Coming off of its biggest win of the season last week against Amherst, Tufts will be looking for its second straight victory over a team with a winning record Saturday versus Colby. Coach Bill Samko minimized the effect of the Amherst win on tomorrow's game, while at the same time acknowledging its impact on the overall season.
"Does it have an impact? No, but yes," Samko said. "I don't think it affects individual games, because they are a different opponent with a different scheme. But mentally it helps. It was a great win, no doubt about it."
The Tufts defense, which has played well all season and had its best game against Amherst, will match up against an inconsistent Colby attack on Saturday afternoon. In its four wins Colby has averaged 25 points, while scoring just 10 points in each of its two losses. Quarterback Justin Smith has embodied that inconsistency, having thrown eight touchdown passes in the four Colby wins, and none in two losses.
"I think if you look at the statistics, you'll see that [Colby] has run the ball effectively in the games they've won," Samko said. "We'd like to stop the run and make [Smith] beat us."
Offensively, Tufts will have to limit its turnovers. Colby has forced 19 this year, and scores many of their points off of TO's.
"Turnovers are always a concern for us," Samko said. "In my opinion there are very few real stats, and that's one of them. When we've won, we won the turnover battle."
Samko also said that one of the reasons he made the change at quarterback from senior Jason Casey to junior Casey D'Annolfo is D'Annolfo's success in protecting the ball.
"[Colby presents] present some definite challenges," Samko said. "They like to hang their head on defense, but we have our style and we're not going to go away from it. We're going to try to run the ball."
The Jumbos' running game should be even stronger this week as senior Steve Cincotta's health continues to improve. Last week, in his first game back from a sprained ankle, Cincotta gained 79 yards to lead Tufts. Samko said that the senior is "very important" to the team's success.
After holding Amherst to just 220 yards and 3 points last week, the young Tufts defense is looking for another dominating performance against Colby.
"The defense played pretty well against Williams. I thought they played well against Bowdoin and Bates, and obviously very well last week," Samko said.
"This is what you want to happen - you want to play better at the end of the season than at the beginning. This is a very young team, really a sophomore dominated team. But I think [sophomore] Chris Decembrele has played very well, [senior] Chris Lawrence has played very well, Adam Arsenault has played well and he is just a freshman. What you're seeing is a young team getting better every week."
With wins in their last two games, the Jumbos can finish at .500 for the season, which would be an impressive accomplishment given the team's early season struggles.
"I like this team," Samko said. "They've overcome a lot of adversity. I wasn't surprised last week, I thought we were going to win. I think we can beat anybody."
