Adam MacDonald
The Valdosta Daily Times
VALDOSTA —
— The Valdosta State Blazers beat Wingate 25-22 on Saturday, when Daniel Andersen kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired. VSU head coach David Dean said that since he came back to coach VSU in 2000, the Blazers hadn’t had a game-winning field goal until Saturday.
— Dean credited a very vocal crowd of 9,351 fans for helping the Blazers. Dean said the other crowd noise that he can remember rivaling the noise on Wingate’s two-point conversion try was when VSU returned two punts for touchdowns against North Alabama in the 2007 playoffs.
— Dean said he can’t say enough about the poise of the offense on the final drive. The unit moved the ball into field goal range in only 43 seconds, with no timeouts and a freshman quarterback.
— Dean said that when Andersen got the kick off, the first thing he did was see if it had the distance. Once he knew it was long enough, he looked to Andersen to see if his reaction was favorable. Once he saw Andersen jumping up and down, he knew it was good.
— Dean said that on the morning of the game, Andersen said he had never kicked a game-winning field goal in his life, and he hoped to do that some day. Andersen’s roommate, freshman quarterback Justin Roberts, said he hoped Andersen wouldn’t get a chance, because he thought he would miss it.
— Andersen was named the Gulf South Conference Special Teams Player of the Week and the VSU Star Athlete of the Week.
— Dean said the game should not have been as close as it was. He said the Blazers made too many mistakes. One of Dean’s main issues was that VSU used five of its six timeouts substituting and getting the right personnel on the field. He said that was correctable, and the coaching staff will tell the players that they can’t substitute for each other.
— Dean addressed the wild ending to the first half, when Wingate scored a touchdown on a controversial call as time expired. Wingate quarterback Cody Haffly hit wide receiver Chris Bowden on a pass that was ruled complete for a touchdown. Replay showed that Bowden never caught the pass or had his feet in bounds. Dean said the official who made the touchdown call was 20 yards away, and it was his responsibility to see if the receiver was in bounds, not if he caught the ball. That official ruled it was a touchdown without consulting the official who was supposed to be watching for the completion.
— Dean said he’d probably get in trouble for saying it, but he said that the officials had poor mechanics. Dean stayed on the field into halftime arguing with the official. He said he told the official that when he saw the replay, and how he was wrong, then he should write a letter to every VSU player apologizing for costing them a touchdown. Dean said he told the official that it was the worst call in college football, which makes him the worst official in college football.
— Dean also addressed how VSU took a knee on fourth down with 0.7 seconds left in the second quarter, while trying to run out the clock. Dean said that if he could go back and do it all over again, he would do it the exact same way. He said quarterback Jimmy Coy knew what to do, but snapped it too soon and took the knee too soon. Dean took the blame, and said he didn’t go over that scenario with Coy before the game. Dean said if he did have to do one thing differently, he would have run the play clock down to zero and taken the five-yard penalty to get the game clock as close to expiring as possible.
— This Saturday, the Blazers travel to Newberry. It will be the third game of the series between the teams. It’s tied 1-1. Newberry beat Division II Livingstone 55-0 on Saturday. Dean said Newberry’s starters only played one series in the third quarter, and probably didn’t show much of what it plans to do against VSU.
— Dean said VSU and Newberry are similar. Both teams have big, physical offensive lines and fast skill players. Dean said he hopes VSU can find an advantage on special teams.
— Dean expects Newberry to be a hostile environment, like it was in 2008, when VSU won in Newberry, 14-9. Dean said the crowd gave the Blazers the business when they walked past them, and he hopes they hear it again, because it fired his team up.
— Dean said he hopes, but also doubts, that Newberry will have some first game-type blunders, because its starters didn’t play a complete game.
— Dean said that, on film, Newberry looks better than Wingate.
— Dean said two Blazers are questionable with injuries for the Newberry game: defensive tackle Demario Jones, with a right ankle injury, and backup guard Lance Helton, with a leg injury. Jones said on Saturday night that he’d be ready to go.
