Scouting Report: Bama Sees Third Consecutive Spread Offense
By Mitch Dobbs
No one involved with the Alabama football programs is cracking jokes about Louisiana-Monroe. None of the Crimson Tide players are giving up oft-heard slips about not knowing where the team?s located (easy in this case) or not knowing ?anything about them? as is sometimes heard when a Southeastern Conference power is playing a team that was contracted to come to Tuscaloosa as a Sun Belt walkover opponent.
ULM Coach Charlie Weatherbie has gone 5-6 in each of his past two seasons. His first year was a 1-11 campaign in which he took over control of the program on May 9, 2003, just a day before the hiring of Mike Shula at Alabama.
There are no jokes about Louisiana-Monroe in part because the Crimson Tide has its own concerns to address. Namely, an offense that has struggled to run the ball and score touchdowns and a defense that has allowed big drives and only recorded three sacks against two pass-happy opponents.
But it?s also because ULM does not appear to be the walkover it was when the game was scheduled. Last week, Louisiana-Monroe took Big 12 squad Kansas down to the wire, and put up big numbers with its spread offense. The offense on Louisiana-Monroe?s football team is ?like Florida?, according to Alabama Head Coach Mike Shula, and runs a wider variety of plays out of its spread offense formation that Alabama?s first two opponents, Hawaii and Vanderbilt, combined.
Defensive Coordinator Joe Kines said their quarterback Kinsmon Lancaster is more athletic, and a more accurate passer than Vanderbilt?s Chris Nickson, who hurt the Tide passing and running on one drive last week, and this evident from the numbers he put up last week against Kansas.
Lancaster, a 5-11, 202-pound sophomore from Shreveport, was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week last week. He had a career day, with 377 yards on 24 of 41 passing. He is ranked 13th in the nation in total offense with 284.5 yards per game, and he sports a 134.43 passing efficiency rating (Alabama?s John Parker Wilson has a rating of 133.17). Lancaster is the best in the Sun Belt in those categories.
Of course, some of Lancaster?s number could say more about the lower tier of the Big 12 than about ULM?s. The Warriors let Division I-AA Alcorn State hang around until the fourth quarter. Alcorn was two yards away from taking a 13-10 lead in the fourth quarter when ULM recovered a fumble, drove the length of the field to score, and tacked on another touchdown to record the win. Lancaster also has more rushing attempts than anyone on the team with 29 rushes in two games for 92 yards.
The leading rusher is Calvin Dawson, at 58 yards per game. He?s carried to 24 times in two games at a clip of 4.8 yards per carry. The longest run Dawson?s gone for this year is 13 yards. Erroll Hogan is smaller than Dawson (5-9, 195 pouinds), and actually listed ahead of him on the depth chart, even though he?s had just 11 carries on the year for 43 yards. Dawson has four catches for 40 yards on the year and Hogan has only one reception.
Louisiana-Monroe is the third spread offense team Alabama will see in its first three weeks of the season. ULM spreads the ball around more than Bama?s previous opponents, however. No single receiver accounts for more that 25 per cent of the ULM receiving yards (Keith Brown accounts for half of Bama?s receiving yardage), and the fourth-leading receiver Darrell McNeal accounts for a respectable 12 per cent of the Warrior receiving yards (Alabama?s fourth-leading yard-gainer is Nick Walker, accounting for 8 per cent of the receiving total).
Zeke Zacharie, a 6-4 230-pound tight end is ULM?s leader in receiving yards, even though he?s not started in either game this year. The starter has been Mitch Doyle, a 6-5, 275 pound sophomore (one reception for 11 yards). Zacharie has two of the three touchdown passes Lancaster has thrown, including one 59 yarder.
Wide receiver LaGregory Sapp has the most catches on the squad, nine for 94 yards. Sapp is a 6-3, 200 pound freshman from Monroe. Senior Joe Merritt (6-0, 195) and McNeal, a freshman, start at the other two receiver positions, with McNeal listed as the slot receiver. Merritt, whose stats and alignment (he?s an outside Z-receiver, typically a split end) would indicate is the Warriors? best deep threat, has five receptions for 111 yards and McNeal has 4 for 61. Both are six feet tall. McNeal has four catches for 61 yards on the season.
Alabama?s main task on defense will be to put pressure on Lancaster while containing him at the same time. And the Tide defense is sure to be in nickel coverage with five defensive backs on the field for much of the game for the third week in a row, and they will be charged with covering three receivers and a good catching tight end without being able to put too much focus on any single receiver.
ULM Defensive Coordinator Kim Dameron, who graduated from Arkansas in 1983, most often employs a 4-4-3 defensive alignment, meaning the Tide offense will be faced with four down linemen and four linebackers determined to stop the run first.
Louisiana-Monroe?s most productive player is a do-it-all in the mold of former Alabama punt returner, defensive back and punter Hootie Ingram. ULM senior Kevin Payne (6-1, 212 pounds) has lettered three years, and is the Warriors? free safety, punter and has seen time returning punts this year. He has two interceptions on the season and is also ULM?s leading tackler with 13 stops in two games. He is the captain of the defense.
Starting at the cornerback positions are two six foot seniors, Quintez Secka and Chaz Williams. Secka, a captain for ULM?s game last week, has eight tackles including one for loss. He has one pass break up on the year and recovered a fumble against Alcorn State. Williams led the team in interceptions a year ago with six picks. He has played in 22 games for ULM. Williams has 11 tackles and two pass break ups.
The starting inside linebackers are true freshman Cardia Jackson and senior Josh Alexander. Alexander, 6-0, 225 pounds, has lettered three times. He has nine tackles including two and a half tackles for loss and one sack. Jackson, 6-2, 228 pounds, has made an early impact with a dozen tackes on the season. He is ahead of a sophomore who lettered for ULM last year.
Sophomore Josh Thompson is the starter at the rover (outside linebacker) position. He is among ULM?s most active defenders, with 13 tackles and two forced fumbles in the two games. Thompson has also forced a fumbled and made one interception. Austin Willis is a 6-0, 205 pound senior outside linebacker. Willis has made three tackles, one and a half stops for loss and had one pass break up on the year.
Defensive ends Christiaan (spelled with two As) Cambridge and Jameson Jordan are the starters at defensive end, but freshman Aaron Morgan has also had an impact in ULM?s first two games. Morgan leads the defense with two sacks on the season. Cambridge has eight tackles, and three and a half stops behind the line including one sack. Jordan has for tackles, a half of a tackle for loss and one batted pass.
Starting defensive tackles are sophomore DeMarcus Camouche and junior Ricky Williams. Camouche is 6-5 293 pounds, and has three tackles on the year. Williams, 6-2, 280 pounds, also has three tackles.
In addition to being the defensive leader, Payne has been an outstanding punter. He has averaged 43.5 yards per punt on 10 kicks and has hit a long of 60 yards. Payne has also returned a punt this season, which went for nine yards. ULM placekicker Ragan Walters is in his third year with the duties. He has made 4 of 5 extra points and 1 of 2 field goals, accounting for seven points. ULM?s deep snapper is a senior with three letters, and backup quarterback Chance Payne is the holder.
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Coach Mike Shula Says
By Kirk McNair
If Alabama had been in the Red Zone (inside the 20-yard line) 10 times this year and scored 10 touchdowns, what would Bama Coach Mike Shula be doing that is different than what the Crimson Tide is doing?
Nothing.
?If we were 10 for 10, we?d keep on doing the same thing,? Shula said. ?We practice it a lot. But we have to be more efficient. We have to get thje ball into the hands of the guys who are going to get it into the end zone.?
Alabama kept sneaking close to the goalline against Vanderbilt last Saturday, but too often didn?t have much to show for it. Bama failed to get points when a fake field goal run came up short of a first down and when lost fumbles crushed excellent scoring opportunities. And the Bama football critics noticed.
?When you don?t have the success that is expected, you are going to have criticism,? Shula said. ?You talk to your team about that. I probably remember answering a question similar to this last year and maybe a few other times in my career, too. You worry about the things you can control. There?s going to be criticism and questions, but what you have to do is worry about are the things that you can control. That?s what we talk to our team about, really all the time.?
Shula knows Bama didn?t play its best in the Crimson Tide?s 13-10 win over Vanderbilt, but the operative word is ?win.? He said, ?Being 2-0, and maybe not playing as well as whe should, I?m real excited about this football team. I think if each invididual keeps getting better and we take it one week at a time, we have a chance to be successful.
?We?re looking forward to this week. Basically, it?s like another one week season. You treat it that way. we?ve got two wins, but we?ve got to get better this week if we?re going to find a way to get that third win.?
Shula has reason to believe the Tide will improve this week. He said, ?Last week we didn?t practice as well as we had in the first week or in training camp. Ball security-wise we?ve been a team that has held onto the football. Everytime that happens (fumble), you want to understand why. In practice you continue to emphasize those points.?
He said, ?We?ve got to play better. To do that, we?ve got to have three good days of preparation.?
Shula said that part of the preparation comes from the system, whereby mistakes are corrected. And, he said, a team has to know how to respond to wins and losses. ?I think we?re a young football team,? he said. ?I don?t say that as an excuse. I think we?re going to get a lot better.?
The offensive challenge this week comes from a Louisiana-Monroe team that is similar to the first two opponents, Hawaii and Vanderbilt, which is to say unconventional. And Shula said ULM quarterback Kinsmon Lancaster ?is more athletic and maybe with a better arm.?
Shula expects defenses to continue stacking a lot of players close to the snap of the ball. ?On paper, when that happens, you pass,? Shula said. ?We want to be a balanced offense. We want to be able to run the ball. We have to block.?
He said Bama has faced more two deep coverage in run down situations than in the past, and said ?We?re seeing a lot of zone blitz, too, where they?re still playing a lot of coverage behind it.?
He added, ?We?ve got to be better down there, but we?re not going to over-stress it. We?ll keep working on it, keep coaching it hard so everyone knows what to do.?
The good news is that new quarterback John Parker Wilson has seemed to be able to handle the challenge. ?It gives you confidence that the qurterback has been able to produce,? Shula said. He added the pass protection has probably been its best in his four years.
One of the big questions among Bama followers is ?What?s wrong with Kenneth Darby?? It wasn?t put exactly like that to Shula by sportswriters Tuesday, but the general question did come up.
Shula said, ?I think he came out of the Vanderbilt game better than he came out of the Hawaii game. I thought he looked 100 per cent last Thursday and I thought he looked much better this Sunday than last Sunday. Only KD knows if he?s 100 per cent, but he had some big runs in the fourth quarter. Hopefully, he?s healthy now and will continue to improve. He has been productive and we?re going to give him opportunities.?
Back-up halfback Jimmy Johns had one of the lost fumbles inside the 10-yard line. Shula said, ?Jimmy fumbled it going in, and Sparky (Running Backs Coach Sparky Woods) had him in on the next play. I think it?s important to do those type of things so your guy knows you have confidence in him.?
One highlight for Bama Saturday was the kicking of freshman Leigh Tiffin. Shula said, ?We need to get touchdowns when we?re down there, but the good news is that a freshman has been able to come in and get points for us. He?s a freshman, but he thinks like a senior. And he has good work habits. It?s good to have depth there.?
One area of interest this year is the new clock rules. Shula was asked what he thought about them. He said, ?I?m probably not the one to ask. You should probably ask those people who changed them to see what their thinking was. Personally, I knew it was going to be faster. I?m not sure I knew it was going to be this fast. The total game going two hours and 47 minutes?I didn?t think it was going to be like that.?
By Mitch Dobbs
No one involved with the Alabama football programs is cracking jokes about Louisiana-Monroe. None of the Crimson Tide players are giving up oft-heard slips about not knowing where the team?s located (easy in this case) or not knowing ?anything about them? as is sometimes heard when a Southeastern Conference power is playing a team that was contracted to come to Tuscaloosa as a Sun Belt walkover opponent.
ULM Coach Charlie Weatherbie has gone 5-6 in each of his past two seasons. His first year was a 1-11 campaign in which he took over control of the program on May 9, 2003, just a day before the hiring of Mike Shula at Alabama.
There are no jokes about Louisiana-Monroe in part because the Crimson Tide has its own concerns to address. Namely, an offense that has struggled to run the ball and score touchdowns and a defense that has allowed big drives and only recorded three sacks against two pass-happy opponents.
But it?s also because ULM does not appear to be the walkover it was when the game was scheduled. Last week, Louisiana-Monroe took Big 12 squad Kansas down to the wire, and put up big numbers with its spread offense. The offense on Louisiana-Monroe?s football team is ?like Florida?, according to Alabama Head Coach Mike Shula, and runs a wider variety of plays out of its spread offense formation that Alabama?s first two opponents, Hawaii and Vanderbilt, combined.
Defensive Coordinator Joe Kines said their quarterback Kinsmon Lancaster is more athletic, and a more accurate passer than Vanderbilt?s Chris Nickson, who hurt the Tide passing and running on one drive last week, and this evident from the numbers he put up last week against Kansas.
Lancaster, a 5-11, 202-pound sophomore from Shreveport, was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Week last week. He had a career day, with 377 yards on 24 of 41 passing. He is ranked 13th in the nation in total offense with 284.5 yards per game, and he sports a 134.43 passing efficiency rating (Alabama?s John Parker Wilson has a rating of 133.17). Lancaster is the best in the Sun Belt in those categories.
Of course, some of Lancaster?s number could say more about the lower tier of the Big 12 than about ULM?s. The Warriors let Division I-AA Alcorn State hang around until the fourth quarter. Alcorn was two yards away from taking a 13-10 lead in the fourth quarter when ULM recovered a fumble, drove the length of the field to score, and tacked on another touchdown to record the win. Lancaster also has more rushing attempts than anyone on the team with 29 rushes in two games for 92 yards.
The leading rusher is Calvin Dawson, at 58 yards per game. He?s carried to 24 times in two games at a clip of 4.8 yards per carry. The longest run Dawson?s gone for this year is 13 yards. Erroll Hogan is smaller than Dawson (5-9, 195 pouinds), and actually listed ahead of him on the depth chart, even though he?s had just 11 carries on the year for 43 yards. Dawson has four catches for 40 yards on the year and Hogan has only one reception.
Louisiana-Monroe is the third spread offense team Alabama will see in its first three weeks of the season. ULM spreads the ball around more than Bama?s previous opponents, however. No single receiver accounts for more that 25 per cent of the ULM receiving yards (Keith Brown accounts for half of Bama?s receiving yardage), and the fourth-leading receiver Darrell McNeal accounts for a respectable 12 per cent of the Warrior receiving yards (Alabama?s fourth-leading yard-gainer is Nick Walker, accounting for 8 per cent of the receiving total).
Zeke Zacharie, a 6-4 230-pound tight end is ULM?s leader in receiving yards, even though he?s not started in either game this year. The starter has been Mitch Doyle, a 6-5, 275 pound sophomore (one reception for 11 yards). Zacharie has two of the three touchdown passes Lancaster has thrown, including one 59 yarder.
Wide receiver LaGregory Sapp has the most catches on the squad, nine for 94 yards. Sapp is a 6-3, 200 pound freshman from Monroe. Senior Joe Merritt (6-0, 195) and McNeal, a freshman, start at the other two receiver positions, with McNeal listed as the slot receiver. Merritt, whose stats and alignment (he?s an outside Z-receiver, typically a split end) would indicate is the Warriors? best deep threat, has five receptions for 111 yards and McNeal has 4 for 61. Both are six feet tall. McNeal has four catches for 61 yards on the season.
Alabama?s main task on defense will be to put pressure on Lancaster while containing him at the same time. And the Tide defense is sure to be in nickel coverage with five defensive backs on the field for much of the game for the third week in a row, and they will be charged with covering three receivers and a good catching tight end without being able to put too much focus on any single receiver.
ULM Defensive Coordinator Kim Dameron, who graduated from Arkansas in 1983, most often employs a 4-4-3 defensive alignment, meaning the Tide offense will be faced with four down linemen and four linebackers determined to stop the run first.
Louisiana-Monroe?s most productive player is a do-it-all in the mold of former Alabama punt returner, defensive back and punter Hootie Ingram. ULM senior Kevin Payne (6-1, 212 pounds) has lettered three years, and is the Warriors? free safety, punter and has seen time returning punts this year. He has two interceptions on the season and is also ULM?s leading tackler with 13 stops in two games. He is the captain of the defense.
Starting at the cornerback positions are two six foot seniors, Quintez Secka and Chaz Williams. Secka, a captain for ULM?s game last week, has eight tackles including one for loss. He has one pass break up on the year and recovered a fumble against Alcorn State. Williams led the team in interceptions a year ago with six picks. He has played in 22 games for ULM. Williams has 11 tackles and two pass break ups.
The starting inside linebackers are true freshman Cardia Jackson and senior Josh Alexander. Alexander, 6-0, 225 pounds, has lettered three times. He has nine tackles including two and a half tackles for loss and one sack. Jackson, 6-2, 228 pounds, has made an early impact with a dozen tackes on the season. He is ahead of a sophomore who lettered for ULM last year.
Sophomore Josh Thompson is the starter at the rover (outside linebacker) position. He is among ULM?s most active defenders, with 13 tackles and two forced fumbles in the two games. Thompson has also forced a fumbled and made one interception. Austin Willis is a 6-0, 205 pound senior outside linebacker. Willis has made three tackles, one and a half stops for loss and had one pass break up on the year.
Defensive ends Christiaan (spelled with two As) Cambridge and Jameson Jordan are the starters at defensive end, but freshman Aaron Morgan has also had an impact in ULM?s first two games. Morgan leads the defense with two sacks on the season. Cambridge has eight tackles, and three and a half stops behind the line including one sack. Jordan has for tackles, a half of a tackle for loss and one batted pass.
Starting defensive tackles are sophomore DeMarcus Camouche and junior Ricky Williams. Camouche is 6-5 293 pounds, and has three tackles on the year. Williams, 6-2, 280 pounds, also has three tackles.
In addition to being the defensive leader, Payne has been an outstanding punter. He has averaged 43.5 yards per punt on 10 kicks and has hit a long of 60 yards. Payne has also returned a punt this season, which went for nine yards. ULM placekicker Ragan Walters is in his third year with the duties. He has made 4 of 5 extra points and 1 of 2 field goals, accounting for seven points. ULM?s deep snapper is a senior with three letters, and backup quarterback Chance Payne is the holder.
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Coach Mike Shula Says
By Kirk McNair
If Alabama had been in the Red Zone (inside the 20-yard line) 10 times this year and scored 10 touchdowns, what would Bama Coach Mike Shula be doing that is different than what the Crimson Tide is doing?
Nothing.
?If we were 10 for 10, we?d keep on doing the same thing,? Shula said. ?We practice it a lot. But we have to be more efficient. We have to get thje ball into the hands of the guys who are going to get it into the end zone.?
Alabama kept sneaking close to the goalline against Vanderbilt last Saturday, but too often didn?t have much to show for it. Bama failed to get points when a fake field goal run came up short of a first down and when lost fumbles crushed excellent scoring opportunities. And the Bama football critics noticed.
?When you don?t have the success that is expected, you are going to have criticism,? Shula said. ?You talk to your team about that. I probably remember answering a question similar to this last year and maybe a few other times in my career, too. You worry about the things you can control. There?s going to be criticism and questions, but what you have to do is worry about are the things that you can control. That?s what we talk to our team about, really all the time.?
Shula knows Bama didn?t play its best in the Crimson Tide?s 13-10 win over Vanderbilt, but the operative word is ?win.? He said, ?Being 2-0, and maybe not playing as well as whe should, I?m real excited about this football team. I think if each invididual keeps getting better and we take it one week at a time, we have a chance to be successful.
?We?re looking forward to this week. Basically, it?s like another one week season. You treat it that way. we?ve got two wins, but we?ve got to get better this week if we?re going to find a way to get that third win.?
Shula has reason to believe the Tide will improve this week. He said, ?Last week we didn?t practice as well as we had in the first week or in training camp. Ball security-wise we?ve been a team that has held onto the football. Everytime that happens (fumble), you want to understand why. In practice you continue to emphasize those points.?
He said, ?We?ve got to play better. To do that, we?ve got to have three good days of preparation.?
Shula said that part of the preparation comes from the system, whereby mistakes are corrected. And, he said, a team has to know how to respond to wins and losses. ?I think we?re a young football team,? he said. ?I don?t say that as an excuse. I think we?re going to get a lot better.?
The offensive challenge this week comes from a Louisiana-Monroe team that is similar to the first two opponents, Hawaii and Vanderbilt, which is to say unconventional. And Shula said ULM quarterback Kinsmon Lancaster ?is more athletic and maybe with a better arm.?
Shula expects defenses to continue stacking a lot of players close to the snap of the ball. ?On paper, when that happens, you pass,? Shula said. ?We want to be a balanced offense. We want to be able to run the ball. We have to block.?
He said Bama has faced more two deep coverage in run down situations than in the past, and said ?We?re seeing a lot of zone blitz, too, where they?re still playing a lot of coverage behind it.?
He added, ?We?ve got to be better down there, but we?re not going to over-stress it. We?ll keep working on it, keep coaching it hard so everyone knows what to do.?
The good news is that new quarterback John Parker Wilson has seemed to be able to handle the challenge. ?It gives you confidence that the qurterback has been able to produce,? Shula said. He added the pass protection has probably been its best in his four years.
One of the big questions among Bama followers is ?What?s wrong with Kenneth Darby?? It wasn?t put exactly like that to Shula by sportswriters Tuesday, but the general question did come up.
Shula said, ?I think he came out of the Vanderbilt game better than he came out of the Hawaii game. I thought he looked 100 per cent last Thursday and I thought he looked much better this Sunday than last Sunday. Only KD knows if he?s 100 per cent, but he had some big runs in the fourth quarter. Hopefully, he?s healthy now and will continue to improve. He has been productive and we?re going to give him opportunities.?
Back-up halfback Jimmy Johns had one of the lost fumbles inside the 10-yard line. Shula said, ?Jimmy fumbled it going in, and Sparky (Running Backs Coach Sparky Woods) had him in on the next play. I think it?s important to do those type of things so your guy knows you have confidence in him.?
One highlight for Bama Saturday was the kicking of freshman Leigh Tiffin. Shula said, ?We need to get touchdowns when we?re down there, but the good news is that a freshman has been able to come in and get points for us. He?s a freshman, but he thinks like a senior. And he has good work habits. It?s good to have depth there.?
One area of interest this year is the new clock rules. Shula was asked what he thought about them. He said, ?I?m probably not the one to ask. You should probably ask those people who changed them to see what their thinking was. Personally, I knew it was going to be faster. I?m not sure I knew it was going to be this fast. The total game going two hours and 47 minutes?I didn?t think it was going to be like that.?
