Perhaps it’s exactly what the Northeastern University Athletics Department had in mind when it pursued and hired Rocky Hager for this season as its 10th football coach.
After two of its strongest seasons ever, including an 8-4 finish last year, Hager, the former North Dakota State University head coach and Temple University assistant, is looking for a lot more than eight wins.
“My expectations are a lot higher than that,” Hager said in a pre-season interview. “Do I feel pressure? The self-imposed pressure is much more intense than anything else. I’ve made the statement that 8-4 is good, but not really good enough. My expectations are significantly higher than that [team’s record]. I would be personally dissatisfied with 8-4.”
The Huskies opened their 2004 campaign with a 71-0 shutout of the small, Division II program Cheyney University. Forecasting the season on their opening week would be difficult, considering the depth of the talent yet to be faced, but it’s safe to say the team of recent years is still there.
“The team is still intact,” said All-American senior linebacker Liam Ezekial. “And pretty much the same style of defense is going to be in place, so it’s been a pretty smooth transition.”
Experience is present in the offense, where quarterback Shawn Brady returns for his senior year amidst worries of shoulder problems. However, the pass-efficient veteran (14 career INTs in 533 attempts) has emphasized that his health is strong as he starts off the new season.
“My release is a lot quicker and my arm has gotten stronger,” said Brady, who played in all 12 games last year. “That’s the biggest thing. It was all a mess in there and so it was hurting every time I threw. It’s 100 percent stronger than it’s ever been so I’m excited. I’m not scared to take a hit.”
At running back, the team lost their two key featured backs in Tim Gale and Peter Harris to graduation. Anthony Riley and Shawnn Gyles return with experience, and the team has talented underclassmen ready to grab the spotlight. Junior Keith Kent, a key blocker, will be the starter at fullback.
“The simple formula says that Anthony Riley is a good tailback and Shawnn Gyles has shown some flashes of brilliance,” Hager said. “I have high expectations for him [Gyles]. Barry Jeanson has shown some flashes and the surprise of the year is Maurice Murray, a freshman. He’s a very hard-nosed, physical kind of runner.”
Also returning is explosive wide receiver Cory Parks, a junior. Parks led the team in receiving yards last year with 956 while scoring 11 touchdowns.
Quintin Mitchell also returns, and with Hager relying heavily upon wide receivers, the unit will be focused on plenty this year.
“We’re counting heavily upon Mitchell and Parks,” Hager said. “We’ll probably be exercising the four wide receiver format more than the past. We’ll throw the football a little bit more than the recent four or five years.
“My last two years at Temple we were in the four wide receiver offense. The running game will still be a part of our offense with four wide receivers and one back, but the opposing team will have to practice other parts of their defense and expand their time getting ready for different players.”
The offensive line will be spearheaded again by Adam Bourget, who along with Ezekial was named a first-team All-American.
“This is my fifth year here and this is the best offensive line we’ve had during that time,” Bourget said.
Leading the defensive line is James Abosi, who will try to help the team bounce back from the loss of first-team Atlantic 10 member Steve Anzalone.
At linebacker, all-time leading Husky tackler Ezekial returns for his final season in the inside, and is again being looked at as one of the key components of the team.
“Liam is one of the better players in Division 1-AA,” Hager said. “I hope he continues to elevate and climb as a player.”
The biggest loss of the pre-season for the team was senior cornerback Jeremiah Mason, a third-team All-Atlantic 10 performer last year. He injured his knee in a tackling drill and will be out for the year. With Anthony Nolen and Charles Cameron gone after last season, the secondary will certainly be a question mark for the Huskies this year.
In place of Mason, the team will rely upon a revolving door of players, while Joe Okrah, Gavin Potter, and E.J. Jackson man the rest of the backfield.
The team will rest its kicking once again on Miro Kesic, a junior All-Atlantic 10 performer who connected on 13-of-18 field goals last year, including a 52-yard bomb. Hager noted he will also assume punting duties.
Hager has emphasized that his transition into the Husky program has come easier since a quality group of players was already in place.
“I think that we’re making a good adjustment with our players,” he said. “They’re buying into the things we want to have accomplished. I think that there is a very tremendous nucleus to our football team – guys that have been successful and players that play hard. If there’s one quality that you hope to have in a football team it is a team that plays with a kind of an attitude, an edge and aggresivness. We have that. We have a football team that likes to play hard.”
The schedule presents its usual challenges including Division 1 United States Naval Academy this Saturday, along with pre-season Atlantic 10 favorites Villanova University (Oct. 9) and University of Maine (Oct. 23).
The Huskies will also host University of Massachusetts-Amherst and former coach Don Brown on November 6th in a game that will likely produce a lot of emotion in the wake of Brown’s departure following last season.
“With the new coaching staff, it’s a new beginning, it’s a change and that’s the biggest thing right now, is changing,” Brady said. “We all had to adapt to each other, coaches had to adapt to us, we had to adapt to them. If we believe in the system we know we can win, that’s the bottom line. We’ve got all the talent in the world here. We’ve just got to stick together.”
