Opponent Preview: Northwestern State
11/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - Stephen F. Austin closes out the 2014 regular season by renewing its annual rivalry with border neighbor Northwestern State at Homer Bryce Stadium. Opening kick against the Demons is set for 2 p.m. as the two rivals will stage the 49th Battle for Chief Caddo.
SFA fans unable to make it to Homer Bryce Stadium for this weekend’s rivalry game against Northwestern State can still stay up to date on every Lumberjack play. Live video of the game can be seen by logging on to SFA All-Access for a free, HD stream of the game. Fans can also listen to their Lumberjacks as Rob Meyers will have the call on Q107.7 FM as well as online at Q1077.com. Live stats will be available online at SFAJacks.com with in-game Twitter updates @SFA_Football.
Game Storylines
• Since 1961, SFA and Northwestern State have staged an annual challenge for Chief Caddo, the largest traveling trophy in all of college sports. Standing seven feet, six inches tall and weighing over 320 pounds, the statue was decided upon by both schools paying tribute to the legendary chief whose tribes were responsible for settling the locations that are currently known as Nacogdoches and Natchitoches. In the 48 Chief games, the Demons hold a 29-18-1 (.615) edge in the series and currently hold Chief Caddo following last season’s 40-27 win in Natchitoches, marking the first time the Chief had left Nacogdoches since 2008.
• Saturday’s forecast is looking to be warm but wet for the annual Battle for Chief Caddo. Temperatures are suppose to be significantly higher than last week, sitting in the low 70s, but rain chances remain high as the forecast is calling for rain and thunderstorms. Winds could also be a factor, hovering around 10 mph with gusts up to 15-20 mph.
• Senior RB Gus Johnson enters Saturday's game needing 108 yards to surpass Leonard Harris as the Lumberjacks' all-time leading rusher. Johnson has 3,664 career yards with 50 touchdowns, including 1,440 yards in 2014, which is tied with Larry Centers for the single-season program record.
• Senior WR Tyler Boyd is also sitting on the brink of an impressive career milestone, needing just 14 yards to become the 10th Lumberjack to reach 2,000 career receiving yards. He is tied for ninth all-time in career receptions (152) as fellow senior wideout DJ Ward looks to move up the top-10 list as well, sitting sixth in career receptions (162) and eighth in receiving yards (2,087).
Earlier this week, head coach Clint Conque held his weekly media session and discussed the loss against Abilene Christian while looking ahead to Saturday's showdown against rival Northwestern State:
On his thoughts following the Abilene Christian game:
“We’re certainly very disappointed. Our football team was well aware of what we had in our control, and now they are very aware of what we can’t control. I’m very disappointed with the lack of passion and confidence we played with, particularly on the defensive side of the football, as well as the kicking game. I thought that offensively we did some very nice things. We had a quarterback throw for over 250 yards and rush for over 100 yards. Our star tailback a big game. I thought the offensive line overall responded in a positive way. We did give up a few sacks, which hurt us, and we had a critical dropped ball really early in the game that would have extended a drive and kept our defense off the field. Defensively, we’ve had some games where we’ve played spectacular, but we played without kind of our heart and soul guy this year, Collin Garrett, who is leading our team in tackles and one of the top tacklers in the conference, and that hurt us. We started a true freshman there, but we had some seniors as well that had some opportunities to make some plays but just didn’t make them. So very disappointed overall. We had our chances to win that football game, had our chances to get off the field and make some stops. But (ACU) had too many big plays and we had too many miscues in the kicking game. 35 points is a lot of points, but we needed 38, and we need to give Abilene Christian some credit there.”
On what to expect against Northwestern State:
“They’re very good on offense. I really like their quarterback, Zach Adkins. He’s a little bit of a duel threat guy that can run it and throw it, and he gets it out on time. They’ve got a couple of quality receivers, a big offensive line, two or three really good running backs, a nice tight end. It’s going to be another tremendous challenge for our defense, and we are a little beat up right now over there. We’ve stayed pretty healthy, but we are a little beat up and banged up here down the stretch, and we need to try and get a couple of those guys back. It will be just another enormous challenge for our defense, because (Northwestern State) can run it, they have some speed, they have a big back, and their quarterback and the (Ed) Eagan kid at receiver is really talented. He’s not the fastest receiver that we’ll face, but he’s an excellent route runner, has excellent ball skills and will kind of remind you of Aaron Thomas a little bit. Defensively, they are very big up front, very active with a lot of different blitz packages and coverage combinations, and then pretty solid in the kicking game.”
On what the loss to ACU meant for postseason possibility:
“I’ve been asked a lot about this game, and where we are with our team. I think maybe we’ve been written us off for dead, but we’re not quite dead yet. We’re a bubble team, and we had total control of our destiny going into last week’s game, and forfeited that because we didn’t play well enough to win. But we remain a bubble team, and had some things not happened on Saturday night across the country we might not be able to say that today. But Cal Poly got beat, Youngstown got beat, Eastern Illinois got beat so there were four or five games that put us in that bubble conversation. Obviously, none of that matters if we don’t take care of our business on Saturday. It is Senior Day, we are playing for Chief Caddo, and I know that that’s something that tremendously important to a lot of people here. We went through the history of that with our younger players and certainly they understand that sending our seniors out in what could be their last home game here at Homer Bryce is important. It’s going to be a really big challenge. Northwestern, for the last ten quarters, second half of the McNeese game, and then the last two games have really been hitting on all cylinders.”
On SFA’s bubble resume:
“We have a really good chance, but the bottom line is we’ve got to win the football game. If we do that, it gives us seven division I wins, which kind of seems to be the magic number. We have victories over two top ten teams, and we’ve got a winning road record. We are the only school in the conference right now that has a winning road record, and that’s kind of important to the committee - how you plan on the road, how you play at home. With the win we would be 5-2 and home, and 3-1 on the road with the neutral site loss, two top-10 wins. But again it could go the other way too, even with a victory. We lost the right to control our own destiny, so we need to get some guys back healthy and back on the field, and get some preparation done. It’s a big football game.”
On Gus Johnson closing in on the rushing record:
“He needs 108 yards (to set the all-time rushing record). We obviously hope through the normal ebb and flow of the game that we are able to get that through a normal matriculation of our game plan. He certainly has been a tremendous player for us this year, his best year ever. He will tell you that it is probably more important for him to see his football team have the opportunity to play beyond the regular season, and that’s just the type of player he is. He’s just been wonderful to work with, and I hope it all works out for him.”
On the SFA seniors:
“They’ve been through a lot of ups and downs. We have one fifth year senior in Keavon Madison, who was here in 2010 when the last conference championship was won here in the program, but the rest of these young men have not experienced a great deal of success until this year. Even though we are extremely disappointed how we performed, and the outcome of the game on Saturday, these 17 seniors have an awful lot to be proud of. One or two have already graduated, several others are going to graduate this December and in May. Several have had outstanding careers. Take a look at the SFA record book and you’ll see guys like Ishmiah Miles, Collin Garrett, DJ Ward, Tyler Boyd and Gus Johnson. This group of guys was really the cornerstone when we got here, and they went through a coaching transition, which is never fun or easy. But they were the young men that embraced the coaching staff and embraced a new way of doing things, new processes. It will be an emotional day for them and their families on Saturday, but we’ve quickly got to honor them but then get back quickly at the task at hand, which is trying to win a college football game on Saturday. I know that it is their hopes that we can play well and extend our season, but they’ve meant an awful lot to this university. It’s my hope that they will all graduate and all go on to be tremendous ambassadors of the institution and our football program.”
-SFA-
