VALDOSTA — After its best performance of the season last week, No. 24 Valdosta State will need a special game from its special teams today.

With former Coffee High star Tyreek Hill deep for West Alabama, the Tigers (6-2, 2-2 in the Gulf South Conference) are dangerous on punt and kick returns. That has 5-2, 2-2 Blazers’ coach David Dean, who is one win behind the school record of 76 wins set by predecessor Chris Hatcher, worried about neutralizing him at noon today at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.

 “Yeah, he’s scary,” Dean said. “You want to kick the ball away from him if you can but if you do that, you’re susceptible to giving up field position on bad kicks, kicking the ball out of bounds or shanked punts and different things like that.

“The one thing that we’ve been very successful with has been our kickoff team. So we’re going to line up, we’re going to run down there and hopefully we’re going to make plays on him. The thing is, if he gets loose, we’re not going to have anybody that can catch him. We’ve got to keep him hemmed up and if we can get him hemmed up somewhere, I think we’ve got a chance.

“Gavin (Wilson) is going to have to do a good job of pinning him against the sideline on punts and hanging the ball up there in the air and giving our speed time to get down there and not let him make all those moves. And we can’t miss tackles on him, that’s the big thing. We can’t let him get loose.”

Hill, who transferred to UWA from Oklahoma State, has had no trouble getting loose so far this season. He has returned two punts for touchdowns, including a 78-yarder last week against Delta State, and two kicks for scores as well.

Complimenting Hill, who has rushed for 229 yards as well as leading the Tigers with 398 yards receiving on 21 catches, UWA’s offense has been potent recently as well. Redshirt freshman quarterback Harry Satterwhite, who has completed 62 of 115 passes for 818 yards with nine touchdowns has helped spark the Tigers after they lost a pair of quarterbacks to injuries early.

“They’re playing very well with him and he’s playing with a lot of confidence, throwing the ball real well,” Dean said. “They’re playing very well, especially offensively. They’re doing a great job of getting balls in the hands of guys that can make plays right now. You can tell that they’re playing with a lot of confidence.”

Leading the VSU defensive effort trying to stop Satterwhite and company are linebackers Sharmaine Washington and Kenny Murphy, who have 54 and 43 tackles, respectively.

West Alabama’s defense, meanwhile, should provide a challenge for Valdosta State star running back Cedric O’Neal as he continues to close in on the school’s career rushing record of 3,859, held by Aaron Jenkins. O’Neal, who already holds the VSU record with 40 career rushing touchdowns, is 250 yards behind Ross after last week’s 191-yard breakout against Shorter. O’Neal also rushed for 107 yards against West Georgia on Oct. 10 as he has churned out 563 yards this season.

Those games against stingy run defenses has Dean optimistic the Blazers can have some success against the Tigers, who allow just 118.1 yards rushing per game, as well.

“Defensively, they’ve got a tremendous amount of speed,” he said. “They’re probably as good as I’ve seen agains the run. The only one that’s really rushed for more than 120 yards against them was Shorter, they rushed for 400 and something and threw for zero. They’re very good defensively. This is going to be a heck of a challenge. We’ve got our hands full. 

“I think our guys are confident. Last week we ran the ball well against Shorter and Shorter is a team that is good against the run and has been all year long, they’ve given up yards on the pass and not on the run, and our guys were able to go out there. That’s one thing we challenged our guys to do against West Georgia and challenged our guys to do against Shorter was run against a good defense. And it’s the same thing this week, we have to be able to run against a good defense.”

That will help open up things for a VSU passing attack that has enjoyed success with both senior quarterback EJ Hilliard and redshirt freshman Roland Rivers. Hilliard has completed 108 of 173 passes for 1,107 yards as the Blazers’ starter, including an 18-of-25 performance at Shorter on Oct. 22. Rivers, meanwhile, has completed 32 of 51 for 459 yards boosted by a 14-of-20 outing against Mississippi College on Oct. 17.

A large aid in that success has been the growth of a young offensive line that starts freshman Jeremy King and sophomores Josh Adams and David May along with junior Aram Wynn, a junior college transfer, and senior Jack Bradley.

“Our pass protection is getting better,” Dean said. “Those young guys up front, they’re learning and they’re understanding the speed of the game now and they’re getting better. We always want to be peaking at the right time and getting better and better, and slowly, I think we are getting better. 

“It’s just a matter of putting it all together from a standpoint of finishing off drives and not having mental mistakes because that’s going to be huge in this game is not turning the ball over to those guys and being able to finish drives.”

Jamie Wachter is the sports editor of the Valdosta Daily Times and can be followed on Twitter @jlwachter.