Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Charleston Southern Game Notes
TODAY’S GAME: The defending South Atlantic Conference champion Presbyterian Blue Hose enter their home portion of the season after they commenced the 2006 campaign against the Wolves of West Georgia with a shutout victory, winning its season opener for the second consecutive season against West Georgia, 10-0 ... The Blue Hose downed the Wolves 48-13 on the opening day of the season last year at Bailey Memorial Stadium, starting an upward spiral towards the 2005 South Atlantic Conference Championship and its first ever birth in the NCAA Division II Playoffs ... The home opener against future league foe Charleston Southern will be the first contest of the year for the defending Big South champion Buccaneers ... PC shutout Charleston Southern last season, 42-0, extending its series lead to an even more dominant 11-1.
THE COACHES: Presbyterian — Head coach Tommy Spangler is in his 6th season in charge of the Presbyterian College Blue Hose football program. Spangler, the 13th head football coach in Blue Hose history, led PC to a 10-2 record and an unscathed 7-0 mark in the South Atlantic Conference last year, taking the SAC crown in the process. Spangler spent four years as PC’s assistant head coach and defensive coordinator before taking over as head coach. A 1983 graduate of the University of Georgia, he came to PC after spending five years as the defensive coordinator at Georgia Southern University. Spangler holds a 36-20 overall record. Charleston Southern — Head coach Jay Mills enters his fourth season with the Buccaneers in their game with Presbyterian. Charleston Southern has improved drastically in Mills’ three-year tenure, going from a 1-11 season in Mills’ first year to a 7-4 mark in 2005, which included a share of the Big South conference title and its first winning season as a program. Overall, the 2005 Big South Coach-of-the-Year is 13-20 as the head man at CSU.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON LIVE: Saturday’s tussle between Charleston Southern and Presbyterian will be the first of two live television performances for the Blue Hose on SC ETV. The CSU game will be broadcast live beginning at 1:30 p.m. with a five-minute pregame show. Kickoff is slated for 1:35 p.m. The game will be broadcast again at 12 a.m. on Saturday night/Sunday morning on SC ETV.
PLAYERS TO WATCH: On a team that welcomes back 17 returning starters, one player draws the most acclaim for the Buccaneers in 2005 Big South Offensive Player-of-the-Year and 2006 Big South Preseason Offensive Player-of-the-Year Colin Drafts, who holds every CSU record for single-season and career passing records. The senior enters the 2006 season with 7,103 passing yards and 52 touchdowns. Last year the three-year starter led the conference in passing yards with a Big South record 2,594 yards through the air and led the league in passing efficiency (135.6), yards-per-game (235.8), attempts (356), touchdown passes (20) and touchdowns rushing by a quarterback (9). The prolificness of Drafts offensively is coupled with a stout defense that features the 2006 Big South Preseason Defense Player-of-the-Year in junior linebacker Jada Ross, who is a preseason All-America selection just like Drafts. Ross garnered all-conference accolades in 2005 after a sophomore season that saw him commandeer Big South Defensive Player-of-the-Year plaudits after acquiring a league-high 128 cummulative tackles. In the Bucs’ season-finale victory over Coastal Carolina, Ross almost single-handedly willed CSU to its first championship, recording 17 tackles. The Blue Hose will be led offensively by a junior All-American wide receiver in Justin Durant and a running back that can grind out tough yards in Corey Fidler. Durant, who corralled 59 passes last year, is a preseason All-SAC selection, finishing the team’s first game of 2006 with a team-high four receptions. Fidler, a fullback/tailback, led PC on the ground last year with 664 yards and six touchdowns. Fidler, who chalked up 32 yards in the victory over West Georgia, acquired the Blue Hose’s first and only touchdown of the season last week. With one official start now under his belt, quarterback Mitch Doolittle has shown he has the gusto to be the man behind center for the Blue Hose. Doolittle led the charge offensively for PC in its win over the Wolves, finishing the contest with a team-best 52 yards on the ground that coupled with his 67 yards through the air left him with a team-high 119 all-purpose yards. Defensively, the Blue Hose will be led by consensus preseason All-America selection Chad Burgess, who led the squad with three interceptions to couple with his 79 total stops. Preseason All-American Antwan Thomas returns this year to man the middle (MIKE) linebacker spot, coming off a 2005 campaign that saw him earn All-SAC honors after ending the season with a league second-best and team-high 100 total tackles. Thomas finished the West Georgia game with two sacks and six tackles.
ABOUT CHARLESTON SOUTHERN: The Buccaneers of Charleston Southern are coming off a 7-4 mark overall and a 3-1 record in league play, which was good enough for a tie for first place in the Big South Conference. The 2005 season was the most prolific in the history of the program and was only the first time that a Bucs’ football team had finished a season with a winning record. Fourth-year head coach Jay Mills leads the Bucs this season, who return 15 starters (7 offense; 8 defense). Charleston Southern was chosen to finish second in the Big South this year to Coastal Carolina by most pundits and had five players tabbed preaseason All-Big South, including preseason Player-of-the-Year’s Drafts and Ross at offense and defense, respectively. Drafts’ favorite target, Maurice Price, was chosen to the offensive squad. Price, who finished the 2005 year with a team-high 72 catches, is joined on the All-Big South offense by offensive lineman Rick Howell. Defensive back C.J. Hirschman joins Ross on the preseason all-conference defensive team.
LAST WEEK: Presbyterian College (1-0) used a superb effort from its defense in its first outing of 2006, shutting down the West Georgia (0-1) offense and allowing no points in a 10-0 win over the Wolves before 3,729 at Grisham Stadium. The Blue Hose acquired all 10 of their points in the second half after both teams entered halftime squared at 0-0 ... The victory was the second straight for the Blue Hose over West Georgia after falling in four consecutive contests with the Wolves prior to their 48-13 victory last year ... The Blue Hose are now 5-3 all-time against West Georgia ... The win was also the second straight opening game victory for the Blue Hose ... Prior to these two wins against West Georgia in its opener, Presbyterian had not won its opener since 1999 ... The shutout victory was the first for the Blue Hose since its 20-0 win over Lenoir-Rhyne on Oct. 15, 2005 ... The Blue Hose recorded two shutout victories in 2005, giving PC three shutouts defensively in its last 13 contests ... In his inaugural start as the Blue Hose's signal caller, Presbyterian quarterback Mitch Doolittle finished the game with a team-high 119 all-purpose yards. Doolittle completed 11 of his 21 passes to finish the game with 67 yards through the air and rushed for a team-high 52 yards ... Preseason All-South Atlantic Conference selection Cheyenne Keener led the way defensively for PC with 9 cumulative tackles. Preseason All-American selection Antwan Thomas further aided the cause and concluded the contest with two sacks after recording both in the first quarter, while Adam McKinney tallied a sack and an interception ... Corey Fidler, who rushed for 32 yards in the win, scored the Blue Hose's first touchdown of 2006 ... Bret DiTullio was 1-for-2 on Field Goal Attempts, nailing the game's first points on a 39-yarder in the third stanza. He was blocked on his second attempt in the fourth quarter.