When you coach the sixth-ranked football team in the nation, you don’t take very long to savor victories.

No sooner had Catawba destroyed Newberry 31-3 Saturday in Shuford Stadium, than David Bennett began barking about next week’s opponent — Tusculum.

“I was talking with their coach (Frankie DeBusk) on the phone the other day and he said his team gets intimidated when they play Carson-Newman,” Bennett told the hundreds of players and fans who always gather to hear Bennett preach after every game. “He said they don’t get intimidated by Catawba. He told me he wished his team played against Carson-Newman like they play against us.

“They don’t fear us at all! And they’re going to roll in here undefeated!”

Fear may not be the thing that worries the Tusculum coaching staff the most when they watch film of Catawba’s last two games.

It may be confusion.

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Will the real Catawba football team please stand up?

Is it the team that ran for 338 yards and passed for just 34 in a 28-14 win over Presbyterian?

Or is it the team that completed 15-of-20 passes Saturday against Newberry and ran for just 147?

Offensive coordinator Jamie Snider hopes it’s both. but his smile told you it was good to see the passing game revisited at Catawba College.

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Going into this season, Catawba was facing the same dilemma as Florida State. It’s all-everything quarterback (Mitch Ellis) was gone and only neophytes were left to take the snaps. Which frustrated the wide receivers, the only experience left on an offense ravaged by graduation.

“Of course, they want the ball in their hands,” said receivers coach Chip Hester, who had the duty of stroking those egos throughout the first four games and making them know they are still important. “Presbyterian dictated that we run it. But they’re all team guys. They were just as excited last week as they are today.”

The receivers were excited Saturday because, like Bobby Bowden with his redshirt freshman Chris Rix, Snider decided it was time to open up the offense and simply go for it. And his redshirt freshman Luke Samples was up to the task.

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So Bennett told Snider to go ahead and air it out.

Twenty times Samples put it up and 15 of those times, it landed in the hands of one of those wide receivers. Four of those times, they found the end zone. Two-hundred and sixty-eight yards later, Samples had made believers out of 4,000 staunch supporters and five elated wide receivers.

“I loved it,” said O.J. Lennon, who caught two balls.

“It was great,” smiled Gaither, who had two touchdown grabs.

“Things are back to normal,” nodded Cedric Squirewell, who snatched five out of the air.

Nick Means had three catches, two for scores. Preston Lewis, who might have made Hester happier than any of the receivers, had two catches.

“I don’t think they were frustrated,” Snider said. “They knew this was coming. They were patient and did a nice job blocking.”

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It was actually an easy day for the pass catchers because Samples was making mincemeat of the Newberry secondary. The touch on some of his throws would have made even Mighty Mitch a little envious.

During the offseason, coaches said Samples needed to work on his touch. He threw too hard on short passes and his mechanics were a little off.

“But we were amazed when he came back from the summer,” Snider marveled. “Some of the problems he had in the spring were not there anymore because he worked so hard.”

Oh, Samples still throws hard. On both of Means’ scoring tosses (11 and four yards, Samples drilled him.

“He put in right on the money so I had no choice but to catch it,” Means grinned.

Samples also led his receivers over their shoulders so perfectly that everyone was oohing and aahing all day long. Especially on a 38-yard spiral to Lewis. And even more so on Gaither’s 62-yard touchdown grab. He never broke stride and pulled in a beautiful aeriel.

“He was looking at me all the way,” Gaither said. “He put it right in there.”

“Itold somebody that was a big-time throw and a big-time catch,” Hester said.

And about that lack of touch?

“Luke fooled everybody today,” Lennon laughed. “He made perfect reads, put the ball perfectly over the top and looked awesome.”

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Snider was just doing that the opponent gave him. And with eight defenders in the box waiting to snuff the run, the receivers returned to form.

Gaither’s other touchdown catch came five seconds before halftime while guarded by 5-8 freshman Chad Keller.

“I said, ‘See how small that guy is?’” Gaither recalled telling the coaches. “Give me a chance.”

Keller, meanwhile, was left shaking his head.

“We expected a more powerful game from Catawba,” he confessed. “I guess they saw I was a freshman and picked on me a little bit. But I’m impressed. (Samples)put it right on the money.

“Catawba’s got tradition and we had to play a flawless game. We didn’t do that.”

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So, what kind of game will 22nd-ranked Tusculum have to play when they come to Salisbury?

Who knows?

“I don’t know what they’ll be thinking,” Snider said. “They have to decide what they want to take away. But you can’t take away both.”

Bennett says Tusculum’s players won’t be intimidated of Catawba on the field next Saturday.

But the film sessions leading up to it may be a different story.

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Contact Ronnie Gallagher at 704-797-4256 or rgallagher@salisburypost.com .