Saturday’s games
Albany State at Charleston Southern, 11:45 a.m.
Chicago at Berry, noon
Middle Georgia State at Point, noon
LaGrange at Greensboro, 1 p.m.
Reinhardt at Faulkner, 1:30 p.m.
Morehouse vs. Tuskegee (at Columbus), 2 p.m.
Kentucky State at Fort Valley State, 2 p.m.
Mercer at Chattanooga, 4 p.m.
Morgan State at Savannah State, 7 p.m.
West Georgia at Valdosta State, 7 p.m.
There are times when a glance is all that’s needed.
LaGrange College quarterback Connor Blair will check out the defense across the line and know he needs to change the play.
He’ll look at his receivers and nod.
They grasp what he’s thinking. They nod back.
“We know exactly what we’re going to run,” Blair said.
Blair’s intimate knowledge of LaGrange’s offense and his familiarity with his receivers have helped the Panthers become the No. 1 passing offense in Division III at 428.8 yards a game.
Blair, a junior from Ormond Beach, Fla., has thrown for 1,711 yards and 18 touchdowns in just four games to lead the nation in yards a game (427.8).
He’s also tied for third in scoring passes, but LaGrange (2-2) has played one fewer game than most of the other teams at the top of the rankings.
“We knew we were going to have something special on the offensive side, but I don’t know if I expected us to be off to the start where we’re at right now. Which is really good,” coach Matt Mumme said. “Hopefully we can continue it going the rest of the way through conference.”
Blair has been particularly hot the past two weeks, with 967 yards passing and 13 touchdown passes.
He’s has completed 66 percent of his attempts and LaGrange is averaging 50 points a game.
“We worked really hard in the spring to get the playbook stuck in my head,” Blair said. “We pressed really hard and studied a lot more. We went through defensive coverages and I known when I need to throw which pass, where I should be looking every single time. I got a lot better at reading defenses and being able to throw on the spot.”
Blair ran a similar style offense at Seabreeze High School, which his coach Marc Beach learned from Mumme’s dad, Hal, who came up with the “Air Raid” offense in the early 1990s.
LaGrange’s top four receivers are Josh Hardrick (20 catches for 287 yards), Marsalis Jackson (17 for 224), Lavelle Meeks (16 for 298, team-leading five touchdown catches) and Ervens Oge (12 for 206).
“I think my receiving corps is one of the best receiving corps in the nation,” Blair said. “They’re all fast, all smart and all run crisp routes. We’re a very deadly combination.”
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