Preview Week 6: Shorter

Shorter University GSC (D2)

Broadcast: 10/7 FloSports 4 PM CST/5PM EST

When We Last Saw Shorter

2023 Record: 2-3 (1-2)

The Hawks are off to a bit of a bumpy start in the first half of 2023, they opened the season with a 69-14 shellacking at the hands of a very good FCS program in Samford, they then went on to win their next two contests fairly easily, a 28-7 win over Erskine and a a 57-20 thumping of now conference opponent Chowan. The last two weeks have been less friendly for SU, losing 56-20 to conference contender Delta State and allowing over 400 yards of total offenses against Mississippi College in a 30-14 loss. It isn’t going to get any easier with upcoming trips to UWF, Valdosta State and North Greenville before the end of the season, but the Hawks could squeak out another couple wins before the end of the season, which would give them their best record in recent memory. If there is something to hang their hat on, its a pretty solid running attack. The Hawks have three backs who each have at least 125 yards and 2 TD, and a fairly capable running QB, which adds up to the fourth best rushing offense in the conference averaging 4.8 yards per carry and 165 yards per game, when excluding sacks. Shorter has yet to really get the passing game on track this season, but showed some improvement last week when QB Josh Brown threw for 219 yards against Mississippi College’s league leading pass defense. Brown, who’s taken the reigns as the full time starter, has a couple of weapons in the passing game to lean on, most notably is Senior Tight End John Dietl III, a preseason All-GSC honoree, who has 10 catches 138 yards and 1 TD this season. Their leading Wide Receiver, Trevon Dirden, has 19 catches for 234 yards and 1 TD. The OL play has been pretty good, as mentioned previously the run game is solid, and they’ve done a decent job protecting the passer (8 sacks on 145 total drop backs). On the other side of the ball, they have a couple of standout DBs that returned from last years’ team, Trey Thomas (2 INT 6 PBU) and Artellious Edmond (15 tackles), and seem to have added another in Freshman Cornerback Tobias Lewis (26 tackles 3 PBU). The leading tackler is starting Linebacker Marc Harris (31 tackles 13 solo 2.5 TFL 1 sack and a QB hurry). This is a struggling defensive unit, ranking last the conference in total defense (423 yards per game allowed) and 2nd to last in scoring defense (36.4 points per game allowed), giving up over 400 yards three times and over 500 yards twice.

Three Players to Know

Soph. Justus Durant, RB 5’9” 180 - Junior Jaiden Dollard, 5’10” 190

Stats: 59 carries 263 yards (4.5 per carry) 5 TD 8 receptions 44 yards - Stats: 48 carries 239 yards (5.0 per carry) 3 TD 7 receptions 24 yards

This offense features a pretty deep group of players in the run game, but the two major players are Durant and Dollard. Both are known commodities at Shorter, Dollard with 30 appearances over the last four years, accumulating 1168 yards and 15 TD. Durant went for over 500 yards last season, leading the Hawks as a Freshman. This season the duo account for almost 35% of the entire offensive production for Shorter.

Shorter has leaned on the run so far this season and there is no reason to expect they wont continue to against the Argonauts. UWF has been really good against the pass, the only time they’ve allowed more than 200 yards passing was against FAMU who threw for 306 yards, and Shorter hasn’t been good throwing the ball. Expect a heavy dose of these two on Saturday going against UWF’s strong front 7.

Junior Trey Thomas, DB/KR/PR 5’10” 183

Stats: 16 tackles (10 solo) 2 INT 6 PBU 1 defensive TD 1 punt return 88 yards TD 1 blocked PAT returned for 2 points

Trey Thomas has been really the brightest spot on an otherwise struggling defense. The Junior Cornerback and return man was the first Shorter player to earn GSC POTW honors since 2015, when he tallied 2 INTs, 2 PBU, and a defensive TD against Chowan. In that same game he returned a punt 88 yards for a TD, and returned a blocked PAT for 2 points. He currently is tied for the league in total passes defended with 8 (6 PBU 2 INT).

Thomas is a good Corner, he stood out from last year’s Shorter team as one of their best players, and he is playing at a high level again this season. Even still, he is going to have his hands full guarding the Argonauts’ tall WR corps lead by John Jiles (6’3”) and Caden Leggett (6’2”). We will see how the Hawks’ top defender holds up Saturday evening.

Matchup of the Week

UWF vs the 3rd Quarter

A little different than our usual matchup of the week, but this is somewhere UWF has to get better and this week is as good of a chance to work out the kinks as any. The Argonauts have scored 35/177 points so far this season coming out of halftime, and only against UWG have they scored more than once in the third period. They have only scored on the first drive of the 2nd half once (against West Georgia as well) in five games, and were totally shut out in the period against FAMU. It is the period where they’ve got the closest scoring margin as well, only outscoring opponents 35-28 (+7), compared to an overall score differential of 177-82 (+95), or in other words +88 for the three remaining quarters of the game. It isn’t just the relative lack of scoring, 19% of their points in the period is just a bit under a normal 25-25-25-25 distribution after all, the 3rd quarter has just seemed sloppy and slow moving compared to the routine dominance they’ve displayed for the remaining game time. They’re kind of the inverse of the 2021 team that had slow starts but came out and demolished teams in the 3rd, and I think as the meat of the schedule approaches they’ve got to do a better job in the middle 8 (the four minutes before and after halftime). They have also tallied 17 penalties for 183 yards in the 3rd quarter, which I believe is their worst period for penalties as well. UWF should cruise in this one, Shorter may be better than they normally are but still remain extremely overmatched and facing a team playing very good ball right now, but they need to use these kinds of opportunities to work out the inconsistencies in their situational football.

Prediction

UWF has never lost to Shorter, and they’ve never been particularly close games either, the smallest Argo margin of victory being 13 points back in 2017. This iteration of West Florida football is playing excellent, complimentary ball. This iteration of Shorter football may be a little better than average for them, but doesn’t do anything exceedingly well. I just cant see a place where they really can exploit a weakness in the Argos with a strength of their own, and will be faced with grinding out long drives to try and keep pace with a potent and deep group of offensive playmakers for the Blue and Green. You can never discount a GSC opponent, it is a tough league and iron sharpens iron as they say, but I predict UWF cruises in this one, 49-10, and gets some good work for the backups and Freshmen in the 2nd half.