UNH's McDonnell provides the answers
Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com
Tuesday was media day at the University of New Hampshire, which means it was a day when UNH football coach Sean McDonnell had to answer a lot of questions. The question he answered most often had to do with the team's quarterback position, where sophomore R.J. Toman will take over for all-everything QB Ricky Santos.
Santos holds numerous school records, including career passing yards (12,189), career completions (1,024), most completions in a season (301 in 2005), most passing yards in a season (3,797 in 2005), and career touchdowns passes (116). Santos helped UNH reach the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs in each of his four seasons as a starter.
McDonnell said Toman will be successful as long as he doesn't try to do too much too soon.
"He has to remember who he is and how we want him to do things," McDonnell said. "I've always said the quarterback's gotta be a distributor here at UNH. Get the ball to our skill people. Let people run, let people catch and then statistics and all of that stuff will come your way. Obviously the last guy who was here embraced that pretty well.
"The one thing that R.J. gives us that I like an awful lot is that mobility at quarterback. A little bit more athleticism. The one thing you wonder about is the durability. That's where Kevin Decker has to understand that 20 plays into one year Ricky Santos had to take someone's place. That's why Kevin Decker has to prepare like he's the starter. And then somewhere along the way we have to find a third quarterback out of those other guys."
Toman played in two games last season. He entered the Delaware game after Santos suffered a first-half injury and led the Wildcats to a 35-30 victory. He completed nine passes for 98 yards and two TDs against Delaware.
Toman guided UNH to a 49-21 triumph over Iona the following weekend. He completed 15 of 19 pass attempts for 172 yards and a TD in that contest. He also rushed for 111 yards on 20 carries last season.
"The thing I feel good about is the kid's already been on the field," McDonnell said. "He's already been in the hot water. He went in that Delaware game and he did some very good things, but he's got to understand there are five other guys on that offense that we can get the ball to who can do things with it. Make your reads, distribute the ball, make the play. Let it all come to you instead of trying to make things happen."
Here are some other subjects McDonnell addressed on Tuesday:
THE DEFENSIVE SECONDARY: "The good thing is we've got some guys who can play back there. We feel really good about the depth and the flexibility back there. Obviously we gotta replace Jeff Pammer. Lot of production with Jeff Pammer, but the kids who are back there right now at the safety position (Ryan) McGuinness, (John) Clements and (Terrence) Klein are pretty good football players. Nothing is settled yet on who's going to be in there. Competition will make us better, but I feel we have six or seven guys who can play back there."
THE RUNNING GAME: "Gotta improve. I don't think it's the guys in the backfield. I think we have guys who can carry the football and can gain some yards. I think it's gotta go directly to the guys up front. Our offensive line -- we're healthy right now, knock on wood. We have four out of five returning starters. Those are the guys who have to block for us and open the holes. When we've been successful on offense we've been able to run the football. When we've won we've been able to run the football."
ON SPLIT END MIKE BOYLE: "Gotta get him to touch the football. You go back and evaluate and he had some pretty big plays last year -- long-yardage plays. I also think Mike's very good with the ball in his hands running with it. We've talked as an offensive staff with Sean (offensive coordinator Sean Devine), (quarterbacks coach) Tim Cramsey and the guys about different alignments for Mike and getting the ball in his hands, because he's not just a receiver. He's a running back -- an athletic football player who happens to catch the ball very well. He's going to be the No. 1 target. Him and Sicko (tight end Scott Sicko) are going to be the guys we look to go to."
ON RUNNING BACK SEAN JELLISON: "He should be a starter on every special team for us. That's the type of athlete his is. That's where his contribution has to start. He's a very good athlete. He's a tough, physical player. He was on the kickoff return team, on the kickoff team last year. This year he'll be on the punt team someplace -- the punt return. Again, you knock on wood with guys like that to stay healthy because he can play a lot of different positions and do a lot of different things for you on the football field. I think the kid is going to help our offense an awful lot. The kid can run, the kid can catch. He's got good size and can block. I like Jelli."
THE DEFENSIVE LINE: "We have three guys on the interior who I think have made big strides from last season: T.J. Taylor, Jordan Long and Steve Young. All have done great jobs in the weight program in the offseason and have gotten bigger and stronger. Those three guys are going to be the main interior guys. Another guy I've been pleased with is John Murray.
"Defensive end is a work in progress out there. I think there are four kids right now who look to be battling for playing time out there: (Kyle) Maroney and (Kevin) Peters have both played. We're excited about Brian McNally and then Danny Ruhl had a big summer and got bigger and stronger. Somewhere along the line out of those seven, eight guys we have to find four who can start."
WHERE THE DEFENSE NEEDS TO IMPROVE: "Stopping the run. That's a statistic that got away from us last year. We haven't been a dominating defense in this league in a long time. We have to have a physical presence and be able to win the games in the fourth quarter when people are trying to run the ball and wear us down."
ON THE OFFENSE (without Santos): "I don't think we'll rearrange anything. We have enough people at the skill positions that we can do a lot of things we've done in the past. The thing that I like right now is that we have some bigger kids at the tight end position who can give us an opportunity to do some multiple formations. Not only can we go two tight ends and do some power stuff, some of those kids are athletic enough to get in the slot and catch the football. I really believe we'll do a lot of the same things -- wide open, spread, bubble screen, all that type of stuff. At other times we have to get the ball to (Chad) Kackert, (Robert) Simpson and (Sean) Jellison and push the thing inside from tight end to tight end."
ON THE ATLANTIC-10: In our division, the North Division, UMass has to be the team you look at. They have a lot of people who return on defense, a great quarterback (Liam Coen) and that's what you win with in this league. I think Hofstra is going to be very good. I think Maine is going to be very improved. I think Northeastern, who has handled us the last two years, is a good football team. And then Rhode Island, with the change of staff, I think things are going to happen down there.
"Down at the other half there's a lot of good football teams. JMU, Richmond. Go back to Delaware. William & Mary with Jake Phillips. Those are all good teams down there. I'm still trying to figure out after eight years in this league where the easy ones are. I can't find them.
"Where we fit into it? If we stay healthy. If we don't turn the ball over. We're going to be there in November. I know we're going to improve on the defensive side. We gotta stay healthy and we gotta get our defense stopping the run and we'll be fine."
