Coming off a 41-13 victory against the Stetson Hatters, the Red Foxes entered the homestretch of the season looking to continue their positive momentum as they faced off against Davidson in their final game at Tenney Stadium. Both teams were neck and neck in the first half and entered halftime knotted at 10. The second half was a different story, though.
Marist took complete control, scoring 27 points unanswered, in large part due to a career day from redshirt junior quarterback Sonny Mannino, who finished with a career high 317 passing yards. On senior day, the Red Foxes exited the locker room after halftime and played some of their best football of the season en route to a 37-13 victory. Scoring touchdowns in four of six drives and completely shutting out the Bobcats’ offense, this was a well-rounded half of football from top to bottom for the Red Foxes.
In this first offensive drive of the half, offensive coordinator TJ Weyl displayed a lot of what this offense is capable of. They started the drive with some quick passes and run plays, but this was the first play of the half that threatened the safeties.
They used play action to manipulate the second level of the Davidson defense. Junior linebacker Robert Lamar (No. 2) especially bit on this run fake, leaving an open lane for Mannino to get the ball downfield over the middle, but that wouldn’t have mattered if senior wideout Reed Shumpert (No. 15) had not gotten open.
Shumpert runs a 13-yard dig, which junior cornerback Justin Caudle (No. 15) doesn’t guard properly because he is playing over the top, over-concerning himself with Shumpert’s threatening vertical speed. Caudle was likely expecting freshman safety Hudson Altenberg (No. 30) to help bracket Shumpert and cover any in-breaking route.
This would have worked if the Red Foxes passed out of the original presnap look, which was a three-by-one set with Shumpert as the isolated receiver, but due to freshman receiver Lance Martinez (No. 7) going across the formation pre-snap, Altenberg had to abandon his bracketing responsibilities and guard Martinez in the flat.
This was partially an issue because Davidson’s defensive coordinator, Miles Ahles, decided to send junior linebacker Hunter Brooks on a delayed rush, creating the unfavorable two-on-two situation for the defense on that side of the field on this play. This could’ve been a major issue, if not for graduate student tight end Devin Kennedy going across the formation and laying him out while the offensive line slid the other way.
This drive ended in a touchdown, and Marist didn’t take their foot off the pedal one bit after.
For their second touchdown of the half, Mannino completes a shovel pass to graduate student tight end Connor Hulstein (No. 84), who finished the season with seven touchdowns. This play’s success is credited to much more than a good pitch and catch. It came down to the play design.
Pre-snap, Weyl has his offense lined up in an empty backfield and sends a receiver in motion to force the defense to rotate towards the field. The defense further over-extends that way when Mannino rolls out. This over-extension of the defense is exactly what this play is designed to do, as it opens the lane for the catch and run touchdown.
The route concepts also assist in this, as all of the receivers are running out-breaking routes that go towards the sideline to create more open grass for Hulstein to run it into the endzone. There is one defender that can singlehandedly sabotage this play, though, the sophomore playside linebacker, Tre Johnson (No. 11).
Johnson does a great job reading this, a showcase of his film study, as the Marist offense has run shovel passes like this in the past. Weyl added a little wrinkle with this specific shovel pass, a pulling guard. Graduate student Will Aaronson (No. 63) pulling across the formation to block Johnson was the key to this play working, as the playside linebacker is by far the biggest threat to the success of this play.
Even when up 14, defensive coordinator Mike Horan loves to send unique pressure packages on clear passing situations.
On this third and ten, Horan uses a sim pressure to cause issues for the defense, showing a five-man rush presnap and throwing something completely different to the offensive line post-snap. He does this by having two defenders, freshman Wayne Adir (No. 42) and redshirt sophomore James Kratochvil (No. 59), who normally line up further off the line of scrimmage on the line, showing blitz.
When the ball is snapped, however, Kratchovil stays put, with his eyes on the quarterback, to prevent a potential broken play scramble, and Adir takes a few steps forward to sell the bluff blitz then drops back. Adir selling the bluff blitz before dropping back allows graduate student James Carter (No. 8) to catch junior lineman Liam Turner (No. 72) out of position as he comes in on a delayed blitz.
Picking up a delayed blitz while out of position is one of the most difficult things for an offensive lineman to do. This sim pressure is designed to do exactly that while still having seven bodies in coverage.
Carter has been a monster on delayed blitzes like this all season long, and on this play, he forces Davidson’s senior quarterback, Coulter Cleland (No.5), to escape the pocket where he finds even more pressure and ultimately opts to throw it out of bounds.
Horan’s defense only further backed up its aggressive play style when the team was up by 20. Some teams would begin to step off the pedal a bit defensively at this point, but this defense stays true to its identity no matter the situation, especially looking to set the tone after the offense fumbled the ball away in the previous drive.
Horan shows a three-man rush presnap, but, as usual for the Red Foxes, the pressure package seen presnap is completely different from what is sent post-snap. The overhang defender, junior linebacker Kade Werner (No. 29), and the inside linebacker, Nate Furrow (No. 54), come in on a delayed pressure.
The Wildcat offense believed they were prepared for a delayed blitz from the overhand, with the pulling guard, Liam Turner (No. 72), going across the formation to protect against any edge pressure from the second level. This allows the rest of the offensive line to slide left.
So what went wrong? In no world did the offense expect two Red Fox linebackers to rush that side of the offensive line. Although the Wildcats called a screen pass against an aggressive blitz, a traditionally favorable playcall for the offense, Mike Horan’s pressure package was perfect to expose their protection call. It doesn’t matter what playcall is going on in the backend; if the defense can get to the quarterback, no pass play can be effective.
The Red Foxes have done everything in their power to put together some momentum in these past two games, and this second-half performance shows the potential this team has shown flashes of all year. From the career day of Mannino to the second-half shutout by the defense, the Red Foxes are putting it together.
After back-to-back wins, the Red Foxes played against a strong Presbyterian team to wrap up their season. Despite some hardship, like quarterback Sonny Mannino and Connor Hulstein getting banged up and needing to leave mid-game, the Red Foxes found a way to bring this 10-2 opponent to a fight.
Throughout the game, Presbyterian had a tendency to match up their corners with isolated receivers in one-on-one coverage, and in the second half, the Red Foxes worked to exploit that. The Red Foxes worked to isolate receivers and design routes, like the double move in the first play, to get players open downfield.
On the first play, Presbyterian is running a match zone, which is a form of zone coverage that switches to man coverage if the receiver goes vertical. This type of coverage can be effective with very instinctive and aware defenders, but double moves, like the out and up Shumpert runs here, are perfect for beating match zone, and this allows freshman quarterback Will O’Dell to complete a deep pass and set the offense up on the one-yard line.
On the other hand, the Red Foxes take advantage of a similar issue, but this time the defensive back, freshman Cameron Barber (No.7), is in man coverage from the start, as opposed to changing his responsibility mid-play.
Lance Martinez’s speed makes him a huge threat vertically, so the lack of safety help over the top causes Barber to play with a very soft cushion to prevent a big play. Martinez recognizes this and closes the distance between himself and the defender quickly, before flashing an inside step and then breaking outside and continuing downfield for a 60-yard touchdown.
These two wideouts have ridiculous speed and being able to consistently generate one-on-ones for them was key to Marist getting some much-needed explosives in this matchup.
The Blue Hose found themselves in a third-and-10 after an incompletion and a run that was stopped on the line of scrimmage. A touchdown here would put the Presbyterian up two possessions, but in order to do that, they had to convert on this third down.
Offensive coordinator Jayson Martin put his trust in sophomore quarterback Collin Hurst (No. 8), lining up the offense in an empty formation. With no running back in the backfield, Mike Horan’s defense doesn’t have to stay honest. They can sell out for the pass.
Empty formations make it much easier for offenses to get the ball out quickly because the quarterback has an extra receiver to potentially get the ball to. Horan’s tendency in these third and long situations is to send an aggressive pressure package at the quarterback, and this empty formation counters that. The Red Foxes didn’t come at Hurst aggressively, only sending two pass rushers and a spy.
Despite this, Hurst still rushed to get the ball out quickly, forcing it down the seam into a very tight window and throwing an incompletion.
This was a phenomenal job by Horan, going against his tendencies and catching the defense off guard in a crucial moment and keeping the game within one possession with the Blue Hose now kicking a field goal.
The football season had several ups and downs, but considering how year one of the Mike Willis era went, it has to be acknowledged just how large a step in the right direction this was for the Red Foxes. After a rough stretch, this team started to put it back together so they could end the season on a high note.
In the past three weeks, they dominated Stetson, followed that up with a resounding second half against Davidson, and then ended the season on the road, giving a tough fight to a ten-win Presbyterian team despite dealing with some of their best offensive players getting hurt in the middle of the game.
This team’s perseverance to end the season on the hot streak they did has to be noted, as this team looks to continue to improve during the offseason.
Edited by Ben Leeds
Photo by Jaylen Rizzo
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