Tuesday, Dec. 6
December 6, 2011
Jake P. Lipari
December 8, 2011
Nicholls State football coach Charlie Stubbs had high hopes coming into the 2011 season.
He admits most of those goals fell flat amidst the team’s 1-10 record.
But don’t expect wholesale changes, the Colonels coach believes Nicholls is still within striking distance of becoming a contender in the Southland Conference.
Fresh off the team’s tough season, Stubbs outlined his plan for the team going forward.
In it, the coach discussed what derailed 2011 and what must be better going forward, among other things.
There’s no other way to say it, Nicholls was ravished by injuries in 2011.
The Colonels were without 14 starters at various points in the season.
“Every once in a while, you have that unforeseen thing where you just have a tremendous amount of injuries,” Stubbs said. “We had that this year.
“When you’re rebuilding a program like we are, you can’t lose 14 like we did. We don’t have the program built up enough to overcome that.”
To make matters worse, Stubbs said the injuries occurred at arguably some of the thinnest positions on the team’s depth chart.
“And then we had absolutely nowhere to turn except for true freshmen,” the coach explained.
Along the offensive line, the Colonels were arguably hit the most and were left battered and bruised.
In the team’s final few games of the season, Nicholls started two seniors and three freshmen on the offensive line.
“The good thing is we were able to identify what they were able to do,” Stubbs said. “And as coaches, we were able to call the game around a plan based on what they can do, but I did see some competitiveness there.”
On the defensive side of the football, Nicholls’ linebackers were depleted.
In the very first game of 2011, Ole Miss transfer Brandon Sanders was lost for the season with a vertebrae injury.
A few weeks later, Pa’a Kamauoha was also knocked out of the lineup.
“That’s two starting inside linebackers right there, gone,” Stubbs said. “With Brandon, that’s the very first game of the season. Poof. He’s gone.”
With a thin lineup, the Colonels adjusted their offensive and defensive game plans accordingly.
But with fewer backups, the Nicholls special teams took a hit. As a result, the team had allowed several long returns and a handful of blocked kicks, which sometimes turned momentum in games.
“We didn’t have as many guys on the team who could run down there and cover kicks and everything like that,” Stubbs said.
Most of Nicholls’ injuries happened in the heat of the battle, the middle of the season.
Stubbs said the bad karma started several months before opening kickoff when local product Jesse Turner was lost with a knee injury.
Turner returned to the team late in the season, but he wasn’t the explosive player he was before the injury.
“It was catastrophic this spring when we lost Jesse Turner to that knee injury,” Stubbs said. “We had some glimpses down the stretch of Jesse playing the way he used to play, but basically it wasn’t as good a year for him. And he’s the heart and soul basically of our offense basically going into this year.
“So you have those things happens up and down the roster and you ask yourself, ‘What can we do?’”
Stubbs’ question isn’t without answers, as the coach does have a three-prong plan to keep the Colonels more injury free next season.
The first thing is contact in spring practice, or a lack thereof, to prevent injuries like Turner’s from happening in the future.
“I’ve got to be careful about that,” Stubbs said.
The second thing the coach seeks to do is to revamp the Colonels’ offseason workout program to get Nicholls’ players to be strong enough to withstand big hits.
“We need to come into the season more physical, I’m talking about stronger, better put together,” Stubbs said. “That’s so that we can withstand those kind of things in a physical game.”
The final step to Stubbs’ formula is athleticism, something the coach hopes to address through recruiting.
Stubbs said he will parade the recruiting trails to try and find the best possible athletes to help the team stay out of “dangerous situations.”
“A lot of times, we’re getting hurt because we’re out of position or we’re just off balance,” Stubbs said. “If we can improve those areas, I think we can reduce the injuries.
“But in this game, there’s sometimes that it just happens. There’s sometimes nothing you can do.”
To help boost his athleticism from within, Stubbs confirmed this week that two-year starting quarterback LaQuintin Caston will change positions and move to a slot receiver and wildcat quarterback.
The coach said the team will use Landry Klann and Beaux Hebert under center in the future and will “always be looking for a quarterback who can be a difference maker” in recruiting.
“That’s the best thing for him,” Stubbs said. “LaQuintin did a very good job for us with what he’s able to do. But I just know that when I was sitting there looking at some games, I was playing Landry Klann or Beaux Hebert and LaQuintin was on the sidelines standing by me.
“I’m sitting there going, ‘That’s one of our best athletes and he’s not even on the field,’ so I said ‘Enough of that,’ so that’s what we’re going to do.”
Caston will likely be joined by a handful of new receivers, as Stubbs said he hopes to nab a few receivers through recruiting to enhance the team’s spread attack.
“We’ve got some good ones, but we can always use a playmaker or two,” Stubbs said.
Up front, the Colonels return the majority of their line, but will look to get more experienced through transfers.
On the defensive line, it’ll be the same as the team looks to build depth in its 3-4 alignment.
“Our three starters are good, but in a 60-minute game, you need more than that,” Stubbs said. “We’ll look to boost our numbers there.”
The Colonels will also look to enhance their sometimes-inconsistent pass defense by adding bigger cornerbacks.
“With all of these positions, the biggest thing we’re looking for is just guys who will go out and battle somebody,” Stubbs said.
But even amidst a poor season, no one in Thibodaux appears ready to panic.
Stubbs confirmed this week that the Colonels would open their 2012 season with PAC-12 opponent Oregon State. The team will also play Tulsa in the non-conference season.
Both programs have rich histories.
Both games will be learning experiences for the Colonels.
“Sometimes if you have these things happen and have these programs on your schedule, it makes things sink in and it brings things to the forefront,” Stubbs said.
The goal remains the same, even after a 1-win season, to win the Southland Conference championship.
With solid recruiting and a couple doses of good luck from Lady Luck, Stubbs believes 2011’s setbacks could be 2012’s triumphs.
“I feel like we did take a step back this year just in that we had to adjust so much and we hadn’t stockpiled the team enough to overcome it,” Stubbs said. “But the morale was good. We did not quit or give up. We fought and battled and we got some experience.
“We’ve already headed into 2012. There’s nothing you can do about the past but learn from it. You don’t have to dwell on it. You can see the concerns and you can address them straightforward. At this level of football, you can turn it around pretty quick with the right plan.”
Nicholls State coach Charlie Stubbs applauds his players during a practice this season. Stubbs and the Colonels are remaining optimistic, despite just a 1-10 record in 2011.COURTESY PHOTO
