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(STATS) - Ask Samford coach Chris Hatcher, and he'll tell you exactly what scares him about the fifth-ranked Wofford team his Bulldogs visit on Saturday.
"The reason they're winning games is because their defense is outstanding," Hatcher said. "It's probably the best defense other than Georgia that we'll face."
His case is convincing. The Terriers allow the fewest yards per game (298.2) in the Southern Conference and are in the top 16 nationally in passing yards per attempt (6.01), interception percentage (5.2) and opposing passer rating (109.8). They've gone 20 straight games against non-FBS teams without allowing more than 28 points in regulation.
But there's one guy who has their number.
To be fair, Devlin Hodges seems to have more than just the Terriers (6-0, 4-0) figured out. Only Jeremiah Briscoe and Gage Gubrud have more touchdown passes than Hodges (53) since the start of 2016, and Samford's QB has a better TD-to-INT ratio (4.42) than two of the subdivision's premier air marshals. He became the 16th-ranked Bulldogs' all-time leader in passing yards two weeks ago at VMI in just his 24th career start.
What the SoCon's reigning offensive player of the year has done to perhaps the league's premier team since taking over under center, though, has been nothing short of extraordinary. That Wofford 20-game streak of not allowing more than four TDs? It started after Hodges carved up the Terriers for 348 yards and three TDs through the air - running for 97 more yards - in a 37-27 win in Spartanburg two years ago. For an encore, he completed 28 of 32 passes for four touchdowns in a 28-26 home victory last season.
If you're keeping track, that's seven TD passes, no interceptions and just 13 incompletions (55 for 68) in two career run-ins with the SoCon's top dogs.
"He's extremely accurate. He's a very instinctive player, one of those guys that has the ability that when pressure comes, even if he doesn't see it, he senses it," Wofford coach Mike Ayers said of Hodges. "He's got a great cast to go with him. Their offensive front - goodness gracious, there's some big beef."
How does Wofford stop him and avoid falling into a glut of potential one-loss SoCon teams with the Bulldogs (4-2, 2-1)? The easiest solution seems to be to keep him off the field, but that hasn't made much of a difference. The Terriers held the ball for more than 35 minutes two years ago, then had it for 38 1/2 in last season's meeting.
So Ayers will leave it up to his triple-option attack to produce rather than just possess.
"Quite frankly, a big part of (our game) plan is 'we better be good on offense, we better be able to score points and play keepaway,'" Ayers said.
"What do they say, 'the one that you brought to the dance, you've gotta dance with her?' We are what we are, we've got to run the football, we're not gonna throw it 50 times. If we do, we're in big trouble."
They've run it 129 times in the last two meetings, averaging 5.5 yards a pop and scoring all seven TDs that way, so the running game has hardly been grounded.
While Ayers doesn't want to forget about his date - especially on Wofford's homecoming weekend - you might forgive him if he's caught looking across the dance floor.
Brandon Goodson isn't exactly the new kid in town, but the senior is playing a different brand of football this season. He's gone from throwing 6.3 passes per game as a junior to 11.3 in 2017, and he's averaging 9.68 yards per attempt. He's taking advantage of opponents' obsession with containing the option, with Wofford hitting four plays of at least 48 yards in the past three games.
One of those came on a 75-yard TD from running back Lennox McAfee to receiver Jason Hill. Hatcher is ready for such trickery, largely because of his respect for Ayers.
"To me, they've got the best coach in college football," he said. "He's got it down to a science. You know he's gonna go for it on fourth down, you know he's gonna run a halfback pass or a reverse somewhere early in the game and you've got to limit the big play. That's what he does."
Wofford knows all too well what Hodges does, and a lot of that success comes in targeting Kelvin McKnight. The junior, who is fifth in the FCS in receptions (51) and tied for second with nine touchdown passes, missed last season's meeting but is good to go as Samford tries to beat its first top-5 opponent since 1992.
Hodges' second-favorite target thinks the Bulldogs are up to the task.
"We've shown spurts," sophomore receiver Chris Shelling said. "But I don't think we've played a whole 60 minutes the best we can. This Saturday we plan to do that."
