Tully expects Whitworth to remain focused
Coach John Tully is convinced there are too many goals that have yet to be reached to fear any kind of major letdown on the part of his successful Whitworth College football team this afternoon.
The unbeaten Pirates (9-0 overall, 5-0 in the Northwest Conference) are coming off a huge 17-13 road win over perennial national power Linfield that earned them at least a share of the NWC championship and, in all likelihood, a berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs that start next weekend.
They accomplished it all in the face of an emotionally and physically demanding schedule that will have seen them play 10 weeks in a row without a bye.
Still, Tully expects nothing but another focused, all-out effort from his Bucs when they take on the University of Puget Sound (7-2, 3-2) in today’s 12:30 regular-season finale in the Pine Bowl.
“I don’t think so,” Tully said, when asked if his team, which is ranked No. 9 in this week’s D3football.com poll, might be ripe for an upset. “Puget Sound is coming in with a 7-2 record and a chance for the national playoffs, too. Our guys realize what’s still at stake.
“They understand they can be outright conference champions, which was one of our goals coming into the season. They know they have an opportunity to participate in the national playoffs, which was one of our goals coming into the season.
“And they have a chance to be undefeated at 10-0. Ten wins would be the most ever in this school’s history, which I think is pretty significant.”
To nail down that record 10th win, Whitworth must deal with a UPS team that is having its best season in two decades. The Loggers drilled Menlo 48-7 last Saturday behind the record-setting performance of senior running back Rory Lee, who ran for 310 yards and all seven of his team’s touchdowns.
Lee, a 6-foot, 220-pounder and first-team all-NWC selection in 2005, is averaging 7 yards per carry and leads the conference in rushing with 1,177 yards, an average of 130.8 per game. He has also scored a league-high 17 touchdowns.
“They run a lot of option,” junior defensive back Jay Tully said of the Loggers’ offense, which is averaging a conference-best 33.3 points per game, “so we’re looking at ways to stretch the field with them – kind of bump their runs back, make them run sideline to sideline and not let them get a whole lot of north-and-south running going.”
The Pirates’ offense expects to see UPS stay in its basic cover-two zone throughout most of today’s game and looks forward to improving on last week’s paltry output of 85 yards in the wind and rain at Linfield.
“It’s easy to read what they’re doing,” said backup tight end Drew Griggs. “Hopefully, we’ll have a much better offensive game than last week and get things clicking for the playoffs.”
John Tully doesn’t expect anything to come easy against the Loggers. But he likes the way his Pirates have responded to past challenges and sees no reason to think they won’t respond in a similar matter today.
“This is a group that just gets it done,” he said. “It seems like they’re at their very best when their backs are to the wall – whether its our offensive going 76 yards against (Wisconsin) Stout, with no timeouts and only a minute left on the clock, to force overtime, or our defense, after Linfield got the ball with 21/2 minutes to go last week, holding them to four-and-out to preserve that win.
“Our guys just seem to step up when they absolutely have to.”