by Jackson Keenan, sports editor
Another exciting crusader football season kicks off with hopes of a national championship. However, the crusader will have a tough season ahead with many questions that must be answered.
Their season kicks off with a road trip up to Wisconsin to play the #23 ranked University of Wisconsin River-Falls.
This highly competitive matchup will start a treacherous stretch of games against number four-ranked Trinity and 11th-ranked University of Wisconsin Whitewater.
While this may be daunting, players like Junior Tight End Will McClintock say the team must keep the same mindset for every game.
"We got to go into every game with the same mindset and dominate them no matter what," said McClintock
Other players like Junior linebacker Durand Hill share a similar feeling towards the next few games.
"If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best," said Hill.
With a tough schedule, the fans wonder how the offense will recover after losing big pieces such as quarterback Kyle King and wide receivers KJ Miller and Brandon Jordan. Second-year head Coach Larry Harmon believes his program has properly trained the new starters.
"This program has lost great players, every single year to graduation since we've started, so this is nothing new. How you do it is you do a great job recruiting. You bring in a lot of talent. Then, you get them to buy into your team structure and goals. Then you go out, and you coach him to be better than what they were when you first got him," said Harmon.
There are few questions on defense, however, with most of the core returning, including Hill, a team captain and ASC preseason defensive player of the year, believes that they are ready and well prepared for the upcoming season.
"We returned a lot of guys, and we had younger guys who grew a lot from last season, and I feel like we are playing well as a defense," said Hill
While the defense has always been known to be one of the strongest parts of crusader football, one part that gets less acknowledgment is the special teams unit. Even though it's less known, the crusaders are boasting another strong special team, with Junior Wide Receiver Matthew Jackson winning the ASC preseason special teams player of the year. The reason for the dominance is the amount of practice and coach on that side of the ball. Harmon explains
"We devote quite a bit of our practice to special teams, some places probably only do it for 10 minutes. We do special teams, 30 to 35 minutes every single day. There's an emphasis on it as a third of the game, it's just as important as offense and defense," said Harmon
Another unique aspect of the crusader's special team is that they use starting players to aid in returns. Mcclintock, who was second team all ASC, is one of the starters on the kick return and says how much he enjoys that aspect of the game.
"Bringing on the punt returns and being able to put the offense in a great position feels great knowing we have a better chance to score," said McClintock
While there may be some question looming over their heads both players and coaches have one goal: to win the ASC conference and go on to win a National Championship
"The big goal this season is to meet the 2023 national champions. I mean, that goal is always out there. We want to win the conference. We want to compete for a national championship and win it," said Harmon.
"We got to go one and 0 every week and eventually end up doing something great like winning a national championship," says Hill
