Changes to IUP football team puts them in spotlight

What a difference a year makes.

                  This time last year, IUP football had its sights set on making another run at the NCAA tournament, something the program has become accustomed to over the past three decades.

                  Those expectations remain as the Crimson Hawks were picked to finish second in the PSAC West behind only defending champion Cal U, but the memory of a painful 5-6 finish of 2009 still hangs over the team.

                  Despite the poor finish to last season, the 2010 Crimson Hawks seemed to have put that memory in the past and are looking to return some of the luster back to the football program at IUP.

                  IUP comes into 2010 having lost a good chunk of key players from last season to graduation and injury. Akwasi Owusu-Ansah and Myke Wells are gone from the secondary after stellar IUP careers.

Safety Andre Henderson and his back-up Rory Marshall are expected to return from injury this season, but have seen little-to-no practice time as they nurse those injuries.

As a result, wide receiver Mike Scott will change sides of the ball until either Henderson or Marshall can return, moving Scott back to his original spot of pass catcher.

Fellow pass catchers Mychal Skinner and Javon Rowan also had limited time on the practice field. Both are expected to be quarterback Pat Smith's big targets down the field.

                  Pitt transfer Dan Matha, an offensive lineman, is another key player on the list who has missed a good amount of practice time. Taking Matha's place for now at the right tackle position is sophomore Jason Musselman who saw a good amount of game action a year ago.

                  "He brings real toughness and quality to the right tackle spot," said IUP Football head coach Lou Tepper of Matha during an interview August 22.

Matha joins an offensive line that welcomes back Jimmy O'Rourke, who missed all of last season with a knee injury he suffered in the spring game.

                  Part of the reason why the team is missing a handful of people at this juncture of the season is because the team had more live snaps in fall camp as opposed to last season where the team a grand total of 11, according to Tepper.

The team has more than 11 in one session this season and has had not one, but two intrasqaud scrimmages before the season begins September 4.

                  "We're banged up because we've had more physical contact, but we've been able to have contact, which should help our toughness," Tepper said.

                  Although the team has taken more live snaps in fall camp, Tepper believes the team is not ready to take the field against another team yet, as Tepper believes the reserves aren't quite where they need to be.

                  The Hawks have only four days to get them ready as they start the season with Southern Connecticut State in the Hall of Fame Game this Saturday at 4 p.m. The Owls gave IUP a run for their money last season as they were narrowly defeated by IUP 28-21.

                  The schedule will not get any easier for IUP as they travel to Bloomsburg next week for their first PSAC crossover game after they finished 8-3 last season.

                   IUP's second PSAC crossover comes in the last week of the season when they host West Chester who 7-4 last season. *

                  Along with those two, IUP will still have to face its usual PSAC West foes, including Edinboro, Clarion and Cal U, along with the rest of the division, which always poses a challenge to the Crimson Hawks.