This is a fantastic preview of USD Football’s game vs. the McNeese State Cowboys down in bayou country by Vance Janak. Look for an update following the game Saturday on volanteolnine.com
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At the end of Thursday’s football practice, USD football head coach Ed Meierkort’s message to his team was that they can compete with Football Subdivision Championship No. 6 McNeese State.
When the Coyotes face the Cowboys at 7 p.m. Saturday night in Cowboys Stadium in Lake Charles, La., Meierkort told his team that he believes they can stay with DI-AA opponent that will face each other for the first-time in both schools history.
“Well like I told our guys, it is probably not the biggest game we’ve played in, but it is the toughest game we’ll play in,” Meierkort said after practice. “They’re obviously very skilled. They’re a tough team physically; they are going to run the football. They have a lot of things going for them; they are No. 6 in the country and we are just going to go down there and compete our asses off.”
One advantage the Coyotes (3-1) may have is that they head into the game against the Cowboys (3-0) in the underdog role; a position in which Meierkort said allows his team to play loose.
“There are very few games that we’ve been in since I’ve been here that we have been underdogs. That’s a little different for us,” Meierkort said. “We expect to win every game we play and we know that we are going to have to do some things differently.”
Executing perfectly is one thing Meierkort said the Coyotes have to do if they expect to pull the upset. Last season, the Coyotes played first-year D-IAA Central Arkansas in Conway, Ark., and did not execute perfectly. The Coyotes dropped that game 24-0, the first time USD has been held scoreless in the Meierkort era.
In that game, UCA benefited from five USD turnovers and also blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown even though the Coyotes had an advantage in total yards 310 to 253.
“We are going to have to be physical up front and we are going to have to live through the storm,” Meierkort said. “We can’t allow them to break out like West Texas did because there is 18 to 20 thousand people there and we have to stop that momentum earlier.”
What Meierkort alluded to was the Coyotes season-opening loss to West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas in which WTA&M jumped out to a 27-3 lead before the Coyotes would score there first touchdown with 3:47 remaining in the first half.
Game preview - Cowboys offense vs. Coyotes defense
The Cowboys average 38 points per game while totaling 419.3 yards of total offense per game. With 211.3 yards rushing per game and 208 yards passing per game, the Cowboys offense is very balanced. Adding to their balance, the Cowboys have seven touchdowns via the rush and seven touchdown passes.
Meierkort said the Cowboys offense “looks just like us.”
“They run power both ways,” Meierkort said. More isolation, a little more split zone. They are different up front, they are shorter, they are more foot-to-foot (line splits). They are going to try to bully you up front and then they will play action off of it and they do a very good job of it.”
The Cowboys leading rusher is senior running back Jamie Leonard. The 5-foot-10, 205 pounder has rushed for 296 yards and two touchdowns on 40 carries. Kris Bush, a 5-foot-11, 218-pound senior running back, has four touchdowns on 20 carries for 124 yards.
Sophomore quarterback Derrick Fourroux has rushed for 82 yards on 26 attempts. The 6-foot-2, 200-pound Fourroux has also completed 35-of-61 passes for 565 yards and six touchdowns while also throwing two interceptions.
The leading receiver for the Cowboys is 5-foot-11, 180-pound senior wide receiver Carlese Franklin and 5-foo-8, 173-pound senior Steven Whitehead, who each have nine catches. Franklin has 124 yards and one touchdown while Whitehead has 115 yards and one touchdown.
Meierkort said the biggest thing the Coyotes defense has to do is tackle well.
“When you are playing against a really good team, you’ve got to tackle well and that means we are going to have to get a lot of guys to the football,” Meierkort said. “We are going to try to spill everything to edge and try to run it down on the sidelines.”
Coyotes offense vs. Cowboys defense
When the USD offense takes the field, they will see a Cowboys defense that will utilize a four-man defensive front with three or four linebackers behind them.
“They are an even front team, we don’t see very many of those,” Meierkort said. “We are going to try to pound them early. They have an All-American defensive end (Bryan Smith), we are going to try to run right at him to try to slow him down a little bit.”
Smith, who is 6-foot-3, 230-pound senior, has 18 tackles, including eight tackles for loss and five and a half sacks thus far this season.
With Smith’s ability to get to the quarterback, Meierkort said protecting sophomore quarterback Noah Shepard is key.
“Our play action and our three step game is big because they are going to be able to rush the passer pretty well,” Meierkort said.
Meierkort said the biggest difference between the Coyotes and the Cowboys is the overall team speed and depth McNeese State has.
“They have 63 full (scholarships) so their twos and threes are going to be better than ours,” he said. “Our ones will hang in there and if we can keep them from out running us early and get that game late in the fourth quarter, I think we have a really good chance.”
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