Slippery Rock vs Gannon football what to know: JayJay Jordan’s early success, Rock makes DB changes, more
SLIPPERY ROCK — Slippery Rock has won 10 straight games against Gannon. Sixth-year Golden Knights coach Erie Raeburn has never defeated The Rock.
“Since I took over, that’s the only (PSAC) Western Division team we haven’t beaten,” Raeburn said. “They always have good players, and we just haven’t been able to figure them out.”
Gannon (0-4, 0-0) will have another chance at noon Saturday when it hosts No. 14 SRU (3-1, 0-1) at McConnell Family Stadium in Erie. The Golden Knights have allowed 164 points in their last three games, dropping decisions of 49-28 to Saginaw Valley State, 69-22 to East Stroudsburg and 46-7 to Kutztown.
“I know their statistics don’t look good, but they’ve played three very good teams there,” SRU coach Shawn Lutz said. “Their offense looks pretty good. They’ve been moving the ball.”
While Gannon had a bye last week, Slippery Rock is coming off a 45-38 loss to California (Pa.). The Rock have not lost successive games in the regular season since 2017.
1. Bad sack exchange: While The Rock have 15 quarterback sacks through four games, Gannon has allowed 13 — while coming up with only one itself.
“We’ve been putting no pressure on the quarterback,” Raeburn said. “I thought our defense played pretty well in our first game (21-12 loss to Davenport), but we have not played well defensively since. Injuries and missed tackles have really hurt us.
“Our offensive line is young, and we haven’t been able to run the ball. That’s been an issue.”
Gannon is averaging only 2.7 yards per rush and allowing 6.3 yards per run.
SRU’s defense will miss junior linebacker Jacob Snow, who suffered a broken forearm last week and is out for the season. Gannon is playing two quarterbacks — senior Anthony Harris and sophomore Ty Hurst — after last year’s PSAC West Freshman of the Year, Jayden Whitaker, transferred to Wofford.
“Very concerning, losing Jacob,” Lutz said. “He’s one of our best players.”
Tyler Cain, a sophomore, will replace Snow in the starting lineup.
“Both of their quarterbacks can run and they use the zone read,” Lutz said. “We struggled with that against Cal, and I’m sure Gannon will be watching a lot of that film.”
2. Jordan on the loose: SRU junior running back JayJay Jordan continues to have a strong start to the season. He tallied 323 all-purpose yards last week — 130 rushing, 149 on kick returns and 44 receiving.
Jordan leads the PSAC with 456 rushing yards. He ranks second among all Division II players with 193.25 all-purpose yards this year.
“He’s a special player,” Lutz said. “Jordan can make something out of nothing. He runs hard. We need to spell him a little more than we have. We have other good backs, but it’s hard to take him out of there.
“(Quarterback) DaOne (Owens) needs to run a bit more, too, just to put that on film for opponents to think about. But we don’t want to take too many carries away from Jordan.”
Raeburn said his team is well aware of Jordan’s exploits.
“This is the best offensive line/running back combination we’ve faced to this point,” Raeburn said. “I’m worried about how we’re going to handle that.”
3. Rock pass defense: While California rushed for 230 yards last week, the Vulcans threw for 250. The latter number is what concerns Lutz.
He’s making some lineup adjustments as a result.
Carmen Metcalfe will start at free safety for Freeport graduate Ben Lane, and Anthony Smith will start as the nickel for Joshua Hayes.
“We left too many guys wide open last week, gave up way too much free stuff in the passing game,” Lutz said. “We were jumping routes too much ... too many mental mistakes.
“Gannon can throw the football. We have to clean that stuff up.”
Harris has thrown for 982 yards and five touchdowns, Hurst 595 yards and three scores.
“Anthony was the starter Week 1, but he got hurt and Ty came in,” Raeburn said. “Harris was ready to play a couple of weeks later, and we’ve been rotating them since. Their skill sets are pretty similar.”
Owens has thrown four touchdown passes in both of his games for The Rock. SRU has six receivers with at least six catches this season.
