guess that can be cool in a James Bond-esque fashion.

[PAmedic]

Exerpts from the weekly Press conf

What can you tell us about Towson? What kind of challenges do they presented you with this week?

Towson has been an interesting team this year. They have been in some games and they have beaten some teams that have good names. You know, they beat Delaware, they beat Rhode Island. Both of those teams have a nice name. I am not sure where they are this year. I have only seen one game on them. Towson does some real nice things. They’re a good football team. Then they have been in some games where they have gotten beat pretty good. I think that as I have always said, they will be a challenge for us, on both sides of the ball and the kicking game. They have got some nice receivers. But I think that the big thing is, how do we continue to improve? If we play like we did Saturday night, cut away some of the mistakes, and improve, I think we will be in the football game.

Going to the scrimmage approach in practice, how has that helped? Can you talk a little bit about that, about how that has improved the team from what you have seen?

Obviously, as a coach, you are always searching for, you know, “what is the right button to push?” We felt like, that the scrimmage atmosphere, even though you obviously are going to assume some risks, we felt like there wasn’t really one guy on our team that if we lost him, we could do any worse. So we felt that we needed to go out there, and the only way to work on tackling is to do it in a live situation. So defensively we needed that. We needed to become a tougher football team, whether it is because of youth or all of the newness. You have got 35 new guys from all different programs, maybe some programs never scrimmaged, maybe some hit all the time. We needed to gel them into what we want at Liberty. I have always said to our team, I pride myself on being a physical football coach, and that is what I want our team to be known as. So, those things we think have helped. Time will tell.

Is CJ (free safety C.J. Moore) okay? What happened to him Saturday?

CJ had a hip pointer and was not able to come back in the game. We will find out this week. We have got four or five guys that are day to day, if you want to say that, but our trainer doesn’t think that any will miss Saturday. Whether they are all out there today, I don’t know. And I am going to have to monitor how much we go live if we do go today based on those injuries. Being on the turf, I am not real excited to do too much live work today. CJ had a hip pointer.

With Towson’s balance, I mean throw for 300 yards a game, they have got a 100 yard rusher a game, what kind of challenge does that present because you have routinely seen a lot of teams that are one-sided?

Well, it makes it more difficult on your defense. Obviously, we are going to have to stop the pass. You always want to stop the run, but I think that you are right in assuming that their offense goes more on the throwing game than the passing game. It is going to stretch our defense. We are going to have to be able to play well in both phases. The big thing is, giving up yards is not so much the issue as giving up points. If they get 300 yards passing and 120 yards rushing but we hold them to 17 points, then we have done our job.

What is the story on the freshman quarterback? What has worked on him in the past?

What’s interesting is that teams that have blitzed him, they haven’t gotten there. So I am sure we will have some blitzes in there, but they have not been affected as much by the blitz. Teams have actually gotten burned, because they have picked it up and they have two nice receivers that have made some plays for the kid.

[Chris Lang]

My pick: Towson 28, Liberty 24.

[PAmedic]

I have more faith after the guys' last effort but am no longer committing to predictions- bad karma- but I think we will keep it w/in 1 TD this week. (LU w/ the points)

[bigsmooth]

for entertainment purposes only medic?? hoping for a close game! go flames!

[PAmedic]

I have no idea to WHAT you could possibly be referring!
(its been years, but I confess I was once a big fan of Monmouth Park and the horsies!)