Jamie Wachter | The Valdosta Daily TimesValdosta State quarterback Roland Rivers III stiff-arms Albany State linebacker Zavondric Shingleton on Sept. 3 at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.

VALDOSTA, Ga. — Following a dismal showing in the season opener, the Valdosta State offense stepped back in order to move forward.

With an open week between the 16-7 season-opening win against Albany State on Sept. 3 and the No. 22 Blazers’ trek to North Alabama on Saturday to open Gulf South Conference play, VSU started working from the bottom up to improve offensively. VSU and UNA play at 7 p.m. Saturday at Braly Stadium in Florence, Alabama.

“Offensively, we had to go back to ground 1 and say, ‘Hey, here is what the film shows, and that is we have to be more aggressive, more passionate, more physical in our play in all parts – line, receivers, and if we do that, we’ll execute better,'” VSU coach Kerwin Bell said Wednesday. “You can’t execute at a high level unless you’re very physical and we didn’t do that that night and the film showed it.”

The stats showed it as well with the Blazers garnering just 270 yards of total offense, 203 passing and 67 more on the ground. Sophomore Roland Rivers III completed just 13 of his 32 passes but he did find Dallas Baldner for a touchdown and didn’t turn the ball over. Rivers also led VSU with 44 yards rushing.

“We tried to coach Roland up and if you watch film, you’ll see he just didn’t go through his reads,” Bell added. “We’re just trying to get him to stay simple, you’re on the road, keep it simple and make sure you take care of the football. I thought he did a good job of that. Just go through his reads and things will be there, it showed on film. I think he learned a lot. He understands he was pressing a lot, trying to put too much on his shoulders. 

“Just take what they give him, play your system, play what you’ve got to get done and I think everything else will take care of itself.”

UNA, which lost its opener 31-12 to Jacksonville State, which is ranked in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision, also is coming off an open week. That early chance to correct mistakes is something Bell was excited about when the Blazers’ schedule was finished.

“We probably would have wanted one here in another four or five weeks when we’re banged up, but I really like it,” he said. “I’ve had it before at JU because there’s so much you can work on. Everyone will tell you after that first live action against another team, you get to see a lot of things that you maybe need to work on, some of your strengths and weaknesses, and now to have another week on top of that, between Week 1 and 2 is very important for us and we’re going to take advantage of that.”

The Blazers agree that the extra time has been advantageous.

“A bye week is always going to be good to get your body, get your feet back up under you,” offensive lineman Jeremy King said. “It gives you a little bit of time to relax and get your mind off of football. But at the same time, we all knew that we had a long stretch ahead of us and that we had to stay focused. The bye week wasn’t anything we could slack off on because we knew we had to get better after our first game performance. We saw that on film. We knew that we had to get better, get stronger in the weight room, everything.”

Rivers added: “It gave us another week to get up on North Al and watch film and recover our bodies. It was definitely a good thing to have a bye week leading into our first GSC game. We’re looking to have a great game.”

For the Blazers to have that great game against the No. 20 Lions, a rival that has won eight of the past 11 meetings and leads the series 23-16-1, they’ll have to learn from what they saw from the Albany State film and the lessons they’ve worked on since.

“We had a lot of time to sit back and watch the film and see what we did wrong,” Rivers said. “We just have to come out and play harder and play with a purpose, play with confidence and I feel way better going into this game offensively. 

“I feel like we’re going up there with a chip on our shoulders to show what we’re really capable of.”

King added: “This past week we’ve been working on being more physical, playing smarter, playing faster. We all came out kind of timid but it was the first game jitters. As a team, I feel like this past week and a half, we’ve come further than what we were that first game. 

“Hopefully it correlates on the field Saturday.”

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