Panthers emerge from lowly halfway point

No one, myself included, expected much out of the Panthers football team this season.

They have met that expectation, if not exceeded it, with only one win this season. That win, which came at the last second in a game saving play by defensive tackle Isame Faciane, against a team that hasn’t won since I was in high school in 2011 – the Golden Eagles of the University of Southern Mississippi – doesn’t show much in my opinion.

Slowly but surely the offense is improving

The Panthers offense has shown some signs of life recently. For a group of individuals who only scored a measly 23 points through the first four games of the season, a sign of life is better than nothing.

Not long ago the team was shutout by both the University of Louisville and the University of Central Florida. They managed just 10 points against the University of Maryland Terrapins in the first week of the season and when the team hosted the Wildcats of Bethune-Cookman University they put up 13.

A player who has severely improved – and played his first entire game of the season against the Blazers of the University of Alabama at Birmingham for the homecoming game – is quarterback Jake Medlock. Medlock had season high numbers with 302 passing yards and a pair of touchdowns in the 27-24 loss. Those 302 yards are 153 more than his previous single-game high this season which came against the Wildcats.

The breakout star over the past few weeks, and a key player in the team’s only win this season against the Golden Eagles was running back Silas Spearman III. Spearman III has 234 all purpose yards at this point of the season including 214 rushing yards and three rushing touchdowns on 71 touches.

Defense shows need for improvement

237 is the number of points that have been scored on the Panthers this season. A large amount of that from the game against the Cardinals of UL in a disgusting 72-0 loss up in Louisville.

The Panthers lost key defensive players early on in the season as defensive end Paul Crawford – who was put on the Senior Bowl Watch List prior to the start of the season – was lost to a shoulder injury; cornerback Richard Leonard was lost to academic issues. These players were thought to be two of the four projected leaders on the defense along with Faciane and defensive lineman Greg Hickman. Hickman was the other Panther selected for the Senior Bowl Watch List.

One aspect that needs to be improved overall is the number of defensive penalties. In the last quarter of the homecoming game, cornerback Randy Harvey had his last of three pass interference calls from that night to give the Blazers a first down after fourth-and-10 play. The Blazers then took advantage of the newfound momentum and kicked a 44-yard field goal that was good to win the game.

The Panthers, both offensive and defensively, have 33 penalties for 267 yards to date on the season.

Kicking game in dire need of revamp

Kevin Wolthausen, special teams coordinator, has definitely had a handful this season. With the ground kicking game being a joint effort between Sergio Sroka and Austin Taylor, as well as punter Chris Ayers having to share a few punts with both Taylor and Medlock, the kicking game has tried to go by the old saying – “strength in numbers.” If that will work for the remainder of the season has yet to be seen, but my thought is that finding a set starter for each position would be the best.

Both Sroka and Taylor have made half of their field goal attempts, with Taylor making two of his four attempts and Sroka is one for two during his attempts. Ayers is currently tied in sixth place for being used the most in the country with 42 punts for 1,471 yards.

About the Author

Rhys Williams
: Sports Director, Class of 2016, Physical Education: Coaching (Major), Communication Arts (Minor), Sports Enthusiast with a Focus on Football and Track & Field.

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