With Halloween and Homecoming on the same week, there are plenty of opportunities for the Stetson football team to get distracted for Saturday’s contest at Spec Martin Stadium against Morehead State.

The Hatters and the Eagles will kickoff at 1 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN3 with Evan Weston and Robert Goldberg calling the action.

In addition to a key Pioneer Football League showdown, Saturday will also feature ring ceremonies for the 2018 ASUN Champion Stetson baseball and beach volleyball teams. Members of the 1952 Hatters will be on hand to serve as honorary game captains as will former All-American Donald Payne.

While Stetson (6-1, 4-1) certainly has plenty to play for against an Eagles (3-5, 2-3) team that posted a 29-26 victory last year, scoring the winning touchdown with just 30 seconds left to play, the Hatters are focused only on this week, and this game.

“This is the best team we have had here to be where their feet are,” Hatters coach Roger Hughes said. “They don’t worry about the past or what is going to happen down the road, they are focused on what they can do today to get better.”

The main focus for getting better this week has been on shoring up a run defense that has allowed program record rushing totals in consecutive games, to the tune of 922 total rushing yards. That total did come against consecutive option offenses that focus on the run game and, while Morehead State uses a more conventional attack, the Eagles do have a solid ground game.

The Eagles are led offensively by redshirt senior quarterback Lawson Page. He leads the team in both rushing yards (559) and rushing touchdowns (7) who averaging just shy of 70 yards per game on the ground. Page compliments his running ability with a strong arm, having thrown for 1,651 yards and 12 touchdowns this year.

Last year Page ran for 103 yards and a score and threw for 221 yards and three scores in the game against Stetson.

The Hatters’ defense will get a boost this week by the return of senior defensive back Jackie Jay Johnson, who has missed the last two games as a result of a concussion suffered in the game at Drake. Redshirt freshman defensive end Fermon Reid is also likely to return to action this week after getting nicked up in the Jacksonville game.

Offensively, the Hatters are in the middle of the most productive season in the modern era of the program. In fact, the 257 points Stetson has scored in the first seven games this year are just 21 behind the modern program record of 278 points scored in 2014, in 12 games. The overall program record for most points scored in a season is 340, which was set over 11 games in 1951.

That 1951 club posted an 8-1-2 record which is tied, along with an 8-2 mark in 1950, for the most wins in a season in Stetson football history.

Several factors have contributed to the Hatters’ success moving the ball this year, not the least of which is the improved play up front from the offensive line. The quartet of seniors Jim McCammon (center) and Andrew Rogalski (right tackle) along with sophomores Alex Brown (right guard) and Bradley Alexander (left guard) have started every game this year and that consistency has been a key.

Even when the Hatters lost junior left tackle Josh Miller to a medical condition after the fourth game, sophomores Peter Greubel and Nick Plunkett have stepped in to fill the void.

“A lot of the credit goes to those guys, but also to Stan Clayton, who came in as the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator this year, and to Mark Wateska and Spencer Phillips in the weight room,” Hughes said. “Those guys all worked very hard over the summer to get bigger and stronger and they have taken the things that Coach Clayton has taught them and executed on a very high level.”

With improved offensive line play, the Hatters are averaging just shy of 180 yards per game on the ground, which would be a modern program record.

Freshman Jareem Westcott is coming off the best individual rushing performance in the modern era. Last week he rushed for 213 yards and five touchdowns to earn PFL offensive player of the week honors.

The performance also caught the attention of people across the country and resulted in Westcott being added to the list of candidates for the Jerry Rice Award watch list. That award is presented each year to the top overall freshman player in FCS football and is presented by STATS. The watch list currently includes just 24 players from across the nation.

The running game is not the only area that has improved on the offensive side. The passing game is enjoying unprecedented success as well with senior quarterback Colin McGovern averaging 255 yards per game through the air with 15 touchdown passes against just four interceptions. He needs jus 215 passing yards this week to become the first Hatter to pass for 2,000 yards in a season.

McGovern’s two primary targets this year have been senior tight end Donald Parham (55 receptions) and junior receiver Steven Burdette (39), but nine other players have made catches this year, and McGovern makes a point of spreading the ball around each week.

Still, Parham is the all-time leader in career receptions (152), receiving yards (2,037) and TD catches (14). He enters play this week needing 227 yards to add the career record for all-purpose yards to his resume.

If that record were to go down on Saturday, then the 2018 Hatters will have a good chance to etch their name alongside the 1935 (7-2), 1950 (8-2) and 1951 (8-0-1) teams as the only clubs in program history with seven victories in a season.

But, getting to 1-0 this week is all that matters.

-Ricky Hazel
GoHatters.com