Published: October 11, 2008 12:01 am            

FSU faces big challenge today in Charleston

FAIRMONT — Fairmont State and the University of Charleston have met five times on the football field since UC resurrected its program after a 46-year hiatus in 2003.

The last four times the visitors have emerged victorious in the game. If history stays true to form then FSU is due to post a win this afternoon when the Falcons (3-3, 1-3) pay a visit to University of Charleston Stadium to tangle with the Golden Eagles (4-2, 3-1) in their 2 p.m. homecoming game.

However, second-year FSU coach Mike Lopez and fourth-year UC coach Tony DeMeo know full well what has happened in the past in athletics is no predictor of what will happen in the future.

“They have a well-oiled machine at Charleston,” said Lopez. “Tony has weapons all over the place on offense. They’re as good on offense as any team we’ve seen to this point. I really believe that.

“Their scheme on offense is as sound as it gets. I mean the guy has written books on how to run it so he can counter everything that you try to do against him defensively. He presents challenges to us from a scheme standpoint, a personnel standpoint and from a coaching staff standpoint.

“On defense they run a 4-3 and they’re very athletic, especially in the secondary at the safety and corner positions. They cover well, they have a very good front line which is a veteran group and very thick and they have very good linebackers. They remind me a lot of Glenville’s defense. With that said we’ve got our hands full, but we’re certainly excited about the opportunity we have to go down there and play them.”

DeMeo, on the other hand, is equally complementary of Lopez and his program at FSU.

“I’m a Mike Lopez fan,” said DeMeo. “I think he’s a very good coach. I really do. I think Fairmont has a ton of potential as a team. The Shepherd win for them was a feather in their caps. I don’t care what Shepherd’s record is this year, they’re still a very good football team. I know good football players when I see them. I may not know much about maple trees, but I know a helluva lot about football players. Fairmont’s win against Shepherd was impressive. I’ve watched that game a lot because we played Shepherd last week and we have Fairmont this week.

“I think Fairmont is a very good football team. Mike does a great job with his kids. He’s building a program there and he’s doing it the right way. Hey he had to replace a lot of good football players, especially on defense, and he’s done a good job of it.”

Charleston enters today’s game having won two in a row and four of its last five outings. Fairmont, on the other hand, has dropped two in a row and three of its last four.

In last year’s game UC got on track early, raced to a 21-0 halftime lead and held off the Falcons for an impressive 35-9 victory at Duvall-Rosier Field.

Today, Lopez is obviously concerned with UC, however, he’s even more concerned with how his own team will play. The Falcons have spotted opponents double-digit leads in each of their last three outings and have dropped two of those games.

“Tony has a fully-funded program and he’s never hidden that fact,” said Lopez. “They want to get to the national playoffs. That’s the next step for them. They want to win a conference title, get to the national playoffs and right now we’re in their way.

“We’ve got to get off the bus Saturday and be ready from the outset to take on a big challenge. I’ve said this before and I’ve said this all week to the team. We’ve got to play Fairmont State football. There’s no question we’re playing a very good football team Saturday, but we really have to focus on who we are right now and put four quarters of football together. Until we can do that it’s difficult for us to evaluate anything else further from that. Our focus is on Fairmont and making sure we can put four quarters of solid football together.

“Certainly Charleston presents enough challenges for us, but you can’t always get lost in who you’re playing because a lot of it is how you play. They’ll dictate some how we play, but for us it’s the fight or flight theory. Are we going to stand up and fight or are we going to fly away? I hope we have a program which is going to fight for four quarters until the clock hits all zeros.”

The series between the two schools is deadlocked at 4-4-1.

        

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