VALDOSTA — Less than a month ago, Valdosta State walked out of Braly Stadium a beaten team.
On Oct. 25, the North Alabama Lions handed the Blazers their second loss of the season in a lopsided affair. UNA scored 14 points off of two VSU turnovers in the first 4:01 of the game and cruised to a 41-23 victory. It was the worst defeat for VSU since UNA took down the Blazers in the 2005 playoffs, 40-13.
“We didn’t feel like we gave North Alabama our best,” VSU head coach David Dean said. “We were disappointed.”
That can all be forgotten this afternoon. The Blazers (9-2) and the Lions (10-1) will tangle for the seventh time in four years starting today at 1 p.m. Eastern time in Florence, Ala. This time, the stakes are much higher, as the winner will move on to the Super Regional Two finals while the loser sees its season come to an end.
“When you couple the fact that this is the second round of the playoffs with the fact that we’re playing North Alabama — one of our heated rivals — that makes this game huge,” Dean said. “There’s a lot of things we want to avenge.”
The Blazers come into today’s game a week removed from a dramatic 24-20 victory over Carson-Newman in the first round of the playoffs. VSU trailed 14-7 at halftime, but outscored the Eagles 17-6 in the second half behind strong performances by the defense and running back Ronnye Nelson.
The defense held Carson-Newman’s veer option attack to just 47 total yards in the second half and Nelson picked up 65 yards, including a touchdown, on VSU’s go-ahead scoring drive.
“We made a lot of adjustments in the blocking scheme,” Nelson said. “They put an extra guy in the box and we made an adjustment to pick up that guy and we started attacking the gaps and had a big day running the ball.”
North Alabama had a much easier week than VSU did. The No. 2 seeded Lions had a first round bye. That No. 2 seed was essentially gained when UNA beat VSU in the regular season.
“It’s the playoffs, it’s North Alabama, it’s a chance to go back and get revenge on someone we didn’t play well against,” Dean said. “If we’re not ready to play with all those factors then it just wasn’t meant to be.”
North Alabama is the No. 1 scoring offense in the Gulf South Conference, averaging 43.5 points per game. The Lions are led by quarterback A.J. Milwee who is one of eight finalists for the Harlon Hill Trophy which is the Division II equivalent of the Heisman. He has thrown for 23 touchdowns and just three interceptions.
“(Milwee’s) well coached, calm, handles things well under pressure and nothing really affects him,” Cauthen said. “Probably as much as anything is that he’s tough. He’s a winner and a highly competitive individual. He would make a good coach one day.”
“I don’t know that you can make him uncomfortable,” Cauthen said. “He’s going to do his thing. The biggest thing is we have to do a good job of containing him. If he doesn’t have what he wants he has a great knack of knowing where the yard marker is and he’s going to scramble to get there. He can keep drives going by do that.”
Unlike last year, UNA has an X-factor on offense in running back Mike McLendon. He rushed for over 100 yards in the first half against VSU in the first meeting between the teams, but was knocked backwards in the second half and finished with 83 yards. He rushing for an average of 68 yards per game an has 13 touchdowns.
“(McLendon’s) special, he makes them a different team from what they were last year,” Cauthen said. “He is a great added dimension to the wideouts they have. He is the key. The only problem with that is if you gang up and stop him then they’ll hurt you with the deep ball. You’re kind of rolling the dice on what you want to do.”
On the defensive side of the ball the Lions are averaging 3.27 takeaways per game. UNA has recorded 28 interceptions.
“North Alabama has a great defense,” Nelson said. “It’s going to be important to establish a running game because they force a lot of turnovers. It’s a game of strategy, and the team that has the most turnovers will lose.”
Dean echoed Nelson’s sentiment.
“We’ve had a lot of bounce in our step (on offense),” Dean said. “We’re not doing anything different. We’re just going to go out and execute better. They’re very opportunistic. They do a great job of creating turnovers. We can’t afford to do that. We cannot turn the football over.”
Although the Blazers are underdogs in this game, they believe they have the character that will allow them shock the world.
“It’s amazing how we’ve been able to come back in the second half of games,” Cauthen said. “The one thing that our guys always believe is that we’re never out of it until the clock says double zero.”
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Blazers seek revenge on North Alabama
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