Kansas City, Mo. — As the coaches’ poll was announced Monday in Kansas City at the MIAA football media day, Emporia State was the first school named on the ballot.
Unfortunately, first is worst.
After a 3-8 season and 1-8 conference record in 2007, it was no surprise the Hornets were selected to finish in last place. After all, the Hornets’ lone conference victory in coach Garin Higgins’ first season was against Southwest Baptist, who has left the conference in football and has been replaced by Nebraska-Omaha, a traditional Division II power that was selected to finish second by the coaches.
“I think my first reaction is that’s where I thought we would be at,” Higgins said. “It’s definitely the place where we don’t want to end it. It’s not a surprise to me. It’s not a surprise to our coaches. You go back and look at last year and we were a very inconsistent football team.”
The inconsistencies in 2007 could stem from a plethora of places: new coaching staff, not enough talent and unfamiliarity between the coaches and players. The attitude of Higgins and his players on Monday made it evident that things are changing.
Junior cornerback Travis Lee said only 60 percent of the team welcomed the coaching staff with open arms last season.
“The other 40 didn’t like change,” Lee said. “Some of the older guys who had been here for a while weren’t as quick to open up to the new coaching staff. They were more selfish. They were selfish players as far as they kind of looked at everything as, ‘I’m doing this for me.’”
Lee and senior receiver Sean Partridge both said the disgruntled players made their feelings known in the locker room, and the negativity made for a bad atmosphere.
“Once we lost, it seemed like there was a lot of pointing fingers and stuff like that, not necessarily stuff you want going on in your locker room,” Partridge said. “I think we’ve got all that changed around and that’s why I think we can have a good season.”
Lee added, “I would say we’ve got a lot of people who want to be here and that’s going to result in us winning more games.”
Higgins has replaced the unhappy players with youth. The Hornets have 59 freshmen on the roster – both true freshmen and redshirts from last season. The influx of fresh faces should be aided by the experience gained under the new staff last year by the upperclassmen.
“The main difference is we’ve all been in the system for a year,” Partridge said. “Last year it was hard to adjust to different teams and game plans when we were still kind of learning our own game plan. Now we can just go out there and play and not worry about what play we’re going to run, especially on the offensive side of the ball.”
Higgins said he could see a difference already this summer. The team’s staff meetings went more smoothly because they had established a routine from the previous year and everyone felt more comfortable.
“I think it’s very important to keep your coaching staff intact,” Higgins said. “I feel like I have a great coaching staff. Those guys do an excellent job. They’re all back from last year. We understand each other. We understand the players. At the same time, I think it’s important that our players begin to understand how we want our culture to be at Emporia State and how we do things and how we coach.”
Media days and the start of a new season always bring renewed optimism. A last place prediction was not going to change that for the ESU players. In fact, they even had a prediction of their own.
“I think we’re a real wildcard in this conference because we’ve got a lot of new people that a lot of people haven’t seen play, that could really help us and be stars in this league in years to come,” Partridge said. “And if they have a good season, we could really be anywhere on that list, whether it’s on the top or in the middle. I think if we play our game, we could get to the top.”
UsayULoveGod (anonymous) says...
We should have a better year than last year ! I am with you Coach ! I will be in the stands , shouting LETS GO HORNETS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UNTIL I PASS OUT !!!!
August 7, 2008 at 5:25 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )