Incoming freshmen are discovering there is more
to offense than running.
ORONO – High school football in Maine isn’t considered a pass-happy kind of game.
With a few exceptions, teams in Maine concentrate heavily on running the ball and pounding through the line for its points.
“I think we ran something like eight or nine passing plays all season, never mind in a game,” said former Oxford Hills High School lineman Jacob Folz of West Paris. “This passing stuff is going to take some getting used to.”
Folz and Livermore Falls graduate Shawn Demaray are two freshman linemen at the University of Maine this season, and both will probably sit out a year before playing full time with the team, but that doesn’t mean the learning process hasn’t started.
“It’s tough on the first year kids,” said Folz. “You have to learn a whole book of new plays. Coming from a run-oriented offense especially, you have to learn new techniques.”
Maine’s offense has never been run and gun, nor does it rely heavily on the pass, but it almost certainly will involve more than one or two pass plays per game.
“Blocking for the pass, you just have to be more patient,” said Folz. “All my life, if I stood up at the line and waited for a defensive back to come at me, I would get yelled at. Now, you are taught that on a passing play. No more automatically exploding off the line.”
And then there is the competition. Folz has already noticed that the people against whom he is competing are very different than those in the Pine Tree Conference.
“Everyone is bigger than me,” said Folz, who measures 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 250 pounds. “The speed and the size of the kids playing here and at all of the other schools is incredible.”
The fact that Folz and Demaray may be a year away from being physically ready will contribute to the decision of whether or not to redshirt the freshmen. Also, Maine returns its entire starting offensive line from last season, when the Black Bears were ranked fifth in the Atlantic-10 in rushing yards, led by sophomore tailback Marcus Williams, who ran for 1,406 yards in 14 games.
“The fact that the line comes back at full strength is a definite plus for us,” said head coach Jack Cosgrove, who recently signed a contract extension through the 2007 season. “It’s comforting to know that we have so many pieces of that offense still in place.”
Worth the weight
Former Winthrop High School standout Clyde Moody, last year a red-shirt freshman in much the same position as Folz and Demaray, will get his chance to play this season.
As a defensive back, Moody used last year to bulk up and get into Division 1-AA football shape. Now, 20 pounds of muscle heavier and much quicker, Moody has started to play on the special team units in practice.
“I’m on three different special teams right now,” said Moody. “I’m pretty much about where I wanted to be.”
Maine’s defensive team was ranked No. 1 in the Atlantic-10 last season. Four key starters have left, but the talent to replace them is deep.
Maine opens its season ranked No. 16 in the preseason Sports Network poll and No. 14 in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll. The Black Bears’ first game of the regular season is Saturday, Aug. 30, at Alfond Stadium against perennial national championship contender Montana. Montana is No. 3 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.
jpelletier@sunjournal.com
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