For Benedictine College head football coach Larry Wilcox, Tuesday marked another conference media day in his storied career.
The expectations for the Ravens, coming off a 7-4 mark in 2012, are the lowest that the veteran coach has seen for his program in his tenure at Benedictine.
The Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) coaches selected the Ravens as the preseason No. 5 pick behind three teams which made the NAIA Football Championship Series a year ago.
“I know so little about our team and I don’t know if that’s the old guy in me coming out, but we’ve just got so many pieces to the puzzle that we need to fit,” said Coach Wilcox. “We are fortunate to have some significant guys back on both sides of the ball but our defense is going to be a little more of a challenge.
“We’ve gone through this before and I’m confident that we’ve got the guys that will get the job done.”
Missouri Valley College received eight first-place votes and were selected by the coaches to repeat as conference champs. MNU was selected as the preseason No. 2 with Baker University selected as No. 3 and Evangel University selected as No. 4, just five points ahead of Benedictine.
“One of our many goals will be to prove that we are among the top teams in the HAAC in what has proved to be a tough conference,” Coach Wilcox said.
Coach Wilcox was joined by senior running backs Cameron Fore (Rolla, Mo.) and Kevon McGrew (St. Louis, Mo.) at the annual press conference.
Both running backs are returning all-HAAC performers from a season ago in a core that returns 12 players as starters.
“Our focus was to gel as a unit and see what kind of team we were going to be this year, heading into Spring ball,” Fore said.
In addition to Fore and McGrew, the Ravens return starting quarterback Bill Noonan (Sr., Houston) and starting offensive lineman David Stochlin (Jr. Miami, Fla.) and Daniel Jiminez (Sr., Salina, Calif.) on the offensive side of the ball.
As Wilcox stated during the press conference, the defense was hit hardest by graduation but do return a share of experienced players.
The linebacking core will be led by Ray Gragg (Sr., Topeka) and Andrew Jones (Sr., Libertyville, Mo.) while the defensive back field will be anchored by safety Dylan Mesienheimer (Sr., Oak Grove, Mo.) and corner Burl Brisbane (Soph., Kansas City, Kan.).
The Ravens return 44 letterman from a season ago while they lost just 29, so there is experience in place that will need to step up for the Ravens if they hope to improve on their preseason selection and get back into the NAIA FCS.
Benedictine opens their 2013 season at home on Aug. 31 at 1 p.m. on O’Malley Field at Larry Wilcox Stadium against Briar Cliff University. The match up between the Chargers and the Ravens marks the first-ever meeting between the two programs.
The preseason NAIA Top 25 Coaches’ Poll will be released on Aug. 12, with the first regular season poll released on Sept. 16.
Benedictine was one of five programs from the HAAC to appear in the NAIA Football Coaches’ Spring Top 25 Poll. The Ravens were the fourth-highest ranked team at No. 22. Missouri Valley was ranked No. 3, MNU was ranked No. 12, Baker No. 14 and Evangel No. 23.
— BC Sports Information —