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Dream Bowl
2023 UAlbany vs Towson

UAlbany Football: Anton Juncaj, AJ Simon Fuel Feisty Great Danes Defense

UAlbany Football: Anton Juncaj, AJ Simon Fuel Feisty Great Danes Defense

The UAlbany defense has undergone a transformation with sack leaders AJ Simon and Anton Juncaj setting the tone, but there's more to the Great Danes D.

Oct 6, 2023 by Kyle Kensing
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For one team to boast the nation's two most productive players in a single category is rare, but UAlbany can make that claim with sack leaders Anton Juncaj and AJ Simon. 

Making their success all the more impressive is how Juncaj and Simon have contributed to one of college football's most remarkable season-to-season turnarounds.  

A Coastal Athletic Association matchup with Villanova marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of the UAlbany defense — and it wasn't the Great Danes 31-10 defeat of a nationally ranked Wildcats side on Sept. 30, 2023. 

Rewind to the 2022 season. UAlbany finished 3-8 with four one-possession losses and ranked second-to-last in the CAA in scoring defense at 34.1 points allowed per game. Amid the struggles and near-misses, however, coach Greg Gattuso saw in a 31-29 loss at Villanova the beginning of a transformation. 

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"The turnaround in our defense really started last year against Villanova. We played a much better football," Gattuso said. 

In the final five games of 2022, including the Villanova contest, UAlbany's scoring allowance was 25.6 points per. In wins over rival Stony Brook and Maine, the Great Danes gave up 35 combined points. 

The improved performance to close 2022 has carried over into the first half of UAlbany's 2023, and then some. The Great Danes head into a Week 6 CAA matchup with Towson having matched last season's win total through five games, and they flipped their standing in CAA scoring defense from second-to-last to second-best at 18.4 points a game. 

Oct 7, 2023, 8:00 PM UTC

2023 UAlbany vs Towson


Gattuso explained the changes from a schematic perspective, saying: "[Defensive coordinator Bill] Nesselt and his guys are doing a really good job. We're not as predictable on defense as we'd been. We're changing up, we're pressuring a little more. 

"Offenses are so sophisticated now, it's really difficult to just sit back and play zone coverages," Gattuso continued. "The bottom line is if the quarterback's comfortable, it's going to be a long day for you. In this league, we see it every week: When the quarterback's comfortable he's going to throw for a lot of yards. It's tough to stop." 

Stopping quarterbacks has been the forte defining this Great Danes defense so far with Juncaj and Simon leading the charge. 

Juncaj tops all of Division I football in both total sacks, with nine, and sacks per game at 1.8. Simon's seven total sacks are tied for third-most in the Football Championship Subdivision, rank fourth among all Div. I players, and his 1.4 a game tie William & Mary's Nate Lynn for second-most in the subdivision. 

Simon's bypassed his 2022 output, a team-leading five sacks, while Juncaj has doubled his total from a season ago. Their respective individual production both reflects and is a byproduct of the overall changes in UAlbany's team defense. 

"That Villanova game was a turning point," Juncaj said reflecting on a season ago. "Every game, we were getting better. Then we had spring to really build on that. 

"During the spring, practicing against guys like [offensive linemen] Ozzie Hutchinson and Nolan [Latulippe] just helped us get better," he added. "And having coaches like coach Gattuso and [defensive line] coach Jake [Kulig] helped us progress." 

"We knew our time was going to come soon, because in the offseason, we always put the work in," Simon said. "We listened to our coaches, whether it was positive or negative." 

Offseason building efforts became evidently immediately in the 2023 season. Opening with a Fordham team that advanced to the 2022 Playoffs on the strength of a 49.5-point per game offense — including a 48-45 showing against UAlbany — the Great Danes dominated in a 34-13 win. 

Juncaj erupted for four sacks of Rams quarterback C.J. Montes; Simon got to the Fordham signal caller for three. 

The rout marked the first of three wins against FCS competition in which UAlbany held its opponent to 17 points or fewer. The Great Danes travel to Towson with a combined 40 points allowed in defeats of Fordham, Morgan State and Villanova — the third of which kicked off UAlbany's 2023 CAA slate, and showed just how far its defense has come in a year. 

Simon was a terror, getting into the Wildcats backfield for four tackles for loss including three sacks. He was responsible for one of six Villanova fumbles. Juncaj, who racked up a pair of sacks, forced another of those fumbles. 

Linebacker Ori Jean-Charles made another two sacks and caused yet another fumble. 

"Being very physical helps with that," Juncaj said of the Great Danes' uncanny ability to create fumbles, 10 in total so far in 2023. "We have a turnover circuit twice-a-week, and I feel like that has helped us get more turnovers this year." 

"Secure rake," Simon chimed in. "Secure rake on the quarterback." 

The move's proved fruitful, as has the turnover circuit's lessons in general. UAlbany defenders have been creating takeaway opportunities all over the field, like Larry Walker Jr. hitting an airborne TD Ayo-Durojaiye as Aamir Hall punched the ball loose for a pivotal turnover against Villanova. 

The sequence set up the Great Danes for their first touchdown, and underscored one of the elements to UAlbany's offseason that Juncaj cited as instrumental in shaping the defense: The seamless integration of newcomers. 

Hall, a transfer from Richmond, has three interceptions and seven pass break-ups through five games. Linebacker Michel Lucien came in from Monroe College and played his best game as a Great Dane vs. Villanova with two tackles and a pick. Yale transfer Brian Abraham adds depth to the linebacker corps.

Newcomers' contributions to the all-around make-up of the group facilitate what's been an outstanding start for the UAlbany across all three groups. That starts up front with the line, and it's not just the tag team of Juncaj and Simon coming off the edge. 

"Another two guys [who] don't get enough credit are Joseph Greaney and Elijah Hills, [who] are dominating the inside of the offensive line," Juncaj said. 

"Those two guys are amazing up front," Simon said. "They do all the dirty work that people don't see. Like Anton said, Joe Greaney takes 10 double-teams [a game]. That opens up both of the ends for me and Anton, and that puts us in great situations." 

Any good defense starts with the knowledge that success for the ends is tied to the performance of the linemen on the interior. 

For a head coach like Gattuso, whose background both as a player and former assistant coach was on the defensive line, that quality of inside and outside feeding off each other is especially paramount. 

His background includes time at Pitt, where Gattuso's unit included All-Big East Conference selection Joe Clermond, and at Maryland where Andre Monroe set the program's career sacks record. 

"AJ and Anton have been outstanding — when you talk about physicality, they have a great blend of physicality and speed. And they're good players," Gattuso said. "But those interior guys are good as well. They're pushing pockets, they're forcing quarterbacks to not be able to step up and run through. 

"Pass rush is a positional thing to me. Everybody's got to have hands in it to be successful," he added. "So far, we've been successful, and I hope we can continue it, because you don't have to gamble as much when your front four can get to the quarterback." 

No team in the nation has been better at getting to the quarterback than UAlbany, and no duo more effective than Juncaj and Simon. Their standout performance embodies the Great Danes' impressive, all-around play, and the efforts of a yearlong metamorphosis.