The Pioneers (8-3) pass the ball — a lot — ranking fourth in the country with almost 327 yards a game.
When senior quarterback Corey Russell looks downfield, there is no favorite target.
“The go-to guy is whoever’s open,” Russell said with a laugh during a telephone interview with The Herald from Tusculum on Thursday afternoon. “We don’t have to play favorites, just whoever’s open.”
And this season, the Tigers’ wideouts have been open quite a bit.
Tusculum’s passing game has been its calling card, so much so that receiver Jarrell NeSmith said Thursday he estimates the passing ratio to running plays as, “80-20.”
“We live and die by the pass,” he said. “That’s what we do.”
Russell, who passed for 2,817 yards and 24 touchdowns last season, has 3,513 yards and 31 touchdowns this year. Since switching last season from a two tight-end, one-back set to the spread formation, the move has been fruitful, to say the least.
“It’s just about having more experience in the offense, especially in the college game,” Russell said. “Everything starts to slow down a little more the more you play, and you start thinking a little faster and the reaction time slows down a little bit. The comfort level increases with the more games you play.”
And because of that, Tusculum coach Frankie DeBusk is not shy when discussing Russell’s value considering the Pioneers won a share of this season’s South Atlantic Conference championship with Carson-Newman and Newberry.
“He’s had a great year,’ DeBusk said. “He’s just such a playmaker and so confident in what he does. He really doesn’t have a strong arm, he doesn’t run very well but he throws the ball exceptionally well.”
NeSmith and plenty others made life easy for Russell while he passed for 345 yards and two touchdowns and ran for three more scores during this past Satrurday’s 45-44 win against Carson-Newman. It also has given the Pioneers more depth since four receivers have at least 500 yards receiving this season. NeSmith has 583 yards and seven touchdowns, Ryan Tallent has 724 and six touchdowns, Nate Binder has 815 and seven scores, and Calvin Britt has 606 and six touchdowns.
“I think that’s our deepest position on the field,” DeBusk said. “They make a lot of things happen for us. They are really great kids and do what they are supposed to do.”
Russell agrees.
“Anytime you can put four legitimate receivers on the field, it makes the quarterback’s job a lot easier,” the QB added. “It puts pressure on the defense to cover all four. And having those guys do what they’re coached to do and run great routes is tremendous.”
That chemistry is something NeSmith has noticed as the season progressed.
“He knows us like the back of his hand,” NeSmith said of Russell. “He knows how we run our routes and what we’re going to do. He makes sure we hit on all cylinders. We all just basically depend on the offensive line to give (Russell) a lot of time and he makes great decisions. We run the right routes and get each other open and make sure we block for each other. And that’s a big key. If you can’t block for each other, you can’t get any yards is my biggest thing.”
Even when Tusculum doesn’t fire on all cylinders during one series, Britt does not worry too much.
“There are some times where we may not complete passes, but I don’t get frustrated because I know that we’re gonna probably come back next drive and do better,” he said.
