First Reaction Shorter
UWF was able to turn it around after last week, scoring a blowout win of the Shorter Hawks, 45-23 on the back of 4 Austin Reed TDs and two quarters of shutout football. The Argos actually received the ball for the first time this year and took the opening kickoff into plus territory, scoring 5 plays later on a Shomari Mason run. Austin Reed continued his strong play on the season adding 314 yards and 4 TD 1 INT passing along with 3 carries 36 yards and 1 TD on the ground. West Florida’s defense continues to shut down the run, holding Shorter to less than 100 yards on the ground and just over 2 yards per carry. Defensive Lineman Brandon Penerton lead a strong performance up front with his best game of the season, 7 tackles (3 solo) 0.5 sack 1.5 TFL, while Linebacker Shea Campbell had another productive performance with 7 tackles (2 solo) 1 sack 1.5 TFL. Losing the toss and receiving the opening kickoff on Saturday actually worked out better for them than their usual tact of deferring, UWF scored on their opening drive, held Shorter to punts on their first two drives as well as their first drive of the second half. UWF’s offense just couldn’t be stopped, scoring on seven of their first eight drives, including six touchdowns. The Hawks intercepted Austin Reed on a throw into traffic on their second offensive drive, but that was the only stop Shorter’s defense could come up with until the backups came in in the 4th quarter.
A Tale of Two Defenses
Seven games into the season and the defense still hasn’t been able to put it all together. You see the ability in stretches of really good, dominant football, but every team UWF has faced has been able to sustain drives against the Argonauts’ defense. Except for North Greenville, every team the Argonauts have faced has had at least two drives of 60 yards, and they have surrendered 14 drives of 75 yards or more, four of those drives occurred tonight. Those drives yielded all 23 of Shorter’s points. The critical issue has been the defense’s inability to get off the field in 3rd and favorable distance, Shorter was 9 of 17 overall tonight on 3rd downs but converted 3rd and 7 or more yards four times including a 3rd and 20 and a 3rd and 11. This lead to four scoring drives averaging 12.8 plays per drive with back to back 17 and 21 play drives.
But what makes it more frustrating is what they’re able to do the rest of the game. On the four scoring drives Shorter compiled 303 yards on 51 plays (5.9 per play) and scored 3 TD and a FG. On their remaining seven drives, the Argonaut defense allowed 33 plays for just 76 yards (2.3 per play) and only were threatened once. The defense was once again extremely stout against the run allowing just 75 yards on 36 attempts and 1 TD. But they were really unable to come up for an answer to Aenaes Dennis, Shorter’s QB who was averaging 162 yards per game through the air coming into the contest. He notched a season best 276 yards against an Argonaut defense that just hasn’t been able to consistently stop the passing game. He also had 55 yards (excluding sacks) and a rushing TD on the night, which was 19 more than the rest of his teammates combined.
While they didn’t force a turnover for the second straight week, the defense did get back to making plays behind the line of scrimmage, after a quiet game against West Georgia. The Argonauts finished the game with 2 sacks, one shared by Brandon Penerton and Matt Gotel and the other a solo effort by Shea Campbell. On top of the sacks, UWF finished with six additional TFL. All of the sacks and TFL came from front seven players, with Penerton (1.5 TFL 0.5 sack) and Campbell (1.5 TFL 1.0 sack) leading the way.
Freshmen Shine in Increased Role
The Argonauts have been kind of quietly dealing with some injury issues over the course of the season. Week 1 starter at Center Zac Elam went out in game 2 only to return this week, the backup OL Juac Angoi missed last week thrusting Oake Stipe into the starting lineup. Angoi was back against the Hawks, and Elam was able to get some run in the second half. It would be really good news for this offense going forward if they can get all of their top 7 Linemen healthy. This week starting Strongside Linebacker Stephon Williams was out, he has been one of the better front seven defenders this year, leading the team in sacks and TFL. The offense was also without a starter with leading pass catcher and explosive playmaker David Durden missing the contest. Luckily, UWF is not without depth at WR or LB and the understudies both had career nights with their increased run with the first team.
Will Breland got the nod in place of the injured Williams, lining up next to team tackle leader Shea Campbell. Breland, no stranger to the field, has already brought home two GSC Freshman of the Week honors this season, had 19 tackles on the season coming into the game. He left the field Saturday with 8 tackles (4 solo) 0.5 TFL and 3 QB hurries, either setting or tying career highs in each of those categories. The class of 2020 signee from UMS-Wright in Mobile is now the 6th leading tackler on the team with 27 tackles (7 solo) 1.5 TFL 3 QB hurries on the season, despite not being listed on the week 1 depth chart. The Argos have to not only feel good about what they have in Breland if Williams cant go again this year, but also for the next three years manning the middle of the defense.
As for Durden’s stand-in the Offensive coaching staff turned to true Freshman Jared Smith. Smith is another young player who has already been flashing this season, catching balls in four games and tallying 116 yards and 1 TD. He already has some impressive grabs on the season, including both of his 2 catches for 69 yards against TAMUC earlier this season. His stat line minus the big TD (3 catches 35 yards 1 TD) would have been a respectable fill in game for a Freshman spelling a star player, but Smith made a great catch on a deep ball from Austin Reed to score just before the half. Smith ended up leading all pass catchers with 4 receptions 113 yards 2 TD, essentially doubling his season totals to 11 receptions 229 yards and 3 TD. I think you’re likely to see Smith land his first GSC Freshman of the Week for his performance.
Balance Restored to the Offense
Last week UWF was a one dimensional team, throwing for 400 yards in a comeback bid while running the ball just 17 times for less than 50 yards. The OL wasn’t getting much push and the backs weren’t finding space to run, eventually the Argos abandoned the run game. This week UWF was back to what has been working all of 2021, supplementing the explosive passing game with good running. In fact it wasn’t just good running, but some of the best the Argonauts have done all season. UWF had a highly efficient day, with the starting unit averaging over 10 yards per play on offense (Reed 10.5 yards per attempt, team 10.2 yards per rush).
West Florida as a team totaled just 17 carries but racked up 174 yards 2 TD on an eye popping 10.3 per carry. Aside from the fumbled exchange and loss of 3 yards by backup QB Wyatt Eget in the 4th quarter, UWF allowed no TFL and had three players with runs of 25+ yards. Austin Reed was the surprise of the game busting a 29 yard TD scramble and adding 3 carries and 36 yards to the total. Shomari Mason was back to himself with 6 attempts 85 yards and a score while Anthony Johnson Jr came in strong in relief with 3 carries 43 yards. It was UWF’s best overall rushing output of the season (174 yards) and their best for yards per carry while tied a season low in carries.
One of the Argonauts later scoring drives was a 4 play 90 yard statement, with all 90 yards came on the ground. After a first down incompletion, UWF went to Mason on back to back explosive runs. On the first, the offense ran zone to the left, Mason found the lane made a defender miss and took off for 30. The next run was a toss to the right, the OL did a good job of clearing everyone out, Shomari made a cut inside and went for another 31 before getting taken down. Austin Reed did the rest, dropping back and seeing nothing Reed called his own number and took off for a 29 yard TD run. That drive put the Argos up 45-16 with 12:24 left in the game, and if the game wasn’t already out of reach that Austin Reed TD run put this one officially into garbage time. West Florida ended up with 495 yards of total offense, only running 53 plays scoring four times through the air and twice on the ground.
