Anticipation for the Wesleyan football season is higher than ever following a transitional, yet successful, 2010 season. 2010 saw the introduction of Coach Mike Whalen ’83, who led the Cardinals to their first .500 season in over five years. The Cardinals finished 4-4 last Fall, improving over a 2-6 finish in 2009 and a 1-7 finish in 2008.
Whalen has brought with him a strong history of winning and success. Prior to coaching at Wesleyan, Whalan served as the head coach of Williams College, accruing a 38-10 record, including one undefeated season (8-0) in 2006. That year, Whalen was a finalist for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year award, which is presented to the top football coach in each NCAA division. He indisputably knows how to win, and was able to improve Wesleyan’s win-loss record while implementing entirely new systems on both sides of the ball.
The Cardinals are returning some of their top performers from last year, and now that the team has had a full year to adapt to Whalen’s strategy, expectations and enthusiasm are running high. Whalen has constituted a new credo for the Cardinals this year: “Competition.”
“Everyone who lines up game one against Middlebury will do so because they earned their starting job in preseason,” Whalen said. “Anyone who reports to camp expecting to play because of what happened in the past is in for a rude awakening.”
With a roster of over 80 players and 32 returning letterwinners, tough inter-squad play will mean only Wesleyan’s finest taking the field on Saturday, September 24, and the Cardinals anticipate their best season to date.
Quad-captain Justin Freres ’11, who finished the season last year with 56 tackles and a second-team All-NESCAC selection as a defensive back, reinforced Whalen’s preseason tenet.
“From seniors to freshmen, our guys have been competing every day, and this has made our entire team better,” Freres said.
Fellow quad-captain Jordan Greene ’12, who led the Cardinals in pass blocks last season, expressed great confidence as well.
“The work ethic on the team coming into the season has been far beyond what I have ever seen before,” Greene said. “The coaches have emphasized competition at all positions throughout the preseason so everyone is fighting to earn a starting spot.”
Cyprian Oyomba ’12 returns as a third quad-captain on defense as well. Last season, he led the Cardinal defense with 84 tackles, a feat which earned him first-team All-NESCAC honors. The fourth of the quad-captains is starting quarterback Matt Coyne ’12, who returns as the team’s veteran signal-caller.
Now that the Cardinals are coming off their first non-losing season in years, sights are not only set on finishing with a winning record, but also finishing with a NESCAC title.
“We fully expect to go 8-0 as a team,” said Freres. “In years past we have been lacking talent, and last year the playbook was brand-new to everyone, but this year we are all familiar with our playbook and have enough talent to compete with anyone in our league.”