Editor’s Note – This weekly look at Willim and Mary football was authored by Virginia Sports Now correspondent John Packett.
William and Mary is off to its best start since 1986, and there are many reasons for the 7-1 liftoff. Chief among them are:
1) Punter David Miller and;
2) a front four on defense that is helping hold foes to just 62 yards on the ground per game.
Miller has led a kicking game that has the Tribe ranked among the nation’s leaders in the Football Championship Subdivision statistics and is listed No. 5 in the latest Top 25 poll heading into Saturday’s Colonial Athletic Association home date with Towson.
Miller’s punting has played a big role in W&M’s return to prominence in the CAA. The junior from Centreville is averaging 44.6 yards per punt, which ranks fourth in FCS. In last Saturday’s 39-14 victory at Rhode Island, Miller averaged 48.7 yards on six kicks.
“You talk to coaches and one of the first things they’re going to look at is they want to have good kickers,” said W&M coach Jimmye Laycock. “They want to have good place-kickers, good kickoff people and good punters. You want to have ones in there you can count on and not be inconsistent.
“That’s the thing with David. He has improved a great deal with his consistency. He’s always been able to kick the ball a long way, but not all the time. He’s gotten a lot better and he’s gotten much more consistent. He really takes a lot of pride in how well he does as a punter.”
Nine of Miller’s 32 punts have been 50 yards or longer, and he has pinned opponents inside the 20 on 11 occasions, making them go almost the length of the field to score. Opponents are averaging just eight yards per return.
“On Saturday he was helped a little bit with the wind up there [at Rhode Island],” said Laycock. “There was a pretty good wind and we were fortunate to work the game around, where when we punted, most of the time we were going with the wind.
“But he’s a good, consistent punter and that does a lot for your team, to know you’ve got somebody like that.”
As for the place-kicking and kickoff duties, senior Brian Pate has handled them admirably, converting 15 of 23 field-goal attempts and averaging almost 59 yards on kickoffs.
On defense, the Tribe is turning in some impressive numbers, mostly because of a front four that includes ends Adrian Tracy, Ravi Pradhanang and C.J. Herbert, and tackles Sean Lissemore and Harold Robertson III.
After allowing a school-record -46 yards rushing against URI, the Tribe boasts the nation’s top defense against the run and ranks fourth nationally in total defense (242 yards per game).
“No question, it starts with the front guys, and I think our front guys are playing pretty well,” Laycock said. “We had to play Saturday without one of our starters, Ravi Pradhanang, who was out of the game, but other guys stepped in there and played well.
“It helps the way you play up front. It helps the linebackers play well. It also helps that offensively, you get some points on the board and you get ahead, too. You force people to play catch-up. All of that comes into play.”
W&M’s defense, which used to be a laughingstock around the CAA, is posting some of its best numbers in recent memory. The Tribe ranks 10th nationally in scoring defense (15.2 points a game), second in sacks (3.6 per game) and third in tackles for loss (8.7).
The ringleaders are All-America candidate Tracy with eight sacks and 14 1/2 tackles for losses, and Lissemore (four sacks and nine tackles for losses).
“These players have gotten better,” said Laycock. “They’ve worked at it. They just haven’t gotten older, they’ve gotten better. The coaches are doing a great job with them and the players have worked really hard. There’s a lot of different reasons for it.”
After Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. meeting with Towson (1-4, 2-6), which figures to be a cakewalk at Zable Stadium for the home team, the Tribe (4-1 in the CAA) will prepare for its final two games, which loom as the biggest of the season.
No. 8 New Hampshire (4-1, 7-1), the leader of the CAA’s North Division, visits Williamsburg on Nov. 14, and W&M goes to top-ranked Richmond (6-0, 8-0), the leader in the South, on Nov. 21 in a meeting between old rivals that could have huge playoff implications.
While the Tribe appears to have a lock on the FCS playoffs, those two games will determine whether or not W&M receives one of the top four seeds in postseason play and stays at home for much of the playoffs. The Tribe hasn’t qualified for the playoffs since 2004, when it lost to eventual national champion James Madison in the semifinals.
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