As part of the countdown to the 10th Salt Bowl, BryantDaily.com will feature the game stories published in the Bryant Times about the first nine. We’ll post new ones each day. Salt Bowl II was played on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2001 at Benton’s C.W. Lewis Stadium. There were two stories.
— Rob
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
BENTON — Adjustments — beyond the original gameplan and the day-to-day routine of practice, it’s probably a coach’s biggest challenge and most satisfying achievement when successful.
With a game ongoing, they have to be made on the fly. While trying to orchestrate the gameplan, problems have to be analyzed — what’s the other team doing to stop us or to move the ball so well? Why is our team being ineffective? — and the effective changes have to be not only thought out, they have to be conveyed to the players and executed.
Sometimes the adjustments have to be emotional instead of technical and, in that case, they may be made by the players themselves.
Often, one team’s adjustments are met by an opponents’ changes. It’s the chess game within the football game.
In Thursday’s 28th renewal of the Bryant-Benton rivalry, the adjustments war was as much a key as any to the Hornets’ 28-23 comeback victory.
But, along the way, one of those emotional adjustments occurred for the Hornets’ defense. Benton reached the 11 and suddenly the sledding got tougher. Two plays later, the Panthers faced a third-and-4 at the 5. Massive fullback Patrick Heffner got to the 2 and, on fourth down, it appeared the Hornets had stopped massive tailback Luke Woodard short. It was even signaled Bryant football by two of the officials as the Hornets celebrated their goal-line stand.
But that emotional lift was undercut when Benton asked for a measurement and it was discovered that, although the Panthers were short of a touchdown, they’d inched ahead enough to get a first down.
The Hornets, however, had discovered they could stop the powerful Panthers ground game and, even with a first-and-goal at the 1, it required four more plays before Woodard edged over the goal line from the 2. Yes, the Hornets had actually pushed the Panthers back before the TD.
It was a big moment for the Panthers, getting the early lead. But it was also a big moment for the Hornets’ defense.
"I think the goal-line stand there — they did get in — but the stand gave the kids some confidence," commented Bryant defensive coordinator Steve Griffith. "It was on the fifth or sixth down that (Benton) actually scored after they got to the 1 yard line. Then as the first half kind of wound down then the crowd started getting into the game and the kids really got pumped off the crowd the second half as the crowd got more and more into the ballgame. It just charged the kids on defense that much more. They just played hard. It wasn’t a big (technical) adjustment, as the game went along the kids just played harder and harder and harder."
Benton added a touchdown and a field goal before the half was over but both were a result of a short field. The 38-yard touchdown drive was also aided by a major penalty against the Hornets. The series prior to the field goal failed to net a first down after a short punt gave Benton the ball at the Bryant 35.
In fact, the Panthers managed just two first downs — one on that major penalty — between the time they took that 7-0 lead and the time when Bryant had rallied for a 21-17 edge midway through the third quarter.
Offensively, the adjustments were both technical and emotional. The Hornets were stymied by the Benton defense for most of the first half. They had managed just one first down through the first 22 minutes of the 24 minute half. The Panthers’ blitzes had rattled junior quarterback Lance Parker, shaken his confidence.
"I’m going to say this, we’d worked on it all week," stated Bryant head coach Daryl Patton. "They were blitzing us and they were getting to us. I guess it was poor coaching on my part for not listening and making an adjustment. But coach (Paul) Calley talked to me and said we had to go with a tight end to stop the blitzing and give Lance a little more time and that made all the difference in the world. We put (defensive end) Josh White in at tight end and it allowed Lance to have a little bit more time to throw the football and, boy, it paid big dividends. And it was all Coach Calley and his decision to do that."
"Lance, when he gets rattled, you know he’s not real accurate when he’s throwing the ball. Of course, nobody would be," said Calley, who coaches the offensive line and serves as co-offensive coordinator with Patton. "But when they’ve got us out-numbered in the box and they’re bringing more than we can pick up with the five interior linemen and a back, we’ve got to make some kind of adjustment.
"Over the last couple of years," Calley continued. "What people have done, what Benton was doing to us, we’ve had to go with a tight end set or somebody backside to pick up the backside blitz. What we did, we tried to put the strength of the formation and make them line up to it, then we’d motion away from it because we wanted that guy on the line — we knew we could pick him up with the tight end. Then, backside, we wanted to motion to the guy they were blitzing outside. He’s got to make a decision. He’s going to have to drop in coverage (against the motion man) or he’s going to keep coming and we’re going to have two on two out there against the (secondary). So, it kind of forced them to play a little different and it gave us better odds, better numbers. The numbers have got to be in our favor.
"Our kids did a great job picking up blitzes," praised Calley. "(Benton) threw everything at us and our guys just hung in there. They’re coachable and they play hard. We made the adjustments and they threw it and caught it in the second half and it made the difference."
Trailing 17-0 with 1:32 left in the first half, the Hornets, sparked by Matt White’s 29-yard run and a 36-yard pass completion from Parker to A.J. Nixon, drove for 80 yards for their first score beginning a run of 28 unanswered points.
Parker was key, of course. He had to make the emotional adjustment and Patton, a former star quarterback at Bryant and in college, was on that assignment, taking his quarterback aside at one point.
"It was just one quarterback to another," Patton related. "I know where he was at because I’ve been there. When you get into a situation where you’ve got people coming (on blitzes) from everywhere, all these receivers that are wide open for everybody to see, it’s tough to see it.
"Lance was getting a little bit rattled, forcing the football," Patton explained. "All of his passes were a little bit high and that told me he was real uptight. So I just pulled him aside and basically told him, ‘Hey, relax. Play within the system, play within yourself and look for the short pass first.’
"We came out right before half and we hit a couple of short passes and it opened up some things down the field. And, at halftime, Lance — there’s nobody that has more confidence in himself — Lance is a great quarterback. He can do the job and, boy, he’s great when his back is against the wall. Right before the half or right at the end of a game when we have to drive the football, he does a great job. I’m glad he’s our quarterback."
After hitting just three of his first 10 passes as Benton built its 17-0 lead, Parker connected on 7-of-8 as the Hornets rallied for a 21-17 lead. He wound up with four touchdown passes and 194 yards on 12-of-26, overcoming three interceptions.