Eagles Host Brevard on Saturday for Community Day, 1 p.m. Kickoff at Mossy Creek
Game
Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. — The landscape of the South Atlantic
Conference has been much different in 2009 than in years past, and
the 20th-ranked Carson-Newman football team continues to find out
each week that new teams are on the rise.
After grinding out a 17-13 victory over a much-improved
Lenoir-Rhyne team last week, the Eagles are set to take on another
squad on Saturday that has turned things around since starting its
football program in 2006.
C-N (6-2, 4-0) and Brevard (6-2, 2-2) are scheduled to kickoff at
1 p.m. in Burke-Tarr Stadium, and Eagles head coach Ken Sparks said
the Tornados have improved as much as any team in the SAC.
“I would think that Brevard would want to negotiate with
Lenoir-Rhyne for that most improved title,” said Sparks,
whose team defeated the Tornados 34-3 last season. “They are
a very good football team. They are leading the conference in a
whole bunch of statistical categories. It’s going to be an
interesting week for us. We will have to be ready to
play.”
Last Saturday’s win over the Bears marked the third time in
four weeks that C-N has had to rally in the fourth quarter to pull
out a win. The Eagles trailed 13-3 heading into the final stanza
before scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns and stopping
Lenoir-Rhyne on the C-N 22 to seal the win.
Sparks said his team needs to do a better job of avoiding slow
starts.
“When you play Russian roulette, eventually that live
chamber is going to get you,” he said. “Anytime you
dodge bullets, you can’t dodge them forever. Hopefully, we
will learn that you have to play every play. We were a team that
was set up to get beat by our own doings last week.”
“I’m glad that there was a fourth quarter and that we
found a way to get it done. We do have to respect the heart of our
kids because they’ve got some heart, but we are also setting
ourselves up when we don’t have to. I’m glad to have
that one over with, but now we play a team that beat the team that
almost beat us on Saturday.”
C-N struggled to run the ball against Lenoir-Rhyne as it finished
with just 112 yards, but the Eagles’ passing attack came
through in a big way. Senior quarterback Alex Good (Greensboro,
N.C.) completed 12-of-19 passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns,
including a game-winning 22-yard scoring strike to Reggie Hubbard
(Chattanooga, Tenn.).
“We’ve always said we are a team that if we have to
throw it to win we can, and if we’ve got to run it to win, we
can,” Sparks said. “You have to be able to do both of
those. I think Saturday is another example that we depended a whole
lot on the pass to win and we did. We are very fortunate and glad
that we have that weapon also.”
Good's 177 yards of total offense against the Bears moved him into
second place in school history in total offense with 6,602 yards.
He is now 25 yards shy of breaking Leonard Guyton's (6,626)
record.
The rushing lanes won’t get any easier to open on Saturday
against Brevard. The Tornados, who are coming off a 28-13 loss to
Mars Hill, will showcase the No. 1 rushing defense in the SAC. The
Tornados are giving up a league-best 93.5 yards per game on the
ground.
Leading the way for Brevard’s defense has been senior
linebacker Stanley Jones and sophomore safety Michael Gist. Jones
leads the SAC in tackles with 84 and has also recorded four sacks,
while Gist is tied for the league lead in interceptions with five,
including three returned for touchdowns.
“There’s no question that they have three or four of
the best defensive players that we’ve seen all year,”
Sparks said. “We are going to have to go out and play a whole
lot better than we did this past ballgame.”
The Tornados will present C-N’s defense with some of the
same challenges Lenoir-Ryhne did a week ago as they also run a
triple option offense. Brevard is averaging 272 yards per game on
the ground to rank fifth in the nation, which is one spot behind
C-N (278).
Junior fullback Neville Bryce has amassed 523 yards and five
touchdowns to lead the Tornados’ rushing attack, while
quarterback Michael Crumbaker has 475 yards and three touchdowns on
the ground and 262 yards and three touchdowns through the air.
Brevard has five other backs that have gained at least 150 yards or
more on the season.
Sparks said playing an option team like Lenoir-Rhyne last week
should help the Eagles against Brevard.
"It certainly helps that a whole lot of the principles are the
same,” Sparks said. “Some of the plays are different,
but the principles are same when you have to play assignment
football. There are times we didn’t do it very well against
Lenoir-Rhyne, so maybe we will do it better this
Saturday.”
Child I.D. Kit Information:
Carson-Newman’s home football game against Brevard on
Saturday has been designated as Community Day. The Eagles and
Tornados are scheduled to kick off at 1 p.m. at Burke-Tarr
Stadium.
Not only will kids 12 and under be admitted free to the game, but
also in conjunction with the American Football Coaches Association,
FCA Football Coaches Ministry, the FBI and Carson-Newman College,
parents of the first 2,000 kids, ages 12 and under, will be given a
free Child’s I.D. Kit.
The free kits are a part of the AFCA/FBI National Child
Identification Program, which is a community service initiative
dedicated to helping protect the more than 800,000 children that
either run away or are abducted each year by providing parents and
guardians with a valuable tool they can use in an abduction or run
away situation.
The I.D. Kit allows parents to collect specific information by
easily recording the physical characteristics and fingerprints of
their children on identification cards that are then kept at home
by the parent or guardian. The kit will give authorities vital
information to assist in their efforts to locate a missing child if
the situation ever arises.
Parents can pick up the kits before and during the game in the
designated booth in the north end (opposite the Ken Sparks Athletic
Complex) of the Burke-Tarr Stadium concourse.
Should the need be greater than 2,000 kits, Carson-Newman will
host another Child’s I.D. Kit giveaway during the
Eagles’ Nov. 7 home game against Tusculum, which kicks off at
1 p.m.
