Close not enough
GROVE CITY — The last three seasons, the Grove City College football team has been close.
But not close enough.
The Wolverines have been competitive in the Presidents' Athletic Conference, but have watched teams like Washington & Jefferson and Thomas More win league titles.
This year, though, has a chance to be different for Grove City.
The Wolverines return 16 starters, including nine on a defense that finished ranked No. 1 in the PAC last season. The offense could be dynamic.
“I think the thing that is going to make this year a special year is our experienced senior class and the senior leadership they have provided,” said Grove City football coach Chris Smith. “They've been part of what we've done the past three years, which is to be right there.”
Right there, though, isn't good enough for this group or their coach.
“I know their expectations are very high,” Smith said of his players. “I know those high expectations are very realistic.”
Grove City's offense will be led by two quarterbacks — sort of.
Knoch graduate Zach Gross got some time under center last season but suffered a season-ending injury and did not return to the team as a player this fall.
But two other quarterbacks who saw time at the position, Clayton Hall and Brian Pell, do return — each with a very different skill set.
Hall, a senior, played in only two games before an injury ended his season. In those two games, however, Hall rushed for 325 yards and four scores and threw for 397 yards and three scores.
Pell, a sophomore, played in six games, throwing for 889 yards and four TDs.Hall is a scrambler; Pell is more of a drop-back passer.Because of Hall's style of play, Smith plans on spelling Hall from time to time with Pell.“What we have now is basically two starting quarterbacks,” Smith said. “We won't have an alternating quarterback position, but we will have a quarterback position where we will use two players.”How that works will depend on the situation, Smith said.“If Clayton plays at his upper level, he can't play every snap,” Smith said. “That will come into play there. It will give both of them a chance to go full-out because they'll know if they start to run out of gas a bit we can make a switch to keep the offense moving.“If you look back at last season, in the first two games Clayton played, especially in the last game, he either ran the ball or threw it 10 of the last 12 plays,” Smith added. “You can't do that for long without breaking down.”Hall and Pell will have plenty of help around them.The line returns three starters and looks solid and the backfield returns a dynamic duo of Blaine Miller and Ed Reith.The two seniors combined for 996 yards and nine touchdowns last season.Miller also was the leading receiver for the Wolverines with 36 receptions for 438 yards.
Mars graduate Shane Kaclik, a junior, also is in the mix to get some carries at tailback this season.“The running back corps is really good,” Smith said. “The three returning running backs could be a feature back on almost any other team.”The running game also will be counted on to help the defense by keeping some of the potent PAC offenses off the field.The Grove City defense, though, was pretty stout under any circumstance last season, giving up just an average of 297 yards of offense per game and only 122 on the ground.“Defense is huge and right now we're looking at a defensive unit that is going to return nine starters and was ranked No. 1 in the conference,” Smith said. “That's a pretty good combination.”
