- September 11th, 2012, 2:40 pm
#402508
Here is the scouting report on egriz
The Liberty Flames head to Missoula in what I would venture to guess (without doing any research) is their first trip out here and probably our first matchup ever. Think Liberty is a mid-major patsy that’ll just roll over to the Griz? Think again, as I’m looking through their record over the last six seasons it goes (starting with 2011 and moving back) 7-4, 8-3, 8-3, 10-2, 8-3, 6-5. That’s a combined 47-20 record. This team is incredibly competitive and it looks like they have an annual game against JMU and the last two years they lost by just 3 and 7 (lost by 7 in 2010 right after JMU beat Va Tech and was #3 in the FCS)… and you can’t say JMU was coming off a rough game as this matchup occurred after JMU had a bye week! Liberty’s QB of the last two years was on the Peyton watch list and fortunately for the Griz he graduated The Girz will have their hands full this weekend, lets do this:
Record: 0-2
20-17 loss to Wake Forest: In a rainy evening Liberty gave WF all they could handle. Liberty held a 14-7 lead late into the 3rd qtr until WF had a pick-6 to tie it up. Wake got the lead early in the 4th on a TD but a botched 2-pt conversion left the score 20-14. On their next possession Liberty got a fieldgoal to make it 20-17 but after that had 2 possessions that got near mid-field but couldn’t get into position to tie the game (or take the lead). Liberty did miss a fieldgoal in the 2nd quarter that came back to haunt them. In the game Liberty passed for 292 and ran for 91 yards while Wake ran for 98 and passed for 195, Liberty was ok on 3rd down going 7 for 18 on conversions.
31-24 loss to Norfolk State: Norfolk in its opening game held it’s opponent to just 104 yards but allowed 330 to Liberty in this game. Liberty held a 17-7 lead at the half and with exception to just 2 drives kept Norfolk under wraps. In the 2nd half it went wild, Norfolk opened with a TD to get within 3 and then soon after took a punt back to take a 19-17 lead (2 point failed). Then 4 minutes later Liberty returned the favor with a punt return of their own for a TD to grab a 24-19 lead. Early in the 4th Norfolk got the lead back 25-24. With the ball back Liberty had a short drive stall. Norfolk didn’t get far with the ball back and Liberty took over with 4:57 left in the game, however disaster struck as they fumbled the ball away and this time Norfolk scooped up the ball and scored. Liberty still had a chance and down 31-24 they went from midfield after a good kickoff return and got a 1st and goal with 1:00 left in the game, however they couldn’t get in the endzone facing a 4th and goal at the 1 on a play-fake out of 3-TE set the fullback couldn’t catch a pass when hit at the same time on the goalline. Liberty ran for 170 and passed for 158, but NSU barely outgained them mostly on their 251 rushing (and 92 passing). Both teams lost fumbles and what didn’t show up in the box score is that Liberty picked off two 2-pt conversion passes. The game might’ve been costly for Liberty as their QB Brian Hudson was hit hard and smashed on the ground fumbling the ball away. He did not return, however the backup Woodrum lead Liberty to almost scoring a TD to tie the game.
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Players to watch:
#18 Brian Hudson - Early news sources are quiet on if Hudson will play. If he does look for a similar attack that we have here at Montana with Trent McKinney. Hudson can run and pass, however so far this year he’s just got an 8 yard run for the longest on 19 attempts. Passing wise he’s 54% in completions, has thrown 3 TDs to just 1 Int and averages about 204 yards per game.
#6 Josh Woodrum - the backup that will play if Hudson cannot go. Woodrum is a taller QB just like Hudson, both stand 6-3. He’s just 4-8 passing this year and averages 4 yards per carry (on just 4 rushes though).
#20 Aldreakis Allen – The running back that will carry the load. He didn’t play against Wake but had 127 yards rushing against Norfolk and averaged 5.8 YPC. Watch for him to catch passes too, he had a 23 yard catch last week. Allen is a BIG dude… 6-0 and 230 pounds. Just like Dan Moore he’s also a guy we’ll see back there returning kickoffs.
#9 Pat Kelly – The 6’2” 190 pound WR who was 2nd on the team last year in receptions and yards (591). So far this year Kelly leads the team with 13 catches and 127 yards… no TDs yet though this year. Kelly is a 1st team pre-season all conference pick.
#42 Justin Gunn – A big 6-4 TE that’s got 88 receiving yards and an average of 17.6 ypc so far this season.
#17 Elliot Dutra – a backup fullback this year he’s now at WR, he’s got 70 yards and is 2nd on the team with 6 catches.
#24 Sirchauncey Holloway – a shorter guy at 5’7” but he’s a big guy as well at 205. Holloway has almost 100 rushing yards and 1 TD this season. He’s also got 41 receiving yards and 1 receiving TD.
#3 Kevin Fogg – Punt returner/kick returner/DB… my advice DON’T kick to him, he’s got a punt return TD, averages almost 14 yards per punt return and averages almost 36 yards per kick return. Oh yeah he also leads the team in tackles with 11. Last year he was 1st team all-America as a special teamer, he had 3 kickoff returns for TDs last year and averaged 33 yards per return.
#30 Scott Hyland – Starting WLB on defense. Hyland is 2nd on the team in tackles with 10 and 1 TFL as well as 1 QB hit.
#99 Cory Freeman – A 6’4” 265 pound defensive end Freeman has 9 tackles, 1.5 TFLs and 1 sack this season.
#19 Walt Aikens – Aikens is a 1st team all-conference pick, he’s got 8 tackles this season and a forced fumble. Aikens starts opposite of Fogg as the other corner.
#46 Francis Bah – Bah is labeled as a “beast” on the D-line. A big defensive-tackle at 6-3, 295. He’s got 6 tackles and 1 TFL this year.
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General Stats:
- Liberty has outscored their opponents 24-14 in the first half of games but has been outscored in the 2nd half by a whopping 37-17.
- Liberty runs for 130.5 yards per game while the Grizzly defense allows 109 yards per game. Liberty passes for 215 yards per game while the UM defense allows 216 per game. On the other side the Grizzlies run for 245.5 yards per game while Liberty’s defense allows 174.5 per game. The Grizzly passing game averages 280 yards per game while Liberty’s defense allows 143.5 yards per game.
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Keys for a Grizzly victory:
- The stats give a probable window into what will work, running the ball. Liberty allowing 250 to Norfolk suggests the Griz should do the same!
- Be careful throwing to the corners, two fast and aggressive corners guard the edges for Norfolk, both are a little undersized but they’ve been recognized as some of the best in the league.
- Don’t kick to Fogg. If Lider can’t get his kickoffs out the back of the endzone… maybe just boot them out of bounds? Possibly test the guy early and see if our team speed/size over-matches them but you’re running the risk of getting burned. And now it appears he’s doing it in the punt return game too.
- Force some RZ turnovers. Pulling the Grizzly stats I noticed something I normally don’t see in the Grizzly defense, opposing teams have scored 100% of the time (feildgoal or TD) when in the red zone. Grizzly defenses usually have a significantly lower % as they’re picking passes in the endzone or forcing drive/score killing fumbles.
- Keep everything in front of you. Liberty seems to want to grind it out a bit, don’t get fooled on the big plays.
- Spread the ball in the running game. Let’s get Jordan Canada on track and see if all three running backs can get close to 100 yards.
- Attack the middle. Shorter linebackers for Liberty could lead to some mis-match advantages for Greg Hardy and our TEs.
- Watch for mis-direction plays similar to ours. Watching quick highlights of Liberty’s first two games I saw a lot of similar play calls, screens dumped over blitzes, zone-read, and plays designed to look the safety or outside linebacker off the other way.
- Do your 1/11, goes with the last point. Our safeties especially need to be in position better this week.
- McKinney needs to improve his zone-reads. Too many times against App he gave Nguyen or Moore the ball when App blitzed into it which led to many no/short gain runs. I expect Liberty will try some of that as well. Trent needs to read that defense better especially in the face of run blitz.
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If the Griz let Liberty dominate the line of scrimmage it could be anybody’s game on Saturday. I think our O-line has the size and strength but Liberty has some scrappy dudes that can play. We need to get the ball moving and chew up the clock in the running game. I’m not highly convinced that Liberty has the horses to keep up with the Griz if Montana can open up a big lead.
However getting that big lead in the first place will stand a large test. Liberty held down Wake Forest for most of the game and Wake went on last week to beat North Carolina by 1 point. Liberty will try to take the crowd out of it as best they can, and while I’ll take Wa Griz anyday over Wake’s stadium/fans they’ll have seen big crowds before, so I’d expect the intimidation factor will be pretty marginal.
In the end I see the Griz O-line over-powering Liberty as the Flames have shown in both of their first two games they wear down and get out-scored in the 2nd half. I’ll say the Griz get momentum going again and win this game 30-16.
- By thecomeback
- By jmclaughlin