COLLEGE FOOTBALL: E&H Opens Season Today At Home

BY ALLEN GREGORY
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
EMORY, Va. – Emory & Henry head football coach Don Montgomery is a bottom-line type of guy.

Wins and losses are important for the defensive tactician, but Montgomery is more concerned with an intangible that serves as the bedrock to most successful programs. Just call it tenacity.

“That’s one reason I’m really happy with my team,” Montgomery said. “Our players love to hustle and hit, and those have been characteristics of every Emory & Henry football team.”

The Wasps overcame a low preseason projection and a slow start last year to forge a four-way tie for first in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

Montgomery begins his fifth season at E&H today, when the Wasps play host to regional rival Ferrum, beginning at 1 p.m. E&H opened a 26-7 lead at Ferrum last season, before escaping with a wild 26-21 win.

“I was not pleased with that game,” Montgomery said. “Ferrum outgained us by over 110 yards. Ferrum has a lot of striking power, but we didn’t play good defense. We learned a lot [from] that game.”

The key discovery for E&H last season was Caleb Jennings, a tireless daredevil of a runner who accumulated an ODAC-record 2,161 total yards on offense and led NCAA Division III in punt returns with an average of 18.4 yards.

Senior fullback Cain Ringstaff serves as the gritty complement to Jennings in the backfield.

“Having a healthy Jennings and Ringstaff would help any offense,” Montgomery said.

E&H defeated Averett College, 31-10, in an Aug. 29 scrimmage in Emory. Averett was picked for fourth in the USA South Athletic Conference coaches’ poll, one spot behind Ferrum.

“Considering we had only been in camp two weeks, I was pleasantly pleased with how our offense moved the ball,” Montgomery said. “I was not happy with the turnovers, but I can see a lot of potential on offense.”

Montgomery was particularly encouraged by the performance of his second- and third-team offense. The big question is at quarterback, where quick 5-foot-11 sophomore Drew Piscopo heads a list of candidates.

“We’re happy with our prospects at quarterback and receiver,” Montgomery said. “Our quarterbacks have the ability to make things happen with the scrambling ability, and that makes it tough on a defense.”

Ferrum ranked fifth among all NCAA Division III teams last season with 290 yards rushing per game. After many years of relying on the traditional option-based formation, 16th-year Ferrum head coach
Dave Davis is hoping to be more versatile on offense. Senior quarterback Matt Dobson among is eight returning veterans.

Other players to watch on offense include halfback Mike Vann (733 yards) and fullback Matt Lucas, who rushed for 475 yards last season.

Former Group AA all-state quarterback Marcus Mayo left the program after rushing for 501 yards last season. Mayo engineered the Ferrum rally against E&H last season. The Panthers finished with 359 total yards on offense.

Despite the talk of more passing from Ferrum, Montgomery expects to see a heavy dose of the basics from the Panthers.

Montgomery hopes his team can use the late-season charge of 2008 as a guidebook for even greater achievements this fall.

“There’s a lot of excitement around our program, but we’ve got to temper that emotion with realism and just keeping steps up the ladder,” Montgomery said.
“When you’ve been a running team for so long, it’s hard to diversify all of a sudden,” Montgomery said. “We might see some play-action passes, but we have to stop [Ferrum] from the running the ball.
We’ve been a good rushing defense the past couple years. We’re going to keep things simple on defense and work in our new guys.”

The leader of the new-look E&H defense is Division III preseason All-American pick Evin O’Sullivan, a 5-9 linebacker who missed nearly all of last season due to injury.

Ferrum returns five starters on defense. The marquee talent for the Panthers is punter T.J. Grzesikowski, who earned All-American status after leading Division III with an average of 43.8 yards per punt last fall.

Montgomery hopes his team can use the late-season charge of 2008 as a guidebook for even greater achievements this fall.

“There’s a lot of excitement around our program, but we’ve got to temper that emotion with realism and just keeping steps up the ladder,” Montgomery said.

NOTES: All E&H games will be broadcast on WEHC 90.7 FM, the campus radio station. Fans can hear the broadcast and monitor live game stats via the school Web site, GoWasps.com … Davis has compiled a record of 78-68 at Ferrum, with three conference championships. … Unlike past years, the Ferrum roster does not include any players from Southwest Virginia.
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