Mustangs to play surprising Rams Friday in conference road contest

Kickoff time is 7:30 p.m. at Skyland.

"The thing I'm most impressed about is they're physical," Coach Tim Hawkins said of the Rams (6-2, 5-1). "Defensively, they run well."

Most preseason forecasts didn't have the Rams a factor in the MAC race in Coach Mike Houston's first season. They struggled in their opener before edging lowly Mountain Heritage 14-12 then showed promise in a 12-0 loss to powerful Reynolds.

Since conference play began, Roberson has been on a roll losing only to Asheville 16-14 when a last-second field goal was no good. SM lost to the Cougars 32-21.

A win over the Mustangs and next week against Franklin would give the Rams a share of the MAC title.

SM (3-6, 3-3) is not out of the playoff picture but must win Friday to keep postseason hopes alive.

Quarterback Todd Davey directs the Rams' offense from the I formation. They use a 44 defense. "They just run basic plays and execute really well," Hawkins said.

The coach has been very impressed with fullback Travis Holmes and free safety Ryan Nesby.

"Holmes is always getting positive yardage," Hawkins said. "He's a beast running the football inside. Nesby is the best free safety I've seen all year. He plays the run at the line of scrimmage, and he plays the pass well. He also makes big plays on offense at wide receiver."

In addition to Asheville, the teams have had four common opponents. They both own wins over East Henderson by identical 14-7 scores. SM blasted North Buncombe 47-8, and Roberson ripped the Hawks 42-12. The Rams defeated Tuscola 37-14 while the Mustangs downed the Mountaineers 35-28. Roberson's biggest victory of the year came Friday by stopping Erwin 20-13. SM fell to the Warriors 32-6.

The Rams also have a 21-20 conference win over Enka in overtime.

"We've got to run the ball and find a way to stop the run," Hawkins said. "We've not been consistent stopping the run, and we haven't had a consistent running game all year. When you aren't able to run the ball, you always feel you're trying to trick somebody."

Part of the problem with the running game has been a series of injuries to offensive linemen. Most of them returned against Franklin, and Hawkins hopes with practice time this week the running game will improve. He said the Mustangs may go to a bigger backfield with players such as Rion Gray, Josh Day and Jonathan Bradley carrying the ball.

Running back Josh Torrans had a sore knee after the Franklin game. He status for Friday was not known early this week.

The Mustangs are 3-1 all-time against Roberson, but the teams have not played since 1992.

Turning to Friday's loss to Franklin, Hawkins said, "I thought we played about as well as we could in the first half in a lot of ways. The second half for some reason we didn't play with the same intensity. It was really confusing to me."

SM led 14-13 early in the second quarter, but Franklin scored the game's final 29 points. The Mustangs were within 21-14 late in the third period when the Panthers started a string of three touchdowns in four possessions to pull away.

"I don't know if it was our players wearing down," Hawkins said. "Franklin is a good football team and what they do they do well. They continued to do the same thing and that finally got to us."

He noted the Mustangs were never able to get good field position in the second half.

The Panthers compiled 365 yards on the ground. Leading the way was Josh Durm with 243 yards. He picked up double digit yards on half of his 18 carries.

"They had too many possessions in the game," the coach said. "We punted 10 times."

The Mustangs tried several different formations, including four wide receivers to one side, and a lot of motion. It worked early with 162 yards passing in the first half, including 101 yards in the first quarter.

"We had lost our tailback (Randy Johnson) to in-school problems," Hawkins said. "We felt we needed to do some different things, and that kept us in the ball game for a while."

SM was limited to 56 yards on the ground. Of 38 rushing plays, 14 went for zero or negative yardage, and only three went for 10 or more yards.

"Right now we don't have a running game," the coach said. "We've lost our two best backs (Johnson and the injured Dustin Melton), and we've got a lot of linemen not getting a lot of practice time due to injuries."

Hawkins said Matt Nicholson played well defensively. He made 11 tackles and had several quarterback pressures.

Back to Sports: 11/01/01.