Williams Football Opens Saturday at Bowdoin
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WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The 2014 Williams College football team was 2-6 and lost four games by eight points or less, including one contest in overtime.
To turn the 2014 record around, Eph head coach Aaron Kelton is hoping to avoid the injury bug that dogged his Ephs last year and be able to field his best athletes.
"Injuries plagued us last season," said Kelton. "The return of Chris Hattar, Brian Pedersen, and Taysean Scott on defense and Darrias Sime, Charlie Grossnickle and Greg Plumb on offense will definitely help us to be better."
Asked the one thing he felt his 2015 team needed to do better this fall for a successful season, Kelton said, "Consistency." The best way to develop consistency is to improve every day on offense, defense, and special teams. Do the little things correctly and the big things will fall into place is this Eph team's focus.
Since the 2014 season ended, the returning Eph team members have been dedicated to improvement on their own during the off-season.
"This year's team had the best off-season in my time here at Williams," Kelton said as he enters his sixth year in the Purple Valley. "They worked extremely hard and they pushed each other and I expect that hard work will pay off."
Last year, the Ephs fielded the fifth best offense in NESCAC and the eighth best defense. The 2014 Eph offense averaged just 14.8 points a game, while the defense allowed 20 points per contest. More production from the offense this fall with longer drives, extended possessions, and will help the defense rest and be ready to perform.
In 2014 the Ephs were not able to piece together enough long drives to allow the defense to get off the field and get a breather. Not having the offensive consistency to drive the ball sometimes led to the opposition's offense having a short field to navigate to score points.
"Our offense this fall needs to execute better in third down situations and we will need to improve our running game," offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Kyle Smesko said. "We did a pretty good job in the red zone last fall and converting turnovers into points, but we always want to improve in those categories as well.
"We need to stay healthy this fall obviously. Having two starters on the offensive line not able to contribute in the two Little Three games last fall was not a good situation to be in and it also did not help that our senior tailback was not at full strength."
Senior Austin Lommen, a transfer from Boston College, established himself as the top QB on the team last season. Lommen's playing ability and leadership capabilities boosted him into the role of a team captain for the 2015 Ephs. Senior defensive end James Howe, who will be a three-year starter, was also tabbed a captain.
Lommen connected on 61.3 percent of his passes in 2014, averaged 186.9 passing yards a game, and threw for seven touchdowns, while being picked off nine times.
In 2014 Mark Pomella backed up Lommen as the signal caller and will do so again this season, but expect Pomella to see some time at WR as well.
"We are very fortunate to have two QBs capable of winning the starting job," Smesko said. "Mark Pomella is too valuable an athlete only be a backup. He will get a lot of work at WR similar to last year and we will have a package for him as a read option QB. Behind Pomella on the QB depth chart will be sophomore John Gannon.
"We have several combinations we are looking at that could be a possibility for starters up front on the offensive line, We expect Charlie Grossnickle and Matt Jewett to lead the way since they have started in the past in most of the games. We have a good group of guys that have worked very hard in the off-season and have started games in the past who are competing to win starting jobs: Eric Davis, Ben Wertz, Vince Molinari, and Patrick McLaughlin. Also we are expecting seniors Tyler Fitzgerald and Steven Servius to battle for these spots as well."
The good news this fall for the Eph offense is that the interior of the offensive line will be molded from a corps of game-tested veterans. Senior tight end Alex Way also returns to the line. He is the top returning receiver on the Eph squad. Way snared 22 passes last fall for 183 yards.
Smesko will be looking to Charlie Grossnickle, Pat McLaughlin or Tyler Fitzgerald to play at LT with junior Ben Wertz taking over as the center. Wertz, who also wrestles for the Ephs, has seen a fair amount of quality game minutes in his first two seasons and appears to be on the verge of a breakout season.
The Eph backfield lost its top three rushers to graduation and the top two returnees this fall are sophomores Connor Harris and Greg Plumb. Between them this sophomore duo only had 27 carries last fall so there could be some playing time available for a newcomer this fall.
"We expect Harris and Plumb to get a lot of carries this year, even though they are only sophomores," Smesko said. "Freshman Noah Sorrento had a tremendous high school career at Xaverian Brothers High School (Westwood, Mass.) and we hope that will translate into a very good career here at Williams."
The wide receiver corps lost Steven Kiesel and his team-high 43 catches in 2014 to graduation but experience and talent return in senior Darrias Sime who caught 11 passes for 169 yards and had one TD grab. Senior Colin Brown and sophomore Adam Regensburg are also back. Brown snared 13 passes for 150 years and Regensburg caught a dozen passes for 138 yards.
Three-year punter/placekicker Joe Mallock graduated and the heir apparent at both positions is sophomore Bobby Webster who was successful on both of his PATs in 2014.
On defense the Ephs return just five starters. James Howe, who earned All NESCAC First Team honors as a sophomore will be the leader up front, but Howe is the lone starting defensive lineman returning. Of Howe's 38 tackles last fall 19 were solos, four were for a loss, and he notched two sacks.
Expected to join Howe up front will be sophomore DT Chris Hattar who showed a lot of promise as a first year player seeing quality minutes in the first two games, but a season-ending injury in game two pushed back his development to this fall.
"The defensive line will be an inexperienced group," defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Marshall Creighton said. "That said, our defensive line has the ability and hopefully, the desire to be the best group on the field. We have a number of young guys who will all have a chance to play. It has been inspiring to see how much these guys have grown over the last 10 months.
"One of the best parts about working with smart kids is their ability to handle more, We can teach relatively simple concepts and use multiple players and multiple personnel groups interchangeably. We have a number of players who we feel are pretty good football players and over the course of the next few weeks, we are going to find out what they do best and put them in the best possible positions to be successful."
James O'Grady, Johnny Bond and Jack Ryan have played a lot of football at linebacker for the Ephs over the past two years and figure to be the starters. O'Grady led the Ephs in tackles last season with 64, including 25 solos, two tackles for a loss, and he also broke up one pass and forced a fumble. Bond contributed 42 tackles (15 solos), four tackles for a loss and broke up one pass. Jack Ryan recorded 25 tackles last fall in eight games with 17 solo tackles. He notched three tackles for a loss, and tied for the team-high in fumbles recovered with two.
"Given the way the game has changed over the past five years and the multiplicity of offenses in the conference, we have to have a number of guys ready to play," Creighton said. "Senior Chris LeFlore, juniors Khari Dawkins and Russell Monyette, and sophomores Michael Berry and Jackson Johns will all be given a chance to contribute. It will be our job as coaches to find the right mix of players, given the appropriate situation.
"James O'Grady is a two-year starter at Inside LB and provides a wealth of experience. Similar to James, Johnny Bond is a two-year starter at Outside LB and provides an equal amount of experience. Both of these guys love the sport of football. They bring excitement to the practice field everyday and they are able to balance the emotional, physical and mental aspects of playing linebacker. They know how to play, they ask great questions and they provide great feedback on the field."
In the secondary the Ephs return junior cornerback Taysean Scott. In 2014 in seven games last fall Scott recorded 17 tackles (3 solos), picked off one pass, and broke up three. The Eph secondary will be without the services of Justin Harris at safety due to injury. A year ago Harris tied for third on the team with 42 tackles.
The projected starting secondary as of now will feature "Mike Davis and Taysean Scott at the corners and Elijah Eaton and Alex Brandeis at safety," said Kelton. "Dylan Barbour, Kevin Walsh and Mike Kidd-Phillips will battle for playing time at safety. Kyrien Edwards, Cameron Helm will battle at corner. I wouldn't be surprised if a talented freshman got in the mix early."
Junior Mike Davis rang up 30 tackles in 2014 (6 solos). Davis also had three tackles for a loss, broke up a pass, forced a fumble and recovered a fumble.
The season-opener at Bowdoin on Sept. 26 at 1 p.m. will find the Ephs playing a Bowdoin team with a brand new head coach. JB Wells has replaced former Eph assistant Dave Caputi as the head coach at Bowdoin.
Wells comes to Bowdoin after coaching at Endicott College, where he led the Gulls to a 75-48 record.
The Ephs defeated Bowdoin last year in the first game played on the newly constructed Farley-Lamb Field, 36-0, so this year they will open on the road facing Bowdoin in Brunswick, Maine. Bowdoin's home field, Whittier Field, is one of the few remaining grass fields left in NESCAC. Tufts and Wesleyan also play on grass fields.
Bowdoin will have another slight advantage heading into the first game of the season as they will have film on what the Ephs did last year on offense and defense, while the Ephs can only project what Bowdoin might do on offense and defense.
"They definitely have an advantage because they have film," Kelton said. "They have plenty of talent and I expect them to use a similar style as JB did at Endicott. We have to be prepared for everything especially with it being the season opener."
Williams' home opener is Oct. 10 against Bates.
