DURHAM – When the University of New Hampshire football team opens its season on Saturday at San Diego State, the Wildcats will send 14 new starters on to the field at Qualcomm Stadium – seven on offense and seven on defense. There will be a new quarterback, as many as three redshirt freshmen starting in the secondary and another redshirt freshman likely starting at offensive tackle.
And when UNH opens its home schedule on Sept. 10 against Holy Cross, it will be in the new Wildcat Stadium. Where there once was portable aluminum bleachers for visitors, there’s now towering brick and glass, suites and club seats, concourses and concession stands, a facility that can stand up to any stadium in the Colonial Athletic Association.
So there’s as much anticipation for this season as any in recent memory for the ’Cats, who went 7-5 last year and extended their playoff run to 12 straight seasons, the longest streak in the FCS. But it’s a nervous anticipation because there’s also as many unknowns heading into this UNH season as any in recent memory.
During this span of success, UNH has been defined by its creative, high-powered offense. And that offense has been defined by talented and efficient quarterbacks, guys New Hampshire Coach Sean McDonnell often calls, “trigger pullers.” If that pattern is to continue, senior Adam Riese or sophomore Trevor Knight will have to make the transition from backup to star.
The two have been fighting for the starting job, vacated by four-year starter Sean Goldrich, ever since spring practice. They both played well in Thursday’s Blue-White end-of-camp scrimmage – Knight was 15-for-20 for 234 yards and three touchdowns and Riese was 12-for-18 for 202 yards and two touchdowns – leaving McDonnell with a tough decision, which he said he’ll likely make today.
“Got to go back and look at it again,” McDonell, now in his 18th year as UNH’s head coach, said after the scrimmage. “Both the guys played well all fall camp. It’s close.”
Knight is an explosive athlete with a powerful arm and looks like the quarterback of the future, if not the present. The left-handed Riese has more game experience and time in the program, and he’s one of the team’s three captains. Both will get their chance, either as a starter or in a rotation, which UNH has used in the past.
“Somewhere along the line this year,” McDonnell said, “both of them are going to play.”
The good news for both Knight and Riese is they’ll play behind an experienced and tough offensive line. The bad news is it’s not as experienced or tough as it might have been with senior guard Alexander Morrill out with a hip injury. The Lebanon High product has started since his redshirt freshman year.
Still, the ’Cats are anchored by senior center Tad McNeely, a 6-foot-2, 288-pound All-CAA Second Team pick as a sophomore who missed most of last year with an injury. Senior Andrew Lauderdale, a 6-6, 291-pound senior from Concord, is moving from right tackle to left tackle and showing enough promise that McDonnell has predicted All-Conference honors for him. And senior Curtis Nealer (6-3, 303 pounds) is back at right guard, where he started all 12 games last year.
If the Blue-White game is any indication, Will McInerny, a 6-7, 291-pounder from Bedford, has won the right tackle job and redshirt freshman Nick Velte (6-3, 276) will be filling in for Morrill at left guard.
It doesn’t seem right that it took this long to get to running back Dalton Crossan, the senior who figures to be the focal point of the offense. He led the team in total offense last year with 1,708 yards (885 rushing, 341 receiving, 482 on kick returns), which was 1,122 yards ahead of anyone else. Crossan has a brilliant mix of speed, quickness and strength, as well as a great understanding of the passing game – his 46 catches last year tied for second on the team.
The ’Cats will use Crossan as much as possible, but they have plenty of other backs behind him – juniors Trevon Bryant (297 rushing yards last year, second on the team), Donald Goldrich and Jerickson Fedrick (a Salem High product who transferred from Maine), and redshirt freshman Evan Gray.
It looked like New Hampshire would have a pair of extremely talented seniors – receiver Kyon Taylor and tight end Jordan Powell – to lead a young group of pass catchers. But Powell, an All-CAA First Team pick last season, was suspended for the first six games of the season for violating team policy. Sophomore tight ends Matt Torrey and Nick Derocher, a Northwood native and Tilton School grad, have the potential to fill at least some of the void left by Powell, although Derocher is fighting a knee injury and won’t play against San Diego State.
Taylor, who missed six games himself last year for violating team rules, has all the physical tools to be a star and he showed some of them off in the Blue-White game with four catches for 88 yards and a touchdown. But those numbers paled in comparison to what sophomore Neil O’Connor put up on Thursday – five catches for 146 yards and two touchdowns.
O’Connor is just one of a large group of untested receivers UNH is hoping takes the next step – seniors Anthony Pante and Garrette Craig, sophomores Rory Donovan and Kieran Presley, redshirt freshman Malik Love and true freshmen Jelani Greene and Nick Lorden, although there’s been no word that Greene or Lorden will play this year.
The defensive backfield has the team’s most experienced and decorated player – senior cornerback Casey DeAndrade, a captain, four-year starter, two-time All-CAA First Team pick and preseason All-American – yet it’s the most inexperienced position group other than quarterback.
Redshirt freshmen safeties – Michael Balsamo, an Atkinson native who went to Central Catholic in Lawrence, Mass., and Rick Ellison – both impressed in fall camp and may have earned starting roles in UNH’s 4-2-5 scheme. Nick Marino, a junior from Hudson who started two games last year, and junior Geno Miller are also in the mix at safety.
With junior corner Marquis Carr hurt, redshirt freshmen Isiah Perkins and Ismail Asongwed are fighting for the corner spot opposite DeAndrade.
“In the back half, a lot of people have gotten a lot of good reps, and it hasn’t just been against the (second team), its been against the (first team), which is good for us,” DeAndrade said. “So a lot of kids are stepping up in the back half.”
The Wildcats boast a pair of tough defensive ends in 6-5, 260-pound senior Cam Shorey (team-high 7.5 sacks last year) and 6-2, 243-pound sophomore Jae’Wuan Horton, who started all 11 games he played in last year and ranked third on the team in sacks (3.5) and tackles for a loss (nine). There’s also good depth at this position in junior Mike Boryeskne, sophomore Kyle Reisert and redshirt freshman Josh Kania.
Linebacker should also be a position of strength with a rotation of seniors in DeVaughn Chollette, Ryan Farrell and Kevin McNally. The 6-0, 239-pound Chollette is a physical, run-stopping presence who totaled 130 tackles as a backup in his first two seasons but was hurt for much of last season. Farrell, the team’s third captain, showed a good nose for the ball last year in his six starts, coming up with two interceptions, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery.
The biggest question mark up front is in the middle, where the ’Cats lost both of last year’s starters to graduation and lost their top backup, sophomore Cyrus Boone, to a season-ending foot injury he suffered during the offseason. And after giving up a CAA-worst 199 rushing yards per game last year, defensive tackle was probably the place where UNH could least afford losses.
Stepping in to that tackle gap are 6-4, 299-pound junior Rick Holt from Portsmouth and 6-2, 292-pound sophomore Ryan Sosnak. They have potential, but they also have just five tackles and zero starts between them. Junior Odaine Franklin (6-2, 278 pounds), a converted linebacker from Proctor Academy, and freshman Elijah Lewis were the defensive tackle backups in the Blue-White game.
“I think the offensive line and defensive line had really good camps. They both got at it pretty good and it was one day (the defense) was winning and the next day (the offense) was winning,” DeAndrade said. “And we’re older on the offensive line, so it was good to see the young guys compete with the older guys.”
Did we mention that DeAndrade was also a two-time All-CAA First Team pick as a punt returner as well as a cornerback? With him and Crossan returning kicks, the ’Cats are in good hands and should be in good field position most of the time.
Junior Morgan Ellman returns to handle the placekicking duties, a job he won toward the end of last year when he went 5-for-5 on field goals and 6-for-7 kicking PATs. Junior Max Pedinoff, who will handle the punting duties, spent some time at an elite kicking camp this summer and it showed Thursday as he had three punts for an average of 41.7 yards.
The schedule does break favorably for the young Wildcats. After traveling to California and opening at home with Holy Cross, UNH goes to Dartmouth, which lost a ton from last year’s 9-1 team, and then Rhode Island, which was picked to finish last in the 12-team CAA.
It’s reasonable to expect the ’Cats to be 3-1 after the first month. They have their two toughest games (on paper) in October, but both are at home – against William & Mary (picked to finish second in the CAA) on Oct. 1 and against James Madison (picked third) on Oct. 15.
But UNH (picked to finish fifth) doesn’t have to play Richmond (picked to win the league), Villanova (picked fourth) or Delaware (which beat UNH, 31-14, last season). And New Hampshire does play the five teams picked to finish at the bottom of the CAA – Stony Brook, Maine, Elon, Albany and URI.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341 or at tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @timosullivan20.)