By Bryan Bloodworth
BLOOMINGTON – It was a good news, bad news scenario for Illinois Wesleyan’s football team a year ago.
Injuries and illnesses all season long sent the Titans reeling toward a 4-6 record, their first losing season in seven years and only the seventh losing season in Coach Norm Eash’s 28 years at the helm.
PODCAST: Listen to coach Norm Eash talk about the offense here.
“The bad news was we went through one of those nightmare seasons where we had a lot of kids injured or some type of disruption,” said Eash, whose team opens the season Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Franklin, Ind. “But that allowed us to play a lot of kids. We have 14 players back (on offense), who started at least two games. That’s a great foundation, a great base to have to start the year.”
Eash expects the Titans’ offense to put points on the board with the return of a number of weapons in the backfield and receiving corps, along with a veteran line.
Directing the offense will be sophomore Jack Warner, who started the first five games before being sidelined with mononucleosis. Junior Donovan Laible, who was among five quarterbacks the Titans were forced to use last season, will be the back-up to Warner.
“Jack isn’t the biggest quarterback I’ve ever had, but he’s a play-maker,” said Eash. “He reads the pass coverages very well and can run the ball. And we’re very deep at running back.”
Senior Anfernee Roberts, juniors Austin Harrell and Reese Sobol, along with transfer Maurice Shoemaker-Gilmore should get the bulk of the playing time. Roberts led the team with 468 yards, while Harrell added 347. Shoemaker-Gilmore is a 22-year-old transfer from Central Michigan.
Senior Artie Checchin, who caught 49 passes for 800 yards and seven touchdowns, will once again be the main receiving target. He is a two-time all-conference selection and Eash believes Checchin could be a potential Player of the Year candidate.
Other top returning receivers include senior starters Andrew Javorka and Fernando Lozano. Javorka had 26 receptions for 484 yards and six touchdowns last season, while Lozano caught 20 passes for 216 yards. Junior tight end Quincy Butler, who caught 16 passes for 168 yards, also returns at tight end.
The offense will be anchored by a line of five returning starters, including four seniors. Zack Strock will be at center with Lucas Diller at left tackle, Frank Toland at left guard, Thomas Pearson at right guard and sophomore Connor Melvin at right tackle.
“I expect the offense to be multi-dimensional,” added Eash. “It’s going to be hard for defenses to defend us. We have tremendous speed at receiver and the backfield is amazing. It’s very deep and very talented with great speed. We’ll move the ball down the field. We’re a much better football team right now than we were at this time last year.”
Bryan Bloodworth can be reached at lefty@wjbc.com
