William and Mary notes: Defensive line has key matchup

Tribe hoping to hold the line

William and Mary's defensive linemen and Richmond's offensive linemen won't need to reacquaint themselves when the fifth-ranked Tribe and fourth-ranked Spiders renew their rivalry Saturday at UR Stadium.

Players along both fronts know each other pretty well. The Tribe's front includes seniors Adrian Tracy, Sean Lissemore and C.J. Herbert. The Spiders' front includes seniors Jared Decker, Matt McCracken, Chris Kondorossy, Michael Silva and William Bischoff.

As usual, which side consistently gets movement will have a bearing on the outcome. William and Mary is yielding just 13.9 points per game and 59.2 yards rushing, which leads Football Championship Subdivision.

"People say the game is won in the trenches," William and Mary defensive coordinator Bob Shoop said. "That's how Richmond wins on offense.

"It's no secret the strength of our defense, and maybe even our team, is the experience and ability of our guys up front. To me, that will be as good a battle on this weekend at any level of football, their offensive line against our defensive line."

Laycock: no emphasis on'08 loss

The 30-23 overtime loss to Richmond last year left William and Mary 7-4 and almost certainly knocked the Tribe out of the FCS playoffs. But Tribe coach Jimmye Laycock said that hasn't been a motivating factor this year.

"I'm sure that's something that hurt last year, but we didn't put a big emphasis on it," said Laycock, whose team hasn't been to the playoffs since 2004. "The emphasis was that we just need to get better and improve and not leave things to chance. . . . That's what this year's team has done.

"I don't think they've been out to do anything about last year. You can't do anything about that. You have to do what you can with what you have this year and play as well as you possibly can. That's what our players have been striving to do."

Tribe seniors haven't beaten UR

Besides making the playoffs, three to-do items were on the list for William and Mary's seniors this season: beat Villanova, beat James Madison and beat Richmond.

The Tribe's seniors hadn't won against any of those teams. They won't be able to check off Villanova - the Tribe's only loss was to the Wildcats (28-17) - unless they meet in the playoffs. But they did beat JMU (24-3) and now have Richmond, which has outscored William and Mary 126-31 in the past four meetings.

"It would definitely be big," Tracy said. "It would be big regardless of whether there was a lot on the line."

Shoop excited about matchup

Shoop has coached in a Boston College-Notre Dame game, a Harvard-Yale game, and an Army-Navy game. And yet he says he doesn't think he's "ever looked forward to a game as much as I'm looking forward to this one."

"The oldest rivalry in the South, what it means to Coach Laycock, what it means to the program, what it means to our student-athletes, just motivates you," said Shoop, who was an assistant with UR coach Mike London at Boston College in 1999-2000.

"We all came in [Monday] morning as coaches just jacked up to watch the film and trying to put together the best game plan to compete against these guys. It's a great challenge." - Tim Pearrell