Danes are still looking for form
Gattuso says that team has yet to play up to its full potential this season
The University at Albany football team got its first victory last week. But the Great Danes still haven’t found themselves, according to head coach Greg Gattuso.
Ualbany (1-2) will go for backto-back wins when it faces Saint Francis (1-2) at Casey Stadium on Saturday night in the final nonleague game of the season.
The Great Danes beat Morgan State 30-27 last Saturday despite committing five turnovers and seven penalties for 102 yards.
“Last week, we won,” Gattuso said. “We fought, we were tough, we were all those things. But we haven’t played our game yet. That’s what we’ve emphasized to our kids is,wehaveto play better. We have to be sharper and on top of things and that’s the way we have to play. We have to cut the turnovers down, the penalties, and tackle better and I like our chances to play better.”
After Saturday’s game, Ualbany will head into its bye week before resuming Colonial Athletic Association play at William &Maryonoct.6.
“If we can get this win and be 2-2 rolling into an off week, we’ve kind of survived,” Gattuso said. “I feel pretty good about where we’re going after that. I think we can compete in this league, but we’ve got to be able to compete at home better than even we did last week, for sure.”
Gattuso said he anticipated some of Ualbany’s early struggles after the preseason injuries, particularly on defense. Now younger players are beginning to step up, including redshirt freshman linebacker Danny Damico. He had a team-high 16 tackles, including five solo, in his first college start against Morgan State.
Like Gattuso, Damico said he’s looking for improvement against Saint Francis.
“Yeah, there were a lot of mental errors, a lot of missed alignments, a lot of mental mistakes,” Damico said. “This week, we did a really good job of focusing on trying to fix those. This week, we’re starting to narrow down our defensive focus on the little things and bring it all together.”
Ualbany has never lost in 15 meetings with Saint Francis, which used to be a Northeast Conference rival of the Great Danes before Ualbany moved to
the CA A in 2013.
But the Red Flash are a much better program now and gave Ualbany a tough game in a 20-9 loss at Casey Stadium two years ago.
They’re coming off a 3527 home loss to Richmond, another CAA program, last Thursday. The Spiders won on a last-second touchdown pass in a game that was moved up two days and relocated from Virginia to Pennsylvania because of Hurricane Florence.
Saint Francis has a dangerous passing combination with graduate quarterback Bear Fenimore, a transfer from the University of Houston, throwing to 6-foot-4 senior wide receiver Kamron Lewis. He had nine catches for 121 yards against Ualbany two years ago.
“He’s a long, rangy guy,” recalled Ualbany senior cornerback Kareem Brown, who played in that game. “He runs well. He definitely locates the ball well with his 6-4 frame. He’s a pretty good dude. He’s definitely going to be tough to face.”
Ualbany had problems with tall wide receivers two weeks ago when Rhode Island’s Isaiah Coulter and Aaron Parker, both 6-3, had 100-yard receiving games.
But Brown said he saw the defense get better against Morgan State by playing faster and more competitively.
“I think in our group we’ve given ourselves some problems (with big receivers), as far as leverage, just
being in the right spot at the right time,” Brown said. “But I don’t think tall receivers give us problems.”
Ualbany senior quarterback Vince Testaverde will try to bounce back from a four-interception game last week, assuming he plays.
He took a limited amount of snaps because he’s “banged up,” according to Gattuso. Backup quarterback Will Brunson got most of the first-team work and Gattuso said he’s preparing as though either one could play Saturday.
Ualbany could look to establish the run game more after abandoning it against a Morgan State defense stacked to stop the rush.
Great Danes junior tailback Elijah Ibitokun-hanks has 158 yards, an average of just 52.7 per game, and has yet to score a touchdown.