's Bobby Wilder asked Delaware counterpart K.C. Keeler for the Blue Hens' daily postseason schedule in their run to the 2010 Football Championship Subdivision title game.
Wilder and the Monarchs might want to borrow Delaware's game plan, and perhaps a defender or two, from the Blue Hens' semifinal.
Delaware bounced Georgia Southern 27-10 a year ago, holding the Eagles to their second-lowest point total all season and lowest against an FCS opponent.
ODU (10-2) gets the Southern Conference champion Eagles (9-2) on Saturday in Statesboro, Ga., in a round-of-16 matchup.
Wilder sees an opponent whose defense is as good as he's encountered, and whose special teams he believe rate with the Monarchs in athletic ability and productivity. Most notable is Georgia Southern's run-based, triple-option offense — a rarity in an era of spread, multiple-receiver and pro-style schemes.
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"The number one way that you contain this offense is you have to run well and you have to tackle," Wilder said Monday during his weekly news conference, "because you're going to be in a position where you're going to have to make some open-field tackles. And you're going to have to make one-on-one tackles."
The Eagles are second in the nation in rushing, averaging 318.7 yards per game and 5.8 yards per carry. They run nearly 85 percent of the time and average only 10 pass attempts per game. Contrast that with the Monarchs, who average almost 36 pass attempts per game.
"The biggest key for us will be to contain their explosive plays," Wilder said. "We're going to need to force them to grind it out. You have to have a mindset defensively against a football team like this that they're going to have success at times running the football. What you can't allow are the explosive plays, the 40- , 50- , 60-yard plays."
Ask William and Mary . Last season the Eagles ran for 423 yards in a 31-15 second-round playoff win in Williamsburg, the most rushing yards the Tribe had allowed in more than a decade.
Two weeks later, the Eagles came up short against CAA co-champ Delaware. They nearly hit their rushing average with 250 yards, but fumbled five times and lost four of them — one at the goal line on their first drive, another at the Delaware 16 and a third at the Blue Hens' 30 on a sack.
Ballhandling and errant pitches are the 'risk' part of the risk-reward of running the triple-option. Georgia Southern has 31 fumbles this season, losing 12. Wilder said that it's imperative that the Monarchs come up with a turnover or two if and when the Eagles put the ball on the ground.
Remove the self-destruction component, and Appalachian State had the template for slowing Georgia Southern's offense. The Mountaineers gave up just 135 rushing yards (2.6 per carry) and 201 total yards in a 24-17 win in Boone, N.C., the Eagles' only loss to an FCS team.
"Appalachian State held them to 200 yards," Wilder said, "and the reason they did that is they made open-field tackles. They were very clean in their run fits, their angles to the ball, and their tackling. That's how you're successful and you stop this offense. If you don't make tackles in the open field, then you give up the 50- , 60- , 70-yard plays."
Georgia Southern's other loss was to Alabama 45-21 in its regular-season finale. The Eagles rushed for 302 yards, more than the Crimson Tide allowed to Auburn, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Florida and Arkansas combined, but were eventually overwhelmed by superior athletes.
Like Alabama, the Monarchs have only one week to prepare for an offense that they rarely see.
"What you try to do is try as best you can to simulate the plays," Wilder said, "and you try to show your kids the concepts of the plays. You're never going to simulate it exactly the way it is. But then again, they're not going to be able to simulate our offense for their defense. That's really the same, week in and week out. It's very hard to simulate the other team, but what we'll focus on the most is the actual plays that they run."
For all of the attention Georgia Southern's offense receives, Wilder was equally impressed with the Eagles' defense and special teams. Defensive tackle Brent Russell was the conference Player of the Year, and the Eagles were second in the league in scoring defense (20.4) and third in total defense (335.4).
"Generally, you don't see defenses that defend the pass as well as they do when your offense runs the triple-option," Wilder said, "the reason being you don't get the practice looks each week. But they make up for what they don't see each week in practice with their athleticism."
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