Wolves wary of tight end
Posted on Friday, September 12, 2008
Arkansas State’s tight ends stepped up last week.
The Red Wolves will have a tight end to shut down Saturday when they line up opposite Southern Miss at ASU Stadium.
Among Arkansas State’s chief goals will be stopping Southern Miss senior tight end Shawn Nelson, one of the players Red Wolves Coach Steve Roberts took pains to point out early in the week as attention turned to the Golden Eagles after last Saturday’s 83-10 victory over Texas Southern.
“Great tight end,” said Roberts, who should know what one looks like after seeing Red Wolves tight ends David Johnson and Trevor Gillott combine for three touchdown receptions and 126 yards in the Texas Southern blowout.
Roberts remembers Nelson from the season finale last year as well as the 2005 New Orleans Bowl, when Nelson had 29- and 6-yard touchdown receptions in the third and fourth quarter and was the MVP of Southern Miss’ 31-19 victory over Arkansas State.
Nelson, 6-5, 239 pounds, had 12 catches for 118 yards and 2 touchdowns in Southern Miss’ 27-13 loss to Auburn last week. He is the Golden Eagles’ receptions leader with 15 and has ™ yards and an average of 10. 2 yards per catch.
“He really played well for us offensively,” new Southern Miss Coach Larry Fedora said of Nelson’s game against Auburn. “He was one of the few bright spots that we had, as far as a guy that played the entire game and played well. Every opportunity he had to make a play, he made it.”
Nelson was definitely encouraged.
“After the game against Auburn, my confidence was skyhigh,” he said. “I always believed in myself, and I always knew I could make those plays.”
His confidence is so high that Nelson is still set on his stated goal to have 1, 000 receiving yards this year.
“It’s still my goal, same thing I talk to my coaches about and they believe in me and I believe in them,” Nelson said. “I just want to go out there and prove that I can do it.”
Nelson might not be at Southern Miss this season if he hadn’t removed himself from the NFL Draft. Part of the reason for staying, Nelson said, was his conversation with Fedora after Fedora was hired away from his job as Oklahoma State’s offensive coordinator to replace Jeff Bower.
After 17 seasons, Bower resigned under pressure following Southern Miss’ 16-10 victory over Arkansas State in last year’s final game.
“I sat down with Coach Fedora when he got here, the Friday before I took my name out of the NFL Draft, and looked at how Carolina and Oklahoma State used their tight ends,” Nelson said. “I bought into it. I felt like I fit well with the offense. I went from there, and evidently it is playing out.
“ He is binded to his words, and I’m showing up. As long as they keep throwing the ball, I will keep making plays.”
There are other weapons in Southern Miss’ Spread system. Nelson said the presence of tailback Damion Fletcher and receiver DeAndre Brown should give the Arkansas State plenty of headaches.
“I think it’s a good asset to the team by putting the defense in a situation where they don’t know if we are going to run the ball or pass the ball, because we have talent in both abilities,” Nelson said.
But, Fedora said, the Golden Eagles might have their hands full defending Arkansas State, too.
“They have a Spread offense that works a lot out of the gun,” Fedora said. “They also do a lot of different things formationwise. They do some unbalanced and formations into the boundary and a lot of movement, those kinds of things. At least, they have in the past.”
While Arkansas State was playing down a level against Football Championship Subdivision member Texas Southern, the Red Wolves’ 83 points last week are still impressive, Fedora said.
“It was like the first three times they touched the ball they took it 80 yards,” Fedora said. “It was just a very overmatched team, but that is hard to do on errors, so you have to give them credit.”
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