Albany State, Tuskegee square off in White Water Classic

ALBANY — A clash of SIAC titans takes place Saturday as the Albany State Golden Rams and the Tuskegee Golden Tigers square off in Phenix City, Alabama, in the White Water Classic.

Both teams come in with big wins to start the season; Tuskegee defeating Alabama State 14-6 and Albany State getting a 29-13 win over Valdosta State for just the second win over the Blazers in program history.

The Rams were picked in the preseason to win the SIAC East, while the Tigers were picked to come out of the West as they both have the past few years.

They meet at 5 p.m. on Saturday, with the game streamed at ESPN3.com.

Albany State head coach Gabe Giardina said this week was about moving on from last week’s win and staying focused on the task at hand.

“This week is focus week. We’re all about Tuskegee,” he said. “We’re nothing about what happened last week. They’re a really good team. They’re physical. They like to run it on you and they play very stingy on defense, so it’s going to be a great challenge. I think it’s going to be a very physical football game.

The Rams have a few question marks on defense coming into the contest. SIAC Defensive Player of the Week Zavondric Shingleton left last week’s game with a leg injury, and Giardina said he will be a game time decision. Nick Scott, meanwhile, was ejected after a targeting call and will have to sit out the first half.

While the duo are arguably the anchors of that unit, Giardina said he has faith in those who will hit the field.

“We don’t play with 11, we play with about 22 guys on defense, and so if they can’t play it’s going to be next man up and we’ve got no problem with that,” he said. “We’ve got confidence in a lot of our young players, and we’ve got confidence in our depth.”

Offensively, the Rams are trying to create a smash-mouth image that offensive coordinator Newland Issac said took form last week.

“Definitely, especially towards the end of the game when we were starting to wear them down a little bit and started running some of the same plays over and over again,” said Issac of the look the offense put forth against Valdosta State.

He said the key to countering the Tigers’ physical defense will be to bring that same physicality on offense they had against Valdosta State.

“(Tuskegee’s) gonna be really, really physical up front as far as their front seven, and that’s gonna be their strong point,” Issac said. “We want to see the same exact thing. We want to try and set the tone physically and try and match their physicality, which we know is what they’re known for.”