by T. Scott Boatright
Grambling State coach Mickey Joseph is keeping both Tigers fans and Clark Atlanta guessing as to who will be behind center to start Saturday’s season opener, set for a 6 p.m. kickoff inside Eddie G. Robinson Stadium.
Transfers Jakobe Robinson from Southern Mississippi and RJ Johnson from Florida A&M via UMass have spent preseason practices battling Ashton Frye and Hayden Benoit, who both started games at quarterback for the G-Men last season.
“We’re going to make sure we find the right guy,” Joseph said. “Bruce Eugene is in there as a new quarterbacks coach. He’s doing a really good job about putting them on paper. We’re going to let the numbers tell us who goes out there first.
“Just because you go out there first doesn’t mean we’re not going to play two quarterbacks. What if Ashton Frye runs out there first because that package is the package we start with? Remember with me, starting is just one play. I can put you in to start because you want to start, and then I’ll take you out the rest of the game. You gotta be willing to help us win games.
“That might mean you’re going in the third series. Right now, I know a lot of people said I said Jakobe will go out there first. He might. Ashton might go out there first. RJ might go out there first. Hayden Benoit might go out there first. Schylar Turnbull might go out there first. We don’t know. But we’re going to do what is best for this team.”
Joseph admits he’s also still guessing what his Tigers will see out of Clark Atlanta. Grambling and Clark Atlanta have met once before, with the Tigers earning a 31-20 win in 2017 in a game played at Soldier Field in Chicago.
“Right now, we don’t have a whole bunch of film on them because they’ve just gotten there,” Joseph said. “So right now, we have to depend on our rules about how we’re going to defend zone reads, how we’re going to defend counter, how we’re going to attack quarters.”
Joseph admits season openers offer many more questions these days than they did in the past.
“Nobody’s been tackling,” Joseph said. “It’s not back in the days where you woke up to tackle. These kids wake up to play seven-on-seven and play finesse football. So, we’re going to see if you want to take on blocks, and we want to see if you want to be gap integrity.”
Joseph has had his players focus on four-minute offense and two-minute defense in fall camp after falling in two of their five losses by only one point during a season in which the Tigers posted a 7-5 record.
“We put them in a lot of four-minute offense,” Joseph said. “We put the defense in a lot of two-minute drives. With the four-minute, don’t give the ball back to them. We got to get a first down. But we got to figure out as a head coach and a coaching staff what personnel needs to be out there.”
One thing there’s no question about is that Joseph wants his Tigers to run the ball, with as many as seven running backs expected to contribute.
“We want to run the ball,” Joseph said. “The only way you can pass is by establishing a solid run game first. Today the start of the scrimmage was scripted for 18 straight run plays. We had some good run plays. But we have to stop the run on defense, too. Today the defense gave up some runs they don’t normally give up. We know they can rush the passer, but we’ve got to have gap integrity.”
Junior Tony Phillips (5-7, 150) had the best preseason performance among GSU’s running backs.
“Tony is probably one of the toughest guys on our team pound-for-pound,” Joseph said. “He’s not very big, but he’s a tough Chicago kid. He believes in us and we believe in Tony. We know Tony can do some special things. Tony might run sometimes where he shouldn’t be. He probably shouldn’t run in that (inside) gap, but we trust Tony.
“He runs with his eyes and he makes that work. Tony can’t do anything but get better. He’s one of the toughest kids on the team. He doesn’t back down from anybody. He plays big. He reminds me of Clyde Edwards-Helaire, but he’s faster. He’s small, but he plays like he’s 6-foot, and that’s what I like about Tony.”
