Andrews bought the same candy bars for the defensive players after shutouts earlier in his career when he was a defensive coordinator. After Dayton’s first shutout in nine years, he decided the offensive and special teams players deserved Zero bars, too. He bought 100 of them.
“As a head coach, you realize a little bit more what goes into (shutouts),” Andrews said, “And it was ball control, right? We were only out there less than 50 snaps defensively. It’s a lot easier to get a shutout when you don’t have to play 80. All three phases worked together to achieve that goal.”
Other than the caramel, peanut and almond nougat treat, which is covered in a layer of white fudge, Dayton earned another reward this week: a free Saturday. After a 1-1 start, Dayton gets a break before playing at Robert Morris at 2 p.m. Sept. 20 in the final non-conference game.
“We haven’t had a normal schedule yet,” Andrews said. “We played on Thursday night coming out of camp. So we got a couple extra days for Thomas More. Now we go into the open date. You’ve got to look at where you’re at in the season. What’s the health of your team? What’s the experience level of your team?
“Two years ago — even last year — we were still working with our ones quite a bit if we had an early bye week. Now we’ve got some guys that have played a lot of games and have miles on their bodies and know what they’re doing. We’re still going out and practicing, but we’ve got to back off with some guys and we’ve got to push some other guys. That’s what we’re doing this week.”
Redshirt sophomore safety Vincent Firenze was named Pioneer Football League Defensive Player of the Week on Sunday. He had six tackles, an interception and a pass breakup against Thomas More.
Firenze’s interception set up Dayton’s first touchdown in the first quarter. Thomas More threw a pass after a double-reverse call in the backfield.
“We were preparing all week, looking at trick plays,” Firenze said. “We knew something was going to come, especially after Week 1 when we had one thrown at us and we barely made it there in time. In that particular defense we had out there, I was actually keyed in on the tight end. He was fake blocking a little bit. It’s a tricky play to recognize. Once you see him release. I had to turn and go real quick. Luckily, I was able to get there.”
Credit: David Jablonski
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