Grambling's Eugene throws weight around
By Mark Alexander
www.clarionledger.com
malexander@clarionledger.com
Cornerbacks always talk about being on an island. Normally, they're describing being matched up one on one in open space against a fleet-footed receiver.
Last year, Jackson State's Michael Cooley, 5 feet 9, 195 pounds, found himself on an island of another kind, one inhabited by Grambling's 6-1, 265-pound quarterback Bruce Eugene.
"That's one you don't want to be on," Grambling coach Doug Williams said, chuckling. "You vacate that island."
Cooley, the lone JSU player between Eugene and the end zone, didn't leave. Instead, Cooley shed a block near the pylon and found himself face to face with Eugene near the 3-yard line.
From there, the laws of physics took over.
"He ended up getting the best of me," Cooley recalled Monday. "He pushed me all the way into the end zone for a touchdown."
Cooley says if he had to run the play over he would hit Eugene low instead of high. Chalk it up as a lesson learned, one JSU will take note of this week as it prepares for its second encounter with Eugene, the biggest college quarterback this side of Kentucky's Jared Lorenzen.
JSU, 2-5 overall, 2-1 in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, hosts three-time reigning league champ Grambling, 5-2 and 4-0, on Saturday at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium.
JSU hopes for better results than a year ago at Grambling, a game in which Eugene was a one-man wrecking crew. The massive-yet-nimble quarterback accounted for 508 yards and seven touchdowns in leading Grambling to a 52-31 victory.
He threw for 373 yards and four touchdowns and ran for a game-high 135 yards and three touchdowns. He had runs of 18, 19, 14, 13, 18 and 14 yards en route to 119 first-half rushing yards, more than doubling JSU's run total.
"I remember that game like it was yesterday," JSU defensive coordinator Greg Johnson said Monday. "We thought we would force him to beat us with his feet and not with his arm. He ended up beating us with both."
Therein lies the unique problem with trying to devise a game plan to slow down Eugene, who is much more athletic and agile than his offensive lineman-like frame would suggest.
A year ago, Johnson opted to start the game in a three-man front and flooded the passing lanes. Eugene, a former point guard at New Orleans' Cohen High, ran crazy. In the second half, Johnson adjusted, going to a four-man front. The Tigers failed to get any pressure on Eugene, who again went crazy, only this time with his arm as he picked the Tigers' secondary apart.
What does Johnson try this year?
"It's a tough call because he can do it all," Johnson said. "Just because he's 250-plus, doesn't mean he can't play. He uses his size to his advantage. We've got to give him a lot of different looks and make him work hard in his read progression. And we've got to try to get more pressure on him. We weren't able to do that last year and he really hurt us."
That 508-yard, seven-touchdown day was just one of many phat performances last season for Eugene, who was named a Division I-AA All-American and SWAC offensive player of the year after throwing for 4,445 yards and 43 touchdowns in his first year as a starter.
Those numbers were the third most in SWAC history behind only Steve McNair and Willie Totten.
After a not-so-stellar outing in Grambling's 29-0 season-opening loss to San Jose State, Eugene has picked up where he left off last season. The junior ranks second nationally and leads the SWAC in total offense (350 ypg), passing offense (327.6 ypg) and touchdown passes (21). He directs an offense that is averaging 36.6 points and 488.6 yards per game.
Eugene can be erratic at times ? he completed just one of his first 11 passes in last year's JSU game ? but when's he on he's got excellent touch. In that same game, he threw perfectly placed deep balls to Tramon Douglas and Thyron Anderson, who beat man-to-man coverage from JSU's safeties for touchdowns.
"He's good, probably the best we'll face this year," Cooley said. "I know he's the biggest. He's got a good arm on him, he can sling it pretty good. And he can move for a guy his size."
Eugene, who weighs about 20 pounds more than his listed weight of 245, will outweigh all but one of JSU's defensive starters Saturday. That includes Cooley, who plans a different approach this time around if he's confronted with a similar situation as last year.
"I hit him high last time," he said. "This time I'm going to hit him low."
