“We are playing under some circumstances that are a little different in that we can’t be at least the official conference champions,” Crowe said at Jacksonville State’s media day on Thursday. ”Our goal is to create a lot of debate. If we can just get into a good ‘what if’ conversation somewhere and keep the what ifs going. All we can really do is line up and be the best football team we can be. Starting out with what I think I know are the number 11 and 15 teams in the country.”
The Gamecocks will be loaded on both sides of the football this season especially on offense. Senior quarterback Ryan Perrilloux will lead a JSU team that just lost two players off last season’s 8-3 team. Crowe said this team should be better this season.
“We should be a good offensive team and we should be a good defensive team,” Crowe said. “Whether we can be a better offensive team than last year? I think we ought to be. We lost an All-Conference running back who had the best yards per carry in the OVC and we lost an All-Conference receiver who is now playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars (Maurice Dupree). What we have to do on offense is replace those two players.”
The Gamecocks will try to replace Dupree with Georgia Tech transfer Greg Smith. Smith played for the Yellow Jackets for three seasons. During his sophomore season he pulled in 37 catches for 588 yards and two touchdowns. Last season his production went down due to the option-style offense that Georgia Tech ran. One uncertainty that Crowe will have going into fall camp is who will line up behind Perrilloux this season.
“Greg Smith comes in here as the guy we will look to replace Maurice Dupree,” Crowe said. “Greg is a long guy, who was a wide receiver that changed to a back when Georgia Tech changed offenses.
“I don’t know if I can tell you who our running back will be. We are going to start with Brandon George because he was the backup last year and I feel good about him. But we have some competition there.”
Perrilloux, who is on the Walter Payton Watch list, is excited about all the weapons that he has as receivers. He feels that he has developed chemistry with all of his receivers.
“We have been working all summer since May together on the field just throwing,” Perrilloux said. “We do have that chemistry, but I have that chemistry with James Wilkerson, John Houston and all those guys that were here all last year. That’s a good thing about being here a year in the program, you know I have developed a chemistry with this team.”
On the defensive side of the ball the Gamecocks return nine starters including three Preseason All-Americans, Carnell Clark, Brandt Thomas and Reggie Wade. Crowe said the defense has the opportunity to be better, but they would have to do a better job on defending against the big play.
“Defensively, I think we have got a chance to improve over last year,” Crowe said. “What we have to do to get better on defense is not give up the big play. We play areas of the field and down and distances and the run. Overall, we play the pass pretty well. We gave up too many big plays last year and some of them may have been in schemes.”
Jacksonville State University opens the season on the road against Georgia Tech on Sept. 5.
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