GMC will try to calm the Storm for win No. 5 in Florida
Published 1:45 pm Friday, September 30, 2016
- The Bulldogs' rushing attack has produced three different leading rushers in as many weeks.
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — It has been more than a month since the now 13th-ranked Georgia Military College Bulldogs (4-1) have had to deal with the sour taste of defeat and they hope to keep it that way on the road this weekend against the ASA College-Miami Silver Storm (4-0). Head coach Bert Williams and his ballclub will look to knock off their second consecutive undefeated foe as well as grab their third road win in a row.
The state of Florida, the Miami area in particular, is known as a major hotbed for football talent and Williams said ASA-Miami is reaping the benefits of its backyard.
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“They’ve probably got as sweet a spot to recruit in as anybody in the country. We know there’s going to be a high level of talent down there and they have very good team speed. It is a young program but the level of talent that goes through there has brought it up to speed pretty quickly. We know we’re going to have a strong challenge in all parts of the game going down there and playing in their home.”
The Silver Storm offense with its prolific athletes is averaging greater than 50 points per game in 2016 and will try to spread the GMC defense out to create space for playmakers, according to Williams.
“I think it will be a similar type of game plan we saw last week at DuPage,” said the head coach. “I think they’ll be in a lot of three- and four-wide receiver sets and just get the ball to fast guys with as much air around them as possible and see if they can make us miss a tackle to get a big play.”
He added the Dogs’ defense, which is only allowing a little more 13 points per game, would have to be careful to not focus too much on the quick passing game.
“They’ve got good running backs and a good line, so they can line up four-wide with one back and do the various plays you can run from there. We’ll have to have another really strong game defensively to hold their offense in check.”
Williams praised his team for improving the past few weeks when it comes to communication on the field, and said that will play a key part in keeping the winning streak going.
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“We’ve done a much better job communicating the calls and making sure everybody’s on the same page. After the good communication we’ve done an increasingly better job executing the calls that we send in, so we feel pretty good about those things at least with what we’ve done the last few weeks. We look to be trending upwards at this point.”
The defensive side of the ball is not the only area in which GMC is improving. The diverse rushing attack boasted a third different leading rusher in as many weeks, and quarterback Cam Rosendahl has done a better job of throwing the football as the season wears on.
When asked if there is any concern with his team taking a long road trip for the third consecutive week, Williams said, “Absolutely — there’s residual wear and tear, loss of sleep, loss of recovery time, and loss of preparation. You obviously have more time to meet, prepare, and do what you need to do when you’re at home. You don’t have those travel issues to deal with, so travel’s always a challenge, especially the way we have to travel. It’s just something we have to work to overcome and make sure our guys are as prepared and as fresh as we can have them for game day.”
The Bulldogs and Silver Storm will kick off from Hialeah, Fla. just outside of Miami at 1 p.m. Saturday.