Adam MacDonald
The Valdosta Daily Times
VALDOSTA —
Last week, David Dean told the crowd at his radio show that he really liked his team’s chemistry and unity.
From an outside point of view, that was hard to see. For everyone outside of the coaching staff and locker room, that had to be proven on the field.
And it was. And it only took one game.
So many things went terribly wrong in VSU’s first game against Wingate. The end of the first half was badly mismanaged on the sidelines and on the field, and Wingate cut a 16-0 deficit to 16-14 in a 1 minute and 12 second span.
VSU used five of its six timeouts because the wrong personnel was on the field. That left no timeouts at the end of the first half to regroup. Instead, quarterback Jimmy Coy took a knee on fourth down with 0.7 seconds left.
No timeouts were left at the end of the second half, meaning the Blazers had to rely on a freshman quarterback to get the team lined up for a spike as the clock wound down.
VSU’s defense played stout all game, but allowed Wingate to move down the field with ease in the final minute. The Bulldogs scored a touchdown to get within two points of VSU’s lead on a busted coverage.
Not only did Wingate convert the two-point conversion, but on the play, the Blazers lost senior defensive tackle Demario Jones to an ankle injury.
It was all going horribly wrong, but no one Blazer gave up or thought it was over. Matt Pierce, who was picked on heavily last year as a true freshman at safety, took the kickoff and followed his blocking across the field into Wingate territory.
Then Brett Whitmire, with all the time in the world, thanks to his offensive line, got off three passes, including one to Ronnye Nelson for 18 yards and another one to Jackson Dean for 4 yards.
With time ticking away, the whole offensive unit got on the same page, and Whitmire spiked the ball to stop the clock.
Then kicker Daniel Andersen got off one of the biggest field goals in VSU history, one that curled through the left upright to give VSU a 25-22 win.
Andersen said it best after the game when he remarked that he couldn’t have done his job without the 10 other guys on the field.
It was more than just 10, though. The defense carried the offense most of the night, but the offense picked up the defense on the final series of the game. It was a true team effort, something VSU fans didn’t see much of last year.
A lot went wrong. More went right. It’s only that way because the Blazers stuck together.
