Wesleyan Football is now a full season removed from its abysmal showing in 2005. The overhaul conducted by Coach Hauser and his coaching staff has now had a year to sink in and expectations and hopes run high throughout the locker room. The team is returning thirteen starters and thirty-six letter winners from last year’s 3-5 season.
The Cardinals are led by tri-captains Timothy O’Callaghan ’08, Tom Addonizio ’08 and Zach Librizzi ’08. Although the senior leadership is distributed somewhat unequally, the majority of it resting on the defensive side of the ball, the Cardinal offense has more potential this year than it has had in the past few. The offense is led by one of the top quarterbacks in the NESCAC: Zach averaged 173 yards a game last year and has two top wide receivers to throw to in Second team All-NESCAC selection Ryan Walsh ’09 and Mark Noonan ’08.
If that wasn’t enough for him to be excited about, Librizzi finally has an offensive line capable of protecting him every down. In the past the offensive line has had problems both with protecting the quarterback and generating enough push on the line for an effective run. This year looks to be different however with four out of the five starting lineman returning from having started last year.
“With offensive leaders like Zach, Ryan and Mark and an O-line that can really stand up to the rush,” said Addonizio, “the offense should be better than it had in the past three years.”
Traditionally, it has been the defensive side of the ball that has dominated the interest of Cardinal fans, but this year could prove to be different. Having lost key players in Captain Jeff McClaren ’06 and All-NESCAC selections Quincy Francis ’06 and Joe Pepe ’07, Wesleyan will need to do some shuffling in the secondary to replace those valuable losses. With that being said, the defense will be anchored by middle linebacker O’Callaghan who was fourth in the NESCAC last year in tackles and averaged almost ten stops per game.
“Defensively we lost some key players this year,” O’Callaghan said. “But I have faith that some of our young guys will really step up their roles this year. Guys like Vinny Colangelo, Andrew Dominguez, Tyler Whitley and Chuck can really make a big impact for us. These guys haven’t started before, but our ‘D’ will take steps forward and be better than last year.”
Whether Captain Addonizio turns out to be correct remains to be seen. The Cardinals will still have to fix several problems in their secondary before they take on Middlebury in their first home game of the season. However, there is a lot to be excited about as they look forward.
Saturday, the Cardinal squad will travel to Trinity in order to scrimmage the Bantams. Trinity, a football powerhouse in the NESCAC, should provide good competition for the Cardinals on both sides of the ball. Although it is doubtful that there will be a definite winner in the scrimmage, one thing is for certain: Wesleyan Football will be a stronger team than last year.
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