Hampden-Sydney Week

It's Hampden-Sydney Week! After starting off a beautiful Labor Day Holiday Weekend in winning fashion, it's time to set our sites on Hampden-Sydney. Following is season preview information supplied by the D3Football.com Kickoff Edition:

Hampden-Sydney Tigers
Last playoff appearance: 1977

Last conference title: 1987

Head coach: Marty Favret, 6th year, 34-16

Starters returning: 12 (eight offense, three defense, one special teams)

Position battle to watch: Anywhere on defense, especially the line and corner positions as the Tigers look to replace three linemen and both starting cornerbacks from last year's starting lineup.

Pressure is on: Quarterback J.D. Ricca to remain healthy and keep the scoreboard operators busy, as the Tigers will need to score early and often if their defense allows over 23 points a game as they did in 2004.

Their season will be defined by: The Bridgewater game, as always. Three years in a row at 5-1 in the conference, the Tigers have found a way to continually lose in frustrating fashion to the Eagles. The Tigers were only down by ten late in the third quarter at Bridgewater in 2002, only to lose by a humiliating 31 points. In 2003, H-SC found themselves up by 21 before losing by three in the last second. A one-point, third-quarter lead evaporated with ten unanswered Bridgewater points to keep the streak running.

Predicted record: 10-0, 6-0

Capsule: Johnny Junes should jump into the running back position left by C.W. Clemmons, H-SC’s all-time leading rusher who graduated. Junes tallied a team-high 14 touchdowns as a backup last year while averaging 4.3 yards per carry. The Tigers play a relatively weaker non-conference schedule than Bridgewater and Emory & Henry, often leading to boxcar figures in the box scores. Ricca’s injury brought that train to halt last year, but should he remain healthy, this is the year to knock off the Eagles. While the offense clicked off almost 40 points per game in 2004, the defense allowed nearly 24. Add to that hefty figure the loss of 8 defensive starters and you have yourself a situation. The defense wasn’t that great last season and H-SC still managed to win eight games, several without Ricca. We tend to believe they can do it again given the explosiveness of the offense. The Tigers’ schedule certainly plays to their favor as well. Early games against Sewanee and Gettysburg should propel Ricca into conference play with his confidence back in stride. Expect the late-season tilt with Johns Hopkins to be a key game for playoff positioning/bubble watch. H-SC, like Hopkins, has found itself riding the bubble for the past few seasons because of failures within conference play. Three consecutive seasons of 5-1 conference marks (all losses to Bridgewater) and overall records of 8-2, 9-1, and 8-2 have kept the Tigers out. Favret will do everything possible to avoid worrying about those extra, and most coveted, Pool C bids.