SATURDAY’S STATE GAMES
Fort Valley State at Florida Tech, 1 p.m.
Cumberland at Reinhardt, 1:30 p.m.
Savannah State at NC Central, 2 p.m.
Benedict at Clark Atlanta, 2 p.m.
Albany State at Morehouse, 2 p.m.
West Alabama at West Georgia, 2 p.m.
LaGrange at Huntingdon, 2 p.m.
Berry at Hendrix, 2 p.m.
Western Carolina at Mercer, 4 p.m.
Valdosta State at Miss. College, 4 p.m.
Liberty at Kennesaw State, 7 p.m.
Shorter at North Alabama, 7 p.m.
Tommy Scott took a gamble.
Reinhardt’s defense entered summer practice with a 3-3-5 scheme, but Scott, the defensive coordinator, switched to a 4-2-5 just weeks before the start of the regular season.
He knew he had an abundance of talented defensive linemen, and his thought was to put more of them on the field at the same time.
“This year we’ve tried to play to our strengths,” he said.
Wise move.
Reinhardt (6-0) has allowed only 32 points all season and ranks No. 1 in the NAIA in scoring defense (5.3 points a game) and total defense (209 yards a game).
The Eagles, who rank third in the NAIA Coaches Top 25, have been so stingy that they allow an average of nearly eight fewer points per game than the next closest team.
“We feel like we have good talent, so we don’t have to out-scheme ourselves,” Scott said. “We can line up each and every week and be sound fundamentally and do what we need to do. The kids have bought into that. They’ve done a really good job.”
Scott is in his 35th season coaching on both the college and high school level, mostly in Georgia. He started on UGA’s staff in 1980, learning from Erk Russell, and joined Reinhardt’s staff as linebackers coach in 2014.
He moved to defensive coordinator last season, when the Eagles gave up an average of 27.5 points a game, including 70 in a loss to Campbellsville.
Entering this season, Scott knew tackle Lenard Robinson (Statesboro) and ends Javier Dyer (Brookwood), the Mid-South Conference West Division co-defensive player of the year in 2015, and Tevin McCoy (Carrollton) were three of his top players.
So he built around them.
That’s resulted in more gaudy stats.
The Eagles average 3.5 sacks per game, tied for fifth in the NAIA, and rank eighth against the run (86.2 yards per game). The pass rush is a reason Reinhardt ranks No. 3 in passing defense (122.8 per game).
McCoy leads Reinhardt with 3.5 sacks and Dyer leads with 35 tackles. They have combined for 21 of the Eagles’ 70 tackles for loss (11.7 per game).
“I definitely agree that we have one of the top D-lines,” Dyer said. “We’re active in whatever we do. We’re quick and active. If we have more D-linemen on the field, we can dominate the offensive line.”
Scott has learned through the years not to be tied to one system, which helped facilitate the late schematic change.
“I guess that’s one of the advantages of experience. You learn to adapt,” he said. “In this day and time, offenses are always changing. … You have to be able to do what your people do best. We’ve seen that this year. That’s part of our success.”
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