University of Maine first-year head football coach Jordan Stevens maintains that it isn’t a talent deficiency that is behind the team’s first 0-4 start since 1994.
A grueling schedule including losses to two Football Bowl Subdivision teams (New Mexico and Boston College) and another to preseason Colonial Athletic Association favorite Villanova on Saturday certainly has contributed, but Stevens said that “we aren’t looking back at our schedule and using that as any type of crutch.
“We do have the right pieces, we do have the right guys. We need to execute better, we need to finish better, we need to give ourselves an opportunity to play with a lead throughout the game or at least be in a game where we can go back and forth,” Stevens said.
UMaine has never led in three of its four losses.
“At this point, we’re just [focusing] on what we need to improve on and doing that in a positive way,” the former UMaine All-CAA defensive end added.
The Black Bears’ defensive struggles and their penchant of giving up long plays continued to haunt them against Villanova in the 45-20 loss.
UMaine gave up 15 plays of at least 10 yards, eight passing plays and seven runs, and five of them went for at least 20 yards, four of which were passes.
The Black Bears have now been touched up for 51 plays of 10 or more yards this season including 18 that went for 20 or more.
“We need to play more guys in certain positions, and we’re going to be doing that,” Stevens said. “We have to get more hands on deck. We have to get more guys involved. That way, we can have guys on field who are fresh and ready to play.”
UMaine has allowed 36.25 points per game, which is 97th among 123 teams in the Football Championship Subdivision, and 195 rushing yards, which is 94th.
One of the positives was the Black Bears were able to establish a consistent running game until they were forced to pass to try to climb back into the game.
UMaine entered the game averaging just 2.6 yards per rush, but the Black Bears were able to churn out an average of 4.9 yards per carry led by Elijah Barnwell’s 53 yards on nine carries.
“We have a number of guys who can carry the ball and we will continue to build on that. This is the healthiest our offensive line has been all year,” Stevens said.
UMaine, 0-1 in conference play, will travel to play first-year CAA team Hampton University in Virgina at 2 p.m. Saturday. Hampton is 3-1 overall but lost its only CAA game at Delaware 35-3 two weekends ago. The Hampton Pirates were off last weekend, and Saturday will be their first CAA home game.