Sunday, August 26, 2007
Panthers look to regain 2005 form
Ferrum must replace its top seven rushers, including the QB, from last season's team that finished just 2-7 overall.
2007 College Football Preview
Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times
Former Northside High School standout J.J. Jordan will start at linebacker for Ferrum.
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FERRUM — Ferrum will employ a brand-new starting backfield as it attempts to bounce back from its worst season of the decade.
After going 9-2 and reaching the NCAA Division III playoffs in 2005, the Panthers were just 2-7 last fall — their worst record since going 1-8 in 1996.
They were 2-5 in the USA South last year, when they lost their final two games by a combined score of 110-21.
The ground-oriented Panthers are minus the top seven rushers from last year’s team, including four who had eligibility left but did not return to the college.
Coach Dave Davis must replace Jermaine Pitts, who was a four-year starter at quarterback.
He ran for a team-high 901 yards and threw for 501 yards as a senior last season. Pitts wound up as the third-leading rusher in Ferrum history with 2,625 career yards.
Ferrum began preseason practice with four candidates to replace him, including freshman Marcus Mayo (Rockbridge County) and sophomore Matt Dobson. Davis would like to find a quarterback who throws better than Pitts, who completed just 31 of 98 passes last year.
The ground game also needs a boost.
After leading Division III in rushing offense (361.4 ypg) and ranking 14th in scoring offense (39.9 ppg) in 2005, the option-flavored Panthers averaged 270 yards rushing and 22.4 points last fall. They were held to 14 points or less in five games last season.
“We’ve bettered ourselves at running back,” Davis said.
The contenders for the two starting halfback jobs are freshman Mike Vann and a pair of transfers who were All-Timesland picks at Franklin County High School, juniors Ronnie Edwards and LeBryan Patterson.
Edwards ran for more than 3,200 yards in his Eagles career before signing with Division II Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory, N.C. He earned All-South Atlantic Conference honors as a sophomore last fall, when he ran for 609 yards and caught 26 passes.
Edwards said he transferred because he wanted to be near his 1-year-old son who lives in Gretna.
“I can’t be away from him because I had that lifestyle [as a kid] — I didn’t really have my pops a lot of times or my mom — so I wanted to be closer to him,” he said.
Patterson was an All-Timesland pick who ran for 2,794 yards in his prep career before signing with Division II Concord in Athens, W.Va.
He ran for 360 yards as a redshirt freshman in 2004 before moving to slotback and catching 23 passes in 2005.
Patterson said he left Concord because he didn’t like playing slotback. He didn’t attend school last fall, which he spent rehabbing a shoulder injury he suffered in practice the previous spring.
He spent last semester at Virginia State, but VSU coach Andrew Faison said Patterson didn’t meet Division II eligibility standards.
Ferrum also needs a fullback to replace Jacob Hawkins, an All-USA South pick who ran for 540 yards as a senior last fall.
The Panthers will also miss All-USA South tight end Chris Silk. Sergio Jones (Northside) has moved from offensive tackle to tight end to replace him.
Davis, who returns five starters on offense and six on defense, wants the Panthers to be more physical than they were last year.
“We’ve got to get back to the basics and not be as soft,” he said.
Davis is also seeking better leadership.
“Nobody really stepped up [last year],” Davis said. “We had to address issues of teaching them how to lead in the spring.”
Ferrum allowed an average of 30.8 points last year, so Davis will tinker with his defensive approach to compensate for a “lack of size up front.”
“We’re going to move a little more — a little more stunting and maybe some different styles of blitzing,” he said.
The Panthers have regained the services of linebacker J.J. Jordan (Northside). The fifth-year senior made the All-USA South second team in 2005 but missed most of last season with a broken leg.
The Panthers have added Southern Virginia to the schedule, giving them one more game than last year. Although Guilford has dropped the Panthers, Emory & Henry returns to the schedule after a one-year absence. The biggest nonleague test will come Sept. 15 at Bridgewater.
