UWF Football: No. 7 Argos looking for a bounce back week against West Georgia to begin GSC play
Gulf South Conference play is here, and it’s here to stay.
As the University of West Florida football team opens up its conference schedule against the University of West Georgia on Saturday, the rest of the Argos’ regular-season campaign is against GSC foes.
After falling to Division I Florida A&M University this past Saturday, UWF head coach Kaleb Nobles said that the loss is a “good benchmark” for where the Argos are currently. But there’s one thing for certain, Nobles added.
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“That doesn’t mean we have to be peaking right now. As long as we’re at our best every Saturday, and we show up, that’s the most important thing,” Nobles said. “That’s my challenge to our guys this week: just being at our best no matter what.”
Saturday’s game against the Wolves is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Pen Air Field – the first Argo home game since their season-opener on Sept. 1, when UWF defeated Kentucky Wesleyan College, 35-3.
A look around the league
UWF and Valdosta State are the only two teams of the nine-team conference that have yet to play a GSC game. That will change this weekend as the Argos host West Georgia and Valdosta takes on North Greenville.
During the preseason poll, UWF was selected to finish second in the league, behind Delta State – the team that the Argos tied for the spot top in the league standings in 2022.
The Fighting Okras defeated Chowan University to start their 2023 GSC season. And it ended in a bit of chaos as six Chowan players were suspended following an incident on the field between players. One of those players was suspended for the remainder of the season.
North Greenville and Shorter College have also already picked up conference wins. North Greenville (2-1, 1-0 GSC) defeated West Alabama this past weekend, 23-16, while Shorter (2-1, 1-0 GSC) topped Chowan, 57-20.
“There are no slouches in this conference. You start watching and looking at teams this year, and everybody’s good this year. Every team in the conference is going to be good,” Nobles said. “Every team in the conference is going to give you their best whenever you’re ready to go. We’ve got to be at our best and be ready to go whenever it matters the most.”
Entering Saturday, here are the GSC standings:
Delta State (3-0, 1-0 GSC)
North Greenville (2-1, 1-0 GSC)
Shorter College (2-1, 1-0 GSC)
West Georgia (2-1, 1-0 GSC)
Valdosta State (3-0, 0-0 GSC)
West Florida (2-1, 0-0 GSC)
Mississippi College (1-2, 0-1 GSC)
West Alabama (1-2, 0-1 GSC)
Chowan University (0-3, 0-2 GSC)
Revisiting Week 3
Things looked bright for UWF during the first half, tied with FAMU, 3-3, going into halftime. But then FAMU quarterback Jeremy Moussa found his stride and threw for 179 second-half yards along with three touchdowns.
The Rattlers scored on three consecutive drives to begin the third quarter, making the score 24-3 before UWF finally responded with a touchdown. All four FAMU touchdowns were scored on plays of 25-plus yards, including its last touchdown with a 73-yard run from Terrell Jennings.
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After some more penalties – this time more on-field penalties, such as holding, compared to personal fouls like against McKendree University in Week 2 – and an interception that was batted around and eventually caught by Kym-Mani King, the Argos just couldn’t gain enough momentum to catch up to the Rattlers.
Quarterback Peewee Jarrett went 16-for-37, throwing for 134 yards. He threw one touchdown to Caden Leggett for 23 yards, but was also sacked twice. On the ground, C.J. Wilson led the Argos with 57 yards – his longest gain was 25 yards – followed by Jarrett’s 22 yards rushing.
K.J. Franklin had four receptions for 42 yards, and Leggett had four receptions for 39 yards and a touchdown.
Defensively, Donovan Barnes – a Tallahassee native that got to play in front of a “home” crowd – had eight tackles (6 solo, 2 assisted), while Gael Laurent and Ralph Ortiz both recorded six tackles. Onelio Ross recorded a sack for a loss of five yards. The Argos’ four-man front defense also kept the pressure on with seven quarterback hurries against Moussa.
“We’ve done a good job against everybody we’ve played – even FAMU – where we got after the quarterback and got some sacks,” Nobles said. “Our guys know that stuff puts the offense behind the chains, and it makes it tough on the offense.”
Mental mindset
Following the first loss of the season, coming into play is now the mental aspect of the game. Total dominance can be used to describe UWF’s first two weeks of the season after a pair of 35-3 victories over KWC and McKendree.
Nobles said it’s not only about keeping guys on track, but making sure players are “able to bounce back and be resilient.”
“I think we’ve got a bunch that’ll do that. I’m excited about how our team’s responded a little bit. Obviously, we’ll find out what we’re made of on Saturday night,” Nobles said. “Now we’ve got to keep pushing forward to be at our best when it matters most.”
Despite the score at FAMU, Nobles said coaches have been able to take out a few positives from the game. Now it’s about expanding on those positives and reinforcing them as the Argos head into conference play.
“Us, as coaches, we’ve got to find the positives out of what happened (on Saturday). I’m not here for consolation prizes and feeling good about, ‘Oh, well we did this,’” Nobles said. “But there are some good things we did in that game Saturday night, and we’ve got to find those things and build off of it. And as coaches, we’ve got to call the plays that give our guys the room to do that.”
Scouting West Georgia
Since UWF’s inception, the Argos and Wolves have duked it out several times. UWF has a slight 4-3 advantage over West Georgia since the first battle in 2016. Last season, the Argos defeated West Georgia 42-28 in Carrollton, Georgia.
Saturday’s game is also West Georgia’s third consecutive road game. The Wolves opened the season at home on Aug. 31 against Limestone, but have since traveled to Texas A&M-Kingsville and Mississippi College.
West Georgia won 38-35 over Mississippi College on Saturday. The Wolves trailed 35-24 with 10:13 remaining in the contest before quarterback Ben Whitlock connected with receiver Terrill Cole twice to propel West Georgia to victory.
“They’re an athletic bunch. It’s a bunch that gets after it, plays with a lot of really good effort, tempo and speed,” Nobles said of West Georgia. “They have some really good, athletic offensive linemen and defensive linemen that move well in space – and guys that we know we’ve got to be able to hem up and hold in place to keep the quarterback in the pocket.”
The Wolves have a solid run game behind junior running back Rajaez Mosley. The 5-foot-7 running back, who has 42 attempts on the ground this season, has rushed for 265 yards and two touchdowns. He’s averaged 88.33 yards per game in three games.
Cameran Brown, a quarterback, has 173 yards rushing with three touchdowns.
Whitlock has thrown for just 379 yards in three games with two touchdowns. He’s also thrown four interceptions early in the season. West Georgia has also given up three sacks.
“With the four-man front, you give yourself an extra guy out there to try and stop the run, and get after the quarterback. I think we’ve done a really good job of that,” Nobles said. “We’ve got to keep that going, and keep pushing and creating speed and trouble up front for the offensive lines.”
Linebacker Keondre Williams already has 23 total tackles (19 solo, 4 assisted) in three games – a player that Nobles said they’re planning for. Williams is a dual threat in both the open field on the line, Nobles added.
“They’ve got a bunch of guys on defense that fly around and play with good speed. Their secondary is very good. We know that we’ve got to be able to attack them and be able to push the ball downfield a little bit more, but we also have to take what they give us as well,” Nobles said. “I’m excited about the challenge. They’re a well-coached team. We’ve got to be at our best when it matters most on Saturday night.”
Ben Grieco is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached on X (@BenGriecoSports) and via email at BGrieco@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: UWF Football begins conference schedule Saturday against West Georgia
