West Point Football: Summer Practice Starts with New Confidence

The 2011 West Point football season started Aug. 1st with Media Day and the first day of practice.  The program starts the year with a sense of confidence generated from a bowl win in 2010. 

The Black Knights are coming off a 7-6 season, their first winning campaign in 15 years and a Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl victory over SMU, the program's first bowl win since 1985.

The challenges to a second consecutive winning season are significant.  Army graduated many key defensive unit players from the 2010 team and four of the five starters from last year's offensive line. 

Then the Black Knights' schedule starts the season against strong opponents traveling first to Northern Illinois, then they host San Diego State and Northwestern at Michie Stadium. 

On the positive side, the team has returning juniors quarterback Trent Steelman and fullback Jared Hassin who helped lead West Point's productive offense last season. 

The coaches believe the talent level of the younger players in the program is significantly improving.  This may be demonstrated in more quickness and speed which the team needs to utilize as it does not have an excess of size. 

Before the start of the Media Day program, most of the team members walked by me coming out of a meeting, they all have that Academy look, absolutely in shape ready to score well on the required Army physical fitness tests, but you don't see players who appear to be your standard college 300 pound plus offensive tackles or defensive lineman. 

This team, like Navy and Air Force, will use the option offense and speed oriented defense to win by being a step ahead of  opponents.

Senior outside linebacker Steve Erzinger was named this spring as "Legacy" captain of the defense.

"Steve Erzinger provides tremendous leadership" comments Coach Ellerson. "He was the guy the graduating class voted to carry on their legacy."

The senior from Houston, Texas was recently interviewed on a ESPN program discussing player leadership in college football.

Third-year head coach Rich Ellerson commented about the new players on defense, 

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"We don't have a lot of starters back on defense, but those we have are strategically placed.  We have Jarrett Mackey, we have Antuan Aaron in the backfield, and Steve Erzinger, we have some experienced guys at key positions who understand how football games go, they understand our defense as well as anyone who has ever played it.  We will be leaning on that experience, which will be pivotal to our success." 

"The rush end is a marque position in this defense, that guy needs to be productive.  If everyone comes away from watching a game and wondering who was playing that position,  then we probably did not play very well. 

But we think Jarret Mackey is the right guy.  He was frankly the other guy at that position last year.  But he was too good to be the other guy.  We had to get him on the field. 

We had to get his athleticism and his play making ability engaged.  So he was really playing out of position last year, so will be fun to see what  what we always visualized for him. 

We expect that position to be productive. It will be different with him in there, but it can be just as productive."

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Junior quarterback Trent Steelman has started every Black Knight game since his his freshman year, despite playing through injuries.  He is now an an upperclassman who can project a strong leadership role. 

The Bowling Green, KY native describes the challenge coming back from off season surgery and breaking in a new offensive line,

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"I think this offensive line is going to be one of the most explosive offensive lines we have had since I have been here. 

We have a good feeling about what we are bringing on offense, the new things we have coming in, the new athletes coming in, with the experience we have returning in the backfield, like I told them, this could be one of the best offenses we have seen around here in a while if everyone stays healthy and does their part."

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The Black Knight offense is known to be conservative valuing ball control and avoiding turnovers,  Steelman comments, "I think you are going to see us open up a bit just based on the experience we have, but we will stick with what we do best which is run the ball." 

On the passing game, Steelman points out the experience the Black Knights have at wide receiver,

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"We have Austin Barr and Davyd Brooks, and a couple of others are going to help us out, they are awesome athletes, they gave good size, and definitely can go up and get the ball, they are not afraid to get there head in there and block when they are called upon."

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The Black Knights have a scrimmage scheduled for Saturday August 13th which should be a good idea of who the starters on the team will be. 

Coach Ellerson enjoys spending time on special teams so a fair amount of the time could be devoted to the kicking game.

Ken Kraetzer hosts the "West Point Football Report" every Tuesday night at 5:30 p.m. EST starting Aug. 30th on New Rochelle, NY based WVOX 1460 AM in the NY area. 

The program can be heard nationally on WVOX.com and past recordings on www.legionpost50ny.com. Contact Ken on [e-mail]