Something has got to give.
Delta State (11-1) is one of the nation’s top-scoring teams in Division IIfootball. The Statesman have averaged 40 points and 491 yards of offense.
That’s pretty good.
Catawba College (11-0) leads the nation in Division IIin scoring defense, giving up just eight points per game.
That’s pretty good too.
So expect a pretty good game today when the two collide in the quarterfinals of the national playoffs at Shuford Stadium (1 p.m. kickoff).
Steve Campbell, the Statesmen’s second-year coach, has assembled quite a backfield. It has averaged 360 yards per game with a triple option that has left most opponents grabbing for air.
Campbell, of course, has seen film on Catawba and doesn’t expect that to happen Saturday.
“I’m very, very impressed,” he said from his Cleveland, Tenn. office earlier in the week. “Ihave no question how good Catawba is after the way they beat West Georgia (a fellow Gulf South neighbor) last week. West Georgia is an excellent team. For Catawba to come back (from a 24-14 deficit), you know about the character on that team. But I never had any doubts about them.”
Catawba’s defense will get a good look at one of the best quarterbacks in Division II: 6-5, 235-pound Josh Bright. He has run the triple option to perfection. The numbers read like this for the co-Player of the Year in the Gulf South: 1,235 passing and 1,111 rushing.
“Josh looks like a drop-back passer but he’s really a big, strong runner,” Campbell said. He’s just a great competitor with a big heart.”
Rico McDonald gives Delta State another 1,000-plus rusher. The 6-1, 205-pounder has 1,366 yards on the ground.
And the offensive firepower doesn’t stop there. When Bright comes out, Campbell inserts Jeff Smith, who is more of a passer. Smith has thrown for 1,010 yards and completed 60 percent of his passes.
Smith is a transfer from Ole Miss. In fact, Delta State has several transfers from junior college as well . Mississippi is a big junior college state, according to Campbell.
Jason Franklin is the leading receiver with 36 catches for 930 yards and has 11 of the team’s 17 touchdown receptions.
Delta State, located an hour south of Memphis, is ranked fourth nationally in total offense.
“We have to play assignment football,” said Catawba coach David Bennett, “if we want to stop their option.”
But Campbell loves Catawba’s defense. He loves the schemes, he loves the athleticism. Dyran Peake, a safety, and Radell Lockhart, a defensive end, especially impressed him.
“Their defense catches your attention,” he said. “We’ve seen well-coached defenses that didn’t have the athletes and seen defenses with athletes that weren’t that well coached. But Catawba has it all.”
Defensively, Delta State has given up points, an average of 22. In three consecutive games in the middle of the season, opponents scored 35.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys on defense but they’ve played well lately,” Campbell said.
In Delta State’s last two games, it has allowed just 10 and 12.
And here’s another statistic to ponder. Catawba rushed for minus yardage last week and Delta State arrives with a ranking of sixth nationally against the run (79 yards per game).
Delta State won its first round game against Valdosta State, yet another Gulf South product, 49-12 in the mud and rain of Mississippi. Dusty Bonner, the highly-acclaimed transfer from Kentucky, was held in check. He came in with 54 touchdown passes.
“They were breaking every record in the book,” Campbell said, “and a lot of people expected us to fall.”
But the weather conditions didn’t affect Delta State as it rolled up its usual 511 yards of offense.
Forget about stats and weather this week, Campbell says. You can’t count on anything at this juncture and he pointed to his one loss, a 24-10 defeat at the hands of Arkansas Tech in Week 10.
“We were 9-0 and we were rolling,” Campbell said. “But they shut us down.”
But a week earlier, Campbell was thanking Catawba for beating Carson-Newman and making sure Delta State didn’t fall out of the top four in the region.
Delta State flew into Charlotte Friday morning and Campbell anticipates another highly-intense contest.
“With only eight teams remaining, everybody’s good and you have to play your best game,” he said. “Idon’t think this is going to be high-scoring. I have all the respect in the world for Catawba.”
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NOTES: Other games include Bloomsburg at Northwood (12 noon), North Dakota State at Nebraska-Omaha (2 p.m.) and Mesa State at UC-Davis (4 p.m.). ... The Catawba-Delta State winner will meet the North Dakota State-Nebraska-Omaha winner next week in the semifinals for the right to play on national television in the championship game.
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Ronnie Gallagher is the sports editor of the Post.
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