Ragin' Dave's SLU Breakdownq
Sorry for the late notice, but here it is for you to enjoy.
Southeastern Louisiana Lions Preview
This is always the hardest preview to do, for several reasons. #1 because we have no history on SLU for 2022 because they have not played a game and #2 very few of the preseason magazines or websites talk much about FCS teams, like they do for FBS teams. I use several websites and magazines to do my previews, but many of them rarely breakdown FCS football teams. But I do have some information to review for this game. This is going to be a fun matchup because many of the players from UL and SLU know each other from High School ball. SLU has nearly 60 players from the state of Louisiana. SLU is coming off a very successful season where they went 9-4 overall and 6-2 in the Southland Conference. They started the year 7-1 with wins over North Alabama, Central Connecticut State, McNeese, Nichols (who was ranked at the time), Houston Baptist, Northwestern State and McNeese. Their only loss in the first 8 games was a 42-45 loss to La Tech in Ruston. They struggled to finish the regular season as they only went 1-2 in the last 3 games which included a 52-55 loss to ranked Incarnate Word, a win vs Northwestern State and a 42-45 loss to Nicholls. They did qualify for the FCS playoffs last year and had a 1st round victory vs Florida A&M and then lost to JMU in the 2nd round. JMU went on to lose in the championship game of the FCS playoffs. SLU is coached by Frank Scelfo, who has been at SLU since 2018. Scelfo has been a staple in football coaching since the early 80’s including much of that in Louisiana. SLU’s schedule this season includes 2 games vs FBS G5 schools, including UL and then following that up with a trip to Boca Raton to face FAU the next week and besides the new SLC lineup they also will face Central Connecticut State, Murray State and Jacksonville State. Led FCS in scoring in 2021 45.1 PPG and was in the national leaders in takeaways in 2021 in FCS. They are picked to win the SLC this year. This team is preseason ranked #16 in FCS. They return a ton of talent as well as lose a number of very good players from 2021.
QB—SLU will be replacing a QB who is currently on the roster of the Washington Commanders and a former Walter Payton Award winner. Cole Kelly who started his career at the University of Arkansas went on to put up huge numbers while playing at SLU for 3 seasons. Now that he is gone, SLU will turn to 1 of 2 possible QB’s to take over the role of starting QB for the Lions, both of which are very familiar to the Cajuns. The leader in the clubhouse for me is probably Cephus Johnson III, is the frontrunner, a former starter at South Alabama. CJ3 has been at SLU for a couple of years serving as the primary backup for the Lions, his main competition is Colby Suits, who transferred in this year from ULM. Suits had several starts in ULM’s desastorous season in 2020 where they went 0-11 and failed to have a lead in any game at any point in the season. Both guys are big, CJ3 is 6’5” 220 lbs. and Suits is 6’4” 245 but they are different types of QB’s. CJ3 has more ability to scramble and run with the ball, while Suits is more of your traditional drop back QB. Neither has had huge success when on the field for their current or former teams, but they were both signed to play for FBS schools, so they have ability. Behind them are several younger players, including 3 Redshirt Freshman and 1 Redshirt Sophomore. I expect to see either CJ3 or Colby Suits to start the game but would not be surprised if we see both during some point in the game. According to an interview I have heard recently it appears that Johnson and Suits have separated themselves from the other guys.
RB—Last year the team was lead in rushing by QB Cole Kelly and it wasn’t that close he almost doubled the output of the next leading rusher who was the leading rusher as a running back. That gentleman, Taron Jones is back. Jones rushed for 387 yards and 6 TD’s last year on 85 carries. He had a nice average at 4.4 yards per carry, but only 28 yards per game on the ground. His best game was the opening game vs UNA, where he had 11 carries for 85 yards and 1 TD as well as 4 catches for 21 yards. On the season he ended up with 44 catches for 445 yards and 2 TD’s, so he is a pretty good threat out of the backfield as a receiver, probably more of a threat there than at RB. But the guy I expect to get a load of carries is Jahmon McClendon. McClendon is a transfer from UCLA who was a 3-star athlete out of Spring Valley, California. McClendon did not have any stats at UCLA while there, but my thoughts are he did not come to SLU to sit the bench. McClendon is a big young man at 6’1” 225 lbs, while Taron Jones is 5’10” 205, so both are bigger stronger backs, but McClendon looks to be more of the power back. I would assume we will see both guys against us.
WR/TE—Coach Scelfo is a guy who likes to throw the ball around the field and this year will be no exception, the difference is he will not have Cole Kelly at QB, but he will have some good WR’s to throw the ball to. The leader for them will be Gage Larvadain, who was their leading returning WR. Larvadain is a 1st team preseason all Southland Conference guy, he had 37 catches for 521 yards and 5 TD’s last year. He is not a big guy at all at only 5’10” 160 but he is a guy who can make some plays. Behind him will be CJ Turner another preseason pick on the 2nd team. Turner is 6’2” and 180 so a little bit bigger of a receiver. Turner finished with 27 catches and 5 TD’s as well. Turner is a little bit more of a deep threat guy as he led the team in average yards per catch last year with 17.19, but only played in 6 games. I assume injury was the cause of this. A name to keep an eye on for SLU will be Antoine Robinson a 6’1” 186 lb transfer from USM. Robinson had 30 catches for 327 yards for USM in his career, he also totaled 53 catches for 953 yards and 12 TD’s in his career at Co-Lin Junior College. Another transfer is Mannie Logan Greene, who transferred in from NMSU as a Grad Student, he had a very good career at NMSU and started his career at UCF so he is a talented guy. At TE nothing jumps off the page at you, but Ivan Drobocky is a big body returning from last year, they also have a transfer from Nw State in Jacob Logan who played at both McNeese and Nw State.
OL—SLU will have 2 players that return from last year and both are on the 1st team ALL SLC, those names are John Allen and Jalen Bell. Allen is a returning Junior who played all 13 games last season at LG. He is 6’1 305. Bell is a 6’5” 300 lb. Left Tackle that also played all 13 games at LT last year. And finally, the other returning player is Brennan Lanclos who is a 6’7” 300 lb. reserve player from last year that should get the start at RT. He is a projected preseason ALL SLC 2nd Team guy. I am not sure who will move into the role of RG and Center for this team as they will have to replace Drew Jones and Ethan McMullen from last season, but I would think that Dom Serapiglia will be in the mix.
Special Teams—SLU returns both their placekicker and punter from last year. At Punter they return Austin Dunlap who averaged 43.34 yards on 29 kicks last year with 1 Touchback, 4 fair caught and 7 of over 50 yards. Their Placekicker is back as well in Mateo Renigifo who was 10-15 last year but only 2-4 from 30-39 and 0-2 from 40-49 and 0-1 50 +. He also handled the kickoffs and had half of his kicks as touchbacks. So, we should have a chance to return some. Their best WR is also their return man on both punts and kickoffs. Gage Larvadain averaged 26.57 yards on kickoff returns and had one returned for a TD and he also did the punt returning but had much less success there. They were also really good at 3rd and 4th down conversions, which is expectable with a 6’7” QB that can run the ball, but like many high-powered offenses they had a tendency to turn the ball over quite a bit as they have 10 INT’s and 15 lost fumbles last year. On 3rd and 4th down conversions they were a total of 55%, 52% on 3rd and 70% on 4th for a total of 108 of 197. They were also 57 of 75 for TD’s in the redzone and 67-75 overall with 5 missed FG’s. So when they get to the Redzone they usually scored last year.
DLine—On the D-Line they are anchored by two pretty good players, Bryce Cage and Garrett Crawford. Cage played in 12 games last year starting 8 and had 23 tackles and 4 TFL he is a 6’4” 260 DL from Baton Rouge, Scotlandville HS. He was a Phil Steele FCS Freshman All American last year. Crawford is a 6’1” 250 Junior from Salmen HS in Slidell. He was an All Southland 2nd team player last year. Another player to keep an eye out for is Cherif Seye a 6’5” 250 DE from Houston. He played in all 13 games last year with 7 starts at DE.
LB—This team lost a lot at LB from last year including Alexis Ramos, their leading tackler and Mike Mason who was also near the top in tackles last year, but Zy Alexander is a difference maker and he plays all over the field. Not only did he have 39 tackles last year as true freshman, but he also had 6 INT’s, 7 pass breakups, 1 Forced fumble and 1 recovered fumble. He is an undersized LB, weighing only 185, but is 6’3” so kind of plays that hybrid Safety/LB position. I expect big things out of Zy Alexander, he was a player that according to Coach Scelfo was contacted (illegally) by a few FBS teams to transfer out. They also have a number of young talent and/or JUCO transfers coming in. One that looks pretty good on paper is Herman Christophe, Christophe is a 5’11” 235 LB player that played in 2021 and making 10 starts for SLU recording 45 tackles and 2.5 sacks. I also think that a few others will have to step up to replace Mason and Ramos.
D-Backs— There is special player on Defense for SLU, and his name is Zy Alexander, a Sophomore from Loreauville, La. This team does not lack in talent at DB. Donniel Ward-McGee a SR from New Orleans, St. Aug leads the way. He was 3rd on the team in tackles last year and the aforementioned Zy Alexander who can play both LB and DB. Jack Henderson is a name to watch out for as he started 13 games last year and had 51 tackles and 2 INT’s. If healthy the two corners should be Frelando Jordan who missed half of last year with an injury and Brandon Barbee. Both are solid, my concern is if Jordan will be healthy enough to go. If so watch out, he was on every list available in FCS football in 2020. He was Stats Perform 2nd Team All American, He was Phil Steele 2nd team All American, All SLC 1st Team, All Louisiana 1st Team, SLC Defensive player of the week defensive player of the week, SLC Special Teams Player of the week, Louisiana ST Player of the week, Louisiana Defensive Player of the Week. As well as FCS All American 2019 as well. Health will be his biggest concern.
So, when a team is crazy good on offense they are usually not so good on defense and that was the case with SLU last year. They gave up 32 ppg as well as 429 ypg. But when you outscore your opponents by 13 ppg and 120 yards per game and win the TOP battle by 7 minutes a game you can get away with it. That is what SLU was able to do last year. They won’t be as dynamic this year without Mr. All World Cole Kelly, but I can guarantee they will continue to be an offensive minded team. What is interesting is both the Cajuns and SLU are going to have to replace a number of really good players in 2022, but have some excitement as they have really good players coming in. I forsee this game being closer than we think early as the Cajuns try to get some of their new players in new roles. I think the Cajuns pull away in the 2nd half because of talent and just getting new players acclimated to the starting roles.
My prediction
Cajuns 41
Lions 10
Better late than never.
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