September
11, 2008
A week removed from a 42-6 trouncing over archrival
and 25th-ranked Mississippi College in Backyard Brawl IX, Millsaps
will make the short trip down Riverside Drive on Saturday, Sept.
13 to face off with NAIA-foe
Belhaven
College. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. at
H.T. Newell Field.
Scouting the Majors:
Millsaps is ranked 24th in this week's D3football.com Top 25 poll after a blowout
win over Mississippi College. The Majors have been ranked each of the last
two seasons, both only lasting a week, and are seeking their first 2-0 start
to a season since 1996. They have won 16 of their last 19 overall.
Third-year head coach Mike DuBose has done wonders
in turning around this Millsaps program, helping the Majors to
a 16-6 overall record (12-1 SCAC) and two Southern Collegiate
Athletic Conference titles since his tenure began
in 2006. DuBose has 15 of 22 starters back to make a push for
a second playoff berth in three seasons.
Senior QB Juan Joseph, the All-American hopeful,
picked up right where he left off in 2007, completing 21-of-30
passes for 266 yards and three TDs to help lead Millsaps to a
season-opening win. In turn, Joseph was named the SCAC's Co-Offensive
Player of the Week for the seventh time in his career. Raymece
Savage led Millsaps' corps of receivers with five catches
and Donnie Epps led the way with 92 yards and two scores, whereas
the running backs pounded out 172 yards on the ground and three
scores.
On
defense, senior Michael Sims had
a team-high seven stops (five solo) for Millsaps to earn D3football.com
National Team of the Week honors, followed by six apiece from
Lee Klein and Will Hawkins. Senior Marcus Harris and freshman
Kenny
Reeves
each
had a pick.
Scouting the Blazers:
Playing just their 11th overall season of football (50-59 overall),
the Green and Gold are off to an 0-2 start for a fourth-straight
season
after a 49-12 loss to Division II West
Alabama
and
a
27-19
loss to
22nd-ranked Concordia
College. They will play their first home game of
the season on Saturday at H.T. Newell – 1 of 8 home games
on the year.
Belhaven is led by head coach Don Lee who has led the Blazers
to a 17-18 overall record in three seasons, including the first
two games of 2008. The Blazers were 5-6 last year (3-2 Mid-South)
and are seeking their fourth-straight win over Millsaps overall.
Senior QB Andrew Carcich heads the Blazer offense which has
put up an average of 15.5 ppg thus far, throwing for 257 yards
and running for 69 more, while RB Ricardo Bolton is averaging
60.5 ypg on the ground. On defense, senior Eric Ortiz has tallied
14 tackles and 2.0 sacks through the first two games in addition
to three other Blazers with double digit tackles.
Don't let the 0-2 record fool you, this Belhaven team is big,
quick and hungry for a win.
Last
Meeting:
The last time these two teams hooked up back on Sept. 24,
2005 at Harper Davis Field, Belhaven scored the first 16 points
of the contest to take a
16-0 lead
into the
locker room and then held off two defensive scores from Millsaps
off a blocked punt touchdown from Ronnie Wheat and an 80-yard
blocked field goal return from Ray Kline to win it 30-13.
The Belhaven defense held Millsaps to just six first downs on
the day and 101 total yards of offense, while gaining 17 first
downs of its own and 396 yards of total offense. The Majors were
a dismal 1-of-13 on third down and reached the red zone only
once – midway through the third quarter.
Belhaven's Ryan Henry was 23-for-37 on the day with 265 yards
passing and three TD tosses of 11, 15 and 18, while Graylin Allison
grabbed two TDs through the air and one on the ground. For Millsaps,
three different Majors combined to go 7-for-18 for just 52 yards
passing with the lone bright spot, punter Todd Rhoden, booting
eight balls for an average of 42.4 yards (long of 67).
The Series:
Saturday's game will mark the fourth overall meeting between
the two teams with Belhaven winning the previous three meetings
by an average of 16.3 points. The last meeting, back in 2005
at Millsaps, Belhaven won convincingly 30-13 and let the Majors
know by storming the 50-yard line and pouncing all over the
Millsaps logo. Only a few Major seniors remain from that loss,
but remember the actions after the game. It will be interesting
to see what happens at the end of this year's contest.
Live Webcast Information:
Every game of the 2008 season can be watched live on the
internet at www.atwsportscast.com courtesy
of the Millsaps Athletic department. Pregame usually starts 10
minutes before kickoff with
Derrel Palmer of Jackson's ESPN Radio handling play-by-play duties
along with
a special guest for color. Thanks to the 135 viewers for Week
1's game against MS College.
