NEC Coaches Name Central Connecticut Pre-Season Favorite

[401ks]

http://www.northeastconference.org/News/fball/2011/8/3/fb-prepoll-11.asp?path=fball

2011 Northeast Conference Football
Preseason Coaches Poll

1. Central Conn. St. (5)
2. Duquesne (2)
3. Robert Morris (1)
4. Albany
5. Bryant (1)
6. Monmouth
7. Wagner
8. Sacred Heart
9. Saint Francis

First place votes in parentheses ( ).

[aceinthehole]

The Central Connecticut football team has won four Northeast Conference titles since 2004. Central won the outright title in 2009, and shared titles in 2004, 2005 and 2010. According to the NEC Coaches on Wednesday, the Blue Devils were picked to win it again in 2011.

"It's always an honor to be picked first by the coaches in the preseason poll," sixth-year head coach Jeff McInerney said on Wednesday. "But that doesn't mean we can rest on that. We still need to work hard on the practice field and perform each and every Saturday on the field if we want to win an NEC title and earn a berth to the NCAA playoffs."
...
Central was 5-0 at home in 2010, and enters the 2011 season with a 14-game home winning streak, the second-longest active home winning streak in the country. In McInerney's five seasons the Blue Devils are 38-18, and have posted a winning record in each of his five seasons. Central has posted three straight perfect seasons at home, and hasn't lost on Arute Field since the final game of the 2007 season. They are 22-2 at home in the five years under McInerney.

"We take great pride in what we have built with this program, especially at home," McInerney said. "We're the only team in the league to post an overall and conference record above .500 in each of the last five seasons, and we are going to work hard to maintain that consistency."
http://www.ccsubluedevils.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=17600&ATCLID=205237619

[Seawolf97]

Con Grats to the Blue Devils !

[401ks]

A quartet of Dukes - senior offensive lineman Ron Dunn (Abington, Mass./Milford (N.Y.) Academy), junior running back Larry McCoy (Wytheville, Va./George Wythe), senior defensive lineman Alex Inda (San Fernando, Calif./St. Genevieve) and junior defensive back Serge Kona (Gaithersburg, Md./Gaithersburg) - were named to the NEC Football Preseason All-Conference Team.

Dunn, a 6-6, 320-pound tackle, will anchor an offensive line that returns four starters. McCoy, who leads all returning FCS juniors with a 95.4 career per game rushing yardage average, carried 252 times for 1,291 yards and six touchdowns last season. All six of his 100-yard games last season came in conference play. Both Dunn and McCoy were second team All-NEC picks last season.

Inda, a 6-2, 267-pound tackle, led all Duquesne linemen with 55 tackles last season. Kona, DU's top returning tackler, made the move from linebacker to safety in the spring. He had a team-high 12 tackles for loss among his 64 stops last season. The 5-11, 223-pounder, who forced a team-high three fumbles last season, ranks tied for fifth nationally among FCS returnees in career fumbles forced per game.

http://www.goduquesne.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/080311aaa.html

GO DUKES!

[Steve81]

Congrats Blue Devils, see you on Band Day Oct 8th.

Game Day Central - CC vs UMass (http://www.umassathletics.com/sports/m-footbl/archive/2011_gameday_central_ccsu.html)

[aceinthehole]

Very interesting poll. Not what I expected at all.

I think 4 teams recieving first-place votes may be a NEC record. Albany finishes in 4th, but without a first-place vote.

Finally, the league has some level of parity. Really a wide-open race this year and any of these top-5 teams can win it.

Looking forward for all teams to start their season!

[401ks]

Very interesting poll. Not what I expected at all.

I think 4 teams recieving first-place votes may be a NEC record. Albany finishes in 4th, but without a first-place vote.

Finally, the league has some level of parity. Really a wide-open race this year and any of these top-5 teams can win it.

Looking forward for all teams to start their season!

Agreed.

This was my thought before the coaches' poll came out:

1. Central Connecticut
2. Albany
3. Duquesne
4. Bryant
5. Robert Morris
6. Monmouth
7. Wagner
8. St. Francis
9. Sacred Heart

Again this year, I believe the NEC Champion will not be undefeated in conference play.

GO DUKES!

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Is Monmouth really that down this year? Pretty much every preseason poll has them picked for the bottom half of the NEC. They might be more of warmup for Lehigh than i originally thought.

[Dane96]

REALLY DOWN, from a historical perspective.

[aceinthehole]

And the rest of the league is REALLY UP!

Bryant looks like they have some injuries to deal with, so that may set them back this year.

Monmouth will be very solid, and they just might be able to move into the top-4 this year. Honestly, this is the first time there are a ton of unkowns in the NEC. The Hawks have a good QB and have the league's Defensive POY. They lost 4 games last year by just 1-point, so they aren't that far off the pace.

[M Ruler]

Ford and his staff will really play up the being voted #4 with this years team. The whole "we arent respected any longer in this league" should go a long way for them. They will be spitting mad by the time they kick it off this year. I love it...an Albany team with a chip on its shoulder and something to prove.

They should be pissed!!!! Just an awful loss/ A$$ kicking really to Robert Morris. A late Interference call/flag kept them from running the clock out on CCSU. They mailed it in against Bryant...just an awful season last year IMHO.