First Reaction Valdosta State
Incredible Regular Season Finale
This game was about everything you could have hoped it would be, especially if you’re cheering for the guys in green and blue. The Argonauts of West Florida are the Champions of the Gulf South Conference for the first time in program history, and completed an epic beatdown of conference powerhouse Valdosta State 61-42. This marked the first time in school history the Argos had beaten VSU in the regular season, won the conference, finished with less than 2 losses, and the win lead to the Argos hosting their first ever playoff game next weekend.
UWF came out on a tear in the first half, making into scoring position on each of their first four drives and coming away with 17 points in the first quarter and a half. Really the offense was clicking all night long, they punted just twice, and those two drives were the only West Florida possessions that didn’t make it to at least the Blazer 29 yard line. Yes, that’s right of 14 UWF drives, 12 of them got deep into plus territory and 11 of those into the red zone. West Florida was a 1st half missed FG away from scoring on their first four drives and 8 of their first 10. Meanwhile the defense did a great job of bottling up the VSU running game early on and forcing QB Ivory Durham to beat them as a pocket passer. To his credit, Durham played a fantastic game (31-51 415 yards 3 TD 1 INT, 9 carries 58 yards 1 TD, 1 reception 4 yards 1 TD) and kept the Blazers in the game for really three and a half quarters. It was a season high for Valdosta State for yards (599), passing yards (419), plays (83), and pass attempts (51). The Blazer offense was just at times ineffective against the West Florida defense, punting on their first three drives and totaling just 14 plays for 45 yards of offense in the first quarter. UWF would go on to give up 6 TDs in the game, but importantly got 5 more stops for an offense that just rolled all day long. The Blazers couldn’t string together more than two successful drives in a row, scoring on consecutive drives just twice, while UWF had stretches of 3, 4, and 3 consecutive scoring drives, and were never denied on consecutive drives, following each of their punts with TD scoring drives.
Austin Reed crested the 300 yard mark for the fifth consecutive GSC game, tossing 2 TD and running for another pair of scores. It was the Sophomore’s worst performance of the season for completion percentage (40.5%) but still managed to average 8.4 yards per attempt because when he was connecting he was connecting on chunk plays. UWF went heavy on the deep balls against Valdosta State, averaging an explosive 20.7 yards per reception, and only had one reception that went for less than 11 yards. Austin Reed connected on strikes of 43, 41, 34, 28, and 20, primarily by the efforts of David Durden (5 receptions 120 yards) and Ka’Ron Ashley (4 receptions 82 yards 2 TD), with leading pass catcher Rodney Coates sidelined with an injury sometime in the first half.
An impressive start to the game really set the tone for the Argonauts, they outgained VSU 126 to 60 in the first quarter, forced three punts, and took three possessions inside the Blazer 20 yard line. After forcing a quick punt on a three and out, UWF would connect on a 34 yard pass to Ashley on their first play from scrimmage. The drive would subsequently peter out and Griffin Cerra uncharacteristically missed a 33 yard FG attempt. The Argos defense would step up once again, forcing a punt after 5 plays and once again setting the offense up with favorable field position. This time Austin Reed and company would leave no doubt, connecting on passes of 16, 17, and 20, then stuffing it in after three consecutive power runs on the goal line. The Blazers would once again get just 1 first down on their drive, punting to UWF who would march 8 plays 63 yards and allow Cerra redemption on a 26 yard attempt early in the 2nd quarter Valdosta State finally connected with a long TD pass from Durham to Gallimore, then the teams would swap punts on the next two possessions.
The rest of the 2nd and 3rd quarters would turn into a track meet with both teams scoring 5 TD in the middle half of the game. West Florida would find the end zone on their next four possessions, including drives of 58, 68, and 69. There were just four punts in the two quarters with the big difference in the stretch being a special teams snafu, with John Miller fumbling the ball and giving UWF prime real estate. UWF took advantage of pretty much every opportunity they were given, and most importantly played a really clean game (2 sack 4 TFL 0 turnovers) against a strong defensive opponent. At the end of the day, Valdosta State just couldn’t ever really break that 10 point bubble the Argos built in the first 1.5 quarters of the game. They got to within a score four times, but never tied the game or claimed a lead of their own.
Run Game Takeover
A bunch of program history was made tonight on the offensive side of the ball, because the running attack went absolutely bananas. I thought this was a place UWF could have success on offense, VSU was giving up over 170 yards per game on the ground, but the Argos turned out chunk play after chunk play on the ground Saturday night. It doesn’t hurt when your starting QB contributes two explosive TD runs (13 and 44 yards), but the star of the show was once again Shomari Mason. The Sophomore has been on a torrid pace over the last four games, totaling 43 carries 525 yards 5 TD averaging 131 yards per game and a blistering 12.2 yards per carry, and this game was his best of the season. Given the biggest workload of his career (20 carries), Mason finished with 195 yards and 1 TD, and brought his regular season total to just shy of the 1k mark (966).
The big thing on the night was the explosiveness of the rushing offense with the Argos putting up 10 rushes of 10 or more yards on 37 carries (27% explosive runs). Austin Reed ran for a 44 yard TD run, Anthony Johnson Jr. broke off a 66 yarder for a score, and Shomari Mason torched the Blazers of a 65 yarder, and those were just the longest of the 10 explosive runs the Argos had on just 35 rushing attempts (minus sacks). Mason alone had runs of 65, 31, 19, 15, 14, and 10 on his way to a school record 195 yards. Not to be upstaged, program veteran Anthony Johnson Jr. broke off his 66 yarder midway through the 4th quarter, breaking a one on one tackle and sprinting off for his third TD of the night. Austin Reed’s big run came on a 3rd and 10, it seemed like the defense was accounting for everyone except the QB and he took off untouched for 44 yards and a score.
Breaking the single game rushing record for both team (347) and Shomari Mason as an individual (195) that were set just two weeks ago against Mississippi College was not how I envisioned this offense performing. This was the most yards allowed by the Blazers on the ground this season, just edging out MC’s 345 yards, and only the second time a team has run for more than 200 yards on them in 2021. The Argos ran for six touchdowns, which was a season high for UWF and a season worst for the Blazers. In fact, Valdosta State had allowed just six rushing scores in nine games before meeting the Argonauts. Dominance.
Defense Got the Stops
While everyone expected, and were delivered, an offensive shootout, the game was always going to be decided by who could get more done on the defensive side of the ball. UWF averaged just 2:12 per drive and scored 10 times, which provided Valdosta State with a season high of 14 drives. That is 40% more than against West Georgia, who scored 34 points against VSU, and in that game the Blazers scored five times. With four extra drives Saturday, VSU only scored one additional TD. The Argonauts defense knew they just needed to get more stops than Valdosta and despite the overall yardage allowed, that is exactly what they accomplished.
West Florida gave up a season high 599 yards, it was the second most rushing (180) and second most passing (419) yards the Argonauts have allowed this year, and the most points allowed by UWF. But the defense played a crucial role in setting the tone early on. Coming up with three consecutive stops, allowing just two first downs. Those stops allowed UWF to get into scoring position on their first three drives on offense. Those drives allowed just 45 yards on 14 plays, and UWF came out of the opening volleys with a 10-0 lead and a missed FG. Valdosta State got going in the 2nd quarter, and UWF gave up consecutive TD drives before forcing a punt in a key spot. VSU had brought it to 17-14, and Austin Reed threw four incompletions on the subsequent drive bringing on the second punt of the night for UWF. Dawson flipped the field and the Blazers brought the ball out to just their own 31 before punting. UWF would go on to score the next drive, extending their lead to 10 points.
That wasn’t the only clutch stop the Argos were able to come up with. They forced two three and outs in the 3rd quarter, and picked off Ivory Durham early in the 4th, allowing UWF to extend their lead out to 20 points for much of the 4th quarter. Ultimately these handful of stops made the difference, even if the points allowed were the most for this Argonauts defense this year. UWF stopped the Blazers eight times on defense, forcing six punts (including the fumbled snap), turning them over on downs once, and picking off Durham another time, while the UWF offense was really only stopped by the Blazer defense twice. Two other times UWF didn’t score with the possession were a missed FG and a turnover on downs as they bled the clock late in the 4th. The only time Valdosta has been stopped more on offense this year was against Albany State in week 3 (10 stops on 13 drives), which also included a nearly 3 hour rain delay to start the game and sloppy conditions on the field all night. UWF is going to continue to face really elite teams, and they’re going to need to similarly slow down some really good offenses as the playoffs move forward.
