While his players study for finals week in the midst of playoff preparation, Danny Rocco has spent the last two weeks intensively studying the Big Sky Conference.
Richmond’s fifth-year head coach has an array of game film at his disposal thanks to two straight FCS Playoff matchups with teams from the Big Sky. Last week, Rocco’s Spiders rallied from a 24-7 deficit to oust No. 7 seed North Dakota in Grand Forks with a 27-24 win capped by a last-second field goal by Griffin Trau.
This week, Rocco’s team has to navigate a surely challenging finals week — the 4,300-student school is a revered private liberal arts institution — while Rocco and his staff prepare the players to take on one of the national championship favorites in the FCS. The No. 12 Spiders will play second-seeded Eastern Washington in Cheney on Saturday afternoon.
Richmond head coach Danny Rocco
A season ago, Rocco and Richmond played Missouri Valley Conference teams Illinois State and North Dakota State in back-to-back weeks of the FCS Playoffs. Rocco said he got a feel for the MVC during the preparation. This year, Rocco and his staff have a Big Sky Conference team for the second straight week on the slate.
“Last week, we got a good feel for the league,” Rocco said on the Colonial Athletic Association conference call on Monday morning. “We studied the league really hard. North Dakota did not play Eastern Washington as they both sat there at 8-0 in Big Sky Conference play. What you have to do in these games is figure out style of play. The Big Sky is a very quality conference but the style of play is different.”
More than any other league in the FCS, the 13-team Big Sky does not have a definable style. For Cal Poly’s triple option to hybrid offenses like the ones employed by Weber State, Portland State and Northern Arizona to the run-heavy attacks of North Dakota and Montana State to the pass-heavy up-tempo attacks of Montana and Eastern Washington, the league is as diverse as any in college football.
“The Big Sky is more spread and throw style,” Rocco said. “It’s more prevalent than the big personnel run teams North Dakota happened to be. UND is probably the outlier. But when you talk about throwing the football, I don’t know if I’ve seen anyone do it better than Eastern Washington.”
While many teams in the Big Sky run the spread, three of the Big Sky’s four playoff teams — UND, Cal Poly, Weber State — operate run-heavy offensive attacks. But the last Big Sky team standing in the final eight of the FCS is the team that throws the ball as prevalently as any in the country.
EWU quarterback Gage Gubrud/by Brooks Nuanez
In last week’s 31-14 win over No. 14 Central Arkansas in Cheney, EWU sophomore quarterback Gage Gubrud completed a program-record 47 passes in 64 attempts for 449 yards. UCA usually employs man coverage on the outside but after a lopsided loss to Sam Houston State’s explosive offense, the Bears adjusted and played mostly 3-deep zone against the Eagles.
“Most teams are trying to make us earn everything,” EWU ninth-year head coach Beau Baldwin said. “We just have to recognize it early and continue to adjust.”
Gubrud’s two touchdown passes came in the second quarter as EWU took a 14-0 deficit and flipped it on its head to take a 21-14 lead into halftime. Gubrud found reigning Walter Payton Award winner Cooper Kupp 10 times for 95 yards and both scores. Kupp did not play after the first series of the second half as he continues to nurse a left shoulder injury.
In Kupp’s absence, All-Big Sky senior Kendrick Bourne stepped up to catch 13 passes fr 126 yards. Senior first-team All-Big Sky selection Shaq Hill added seven catches for 63 yards and his two-yard rushing touchdown with 1:18 left stamped EWU’s 11th playoff win under Baldwin.
“Offensively, their wide receiving corps is probably as talented as any we’ve seen,” Rocco said. “The (James Madison) group is very, very good. My group is very, very good. I think that really is their strength offensively. They have enough balance in the run game where you certainly have to have your numbers right to defend the run and defend the box. And the quarterback is really talented.”
James Madison’s Khalid Abdullah has rushed for more than 1,400 yards this season/ contributed
Fourth-seeded James Madison, the Colonial Athletic Association champion, hosts No. 5 Sam Houston State in a matchup of two of the most explosive teams in the FCS. The Dukes are second in the country in scoring at 48.3 points per game, behind only SHSU (53.1 ppg). EWU averaged 43.1 points per game, best in the Big Sky and third in the country. JMU averaged 525.8 yards of total offense per game, third in the FCS behind Sam Houston (570.4) and EWU (540.4). But the Dukes do it with a run-heavy attack that averages 285.6 yards per game on the ground compared to 240.2 passing yards per outing.
Eastern Washington has consistently led the country in passing offense under Baldwin’s direction. This season is no different as the Eagles are throwing for an FCS-best 411 yards per game. Gubrud and Kupp shared Big Sky Offensive Player of the Year honors and are two of three finalists for the Payton — along with SHSU quarterback Jeremiah Briscoe. Kupp has 101 catches for 1,392 yards and 14 touchdowns. Gubrud has thrown for 4,520 yards and 42 touchdowns.
Facing the second-best rushing defense in the country last week, Eastern took what the Bears gave them. EWU had no rush longer than Gubrud’s 22-yard scramble and no pass longer than Nic Sblendorio’s 30-yard reception. Yet EWU ran 100 plays and possessed the ball for nearly 39 minutes.
“Some element of ball control will be really important this week,” Rocco said. “For Eastern to run 100 plays last week is really extraordinary because I didn’t feel like they were going at some crazy break neck pace.”
Eastern Washington’s defense has shown steady improvement operating second-year defensive coordinator Jeff Schmedding’s scheme. Despite missing the services of starting linebackers Miquiyah Zamora, a first-team All-Big Sky selection, and Alex Kacmarcik, the Eagles pitched a second-half shutout while allowing a season-low 244 yards.
Richmond sophomore quarterback Kevin Johnson/ Richmond athletics
The Eagles now face a balanced offense that has added a new weapon since the beginning of the playoffs. All-CAA junior quarterback Kyle Lauletta tore his ACL in Richmond’s season-ending loss to William & Mary, a defeat that likely cost the Spiders a playoff seed. Sophomore Kevin Johnson, a former 3-star recruit from Atlanta, spent the season traveling with the varsity while redshirting to preserve his eligibility. Following the William & Mary loss, Johnson went to Rocco and asked if he could lead the Spiders in the playoffs.
“When Kevin stepped up and said he wanted to take the role as the quarterback, it sparked a fire throughout the entire team,” Tyler Wilkins, who caught a 54-yard bomb to set up Trau’s game-winner, said on Monday. “It gave everyone hope. It was almost like a second burst of energy. Everyone embraced it, everyone accepted it. What people didn’t realize is that Kevin was always good. We had a tough competition here with quarterbacks lately.
“He has extreme poise back there and doesn’t get nervous. Kevin is a true quarterback.”
The dual-threat with a rocket arm threw for 317 yards and a touchdown while rushing for another score in Richmond’s 39-10 win over North Carolina A&T in the first round. Johnson threw for 289 yards and two touchdowns agaisnt UND. He hit Brian Brown for a 79-yard touchdown in the first quarter to knot the score 7-7. North Dakota ripped off 21 straight points to hold a 24-7 lead late in the third quarter. Johnson’s 9-yard touchdown run sparked the rally. His eight-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Hudson tied the game 24-24 with 5;24 left. His bomb to Wilkins set up Trau’s 18-yard game-winning kick as the clock expired.
“The quarterback has a really strong arm and is able to run around,”EWU senior rover J.J. Njoku said. “That’s obviously going to cause some problems. They have a really good running back, good o-line, receivers who can make plays. It’s a challenge but we are looking forward to it.”
Eastern Washington defensive lineman Jay-Tee Tiuli (99) and Samson Ebukam (3) plant Montana quarterback Brady Gustafson (3) into the red turf in Cheney in a 35-16 Eagle victory/by Aaron Malone – EWU Athletics
Njoku compared Richmond’s offensive scheme to attacks run by Big Sky members Portland State and UC Davis because of pre-snap motions and offensive balance. He said Brown, a 6-foot-2 Richmond native, has “a lot of tools in his arsenal”, from ball skills to speed to height to competitiveness.
The All-American is in the midst of his third straight 1,000-yard season. He has 243 catches for 4,159 yards and 23 touchdowns in his decorated career. Brown has 77 catches for 1,441 yards and 11 touchdowns this season.
“One of the things that jumps out at me is they take a lot of shots down the field,” Baldwin said. “They are not afraid to throw the ball down the field as deep as anybody we’ve faced this year.”
Although EWU and Richmond share no common opponents and are located three time zones apart, the two teams do share one thing: coveted coaches. Rocco’s name has been in circulated as a leading candidate for the opening at Delaware. Rocco said Monday he is “focused on the process of winning” instead of the speculation.
Speculation surrounding the openings at Oregon and Nevada included Baldwin’s name. According to multiple reports, Baldwin interviewed in Reno earlier this week. Wednesday night, Nevada named Jay Norvell as their head football coach.
“Our guys are so mature,” Baldwin said a little more than 24 hours before Nevada’s decision hit the news. “We had a meeting (Tuesday) and our philosophy was to be up front and tell them exactly. Most of the time most years down this road, you read certain things and most of what you read out there, especially these days, just isn’t true. But I tell them up front this is what’s true, this is exactly what happened the last couple of days. By doing that, it allows you the freedom to say you don’t need to talk about it and boom, they are all in that mode that it’s Richmond until 4:30 on Saturday afternoon when the game ends.”
