Pirates open season with Redlands
Whitworth College, hoping to build on the momentum created by last year’s 7-2 finish, opens its 2005 football season at home this afternoon with a non-conference matchup against the University of Redlands.
Kickoff is set for 12:30 in the Pine Bowl, and Pirates coach John Tully likes the way his veteran team looks coming out of fall camp.
“I was very pleased with how the past two weeks went,” said Tully, who is in his 11th season at Whitworth. “Our defense is well ahead of where we were last season, and our offensive is coming around.
“We have solid personnel at every spot, and we’re coming out of (camp) fairly healthy. The guys’ attitudes have been great, and their work ethic was really pleasing to our staff.”
The Bucs have seven starters returning on each side of the football and boast one of the nation’s top NCAA Division II kickers in preseason All-American Cameron Collings. They expect to be solid on offense, with the return of junior quarterback Joel Clark, who threw for 2,289 yards and 18 touchdowns last season, and senior wideout Kyle Snell, who caught 41 passes for 590 yards and six TDs as a junior.
In addition, Whitworth returns its top two running backs – Kyle Havercroft and Chris Ahsing – from last season.
In last year’s game against Redlands, Clark threw for 323 yards and two TDs in a 52-49 road win that launched the Pirates’ successful 2004 campaign. Havercroft, a freshman at the time, ran for four TDs in that game.
Redlands went on to finish the season an uncharacteristic 4-5, tying for third place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference with a 3-3 record. It was the first time the Bulldogs had failed to win the SCIAC title since 2001.
“They are annually a playoff-caliber team, and we would expect nothing less this year,” Tully said of the Bulldogs, who have won nine conference championships and 104 of 156 games during coach Mike Maynard’s 17-year tenure. “They run a wide-open offense that can challenge any defense, and they are, defensively, very physical.”
Redlands comes in with a revamped offense that is directed by senior quarterback Nick Brown, who threw for 1,105 yards and 11 TDs after stepping in for injured starter Brian Sapp, an all-SCIAC performer last season.
But the Bulldogs’ greatest concern – like that of Whitworth – is on defense, where Maynard hopes to improve on last year’s effort, which yielded 475 yards and 33.6 points per game.
The Whitworth-Redlands series, which is coming to Spokane for the first time, is tied at 1-1. The Bulldogs won the inaugural meeting 20-7 in 2000.