Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com

It's been a long time since St. Anselm College won a football game. The Hawks will enter the 2008 season carrying the extra weight that comes with a 29-game losing streak.

After his team went 0-10 and was outscored 486-117 last season, Ken Knapczyk resigned as St. Anselm's head coach. His replacement is 36-year-old Patrick Murphy, who spent the last four seasons as the head coach at Dracut (Mass.) High School.

Murphy (pictured) has a simple blueprint that he hopes will help spark interest in St. Anselm football and help the Hawks win some football games as well: He wants to make St. Anselm a more attractive option to in-state recruits.

"Fourteen players on last year's roster were from the state, and there will be even fewer this year," Murphy said. "When I took this job there were tapes of six New Hampshire players on my desk and all six went out of state. You look at the rosters and it seems like there are two to four New Hampshire kids on most teams in our league. You have to mine your backyard before you go to anyone else's."

Although Murphy made it clear that recruiting within the state is his No. 1 priority, he'd also like to cherry pick from Vermont, southern Maine and Massachusetts. If St. Anselm can consistently pull good players from those areas, he said, victories will follow.

"If you're from New Hampshire and you're not a UNH kid and you're not a Dartmouth kid, we want to be their home school, so to speak," Murphy explained. "If we kept that talent pool in northern New England at St. Anselm, that would make us a very strong program."

This isn't the first time Murphy has had to rebuild a program. Dracut had a 9-35 record in the four seasons prior to Murphy's arrival, but was 27-17 during his four seasons as the program's head coach. He has college experience on his resume as well, including six years at the Division 2 level (UMass-Lowell and Bryant College).

"I knew enough about St. A's when I interviewed," Murphy said. "But I definitely did more research and had some questions. Mainly, why has the record been as bad as it's been for the last few years? The facilities were there."

Murphy said he decided to leave Dracut after meeting with the St. Anselm administration. He said he came away from those meetings convinced that the school -- inlcuding the admissions department -- will support the football program. 

"I wanted the job. I didn't need the job," Murphy said. "I wasn't going to leave a good situation for one that was going to struggle. I like to win. I've been to places where football wasn't important." 

Murphy's committment to New Hampshire recruits appears to be more than just talk. He said his first recruiting-related move last spring was a trip to see Bishop Guertin coach Tony Johnson. BG has won three of the last four Division II state titles and has produced its share of college talent during that period.

Center Mark Spinney, who is a redshirt-freshman at Boston College, is the most high-profile recruit to come out of BG in recent years.

"There's a lot of Division 2 and Division 3 talent in New Hampshire, Vermont and southern Maine," Murphy said. "I know there are a lot of local kids at NESCAC schools. That's good football."

Murphy, who played football at Northeastern, said St. Anselm will run a spread-option offense this season that emphasizes a running quarterback.

"It'll be similar to UNH, but more run game from the QB ... like West Virginia," he said. "We'll have to bring in speed and we'll have to teach them how to win.

"We don't want to leave any stone in northern New England unturned, but we want New Hampshire kids. Kids who can play."