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Young Football Hawks matured during challenging 2010 campaign
ROME, Ga. – They had to endure more than their share
of down moments.
A year that began with a pair of losses against tough opponents was punctuated with setbacks in key showdowns and ended with two defeats that were even tougher to take – it all combined to leave the 2010 Shorter University football team falling short of giving the young program its fifth straight winning season.
Yet while he shares his players’ disappointments, Hawks’ head coach Phil Jones is convinced that the team achieved success beyond all expectations.
“We did make a run at it,” Jones said as he looked back on a season in which the Hawks, who started the year overcoming back-to-back defeats to become a contender in the Mid-South Conference West Division race, were forced to settle for a 5-6 record after a series of self-inflicted mistakes. “What enabled us to do so was their determination and how hard they played. I’m so grateful to be here and to be around these young men and I thank the Lord every day for that.
“There’s a lot of good signs for the future.”
While they do hold optimism for what lays ahead – Shorter returns all but five starters next season – the young Hawks will do so having experienced some of the disappointments associated with growing pains.
“What was disappointing was not being able to win the close games,” Jones said about the four Mid-South Conference West Division defeats Shorter suffered, all of them coming by 10 points or less. “It makes it tough to measure ourselves when we’re not able to win those games. Turnovers had a lot to do with that and that’s something we have to correct.”
Putting the ball on the ground became a thorn in the sides of the Hawks, who fumbled 33 times and saw foes recover 20 of those mishaps. The game that underlines the turnover issues came at the midway point of the season.
Having put together three straight wins after falling to NCAA Division II national power West Alabama and NCAA Division I Georgia State at the Georgia Dome, Shorter coughed up the football fives times and allowed homestanding and nationally-ranked Mid-South West Division foe Cumberland University to rally for a 22-14 win with 15 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.
The Hawks overcame that defeat and remained in the division title picture the following week with a thrilling 25-24 road victory over Belhaven, but in a key West Division showdown at Harrison High in Kennesaw against the University of the Cumberlands, Shorter coughed up the ball four more times in a 21-14 loss that all but eliminated them from division championship contention.
“In practices, you can’t put the young, inexperienced players in the kind of game situations they’ll see during the season,” Jones said about the turnover malady. “It’s certainly not because there was a lack of effort.”
One can, the coach points out, look at how the Hawks’ hard-work mentality and their rededication to the team relationship factor that is the program’s foundation resulted in some of the top wins in Shorter’s history.
What will rank as the program’s most memorable game came in the Hawks’ first home appearance at the newly renovated Barron Stadium, a 47-46 overtime win against the eventual Mid-South East Division champion and three-time NAIA champ Georgetown.
“That was a huge win for us and something I think the whole Shorter community wanted,” Jones said.
Two more wins mixed in between some tough losses also rank as highlights for the season; the first was the win over Belhaven that kept Shorter’s division hopes alive.
“To be a champion,” said Jones, “you have to be able to do that.”
The other came following the loss to Cumberlands, when the Hawks roughed up nationally-ranked Webber International 42-14 in a clash that saw Shorter’s young defense shut down a potent opposing offensive attack and saw the Hawks’ own offense use its patented run game to set a new single-game rushing record of 534 yards.
Better still in the huge ground output was the emergence of two up and coming freshmen fullbacks as C.J. Scott rambled for 138 yards and four touchdowns and Kenny Foster rushed for 124 yards and a TD.
“That was a big plus for us late in the season,” Jones said.
And although that win was the last for the Hawks, who endured two close road division defeats to finish up the schedule, they added to the pluses by way of postseason honors.
Junior offensive linemen Andy Kellogg and Nick Newborn, junior slotback Albert Huntley, freshman defensive lineman Tabias Walker and senior linebacker Garrett Hochstetler were named to the All-Conference team.
Offensively, Kellogg and Newborn were part of an offensive line that helped the Hawks rank second in the nation in rushing at over 310 yards a game.
Huntley, who ranked ninth in the NAIA in kickoff return average at 27.8 yards per return, was a valuable weapon out of the backfield for the Hawks, rushing for 329 yards on 36 carries (9.1 yards per carry) and scoring one touchdown.
On the defensive side of the ball, Hochstetler proved he was capable of taking a leadership role as the three-time All-Conference pick led Shorter with 72 tackles, made 3.5 tackles for loss and collected 1.5 sacks. He leaves Shorter with 262 career tackles and ranks second on the Hawks' all-time tackles list behind former Hawks’ All-American Logan Lollis.
Lending evidence to how young – and talented – Shorter is on defense was the All-Conference selection of Walker, who in his first year on the college level made 33 total tackles from his defensive end position, six of those for loss, and led the Hawks with 2.5 sacks.
Two more Hawks collected honorable mention All-MSC recognition – sophomore safety Desmond Clark and senior offensive lineman Ryan Willoughby – while Shorter packed the Mid-South All-Academic team with 23 players who maintained a 3.25 grade point average or above on a 4.0 scale.
That kind of commitment, on and off the field, has Jones feeling very good about what the future holds on both sides of the ball.
“Defensively, I thought we were better than a year ago,” Jones said. “They showed improvement as the year went on. They’re young and we’ll have nine of our 11 starters back, but I think they will improve even more.”
The same can be said for Shorter’s offense, as the Hawks will return a talented stable of potent runners and four of their starting five linemen up front.
“The line of scrimmage is as good as it’s even been,” Jones said. “The backs learned a lot this year, but we do know they’re all very, very talented. They will be really good players for us.”
They clearly showed the signs this year as Foster led the team rushing for 671 yards and had eight touchdowns; Scott ran for 337 yards and five TDs playing in only six games; sophomore Octavious Edge had 407 yards and three TDs; and sophomore Brandon Morten ran for 321 yards and reached the end zone eight times.
Although the Hawks will have the majority of their roster returning, they will be without the services of a familiar face that has lined up behind center for Shorter for the last three years – senior Ben Williams.
The quarterback from Marietta, who led Shorter to its first Mid-South championship and NAIA playoff berth in 2008, capped his career with the Hawks rushing for 665 yards and a team-leading 11 touchdowns this season. He is now second only to Cooley in three of Shorter’s rushing records – career yards, career carries and career touchdowns.
Williams, however, added his arm to Shorter’s arsenal and after passing for 373 yards and three touchdowns this fall is now the Hawks’ all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns.
“He did a great job for us for three years and led us to the championship in 2008,” Jones said of Williams. “I hate to see him go.”
Although the Hawks will miss the likes of Williams and the remaining small group of seniors who filled the core leadership role this year, Jones feels that the program is still trying to recoup from the loss the program suffered at the end of the 2008 campaign when 29 seniors – all of them part of Shorter’s inaugural team – graduated.
“It takes a while to recover from something like that,” the coach said. “Losing that many at one time took a toll on us. But we’ve got an earmark on where we are and specifically what we need recruiting-wise to make us better.”
And that kind of optimism is what the Hawks will take with them as they close the book on 2010.
“You’ve got to build on the positive things and we certainly will do that,” Jones said. “The young ones feel they now have the experience and are ready to go. They can’t wait.”
