'Cat Tale: It's all pawsitive
Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com
When University of New Hampshire coach Sean McDonnell was asked to assess his team's performance through the first four games of the season, he didn't utter a negative word.
UNH is 4-0 overall (1-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association) and coming off Saturday's 42-6 triumph over Dartmouth, its in-state rival. The Wildcats are averaging 38.2 points per game, nearly 18 more than they're allowing (20.8).
"I think we've answered some questions that we had to answer, especially on the offensive side of the football with (quarterback) R.J. Toman," McDonnell said. "He's getting more comfortable every week. R.J. had a little bit of a back injury last week and missed practice time Wednesday and didn't really practice on Thursday. He seems to be adjusting to what we need him to do."
Toman has completed 79 of his 113 pass attempts for 910 yards (227.5 per game). He's thrown 10 touchdown passes and has been intercepted four times.
McDonnell also said he likes what he's seen from the team's offensive line and the rest of the offensive backfield.
"I feel good about the running game, in the sense that (Chad) Kackert, (Bobby) Simpson and (Sean) Jellison have all given us something different.
"Defensively, we've got to find a way to win in space. We did a little bit better job on Saturday with that. I still think pressuring the quarterback is the key -- how we can get to him and still cover things. We're doing OK.
"Obviously very excited to be undefeated. Now you're coming into the next seven games in the CAA against some very talented teams that are going to make or break the season."
Think Green
UNH's victory Saturday evened the series against Dartmouth at 17-17-2. The Wildcats have won 15 of the last 16 meetings. Dartmouth's last victory came in 1976. The 1990 game ended in a tie.
"I thought we played a pretty solid game against a good Dartmouth team," McDonnell said. "We went up there and played pretty hard. We played pretty well on both sides of the ball."
The Wildcats played without Kackert, who had arthroscopic kinee surgery Friday. Kackert is averaging 112.7 yards rushing per game. He leads the team in yards rushing (340) and rushing attempts (39).
"Bobby Simpson and Sean Jellison did a tremendous job filling in for him," McDonnell said. "Both those guys ran the ball very well. I thought our offensive line sustained blocks and stayed on people.
"And then defensively I thought we got to the ball pretty well."
Time to say bye
The Wildcats will be off until Oct. 11, when they'll face William & Mary in Durham. McDonnell said the bye has come at a welcome time.
"We've got to get a couple of guys healthy," he said. "It'll be really good for (free safety) Johnny Clements to stay off the hamstring for another week and get healthy. We're not going to practice him. (Linebacker) Matt Parent (who is nursing a shoulder injury) will practice. He probably could have played last week.
"You want to work on some timing things (during the bye week). You want to make sure you stay crisp. You want to make sure you get you're younger guys some time. Guys who haven't seen a lot of time in games -- you want to bring them up to speed.
"The biggest thing, knock on wood, is to stay healthy. You want to make sure nobody gets hurt this week, but we're gonna go practice and practice hard."
Noteworthy
William & Mary is 2-1 overall and has yet to play a CAA game. The Tribe's only loss came against N.C. State (34-24). William & Mary will play Villanova at home Saturday. ... McDonnell called Willliam & Mary's Jake Phillips as good a quarterback as there is in the league. ... UNH has scored twice as many touchdowns as its opponents (20-10) and has outscored its opponents in all four quarters. ... Sophomore Ryan McGuinness filled in for Clements on Saturday and made a team-high seven tackles. He also intercepted a pass.
