SRU bids adieu to stellar football season
SLIPPERY ROCK— Slippery Rock University officially said goodbye to one of its most successful — and most unfulfilled — football seasons Sunday afternoon with the program's annual banquet at the University Union.
The Rock finished 9-2 in 2007, the team's best record since 1999 and only SRU's fourth season of two or fewer losses in 33 years.
Yet the team was denied a berth in the NCAADivision IIplayoffs.
"Some computer said we didn't belong, but we did,"SRU coach George Mihalik said. "No team wanted to face us in the playoffs. Nobody.
"No doubt in my mind, at the end of the year, we were one of the top six teams in the Northeast Region."
SRU led the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in five team categories in 2007 — total offense (5,099 yards, 463.5 per game), rushing offense (2,885 yards, 29 TDs), quarterback sacks allowed (10), red zone defense and turnovers created (31).
Highlighting Sunday's affair was recognition of the 21 seniors now leaving the program.
"We were a solid group,"quarterback Nate Crookshank said. "Our record shows that. Our record got better every year we were here."Crookshank was a four-year starter at quarterback for The Rock. SRU's won-loss records during that time were 4-7, 5-5, 7-4 and 9-2.Slippery Rock High School graduate and Rock senior Travis Sarver received the Coaches Award for demonstrating Rock pride on and off the field.Sarver rushed for 660 yards as a starting running back in 2006, a year Corey Manfull missed with a hand injury. Manfull returned this past fall to rush for 1,300 yards — and Sarver returned to the bench."Travis saw action here on offense, defense, special teams ... whatever was needed to help the team win,"offensive coordinator Vic Campagna said."Nobody likes to lose a starting job, but Corey Manfull is a great player,"Sarver said. "From 1997 to 2000, I grew up coming over here and watching this program win championships."I wouldn't trade my experiences with this team for any of those championship teams I got to watch play. In 2004 and 2005, things didn't go well for us. But we're the guys who brought this program back."Linebacker Jared Palmer, still hopeful of gaining a medical redshirt after missing most of last year with a knee injury, echoed those sentiments."Players graduate. Tradition never does,"Palmer said.Numerous players received special awards during Sunday's festivities. The players voted for the Most Valuable Player on offense and defense.Wide receiver Paul Favers was elected Offensive MVP. He had 30 catches for 681 yards and 11 touchdowns and generated 1,162 all-purpose yards.Repeating as Defensive MVPwas lineman Clint Forsha, who tied Jake Barzen for the team lead with 62 tackles, including 11 tackles for loss and nine quarterback sacks.
Special team MVPwas A.J.Saunders, who averaged 24 yards per kickoff return and contributed four interceptions and three fumble recoveries defensively.Other special awards included:• <B>Ken Marshall Award (dedication) — </B>Jim D'Amico and Colin Golden• <B>Paul Grimm Award (weight room) — </B>Jared Palmer• <B>Hoffman Homecoming MVP— </B>Ryan Lehmeier, 23 carries for 215 yards vs. Clarion• <B>Gary Hunt Award (intensity — </B>Tyler Boudreau, led PSACwith 12 sacks, 17 tackles for loss• <B>Dr. Richard McLachlan Award (commitment) — </B>Dave Mulvihill• <B>Robert DeSpirito Award (vital part of SRUhistory) — </B>Mike Butterworth and Nate Crookshank• <B>James McElhaney Award (gentleman off the field) — </B>Bron Clouser, Akeem EtheridgeD'Amico and Etheridge wound up as senior starters in the secondary after both walked on as freshmen.Butterworth and Forsha both made first team Academic All-American in 2007, the first time in SRU's 119-year history that two of its football players were accorded that honor in the same year.The Rock has 38 football players with a cumulative grade point average of 3.00 or higher."We tell kids the same thing every year when we recruit them,"Mihalik said. "Someday, your football career will end, but something called life doesn't."We ask our players to commit themselves three ways — to society, academics and athletics. It's not easy being a senior in our program because we run a first-class program."These seniors brought the excitement back to The Rock. And when they walked off the field for the last time wearing the Green and White, they were winners,"Mihalik added.
