Week 1 Preview: CAA Kicks Off 2023; Stony Brook Honors A Special No. 10
Week 1 Preview: CAA Kicks Off 2023; Stony Brook Honors A Special No. 10
Campbell begins the Coastal Athletic Association era Week 1 hosting defending league champ William & Mary, while Delaware travels to Stony Brook.
Welcome to the Coastal Athletic Association, Campbell Camels. Up first are the reigning co-conference champion William & Mary Tribe.
"I'll send some gift cards to all my CAA commissioners and all those great people who put them as [the first opponent on] opening week," Campbell coach Mike Minter joked about being scheduled to face William & Mary in the Thursday night opener.
The Tribe were actually slated to visit Buies Creek this season anyway as the second part of a non-conference home-and-home, which Minter pointed out. The two teams faced last season in Williamsburg and William & Mary rolled to a 37-21 victory.
Jalen Jones led the Tribe defense with a breakout performance, taking advantage of his opportunity to start in place of an injured Ryan Poole. Jones pulled off an interception hat trick, which included a pick-six in the late third quarter.
Jones returns and is one of four William & Mary preseason 1st Team All-CAA defensive selections, joining Poole and arguably the most fearsome pass-rush tandem in the Football Championship Subdivision, Nate Lynn and John Pius.
Lynn's presence up front plays into one top priority Minter described in constructing the Campbell roster ahead of its inaugural CAA campaign.
"To come into this league, you've got to be good up front; offensive line, defensive line, that's where it's at," Minter said.
Other points of emphasis, according to Minter, are quarterback play and the Camels have a good one in Hajj-Malik Williams.
Williams completed north of 62 percent of his 289 pass attempts a season ago, scored 12 touchdowns through the air, and recorded a team-high seven rushing touchdowns. Williams' dual-threat ability factors into the third point of emphasis Minter highlighted for Campbell moving into the CAA.
"You've got to have some speed," he said. "I saw Monmouth when they came into the league [last season] really was in every football game because of [its] team speed. So I felt like having speed all over the football field could help."
In checking off those boxes, Minter and his staff aggressively worked the transfer portal. The Camels welcome a bevy of new faces, including nine new starters on defense, plenty of them transfers.
Among the newcomers are linebackers George Wilson (Florida State), Antoine Sampah (LSU) and Lakeem Rudolph (Virginia Tech), cornerbacks Isaiah Greene (Central Connecticut State), Tyus Fields (Tennessee) and Keevan Bailey (Colorado State), and defensive end Tre Moore (Georgia State).
"The No. 1 thing since January has been, OK, how do we bring all these guys together so they begin to feel like they've been playing together for three or four years," Minter said. "That's really the trick and the challenge you will have when you flip your roster the way we have."
William & Mary features plenty of familiar faces on both sides of the ball, the offense returning multifaceted playmakers Bronson Yoder and Malachi Imoh at running back and Darius Wilson at quarterback and the aforementioned stacked defense.
Imoh rushed for two touchdowns in William & Mary's 2022 win over Campbell.
👀🍿 @imoh_malachi | #GoTribe pic.twitter.com/fet6j4wFuD
— William & Mary Tribe Football (@WMTribeFootball) June 23, 2023
But the Tribe underwent their own changes in the offseason with defensive coordinator Vincent Brown taking the head-coaching vacancy at CAA newcomer North Carolina A&T.
Ras-I Dowling and Bo Revell split defensive coordinator duties in 2023.
"His football IQ and acumen is really, really good," William & Mary coach Mike London said of Dowling. "He handles the passing-game part of it, and Bo, being a linebacker coach, handling part of the running game, they work [in collaboration]."
Whether it's the mostly known commodity in William & Mary emerging from Thursday's clash on top, or the new-look upstarts at Campbell dethroning the defending champions, an early pace in the CAA will be set in Week 1.
Likewise, the race for the 2023 CAA championship kicks off Thursday on Long Island, where Stony Brook hosts Delaware.
Going 1-0 is the goal for both teams in the opener, but perhaps the most important number Thursday for Stony Brook is 10. Defensive lineman Taylor Bolesta will wear No. 10 this season in recognition of Joe Feminella.
Beyond honored to be able to represent Joe’s legacy this year and am very proud to wear his number!
— Taylor Bolesta (@TaylorBolesta) August 15, 2023
Bolesta was announced as the program's first-ever recipient of the Joe Feminella Award, in honor of the Seawolves' longtime co-captain. Feminella became a part of the Stony Brook program in 2009 through the Friends of Jaclyn Foundation, an organization dedicated to patients of pediatric brain tumors.
Seawolves coach Chuck Priore said last season Feminella's No. 10 was taken out of the rotation and carried to midfield to honor the co-captain, who died in May 2022.
"This year, I felt like representing him on the field," Priore said. "Joe was about grit, Joe was about never waver[ing]. Joe understood what it meant to be a Stony Brook football player and would have loved to play.
"Taylor's that guy," Priore added. "No excuses, works hard, earned a scholarship...Fought his way to be a captain of the football team."
With Joe's No. 10 on his back, Bolesta leads a Stony Brook defense looking to start 2023 strong.
The host Seawolves are coming off of a 2-9 finish in 2022, but Delaware coach Ryan Carty knows Priore well enough to expect a bounce-back in 2023.
"I know coach Priore, I've played against them multiple times," Carty said, referencing his time as an assistant coach at New Hampshire. "I know how hard it is to play there. I know how hard-nosed and tough and physical and how much they fly around at Stony Brook. I know that last year was an anomaly."
𝙒𝙚𝙚𝙠 𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙩: 𝘾𝙤𝙖𝙘𝙝 𝙋𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙧𝙚 🎤
— Stony Brook Football (@StonyBrookFB) August 30, 2023
After an energetic practice on Tuesday, we previewed Thursday's Week 1 matchup against Delaware with @Coach_Priore.
🌊🐺 x #HOWL pic.twitter.com/t3rojnmbNr
Stony Brook will start plenty of newcomers, including quarterback Casey Case. Priore announced the Buffalo transfer as QB1 last month during media day.
Delaware is coming off a 2022 FCS Playoffs appearance, but the 2023 Blue Hens will also look significantly different in terms of personnel. The defensive starting 11 undergoes an almost across-the-board transition, while the offense is left replacing longtime starting quarterback Nolan Henderson.
Carty half-joked he wished Henderson could don blue-and-gold for "a million years." In his place, Delaware still start either Ryan O'Connor or Zach Marker.
"We can win with either. Our team is confident with either. They're both good leaders, both good performers," Carty said. "We kind of need to feel out them and see which one of those guys can do it for the long haul."
The new Delaware quarterback, no matter who takes the majority of snaps in Week 1, will have an important piece from last season's nationally No. 21-ranked passing offense: wide receiver Jourdan Townsend.
Townsend caught 61 passes for a team-leading 698 yards last season and reached paydirt six times.
"Versatility is probably the word that's most important for me," Carty said of the receiver. "I could move him anywhere — honestly, I don't know if he could throw it well enough but he could play quarterback in the offense. He's one of those kids who knows it inside and out."
🏈 "I'm looking to pick up where I left off last season." @Delaware_FB Wide Receiver Jourdan Townsend is looking forward to the new year and building off his success last fall. #CAAFB pic.twitter.com/2xzj98jn67
— CAA Football (@CAAFootball) July 25, 2023
Thursday's matchup is the first between the programs since October 2021, prior to Carty's arrival. The Seawolves won, 34-17.
