Albany State’s ‘Dirty Blue Defense’ looks to uphold tradition

ALBANY — Albany State football fans can all but set their watches to the “Dirty Blue Defense” anchoring the team and wreaking havoc on the SIAC year in and year out.

While they didn’t garner as many preseason accolades as years past, head coach Gabe Giardina is confident this year the “Dirty Blue” will provide the same brand of hard-nosed defense fans have come to expect.

The Rams lost a few seniors from last year’s defensive unit, including current Indianapolis Colt Grover Stewart. Giardia said the void left by Stewart is large one to fill, both physically and metaphorically.

“That’s not just one hole over there to fill, that’s like three. We can replace him with just one guy. We gotta replace him with a rotation up front” he said.

Still, the Rams have a talented core returning, including SIAC Preseason 2nd Team selectees Zavondric Shingleton and Nick Scott. Shingleton will play linebacker for the Rams while Scott will play defensive back. Giardina said he likes what he’s seen from the defensive unit so far.

“We’ve got some really good personnel,” he said. “They’ve got an attitude, they’ve got a swagger and they’ve got a lot of experience.”

Defensive coordinator Cory Peoples said that experience has been a huge asset as the coaching staff come in with a limited amount of time to get their systems installed.

“Guys are flyin’ around,” he said. “I got an older group, got some seniors who have played good ball here. … I’ve got a good group, I’m just trying to get them to play hard and play physical and play sound football.”

Collins Ukwu, the new defensive backs coach, echoed those sentiments, saying so far everyone is on the same page.

“They see the vision and what we’re trying to do,” he said. “And once they see the vision and bought in, it makes it a lot easier to coach them and for them to be successful on and off the field.”

Giardina said the “Dirty Blue Defense” is still a force and has certainly challenged the offense during fall practices.

“I think coach Peoples is doing a really good job of finding out what we’re good at and putting our guys in situations where they have mismatches. So it’s a good problem to have. It’s tough on the offense every day in practice’

Ukwu said while they have the talent on that side of the ball he would like to see everyone take their game to the next level. He said the key to achieving that goal is to first become unified.

“The biggest things is for them to play for each other,” he said. “I think that is the missing piece and what I saw when I got down here. A lot of guys were just playing for themselves. If you play for the guy beside you, it elevates your game a lot more because you don’t want to let that next person down.”

The Rams hit the field to start the 2017 campaign on Sept. 2, hosting non-conference opponent Valdosta State.