Departing member Thomas More gets the nod
LATROBE – Mike Sirianni has made some interesting statements in the past, and this one certainly caught the attention of the crowd at the Presidents’ Athletic Conference media day Wednesday.
Sirianni, the head football coach at Washington & Jefferson, has confidence in his two quarterbacks battling to replace four-year starter Pete Coughlin. Alex Rouse, a senior who backed up Coughlin, and Jacob Adams, a sophomore, will compete for the starting job.
“Losing Pete is a big loss,” said Sirianni, who begins his 15th season with a 128-30 record and brings back 14 starters to a team that went 9-2 and won an ECAC Bowl Game.
“Not many players have meant more to a program than Pete has for us over the last four years. … (I’ll make) a bold statement and I’ll say this in front of two great quarterbacks here (Thomas More’s Brennan Kuntz and Case Western’s Rob Cuda). … Our quarterback will be first team all-conference this year. That’s how confident I am in our two.”
The voters in the preseason poll had just as much confidence in Thomas More.
Heading into its final season competing in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, Thomas More was picked to win the conference title in the preseason poll released Wednesday.
The Saints, who have been the preseason selection seven times since joining the league in 2005, received 23 of the possible 33 first-place votes cast by the conference football coaches, sports information directors and members of the media at Saint Vincent College.
Washington & Jefferson was second with six first-place votes and Case Western Reserve was third with three first-place votes. Westminster, with the remaining first-place vote, was fourth and Carnegie Mellon rounded out the top five.
Waynesburg, which has an interim coach in Chris Smithley, was 10th and Grove City, with second-year coach Andrew DiDonato from South Fayette, was picked last.
Thomas More, which has dominated the conference in football and women’s basketball, severed it 12-year association with the PAC in June and will move on to a new conference and/or a new affiliation following the 2017-18 school year.
“It is a privilege and an honor to be picked by the media, the coaches and the sports information directors as the preseason favorite in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. We still have to go out and work hard each week, as every game in the PAC will be a battle with the caliber of teams we’re competing against out there,” said Thomas More head coach Regis Scafe. “Recognition like this is a testament to the history and the past successes of the football program at Thomas More.”
The Saints have gone 8-0 in the past two seasons, securing the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Division III playoffs. Thomas More was eliminated from last season’s playoffs after a four-overtime loss to Wittenberg in the first round.
“Being selected as this year’s PAC preseason favorite is a great honor for our team, but we have to go out and work hard each and every day to have the chance to top the conference standings this November,” said Kuntz.
When Thomas More joined the PAC in 2005, it became the seventh member of the conference and made the PAC eligible for an automatic qualifier into the Division III football playoffs.
Former Canon-McMillan lineman Alex Paulina has transferred to Waynesburg after spending a season at Pitt. … Thiel will play its first Thursday night game, hosting Allegheny Aug. 31. The remainder of the league’s teams begin Sept. 2.