CNU, HU turn attention back to football

Last weekend, the Peninsula was preoccupied with a hurricane. This Saturday, it's time to focus on football.

Hampton University^[1], which squeezed it in its annual intrasquad scrimmage less than 24 hours before Hurricane Irene^[2]'s wind and rain battered the area, travels to face Alabama A&M in the Chicago Classic at Soldier Field^[3]. Christopher Newport, which lost four days of practice and a planned scrimmage at Bridgewater College to the storm, opens its 2011 season at home against Waynesburg.

"Other than a few inconveniences, we're on schedule and ready to go," HU coach Donovan Rose said.

Rose, in his third season as the Pirates' head coach, is coming off a 6-5 year and eager to see how new offensive coordinator Willie Snead's spread system looks in its debut. Rose is encouraged by what he saw in fall practice from the offense, led by senior quarterback David Legree.

"Offensively, I liked the fact that we seemed to be coming together," Rose said. "David looks good. He's the general back there, and I think he's very comfortable in spreading the ball around."

CNU coach Matt Kelchner played his QB cards closer to the vest, dancing around the question of which of the four quarterbacks who saw significant time in the preseason junior Christian Woelfel-Monsivais, sophomore Lyndon Garner, junior Aaron Edwards or junior Kyle Neumann will start Saturday.

"All four of those guys were the four we expected to battle, and they have all done very well," Kelchner said. "We got four guys that I think could all start."

The Captains, coming off a 6-5 season that included a USA South championship and a first-round Division III playoff appearance, also will be auditioning for a go-to running back. Sophomores Markeese Stovall and Evan Moog combined for 137 yards and one touchdown on 40 carries last season.

"We found a couple of things out there with a couple of new guys, so it'll be some new blood back there," Kelchner said. "We definitely answered some questions."

The only question surrounding the Pirates' starting tailback was whether Antwon Chisholm's knee, with its meniscus repaired in February, would be ready. Chisholm, named the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference^[4] offensive rookie of the year after rushing for 607 yards last season, missed all of spring ball, but looked sharp at the end of fall practice, making cuts and taking hits while busting several long gains.

Defensively, both the Pirates and the Captains enter their openers with confidence in some spots and uncertainty in others. HU boasts a formidable linebacking corps, bolstered by Virginia Tech transfer Lyndell Gibson, but will pit a largely untested defensive line against an Alabama A&M team that averaged 171 rushing yards per game in last year's 3-8 season. The Pirates are also young in a secondary that will have to hold its own if HU is to stop the run.

CNU returns second-leading tackler Mike King, a senior linebacker who had 99 stops last season, but suffered a blow with a preseason foot injury to sophomore defensive end Dylan Krupp, penciled into the Captains' two-deep roster. Krupp had surgery this past week and could miss the entire season.

The Captains face a Waynesburg team that went 6-4 last year ending the season with a 31-30 loss to Washington and Jefferson and returns a bevy of starters on both sides of the ball, including three preseason all-Americans in junior tight end Adam Moses (first team, Lindy's), senior cornerback Sean Hunt (first team, Consensus Draft Services), and senior defensive tackle Darryl Moore Jr. (honorable mention, Beyond Sports Network).

"We've played Washington and Jefferson four times and never beaten them, so that tells me that this is a very, very strong unit," Kelchner said.

Kelchner enters this season, his 11th, as the longest-tenured USA South head coach, and said the week leading up to the first game is always a jumble of emotion.

"It's exciting. It's stressful," he said. "It's a good thing, because you have a lot of different emotions going into it, and it's nice to be able to tap into those emotions and find out about your staff and young men.

"It's a learning experience, and we had an earthquake and a hurricane thrown into the mix. That's a good part of life. You never know what curve balls you're going to get, so we'll see how we respond to that."

References

1. ^{^} Hampton University (www.dailypress.com)
2. ^{^} Hurricane Irene (2011) (www.dailypress.com)
3. ^{^} Soldier Field (www.dailypress.com)
4. ^{^} Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (www.dailypress.com)