After a disappointing 37-7 loss to Wesleyan last week, the football team is hoping to rebound in tomorrow's Homecoming game against Bates. Tufts will try to make it two straight Homecoming wins in a row, after dominating Bowdoin 26-7 in last year's game. Despite the poor showing in the opener, coach Bill Samko isn't worrying yet.
"Like I said beforehand, 'it's the first game, anything can happen,'" Samko said. "We had nine guys making their first start, and at times they played like it was their first start. But we always take it one game at a time."
Bates, like Tufts, is coming off of a bad loss. The Bobcats were smoked 49-0 last week by Trinity. The Bantams ran up 427 rushing yards and scored all seven of their touchdowns on the ground.
The Tufts offense, which struggled last week, will look to take advantage of what looks to be a weak front seven for Bates. One of the few somewhat bright spots for the Jumbos last week was their ground attack, which compiled 126 yards on 31 attempts. Their only touchdown of the game came on seven yard run by senior Steve Cincotta, who gained all of the drive's 49 yards. Cincotta finished the game with 68 yards on 16 carries. Senior quarterback Jason Casey added 35 yards on just four scrambles.
Although Trinity had their way with the Bobcats, Samko was wary of putting too much faith into the numbers from the last game.
"Statistics can be misleading," Samko said. "Trinity had five runs over 50 yards, made by some very good athletes. So the numbers may not have shown the type of job they did against the run."
Where the Tufts offense struggled was in the passing game. The Jumbos managed just 71 yards in the air. Casey threw three interceptions and was eventually replaced by fellow senior Casey D'Annolfo. Casey will start tomorrow, however, and according to Samko his poor performance was overstated.
"I'm not sure Jay Casey played that bad," Samko said. "When guys run the wrong route, or other things happen, it might look like it's the quarterback's fault when it's not. I've always thought that [quarterback] is the most visible position. They get too much credit and take too much of the blame."
Tufts' biggest struggles last week came of the defensive side of the ball. The young defense surrendered 466 yards and five touchdowns.
"The defense is where we had most of our turnover from last year," Samko said. "We had seven guys making their first start on defense, and you saw some of the things that happen when guys are making their first start. But we never stopped playing hard; the effort was there throughout the whole game."
A big concern for the Jumbo coaching staff is turnovers. Last week the team had an uncharacteristic minus three turnover ratio, which they will have to improve upon to have a chance against Bates. One turnover in particular was critical in coach Samko's mind.
"To me the big play was the fumble return at the end of the first half," Samko said. "We would've had the ball in good field position, and I figured with a minute to go and half the field, we could've put some points on the board, maybe make it a one-score game. Instead we fumble, they score and suddenly it's 24-7. I think that got us sort of off-kilter."
Samko and the rest of the Jumbo coaching staff aren't necessarily worried about tomorrow's game, but they do hope the team will take a step or two in the right direction.
"We're a very young team, so I'm not in panic mode," Samko said. "But I never feel good before a game. I feel like you've got to line up and go play. In this league, it doesn't matter who you're playing, you've always got to play."
