BLUE TIGER
August 22nd, 2006, 07:36 AM
http://orig.clarionledger.com/news/0208/30/s01.html
The Golden Eagles featured junior tailback Shelton Gandy, a freshman quarterback named Brett Favre and a defense nicknamed "The Nasty Bunch."
That was a precursor of things to come as the team's waged a hard-hitting, monumental defensive battle. JSU's swarming, attacking 46 defense smothered Southern Miss, limiting the Golden Eagles to a season-low 123 yards and five first downs.:bow:
Gandy, who ranked eighth in the nation in rushing with 121.4 yards per game, managed only 25 yards on 21 carries.:eek:
"Watching them on film, you say I don't think they're as good," said Gandy, now the running backs coach at USM. "Then, you see them in person and they're a lot faster. That film is very deceptive of how talented that team was and how big they were. You couldn't really tell.
"Sometimes, players will turn (coaches' warnings) off until they see for themselves. That was one of the things that we saw for ourselves, once we got in the game. We saw, 'Hey man, we better come out and play because these guys are for real.' They didn't come down here for showmanship or the battle of the bands or none of that stuff. They came to win the football game.
"We were coming off a high," Gandy continued. "We had beat Memphis the week before and they had a pretty good team. To walk in there, and then that started happening, I know, offensively, at first, we were in shock at how good those guys were. I can remember some of our offensive linemen were talking about some of their defensive linemen and they were saying these were some of the best they had ever played against."
The Golden Eagles featured junior tailback Shelton Gandy, a freshman quarterback named Brett Favre and a defense nicknamed "The Nasty Bunch."
That was a precursor of things to come as the team's waged a hard-hitting, monumental defensive battle. JSU's swarming, attacking 46 defense smothered Southern Miss, limiting the Golden Eagles to a season-low 123 yards and five first downs.:bow:
Gandy, who ranked eighth in the nation in rushing with 121.4 yards per game, managed only 25 yards on 21 carries.:eek:
"Watching them on film, you say I don't think they're as good," said Gandy, now the running backs coach at USM. "Then, you see them in person and they're a lot faster. That film is very deceptive of how talented that team was and how big they were. You couldn't really tell.
"Sometimes, players will turn (coaches' warnings) off until they see for themselves. That was one of the things that we saw for ourselves, once we got in the game. We saw, 'Hey man, we better come out and play because these guys are for real.' They didn't come down here for showmanship or the battle of the bands or none of that stuff. They came to win the football game.
"We were coming off a high," Gandy continued. "We had beat Memphis the week before and they had a pretty good team. To walk in there, and then that started happening, I know, offensively, at first, we were in shock at how good those guys were. I can remember some of our offensive linemen were talking about some of their defensive linemen and they were saying these were some of the best they had ever played against."