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Millsaps selected as preseason favorite to
win SCAC Championship
SUWANEE, Ga. - Head coach Mike DuBose and
his Millsaps College Majors find themselves in a
familiar position entering the 2008 football season.
For the second consecutive year, Millsaps was tabbed as the
preseason favorite to win the Southern Collegiate Athletic
Conference championship. In the annual preseason vote by the
league's head coaches, the Majors garnered six of eight
first place votes and received 68 points to headline the poll.
The Majors return 15 of 22 starters from a year ago . Leading the
offense is senior quarterback Juan Joseph - the 2007 SCAC Offensive
Player-of-the-Year. Joseph holds four career school records
including most passing yards, completions, attempts and
touchdowns.
Defensively, the Majors start a new front four. Veterans Denarold
Anderson, David Dale, Mason Burrell and Marcus Stokes all have
played extensively the past few seasons. Anderson, a 2007 First
Team All-SCAC selection last year, comes into the season with 94
career tackles and looks to build on that total in 2008.
Millsaps (USA Today Division III Preseason #23) will look to make
their third ever appearance in the NCAA playoffs. However, Trinity
University and DePauw University should figure into the equation.
The three teams were seperated by a mere 13 points for the top
three spots.
Trinity University (The Sporting News
Division III Preseason #15)) was narrowly picked as the preseason
number two team with 65 points and three first-place votes. The
Tigers look to win their 15th SCAC championship in the past 16
years. Trinity suffered a 52-23 first-round set back to eventual
national semifinalst Mary-Hardin Baylor last season. The Tigers
return 12 starters (7 offense, 4 defense, 1 special teams)
including a solid receiving corps led by 2007 All-SCAC First Team
selection Riley Curry.
DePauw University looks to improve on last
season's 8-2 mark (5-2 SCAC). The Tigers only two losses came to
conference co-champions Millsaps and Trinity. Head coach Matt
Walker returns 36 lettermen and 13 starters including senior
defensive lineman Michael McNellis. The biggest question for the
Tigers is how to replace the graduated Jeremiah Marks who left as
the school's all-time leading rusher.
Rounding out the 2008 predicted order of finish: Rhodes College was
tabbed fourth with 37 points and Centre College picked up 33 points
to come in fifth. Austin College followed with 26 points and
Sewanee-University of the South and Colorado College finished in a
tie for seventh with 20 points.
Rhodes College returns senior linebacker Desmond
Hendricks, last season's Co-defensive Player of the Year. Hendricks
tallied 70 total tackles, 44 of them solo to go along with 10.5
sacks and recovered three fumbles. He ranked first in the SCAC
sacks and tackles for loss while teammate Mason Mosby averaged 10.6
tackles per game to rank third in the conference.
The Centre College Colonels look to pick up where
they left off last season. Centre won five of its last six games to
end 2007. Led by new offensive coordinator Tony Joe White, the
Colonels look to improve an offense that averaged 260.2 total yards
per game.
Centre is led on defense by 2007 D3football.com Honorable Mention
All-American Adam Hay. Hay will lead a defense that returns seven
starters from a year ago. Last season Hay averaged 13.8 tackles per
game and amassed 138 total tackles. Cornerback Zack Sloan returns
for his junior year after leading the SCAC with eight interceptions
and 16 passes defended in 2007.
The toughest challenge facing the Austin College
Kangaroos will be finding a replacement at quarterback. Last
season's starter, Kent Bell graduated, and getting the nod under
center will be Air Force transfer Andy Braly who is in his second
year with the program. Running back Ross Hasten returns for his
third year with the ‘Roos after leading the team with 672
yards (5.7 yards per rush) rushing and scored seven times.
Colorado College begins its second year in the
SCAC looking to build on a 4-6 innaugural campaign. Highlighting
the Tigers is senior running back Justin Alexander. Alexander
begins the season ranked third in program history with 2,198 yards
rushing. He needs 621 yards to surpass Pat Geonetta's career record
of 2,818. The Tigers also will welcome new offensive coordinator
Tim Taylor along with new defensive coordinator Isaac Carter.
Sewanee-University of the South returns 49
upperclassmen to go along with 43 newcomers in 2008. Anchoring the
defense will be All-SCAC nose-guard Jeremy Character. Also coming
back are Karl Rogers, Bakari Faulkner, and Henry Gass. The Tigers
look to improve upon last season's 0-7 conference mark in 2008.
Birmingham-Southern College begins its second year
as a provisional member of Division III and the SCAC. Like last
year BSC's games will not count in the conference standings. The
Panthers return 27 lettermen from a team that went 3-7 (Two wins
came against junior-varsity competition) in its first year of
football since 1939. Defensive coordinator Eddie Garfinkle was
promoted to head coach after Joey Jones was hired to take the
reigns of the University of South Alabam's newly started
program.
Highlighting the end of the season is the annual meeting between
DePauw and Wabash (115th meeting) for the Monon Bell and will be
nationally televised for the third consecutive year on the high
definition network HDNet.
For the complete 2008 SCAC Football Prospectus, click here.
| 2008 SCAC Predicted Order of Finish | ||||
| 2007 Record Conf. / Overall | ||||
| No. of votes | ||||
| 1 | Millsaps College Majors | 68 (6) | 6-1 | 8-2 |
| 2 | Trinity University Tigers | 65 (3) | 6-1 | 9-2 |
| 3 | DePauw University Tigers | 55 | 5-2 | 8-2 |
| 4 | Rhodes College Lynx | 37 | 4-3 | 6-4 |
| 5 | Centre College Colonels | 33 | 4-3 | 6-4 |
| 6 | Austin College Kangaroos | 26 | 2-5 | 4-6 |
| 7 | Colorado College Tigers | 20 | 1-6 | 4-6 |
| Sewanee-University of the South Tigers | 20 | 0-7 | 1-8 | |
| *Birimingham-Southern, a Division III provisional
member, was not considered in the pre-season conference rankings. Note: First-place votes (in parentheses) are worth eight points, second-place worth seven, on down to eighth-place votes being worth one. | ||||
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