Week 2 Recap: Argos Win 63-14 vs Soutwest Baptist

The University of West Florida football program keeps racking up firsts, often times earlier than expected. Wins, championships, awards, and now on campus football games. The Argonauts held a really special Saturday night of football on Pen Air field on with almost 5500 fans in attendance, and the team came to put on a show for the home crowd. The opponent, Southwest Baptist a GVLC program from Missouri, came in with a little juice having played a tough game against a good UT Permian Basin team on the road last weekend, and boasting a very solid offense, but it quickly turned into a smothering 63-14 win for the Argos.

The Argonauts came out again in mid-season form, and went into halftime with a 42-7 allowing the defending National Champions to rest their starters and play a lot of younger players and backups for the majority of the second half. Southwest Baptist did score a TD on an impressive opening drive, but couldn’t hang with the size or skill of the Argos after they were out of the scripted portion of their game plan. For the better part of 3 quarters West Florida went on a 63-0 run, only allowing a second score midway through the final frame.

Appreciating Austin Reed

2021 Austin Reed is not settling for his past accomplishments.

After putting on a show in Lake Charles, UWF’s QB1 was sterling against the Bearcats. Completing 77% of his passes and leading 7 TD scoring drives on 7 attempts. Yes, SBU was well overmatched with the Argonauts, but it wasn’t just that Reed completed a gaudy 4 TDs in just over 2 quarters of work, it is the little things that he does. Reed isn’t just a strong arm slinging it around, he is a well rounded QB who also happens to have a really talented arm and a great group of playmakers on offense.

What makes a top level QB is processing and awareness, that is what separates talented throwers of the football from difference makers. #14 has such good spatial awareness and footwork, it is like having another blocker. He routinely navigates the pocket and delivers accurate passes downfield. One thing he really does well is buy time with movement, but he isn’t bailing out and allowing the defense to react, he just keeps them honest by sliding out of the pocket and it really stresses coverages. He had a great example of this on the almost TD to Rodney Coates in the 2nd quarter, where he moved out of the pocket left, not because of pressure, but because it froze the defenders on that side just enough, allowing Reed to throw a perfect ball on the sideline that Coates couldn’t quite squeeze. He doesn’t have to scramble in the traditional sense which keeps him more throw-ready, just drift, eyes downfield, and let something open up.

He throws balls into coverage in ways that are impossible to defend. It helps having talented athletes like Rodney Coates to go make acrobatic catches, but Reed sees those windows and knows his surrounding talent well enough to put the ball in advantageous slots. He isn’t just hitting wide open targets, he is going through progressions and working the defense. He had a fantastic check down to Shomari Mason in the first half that ended up gaining a first down. He had the ball in the pocket and nothing came open so he found Mason spilled off in the flat and let his playmaker do the work. He appeared to work through one or maybe two reads on his first TD to Rodney Coates, eventually finding him in the back of the end zone.

What we are seeing to start 2021 is a great player still growing, and we are lucky as fans to get to enjoy it.

Running Game Takes Center Stage

Little pat on the back for myself, because this is something I thought would happen before the game. The UWF running game came out this week and really looked good. Again, the caveat is that SBU just isn’t that good, especially on defense, but the Argos got great work in with a group that only attempted 20 plays on the ground against McNeese State. The stat line: 33 attempts 188 yards (Note: the official box score says 168 yards excluding sacks, but there is a score card error, Newton did not have a 20 yard loss on the goal line in the 2nd quarter) 5 TDs is not mind blowing, but the Argonauts were very balanced (33 runs 36 drop backs) and had their most productive game on the grounds since week 1 of the 2019 playoffs when the team had 195 yards 2 TD on 46 attempts against Wingate. It would have been the 3rd best rushing performance of the 2019 season.

I did miss on my prediction of a 100 yard back, but only because Shomari Mason got rested in the 2nd half. He was having a name-your-stat-line kind of performance in the first half, gashing the Bearcats for 74 yards on only 8 attempts (9.3 yards per carry). He was never stopped behind the line and had runs of 15, 13, 13, and a 13 yard TD. His average was not inflated due to one long run, but rather he was gaining ab0ut a 1st down every attempt. His ability to make hard cuts without losing speed is going to continue to be a problem for defenses as the season continues. Another veteran had a productive game in a different way, Anthony Johnson Jr became the program's all time leader in rushing TDs with a 4 carry 3 TD performance. He was the battering ram that finished drives for the Argonauts on the goal line.

In the second half West Florida got good contributions from two newer faces. Ra’Vieon Hargoves had the other TD and 40 yards rushing while Seth Johnson was the third leading rusher (7 for 39 yards). Jervon Newton also had 21 yards in very limited snaps. It was a well rounded effort from the Running Back room.

Defensive Line Dominates

In a 3 man front, sometimes the big uglies do all of the work and get nothing to show for it but torn a torn jersey or a scarred helmet. This was one of those games. After the first drive, where SBU was able to keep their quick timing passing game going for a score, the UWF front really took over. From a statistical standpoint, they didn’t have much to show for it. A staggering 15 Argonaut defensive linemen participated this weekend (all but 6 of the roster), but the deep rotation only netted 9 tackles 0.5 TFL and none of the 3 Argo sacks in 59 plays of work.

What the line line accomplished though was totally take the game away from the Bearcat offense. After a 9 play 75 yard TD drive to open the game this was the sequence from about halfway through the 1st quarter through the end of the 3rd:

4 plays 9 yards turnover on downs

10 plays 40 yards turnover on downs

3 plays 5 yards punt

3 plays 2 yards punt

1 play 2 yards halftime

4 plays -1 yard downs

8 plays 32 yards punt.

6 drives (excluding the 1 play before halftime)

33 plays

89 total yards

0 points

2.8 yards per play allowed, 4 three/four and outs. 16 rushing attempts 46 yards. 17 pass attempts 43 yards. Just totally neutralizing an offense that had averaged over 300 yards per game over their last four games.

Matt Gotel was excellent for his second game in a row, pretty much being an immovable object up front. His size and strength are hard to tangle with, especially when he lines up at Nose Tackle. Aiden Swett flashed another solid pass rush. The Line as a whole clogged lanes and pushed the pocket and keeping Callis on his heels even when the second and third guys were in. This unit is going to need to continue their strong play next week against a veteran Commerce Offensive Line.

Getting to See Some More Youth

The defense continued a massive rotation of front 7 players throughout the game, but this contest was really an opportunity to get a ton of run for younger, inexperienced players. Remember, UWF has three full recruiting classes (2019, 2020, 2021) who are all basically freshman still due to redshirts and the Covid cancelled 2020 season. There are almost 50 players who have yet to see game action on the roster, despite being on campus now for as long as 2 years. I’m not going to hit on everyone who played, but these were some of the younger guys who stood out to me.

Offense:

A trio of young WRs caught passes for the Argos on Saturday, Nate Howard had a nice run after the catch, Zac Offord made a good snag across the middle for a first down, and Jared Smith, who looked really good physically, caught one near the goal line.

Seth Johnson, mentioned earlier, was the third leading rusher and looked decisive in his limited carries.

Nash Nelson had two really physical blocks that drew cheers from the sideline, twice driving a defender yards back and into the dirt.

Defense:

Anthony Johnson Jr (Cornerback) continues to get some snaps with the starters, and had tight coverage on an early 4th down conversion to force a turnover on downs.

Another young defender who keeps getting snaps early in the game is MLB Will Breland, who has been nominated for GSC Freshman of the Week both weeks this season.

D Lineman Pooda Walker was in quite a bit in the second half, after a strong contribution last week.

Rayne Tanega-Doster added 3 tackles (2 solo).

I would have liked to have seen one of the four Freshman QBs (Wilsher, Nezat, Jordan, Greene) get the last full offensive drive, but the Argos rolled with QB2 Wyatt Eget for most of the second half to get him some live reps.

Final Thoughts and Players of the Game

It was awesome to see the atmosphere on the broadcast. Having gone to UWF many moons ago, it is funny to think about thousands of people taking in a NCAA football game in the woods where I took Outdoor Leisure and played disc golf, but an awesome preview of what could be possible down the road.

Hard to put too much weight into the win itself, SBU is team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2016, and the Argonauts were just so much better of a team at all levels, both sides of the ball. This was very much a tune up game for West Florida heading into a ranked non-conference matchup against Texas A&M Commerce. They wanted to get some live work for the starters and rest as many critical players as they could in the second half, and were able to do just that.

Next week Coach Shinnick and the Argos will be on the road against the aforementioned TAMU Commerce (1-1, 0-1 LSC) team that bested UWF in the 2017 National Championship. A number of the players from that game are still on both teams, so there is some familiarity between these foes. UWF has a history of playing well on the road, and already marked a great road win in week 1 vs McNeese. This should be one of the top D2 matchups of the weekend.

Offensive Players of the Game: Austin Reed and Rodney Coates

What can you say? Reed was spectacular on Saturday and his main man was Rodney Coates. The two combined for 8 completions 120+ yards and 2 TDs. Reed completed 77% of his passes and had 4 TDs. Coates was unstoppable making at least two memorable jumping grabs for first downs, and scoring twice in the Red Zone. Reed also connected with David Durden for 66 yard and 2 TDs. Neither player played past the first drive of the second half, making their output even more impressive. This is the second week in a row that Reed has thrown for 4 TDs and had a 100+ yard 2 TD pass catcher.

Defensive Player of the Game: Matthew Gotel

He may have only had 2 tackles, but no single defender made more of an impact on the game than big #90. When he was in the game, which was off and on like everyone with the heavy substitutions, he just could not be moved off the line of scrimmage. He made a really nice tackle in the 1st half, SBU was driving and tried a designed QB run on 3rd and long, but he stayed home and was there to take down the QB for a short gain. SBU would attempt a 4th down conversion, and fail, the next play. He had play where he didn’t get a tackle but completely plugged the running lane, occupying multiple blocker’s worth of space, not allowing the play to go anywhere. Maybe most impressive was a 3rd down pressure at the end of the 1st half. He was lined up at Nose Tackle and shot off the ball driving the Center 5 yards backwards before Callis could even set his feet. The QB escaped under pursuit by Gotel and threw an inaccurate ball to force 4th down. I hope he gets a chance to stuff the stat sheet one of these games, because he this is the second game in a row where his effort has stood out, but it has been the selfless job of an interior Lineman in a 3 man front, all the work none of the glory.