Tim Reynolds back at QB for Ferrum

FERRUM — This season, Ferrum will have eight new defensive starters, two new starting receivers, a new offensive coordinator, a new press box and a new league rival.

But the quarterback won’t be new — well, except for his hairstyle.

Tim Reynolds, the 2012 USA South offensive player of the year, is back for a second season as the Panthers’ signal-caller. He threw for 1,683 yards and 13 touchdowns and rushed for a team-high 876 yards and 15 touchdowns last fall , when he helped Ferrum go 7-3.

This season, he wants to improve his passing and become a “student of the game.”

“I want to improve mentally, … watching more film, knowing what’s going to happen before the play,” said Reynolds, a junior.

He hit the weight room in the offseason to make his legs stronger, which should help him when he takes off and runs.

“I took a beating last year,” he said. “At the end of the season last year, I just felt really bad physically.”

Reynolds is now sporting a high-top box haircut, which Will Smith sported in the old TV series “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”

“That’s the style — it’s coming back now,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds is one of seven returning starters on offense. But Ferrum must replace Reynolds’ top three targets from last season — receivers Derrick West and Makya Jackson and running back Tyler Brubaker. Brubaker also was the team’s second-leading rusher.

The new offensive coordinator is former Kent State offensive line coach Chris Bache. He replaced Ralph Isernia, who left to become the head coach at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Coach David Harper said Ferrum might not employ as much option offense as it has in the past.

“We’ll be a little bit more spread out and open,” Harper said. “Hopefully we can develop some receivers.

“Last year, we should’ve thrown more than we did.”

Fullback Jericho James (435 yards rushing) is back, as are four starters on the offensive line.

The ground game should get a lift from halfback Tae Gilbert, a Franklin County graduate who has returned to the college after a one-year absence. Gilbert was an All-USA South first-team pick in 2011, when he ran for 518 yards.

Eight starters must be replaced on defense, including all five starters in the secondary.

Three All-USA South first-team picks are back on defense — linebacker Jatavious Adams, defensive end Linwood Pickettt and defensive back Tarrell Owens.

The Panthers finished in a three-way tie atop the USA South standings last fall with a 5-2 conference mark. Christopher Newport, which has beaten Ferrum nine straight times, earned the league’s automatic Division III playoff bid.

Although CNU has moved its other sports to the Capital Athletic Conference, it is staying in the USA South as a football-only member.

Christopher Newport isn’t the only school that has owned the Panthers of late. Ferrum will again open the season against nonleague foe Emory & Henry, which has beaten the Panthers the past six years.

The Panthers will also have to deal with USA South newcomer Huntingdon, a Montgomery, Ala., school that went 6-3 last fall, including a nonleague win over Hampden-Sydney. Ferrum will visit Huntingdon on Sept. 28.

“What worries me there is the trip — 10 hours,” Harper said. “And going there in late September, it could be 100 degrees on the Astroturf.

“Our conference, adding Huntingdon, is much stronger than it has been.”

Ferrum was picked third in the USA South coaches preseason poll, behind CNU and Huntingdon.

Nonleague foe Bridgewater is back on the schedule, replacing Southern Virginia. Bridgewater will drop off the schedule next season, when the USA South will switch from a seven-game league schedule to an eight-game league schedule.

Because of the current seven-game league schedule and the addition of Huntingdon, the Panthers won’t face USA South rival Methodist this season.

Ferrum’s stadium will have a new, $250,000 press box this season. The two-level press box will include a concession stand and a VIP suite.

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