It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to claim that the Fighting Scots football team finished as one of the strongest teams in the country last season. After a slow start to the 2007 season, the team is out to prove that last year’s 4-6 record was an aberration and are ready to contend for a North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) title.
Tabbed by both the Coaches’ Poll and the Media Poll to finish third in the tough NCAC, the Black and Gold look to catapult their way back into the top echelon of the conference through the help of 28 veterans and 38 first-years new to the program.
While losing 18 seniors is never an easy task, the the team finished off 2007 with authority. This year’s senior class, consisting of Dustin Sheppard ’09, Jeff Brown ’09, Jordan Ferns ’09, Kevin Friedman ’09 and Cam LeMasters ’09, has seen it all. Coming in as first-years, the team finished with a 6-4 record in 2005, then finished 8-2 in 2006, struggled through a rebuilding year last year at 4-6 and now these seniors look to make their final campaign a memorable one.
“We are very excited to compete for the NCAC championship. We were a young team last year and now are battle-tested and ready to take on a challenging schedule,” said LeMasters.
Most people agree that as Sheppard goes, this team will go. The team’s offensive load will again fall of the shoulders of the 5-10, 205-pound running back, who begins his fourth year as a starter. Teaming up with Sheppard in the backfield will be last year’s returning quarterback, Austin Holter ’10. A lot of the coaches believed that the Scots’ success late last season seemed to be directly related to Holter’s steady improvement as a first-year starter.
Backing up Sheppard will be sophomore standout Kyle Murdock ’11, with veteran Chad Parker ’10 pushing Holter for his starting spot.
Once again trying to replace three starters up front on the line, leadership will need to come from the likes of LeMasters, last year’s left side starters in Todd Spillman ’10 at left tackle and Storm Tropea ’10 at left guard. John Obery ’10 and Jesse Gaswint ’10 and sophomores Nathan Laslow ’11 and Josh Kime ’11 will also vie for time in the trenches. Wooster has historically been strong at the tight end position ‚Äì this season track star Jon Mathis ’10, Mike Francescangeli ’10 and Andrew Ford ’11 will have a tough task of filling in for two great ones in Ben Schrock ’08 and Will Miska ’08.
At wide receiver, Ferns enters his final season as a Scot after ending with a career year. Joe Francescangeli ’09 and Mike Redick ’11 will look to take some of the heat off of Ferns this season after having impressive seasons last year.
On the defensive side of the ball, Wooster will look to replace some of its most talented players to come through its program. With the senior leadership of Brown, coupled with the growing experience of junior returnee All-NCAC outside linebacker Matt DeGrand ’10, middle linebacker Steve Custenborder ’11 and defensive end Luke Drake ’11, who led the team in sacks last year, a strong core remains. Chris Wade ’10 will anchor a strong defensive front seven. Pat Byrne ’09 will look to finish his Scot career strong in the middle of the line, with junior defensive back Bryan Albani ’10 anchoring a young but talented secondary. Tyler Arnold ’09, Jeremy Petit ’11 and Brian Swan ’10 make up the rest of the defensive backfield.
With the special teams potentially secured by potentially one of the greatest Wooster punters to kick at John P. Papp Stadium, Friedman will look to keep pinning opposing foes deep in their own territory. One of the toughest things the Scots will have to do is replace Keith Adams ’08, who is now an assistant coach for the Scots. Adams finished as one of the best punt returners in school history. Wooster will look to Murdock, Albani and Ferns to fill those gaps. At placekicker, Dan Grangaard ’09 will attempt to fill in a void and could double up with Friedman if necessary.
Facing an always tough NCAC schedule coupled with a strong University Athetic Association (UAA) mixture, the Scots will have their work cut out for them. But with great senior leadership and a tremendous coaching staff, the Black and Gold will look live up their number three tab in the polls.