Once again, Mullens was good - not great but efficient. 24/38 for 265 and 4 TD's to four different receivers is a good day for any college QB. Seeing Mullens leave the pocket for a few yds instead of forcing throws in the redzone was another positive sign. In all he had two rushes for 10yds.
Jalen Richard had one of his best days running and on special teams. 8.8 yds per carry is outstanding regardless of the competition. He had 114 yds on 13 carries. An argument can be made that he should have gotten more touches but sharing duties with Ito limits his overall production. One of the highlights of the day was Richard 95 yd kickoff return. After a 75 yd drive by Charlotte, Jalen took things into his own hands and answered the score with his own, breaking to the outside around the 35 yd line and turning on the speed. Our special teams have been less than stellar all year but Richard showed that the elements needed to be special are there.
Our recievers were IMO on and off today. One sore spot was a few drops, one of which was on third down by Thomas. But Thomas did go over 100 yds for the day and scored on the long play early in the game. Martin was Martin, 8 receptions, 54 yds a few kept drives alive. A bright spot was the play of Korey Robinson and D J Thompson both had two catches but Robinson in particular fought hard for every yd.
With the Offensive production, the O - Line gets all the credit. The big uglies keep the defense at bay and opened up some big holes throughout the game. The coaches utilized both lines (1st and 2nd) throughout the game. This depth is key to continuing to build this program IMO. I lost track in the fourth quarter but I suspect the 2nd team got most of the snaps.
The defense was again menacing throughtout the game. I thought the LB's had a really good day and the corners were outstanding. Kalen's interception was a thing of beauty. Three interceptions on the day is proof of the coverage today. Granted one of the INTs was by Thigpen but he did drop into coverage.
Charlottes total yardage of 257, of course, does not include the long run by Phillips that was negated by a off-setting penalties, but it is indicative of the overall play of the defense. Charlotte came into the game relying on the run but found little success for the most part. They ended up with 137 on the ground and 120 in the air.
The kicker did OK. He missed an xtra point but slipped on the turf as he was kicking. His kickoffs were right on the edge of the endzone line most of the night baiting the returner to bring it out and they did several times ending in bad field position most of the time.
Tyler Matthews lead the team in the fourth quarter with the game well in hand. He handed off for the most part but did get his first completion of the season to T-man. Delaunte' Thornton was very effective and impressive with his bowling ball style running. This kid is a load and runs really hard.
Overall IMO the team earned a B+. When you consider that Charlotte does not have the depth that a lot of the teams in this league have, it is impressive how competitive they are. This team gave a 7-0 Temple team fits for the first half of their game but the lack of depth showed in the third quarter. USM seemed to struggle on offense the first half of this game but my opinion is that most of that was self-inflicted by Southernmiss with the drops. We still have some things to improve on but getting W's is paramount.
Big shout out to Fox 23 for carrying the game!
I am enjoying watching this team this year, it has been exciting and fun.
SMTTT!
Jalen Richard had one of his best days running and on special teams. 8.8 yds per carry is outstanding regardless of the competition. He had 114 yds on 13 carries. An argument can be made that he should have gotten more touches but sharing duties with Ito limits his overall production. One of the highlights of the day was Richard 95 yd kickoff return. After a 75 yd drive by Charlotte, Jalen took things into his own hands and answered the score with his own, breaking to the outside around the 35 yd line and turning on the speed. Our special teams have been less than stellar all year but Richard showed that the elements needed to be special are there.
Our recievers were IMO on and off today. One sore spot was a few drops, one of which was on third down by Thomas. But Thomas did go over 100 yds for the day and scored on the long play early in the game. Martin was Martin, 8 receptions, 54 yds a few kept drives alive. A bright spot was the play of Korey Robinson and D J Thompson both had two catches but Robinson in particular fought hard for every yd.
With the Offensive production, the O - Line gets all the credit. The big uglies keep the defense at bay and opened up some big holes throughout the game. The coaches utilized both lines (1st and 2nd) throughout the game. This depth is key to continuing to build this program IMO. I lost track in the fourth quarter but I suspect the 2nd team got most of the snaps.
The defense was again menacing throughtout the game. I thought the LB's had a really good day and the corners were outstanding. Kalen's interception was a thing of beauty. Three interceptions on the day is proof of the coverage today. Granted one of the INTs was by Thigpen but he did drop into coverage.
Charlottes total yardage of 257, of course, does not include the long run by Phillips that was negated by a off-setting penalties, but it is indicative of the overall play of the defense. Charlotte came into the game relying on the run but found little success for the most part. They ended up with 137 on the ground and 120 in the air.
The kicker did OK. He missed an xtra point but slipped on the turf as he was kicking. His kickoffs were right on the edge of the endzone line most of the night baiting the returner to bring it out and they did several times ending in bad field position most of the time.
Tyler Matthews lead the team in the fourth quarter with the game well in hand. He handed off for the most part but did get his first completion of the season to T-man. Delaunte' Thornton was very effective and impressive with his bowling ball style running. This kid is a load and runs really hard.
Overall IMO the team earned a B+. When you consider that Charlotte does not have the depth that a lot of the teams in this league have, it is impressive how competitive they are. This team gave a 7-0 Temple team fits for the first half of their game but the lack of depth showed in the third quarter. USM seemed to struggle on offense the first half of this game but my opinion is that most of that was self-inflicted by Southernmiss with the drops. We still have some things to improve on but getting W's is paramount.
Big shout out to Fox 23 for carrying the game!
I am enjoying watching this team this year, it has been exciting and fun.
SMTTT!
