First-year Lock Haven head coach John Allen/LHU
Seeing is believing.
It’s easy to judge a team by its record, especially when it’s winless like Lock Haven (0-8, 0-6 PSAC West) is.
Add the fact Lock Haven lost its 40th consecutive game today at Edinboro by 35 points, 42-7, and it’s even easier to think the Bald Eagles are a joke of a program.
The Eagles have the NCAA’s longest active losing skid regardless of division and set a PSAC record for most consecutive losses.
However, I can say with conviction after watching Lock Haven play today in person that it’s not nearly as bad as all losing suggests.
First off, the Eagles have a very good tailback in sophomore Brandon Brader, who rushed for a career-high 168 yards against Edinboro, which by the way has a defense ranked second in the nation in total defense.
The guy runs hard, always keeps his legs going, has some shake in his game as well and is a player a team can build around.
Brandon Brader had a career-high 168 yards rushing in today's 42-7 loss at Edinboro./Lock Haven University.
“There is no doubt about it,” Lock Haven’s first-year head coach John Allen said. “We’ve got some young lineman I’m extremely happy about in what they’re doing right now. That group is fairly young. We’ll have a couple of seniors next year, but the rest of them are redshirt freshman, sophomores and even Brandon is a sophomore.
“I’m very pleased because in our system, you have to run the football and philosophically, you have to run the football in this league. You have to. You get into this weather late in the year and you’re trying to make a push for a championship, you better be able to run the football.”
Now hearing championship and Lock Haven in the same sentence will make your head spin at best, but Edinboro is in contention for a playoff spot and Brader ran through its stout defense.
Edinboro was allowing just 106.75 yards rushing a game. Brader had 109 in the first half.
“It was so frustrating,” Edinboro senior nose guard Jelani Murray said. “I know we can fly to the ball. I don’t know. It was something about their offense. We couldn’t do it. We couldn’t do what we wanted to do.”
Brader’s 168 yards is the second most Edinboro has given up to a single player this season. Last week, Clarion’s Patrick, Graham-Murphy had 174 yards on 20 carries in a 21-10 loss to the Scots.
The problem Lock Haven has right now is when the play is to be made, it can’t or don’t make it. There was hesitancy at key moments.
The Bald Eagles were in this game, but this list of missed opportunities took them out of it.
Cody Harris threw for a career-high 398 yards in Edinboro's 42-7 win against Lock Haven today./ETN file photo.
1. Dropped touchdown.
2. Two missed FGs.
3. Had a touchdown, but the receiver didn’t finish the route and the pass fell incomplete.
4. Three interceptions.
5. Dropped interceptions on back-to-back plays. On the second play, Edinboro receiver David Bostic caught the deflected ball for a touchdown.
6. Failed to sack Cody Harris numerous times after having him wrapped up. Harris ended up throwing for a career-high 398 yards and four touchdowns.
“We left a lot of plays out there on the field,” Allen said. “We’re probably in the red zone three times without no points, maybe a fourth, and we’ve just got to get better at that. We had been doing a pretty good job once we’ve gotten down there before this game, but we just have to continue to execute. Continue to believe in ourselves and good things will come out of it.”
Since Lock Haven isn’t close to breaking the bank in terms of funding football, it’s going to need a coach to hang in there for the long haul and as of right now, Allen has the look of a guy willing to do that.
In his mind, Lock Haven is past the point of the losing skid having an affect on how his team plays.
“There was a turning in the season this year,” Allen said. “We had that problem at the beginning of the season, but there was a turning point when we played Cal (California, Pa.). Cal came in big and physical and our guys didn’t back down and something clicked.
“I think it was finally the fact they were tired of people pushing them around and they decided, you know what, it’s time to fight back. They did that in that game and it hasn’t stopped since.”
If Lock Haven can consistently play as it did against Edinboro, eliminate the mistakes and take advantage of opportunities, it’ll win sooner than later.
- Duane Rankin