The football team has its work cut out for itself this weekend, as it goes to battle against the Amherst Lord Jeffs on Saturday. After a heartbreaking 21-17 loss to perennial rival and undefeated Williams last week in Williamstown, the Jumbos will again be forced to elevate their level of play.
"Williams is the best team that we've played," coach Bill Samko said. They made some great plays. They made some great calls, we made some great calls. I'd like to play them again. I wish we could have a best of five or seven series like they do in baseball."
But for now Samko must focus his attention on Amherst, which comes into the game with a 5-0 mark and a blistering defense that has given up just six points on the season. The Lord Jeffs also have a grip on the rivalry in the recent past, having topped Tufts seven times in the teams' last nine meetings.
As usual, Tufts will again turn to its most consistent weapon - the running game, which spelled disaster for the team's first four opponents. The Jumbos racked up totals of 315, 340, 208, and 249 yards on the ground, en route to a 4-0 start. Junior Keven Kelley was the workhouse over that stretch with 627 yards and six touchdowns, highlighted by a career-high 221-yard outburst in a 9-7 win over Trinity on Oct. 13. Junior Chuck McGraw also added 226 yards of his own, as the Jumbo backfield and accompanying offensive line became the talk of the NESCAC.
Even against Williams, the running game was still strong (226 yards), and so were Kelley (80 yards) and McGraw (108), but missed opportunities by the Jumbos translated into a 16th straight loss to the Ephmen.
"Against Williams, we had more possession time, more first downs, no penalties," Samko said. "I'd say we outplayed them. We ran the ball effectively against them. If we make two field goals, or we don't get that bad call, it's a different game. But you can't control the officials. We came back from that. We gave ourselves chances. But you gotta make the play. You gotta execute. It doesn't shock me that we lost because we didn't execute at the end."
Samko's squad will have to capitalize on opportunities Saturday, when it faces a defensive juggernaur. Amherst's defense, which has three shutouts in five games, has yet to surrender more than 105 total rushing yards to an opponent. In fact, the Jumbos produced more rushing yards against Wesleyan (315) and Bates (340) than opponents have against the Lord Jeffs in five games (312). Overall, the Lord Jeff defense ranks third in Division III on defense, allowing an average of 199.4 yards of total offense per outing.
Even so, Amherst coach E.J. Mills and his defense are quite aware of Tufts' running potential. "I don't think you're going to stop [the running game]." Mills said. "I don't think you can. So it's not a question of stopping it, it's more a question of containing it. They got a lot of big guys up front and a lot of good backs."
Amherst's concerns lie on the other side of the ball, where the team's offense has struggled to put points on the board in the first half of each of its last three games. Coach Mill's squad combined to score just nine first half points against Middlebury, Colby, and Wesleyan, but rebounded each time after intermission to secure the win. In the second half, the Lord Jeffs totaled 38 points.
"Offensively, we have to come out of the gates strong and finish even stronger," Amherst senior wide receiver Derrell Wright, one of the team's four captains, said. "We've struggled early in the game and our defense has been there to bail us out a lot this year."
Despite its first half woes, the Lord Jeff offense has still put up big numbers. Junior running back Okey Ugwonali leads the team with 403 yards on the ground, including a 138-yard effort last week. Quarterback Jeff Brown is among the leaders in the NESCAC with a 107 rating, along with 535 yards passing and three touchdown throws. Brown has quality targets in Wright and Jerimy Hiltner, as well as a quality back-up in freshman Mosh Mosley, who threw two touchdown passes in his collegiate debut last week.
Tufts' defense, largely overshadowed all season by the offense and this week by its Amherst counterpart, is led by senior co-captain linebacker Scott Mittenthal, graduate lineman Everett Dickerson, sophomore lineman Caleb Hudak, and junior defensive back Evan Zupancic. The unit has been stingy in its own right, giving up an average of just over 12 points and holding opponents to 94 rushing yards per contest. And it has already proven that it can make the difference in a game, too - sophomore defensive end Reid Palmer's interception with 1:23 to play sealed the win over Trinity.
"If you ask me, I'd say we're the underdogs," Mills said. "They're a good team physically. I'm really concerned. But we're not going to change what we do. We just have to execute our defense and they have to execute their offense. They're certainly the best team that we will have faced. We've got a big challenge, no doubt."
All things considered, this year's main event at Homecoming could go either way, but the advantage may fall on the visitor's side. The Jumbos will undoubtedly put up a good fight in front of a large homecoming crowd, but they'll need a good amount of luck to knock off this year's edition of the Lord Jeffs, a team with more weapons than it knows what to do with.
