On this week’s edition of Check the Tape with head coach Brad Spencer, sophomore running back Jordan Chisum returns from injury with a bang, sophomore Rory Hills is among the group of receivers who stepped up in place of injured teammates, and senior Garrett Fiduccia gets his moment to shine with a big interception.
After missing the previous three games, Jordan Chisum’s first carry in Saturday’s victory went for a 24-yard touchdown run. It was his third score of the season, and Chisum is averaging 9.1 yards-per-carry in his limited work this season as the Cardinals third or fourth option in the backfield.
“It was great to see Jordan out there playing, dressed and ready to go,” said Spencer. “He’s had a good couple weeks of practice, just had to get him fully recovered. Our offensive line did a good job adjusting to their blitz, handling their guys on the edge and Jordan did the rest.”
The Cardinals were without arguable their top four receivers in this game, and one of the players who filled that void was sophomore Rory Hills, particularly on his first career touchdown reception. It’s also impressive that quarterback Luke Lehnen appears to have great chemistry even with less common targets for his passes.
“The great thing about that room is there’s a number of guys who are older and have been around the program,” Spe”Gancer said of the receiving corps. “They’ve put in the work in the offseason throwing with Luke in 7-on-7s, so it doesn’t surprise me that they’ve got their timing. We saw the last time we were down [in the red zone] that there was some softer coverage so we decided to go after it.”
Like in many games this year, the second-team defense saw plenty of action in the second half. One of the leaders of that unit is senior Garrett Fiduccia, who did his part to preserve the shutout with an impressive interception.
“Garrett’s a great teammate and he’s a swiss army knife,” said Spencer. “He plays just about all the positions at the second and third levels of our defense, so great to see him make that play, get a bit of recognition… he’s a fun kid to be around, a fun kid to have on the team, really well liked, always does what we ask. So a lot of fun to see him make that play.”
